Kapitel 2: The Privilege of a World Designer
Still somewhere unknown...
Alkhael stayed still for a long time. Which world should he choose?
He groaned internally. He personally designed those four worlds. He knew how dangerous they were. 'What the heck is this? Had I known this choice would be offered to me, I'd have designed much safer and more peaceful worlds.'
"Had you created all sunshine worlds, my lord would not even spare a glance at it, not to mention turn it into an inspiration," said Vyos, responding coldly to Alkhael's voiceless complaint.
Ignoring the angel's comment, Alkhael diverted his attention to the four choices again. The Greenwrath Land, the World of Paragons, the Rainearth, and the DC Universe modification: World Mutation... which one should he choose?
Alkhael muttered voicelessly, 'Greenwrath Land? No freaking way. That was an early stage of post apocalyptic world, meaning that: there would be no order yet; violence would be all over the place; people would look ugly and dirty... with bad hygiene and probably infectious diseases; and not to mention the raging monstrous trees and the germ-sized poisonous plant lives. I felt sorry to the people there for designing such horrible setting, but that place was definitely outside my consideration. Sorry."
For the next choice, 'The World of Paragon... It's probably the best choice out of the rests. It should be a pretty modern world... It should at least have great communication technology, high quality health service and hygiene, nice level of education, and better still, amazing entertainment. Its imbalanced technology in transportation, weaponry, and agriculture is quite troublesome in the long run, but it shouldn't be too much a problem for a short while. Besides... unlike in Greenwrath Land, people can get powers here. If I am just lucky... wait!'
'Can I get Eltalent and Paragon Classes if I go to the World of Paragon?' Alkhael aimed this thought to Vyos. Those two were essential parts of the game. Without those two aspects, he would need to pass this choice.
Vyos lifted his right hand. Out of nowhere, a huge metallic sphere with a radius of at least two meters long appeared. "As an approved world designer, you have the privilege of designing your own avatar here in the avatar creation sphere. There are a lot of possible talents, perks, skills, abilities, and many other things you can use to empower your avatar."
As Alkhael's mind started to get excited at the chance to create an overpowered character that will make his new life much easier, the soldier-like angel Vyos continued coldly, "You cannot create an overpowered avatar. You are limited by certain creation points. In general, the points given to you should be enough to design an avatar with above average quality in any world you are going to choose. If you are smart enough and know the world well enough, you might even succeed in creating an avatar with a potential to be the greatest in that world."
Just as Alkhael about to respond, Vyos continued, "Oh right, the points you can use to enter the worlds inspired by your modification design should be quite less compared to that of your original design."
Alkhael muttered voicelessly and unconvincingly, 'An above average potential should be enough to survive in the World of Paragons.'
Gritting his non-existent teeth, he continued, 'That won't be enough to survive in Rainearth though, even if the danger rate can be toned down to half. That is a damned horror world, full of insane supernatural beings with devious and tricky power.' In the comic he wrote, in spite of the great powers they wielded, four of the five protagonists still died in gruesome ways, while the last survivor lost both of her legs.
'That damned world... why did I even design such a terrible story? Now I felt bad to the people living in the world inspired by that thoughtless story of mine.'
Glancing at the huge avatar creation sphere, Alkhael considered his last choice, the modified DC universe. 'Nope, not going there,' he quickly decided. 'It's too dangerous. He said in the created world, there will be no story-line characters... so there is no Superman there to save the day. And with my modification... that will be a battle royale for superpowers. It is fun writing or reading about a super-powered janitor destroyed a building in a fight against a similarly super-powered marketing manager. But to experience it firsthand... No way am I going there.'
Gritting his non-existent teeth again, he looked at Vyos and showed his decision. 'I will go to the World of Paragons.'
"Alright," said Vyos, nodding his head. "There are three versions of the World of Paragons currently available. Please take a look. Just focus your mind, think of touching these..."
Three basketball sized spheres appeared, rotating around Alkhael's non-existent body. Focusing on one of them, Alkhael quickly felt a stream of information trickled to his mind, causing him to freeze for a few seconds.
The information he gained was a basic knowledge about the first version of his chosen world. It was still in the Medieval Era, surprisingly with many of the world features in the original design intact. It even had game-like systems capable of showing status, inventory, and the likes. That was not what he expected though. There was no luxury and easily accessed entertainment of the modern world. Going to this world would be similar to going to the past version of his original design.
