car or bike

The sun's glare made the day's heat much more intense. As I walked along the ridge of the mountain, sweat beaded on my brow and stung my eyes. I was out for a ten-day hike, a 100-mile trek through the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. It was a reprieve from my endless hours working as a vagabond sous chef. The terrain was very manageable, and the trail was well-marked. That was why I was shocked when the entire trail gave way beneath me, and I slid down the mountain in a rockslide. Fortunately, the pain didn't last long as large rocks quickly crushed me to death.

I was now in a minimal beige room with no doors or windows, basically a box. A large onyx desk with multiple screens facing away from me dominated most of the space in front of me. Behind the desk sat a middle-aged Asian man in a fashionable dark blue suit with a gray tie.

He began to explain he was the Next Life Specialist for my reincarnation. He explained I had accumulated enough positive karma that I would be able to have some input in my reincarnation. He seemed extremely bored with the process and kept checking the screen on the left like he was checking emails, watching a video, or something else that kept distracting him.

He explained I could go to another universe in his sphere of influence or stay in this one. After my shock subsided, I inquired about a universe with magic. He tapped away, and then replied that there were two options with high aetheric content; that was what magic was evidently called, aether. I was all in immediately. He began tapping away and asked if I wanted to remain human which I replied in the affirmative. I didn't want to be an animal, or maybe he was referring to elves, dwarves, and such? He was already past the screen, though, and ignored my question when I inquired.

With a few more taps on the keyboard, he checked his screen on the left again. Then before we could continue, he swore and slammed his fist down on the table, rattling the screens and desk. The room echoed from the strike. He quickly stood up and walked through the wall to his left.

I sat there puzzled and then walked cautiously around the desk. The screen had an open email saying the man had been fired, indicating that this was his last shift. The language was not English, but I was still able to read it without difficulty. I muttered to myself that I thought he left a little early as I was still in limbo for my reincarnation. I looked at the other screens with my information and was surprised I could read it as well. The language was definitely not English. Was there some universal comprehension in this room?

I walked to the wall where the man had disappeared and found it solid after running my hands along it. Other than being slightly warm, I didn't find any access. After a few minutes, I got bolder and took his chair to examine the screens. I began delving into my file displayed on the screen. It took a few minutes to figure out the navigation folders on the screens, but it was all very intuitive.

My reincarnation was open and currently showed my race as human. I quickly found I could edit the body on the screen. Well, no harm in cementing some things up while I waited, right? I started by making a tall male physique with a linebacker build, green eyes, dark black hair, and well-endowed below the waist. I slid the aging 'expectation' to the max, giving me about 150 years of prospective life, according to the screen translator. Then I got to the interesting parts with abilities, traits, and affinities for skills. The screen read like a game to me.

There were seven tiers of power of for abilities, with tier one being the lowest. If I selected 'random,' I would be assigned two to eight points worth of abilities based on my karmic accumulator. The random generator clearly showed my chance of getting each value when I hovered over it.

70%

2 points

25%

3 points

4%

4 points

0.9%

5 points

0.09%

6 points

0.009%

7 points

0.001%

8 points

With these points, you could purchase abilities. The cost for the abilities was reflective of the tier.

Tier

Point Cost

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

5

5

7

6

11

7

13

I looked at the random generator for points and tried to manually enter a larger number in the output.

After some attempts, I found the largest number accepted was 23. That was much better than my small chance of getting eight points, so I entered 23 and was prompted to confirm entry—yes. Next, I found I could select my abilities rather than use the random generator.

I was getting worried someone would show up soon, so I selected things that popped out to me from the massive lists. I didn't delve too much into the full descriptions as I felt I was pressed for time. I was doing something I should not be doing and figured someone would come by and change my work anyway. My selections...

13 points, Tier 7…create metal using aether

5 points, Tier 4…major aether core, multiply base aether by 5

3 points, Tier 3…metal shaping

1 point, Tier 1…slowed aging, age 50% slower

1 point, Tier 1…assess person

So, with my selections, I was now fairly certain I would be able to create silver and gold from aether. Maybe it was not the best choice, but I didn't want to be some hero who went out and slayed monsters and saved maidens. Give me unlimited wealth and a comfortable life in a city. I was confident in my choices and even found a box that allowed me to keep my past life memories. I checked that without hesitation.

