Chapter 1: Choices In Limbo

This is the first chapter of a book I am working on. Took 5 hours to create. I will do more as I get the time. What I want to know is what you think of it, and did you enjoy it.

I am not a good person, I have hurt many people in my teen years.  When I tried to change my life society kept limiting what I can and cannot do.  I feel that to make up for my mistakes I should not take from society but add to it.  I kept on Trying to find work, and trying to start my own business, but after all these years my memories have faded.  Last thing I remember is being twenty-eight years old, having been a Dungeon Master, Fast-Food worker, Construction worker, and a felon.  I do know if my greatest wish was ever answered before I died, but I hope it was.  I wanted to take care of my parents for all the s**t I put them through, all the money I drained from them with my legal problems.  For the money I stole as a teenager.  Yet I know that they love me, and accept me faults and all.  

Without getting to detailed I would like to explain something to all of you who read this.  I have lived more than one life, and have done great good and evil since.  I am still a lost soul, but I now live by a code through and through.  To help others who may end up in a similar situation as me, I cast a spell, lessing myself yet growing at the same time.  I am sending my journal into a few worlds I have lived in.  I hope that one day they will appear in the world of my first birth.

I do not remember how I died, but I was told my death helped more people then I hurt, so a Divine being, a god to some, an angel to others gave me two choices, be reborn in another world, or to be sent back to my own, to be reborn.  Now I'm a christian, and was shocked, for my whole life I thought I would be sent to hell.  While I now know that if I died any other way then the way I Had died, then I would have been separated from god for all eternity.  For now I will skip over the talk of my death, for even now I still can't grasp it and will instead show you all how I came to be reborn in another world.

I stood in front of a being of purity, a being of absolute faith, and I fell to my knees ashamed.  “Are you here to separate me from God?” I asked with a hoarse voice.  All I wanted was to be obliterated, to have my sins washed away with hellfire, to be no more, to never again feel pleasure, to feel pain as I am destroyed.

“No, for your soul has yet to truly make a choice”.  Responded the being of such radiant light.  “The Lord was first and will be the last, many of his lessons have been lost in your histories.”  As the embodiment of light continued I felt a searing pain in my soul.  “The universe is Infinite, and the infinity of all infinities is our Lord.  The Lord of all has so much mercy for mortals such as yourself, you struggled with such strong desires, and emotions.”  I felt the pain lessening as the words enter into deepest thoughts.  “You will be punished the only way you can be, you shall be forbidden from the absolution of death, You must continue on living knowing all of the sins that you have made”.

As understanding fell upon me dread built up, I wanted to scream and rant, I wanted to plead for death everlasting, but then I finally understood something, if I want it so much, it is not a punishment suited for one such as myself.  I was finally ready to accept what the angel was saying, as if sensing this, the creature of Light continued.  “Now my Lord doesn't want you to stay as you are, but to grow into something else, into a better version of yourself,  If you chose a new world you will never be able to fully return to this universe, if you chose to stay in this world, you will never again be able to be near those you love, both will help you grow, but one will grant you both pleasure and pain, and the other will give you the pleasure of forgiveness,”  it is your choice.

Time is meaningless where I was, looking back now on these old memories, I think I contemplated for over a week.  I still could not truly forgive myself, when I was a child I hurt others knowing that it was wrong, I know that because I hid it and I felt shame, I did not understand it at the time.  Around my late 20’s I started reading and watching stories of people being reborn into other worlds and some times I thought about it wondering what I would do if given the choice.  To chose between forgiveness and something I wished for was hard.  First of all I did not want to be forgiven, I did not want to have my wish granted, I WANTED TO BE PUNISHED.  Yet looking back both choices offered forgiveness, and would have granted my wish in different ways.  I have finally stood before the Lord of all and been forgiven, but this is not a story about that.  This is a story of my rebirth, the lesson I learned and the hardships I faced because of my ignorance.