The second sphere he touched with his mind gave Alkhael the basic information of the next version which was much closer to his original design. It was set in a relatively modern era. It had a great number of features... but not all, a few world features seemed missing, most noticeably, the game-like systems.
The information in the third sphere almost caused Alkhael to swear loudly. It was the Greenwrath apocalyptic version of the World of Paragons. The One who Create Worlds seemed to think that combining the two worlds was a good idea. Obviously, this idea was not received well by Alkhael. The last version... was instantly deleted from his consideration.
'I'll choose the modern version of the world,' decided Alkhael.
"Are you sure?" asked Vyos.
'Yes,' replied Alkhael simply. The game-like system of the first version almost tempted him to choose it. But after quickly considering the benefits and disadvantages, he thought that the system was not worth it. Going there would probably feel like playing a game rather than living a second life.
Vyos waved his hand and said, "Have fun designing your avatar. Take your time. Don't worry about time. It's meaningless here. If you..."
The wave of hand that Vyos did somehow dragged Alkhael's conscience to the creation sphere. Once he was completely inside, it all turned silent again. He could not even hear the angel's last sentence.
'This is awesome,' exclaimed Alkhael as a holographic screen appeared in front of him showing a list of various talents, powers, skills, physiques, equipment... so many things. Furthermore, the number of items in the list seemed endless. There were even things like immortality, dragon transformation skill, and divine angel serum.
'Calm down, me,' said Alkhael wordlessly, trying to control his excitement. 'Let's be efficient, shall we? This string of numbers seems to be my points. Since I don't really need to worry about time, I'll just need to plan my point-budget slowly and carefully.'
...
Later...
After carefully planning his point-budget, Alkhael was now ready to spend it. Brushing away his hesitation, he decisively chose the first item on the list. It was an eltalent, a unique feature of the World of Paragons. This eltalent was basically a specific talent that affected paragon classes and abilities. The eltalent that he chose was: the [Trinity Human Eltalent].
In Faea (the real name of the world in the World of Paragons), people were supposed to be technically capable of possessing at least one paragon class. There were twenty one classes, which could basically be grouped into three paths: the physical path, mental path, and spiritual path.
Normally, a paragon would have only one major class. The [Trinity Human Eltalent], however, allowed Alkhael to have one major class for every path. So it was possible for him to have three major classes in total. The drawback was that those classes needed to stay in balance, which meant that to be able to level up; he needed to satisfy the requirement of all the classes simultaneously.
Although the eltalent he chose seemed incredible, it was actually still far from other ridiculously overpowered eltalents listed in the avatar creation sphere.
The [Physical Path Incarnation Eltalent], for example, allowed one to have all the physical path classes as the major classes, all seven classes. The [Spiritual Path Incarnation Eltalent] and [Mental Path Incarnation Eltalent] did pretty much the same thing for their respective classes. The broken [Almighty God Incarnation Eltalent] even allowed one to have all twenty one classes as the major classes.
Alkhael sighed helplessly. There were plenty ridiculously broken eltalents in the list, but unfortunately, they were too expensive for his limited budget.
His next choice after the eltalent was the three paragon classes out of the twenty one possible choices. Since he had already decided, Alkhael quickly picked [Ascender] for his physical path, [Ritualist] for his mental path, and [Amalgamian] for his spiritual path.
The [Ascender] class was basically a physical class specializing in body tempering, unarmed combat, and physical ailment resistance. It was pretty similar to a monk class in Dungeon and Dragons franchise.
However, unlike the D&D monk who followed strict alignment conduct and pure martial training, [Ascender] utilized any way of permanent physical advancement, including using body enhancement serums and magical rituals. [Ascenders] also might use weapons and armors, but they were not really attached to them. Throwing the only weapon left to the enemy would not make them feel burdened at all.
The [Ritualist] class used the loosely defined ritual, which might be anything from strict ceremony to symbol creation, to utilize mental power. Chants, gestures, arrays, and symbols were their tools of trade. Normally, this class functioned as a support which should be more useful in preparatory stage before the direct combat. However, Alkhael knew a certain trick, from his friend who designed this class, that would turn [Ritualist] into a formidable combatant.
The trick was basically related to the choice of skill sets. By acquiring a paragon class, one would not only be significantly enhanced by the class specialty, but also acquire a selection of three skill seeds out of tens of possible choices.
