1 Hitting the jackpot

Laying in his bed, Robert seemed to be frowning. Yet again had he been banned from a 'dojo' simply because he was 'too rough'.

"Fuckin' weak-willed mother fuckers. So what I broke his arm? Not my fault he couldn't handle the heat." He sat up grumbling, he would have to go to work in the next hour or so so he decided to just start getting ready now and go early to milk some of the clock. However, when he stood his vision blurred, a sense of weightlessness happened as he began to fall, his eyes already closing. The last thought through his mind was simply. ''When'd I have an iron problem?"

October 21st, 2024. Robert had died alone in his apartment for no apparent cause, no family, no funereal. It would've made him happy to know he was just tossed into a furnace.

"My child, I apol-''

"Fuck dude, turn off the light, can't see a damn thing.''

"Ah, sorry. It's a habit from my younger days.'' Soon, the blinding light that had surrounded him as turned off like a light switch. Leaving a guy standing in a business suit, his voice far less ''Omnipotent'' from before, and more so just a regular guy.

"Let me guess, God?" Robert who was now no longer squinting stared at the man before him. Looking down to himself he noticed he was slightly transparent, naked all be it in all his athletic glory.

"I am indeed what you would see as 'God', but what gave it away?'' The man in the suit grinned, now amused.

''Well, the last thing I remember was falling, I get woken up by a blinding light and a voice that sounds like it's around me and inside me, I'm see-through, also naked."

"Good, even despite your time living in peace despite a mistake you still retain an acceptance for the unknown.''

"Mistake? You mean the reason why I felt so... suppressed was because of a mistake in the timeline I was born in?''

"That is indeed so, your death, and birth were both an accident caused by me, you were supposed to be born in a time where cold weapons and wars rage across the world, to die to a sword being stabbed into your back by your most trusted knight at the age 25, 'King Robert, betrayed due to jealousy.' '' The man was chuckling, his eyes watching the man still sitting before him. Usually, when people met him, they were either already asking for things, denying him, or bowing before him like some sort of saint. However, this human did nothing other than sit and seem bored.

"Damn... So you mean to tell me my name wasn't included in the mistakes?'' Robert sighed deeply, out of a lot of his life, he hated his name, but who the fuck was going to change their name and all these other things just because of that? To much damn work.

"Sorry to say, but no. You were meant to be Robert since back in those times it was a noble name, however, I offer you something in return for all my mistakes. One, you will be rebirthed into a new world, one of war, magic, and medieval combat. Two, I will give you a system to help your ability and growth to become the best in that world, and the many you may visit, until you eventually raise to become family to me. Three, I will give you multiple powers and abilities to help integrate you into this world properly. I'll even throw a bonus in and let you be rebirthed in a random second-tier family, not poor, not rich..''

Robert seemed to think, at times he frowned, he grinned kind of creepily before he spoke. ''Fuck your system. How much power for you would that even cost to create something so strong?''

The God grinned ear to ear, he was surprised as he watched, watching a long moment before he spoke. ''It would take all of it, so you don't want a system?''

"Nah, makes things too easy. One of the things I hated living in a time of peace was that things were too easy, I even got tired of reading because it was to easy for MC's with all these cool overpowered powers just given to them without having worked for it, all because their system told them how to make it powerful, no I want to struggle, I want every bit of power I eventually gain to be all mine, help? Sure, but not given.''

"Then speak, tell me of what you wish.''

"One, I don't want to be rebirthed, just take my soul and appearance as it is now and give me a body that accommodates that world, then toss me in. Two, instead of giving me a system on all that jazz, just give me some basic knowledge that I would need to live a life there, I will decide what I do with such knowledge. Three, I'll join your 'family' big guy, but I want to do so on my terms, so keep my ability to grow infinite, but other than that don't interfere. Four, I'll take some abilities since you gave me a trash name like Robert, Photographic memory, adaptability, in all means. Five? Give me some basic gear, some starting 'Capital' so to speak. Six? This might be the most complicated thing I'll ask for, but a weapon that can change form to as I need it, any weapon that I understand that can grow with me, with the ability to still be able to go back to previous levels of strength, never breaks and if it does it just takes time to be able to summon again. Also, add the ability for it to also summon additional forms that fit the main weapons, so if I go with a sword, I want to be able to use a shield as well, or if I have a dagger, I can make throwing ones, or just another dagger to go with it, so on so forth.''