“Holy Spirit I chose not the easy path to forgiveness, but the harder path living without my loved ones.”  I felt overwhelming joy as well as despair.  I wonder if I would be human, or even male.  I once Had a dream that I would be reborn in another world as a woman, and finally realised that their is a contradiction we can never truly understand, there is no difference between being male or female, and then everything is different if we are male or female, even to this day, after living for a few eons, and being both male and female, I just can not explain the truth.

“It shall be, but to help you grow you will be allowed three requests, understand no matter what you request you will face hardships and misunderstandings, nothing outside of the Lord is perfect.”  This sentence was lost to me at the time.  I still believed in systems and rules, I never truly understood what reality is and what fantasy is.  I was taught in my first life among others that reality and fantasy are two separate concepts, but once someone truly masters magic, science or alchemy they start to merge into the same thing, look at quantum physics and what an observer is if you want to get a small glimpse of what I mean.  The movie Doctor Strange really touches upon the concepts I am trying to state, yet at the same time they do not even begin to explain it.  But this again is not why I have taken my time to actually create a diary, a journal if you will.

Time stood still as I pondered what the angel was telling me.  It took me a while to accept my situation.  I felt ashamed because I felt so excited, the anticipation of living in another world, of other natural laws, of being able to break them, I wanted to live in a virtual reality like Kirito, Weed, Earth and all of the others I have read about.  But could I really ask for such a thing, could such a thing even be possible, finally I spoke “Holy Spirit, are there other worlds, worlds like those I have read about?  If so, my first request would be to live in a world that is similar to Dungeons and dragons, virtual reality a world that was once a game but is now real, a world that has a leveling system that anyone can access, for if I can level and no one else can how can I actually struggle and grow.”  I knew at the time I was pushing the bounds of what I could request, I figured that this would actually be all three requests in one, but if not… maybe I could ask for more, and if so what an adventure would I have.

“You are not the first to be offered this, nor the last, and many have asked for the same type of thing, unlike them though you take your time and think things over, this is a curse and a blessing in one.  Yes that is not a problem, you shall live in a world that was created out of a virtual game that has yet to be created, what shall your next request be.”  It took a while for this to sink in, and to be fully honest even after my first life, did I not fully understand all of the meanings behind what the Spirit told me, all I knew was I had to continue on living, and somehow grow into something that would allow my soul to be destroyed.  Oh what a fool I was, and still am in many ways.  I should have chosen to stay in my old world, for I became a tool and a fool, a savior and a destroyer, my second life started out better then my first, but in the end, it took insanity for me to learn my first lesson, something that everyone who goes to space understands, every action no matter how small always has a reaction.

Time passed again, flowing yet paused, I thought deep long and hard, trying to decide on what I should ask and what I shouldn't ask for.  “Holy Spirit, I grow weary of humans judging each other based off of skin tone, I wish for a world that has other races, other intelligent life, I wish to better understand others by having a new shape and new look then I did in this world, and most of all, to be in a land that doesn't have racism.”  I figured that it would be a good experience for me, plus I loved playing dungeons and dragons with a character I made with dice, a random color and gender, even a random race and class.  But I was not as smart as I thought I was, for I racism is apart of free will, and even if you remove racism there will always be people who prejudices others, I thought long and hard and figured if the humans were not racist then maybe It would be a more peaceful prosperous world, but sadly that was not the case.

All I got this time was a small nod, it took me time to realise that while the spirit was in front of me it must be doing many other things at the same time.  So I kept on thinking long and hard about what I should chose and what I shouldn't chose.  Time kept flowing and staying still at the same time.  Finally I had to ask a question, “Holy Spirit, if i'm reborn as a child, would my soul never be able to be with my parents from this world?, Is there a way for me to redeem myself and be with them ever again, if so my last request is for my new body not to be born from any parent but to be created by you that will let me one day be with my loved ones in some form, and can you some how create some type of menu that will let me learn about the world I am going into, since I will not be born into it, the way a character is created in a virtual world.”  To this day, I feel my biggest mistake was mentioning being a character, IT never occurred to me, that what would happen from that small request of mine.

