2When I became aware of my surroundings, there wasn't much to be seen. Really, there wasn't anything, seeing how I was. . . floating? Yes, floating. Floating through what appeared to be a black, empty void.
Wait, floating through a black, empty void? Oh, please tell me this isn't what I think it is.
[Congratulations]
[You have been chosen to become an Isekai character]
Fuck, this wasn't exactly what I thought this was, but it was close enough to count.
[Most people would be cheering if they were informed that they had been chosen to be an Isekai protagonist]
Yeah, well, I'm not most people. Also, being told that I have been chosen to become that means that I have died. Wait, just how did I die, now that I think about it. I was only in my mid-twenties; I shouldn't have died.
[Well, it was more like you were murdered]
Murdered? Wonderful, just fucking wonderful. And how, pray tell, did my murderer do me in? Was it the candlestick in the library? The wrench in the garage? Drowning me in the bathtub in the bathroom? Was it rope in the bedroom?
[None of the above]
Then how was I murdered?
[It was a shove from the roof of the Seattle Needle]
I'm sorry? What? The Seattle Needle?
[Yeah, you were on vacation visiting your sister and her husband. You all decided to go to the Seattle Needle]
Okay. Who murdered me?
[Some jealous work colleague who was upset that you got the promotion at work]
Fucking seriously!? I was murdered because they didn't get the promotion!? What the flying fuck!
[Oh, don't worry. You ended up grabbing him and he fell off with you]
HA! Talk about karma collecting it due. Although, that was quicker than karma usually acts.
Now, what do we do now?
[Now, we began preparing you for your next life]
And how do we do that?
[You have 6 decisions to make. One: What type of fighting style you will use and receive a random secondary fighting style. Two: What type of magic you will specialize in. Three: A special ability that you will have. Four: Something that makes your body unique. Five: What world you will travel to. Six: What difficulty it will be set at]
So, are you saying that I am becoming a Gamer?
[Kind of. You will have the ability to modify your stats as you grow stronger, and you will be able to see the health, mana and Lvl of other people but that will be it]
So, some sort of limited edition of the Game?
[Let's go with that]
Okay, let's begin.
[I should also point out that if you pick powerful choices, some other choices will be taken away from you and randomized. You will only be informed of this once you have made a choice, and that choice becomes locked in]
So, once I make a decision, I can't change my mind?
[Yes]
Okay, Let's start.
[With the primary fighting style you pick, you will do 100% more damage against your enemies. With the random secondary fighting style, you will do 50% more damage against your enemies]
[Fighting Styles]
[Sword and Shield]
[Greatsword]
[Archery]
[Rope Dart]
[Dual Wielding]
[Martial Arts]
[Axes]
[Polearms]
Okay, some of these look standard and some look more exotic. Which one to pick? I'll toss Sword and Shield out. That's vanilla, in my point of view, and I don't do vanilla. I'll also toss out Greatsword because I don't do giant weapons. I also toss out Archery because I also like to get up close and personal with my foe. But on the other hand, I also prefer to have a weapon in hand, so I will toss out Martial Arts also well. Also Polearms and Rope Dart are similarly, not close enough to the target for me, so out they go. All that is left is Dual Wielding and Axes. Well, that is easy for me to decide, I've always played a dex character, so Axes are out.
[Primary Fighting Style: Dual Wielding had been chosen]
[+8 to Dex, +3 to Con, +7 to Luck]
[Now randomly choosing a secondary fighting style.]
The little loading circle was there for all of thirty seconds before it left.
[Secondary Fighting Style: Rope Dart had been chosen]
[+3 to Str, + 5 to Dex, +3 to Con, +5 to Luck]
Well, okay then. It's not a bad choice. Hell, it's even a dex weapon from what I can tell. This also added points to strength as well. So, I will not complain. It probably did that because of the core and arm strength needed to constantly swing it around. So, next up is magic, right?
[Indeed. Now, this is magic that you specialize in. That doesn't mean you can't learn other magic. That just means that you learn this type of magic at a much greater speed and do 75% more damage when compared to magic from other schools]
Okay, so if I am patient, I can learn other schools of magic. It will just take a lot of time to do so.
[Yes]
Got it. Well, let us see what I have to choose from.
