[SS] Chapter 8: Items Galore and Worlds Collide!

A few hours later, I had made my choices. It actually required me looking at the armor tab near the end to fully decide on everything. Here’s what I had chosen and could actually “afford”.

Black Mage Cuff’s - A pair of pitch black and gold cuff bracelets once worn by a strong mage. When worn, it gives the wearer the ability to use the Magic Skill (Dark) at Tier 4 and the ability to turn into an inky immaterial shadow once per day.

It didn’t seem like much at first glance but I instantly knew better. I had been listening and Tier 4 Magic was at high apprentice level. It went 1-5 apprentice, 6-10 General Mages, 11-15 Master Mages, 16-18 Grand Master Mages, 19 is Lord King and Tier 20 is Lord Emperor.

And I had the sneaking suspicion that magic was one area where stats could be wholly misleading. It was, even a force multiplier wasn’t the right terminology. If a child had a Tier 20 magic skill, somehow, they’d probably be able to destroy much more than a whole city, even with low MP.

The multiverse, again, was scary.

Magic wasn’t just about constant repetition in order to level it up. Yes, constant repetition is a completely viable strategy but when it comes to Tier skills, using the skill the right way and at a higher level of understanding, vastly increases skill gain. This meant that using Tier 4 Dark magic would allow my own Dark Magic skill to rise insanely fast up to that level. This is probably an item any Mage would kill for. Forget just skipping absolutely years of effort, not everyone could easily become a mage. If you passed this thing around through a school, within a year, you could have a whole school of mages with the Dark Element. Kingdoms would go to war over this for that reason. It wasn’t a godly made item for no reason.

Next,

Ring of regeneration - You gain an increased healing factor when wearing this ring. Making wounds close faster as well as regenerating any lost limbs. This ring also has a special enchantment that allows the wearer to recover from one fatal wound. The enchantment takes a week to replenish.

Healing in this world probably wasn’t exactly rare. Something that could straight up prevent death though, would be. Not only would it increase my already increased Health regeneration, this was my answer to Physical Resistance skills. I just needed a single blow of each type that would actually kill me. Yeah. Sure. That sounded easy, not. The idea of willingly participating in nearly dying so many times was horrifying to me. Still, even without that absolutely brutal way of thinking, it was a free life, once a week. I valued it more highly than my black mage cuffs, even if they were more expensive.

Mana potion - A small glass bottle that can fully recover your MP. Has one charge but can be recharged. To recharge you must fill the vial with your mana by pressing the opening to your palm and pouring your mana inside the bottle. This will take 60% of your total mana to fill up. If you don’t have enough MP, it will begin to drain your HP instead.

Healing potion - A small glass bottle that can fully recover your HP. It has one charge but can be recharged. To recharge, you must fill the vial with blood and wait four hours. You can tell when the process is complete when the vial stops glowing.

A potion that broke magical thermodynamics and one that turned basic blood into a life saving potion. These were, simply, incredible. For starters, they were refilling. Literally infinite uses. Secondly, they were full restores. I hadn’t exactly made it to the new world yet but every game I saw always had “Restores X amount” of resources. I felt like any potion that fully restored everything, was gonna be a pretty big deal. Say I had a million mana, without this, I’d probably be stuck waiting for mana regen. And fully restoring health was yet another measure to stay alive. I had the feeling I was going to need all of these things and more.

To be honest, after those purchases, I was stumped. I had some points left but I didn’t know what to get. I considered getting a cool weapon just so I could eat it and eventually give it to my army but I had a suspicion that wouldn’t work with Divine made items. So I went simple.

Amulet of mana - This special Amulet when worn acts as a sort of mana reservoir that you can draw from. Increases your total mana by 50 points.

Infinite space bag - A nice bag in your choice of material. This bag is enchanted to be able to hold a Huge amount of items. The space is 25 slots total.

