Death and a new beginning

A blurry figure appeared before Daniel as his mind slowly cleared up.

A sweet pleasant voice rang in his head.

Welcome to the sanctuary.

Bad news.

You are dead.

Good news, as part of the many gods' jurisdictional duties, everyone who dies will be sent to a different world. Everyone gets a gift and that means you too.

To simplify things, you are going to a world saturated with magic. Magic is indispensable in their daily activities. There are 6 types of magic in this world.

There are 4 base types: Earth, Fire, Water, Wind and 2 Super types: Light and Dark. that is pretty much all you need to know about elements right now.

Your gift will be related to these elements usually. So give it some thought. I will be right back. There is a long queue of souls dying recently and I do not have enough incarnations to process all at the same time. Ring this bell when you have collected your mind and I will come back to answer your questions.

Wai--

The world felt a little more hollow as the figure dimmed into nothingness. Daniel looked around him.

Nothing.

A white void except a bell that floated before him.

A million thoughts ran through his mind. Where am I? Who was that? What am I supposed to do? Many moments passed as Daniel sorted out his thoughts.

Things he understood, he is dead. He is in a place called sanctuary and he is waiting to be sent to a new world. A world with magic. He is supposed to be given a gift. Since this gift was going to be decided by him, he has to think carefully. With a new world comes many new things. From his past memories, he wondered what would suit him best. As he thought about it, he wondered what this new world would be like.

A world of magic, versus what he lived though in a world of technology. It has got to be medieval. Clear skies, beautiful seas and endless forest. Under the clear sky there definitely would be magical beast. All that fancy stuff from the lores and legends. Clearly, there will be fighting. It might be good to pick some form of combat ability. Maybe it might be good to have some form of healing ability too.

As each moment passed, Daniel got more and more undecided. Each kind of element could do plenty of things that he wanted to do. They all seem good to choose from but he really could not decide so he rang the bell and waited for the return of the god or whoever that is.

The blurry figure reappeared before him after what felt like an aeon staring into the white void.

The same sweet pleasant voice rang in his head.

Hello Daniel. I see you have done some thinking while I was gone.

So God? If I can call you God, tell me, do the people in this world live in cities or settlements?

There are multiple major cities but most humans live in small settlements.

Are there magical beast like those from dungeons and dragons? Things like goblins, dragons, dwarfs and elves.

Yes. What you read and learn from those stories are actually bits and pieces from worlds such as the one you are going to. Everything known from those stories are true. The only question is, which world is that true?

What do you mean by that?

There are many worlds. Multiverses as you would know it. The only thing that keeps it all separate and distinct is the primordial rules and laws that I am not allowed to talk too much about. Enough about that, as much as I would like to give you more time, there is still a limit to how long I can be here.

Are there magic tools and magic equipment? Can I still use earth science to replicate it?

Yes and yes. Magic tools and magic equipment exist but they are too expensive for most humans of this world to afford. Simple tool made from what you call earth science can be done.

So what kind of gift do you want? Weapon mastery? Elemental mastery? Speed mastery? Wisdom? Or a specific gift set?

I can custom make a skill?

Yes and no. As low as it is within the laws of the world I am sending you to, it can be customized. However, you have not done enough merit before you died to allow you to do that. You used most of it up with transmigration. Also, we do not call it a skill and call it a gift. It is the natural ability, talent or a knack of doing something.

Can I not choose transmigration and use it to customize my gift?

I would love to let you do it but even if you give up on transmigration you still do not have enough merit to do so.

If that is not an option, what is the most used type of magical item in this world that is not a weapon or armor. Warmongering is good money but it draws too much hate too easily. I intend to resume being a merchant.

Humans do not rule this world, they only arrived in this world after we discovered Earth and started sending people around. You will have a hard time being a merchant, choosing a gift related to trading would greatly assist your ability to trade. As for your question, other than weapons and armor, the next things that come along are tools, potions and charms.

Potions are one use items that would take too much time to make individually. That would not be a viable part of my consideration. Trading skill would do good but I already have built up the skills required from all those years of trading. As my son would say in his younger gaming days, what is the point of getting more levels if you are already max level?

There is no such thing as max level. Even we gods are still learning new things with the passage of time. No matter how good you become, more is always better. You can always get gifts related to trading that will further enhance your ability to trade. There are tools that help make the potions. You can choose a skill related to that as well.

I am fine with that idea as well but I would like to see my options.

