Before humans, creation, and even before concepts such as time and space, there was only a will. A singular and complete existence with power limited only by its imagination. Inevitably, this will got bored, very bored.
So it came up with the idea of creating other wills to alleviate its boredom. It set to work on creating a grand construction with space for the wills to occupy and time for them to experience events sequentially. After completing the preliminary work for its construction, "reality," it realized it would know everything that would happen within it.
Finding the idea of knowing everything that would happen unsatisfactory, it decided to give up its omnipotence and omniscience, and what remained was Veldanava, a being with the creator's will but existing as part of the creation instead of something beyond it.
"Hey, if it only gave up its omnipotence and omniscience, did it keep omnipresence? If it could be everywhere, isn't it almost the same as having omniscience?"
"No, shut up!"
"It gave that up too, I forgot to mention."
"Okay, I'll shut up."
"Where was I... I remember now."
Veldanava awoke in the Place of the Beginning and began working to complete the construction of the worlds. It took command of the eight Great Holy Spirits (Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Light, Darkness, Time, and Space), powerful and pure elemental forces without will, and created seven servants for itself to assist from the Great Holy Spirit of Light.
Veldanava began constructing many multitudes of worlds, with different natures and different laws. At the center of it all was the Cardinal World, which Veldanava planned to populate with powerful and immortal flesh-bearing spirits, a race of devout men.
To facilitate the raising of this race of immortal men, Veldanava first created a founding being called Twilight Valentine to serve as a template and ancestor for them. However, a problem arose. Twilight was a perfect being lacking any concept of gender and was incapable of reproducing traditionally.
To solve this, Twilight used its powerful intellect and created two species based on its own body: superior humans and vampires.
Superior humans possessed mortal but prolonged lives and an innate capacity for knowledge and magic... but their massive egos and self-destructive tendencies made them failures.
Vampires had the immortality that Veldanava sought, but their dependence on blood and intolerance to sunlight made them unsuitable for populating the earth.
Twilight returned to the drawing board and eventually created humans and their many sub-species, later known as Demi-humans, which, while not immortal as Veldanava desired, were sufficient to fulfill its wishes and brought it joy.
The humans Twilight created spread across the numerous other universes to ensure variety in the cultures they developed, while Veldanava ordered its first and primary subordinate Feldway to eliminate threats to humanity and ensure they could prosper. With an abundance of different races and cultures quickly populating the planet, the gears of fate began to turn.
At some point, Veldanava, on one of its many journeys among humanity, encountered something it had never known in its countless years of life: "love." It found it in a kind girl named Lucia.
Happy with this new feeling, Veldanava courted her, they eventually married, and the fruit of their love was born. But, as the saying goes, if you wish for something, you have to pay a price.
And the price for Veldanava was its immense power.
"Wait, wait, why would it lose its power just by having a child?"
"For spiritual beings, reproduction, as well as eating or sleeping, ceases to be a necessity. Due to their unlimited lifespan, there is no need to create a new generation.
For spiritual beings, creating a new life comes at the expense of oneself, with your magicles and those of your partner being absorbed by this new being. In non-spiritual beings, this at most represents a loss in your maximum magicle capacity, but in spiritual beings, it can lead to death. It was a clear warning to all others: if you become a spiritual existence, never have children."
"I understand that, my question is: if it was so powerful, couldn't it create a child like it did with Twilight Valentine?"
"You don't understand romance! Have you ever had a partner? I'm sure women avoided you."
"Hey, of course, I've had several romantic relationships. Some may not have ended well, but that's none of your business."
"Veldanava was madly in love. Everyone can make mistakes in such cases; in its defense, no one knew at that time what would happen. Now shut up and let me continue with the story."
The creation of Milim resulted in most of Veldanava's energy being drained, and its body destabilizing. Veldanava used the last of its former power to create a brother for its daughter, a baby dragon that would serve as her companion so she would never have to be alone like it was.
"You see, if it could make her a brother, then it could make itself a daughter too."
"..."
"Please continue."
With almost all its energy exhausted, Veldanava's subsequent reincarnation was quite weak. Its new body, as far as everyone could tell, was essentially "human." It did not possess the near-invulnerability of its previous draconic body and would even eventually die of old age, having a mortal lifespan.
Without its power, Veldanava was free to enjoy a simple life with its wife and daughter, no longer bored or lonely with them by its side. However, both Veldanava and its wife Lucia perished in a terrorist attack, leaving Milim and the baby dragon orphaned, unable to remember their parents' faces.
Having only each other, the bond between the baby dragon and Milim grew stronger than ever, and the two never parted, even sleeping in the same bed cuddled together.
But peaceful times are not meant to last. In an attempt to kidnap Milim by a kingdom, the baby dragon died protecting her. In a state of frenzied rage, Milim unleashed her immense power inherited from her father and destroyed the kingdom responsible for everything.
With the deaths of thousands, she became a Demon Lord, bringing her friend back from the dead, but in a corrupted state. Still in a frenzied state, she continued destroying everything in her path until the first Demon Lord had to intervene to calm her.
Their fight lasted seven days and seven nights, devastating a part of the continent. Their battle could only be stopped by the most powerful and beautiful woman that ever existed, the Elemental Queen.
"..."
"..."
At the cost of being contaminated by the demonic and draconic auras, she stopped the conflict. Milim, after regaining her sanity, realized the deaths of innocents she had caused, and her friend, who was no longer what he used to be, was now just a monster that only knew how to destroy.
In tears, Milim could only decide to seal him so he wouldn't continue harming others, in a place that would later be called Dragon's Den, located in the great mountains of Canaat. There, over time, his factor would seep out and give rise to the race of dragons.
"So, how's my story? Amazing, right?"
"The story was very entertaining, but why did you tell me? I only asked if you knew how to get to the Canaat mountains."
"hmm..."
"You don't know, do you?"
"Of course I do! They're to the northeast."
"Thanks, I'm leaving. See you if there's an opportunity."
"Wait! Are you leaving already?"
"Yes, I have a long journey to the Canaat mountains."
"How about staying a few days, or months, here with me? We can have a lot of fun together."
"..."
"..."
"You don't have friends, do you?"
"Of course I have friends, I have many, there's Guy and Milin…!"
"And? Don't tell me you only have two friends, that's sad. 😞"
"…"
"Well, I can stay and keep you company for a while, but only if you teach me about magic."
"Deal! We'll have so much fun, I'm an amazing teacher; I used to guide heroes."
In an incredibly large rock room with countless magical glimmers, two beings could be seen chatting and having fun. One of them was a small girl with blonde hair, a cheerful smile, a black dress, and a pair of wings on her back.
If others saw her, no one would believe that this girl held a title that would make most people in this world tremble: "Demon Lord." Yes, she is the "Labyrinth Fairy" Ramiris, one of the first Demon Lords to ever exist.
But the strangest thing wasn't the little fairy fluttering around the room, but her companion, with skin covered in black scales with blue details, eyes with slit-shaped vertical pupils, two incredibly sharp fangs filled with toxins, and lacking legs or arms.
If you went to school or know something about animals, you must have realized that we are describing a snake. But the question is, why are a snake and a fairy chatting so animatedly in who knows where? Well, for that, we have to go back a while.
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-???-
On what seems to be the bank of a river adjacent to a lush forest, a few rocks are piled up as a den. Inside, there appears to be a small black snake with blue details on its scales, unaware of the changes it has recently experienced or the surroundings.
"Roooarrr!!"
A loud roar is heard in the distance.
'Who is yelling so early in the morning? Five more minutes.'
As I'm lying with my eyes closed and planning to go back to sleep.
"Roooarrr!!"
The louder noise woke me up completely. I try to rub my eyes with my hands to wake up, only to not feel my hands or legs.
"What the hell!!"
I panic while writhing like a shrimp.
'What's happening to me!'
In what seemed like hours but was only a couple of minutes, I calmed down enough to pay attention to my surroundings and, especially, to myself.
'Okay, calm down, you are an adult man, not a lovestruck schoolgirl at her first school dance with the boy she likes and fantasizes about as her prince charming.'
'No, you are an adult man who knows that prince charmings don't exist; that's a thing of the mouse company. Now, what mess did I get myself into?'
While breathing to calm down, I turned my neck down, or what I think is my neck, only to see that I was on a dirt floor with small stones. Holding my breath to gather courage, I proceed to look at myself.
'Shit! Why the hell am I a damn snake?'
I panic again… After a few more minutes of panic, I began to recall my last memory, how a truck driver was speeding the wrong way and hit me as I crossed the street, how in a puddle of my own blood I only thought about the pain I felt and my delirium as I lost consciousness and wished I could be resistant to blows.
At that moment, I heard it; if I wasn't crazy, it should have been.
"The Voice of the World"
I think I remember what I heard at that moment, it was something like:
'Oh, it hurts like hell, I wish I could withstand blows better.'
Request accepted.
Acquisition of resistance to blunt force.
'Wait, did I just hear what I think I heard? It's better to try than regret.'
'I wish I had the ability to adapt, survive, and exceed my limits.'
Request accepted.
Unique skill: Successful acquisition of Adaptable.
The resistance to blunt force is integrated into Adaptable.
'I hope to have the ability to reach the top in the world that awaits me, a True Dragon.'
Request accepted.
Creating a body with a True Dragon factor.
Intrinsic skill: Successful acquisition of Venomous Bite.
Intrinsic skill: Successful acquisition of Thermal Vision.
Intrinsic skill: Successful acquisition of Shedding.
Acquisition of poison resistance.
Acquisition of pain resistance.
Acquisition of resistance to physical attacks.
Poison resistance, pain resistance, and resistance to physical attacks are integrated into the Adaptable skill.
'I think that was all I heard at that moment. Based on that memory and the fact that I am now a snake, even if I wanted to deny it, I can only come to one conclusion: somehow, I ended up in the "Cardinal World" of the slime anime.
That only proves that I always lived in Veldanava's creation, and the multiverse theory proposed by scientists was correct. In part, I'm glad about that; I prefer the creator to be a nice guy like Veldanava and not those Marvel or DC types.'
I nod to that conclusion. Who would want to live in multiverses like Marvel or DC? And I mean you, the same you reading this, not a guy granted power by a ROB (Random Omnipotent Being) who knows the whole plot.
I mean, the world you live in, which you always believed to be normal, turns out to have powers, abilities, or anything strange that could eliminate you, and you don't even have the qualifications to use those gifts because you weren't lucky at birth.
Personally, I prefer the one created by Veldanava. Here at least, hypothetically, anyone can be the strongest. Sure, nothing is free, but it's better to have an incredibly difficult path than lack a path.
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Author's Notes:
I know most of this chapter was about the creation of Veldanava's universe, but I saw it as necessary.
Although someone is supposed to read a fanfic because they know the work and obviously there will be spoilers, sometimes we focus more on where the canon starts, and we might forget important events that happen in a past only referenced momentarily but which can be very relevant in the future. I thought it necessary to include it to refresh our memory, including mine.
Finally, the skills our protagonist acquired upon reincarnation are revealed.
A reminder: we can know what their skills do, but he only knows their names because that's what he remembers hearing. He doesn't have an AI in his head that can answer any doubt he thinks of.
I have a rough idea about the development of this story, but not rigidly. To make it more interesting, both for you and for me, I created a roulette with 100 slots: 1 is "Very good luck," 1 is "Very bad luck," 1 is "Normal," and the remaining 97 are both "Good luck" and "Bad luck" alternated.
Every time the protagonist wants to take action, for example, hunting a monster, I will spin the roulette. Depending on what comes out, the protagonist may: hunt it easily, hunt it with some injuries, not find a monster, be injured by the monster but manage to escape, or the monster almost kills him.
Obviously, no matter how bad luck he has, I won't kill him, or the story would end, but I will make him suffer for a good while.
And since I appreciate comments, you are free to suggest what our protagonist could do, obviously from where I left off at the end of the chapter. What would you do if you were in his current situation? I will read you.