I had Item, the God, explain the infinite space bag to me. Basically, the only limit was “weight”. And boy, was that barely any limit. It could store anything that could fit into the bag. The “weight” limit simply meant that if you put something too heavy inside, it would fully take up that “slot.” Which meant that lighter things? You could store a whole lot of them in a single “slot.” So I could have, say, 99 berries if I wanted or it could hold a million pound barbell.

Admittedly, I had no idea what I was going to use it for. It couldn’t store living creatures. Plants were a variable maybe but mostly leaning towards no. I was going to be stuck somewhere I could hardly move around in for a year. But it was right there and a bag that could store so much sounded incredibly useful in every way. Who knows? It’ll probably come in handy.

Oh, and the amulet was really just bought with leftover points. More mana, more spells, faster Tier up.

I waited, idly kicking my feet, after I had selected everything. It didn’t take too long, especially considering the items they were making from scratch for my future slimy body, but in the end I was really bored just sitting and waiting there for an hour. In a way, it was a low level form of torture because it made me second guess every decision I had made and worry about my soul and how my mind seemed to be adjusting already to this place and getting weird knowledge and etc etc. I tried to mainly think of the future so I wouldn’t become a nervous wreck or have a mental break down. Too much, way too much.

Eventually, with a loud bang that I only realized afterward was Craft clapping his hands, the gods were done. I could feel it now, how my soul was just slightly different from before. Which was weird, because why could I feel my soul? Well, anyway, it was finally finished.

“Come Godling, me and-”

Crap, my ears!

“-will escort you to the next Goddess.”

I followed after them as we went through a long tunnel. Soon, I blinked as they seemed to have disappeared and sunlight was beaming down on me. I looked all around me and I was worried I had accidentally walked right into another world. It was all so, green. A whole forest spread out before me, but with a clear trail. I followed it, looking at all of the many plants and foliage. It looked like a massive garden. I turned a corner and stopped dead.

“Ara ara~ What an interesting Godling to be you are.”

The Goddess in front of me was another slap to my reality. She was fully naked, and at this point I was just getting used to the fact that Gods and Goddesses had no reason to wear clothes, but she was also clearly a plant girl. She was green skinned, sitting in a giant flower, no, was part of the giant flower, and had vines and stalks of plants roving around her. They were also clearly a part of her but attached to the flower instead of her female looking body. Her hair was long but on closer inspection, instead of strands of long flowing dark green hair, it was a single thing, like grass. There were flowers petals blooming on top of her head.

“I welcome you to my workshop~. I hope you and I can get very well acquainted. Oh dear me, I got too excited just now and forgot to properly introduce myself. I &%%%%%%&, am a God of Worlds or more specifically, I am a Goddess that creates new worlds. I hope you and I can get deeply involved in that process.”

I felt my heart racing. It seemed like I had turned a corner and ran into sexy Mother Gaia. Creator of worlds? That sounded, powerful. All of the Gods I had met were strong and powerful, but the idea of someone creating a whole planet was another level up. I had to ask about it.

“You, make planets?”

“Not just planets. Many worlds are more, flexible than that.”

The look she was giving me was not subtle at all and was absolutely not meant to be. I’m sorry Goddess of creation, I’m not in a good spot right now to deal with the horny! Please, call me back later after I’ve got my head on straight!

“So… what am I suppose to do here?”

“Ahhh~ Well, there are pre-existing worlds we can choose for you. Or we could create a whole new world together! There are many options to-”

“Pass.”

“-go through, huh?”

“Hard pass. No, no, absolutely not. A whole world created just for me? Absolutely not. I’d feel responsible for literally every single bad thing that happens there. No, I’d die of an aneurysm or a neurosis long before becoming a God, brought on by the stress. Please, just shove me into a normal magical world that has already existed and has absolutely nothing to do with me.”