[Magic School]
[Fire Magic]
[Water Magic]
[Earth Magic]
[Air Magic]
[Life Magic]
[Death Magic]
[Light Magic]
[Shadow Magic]
Okay, like I said earlier, I don't like the basics or originals, so the first four options are out the window. I will also toss Death Magic out, necromancy isn't my cup of tea. So, I am left with Life Magic, Light Magic, and Shadow Magic. Honestly, at this point, all three of them look good, so I am just picking what I prefer, and what I prefer when playing games is the stealth approach. So, [Shadow Magic] it is then.
[Magic School: Shadow Magic has been chosen]
[+7 to Int, +5 to Wis]
Now I have to pick what special ability and unique body enhancement I have. There are a lot more for the both of them than just the eight options in the previous two and I must have spent what felt like several hours going over both of the lists before I settled on what I wanted.
[Special Ability: Clairvoyance]
[This ability actually has three different ways it can be used, although it is rare for a person to be able to use more than one. The first is the ability to see into the past, known as Past Sight. The second is the ability to see other locations in the present, even far away, known as Far Sight. The third is the ability to see into the future, known as Future Sight. A person with the clairvoyance ability is known as a Seer. What version you have will be determined randomly upon your arrival to your new world]
[+4 to Int, +10 to Wisdom, +7 to Luck]
Picking this ability came with one minor downside.
[Notice: The difficulty of your next world will be randomized]
Lovely. This is, most likely, the most dangerous thing to be randomized, because I don't know what difficulties there are. Oh well, I can't change anything, so I just got to continue onward.
As for what I picked for category four, well, the instant I saw it, I had to pick it. I saw how it could affect someone in an anime once, and boy did I wish I could do that.
[Unique Body Enhancement: Dragon Magic Core]
[This unique body enhancement gives you the magic core of a dragon. This increases the amount of mana available to the user by an enormous amount. It also strengthens the body of the user so that they may be able to withstand the amount of mana that is in their body]
[+10 to all physical attributes, +10 to Wis]
[Health is now Con*100, Mana is now Wis*10,000]
[Notice: The ability to choose the world has been removed and will be randomized]
So, I just got a huge boost to my stats, a large amount of additional health, and a huge amount of additional mana, but I lost the ability to choose which world I am heading to. Well shit. This can be a very, very bad thing. Let us hope this doesn't go horribly wrong.
[Before we go see which world you will be heading to, let's take a look at your stats.]
[Name: to be chosen upon rebirth]
[Race: to be chosen upon rebirth]
[Age: not yet born]
[Lvl: 1]
[Health: 2,600]
[Mana: 350,000]
[Str: 23]
[Dex: 33]
[Con: 26]
[Int: 21]
[Wis: 35]
[Luck: 29]
I looked at the amount of mana I had with a small amount of shock. I mean, I know that it is like that because of the choice I made, but still! How much health and mana does a normal person have?
[For a normal human who has access to mana, health is Con*10, and mana is Wis*10]
So, I have 10 times the amount of health and 1,000 times the amount of mana of another person?
[Yes]
That is so awesome. I have a serious advantage on other people. Now here is me hoping my choices don't bite me in the ass.
[Indeed. When it comes to worlds, not all worlds are equally difficult, even if they are the same difficulty]
So, if that is the case, how do you grade them?
[With a number scale. World difficulty is scaled from 1 to 5 with 1 being the easiest and 5 being the hardest. However, the difficulty setting can change that]
And how does the difficulty setting affect the world?
[Difficulty: Easy]
[World Difficulty Modifier: -1]
[Enemies have -50% health, -25% damage, and -50% ex and gold drop]
[Allies have +100% health and +50% damage]
[Loot is one rank lower]
[Difficulty: Normal]
[World Difficulty Modifier: 0]
[Enemies have normal health, normal damage, and normal ex and gold drop]
[Allies have normal health and normal damage]
[Loot is normal rank]
[Difficulty: Hard]
[World Difficulty Modifier: +1]
[Enemies have +50% health, +25% damage, and 50% ex and gold drop]
[Allies have -25% health and -13% damage]
[Loot is one rank higher]
[Difficulty: Nightmare]
[World Difficulty Modifier: +2]
[Enemies have +100% health, +50% damage, and 100% ex and gold drop]
[Allies have -50% health and -25% damage]
[Loot is two rank higher]
[Difficulty: Insane]
[World Difficulty Modifier: +3]
[Enemies have +150% health, +75% damage, and 150% ex and gold drop]
[Allies have -75% health and -38% damage]
[Loot is three rank higher]
Oh crap. I pray to all the gods who have a domain of luck that I don't get the last two options. That will be horrifying. That also tells me that the entire difficulty spectrum goes from 0 to 8. Here's hoping that I don't get something horrible.
