A creature lurked outside a world's barrier in a golden lightning cage within the vast void. It had remained lifeless for a long time, constantly in stasis of existence. The ethereal whispers of the void couldn't awaken the creature from its eternal slumber. Titanic horrors that shouldn't exist casually floated by with curious glances with their many eyes that had seen the birth and death of stars. The old ones knew to avoid it, and the younglings would soon learn.

The cage was in a constant state of orbit around the world. Never moving between star systems like those ancient predators that lurked nearby—the cage was to both contain and protect its prisoner, as some void creatures would love to consume such a notorious creature.

For the first time since its creation, the cage showed signs of sentience as it pulsed and allowed a soul entry. The dormant creature of shadows raised its head…

"Where the fuck is this?" Its voice was ancient, older than the distant stars. It sounded like many things talking at once, and mana carried its words far through the expansive nothingness.

Just from his words alone, Victor knew he was no longer human—not to mention no human could survive floating out in space like this. He felt…strange, odd, confused. No adjective in the English language could describe being suspended in nothingness. He could tell his body was huge, but it was hard to tell without a reference.

His thoughts were cloudy and dull, as if downloading an update. Something squirmed around in his skull, building walls and sealing something. It was all very confusing.

But then everything snapped into focus. Victor was somewhere, as something, but he could finally think. His brain whizzed as ideas of his situation flew past.

"That goddess never told me my mission." His voice sounded old, as old as time, nothing like his previous teenage voice cracks. A frown formed on the Netherborne's face. From his memories, if the protagonist was never provided with a purpose, such as "Defeat the Demon Lord!" then there were more nefarious schemes behind the scenes. Why would an all-powerful entity kidnap a random soul and give them preferential treatment?

The void rumbled as what could only be described as an eldritch blue whale floated below the cage. Before Victor could even react, a force smashed into the cage, and it didn't resist. Instead, it flew down toward the giant blue planet below. A barrier seemed to surround the planet. It was so dense it was visible. Victor silently screamed in his mind as he hurtled toward it. Then, right before impact, a small gap formed. The cell opened up and pushed him against it.

The hole was merely a few meters wide compared to his titanic size. Yet the cage and unknown force did not relent. He was compressed and squeezed through.

***

Victor had expected to fall from the sky; instead, the tear in the world's barrier created a gap in reality that he crawled through. Then, with a pop, it closed behind him, sealing him from the void he had awoken in. He was in a crouched position as he glanced at the floor. There was something he could only describe as a cultist ritual circle, although it looked old and abandoned.

Victor stood up, stretched his body to its full height, and looked around himself, or he tried to but was already confused. Firstly the ritual circle was covered in foliage. The tattered clothes surrounding the ritual helped hide the rotting bodies of long-dead humans.

He felt nothing despite the horrific sight. Only cold thoughts occupied his mind, mainly the objective of the goddess. If she cared about the planet, there was no way she would allow a creature such as himself into the world. "So, what is her plan?" His ancient voice remained the same, but it lacked that gravity it had in the void. He could hear a sudden rustle as animals scurried away from him in all directions.

"So I was enormous in the void and still am." Victor scrutinized his surroundings. "Unless the trees are tiny here…I am tall, disturbingly so." He reached out to touch the top of a nearby tree but paused. His arm was no longer made of flesh and blood. Instead, it was some kind of shadowy mist that evaporated with every passing second, and at the end were claws, easily a meter-long each and made of dark metal.

"All right, let's see what I'm working with here. Status."

[Name: Victor]

[Race: Netherborne]

[Level: 1]

[STR: 999, DEX: 999, CON: 999, INT: 999, WIS: 999]

[Race Information]

[Skills]

[…]

"Aren't those values a little high for a level one?" Victor worried as he read the stats that appeared in his mind. "Anyways, pushing that aside, let's check out the race information…"

[Netherbornes are sentient undead nightmares from the void; they are artificial and malicious and recorded to take pleasure in the corruption and suffering of others. They are creatures known to end civilizations when summoned and have immense control over the powers of darkness. Few have feasted their eyes on their true forms and lived to tell the tale, but a few records claim they stood taller than a large barn with bodies of shadowy mist and lethal blades.]

[Netherbornes are unnatural beings rejected by the world's energies and therefore consume lifeforce to remain on the mortal plane…]

[Notice: To maintain form in the mortal realm, one stat is lost per second from each stat category.]

"So that explains why the trees seemed small; I'm larger than a barn, so maybe more than six meters tall? But more concerning is that last notice…" Victor quickly rechecked his stats.

[STR: 939, DEX: 939, CON: 939, INT: 939, WIS: 939]

"It's only been a minute, and I have already lost over sixty stat points in each category, so three hundred in total? So doesn't that mean I only have around fifteen minutes to live?"

In a dull panic, Victor opened his skill menu.

[Consume X]

[Raise Undead X]

[Shadow Magic X]

[Annihilating Aura X]

[Freezing Cone V]

[Stealth X]

[Doom Ray X]

[Spirit Movement III]

"Shit, I don't even have time to read my abilities. That can wait; I need to find prey to kill while my stats are still high." If the world had become a video game, Victor was certain he would gain more stat points with each level up. He was only level one, after all.

Victor started to run in a random direction, but much to his surprise, it seemed Netherborne were incapable of simply walking. Rather, they floated or flew to move. "This will be a massive advantage in combat," he said as he made no noise or vibrations and could also change direction instantly instead of turning and giving away his movements to an opponent.

While floating through the forest like some grim reaper, he turned on his Annihilating Aura. Any creature within thirty feet of Victor died instantly. This seemed an effective method for killing all the insects hiding amongst the soil and trees.

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

[Level up!]

A constant pain seemed to gnaw at his brain. The pain was similar to hunger but left Victor feeling like he was withering away.

Despite leveling up multiple times, his stats were still decreasing by the second. Thinking for a moment, he decided to read the first skill description:

[Consume]: Absorb nearby lost souls for life energy.

Realizing what he was doing wrong, Victor activated Consume, and tiny blue wisps started flying toward him and were absorbed by his shadowy body. He could feel the life energy enter his body, but it was quickly used to maintain his form.

Even after killing hundreds of bugs, Victor had only really stabilized his stats at around one thousand each. Then, desperately looking around, he saw a small green man with a wooden pole and rags covering his junk hiding in a bush. Is that a goblin? he wondered.

Victor floated over to the green man. Despite being directly in front of the little monster no taller than his claw, the goblin completely ignored him as if he was not even there due to his maxed-out Stealth skill, but it seemed to sense something was wrong—its instincts hinted of incoming death. The forest had suddenly gone deathly silent. The usual hum of insects had vanished and been replaced with a chilly stillness. So the little green man decided to run. Victor simply followed behind with a wicked smile.

Victor had disabled his Annihilating Aura to not kill the little goblin. But, as everyone knew, goblins were not solitary creatures. They are like rodents and breed like crazy. So all I need to do is follow this little goblin to his nest, and then my rapidly lowering stats issue could be resolved for a while.

It was quite a terrifying sight if anyone could see it. A small one-meter-tall goblin was running with a fearful face while a barn-size shadow monster of death silently floated behind it like some stalker.

This poor little goblin would regret bringing his tribe to extinction in his next life.