The man standing within his suit grinned more, his face morphing without limit since he was not restricted to such human lengths. ''That's all you want? So be it, though because you're asking for so little I will include a few gifts, nothing too powerful, but you can view them as gifts from your father.'' He waved his hand, without even so much as a goodbye, he was sent away. Once Robert had left, the man stood there.

He laughed loudly suddenly, finally letting it out as he roared through the empty dark space. ''GOOD! It will be fun watching this one, I hope he makes a good son of mine.'' His silver eyes flashed with a deep meaning before he simply vanished from the vast emptiness.

He didn't make a sound, all he knew is that he was suddenly just, sitting in a place in the same position as before, however, he could feel he was wearing things, there was something trying to press again his mind but he found it easy to keep it from entering. First, he drew in a slow breath through his nose, taking in the scent of his surroundings. It smelled damp, he was warm but he could tell there was a chill in the air, he could hear nothing other than the sound of dripping. Slowly he opened his eyes without moving the rest of his body, looking around with just his eyes slowly he sat forward slowly to a more comfortable position. Sitting with his legs crossed he looked down to himself, noting that he was wearing what looked to be pretty basic leather armor, not colored, the leather itself was black.

'At least I didn't wake up in a beast den, as far as I know, now let's see what this thing is.'

He let the pressure on his mind come, letting it engulf his senses as words from the man previously began to speak.

''A few things to note, to use the weapon you asked for, you simply must feel it within you, think of the form you wish it be, then bring it forth, the choice will float before you if your hands are full, or you wish it to. If your hands are free you can summon it directly to your hands. I have given all the abilities you asked for, and added some basic spells, this can be included in basic knowledge since even slaves know minor magic. Where you are, you are safe by my will. So until you leave this cave, you will not be attacked. Attached to this mental message is the rest of the information you asked of me.''

With that his mind began to expand, it felt like hours, maybe even years as he began to read over all this knowledge within his head. It was pretty simple, beasts existed in this world, magic existed, the currency was pretty simple. 100 copper becomes 1 silver, 100 silver becomes a gold, 100 gold becomes platinum. Higher forms of currency existed however he was told that he wouldn't need to worry about it within this continent but he was told it was basically magic metal versions of the normal currency, but much more expensive. A single 'Magic copper' coin was the same worth of almost 10,000 Golden Bars. Bars could be created for ease of traveling, depending on the size and density depends on how many coins were in a bar, but every bank and most shops had a way to weigh and split the currency with magic.

Magic as in simple tiers, he was given basic knowledge of tiers higher than what was currently known within this land, but from 'Minor magic'/ 0 tier, all the way to 4th tier. This land believed that it was the highest form of magic, and was already capable of extraordinary things.

There was also a form of 'Body' power, which was called Aura, it was basically just magic of the body. It had its own respective tiers, the highest in this land was 4th as well. Few people focused on the path of Aura and Magic, but as he asked, his abilities had no upper limit so he was told he could focus both without needing to worry about 'talent'. But it would still be difficult.

He was currently in a world that was far, far larger than any he had ever thought possible. However the planet had no name simply because the supposed 'God' simply hadn't named it yet, but many people called it something else, within this land, it was called 'Gaia.' much like the earth from his previous life.

He was given basic information over 'magical' items and artifacts, how the politics of the world works, and laws that existed. But dumbed down, it was basically, don't piss off a royal or you're just another mistake. Royals had such a rule as well concerning higher-ranked royals as well so it was amusing to him.

Then the final thing to note was his equipment and new life. He had a ''background'' prepared, all it needed was a name which after some consideration, he chose a simple name of this world 'Alex'. With this, his identity was finalized, and with a slight 'click' he simply realized he was just a small-time adventurer trying to make a name for himself, no village, or last name. No parents, they had died of old age. This allowed Alex not to care much about his back story since he could pretty much come up with some bullshit things.

He was currently wearing what could be considered cheap black leather from what are called ''Black rabbits'' all starting adventurers had to start somewhere kind of armor. But it did its work for weaker creatures. He was told that his 'weapon' could be considered a blessing, meaning he wouldn't need to hide it. With 1 silver and 60 copper. With just the copper alone he could live without doing anything for about 6 months, a bit too much in his opinion but he understood, just maintenance for armor and weapons cost almost 10 coppers a week depending on how much you used them.

