"Arito could you..."
"Arito I need..."
"Arito!"
Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito, Arito!
It's always do this or do that! No one ever asked about what I want! And whenever I asked for something, even the smallest of things, it was always: "Sorry, I'm not confident I can help you." "Sorry I can't right now." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry." "Sorry!"
It's always like that!
"That's it. I'm done with humans," I said as I threw the report from the hospital on the ground.
Somehow I've contracted a disease that has no cure. My girlfriend, after learning about it, left me. And when I tried to ask my mother for help, she asked for money instead.
"Well, doctors gave me two months to live, so I better get back at those two," I smiled as I took all my money from a bank deposit to send them to a handful of different charities. "I'll make sure you never get a single coin from me."
I drove my car to a steep cliff and with a single breath to calm myself, I jumped with the car off the cliff.
I wanted to finish everything, like that, but...
'Wouldn't that be a pity?' a voice suddenly ringed in my mind as I was falling.
The darkness before my closed eyes turned into a purely white room.
"Huh?! What is this?!"
"Welcome, Arito Aruze. You've had it tough, please come drink some tea," a androgynous looking person in white suit with black tie appeared before me.
"Who are you?"
"Sorry, I do not possess a name like you humans do, but you can call me Administrator."
"So Mr. Administrator, why did you bring me here? And where am I even?"
"Last person who came here called it heaven, but it's more like a space-time distortion."
"Space-time distortion?"
"It's like a thin membrane separating your universe from the others. I, the Administrator, am overseeing the membrane and I'm making sure nothing causes any distortions. We don't want to destroy the only thing keeping the multiverse from collapsing now do we?" the Administrator smiled and sipped his tea.
"Well, that's nice and all, but what does it have to do with me?"
"Well, you sir Aruze have caused the biggest distortion I've ever seen. Even war criminals look like puppies compared to you."
"How's that possible? I'm just a novelist."
"You've taken your life."
"And that's the reason?"
"Well, more or less, the timeline had to be altered. If you went to your fathers grave that day, you would've found another person going through the same thing as you. You would help each other during the time of both of your recoveries and in the end, you would start a family together. This girl would later become your beacon of inspiration for your following works and your books would reach worldwide fame. And especially one book would inspire one cosmonaut to be the first to reach another planet, and inspire him to go to space in the first place."
"Well isn't that pretty," I gave him a sour look saying 'I don't care'.
"I guess you should know what happened in your world after your death."
"I don't care."
"Aren't you a little cold towards your own people?"
"They are not my people, I'm done with humans, so if you want something from me, then ask away, cause I don't think I can do much for you now that I'm just a bodyless ghost."
"Well, it's not that important now anyways, but I had to do a lot of meddling so I will have you, the cause, do something for me like it or not."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"I will send you to an underdeveloped world, that's heading to ruin. You will save it."
"I'm not sure I want to."
At that moment the Administrator raised up and touched my chest.
Indescribable pain went through all my body and I dropped down practically powerless. I felt as if my body was torn to pieces, shredded in a grinder and assembled over and over again.
"How does it feel to have your soul destroyed from the inside?"
"You fucker..."
"Fufufu, it hurts doesn't it? If you don't want me to eradicate your soul completely, then you better do what I ask of you."
"Fine! I'll do it! Just stop it already!"
The sharp pain suddenly decreased and slowly vanished.
"Fufufu, good boy. As a reward for understanding this so fast, I will give you a strong body to survive there."
"Huh?"
"Oh, don't worry, you won't be a human, I will be nice enough to not make you one. Oh, and I will give you a few magic items that will help you."
***
And so Arito Aruze, me, came to this world. I woke up in a forest somewhere in the world.
What I found lying next to me was a book and a rucksack. Opening the book, I found out its name to be World Introduction. The world's provisional name is Ainem and I'm in the Risha kingdom, one of the bigger kingdoms on the Hailute continent. Apparently this world has its own set of Administrators who were de facto gods for this world. Apparently, living in this world is so harsh that they had to break rules and start interfering with humans and other creatures to make this world liveable. It seems to be customary for everyone to have at least one blessing.
Inside this book I also found my status and a list of skills. Also, on the last page I found a list of things inside the Rucksack. In the rucksack was a Camping set for one, a Magic water bag that produced water when supplied with magic, books titled: Monster Introduction, Monster material Introduction, Plant Introduction, Material Introduction, Alchemy Introduction, Magic Introduction and Skill introduction.
Now, About skills, in the Status board they are divided into seven categories. Those categories are: Combat skills, Magic Skills, Crafting skills, Everyday skills, Resistance skills, Sensory skills and lastly Special skills. The last group is mostly for miscellaneous skills that don't fit into the other categories. There were also Titles and Blessings, but I had none.
Name: Arito Aruze
Race: Ancient
Age: 7
Magical Prowness: 10,000
Physical Prowness: 2,500
Affiliation: Risha Kingdom, Nomille Duchy
Combat skills: Unarmed combat 7, Energy manipulation 1, Spearmanship 1, Swordmanship 1, Bow Mastery 2
Magic skills: Null magic 1, Barrier Magic 1, Water magic 1, Fire magic 1, Earth magic 1, Wind magic 1, Healing magic 1, Dark magic 1, Light magic 1, Ice magic 1, Lightning magic 1, Space magic 1, Poison magic 1, Wood magic 1, Taming magic 1
Crafting skills: Blacksmithing 1, Alchemy 1, Medicine 2, Construction 2
Everyday skills: Penmanship 8, Drawing 9, Cooking 10, Etiquete 5, Calculation 5,
Resistance skills: Mental pain resistance 9, Physical pain resistance 9, Health 4, Poison resistance 7, Alcohol resistance 7, Sleep deprivation resistance 4, Stench resistence 5, Disease resistance 5,
Sensory Skills: Magic detection 1, Sence malice 2
Special Skills: Self-healing 1, Stamina Boost 1, Food Storage 2, Survivalist 3
As I looked over the things, I took out the magic introducrion and started reading it as I felt strangely depressed from seeing my skills.