[Choosing New World]
[Loading]
I don't know how long it took for it to choose, but it felt like a long time.
[World Chosen]
[Thedas: Dragon Age franchise]
[World Difficulty: 3]
[The world of the Dragon Age franchise. There are plenty of dangers that fill this world of fantasy; ranging from soldiers from a rival country and bandits to blood mages and demons. Four races populate this world: Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and ashen-skinned people called Kossith. Magic, and thus, mages, are feared in the world, for the ability to use magic means the risk of becoming possessed by demons. Templars, or Mage Hunters, are knights that have the ability to cut a mage's connection to the fade, thus nullifying their magic. There are multiple countries, each with their own ruler and set of laws. You should be careful that you don't run afoul of these laws, lest you be punished.]
The world of Dragon Age. Okay, this isn't too bad. I just have to know when I'll be dropped to know how bad things will get.
[Time period will be chosen upon rebirth]
Lovely, I thought, the word dripping with sarcasm. Well, time for the difficulty of the world setting.
[Choosing Difficulty]
[Loading]
Because of how disastrous this could turn out, it felt like forever before the choice was made.
[Difficultly: Hard]
[World Difficulty Modifier: +1]
[Enemies have +50% health, +25% damage, and 50% ex and gold drop]
[Allies have -25% health and -13% damage]
[Loot is one rank higher]
Okay, this isn't horrible. I would have preferred Normal difficulty, but Hard will be fine. And I also thank all the gods that govern luck for not having either of the last two difficulties.
[Alright. Time for your parent's background]
[Your father was born Arthur Ferguson to a family of knights in the service of the Cousland family of Fereldan. When he was five, the family had a daughter, Emily Ferguson, join them. It was a happy time, until 5 years after her birth. Emily ended up displaying magic one afternoon, and it wasn't long before the Templars were called. She was taken away to the Tower of Magi, not in Fereldan, because she had family there, but to the tower in Kirkwall.
Your father did not like that his sister had been taken from the family. However, he knew that he couldn't do anything. So, he joined the Templars in hope that he might be able to get himself transferred to the Circle Tower in Kirkwall. However, in order to do this, he had to change his last name in order for no one to realize why he wanted to go to Kirkwall's Circle. It would take seven years before he was reunited with his sister.
Upon his arrival, he waited a week before he quietly approached his sister. He had noticed that she had become wary and mistrustful of all but a handful of people. When he first approached Emily, it took telling her something that only she and him knew for her to believe that he was who he said he was.
Arthur was quietly introduced to the handful of people Emily trusted. That was how he met your mother. Arivera Lanavra was from one of the Alienages from one of the other cities in the Free Marches. She didn't know which, as she was only two when she showed signs of magic. She and Arthur grew close, but they never dared to take it beyond friendship for fear of what might happen if they were caught.
However, this all changed eight years later. Emily was accused of practicing blood magic. She had never done so, but an accusation like that is all it takes for the templars in Kirkwall to decide to put you to the sword. Emily was executed and Arthur lost his sister. Fearful that it might happen to Arivera as well, Arthur devised a plan for them to run away. It took a year to accomplish, but Arthur was able to find and destroy Arivera's phylactery without anyone knowing.
With that task complete, Arthur and Arivera snuck away from the circle in the dead of night. They then took a ship back to Fereldan. However, they still knew that they could not travel to, and live in, any of the cities. So, upon docking of the ship, they traveled south untill they reached the Korcari Wilds. And it was, one year after their escape, in the year 9:10 Dragon, Banal Ferguson was born.]
9:10 Dragon? Oh, shit.