“Interesting choices, your will has been understood, and the formalities have been observed, it's time to move on, to grow.”  The spirit of light was gone, I was in an empty void, then all of a sudden lights grew around me and words appeared in front of me.  WELCOME NEW PLAYER, Admin has set your looks random your class is locked as adventure, you're granted the title PlanesWalker- A being from another world, your race is locked as High Human, oh boy I thought thinking of the New Gate and all the drama that came around being High Human, you have 10 points to place in the following categories:

Strength- This will allow you to lift, push and pull objects, this will also affect damage dealt towards enemies when using strength based weapons.  The amount of weight you can move around while holding objects will be dependant upon your Strength.  You can train every stat, but once you reach 10 it will become harder and harder to train. 20 is the peak of Natural Human Strength, That being said once you prestige these limitations will be increased by 5 for each prestige. (I can not express the excitement I had at reading this, for I was becoming a living player inside of a VR game).

Dexterity- This allows you to have graceful movements, there are more skills connected to dexterity than any other physical stat, it will also grant mild attack bonuses to Dexterity based attacks.  It also controls your balance as well as your reactions.  You can train every stat, but once you reach 10 it will become harder and harder to train. 20 is the peak of Natural Human Dexterity.

Constitution- This will control your Health Gage, you gain 2 Hit Points for every Constitution point up to 10, once you pass 10 you will gain 4 Hit Points for every Constitution hit point until 20.  You can train every stat, but once you reach 10 it will become harder and harder to train. 20 is the peak of Natural Human Constitution.

Healing factor- This is the last of the High Human physical stats.  This one is special, you have a max of 10, for each point up to 5 you will regenerate 10 HP an hour, once you go beyond 5 you will regenerate 12 hp, and can regenerate lost limbs, this takes up to a month to regenerate one finger, for a hand it takes four months and for an arm, it will take about a year.  These times change drastically once you can get beyond 10 points, to do that you must prestige five times, or have an artifact that changes your stay.

Intelligence-  Controls how much mana you have in your Mana Gage, you gain 2 mana for every Intelligence point up to 10, once you pass 10 you will gain 4 Mana points for every Intelligence point up to 20, and past 20 you gain 10 Mana Points until 25.  This can be trained, but it is difficult to judge what is a player's Intelligence vs a Character's Intelligence so the system of training is harder, it is a form of meditation that takes time, as the player focuses upon the source of their mana the more points you can gain, for the first few times it is only a few hours to increase your points, once you have started gaining points this way you will find new difficulties in increasing it.  To increase through prestige the limit only goes up by 5 for every 2 prestiges.

Street Smarts-  This is used to learn skills that are not under a formal category such as a rogue or wild druid uses,  Each point in this will allow you to gain access to a different skill, depending upon class and character, this can be increased upon leveling.  You can spend 5 XP to get 1 Point in street smarts up to 10, until you reach 20 it costs 10 XP, and to reach 30 it costs 25 XP.

Book Smarts- Same as street smarts except it is meant for formal training and skill trees.

Wisdom- Controls how quickly your mana recharges, treat this just like Healing factor, only difference is once you go beyond 5 instead of regenerating a limb or finger you can speed up your Mana regeneration, at 6 you regain it in 30 minutes, at 7 you regain it every 20 minutes, at 8 every 10, at 9 every 5 and at 10 you gain access to a special skill tree.

Charisma- This is meant for creating or overcoming fear effects as well as accessing magics and skills that involve changing someone's mind, fear effects, and diplomacy, any one who is maxed out at 20 gains access to a special skill tree and can gain audience with any non hostile leader.  What happens during the meeting is not controlled by charisma, it just grants an audience.