It occurred to me that was probably the most I’ve said to a god so far, besides maybe Chaos. But the fact was, I was kinda just along for the ride right now. Sure, I was thinking, I was planning, I was taking this seriously, but it was all so much and all so damn stressful. I needed a long, long sleep and I wasn’t going to get that for a bit. But seriously, a whole world created just so I can maybe become a God there? I can’t. I literally fucking can’t. Just, just no. It makes me feel, I can’t even describe the emotion it gives me. Like I’m a fake? Like I’d be creating fake people? Sick to my stomach and stressed just imagining it. Worrying that my own world was created just so someone else could use it for a little while. Billions of years worth of history, of existence, just so someone can maybe become a god in a few thousands years or most likely die within a few hundred. It felt, it felt wrong and selfish in the extreme.

“Hmm~, if that is your wish my dear Godling. I can see many things are weighing on you. I can also see you want something simple. Would you like me to, take the lead?”

…I was going to have a lot of sex as a God if I made it there huh? But fine, sure, whatever, let’s go for it.

“Sure, just, please. A basic normal magical fantasy world.”

Gaia smiled and an image popped in front of me. It was an image of a planet, but not earth. Green, blue, some other colors. A regular basic planet.

“Altraisa, this is exactly the type of world you desire my Godling. It contains all that you would expect and much you wouldn’t. Monsters, dungeons, multiple races, adventurers. A world of might and magic with technology slowly advancing along. Would you like to insert yourself into this world?”

I sighed in relief. Thank god. A simple and easy and direct decision.

“Yes.”

Her smile wilted.

“Perhaps we can build worlds together another time, after you ascend to Godhood.”

Aw, damn it. I felt like an asshole. I had completely forgotten that all Gods and Goddesses seem to suffer from chronic loneliness. How long has it been since she’s seen someone new that might join her one day? And I had spent, what, 5 minutes with her?

“I’d like that. I’ll come back and make a few worlds with you.”

Her smile lit up and took a distinctly lewd edge.

“It was pleasant meeting you Godling, even if our time was short. Perhaps we can go a bit longer next time, hmm~? I’ll hand you off now to the Gods responsible for your insertion into the new world. Tata~.”

And like that, she was gone. Well, to say more precisely, I was gone and now instead of a forest garden, I was standing in a…… celestial border? To my left was a bright blue night sky and stars. Like a nebula. To my right was a bright red night sky and stars, also like a nebula. In front of each respective side stood someone. To my left, in what was clearly suppose to be the good side, was a beautiful naked angel.

And that was it.

There was nothing overly, special. She was naked, she had white petite wings, she had a cute petite body and blond hair. She gave off that feeling of me wanting to protect her. I had seen simple before, sure, but there always seemed to be some kind of really extreme extra. But no, just, simple. It was, surprisingly relieving.

And on the right, well, that was not relieving at all.

There was muscular guy that looked like a total jock with red hair, small demon horns, small red demon wings, a red demon tail, and was almost wearing nothing. Honestly, I would have preferred it that way. He was wearing a jock strap kinda? Except it completely showed his Cock, in all it’s length, with the last half being inserted into it. Like seeing a sword in a sheath, pointed downward, with half the blade out. On the half of his, thick as fuck and long as fuck cock, that was showing, was a red spiked metal cock ring.

The angel spoke up first.

“I, %))((*(**, A God of Angels, greets you Godling to be.”

“I, $%$$$%, am a God of Demons. S’up?”

The demon continued while I was stuck staring at both of them really. They were too night and day to be in the same universe, let alone in the same room as me.

“We will be guiding you through your insertion process. Once we’re done here, you won’t be able to go back. So make sure you have everything in order before proceeding forth. Your insertion process will change depending on which System you have and which of us you have to deal with.”

I felt a sinking me.

“I am in charge of the Hero System insertions.” Said Angel.

“You’ll be with me if you’re a Crowned.” Said Demon.

Great, just great. I picked monster and now I gotta deal with this. Alright, honestly, his dick hanging out and the fact that he’s a demon worry me. But he’s been fine so far. Not a single God has chosen to hide what they are, in anyway, since I got here. So, it’ll probably be fine right?

