When I awake there is nothing. Emptiness, not a color but the pure absence of light, the essence of darkness permeates everything. I don't remember how I got here, I can't even remember my name. I vaguely remember a kind smile, a hearty laugh, and a mischievous giggle but even that begins to fade.
No. Hold on to it. It's important, I don't know why but it is. I was human!
The more I think that, the more my resolve sets in. I grit teeth I'm not even sure I have, just trying with every ounce of whatever being I have to remember.
With a single crack in the foreground everything changes. A tiny rift.Then small chasms of light ripped out, chipping open away at something in the murk, perhaps innumerable somethings.
There's something that matters to me! I scream with every ounce of my being and the cracks finally win, spreading out into the distance as the shards of void shatter and fade away.
"Welcome, new soul." A loud and almost robotic voice, or voices, calls out, it sounds like multiple voices of all genders and ages and tones. And they're all speaking at once, it almost hurts to hear.
New soul? I think back, searching my foggy and fading memories, trying to understand
"You have been found to be commendable." *The voice sounds almost pleased with itself. As if somehow that reflects well on it.
"Where am I?" I ask, finding my voice finally. But it doesn't sound like me, or maybe it does, I can't really remember.
"You are to join the New World. A world of swords and sorcery, might and magic, love and loss!" Once again, it sounds all too pleased with itself despite its' nature as a robotic chorus.
"N-New? W-What happened to my old world?" I sputter, well I would if I had lips with which to sputter. It's hard to be indignant without body language.
"You have much bigger fish to fry!" It says urgently, was that some emotion in the mostly monotone voice. "But don't worry too much!" It seems to correct itself, as if it let something slip.
"W-Worry? I-I don't even have a body! Or know what kinda person I was?!" I think my indignation came across this time.
"Like I said! Don't worry! That will all be fixed soon! Now please feel free to choose your Inborn Skill!" The voice calls and a screen like a hologram appears in front of me. It rattles off hundreds of "Inborn Skills" whatever those were. They're flying by so fast I can hardly keep track of any.
"W-What is this?!" I ask as my voice gets small, the reality of everything is crashing down around me.
"This is the first of three customization options you receive in the New World!" The robotic chorus seems to say New World in the exact same way every time, like a canned phrase from the drive thru at your favorite fast food place.
"Three....?" This might be pretty important. Up until now I didn't know what was going on, and I still don't really. But I do know it seems like one of those cheesy webcomics where the hero gets reborn.
And if I can find the right skill to help me, maybe I can... well I still don't really have a solid goal yet but it can't hurt to have a good skill.
"Would you like me to list of all of the Diamond rank Inborn Traits?" The chorus calls out in a sing-songy, yet questioning tone. This robot was taking some liberties it seemed. But it did sound helpful.
"Y-Yeah that'd be nice." It definitely couldn't hurt having whatever this thing was in a good mood, maybe I should be nicer.
"I will begin listing, Ignis, Late Bloomer, Domination, Critical Conditioning, Automatic Regeneration-"
"That one." Without thinking I cut her off before she can finish.
"Automatic regeneration acquired." There's a sound equivalent to the tendering out of a cash register as she finishes speaking.
Oh shit. I didn't even let her finish! I-I thought she might give me an explanation before just accepting it...
My thoughts spiral, but surprisingly the one I focus on is that I've assigned a gender to the voice. Maybe I did that because I was a girl too?
Wait a minute... was I a girl? I can't really remember... Was I a guy?! Oh if that's true I hope I wasn't a creepy guy...
Then I remember the situation I'm in.
"M-Miss voice in the dark?" I call out after a moment of silence. Oh man is she mad I interrupted her?
"Please call me Alice!" The voice says in its sing-songy way.
Phew she hasn't abandoned me in this infinite void.
"What does automatic regeneration do...?" I ask smally, and as expected her tone is slightly passive aggressive.
"If you had let me finish, I would have told you automatic regeneration allows for recovery from major wounds and lost limbs." I can practically hear the fake customer service smile in her tone.
"S-Sorry miss voice."
"Alice." Her voice is almost stern this time, the chorus of voices using the deeper members.
"R-Right, Alice, so what's the next customization?"
"Moving on, the next customization is Secret Skill. This skill will be unable to be detected by those with high Appraisal or Stat Screen skills, in essence it's your secret weapon!" She is cheerful once more and I breathe a sigh of relief, well I would if I- well you get it at this point.
"What skill would you recommend, miss Alice?" I ask, hoping to score more points with the seemingly all-powerful being.
"I've never been asked that!" The voice says with genuine surprise.
"You really are a commendable one, new soul! Wow, if I got to pick...." Alice seems to think for a moment. "In that case, I would choose Life Drain!" The musical voice paired with the disturbing sounding name is enough to throw me off.
"L-Life Drain?"
"It allows you to harness the health of your opponents against them! Lots of room for growth too! You can even use it to help your allies!"
I'm right, it's as dark as it had sounded. Although... helping allies... room for growth... I'd be lying if it didn't sound appealing, I don't know what I'm getting into with this new world after all.
"A-Alright if you think it's for the best Miss Alice!"
"Life Drain acquired." Once again that sound returns.
"And the third customization option..?" I'm getting a bit nervous, everything else had been about skills. I wasn't even sure what I'd be reborn as yet.
"Yes, your species!" This part seems to excite Alice, she squeals with slight excitement. "I've prepared so many interesting options for you! All the other souls already took all the boring humanoid types"
"Already took... all the humanoid types...?" Oh no, oh no, this is my nightmare scenario. Not only are there others like mein this world but theyve already taken everything good!
Wait, don't panic, maybe I can be something cute and friendly? The thought of being a monster is super unappealing. But living a posh life as some nobles mythical beast... now...
"We have goblin!" No.
"Undead skeleton !" Definitely not.
"Undead zombie!" Just skip all the undead!
"Skipping all undead!" Of course she can read my thoughts! It's not like I've actually been speaking without a mouth or vocal chords this whole time! Stupid!
"Don't worry, New Soul! Your deeper thoughts are still your own!" Well that's some comfort at least
"Continuing; Dragon egg!" That has promise, but being a big scary dragon might have its own issues.
"Griffin egg!" Mostly the same issues as the Dragon egg, but Griffins were sometimes knights steeds in fairy tales. could remember some thing things at least. I think bitterly, why can I remember that but not even my name? Or if i'm actually a girl!?
"Treeant sapling!" Hey that could be something, but aren't treeants like super low level monsters? Hm...
"Tree sapling?" What? That sounds silly... A regular tree...? No probably still some magic.
"Demon hatchling!" Absolutely not, if I have any hope of making it to human civilization and living the posh life that's not happening.
However the seemingly boring tree sapling weighs on my mind.
"Can you tell me more about tree sapling?" I ask in my most polite tone possible. Somehow I realize it's the tone I used when I wanted something in my old life.
"Of course, Tree Sapling! It's said all tree saplings are descendants of the great world tree Gaiaterros and the forest god Abania. They grow to maturity over the span of a century, reaching great heights and insane magical power. It's said the fully mature Tree Saplings grow into the powerful Gaia Knights after total maturation." While certainly interesting, I didn't really wanna spend a bunch of time as a tree.
Hm, griffin might be my best bet. I should be able to defend myself a little and maybe even be taken care of by sweet griffin parents? I think long and hard. Apparently too long.
"Times up! Selecting Tree Sapling!"
"W-Wait hold on a minute!"
"There is another New Soul waiting, though you are commendable, my time is limited!" Alice sounds rather irritated now, like another voice is taking over the chorus.
"But-"
And once again, it's all black