Both of them went to the table and sat down on the gray floor cushion. It was the most comfortable seat that Ray had ever sat down on.
The old man in front of him just sat there while drinking green tea.
Ray drank the tea, though it was quite bitter, he still enjoyed it.
"I'm glad you like the tea. Now, let me introduce myself. I'm **** or known as God in some worlds." the old man said while dropping down the yunomi.
"God? Are you serious?" Ray was skeptical. Every man that proclaimed to be God was either put in a mental hospital or laughing happily on the street.
"Do I need to prove it to you once more?"
"No... you don't." Ray just remembered that he was walking to the classroom when suddenly the world started to freeze and the old man 'teleport' them to this white space.
Ray drank the tea once more and said, "So, why are we here?"
"Well, my child. Since you are still quite confused with your situation, let me explain it to you in detail," said God while he kept drinking the seemingly endless green tea.
"I made you go back to the past because I wanted you to do something for me. This is unrelated to you going back to the past, however, but there is a reason I did so. The first thing I noticed when choosing you was that you are regretting your past, so I gave you the chance to fix that. The second thing was your plea from when you decided to cross the line."
"..." Ray, for a lack of a better word, surprised. His plea for survival was heard by the old man, or God, in front of him.
Suicide is a sin, but God seemingly didn't care about it and still allowed him to do things right.
"Before you say anything, let me continue. Now before I told you what I wanted you to do, let me tell you a story." God sipped the green tea before continuing his talk.
"Long ago, there was a being that surpassed even Gods. A being so powerful that even they, who call themselves as Gods, bend their knees in reverence. It is unknown when this being, a dragon, was created, but by simply living, every other being will receive its blessing. But one day, a Demon God, wanted to cause destruction. A dispute happened, which resulted in many Gods died. The dragon, sealed the Demon God, though not without a cost."
"This dragon that you were referring to is yourself, isn't it? Why me?"
"Because I felt a connection to your soul when I was searching for my successor. Before you can kill yourself completely, I send you back to your past."
"...So, why did you search for a successor?"
"Because the seal is waning. It won't be long before the Demon can break the seal that I've placed. I simply don't have enough power to seal him again. So, I ask for your help. Please, help me prevent him from destroying the multiverse." The Dragon God lowered his head.
A God lowering his head to someone with equal status is already a very rare case, now that the God lowering his head to a mortal, that's a sight to see.
"*Sigh*Please don't lower your head. Since I don't have any connection to this world anyway, becoming something more than a human interest me." Ray knew what he was signing up for. The moment he agreed is the moment he cast aside the 'human' inside him.
"Are you sure? I will give you some advantage that I think you will like, but this burden is not for a mortal to-"
"I'm sure. I knew what I was signing for. Besides, becoming someone like you, a God, should be quite fun." Ray sipped the tea.
"I thank you for this, Ray. Now, I can grant you 3 wishes. You can ask for anything that may be needed in the future or anything unrelated to it."
"Seriously? I can?"
"Well, we need to ensure your survival."
'Because after we defeat him, I will pass all my strength to you.' the old man didn't tell him that he only has some more years to live. With the Demon God now approaching, he knew that he need to pass all the knowledge and strength to his successor.
Now that there's only 1 God left, it was not that big of a deal. All of the things that needed to be controlled like the Reincarnation Cycle and the likes already controlled by the 'Heaven' automatically.
Heaven is the place where Gods, now only a God, resides in. Calling it a 'place' is not the correct term because Heaven is a being on its own.
"Hmmm... can I get a system?" Ray asked
"You can, do you have any specific features that you wanted to have?"
"Aside from the basic [Status], [Shop], [Inventory], I wanted it to have [Gacha] and also a feature that enabled me to train in a separate dimension like a dungeon."
"That's easy. Anything else?"
"Though I wanted to wish for a bloodline, I think that it was unnecessary. But before that, can I use magic?"
"Yes, after we finished this conversation, you can use magic."
"Nice!" Ray was beginning to fantasize about casting magic all over the place.
Of course, the old man knew what Ray was thinking that it made him chuckle a bit, which Ray took notice.
Ray tried to clear his throat to hide away his embarrassment.
"ehem- For the second wish, I wanted a weapon."
"Hmm... I think I might have the right weapon for you, and you will certainly like it. I'll put the weapon inside the [Inventory] later."
While Ray was thinking about what kind of wish that he wanted to be granted, he was curious about something,
"You said multiverse last time. Are there multiple universes out there?"