Starting Skills for adventurer, you have 15XP to spend, High Humans gain an additional 5XP you may select from is the following:
Elemental Magic-1 type 1 XP, 2 types 3 XP, 3 types 5 XP, 5 types 7XP, 6 Types 9 XP

Fire, Earth, Wind, Water, Spirit, Light, Shadow, The Last is hidden until you prestige it is called Prismatic.

Craftsman- 1XP per sub category, To be selected off of sub menu

Ranged Combat-1 XP

Melee Combat- 1XP

Languages Other Than Common- 2XP per Human, 5XP per non Human, 10XP Demonic, Angelic, Or Primordial

Slashing Weapon Combat- 2XP

Piercing Weapon Combat- 2XP

Bludgeoning Weapon Combat- 2XP

Item Custom Crafting-2XP

Weapon Custom Crafting- 2XP

Unarmed Combat- Lets you fight without weapons, can add weapons as it branches 4XP

Magic Runes- 5XP

Magic Language- 8XP

Appraisal- This is a skill that will give you more information the more you level it, it can give you information about every thing in the game. 8XP

Before you select skills or Stats when you level up you gain 10 XP every level, you can save XP, and even gain it from mystic tomes.  If you level more than one level you gain a bonus XP per level jump, so if you gain 5 levels you gain 50 XP plus 1 XP additional per level, if you gain 10 levels you gain 100 XP plus 2 XP per additional level.  This cycle continues until you reach 100 Levels then you Can prestige.  When one prestiges any skill that hasn't hit level 50 will be reset to 10.  If you chose not to, your next prestige point will be every 100 levels to a MAX of 500.  If you Chose to go that far before you prestige you will be able to select a prestige class, if not it takes 10 prestiges to select a prestige class.

We hope you can enjoy the game, once you select your skills you will spawn in the Town of Beginnings (High Human Controlled).  

I can not tell you how overwhelming this was, and THAT was all the information I was given.  I did not know how to open a submenu or anything.  It took a few attempts until I was able to focus enough to select some stats.  As a gamer I am the most hated, I love crafting skills and combat skills equally, I level both and love to mix and match them.  Trying to make new custom items is one of my biggest joys.  Yet try as I might I just could not select a Crafter.  So what I selected was this.  I will say this, I was hoping that High Humans Already had some points in all stats because I did not put them in everything

Stats

Strength-1

Dextierty- 2

Constituion- 2

Healing Factor- 1

Inteligence- 2

Street Smarts

Book Smarts

Wisdom- 2

Charisma

Skills

Elementary Magic 6 Types- 9XP

Unarmed Combat- 13XP

Item Custom Crafting- 15 XP

Weapon Custom Crafting- 17XP

Ranged Combat- 18XP

Melee Combat- 19XP

And to my surprise I selected

Craftsman- 20XP

Author's Note

I am not good with grammar or spelling, and have yet to get an editor. I am looking for any feedback you can give me that will help me. I would love to know if you liked it or hated it, and why you felt the way you did. My story is here to be enjoyed and make you think.

Reviews

[JackValor86]

Suggestions
1. if you want this to be like a lost journal, which is kind of what the narration feels like don't address the reader, by reminding them that they are reading.
2. Cut the Dr.Strange reference out. It shows to clearly where your getting your ideas, its like you watched that movie then wrote this.
3. the narrator is extremely guilty for his sins but it doesn't even mention hardly anything that he/she did wrong.
4. cut the racism paragraph out, its dull "racism is bad" obviously. But now your talking about going to a world with different species and they actually are more or less superior to each other. Its logical that if many different species lived in co-existence and some were superior to others they would treat each other accordingly.
5. its to packed with to many high concept ideas all at once. and the narrator accepts this alternate world with no question or shock, like he just knew there was going to be an afterlife video game.
6. The whole xp run down at the end, I just skipped that, who wants to keep track of numbers and stats in a book?
good job for posting though and welcome to writers cafe, I hope to see more writing from you whether its continuing this project or starting another.