Mesopotamia, somewhere in Sumer.
Among the broken walls and rubble, the figure of Castorice moved through the ruins, searching for signs of life.
But the results were always disappointing.
It had been a day since she arrived in this world, yet aside from endless magical beasts, she hadn't encountered any other intelligent life.
So much so that she couldn't even find someone to ask for directions.
Looking at the human remains, little more than skeletons picked clean by bites, a flicker of pity passed through Castorice's eyes.
Around her, several large magical beasts watched intently, drool dripping from their crimson maws. They eyed Castorice warily, wanting to devour the prey before them, yet held back by some primal instinct.
It was a fear of death, the most fundamental tremor of life.
With a wave of her hand, a violet-black tide bloomed in her palm and swallowed the monsters.
"Consider this solace. May you find restful sleep in the land where the west wind ends."
Like withering flowers, the powerful magical beasts gradually lost their vitality under the violet-black tide, finally turning into piles of ash.
Watching the now cleansed area, Castorice carefully arranged the bones before her, buried them, and said with a gentle expression, "At least they won't be left exposed to the wilderness, becoming food for beasts..."
[Host has slain 18 magical beasts. Gained 18 points. Quest progress: 435/10000]
Text surfaced in her mind, but Castorice's face showed no surprise.
In truth, she was not native to this world, but a transmigrator.
In her previous life, trying to save a child who had accidentally run into the road, Wei Yi was caught under a truck. When her consciousness awoke again, she had already arrived in this world.
To her astonishment, her original male body had changed form. At the same time, the memories of an entire lifetime belonging to someone named Castorice appeared in her mind.
This led to her behavior subconsciously aligning more and more with Castorice's.
Besides that, it was only after instinctively 'sending off' the first magical beast that tried to devour her, prompted by a notification, that Castorice discovered her system.
The system's function was simple.
To make up for the regret of her accidental death in the previous life, this system would take her across worlds to experience their sights, allowing her to randomly assume a role in each one.
However, to move to the next world, she needed to complete tasks assigned by the system, accumulating sufficient energy and points.
In this world, the system automatically generated three quests.
The first was to eliminate ten thousand magical beasts. In a single day, Castorice had already disposed of several hundred. One could say this was the simplest task.
The remaining two tasks were relatively more difficult.
[Find your other half. Accept the Coreflame of Death. Become a new god.]
[Defeat Tiamat and prevent Tiamat's 'Re-Creation'.]
If the first task could be completed casually, then the second and third tasks were strongly linked.
After a day of adaptation, Castorice had fully mastered the power of this body.
As a Chrysos Heir who had walked the earth for millennia, Castorice was powerful.
While there was no direct benchmark to accurately gauge her strength, based on her own estimation, matching the gods of this world shouldn't be an issue.
However, using this level of strength to defeat the mythical Mother of Creation, Tiamat, was likely impossible. As a primordial creator goddess in myth, Tiamat lacked even the concept of death.
Although Castorice's unique abilities could bestow death upon life, if the very concept didn't exist, then it naturally couldn't be done.
Unless she fully grasped the authority of Death and became a demigod.
The bad news: the latter two tasks were very difficult and tightly bound together.
The good news: the condition for the system to let her leave this world was simple: complete any one of the three tasks.
Meaning, as long as she killed ten thousand magical beasts, she could safely depart this world.
With her power, it was only a matter of time.
But, walking this land and witnessing the tragedies and ruins created by the beastly calamity, Castorice couldn't bring herself to leave this world with a clear conscience.
If possible, she still wanted to contribute somehow.
After all, she couldn't just stand by idly in the face of such a disaster.
Since she had come to this world, there must be a reason for it.
'Perhaps my arrival was precisely to help this world overcome its calamity,' Castorice thought to herself.
If she had transmigrated into the world of Honkai: Star Rail, even without a transformation system, she'd probably have been a follower of the Abundance Path, at the very least.
Speaking of which, when she first became Castorice, Wei Yi really wasn't used to it.
After all, she had spent the past twenty years living as a male. Suddenly becoming a beautiful young woman... was truly disorienting.
Of course, even though she now had a female body, her sexual orientation remained normal. Decades of ingrained mindset couldn't be changed so easily, so there was no need to worry about her mind gradually shifting to match her body, becoming more feminine through and through.
Although she hadn't encountered any people yet, by following the trails left behind, Castorice could roughly determine the direction in which the survivors had fled. So, she didn't need to be overly anxious.
Along the way, she encountered quite a few more magical beasts, but Castorice didn't linger or waste time on these scattered monsters.
For now, finding a human settlement was paramount.
After all, she had no idea what point in the timeline this was.
Just as Castorice was following the escape routes, hurrying towards where she hoped a human settlement might be, a sharp cry of alarm rang out in the sky.
Then, Castorice saw a figure plummeting from the heavens at high speed, silhouetted against the sunlight.
And, as luck would have it, the landing zone was precisely the area where Castorice stood.
"Move it! Aaaaaah!"
With a flustered shriek, the graceful figure of a young girl fell from the sky. After a moment's hesitation, Castorice took half a step back. The next instant, the girl crashed diagonally into the ground, landing in a most undignified posture.
Her hands hit first, followed immediately by her somewhat modest chest scraping against the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. Then, momentum took over, and right in front of Castorice, the scantily clad young girl found herself with her rear end stuck up in the air, pointed directly at Castorice.
For a moment, Castorice stood there awkwardly. She wanted to help the girl up, but due to her curse, she couldn't touch others.
The newcomer wasn't human. She was a goddess of this land—Ishtar!
"Ow... ow, that hurts..."
Once the girl regained her senses, she clutched her chest with both hands, a pained expression on her face.
Then she glared angrily at Castorice. "Hey! You actually moved aside when I told you to! Why didn't you cushion my fall with your body? It would have been an honor for you to be my landing pad!"
Castorice: ?
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.