A [Ritualist] that picked <Swift Activation> skill and possessed enough of inscribed items created by <Inscription Mastery> skill was pretty much a combat beast. It was because he could spam magic very quickly at much lower energy costs compared to other classes on the mental path. And when this kind of magic spamming beast possessed the physical quality of an [Ascender], Alkhael could not help but grin as he imagined that.
Anyway, the next class dealt with souls... Well, the spiritual path all dealt with the power of souls, including the living souls, souls of the dead, and soul beasts (either monsters or divine beasts with soul power). The last class that Alkhael chose, the [Amalgamian], was a support class that was capable of fusing souls and soul beasts to create relatively stronger ones or equipping them as if they were equipment.
Depending on the acquired souls and how they were used, this class could be a money-making class, a useless class, or an extremely useful class. Obviously, for Alkhael, in conjunction with his two other classes, this would be the last case.
As what he had expected after choosing his classes, Alkhael indeed was given nine free skills. He quickly chose: <Universal Martial Art Instinct>, <Pinnacle Path of Body>, and <Physique Purity> as his [Ascender] skills. All of them were passive skills.
<Universal Martial Art Instinct> made it possible for him to adapt quickly to the change of situation in melee combat. It were also very helpful in converting his theoretical comprehension to physical movement. Simply speaking, this would help him a lot in real combat as well as in martial art training.
The next passive skill, the <Pinnacle Path of Body>, was the bread-and-butter of the [Ascender] class. This passive skill would significantly strengthen Alkhael's physique as well as significantly boost the effectiveness of any body-tempering activities he did.
The drawback was that this skill caused a mild dissonance toward any external weaponry and equipment. It simply meant that Alkhael would never be able to accomplish some wondrous combat states like: using weapon as if it was body's extension, melding seamlessly with one's armor, being one with weapon, deciphering weapon intent, and the likes.
The last one of the [Ascender] skills, the <Physique Purity> was another bread-and-butter of the class. This passive skill was supposed to maintain the peak condition of an [Ascender]'s body. This meant that any negative status affecting the body would be combating this skill. The higher one's <Physique Purity> was, the faster his health and stamina regeneration would be. Also, the higher one's <Physique Purity> was, the greater his resistance would be against physical negative statuses like poison, paralysis, and diseases.
Two of the three skills Alkhael chose for his [Ritualist] class were definitely the ones recommended for battling tricks, the <Inscription Mastery> and <Swift Activation>. The last one was the <Soul Gem Processing> skill.
Just like what the name said, <Inscription Mastery> was a passive skill that boosted the speed, accuracy, and control of the [Ritualists] while they were inscribing magic patterns. It also somehow enhanced the [Ritualist]'s memory related to ritual symbols.
Still, this second function would be pretty much useless if Alkhael didn't have any knowledge of ritual symbols. That was why he quickly spent a big chunk of his points to purchase an item, the <<Ritual Symbol Encyclopedia>>, a tiny pocket book which magically possessed a massive amount of information related to ritual symbols.
The next one, <Swift Activation>, was the first active skill Alkhael had taken. The energy cost the skill required was very low with almost no cool-down. Once he cast this skill, he would be able to activate instantly any ritual item he personally crafted.
Only a ritual item created personally and was being touched by him can be activated this way. The drawback of this skill was that it damaged the durability of any ritual item used. After certain number of usages, any ritual items would cease to exist. Therefore, the usefulness of this active skill really depended on how many ritual items Alkhael could create and supply continuously as well as whether he could fix the ritual items or not.
The <Soul Gem Processing> skill was actually not a unique skill of a [Ritualist]. This was a shared skill that several other classes, including [Amalgamian], could also access. Alkhael chose this from the [Ritualist] quota because this was very useful for him and there were three skills from the [Amalgamian] quota that he really wanted to have.
The main function of the active skill <Soul Gem Processing> was simply to turn the captured soul of the dead into a soul gem. This soul gem was an essential ingredient for high level equipment crafting and many rituals. For Alkhael, it was definitely a nice money saving skill.
The next three skills that Alkhael picked from the quota of [Amalgamian] class were <Soul Fusion>, <Soul Purity>, and <Soul Gear Enhancement>.
Like what its name said, <Soul Fusion> was an active skill to fuse different souls or soul beasts to create the better quality ones. This skill was a necessity for Alkhael, since he planned to heavily rely on the other [Amalgamian] active skill, the <Soul Gear Enhancement> to boost his combat power.