The next screen was for traits, which were similar to the abilities but apparently non-magical in nature. It seemed the number of points was typically between two and seven for a human, but I could not enter anything manually, and the value was set at zero. After a quick search, I found I maybe had maxed out my possible points on magical abilities, or maybe it was because I was human, the text was confusing, and I didn't have time to delve further into the legal jargon. There was no override, at least none that I could find. I skipped to the next screen.

The last selection section was for skill affinities. It gave bonuses related to learning and using skills based on knowledge. There was a very long list of skills, and I skimmed them. I found 23 schools of magic on the list, which drew my attention immediately. Skill affinities ranged from 1 to 7. At tier 1 affinity, there was a 25% increase in the learning speed of a related skill. It doubled at tier 2 to 50%, at tier 3 it was 100% improvement, and at tier 4 it was 200%. Tier 5 was 250% but also gave a 25% increase in the effectiveness of the skill as well. Tier 6 was 300% to learning speed and 50% to skill effectiveness. Tier 7 was 300% and 100% more effective. Once again, I was locked out of editing the available points, but my default was 5 points. If I selected randomize, it would be 0 to 0, so I stuck with the 5 points. The costs mirrored the costs I noted for abilities.

I decided to choose the following skill affinity, using all my points:

5 points, tier 4, healing magic skill

I felt great about my decision in terms of setting myself up for a great easy life. Learning healing magic three times faster than normal should be a good backup plan if my Scrooge McDuck fantasies of swimming in a vault of gold coins failed.

The screen progressed to the next phase of my reincarnation. I was now looking at the default world in the universe where I would be reincarnated. On the screen was not a world but, in fact, a Dyson sphere…the world's magic stabilized the titanic shell and gave billions of square miles on the inner sphere to live on. The shell was thousands of miles thick with its own ecosystem as well, and if I understood everything properly, the shell hosted millions of dungeons within the aether ley lines, which were essentially the skeleton of the Dyson sphere. The outer surface of the shell, or Dark World, had its own civilizations, and it appeared some of them were space-faring.

Crap, the magnitude of everything. I was not so sure anymore. Hundreds of billions, probably trillions of people, species, monsters, and threats, quickly passed in front of me as I promptly paged through. I had thought to go back and change my race but thought I wouldn't have enough time to redo everything.

I quickly refined my search seeking information. Technology did not work well on the inside of the sphere…well it needed specialized magitech to balance the technology in the aether-rich environment. I was uncertain how much time I had left, and the butterflies in my stomach were growing. Did I have some sixth sense? I risked having my selections reset if someone showed up to replace my liaison. I should just jump in, but my curiosity made me just work faster.

I tried to get as much information as possible. The Dyson sphere was called a World Sphere. There were 23 of these spheres in each galaxy within the universe. The spheres were the origins of all magic in the universe. The further from a World Sphere, the less dense the ambient aether was. Technology was secondary, but it did exist. Taking aether from the World Spheres in the form of aether crystals into the rest of the universe was a massive industry, apparently.

The World Spheres were also known as aether wells, essentially an unlimited source of magic stemming from the central sun and infusing the ley lines embedded in the Dyson sphere's shell. Aether crystals could hold aether, like magic batteries. The easiest way to mine the crystals was through dungeons. Dungeon entrances were located across the sphere and portaled adventurers to secure dungeon instances embedded in the massive ley lines running through the sphere. Passing into the interior of ley lines any other way was almost certain death. Basically, this seemed like a gaming world.

The brightness of the room started dimming. Was my liaison's shift over? Was someone coming? Were they coming for me? My mind was racing with numerous possibilities as the lights faded. I didn't want to push my luck anymore as it was getting closer to darkness. The screens were fading slowly—like they were powering down. I went quickly to the screen indicating where I would spawn in the sphere. I needed a stable civilization on the inner surface of the sphere as I liked sunlight. I promptly filtered the search criteria and found a place called Skyholme.

According to the notes, these humans lived on massive floating islands and resided here for almost 2,300 years. A period of stability in a safe hold was good enough for me. Without reading further, I selected the location and hit the complete button, finishing my reincarnation. A few errors popped up, but I dismissed them as the text on the screen was so dark I couldn't read them anyway. My body slowly faded with my consciousness.

I awoke and found my mind and vision fuzzy. It took me a while to figure out I was a baby in a womb. I guess I made a slight error as I had thought I would be reincarnated as a full-grown man. This might be better as I could learn the idiosyncrasies of this fantastical world as I grew up.