Chapter 2

After getting sucked through the black portal, I found myself surrounded by more darkness. However, this time a system screen popped up in front of me, casting at least a bit of illumination. I looked at the screen and read its contents.

[Beginner Gift Activated - Character Creator:

Race: (Choose)

Soul: (Already Chosen) [Locked]

Appearance: (Already Chosen) [Locked]

Note: If the user selects a race other than human, they get all that race's intrinsic skills while also being able to choose one Unique Skill. If the user chooses a humanoid, non-monster race, they get to choose two Unique skills but get no racial skills.]

I nodded as I began to choose my race. At first, I thought about going for the free skills at the start, but I didn't think that they would be worth giving up a Unique Skill for, especially one I can choose. That would have been different if I was able to choose True Dragon as my race, but unfortunately, it was locked. That left me with only humanoid races as my options. I wanted to keep a fairly straightforward human appearance, so I was gonna choose a regular human, but then High Human caught my eye. After reading through its description, I saw that it was just a better human, so I choose that as my race. I looked at the next two options, but since they were already chosen, I went to the next page.

[Choose Two Unique Skills]

(A/N: Creator is the obvious choice here, without a doubt, but I'm not gonna have the MC choose it since it is an omega OP late-game skill. He may get it later in the story, but not right now)

I immediately began to go through the lineup of Unique Skills I knew. There were a few powerful ones I went to immediately, such as Greed, Absolute Severance, Usurper, and Chosen One, but I decided against them after a while. I needed two Unique Skills that would build an extremely solid foundation for me and may even allow me to branch out into skills and powers not seen in the Tensura light novels or anime. That made the choice of Degenerate an obvious one. The ability to merge skills and abilities would no doubt be extremely vital. That left my second choice down to another extremely obvious choice and the one that anyone would pick, Great Sage.

I smiled as I finally confirmed my choices, I had a good feeling about this new start. After a moment, another black portal appeared before me and dragged me in. As I began to disappear into the portal, I began to feel more and more nervous and excited. I knew that this would be my real life and that everyone else here would be real too, but that didn't hinder my excitement. Soon my entire body was through the portal, suddenly leaving me blinded and in a physical body again.

The sudden appearance of light from the noonday sun in my eyes blinded me, causing me to stumble. My stumble turned into a fall as I wasn't yet adjusted to having a physical body again, but that wasn't what kept me down. The influx of the body's original memories, while not painful, disoriented me enough to keep my world spinning for a minute. Soon everything came together, and the flow of memories came to a stop, allowing me to get up and right myself so that the people passing by didn't give me weird looks as I lay on the side of the street holding my head.

As I stood without moving, I digested the memories, which luckily didn't have any emotion attached to them, which made them easier to assimilate quickly. After I was done with that, I finally lifted my head up and looked around. The first thought that struck me was busy the streets around me were, as well as the sheer variety of people around me. There were elves, dwarfs, humans, and demi-humans of all shapes and sizes around me in the crowd. I looked back and saw a massive gate not too far behind me, which answered why there were so many people crowding the streets.

Next, I looked up into the sky and took in the sight of Babel towering above me. It was the one landmark that seemed to dominate the city no matter where you stood in or out of the city. I figured that it was helpful to people since it is basically the biggest signpost in existence for the dungeon buried beneath its base. I unconsciously began to walk in that general direction, deciding that I would spend this first day exploring the city. Since I am fated to meet Fortuna, eventually, I decided that there was no reason to go seek her out since our paths are bound to intersect sooner or later.

As I walked, I decided to take stock of what was on my person since that was all I would have for a little while. Firstly and most noticeable was the worn iron sword that hung from my waist. Even though it was worn down quite a bit, it still remained sharp and sturdy. I was confident that it could last me long enough for me to make enough money in the dungeon to get enough money to buy a better sword. However, it would be some time before I wanted to head to the dungeon. The tradeoff for choosing two Unique Skills that would help with my future growth meant that I have very little offensive power now.

I planned to rectify my lack of offensive power by learning a few Arts before heading to the dungeon since my swordsmanship alone wouldn't be enough to cut it. Next, I felt around in my pockets, finding just enough money to get some food and get a room for a night or two if I need to. That left only the modest clothes on my back left as my final possessions in this world. Despite my modest clothes and haggard appearance from living in the woods, I still received many glances, especially from the opposite sex. While I found the attention somewhat nice, I was never one to think with my lower half, so I kept a straight face and walked on, ignoring all the looks thrown my way.

As I approached the base of Babel, I decided to check out the most important Skill in my arsenal, "Great Sage, are you there?" I said mentally instead of speaking out loud.

[Yes, I am here] the impassive female voice replied in my head.

"Do you have information on this world?" I asked mentally as I continued my exploration of the city, now focusing on my conversation more than the actual city sights.

[Yes, I have gained quite a bit of knowledge on this world and the dungeon in particular. My ability to keep my user informed has not diminished]

"Good, by the way, how exactly does Thought Acceleration work? Shouldn't my thoughts be hundreds to thousands of times faster than usual?" I asked, genuinely curious since I was still receiving the world normally.

[Thought Acceleration is most a skill used subconsciously by its users when feeling elevated levels of stress, such as when in battle or when considering a problem seriously. However, the skill can be activated consciously when one just wants to have more time to think]

I nodded as I concentrated and easily slipped into my accelerated thought process. The world around me seemed to slow to a crawl, it was like everyone was now moving in extremely slow motion, including myself. While I had enhanced thoughts and could think much faster than those around me, the subskill gave me no movement buffs of any kind. I then slipped out of my enhanced thought process and returned to normal. I waited a few moments, half expecting Great Sage to continue the conversation, but then I remembered that this version of the skill is much more mechanical and emotionless than its evolved counterparts.

I would get a reply if I asked a question, but other than that, Great Sage would remain silent in most situations unless I needed to be replayed critical information. That was fine by me, especially since it would take me a while to adjust to being able to talk to a nearly all-knowing being inside my head. Even though everything felt more and more like a game, the more I explored my powers and the city, I continued to keep myself grounded. I didn't want to have a realization moment that would break my spirit later on for some reason or another. I made sure to catch myself whenever I started to fall into the "I'm better than everyone else because I'm reincarnated" train of thoughts, which was easy enough.

Before I could continue on while remaining deep in thought, I bumped into someone. The sudden jolt pulled me out of my thoughts. I looked up to find the most beautiful woman standing in front of me, signaling to me that she must be a Goddess, but what she said next confirmed my suspicion.

"How did I bump into someone unless this is a fated encounter that will end victoriously for me," the woman said, turning her head to inspect me with her bright crimson eyes.

(Image)