I may be a god but I do not have all the time in the world. Hurry up with your choice. If you do not make a choice I would help you.

A tone of impatience could be somehow felt. Not heard but felt.

Knowing that he was running a little low on time, he asked once again.

Is there any item that would work just from carrying them around?

The figure pondered a little.

In this world these objects called charms. They appear both natural and man-made. However they require a source of power to work. They come in all shapes and sizes and for all kinds of purpose. For example, there is this.

A small cone appeared in the middle of the air before Daniel.

This is a natural wind charm. With a small amount of mana it would generate a light breeze. Most of the charms have simple effects like this.

Are there charms that have greater effects?

There is this heroic class charm that requires large amount of mana that allows the holder to have about 50% increase in cutting ability as long as it remains active.

Great. I would like to have a skill related to charms then.

A list shows up showing all kinds of skills related to charms.

Charm talent.

Charm mastery.

The list went on but none were what he wanted

God, is there a skill that allows me to make charms?

Make charms? Nope there was no such skill.

But you said there were man-made charms.

Those charms are artifacts filled with a specific source of energy over a very long period of time. They are things like the throne sat by the great kings and the prayer beads of the great Buddha.

Buddha's prayer beads?

Yes. when he died, he came to this world. It was disorienting for him as he kept thinking he would be in nirvana. He decided that he will go into this new world to preach Buddhism once again. Over the course of time his beads gained the ability to grant tranquility to those around him. Buddhism exist in this world too thanks to him. I asked him what he would want if he were to go to a new world. He said he needed nothing but after some insisting he said he would like his prayer beads. Thinking back, it was rather funny. When he 1st arrived, he thought I was one of the illusions that was sent to distract him from reaching nirvana. When he was sent to be reborn, I read his mind and could see that he still thinks so.

Oh... That does sound like the Buddha that I know. Does that mean it takes months if not years to make them.

Yes. Years and months of repeated actions just for one to appear. Just so you know, some of the greatest things from your world are charms but because mana do not exist in your world they are just items.

Really? Can you name some?

The wheelchair of Stephen Hawking, the 1st teddy bear from the set of Mr Bean, some of the legendary guitars, Qin Shi Huang's Terracotta Army, The Dead Sea Scrolls, Mount Owen Moa. Some of those spinning temple bells that survived through time. The list is rather long but most are not on earth anymore. Most of them are labeled missing in whichever record of that time. It is not very far from the truth when things disappear like magic.

How about this, is there a way for me to put or mix 2 or more items of similar properties together to create charms?

There might be something like that in the Fusion type gift. Here is the list that you can choose from.

After looking down the list he believe he found what he is looking for.

Amalgamate.

The gift of discerning eyes to see a material's potential and the ability to synthesize them.

I will take Amalgamate.

Are you sure you want that gift? It is rank H gift. It does nothing on its own. You will have the ability to synthesize materials but each material has their own condition to merge into a new item. By the records, no one great came out the users of this gift. I highly recommend taking a gift with better ranking.

It is fine, knowledge without application is meaningless. Discerning eyes means knowledge and a need for knowledge. The ability to synthesize allows me to make things. Two for the price of one. there is always bound to be some kind of drawback for everything. Nothing in the world is perfect. I am aware of my decisions and I am taking that gift.

I see. You will retain most of your memories. Memories of things and objects will be blurred out and faded until you have learned and see them. It is not like they will not exist anymore, you simply cannot recall them. You can still call things by their generic name until you learn more about it. It helps with the language barrier when 10 people can have more than 10 different ways to call the same object. With what you have chosen, you have leftover merit and I have arbitrarily distributed it to perks that you may need. Perks are the powered down distant cousins of gifts. You need to put much more effort into it to reach the same level. As such, you get the perk of basic language comprehension. Other than the languages that you already know, you will basic understanding of the basic commons that humans know and quick comprehension of simple other racial language. Your age has been boosted to a 6 year old body which is what would be the equivalent of a 10 year old's body in your old world. It is two years higher than the age that the other children would awaken but it is an age where children are sent to work.

Good luck in the new world.

With that the figure started floating upwards while looking down and waving goodbye.

While waving, the figure wondered, what did I forget to tell him? It felt important.

Daniel looked as the figure disappeared upwards into the distance. It was not long that he realized that it was not that the figure was going up, he was going down.

The feeling of falling. Despite being a weightless soul, knowing that you are going down fast creeps up to you really fast.

Ever remembered what happens in dreams when you are falling?

You wake up drenched in cold sweat.