I stared at the image before me, and I knew I had to try it out, so I closed my eyes. I immediately used the skill [Shadow World] and imagined Earth and everything I knew about the universe, letting my imagination fill in the blanks.
I soon felt a shift in the air around me, and when I opened my eyes, I didn't even bother looking around. I immediately broke into an all-out run… and returned to the void.
'?'
'What just happened?'
{The shadow world has been destroyed.}
'…'
'Did I just destroy an entire universe just from running?'
I sighed. 'Looks like I'll have to be more careful.'
So I tried again, but this time, I only took a soft step… and the same thing happened again.
I sighed. 'I guess that makes sense; you can't limit limitless strength. I think I'll have to see if the system can restrict my body for me.
{By how much would you like to restrict your body?}
Having this thing hear my thoughts will take a bit of getting used to.
'I don't want to destroy the ground just by walking.'
{Restricting your body to low human levels.}
"What is a low human level?'
{The humans of the first universe were low-level humans.}
Perfect, I then again created a shadow world; this time, I took the time to look around and was surprised to see that I was standing in my hometown just a couple of blocks from my old house. I was an orphan and an introvert, so I didn't have many pleasant memories outside of my home. Since this world was created from my memory, I guess this town looked nothing like the original, but I didn't care as long as my home was intact. I needed to be in the comfort of my home. Everything that had happened was shocking, and I don't think I've processed any of it, so I started walking home carefully at first because I was afraid I would break something, but when that didn't happen, I started jogging.
When I entered my home, I felt a level of comfort I hadn't felt in a long time. While my mind doesn't remember most of my time traveling the omniverse, my soul does. It felt nice to be home after so long. I walked into my room and crashed into my bed with a feeling of pure bliss. I started feeling sleepy, and with my body being human again and feeling the comfort of my bed, I fell into a deep sleep.
…
When I woke up the following day, I felt much more clearheaded, and I realized that there was one crucial detail I seemed to have forgotten: Where will I find other people? I still need human contact even if I am a transcendent being, but seeing as I am the 'all-father' of creation, I should be able to visit said creations, and some of 'my' creations should be humans, right? Or, at the very least, sentient beings with the ability to communicate.
I asked the system to show me a list of worlds I could visit and began looking through them, and to my shock and delight, as I scrolled down the list, I recognized the name of one of them, and to add to the excitement it was the world of one of my favorite anime. Since the previous 'All-father' was from the same universe as me, it makes sense that he made universes from our fiction with all the power he obtained. I would, too, if given the chance. Speaking of, why I didn't have that chance? Why could he maintain consciousness and obtain power while I was not? I probably won't get an answer, so I might as well forget it.
Going back to the previous topic, the world I saw on the list is That time I got reincarnated as a slime. Knowing there wasn't much of a choice here as it was my favorite, I immediately selected it. What came up next were two choices: the time and place where I could arrive in the world. Luckily, I could view the world from that place and time to determine when Rimuru would arrive. I decided to arrive 30 years before him and train. I also planned to limit myself to the lowest level my race would allow. That would still be strong, almost the strongest in the universe alongside Milim and Guy, but not even a fraction of how strong I actually am, and that's with only five skills. I wonder how strong I will be when I unlock the entire inheritance. I guess I'll find out when it happens.
Anyway, I want to take those 30 years to get used to my strength and then build up to my actual power because right now, I may be powerful, but that strength is useless unless I can adequately harness it. I also planned to meet some essential figures before starting my training. With that decided, I selected the barren lands as the place to start and three years before Rimuru arrived as the time. And with that, I activated two of my skills and felt my consciousness fade.
…
I sat up and looked around, trying to gain my bearings. The place I found myself in was a desert, which I expected with a name like 'the barren lands.' Luckily, my status as a progenitor vampire Means that the weakness to the sun and the need for blood inherent to all vampires does not apply to me. But even still, the sun felt like it was trying its hardest to burn me to a crisp. As I stood up, I decided that it would be best to address my basic needs, such as food, water, and a roof over my head, and to do that, I was going to try something that could be awesome. I asked my system to combine the subskill [mental blueprint] that I got from my [Magi-tech eyes] skill with my [shadow world], [Shadows loyalty], and [All of Creation] skills, and to my delight, it worked exactly as I hoped it would.
{Synthesizing skills … 0% … 12% … 37% … 58% … 74% … 98% … 100%.}
{Skill [Shadow forge] created.
[Shadow forge – allows you to create any inorganic item you can imagine from the shadows; all items made with this skill can be summoned to you through the shadows and stored within the shadows.]}
I was thrilled to see this skill. If I could, I would have picked this as one of my first five, but I didn't even see it in the list of skills I chose from, so I don't know what to think. Oh well, I might as well try it out. First, I should get some clothes because being naked in the hot desert is not too comfortable.
I used the skill and drew from my shadow, thinking of my favorite outfit from home: baggy white sweatpants, a blue long-sleeved shirt, and blue slip-on tennis shoes.
And low and behold, out of my shadow came the clothes. It was a strange sight as if they were being knit together by the shadows.
I picked them up and put them on; they were extremely comfortable as if they were made of clouds.
Now that I have clothing, I have made a house and everything else I may need, such as a bed and more clothing. With that done, I decided to scout the area and maybe follow in Rimuru's footsteps and get some subordinates.
With that thought in mind, my wings exploded from my back, and I took to the sky, excited by the idea of the adventures coming my way.