"Hmm... I think I should give you a lecture about the universe. The universe you currently reside in is inside one of many realms outside. A realm is something beyond your comprehension, but it will make itself clear once you tried traveling between. The human race cannot explore other realms without any intervention because a realm has at least one guardian. Now that even the guardians had died during the dispute between us Gods and the Demon God, I'm the last guardian of every realm, making you also the successor of every guardian. Though it may seem like something troublesome, the role of a realm guardian is to... well... guard a realm from outside attack and prevent entry from people originating from outside of the realm, except with God intervention of course."
"Are there worlds like the anime that I used to watch?"
"Yes, there are. The anime worlds that you were referring to were created by the imagination made true by the faith of the people, wishing that such a world came true. Each world has its realms where they have their separate Laws and 'Gods' governing them. Take Danmachi for example, you know that there are Gods and Goddesses there roaming around the world. They are Gods, but in a lack of better terms, the lowest Gods in terms of divinity. When you finally ascend to Godhood, which you will, there will be nothing that can stand against you except probably me in my prime and the Demon God."
"So, can someone like Zeus from Danmachi stand toe-to-toe with the guardians?"
"No, because the guardians are the strongest being in their respective realms."
"...This is confusing."
"At least you know the general knowledge about it. For now, we just need to focus on preventing the calamity."
"Yes... For my third wish, I wanted power."
"That is very vague. Very well, I'll give you something that will help you gain it. Be ready, because this will hurt a bit."
"What can be more painful than- AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!"
Ray was going to say something about the pain not as hurt as when he hanged himself, but he was immediately attacked by the pain like he never imagined before.
[*Ting* Host found, starting transfer sequence...]
[*Ting* Transfer sequence completed... Identifying new host...]
[*Ting* New host, Ray Purnomo... Initiating synchronization...]
[*Ting* Warning! Synchronization will induce pain! Please be prepared in 3... 2... 1...]
The pain suddenly went up a notch. Ray didn't hear the girly albeit mechanical voice. The pain was too much that he can't even scream anymore.
[*Ting* Synchronization progress... 10%... 40%... 78%... 100%...]
[*Ting* Congratulations, host. You are now the successor to the ****, the Dragon God of Creation. Would you like a tutorial?]
The process only took about 10 seconds and the pain instantly gone like it was never there in the first place.
"Congratulations, Ray, for enduring the pain."
"*pant* why *pant* can't I *pant* hear your name?" Ray asked with difficulty.
"You didn't have enough power to hear my name. It's not that I don't want you to hear it, but because you can't. You can probably hear it in the future."
"And 'Dragon God of Creation?' Seriously?"
"Don't ask. When I was conscious of my surroundings, I was already the Dragon God of Creation. You will be the successor that title, including the strength that comes with it, so you will know what it means to hold it in the future. Now, I will leave you alone here until you get used to the system on your head." said God as he became particles of light.
Now, Ray was alone in the vast white space, something that made him felt peaceful. It scared him a bit because how he used to be alone and being inside places like this without any person in at least 1 KM range calms him down.
[*Ting* You are not alone anymore, host. I'm here to become your companion until you pass me down to other people.]
"Ah, yeah. Sorry bout that."
[*Ting* It's okay, host. Would you like a tutorial?]
"...Yes?"
[*Ting* Newcomer Protocol Initiated... Welcome, host. I'm a system created by the Dragon God of Creation as his companion. But now, I'm re-purposed to become your companion and your helper. Now, I will explain the features available.]
There are 6 features, [Status], [Store], [Gacha], [Quest], [Inventory], and [Training Ground].
[Status] is a feature to have a picture of how much power that Ray currently has represented in numbers. It will display a blue screen in front of Ray that people cannot perceive. His current status looked like this
Name: Ray Purnomo
Race: Human, *Sealed*, *Sealed*
Strength: 10
Endurance: 9
Agility: 9
Luck: 10
Magic: 1
System Points: 100.000
Skill:
[Eidetic Memory: ?] [Cooking: G] [Instinct: F]
In the Skill tab, the range of mastery is H, the smallest and SSS as the highest. '?' means incalculable, usually appeared when it was beyond the calculation of the system like [Eidetic Memory].
A numeral value is used to represent his strength on his status. 1 is the weakest human while 10 is the strongest normal human. From then on, it touched the realm of 'Fantasy' where only selected or people with mana can break the limits of a normal human.
[Store] is where Ray can buy stuff using system points. There will be times where he can buy a fictional world, or in this case, a world from another realm, inside [Store]. Ray can also buy anything from his world here.
[Gacha] is a feature where Ray can gamble away his system points and/or Gacha Tickets to try his luck. When pulling a [Gacha], 5 chests will be pulled, ranging from White - Green - Blue - Purple - Rainbow. Ray can still get common stuff even from Rainbow Chest, but with 10 points in Luck, the probability of it happening is almost none.