Then my mind felt like it was getting punched.

Demon was talking to me, I could see that, I could hear that. But they were also talking with Angel.

“Oh please, let us just skip this drool and get to the parts that matter.”

“This is important information you know.”

I shook my head and focused on the words being actually directed to me.

“Before we proceed we should explain to you what a Hero and a Crowned are. If you took a look at both systems you should be able to see that fundamentally they are the same system. You fulfill requirements to increase in power. All for you, a Godling, to become strong enough to ascend to Godhood.”

“The Hero and Crowned system are meant to enable you to become a Leader among those of your system. You can then use your status as a Leader to endlessly grind monsters and humans against each other in an endless fight to fuel your Ascension.”

It took me a second to figure out what Demon meant and when I did, I was pissed. War. He was talking about causing a War. Constant War, until I became a God.

“Endless carnage isn’t the only way to acquire enough power to ascend you know.”

“The endless fighting makes for good entertainment so make sure to reap as much carnage as you can Godling. Us Gods will be watching.”

Honestly, at this point I was just… tired. I just wanted to get this all over with and go to sleep.

“You are not forced to do this, as there are Godlings that decide to enjoy their mortal life and die naturally. What you want to do with your new life and powers is up to you. This is where the insertion system comes into play. Too many Godlings have no idea what to do with their life and struggle when let loose without any direction. Come with me, I’ll show you your options.”

With that, the entire universe became hell. Literally, hell. Fire as far as the eye could see, at the very least. It took me a second to realize we were still in the red nebula from before but deeper this time. It was like the Cosmos was on fire. That woke me up quite a bit. Gods were scary powerful but I didn’t usually get this kind of experience with them. God, “usually”? “This kind of?” I’ve been here way too long.

Right now, it was just me and Demon. After a moment, he started speaking.

“Welcome little squirt to your future options that will define how you will take your first baby steps in your new world. What monster did you pick as your Gen 0?”

“Uh, Slime.”

“Chose the little gooey guy eh? Well I hear some people are into that so good luck to ya bud.”

It was bizarre to have someone that was probably at least somewhat evil, act like a caring older brother. Bizarre but welcome. We went over my options for starting as a slime and I had exactly one thought about them:

They were crap.

One of them, literally.

I basically could either start in a slime ranch as a familiar to some farmer. Or in a sewer. Considering I was going to be stuck in that location for a year, neither sounded very appealing. Sure, that sewer meant city but that was even less appealing. A city meant people and at least one person strong enough to handle those people. Meaning not anyone I could deal with any time soon.

The slime ranch was worse. I’d be a slave till I evolved. Well, of a sort. And there was no way I could act and pretend I was a normal slime for more than 5 minutes. I didn’t think I had it in me. The items appearing around me alone would probably give it away. And while familiar contracts were variable, not attacking your master and listening to their orders came bog standard, apparently.

So slavery for a while or extreme danger.

I was quick to tell Demon how I felt about these options. With a lot of very, colorful language.

“Listen here you overripe Bat. I’ve had a very, very, long stressful day. I died, I got revived, I found out Gods and Goddesses were real, was forced to take part in a death Challenge, learned about the multiverse, was told I was getting put in a new world with powers and as a god damn monster, was forced to cram like my life depended on it from two different Goddesses, had to make decision after decision after decision on stuff I should’ve been excited about and was but now just feel burnt out, and after all of that, all of this, you’re telling me I’m going to be a slave or end up stuck in a place where I’m probably going to die? I swear on every single one of you Gods and Goddesses that if those are my only two choices that I’m going to ascend, come back up here, and rip off your cock and shove it down your throat.”