Despite his blessing being pretty maintenance free and his armor being basic, he was given a single item that he considered a bit broken. A small dagger-like necklace with an unbreakable chain. It was just a small ornate dagger-like piece of jewelry. The so-called gift of being a family member, it had space inside that he would be able to store non-living things, for now. It had the room for growth along with him and his weapons however was far more difficult to do so. Right now it already started out with about a 5-meter cube of a room, which was huge. Other than that 'inventory' like ability, the only other thing to note that it was something others couldn't see unless he willed it, and no one other than himself would be able to use it.

Inside it was his basic gear, tent, torches, rations, weapon and armor maintaining equipment, back up leather armor, a magical canteen that basically just too ambient magic and created pure water over time that all adventures started with as long as they joined a guild. A basic flora and beast guide, and a simple map.

He was also given basic knowledge over how he could use his weapon, he already knows stances, but this was a basic knowledge of the stances this world used. Some of it was kind of stupid to look at, why was it so flashy? Though from the personal opinion he preferred simplicity in his stances and movements, no flashy twirls or dancing, he knew why people enjoyed it. It showed off their skill and mastery. He didn't much care personally over it.

As he finished digesting all of this his eyes opened. Taking a better look at the cave around him before he stood, with himself leaning back as his back cracked a bit, as he began to stretch he spoke to himself out loud.

''Seems my body is already half step to Tier 1 of Aura, my magic is just around basic Tier 0 and I will need to find more magic myself. I can level up my Aura with fighting, and mastering combat and my weapons, however, I passively slowly gain mana, but to quicken the process I need to meditate, some forms of Aura can also be meditated to increase certain aspects of it.''

He crouched down, still stretching as he tried to get used to his body. ''I have a general idea of my core and abilities now, but to perfect it I will need actually train to see what my extent is.'' He spread his thoughts to the necklace as he was instructed to do so, despite all the stuff he had in it, not even fifteen percent was used. ''I get treasures like these are pretty common, but even the ones that hold all the gear I have with maybe a little bit of room for an extra blanket cost almost 25 gold... Having one this big is a cheat but I can't exactly turn it down, family and all. Whatever he means by that.''

He was going to pull out the map but he stopped. ''If I can see what's inside, what's stopping me from being able to just, view things while they're inside it already?'' As he focused he was able to clearly see the map, it was rolled up but he was still able to see its contents. It wasn't exactly easy, but it wasn't hard either. "I'm currently in the middle of a pretty normal forest, very, very few beasts exist other than normal animals... I say that but even Black rabbit, which's considered weak, slaughter a trained marine if they weren't already using aura.''

''Alright, that gives me a place to test my abilities freely, if I head north for a few hours I'll eventually reach the town.'' He extracted his thoughts from the necklace and with a thought, a very simple longsword appeared into his right and left hands. He weighed them as he examined them. ''Simple as I like them, perfectly balanced, pretty much everything I want out of them, if I want them to change material, I'd have to offer a sizable amount of pure ore to do so, so for not it is just iron. But for these parts, it's more than enough.'' He began to go through a basic combat practice with the two swords. Simple combo's that to the trained eye meant death to normal humans.

During this practice, suddenly the sword within his left hand disappeared and almost instantly a shield appeared and he slammed it forward in a quick charge. ''That's good, as long as I focus I can make them change in the middle of combat, but if I can't get the proper focus it won't work properly and it might just disappear, so for now we'll leave them in their respective forms and only change them after combat. Let's try an Aura fueled attack.''

An Aura fueled attack or a ''Battle Skill'' was as it was, a move fueled by an aura, there was also magic enhancements that could be done, but the control needed to use both at the same time was almost impossible for normal people. Magic and Aura had their own elements, but most combat melee professions used none elemental versions since it was the easiest and most simple to learn.

Steadying his stand he kept the shield before him as if blocking frontal attacks while sidestepping and backstepping. Dodging minor strikes and less lethal attacks and only blocking when he needed to, energy began to build at his sword, without color it looked like clear liquid covering the sword, in a sudden move he stepped forward and performed a simple flash to the cave wall. When he did his sword cleaved through the wall like butter up to seven inches before he stepped back. The shield vanished as he only held the sword as he examined the cut. ''The cut is clean, but only because the sword focused the power. My tier of Aura doesn't matter when it comes to controlling, it more so means quality and quantity. But even if I'm just half step 1st, I need to better my control. The better the control, the sharper the aura. Being able to summon it however is good enough for now, and it seems that it can offer me an increased slash, but it leaves me unable to do it again for a bit.''