[Quest] is a feature where Ray can receive quests in the form of Daily Quest and Main Quest. There are 1 active Daily Quest and 1 Main Quest, the quests are as follows
[Daily Quest]
Physical Training!!!
Class: F
Description: Now that you have been granted a wish by the Dragon God of Creation, you will need to train your physical body to prepare yourself to face the calamity. The intensity of your training will adjust itself based on how much power you have.
Objective: 10 KM Run (0/5), 100 Push-Ups (0/100), 100 Sit-Ups (0/100), 100 Squats (0/100)
Rewards: 1000 System Points, 1x Gacha Pull Ticket
[Main Quest]
Prevent Calamity
Class: SS
Description: The Demon God is breaking the seal, you must prevent him from destroying you and everything that you loved.
Objective: Defeat ??? (0/1)
Rewards: 100.000.000 System Points, 10x Gacha Pull (Rainbow Guaranteed) Ticket, Rhongomyniad
Failure: Death
Penalty: World Destruction
[Inventory] is a feature to store any kinds of items from weapons, foods, drinks, etc. It is advanced Space-Time storage that can only be accessed by the owner of the [Inventory] and the system itself. The advantage of using [Inventory] is that he can store a bag full of items and store the bag inside [Inventory].
On a side note, the [Inventory] has infinite space.
[Training Ground] is a new feature that was added by the Dragon God of Creation. It provides 2 types of dimensions, one is a dungeon and one is an actual training ground where Ray can summon characters or real persons into it to train him.
[*Ting* If Host wanted to check each feature, Host can say the name of the feature inside your mind.]
Ray was curious about what kind of weapon that God gave him. So he thought, '[Inventory]'
[Inventory]
- Premium Starter Pack
"How to the Pack?"
[*Ting* Just say "Open and the name of the item". To summon the item, Host just needs to think about the item and it will appear in front of you.]
'Open Premium Starter Pack.'
[*Ting* Opening Premium Starter Pack]
[*Ting* Congratulation, you have got 100.000 System Points, Excalibur, and 'Magic For Dummies' book]
"WHAT?!" Ray didn't think that God just going to give him THE Excalibur.
Ray summoned Excalibur. The sword was sheathed in its scabbard, the Avalon. There isn't any different from the Excalibur and Avalon that Ray knew from the Fate series.
Excalibur is the weapon of the fabled King Arthur from Arthurian Legend. In Fate series, Excalibur is the strongest holy sword whose equal is the strongest demonic sword, Gram, one of the ultimate god-forged weapons, the Last Phantasm, forged by the planet as the crystallization of the wishes of mankind stored and tempered within the planet.
While Avalon is the hallowed scabbard of Excalibur, the embodiment of the utopia King Arthur seeks, originally stolen from her shortly before the Battle of Camlann due to the machinations of Morgan le Fay. Avalon provides "absolute defense" that completely shields its user in the domain of the fairies, Avalon, or in Ray's case, Heaven. The defense that it provides goes beyond defending or reflecting, completely isolating its user in a world completely separate from the regular world.
Having Avalon meant that Ray has partial immortality through constant regeneration. Except for a wound to Ray's brain, it will regenerate even the most critical injuries to the heart, though it will take time.
When the Excalibur was summoned, Ray felt the emotion contained within the sword.
Happy was the feeling that he got from Excalibur. Ray unsheathed the sword, revealing the peerless white blade that outshines even the white space.
Excalibur has a gold-colored guard and royal blue colored handle.
Excalibur's emotion was shared with Ray, so he also felt immensely happy to get the chance to hold and use the fantastical sword.
"Is it to your liking?" said God
"It is. Thank you very much!" God knew that Ray was very thankful for the gift just from his voice alone.
"You can put Excalibur inside you, just like a certain woman did."
Ray sheathed Excalibur to Avalon and tried to absorb it by imagining the weapon going inside him. When the sheathed Excalibur went inside him, he felt as if the weapon, or more specifically, Avalon, rejuvenated him.
"It is time for us to part ways. In the future, we will meet again. Have a good life and I hope you are ready the next time I come to you." said the old man. The staff glowed brightly and the scenery changed to Ray's school once again.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Thoughts:
Hello everyone. I hope you have a great day today.
"Author's Thoughts" will be written here since its more convenient, at least for me.
If you notice, I used Danmachi's "Letter Parameter" because 'H' will be the lowest class on skills and quests.
Sorry for this being an info dump. I intended the last half of this chapter to be on its own chapter but I can't make the conversation between the old man and Ray longer.