"Hmm… to get the feel for magic, one needs to feel the power within themselves… What a way to describe it!!!" I got a little angry at the Administrator when I read the book. Nevertheless, in order for me to survive I had to learn how to use magic.
I sat with my back against a tree and closed my eyes. As I was meditating, I tried to feel my blood circulating and as I did, I felt a little strange, it was as if something other than blood was following my circulation. It felt like a lumps of gold were inside me. The feeling was really nice and warm.
"Okay, on what should I test it out… Fire," I tried to create a fire on top of my finger, but nothing happened. "Hmm, maybe my visualization is off?"
Next, I casted
"Yes, I did it," smiling to myself, I completely missed the rustling sound in a nearby bush and emergence of a short statured humanoid being.
"Kekeke…" the monster let out an almost unhearable laugh as it made its way to me.
I quickly moved my head looking directly at the sudden visitor. It was around one meter tall humanoid being with green skin, pointy ears and nose, no hair and only a loincloth for body cover.
"The heck is this… oh, magic right!
"KEEEEEEEE!!!" It screamed at me and jumped up showing its nasty mouth filled with half-rotten fangs.
"
"Phew, that was scary. I need to make a camp where monsters can't get to that easily…" I relaxed a little and took out a knife and the water bag from my inventory, strapping them to my belt. Now that I got to look at myself a little, I noticed my pants and belt were made from a leathery material and I had a simple long sleeved shirt and a vest with wool on the inside.
Looking at my hands, I noticed they were quite tanned. That was quite a difference compared to my previous self which was practically as white as a wall. What confused me however were white lines on both my hands. Confused with my strange appearance, I took out the world introduction book and a letter fell out of it. I carefully opened it.
"Hey Arito! If you are reading this, then you actually opened the books I gave you. You might be confused about your appearance. If you use your skill you will find out that you are no longer a human and you've become a being known as Ancient in this world. People like you have a strong affinity with magic, which makes them quite sought after. I placed you in a monster filled place called Kassana forest, so chances of you encountering humans are quite low for now. If you wish, you can tame those monsters there with your Taming magic. If you head north from your current location you will find a lake by a waterfall where you can find a cave to spend nights in. I hope you will enjoy a long life, Administrator.
PS: I will still have you save the world, even if I had to force you, so keep that in mind. Plus, the Administrator of your new world will contact you too."
"You fucker!!!!" I yelled as loud as I could, but as I did, the bush near me rustled again, this time, putting me on edge and making me pull out my knife.
To my surprise, however, a different type of monster appeared. This time, it was slime. Its body had a jelly-like body with a core inside it. This blob was about fifteen centimeters big in diameter. To make myself sure, I used
Slime
A Magicborn monster. Its body is highly sensitive to changes in its surrounding environment, making it a master of evolution. It's a weak monster that is considered to be easiest to tame for newbie tamers. Its size is roughly twenty centimeters in diameter on average.
"So it's really a slime…" the monster meanwhile ignored me and started feasting on the corpse of the goblin.
"Should I tame it? Hmm… I could use it as a monster sensor at the very least… How do I use Taming magic again?" Looking into the magic book, I quickly spotted the spell and its explanation. "Bingo."
Holding the book in one hand and outstretched the other, I casted the spell. "
A magic circle appeared above the slime and lowered itself into its body. The spell was successful. The slime instantly stopped eating and went over to me. Now that I've tamed the monster, I could see the monster's skills.
"Alright, little one, come here," getting down to the slime I extended my hand, and the slime plopped on it, "You have skills Absorb, Dissolve, Regenerate and Corpse eater, eh? So you like eating corpses?"
To my question, it wobbled in my palm, so I put it on the ground and let it continue eating. While finishing the dead goblin, I read through some of the Introduction books. Apparently, the skills were acquired through action like training or studying, but sometimes they appeared out of nowhere. Also, the reason for the white lines on my hands is related to my race called Ancient. Ancients are dark elf-like beings which always have brown tanned skin with white tattoo like pattern, white hairs and blue eyes. Their main field of interest was magic and nowadays were rare to see.
"Alright, you little one. Let's get going," I waved the slime over and it started rolling behind me, leaving only bones behind him. As I was walking, I looked at the map in my Menu, but as you would expect, I only got to see only places I went through.
As the slime rolled slowly behind me, I could feel it was exciting to have a companion. The trees around us were strong, tall and quite a lot of space was between them, so we only had to follow the way to the north.
Soon, I noticed the sound of falling water. As it appeared the waterfall and lake that formed here, had also a river flowing towards the west.
"I guess, there is a river on top of this cliff as well. Better not to sleep in that cave. I'm sure it will be really wet there, and I would rather sleep somewhere dry, don't you think?" as I faced the slime, he wobbled in agreement.
Deciding on abandoning the place we continued along the wall to the east.
"This corner looks nice. We will be shielded from the wind from two sides… should I open up the tent? …it's getting darker so I guess I should move it."
I opened up the tent and placed it around three meters from each wall. Once I did that, I entered it and took some jerky from the Magic bag. As I laid down on my sleeping bag, the slime slipped under my head and formed a pillow. And just like that, I fell asleep.