He stared a long moment before he snickered. ''I've got a cooldown basically? Amusing...'' He nodded gently, that is what it felt like. The best thing to do now was to learn when that 'cooldown' stopped. So he waited an entire minute before trying again, and thankfully he was able to do it again, he continued to remove a second from his timer all the way until he reached 45 seconds. When he tried to do it at 44 it didn't do anything and his sword only sparked across the cave wall.

''A cooldown of 45 seconds, there might be some sort of millisecond but I am not good enough as of now to bring that kind of speed and movement out... That's not too bad though, there is no real special way to use this slash, I can do it any which way, in any form I want to, but once I hit the peak of the attack, and pull back it stops.'' He pulled up the sword to look at it, and as he thought. Striking a cave wall that was solid rock, aura enhanced or now, his iron sword looked pretty much ruined. However, he let the weapon desummon. Only summoning it every minute to see the process of it slowly repairing.

After about ten minutes it looked good as new. ''So, if it was put into a percentage, when I begin to let it repair it was about 45%, so I can say about every two minutes 10% or so comes back.'' He raised his free hand and summoned another long sword. ''I can summon up to two pairs if it's melee weapons, no more, and if it's a sword and shield, it still stops me from getting more. Do they both desummon if one breaks?'' He then when to just hacking at the wall, no real goal other than to break the weapon, soon enough the blade snapped. As it did both pieces of the weapon vanished, however, the weapon in his left hand/off-hand stayed, perfectly fine. ''That's good, I should still carry actual weapons around just in case they both break.''

With that he let both swords vanished, summoning them was as simple as willing it to do so, however, to change their shape required concentration so, for now, he simply kept them as a longsword and simple kite shield. Once he finalized this he smacked his lips a bit as he spoke out loud. ''I thirst for the sauce.'' He then took out his canteen from the storage as he took a few drinks. Taking some to help clean the sweat he had built up. Once he let it appear back he focused. Seeing that when in the storage, magic gathered to the necklace, and then slowly entered into the space then fueled the magic of the canteen. ''Alright, that's pretty neato, doesn't that mean even if I pull out a herb and keep its roots, it won't lose its magic properties and retain them as long as I keep them in the necklace? This also means I can charge crystals passively, even though it seems it will take much longer.''

Magical herbs once picked lost their connection to Gaia and if left like that for a prolonged amount of time would slowly lose their magic, if they lost too much of it, it would just become a normal plant. Crystals were forms of magic tools, capable of storing abundant mana to help fuel things, people, tools, and so on.

With that, all out of the way he moved to the entrance of the gave and looked out, before him the sun was just a bit toward the peak of the sky, so it was about noon. With a slight chill in the air, he could tell it was either early spring or early fall. Looking to the tree's he noted their darkening leaves. ''Early fall it is, means I'll need to be prepared to work in the winter in the coming weeks.'' With that he stepped out after he left a bit he felt something cover him before leaving, turning around as that was where the feeling went towards he noticed the cave simply no longer existed. Stepping towards it again, he felt something cover him again and the cave simply existed again. ''Seems his power remains even after I leave, I'll need to remember this, I'm only allowed in because of my necklace, so nothing else, and nobody else can enter. It looks like it goes deeper but that's not my problem for now.''

He left the cave again, walking quite a bit away he stared at where the cave was, and also looked around. Using his new photographic memory to take note of where it was. Why use markers to tell you where your secret tunnel was? Sounds stupid if you can just remember where it is. Not so secret if you have things leading to it. Though he did go forward again and disrupt the foilage around the wall of the mountain, making it seem like he simply put his back to it and took a rest. Taking note that if he didn't want to, even if he punched where he knew the entrance was, he didn't enter the cave. With that, he began to once again walk through the forest, since there was no real danger he was just wondering. Using some of his concentration to read the guides left in his storage as he walked, the necklace beneath his armor and clothing, but still, the chain was visible around his neck. He didn't know why he would hide it, even if someone stole it from him it would just make it's way back to him eventually, only he could use it as well. So to everyone else, it was just a neat trinket.