I weakly opened my eyes to a sudden flood of bright light. I felt sluggish, as if I have woken up from a very long sleep.
Stretching my torso to shake off the remaining sleepiness, I squinted my eyes to discern the source of the light.
Above me, there was a beautiful display of tree canopies, and beyond it stretched a tranquil blue sky.
The wind blew through the leaves. The scent of moist soil and woods mixed with the fragrant breeze drifted into my nostrils.
I unconsciously smiled, savoring this moment of serenity.
Reaching for my right cheek, I repeatedly pinched it for a classic reality check.
"It's real. This is not a dream..."
Who would have thought that after my untimely death, I'd be given a chance by the Goddess of another world?
My death was a boring one.
It wasn't accompanied by any special circumstances.
After a whole day of desk work, I drove home earlier than usual but met with an accident on the road.
The sensation before my death was still vividly ingrained in my mind.
I could still recall the impact crushing my bones and rupturing my body beyond repair. I could still feel the pain as my consciousness slowly sank into the abyss.
After aimlessly wandering in the dark vastness of the void, my thoughts recollected at some point, and the first thing I saw was a beautiful goddess.
The goddess gave me another chance. However, nothing was free, even in the realm of gods.
As an equivalent fee for my new life, a contract between me and the goddess was made.
**
[Lifetime Contract]
Create: Interspecies Civilization
You are tasked with building a civilization where different races live in harmony.
**
It was a rather straightforward lifetime contract with freedom.
Assuming I didn't obey the contract, there were no punishments or consequences that would fall on me.
However, I was nevertheless forced to accept the task because of what was written in my status.
**
Gran Feldspar
Race: Human
Title: Contractor of the Goddess of Creation and Harmony
Strength: 2
Agility: 2
Physique: 2
Creativity: 2
Skills: [Creation: Craft], [Otherworlder: Space Inventory]
Lifespan: 2 days
**
"..."
Although I was given a chance, I was still going to die in two days.
But the goddess explained that neither she nor the other gods could control the cycle of life that easily.
As the goddess explained to me, it was due to the natural law present in this world. Gods cannot directly intervene with such law.
"At any rate, I want to live long."
I clenched my fist as my insides burned with determination.
This is my new life now. I needed to protect it at all costs.
Aside from showing gratitude to the goddess who gave me this chance, I also wanted to experience a longer life in this new world.
I lived for 28 years in my previous life. Considering the average life expectancy of a human, it was really brief. So it was natural that I yearned for a longer life.
For that to happen, I first needed to survive and increase my lifespan.
"Quest board."
Shortly after calming my thoughts, I muttered a kind of chant according to what the goddess had taught me earlier.
A second later, a window interface materialized in front of me, words hovering in the air.
***
Beginner Quest: Civilization starts with a simple house
Build a shelter
Rewards:
Receive five attribute points.
Increase lifespan by 2 days.
***
Because of this world's law, the beings called Gods cannot directly intervene. But no matter how solid the law was, loopholes were bound to exist.
The goddess created one of its loopholes through the use of a quest board. Through the quest board, quests could be generated.
The goddess will use these quests to bestow her power in minuscule form rather than blatantly giving to me.
In this way, She could bypass the security or the filter of the world law.
The goddess explained these things to me before giving me a quest board. She tailored it the same to the video games back in my world. Her reason was for me to atleast be familiar with it.
While feeling grateful for the one-sided support, I shifted my attention to my first task and started searching for things I needed.
As this was an unfamiliar place, I knew I needed to start building a shelter before nightfall.
Surviving the night out in the open was not viable. The breeze could be chilling, and for me it was not an option to sleep directly on the ground.
In order to build a simple shelter, wood was necessary, and to get it, I needed to have a cutting tool like an axe.
However, to make an axe, I needed some metals, but the forest obviously didn't have metals lying around. So I turned to rocks with considerable hardness and durability.
I scanned the ground for rocks with the right properties. After a brief search, I found a stone called granite.
I picked up the granite stone and went to find vines and fallen tree logs. Afterward, I placed them near each other as the goddess had taught me earlier.
With these materials huddled together, I focused my gazed in them and used my skill: [Creation: Craft].
Soon after, my eyes began to glow blue.
"Woah... This is so cool."
I can't helped but admired what was happening in front of me.
Holographic panels appeared out of nowhere displaying 3D images of the crafts I could create out of the materials I had placed together.
[Makeshift Granite Axe]
[Makeshift Granite Hammer]
[Makeshift Granite Spade]
.
.
.
[Trash Granite Knife]
I was greatly amazed as this was my first time seeing 3D holograms produced not by technology.
Curious, I wandered, moving the 3D objects and tapping each panel. As I did, I discovered additional information.
Actually, there were different ranks for the crafts.
At the lowest level was [Trash], where the craft was barely usable and of very low quality.
Next was [Makeshift], basic and temporary items that were functional but not reliable, especially for long usage.
[Standard] was for crafts adequate for regular use, while above-average crafts were labeled as [Good].
[High-Quality] was for items that displayed excellent craftsmanship, very durable and effective.
On the other hand, things that had outstanding quality and near-perfect function were the [Masterwork] crafts.
I also learned that the main factor influencing these ranks was not only the materials but also my creativity attribute.
After discovering these informations, I began to wonder how to increase my Creativity stats. Based solely on its name, it might mean I needed to be creative, or it might just simply mean I have to craft more things.
I wanted to test such a hypothesis as soon as possible, so I stopped randomly moving the 3D images and proceeded to choose the Granite axe.
The materials in front of me glowed and started to move as if guided by invisible hands. The granite stone shaped itself into something like an axe head, the tree log reshaped and became a handle, and the vines moved to wrap the two.
The process took ten seconds and when the flash of light subsided, the axe was complete.
[You have successfully crafted a new item, Makeshift Granite Axe]
[Your Creativity increases by 1!]
"Oh, sweet!"
When I saw that my Creativity increased after crafting the axe, I got excited not only for the points but also because it answered one of my questions.
After creating a new item, there was an increase of Creativity. So what would happen if I created the same item?
With that question, I immediately went back to where I got the stone and crafted a makeshift axe again. However, no notification appeared. It seemed that only creating new items could increase my Creativity.
This also raised a question: if the same item was created but with a better rank, would that increase the Creativity?
I tested it out, but after five crafting sessions, all I got were five stone axes with the same rank. I wanted to search another type of wood or another type of vine with stronger quality to craft a better one, but I already spend too much time.
There was a more pressing matter, which was to build a shelter before night came.
So I postponed my experiment and focused on the main task of creating a shelter.