The <Soul Gear Enhancement> would enable him to equip souls as if they were armors and weapons to greatly enhance his defense and offense. And since the higher the quality of the souls, the better the enhancement would be... <Soul Fusion> was practically the key to the success of that plan.
So what was <Soul Purity> then? Well, that was just the spiritual version of <Physique Purity>. This passive skill was supposed to maintain the peak condition of an [Amalgamian]'s soul. The higher one's <Soul Purity> was, the greater his soul regeneration would be. This also significantly affected his resistance against spiritual negative statuses like curses and soul corruption.
'I just need a <Mind Purity>, then... goodbye annoying status effects,' mumbled Alkhael. The one thing he regretted the most for his plan was that [Ritualist] did not have any access to <Mind Purity>.
There was a trick he knew that would allow him to gain the skill <Mind Purity>, but it would have to wait until he leveled up his classes. For this trick, Alkhael quickly purchased one <<Fate Stone>>, the item required to acquire a skill despite not having the required class.
The last crucial purchase on his plan was the <<Access to Sanctuary>>. This one-use item would take him to a super effective training place called the Sanctuary for about seven months. Doing an intense training there for that period of time, coupled with his adventurous past experience, should give him good enough foundation to survive in the World of Paragons.
Alkhael spent the rest of his points for a book called the <<Common Sense Guide for Dummies in Faea>>, an official folder called the <<Forged Paperwork>>, a normal carrier bag, three sets of common outfits, and the currency of the world <<Veen Coins: 10 Bronze Coins>>.
Since he decided to be transmigrated rather than reincarnated, Alkhael realized that he had much less time to learn about the world, thus he purchased the book. The ridiculously-named <<Common Sense Guide for Dummies in Faea>> book should give him enough knowledge to make it easier for him to integrate to the new world.
As for the forged paperwork... he thought it might also make it much easier for him to live there. In a modern fantasy world like Faea, having no identity seemed to be a bad idea. It would easily cause great trouble for him. Thus... the forged paperwork.
The function of the carrier bag and outfits were obvious. He would not want to be sent to that world without anything to wear and without any way to carry things. As for the money, well... he was indeed clueless about the real value of those coins, but it should be enough for a start, hopefully.
'Alright, that was done,' said Alkhael in relief. 'Now, let's just design a suitable physical body for me. The free basic design should be fine.'
There were several physical design sets that were available in the list actually. A few were really expensive, many were quite cheap. There was only one that was free though: the basic design. Alkhael did care about his physical appearance, but not so much that he was willing to sacrifice his safety for it. So, he simply picked that basic choice.
As he carefully designed his avatar with his mind, Alkhael could not help but wondered, 'This free basic design is already this good, what the heck does the deluxe design looks like?'
It took Alkhael hours to create an avatar that looked like a cool mixed-race teenager. He was tall and muscular, yet not bulky. His skin was healthy light brown in color and his dark grey eyes seemed calm and peaceful. He could not be called handsome, nor ugly. But, he was definitely masculine looking. with that thick neck, strong nose and squared jaw. His wavy and messy short black hair strangely made him look careless yet brimming with self-confidence.
Alkhael proudly looked at his creation. This guy's look might never be comparable to a handsome story-line protagonist, or an angelic saint, or a devilish heart-breaker... but this guy could definitely be the coolest survivor had there been an unexpected incident.
'Oh, wait. The racial trait... how could I almost miss that?' Alkhael quickly adjusted his design. The avatar's pupils slightly changed from normal to bestial, like cat's eyes, but still maintained their dark grey color. Other than that, a diamond-shaped gem in dark red color grew slowly at the middle of his chest. It somehow looked like the color timer of Japanese gigantic superhero, Ultraman.
In Faea, there were seven major human races. The one that Alkhael designed was a human from beastkin race, which normally possessed bestial eyes and dark red innate gem. The location of the innate gem for each person was not always the same though.
'I'm done here,' said Alkhael decisively. 'I guess it's time to fuse with this avatar and transmigrate to Faea.' His non-existent eyes were stuck at the big red holographic button with the thick word TRANSMIGRATE on it. 'Oh, alright then... Let's just do this. Here I come...'
AUTORENGEDANKEN 
Alk13
Alk13 English is not my mother tongue. I major in it though, so it should not be that bad. However, since English is still a foreign language for me, the way I phrase things might be awkward. If you have any suggestions about that or... well, anything related to the story, please feel free to comment.
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein