Life is tough and unpredictable sometimes. I'm a simple man. Nothing special about me in the slightest. Not one thing.
Average in looks, social skills, status, you name it. I'm just a dude.
I wake up in the mornings, eat breakfast, work a boring office job, come home, eat dinner, sleep, and repeat. The cycle went on and on for the entire first decade of my adult life. I've lived now twenty-eight years of my life, and not one damn interesting thing has happened to me.
Well... that was until a few minutes ago at least.
I had just gotten home, tired from a long days work, and was rummaging through my fridge for something to eat. But a surge of energy rushed through my body and my eyes shut as I black out.
Then when my eyes open I find myself in just this white void. I'd say it was empty but that would be a lie. There's actually a rather nice rectangular coffee table. This actually would look really nice in my apartment, would go well with the couch. Wait! What the hell am I talking about? I should be talking more about this blank void.
I'm turning my head every direction and it just seems endless. How did I get here? Am I dead? Why is there only a coffee table? What's going on?
After looking around for a few moments, all of a sudden a red door just appears out of thin air right in front of me. The door slowly opens and out walks a rather striking man.
The man has long black hair, sharp looking eyes with some piercing red pupils, and a full beard. He's wearing some old school looking geta sandals and a silver kimono with a floral pattern. Man, I watch too much anime in my spare time.
The man walks on the other side of the table slowly and takes a seat, crossing his legs as he places two steaming cups of coffee on the table, his gaze turning to me as I stand across from him on the other side of the table.
"Please, take a seat." the man says in a calm tone. He continues saying "We have much to discuss, Mr. Jonah Priest".
How the hell does he know my name? Actually... you know what? It's not even shocking at this point, I'm in a damn endless void, why wouldn't this random stranger know my name. I decide to go along with what he says and I sit down.
The man slides the other cup of coffee over to me as I cross my legs underneath the table.
"So... don't want to come off rude or anything..." I say in a bit of a nervous tone. "But... where the hell am I? What's with the damn white void? Am I dead? Are you god? I'm just so confused and could really use a bit of clarification here, if you don't mind."
The man gives a good laugh before he begins to speak again, "You're not being rude at all. It's a perfectly understandable reaction to what you've been through..." he says before pausing. After a moment of thought he continues, "I'll try to answer in a quick manner. You are in a realm known as Pagos, it's sort of like the in-between realm between the mortal realm and the afterlife."
My eyes widen as I nod along with what he's saying. He continues, "I am in fact a god, and I'm sorry to say son that you are in fact... dead."
I freeze for a moment, really taking his words in... I'm dead. My life is done... my boring almost meaningless existence came to an end. I... I didn't get to do anything worthwhile. How... how could this have happened?
After a moment I look back at him and after a deep breath, I calmly ask him, "How exactly did I die? What was the reason?"
He then scratches the back of his head and gives an awkward laugh, "Well, you see... um... how do I put this...? I kind of made a mistake."
My eyes narrow slightly at his now more nervous and awkward tone as I then ask in a stern tone, "What kind of mistake, exactly?"
He gives another awkward laugh as her hesitantly says, "You see... the truth is I'm the god of weather for you world, Kraidos. There was a scheduled thunder and lightning storm in your neck of the woods and... well I may have sneezed and that made one of the lightning bolts redirect and hit you on mistake..."
Kraidos then covers his face with his hands as my face contorts into a furious, almost cartoonish, scowl towards him as I shout "You're telling me that I died because you couldn't hold back a sneeze!"
Kraidos nods slowly as he uncovers his eyes, I then rush at him and he books it. I spend the next few minutes chasing him in fury around the void, he gets all teary eyed and keeps apologizing to me as I keep going after him, trying to strangle the bastard.
I exhaust myself after a few more minutes and finally sit back down at the table, taking a sip of the coffee he sild to me earlier as I take a few deep breaths calming myself down. I then say, "Sorry about that, Kraidos... seems I got a bit worked up."
He nods and cautiously sits back down across from me. He takes a deep breath before stating, "No, I get it man. You died because of my careless mistake and I apologize. Hence why now... I wish to make it up to you."
My eyes widen slightly, "Make it up to me, like how? Are you gonna bring me back to life or something?" I say in a very curious manner.
"In a sense..." he says. "You see... I can't bring you back to life in your world... but I talked to a few god buddies and cooked up a little bit of a plan... if you're interested?"
"I'm listening." I say in a calm tone, waiting for him to elaborate on his plan.
"Alright, so I consulted with a few of the gods for a different world from yours called... Kathos." He says as he continues explaining. "You see, this world is different from yours, it's basically what you'd describe as a fantasy world. Mythical beasts and monsters, magic, various types of humanoid species. You know, all the stuff your anime loving ass could think of, this world has got."
My eyes widen at the mere thought of this world.
"The gods I consulted with agreed to not only let you reincarnate into this world... but they're going to give you a few perks. Now these perks won't make you overpowered or nothing... well on their own at least. Work hard enough and you could probably get there." He says going more in-depth on the plan he worked out.
"Okay! This is something I can get on board with! I'm in!" I shout. "So, I get to reincarnate into some epic fantasy world and get to go on adventures or do whatever? Sounds awesome as hell! So what are these perks I'll be getting?"
"Glad you asked..." he says in a confident tone. "Firstly you'll be given not one but two elemental affinities, which is a more rare trait in that world. On top of that, you'll get to choose the affinities. Your choices are: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Rock, Wind, and Wood. Which do you want?"
"Which do I want?" I say as I pause for a moment to think. "It's a really tough choice this, they'd all be so cool... okay, I'll take Lightning considering... well, how I died... and for my second affinity, I'll take wood."
He nods pulling out a notepad and writing the information down with a smile. After he finishes with that he looks back at me.
"Okay, now for your other perks." he says. "You'll be given the blessing {Advanced Growth} which basically let's you earn four times the regular attributes points that a normal human does in Kathos. I know this might sound a bit overpowered, but it doesn't guarantee success. Only if you survive long enough and put in the work will you be able to become strong in the world of Kathos."
"That's a lot to take in." I say in a calm tone as I collect my thoughts. "So this world has some sort of leveling system... and I'll be able to level up four times as fast as long as I survive long enough. That's crazy. Wow... seems we're going full isekai with this one... aren't we?"
"Yup, that we are." He says with a small laugh. "It's a wild world with a bunch of fantasy bullshit and a whole ass video game leveling system. It doesn't get more isekai. I'm somewhat of an anime and manga nerd myself, so I'm probably going to check in and keep an eye on your progress in Kathos."
I laugh not expecting this actual god to be interested in the same hobbies as me. I then ask him, "So how does the leveling system work, exactly?"
"It's pretty simple actually." He says in a casual tone. "You level up by slaying monsters only. Each monster offer experience points based on their levels and species. After you've collected enough experience or exp, you'll hear a voice saying you have leveled up. Instead of the standard five points, you'll gain about twenty points. All you'll have to do is think of the words 'open menu' and you'll see a profile menu pop up in front of your face where you can add points to your various attributes."
"Alright... I think I get it so far." I say as I nod along. "Anything else I should know?"
"Let me think..." Kraidos says as he ponders for a moment. "I'll just speed round them cause we don't have much time lift. Skills and spells can be learned in battle and other practical situation or can be taught by others depending on the spell or skill. No one else can see you status menu except you. We built a new body for you to use in this world when you arrive. You'll be physically 18 when you arrive, I thought you'd probably want to skip to adulthood past all those toddler years and the teenage angst and whatnot. Also, lastly... you may be at an advantage with your blessing and all, but Kathos can be a rather unforgiving world to live in. Be careful."
All that information is a lot for me to process. Brother really pulled a whole ass exposition dump on me. Kraidos looked rather serious at those last words and I nod to him, realizing this world is going to be dangerous and not a cakewalk.
"Our time is up, friend." He says to me in a calm voice as my eyes begin to feel heavy. "In a few moments your eyes will shut and you'll wake up in a new world. You'll be placed in a forest near a town called Fayvar. It shouldn't be too dangerous but creatures are known to lurk there, so be careful. I wish you a good life."
As he finishes his last sentence, my eyes shut completely. It feels like they open almost a second later and I'm blinded slightly by the light. My eyes begin to focus as I notice tree leaves fluttering down towards me.
I'm laying on what appears to be a dirt path as I slowly sit up and look around.
It's a dirt path in the middle of a forest, it also has a sign off to the side saying the town of Fayvar is about five miles away from here. It appears he was telling the truth about where I'd end up. Which means... this must truly be the other world of Kathos.
I take a deep breath, realizing this isn't a dream but a new reality. I died, and now I'm reborn into a new world. I then do has he think the words 'open menu'.
Almost instantaneously a bright blue menu pops in front of my face. It says my name and age at the top along with my level of one. Underneath my name is a bar with health points and magic points, both set to one hundred.
I then look at the attributes section on the left half of the screen. The attributes are as follows:
[Strength: 10, Agility: 10, Endurance: 10, Awareness: 10, Mana: 10, Vitality: 10, Stamina: 10]
Seems they're all at a base level of ten to start. Kraidos didn't explain every detail about how all this stuff exactly works... but oh well. I've seen plenty of anime and crap like that, hopefully it works similarly to those. Well, whatever... there's only one way to find out how this world and system really works.
I take a deep breath and decide to head forward on the dirt path before me. Let's see what this new world has to offer me. My one hope is... that I live a life more meaningful and fun than my last.