I was done. I was usually happy and funny, my friends had described me as goofy and playful and sometimes even airheaded. I liked to do whimsical nonsensical things and try new stuff. This all was a dream. But it was a dream that had been soured right from the get go. I’d never see my friends and family again and even if I did, I’d be too different by the time I did. I already felt different and I didn’t know if that was exhaustion or because my literal fucking soul had been forged and Authorities and Power fused into me.

If I had to choose, I’d go with the damn Sewer but I’d hate my entire life for a year.

Demon looked at me and smirked.

“You know what, you’re right. Most of these options suck, no matter what monster you’d choose. Tell you what, I’ll give you a different option. It’s this or the sewers or temporary slavery. It’s an option befitting a Crowned Monster like yourself.”

I didn’t like how his smirk was growing. It was a full on grin now. It was full of nothing but blood lust.

“Yeah, yeah I’ll even name it something that will resonate with what you are truly called. Did you know? There is another name for the Crowned Monster System. It’s Original name. Your True name.”

“Demon Lord”

Oh fuck.

The look on Demon’s face said it all. I had awoken something in him and I wasn’t going to be able to put the genie back in the bottle. Also, of fucking course the Crowned Monster System was actually the Demon Lord. Come on, heroes always have a counterpart in stories and who is it they always end up fighting? Demon Lords. That’s what I was. Great. That, really changes nothing but sure puts things in perspective. I blanched, hard. I felt like I was copying a certain anime I had seen but honestly, there’s a reason that went well. Slimes were cool as hell, monsters were powerful, and building a Kingdom just seemed inevitable apparently. Ugh. It rankled something fierce. I didn’t reject the title though. Demon Lord. Fine.

“Okay, sure, what even is this option?”

Had that feeling that I was in for some bullshit.

“Now we’re talking Godling! Instead of being tied to silly things like insertion points, I will just drop you anywhere in the world you choose. No silly forced slavery or stupid sewers. Just you against the environment.”

Alright, so far so good. I nodded along. All I wanted was a mostly peaceful forest away from humans where I could practice magic, practice my skills, and not get eaten but maybe eat a few things. This seemed perfect for that.

“Now, I won’t drop you down there naked. Well, you’ll be naked but whatever. What I mean is, I’ll give you a special item called a Dungeon Core.”

Oh god damn it, fucking no. I already had enough on my plate, no more, please!

“This Core will be stored in a special slot that you can access any time. When you take out the Core you can “install” it in the air or the earth. Doing so will allow you to turn about 15 miles around you into your domain that you will have direct command over. You will become a Dungeon Master and become able to summon minions, traps, and even make a Demon Castle fit for a Demon Lord such as yourself. You can also replace a Dungeon Core from a Normal dungeon that you find to effectively take over the entire dungeon for yourself.”

Well, that was going into that special slot and never coming out. I didn’t want to run some kind of, or any, dungeons. No way. That seemed so, outside my skillset. Regardless of my inner turmoil, Demon continued.

“In order to make minions and modify the land, you need to feed the Dungeon Core with mana. This can be from yourself or from sacrificing living creatures to the Core. The stronger the monster sacrificed, the more mana you’ll get. The Core also generates about 1000 mana a day as well. Mana is a freeform currency for the Dungeon Core, able to build walls and structures with just Mana. You don’t have to bother with trife things like lumber or the like.”

“You are a Demon Lord and the world will bend to your will.”

I felt stupid. Of course there’s a reason he feels so strongly about this. I was looking at a previous Demon Lord, now arisen to Godhood. His very words shook the fiery domain we were in. Still, burst of adrenaline or not, I was still exhausted. Let’s break it down. I lose nothing here and gain an item I might somehow one day use. Maybe in like a thousand years. Sure, fine, as long as I get to get put in a forest.

“Fine. I accept. Put me in a forest at least 200 miles from the nearest human settlement, with a bunch of weak creatures like slimes.”

He smirked and I was already regretting letting a previous Demon Lord decide my location. I absolutely knew I had just fucked up. I just sighed.

“Have fun Godling.”

And then I was falling.