Chapter 1

(A/N: No Harem)

James felt like someone had taken a club and repeatedly smashed his head in. The pain was blinding and made him want to scream, but his voice wasn't working. The agony felt like it lasted for hours, each new wave of pain stronger than the last until his mind felt like it was on the verge of collapse. Still, he managed to cling to sanity and resist the waves of pain. Eventually, the waves settled and his pain slowly died.

As soon as the pain was bearable James opened his eyes that he hadn't realized were squeezed shut. It almost caused a new bought of pain to see the white void in front of him. He had to focus on his own hands out in front of him to have his mind stay stable. Humans weren't meant to see the void and the nothingness it contains. He had to look at his hand to see the stability and order of his form amongst the chaos and disorder of the surroundings.

Every time his eyes wandered from his hands he could feel his mind start to slip, unable to comprehend the void. After an unknown length of time, James vanished from the void and found himself standing at the center of a strange room. The walls were brick and mortar while the ceiling was made of rough intersecting wooden beams. The floor was an uneven patchwork of obsidian and molten rock though he couldn't feel the heat of the lava even though it was close by.

James assumed he must be dead. The void and pain were not things that he would be capable of dreaming of and this room felt too real. He could feel the texture of the brick when he stretched out his hand and ran it along the wall. The uneven obsidian's ridges caused him to stumble constantly. His foot occasionally slightly sank into semi-liquid rock. This was too real to be a dream.

"If this isn't a dream then am I in hell?" James asked himself as he paced around the outskirts of the room. The room wasn't too big, it only took about 10 steps to reach the walls in any direction from the center of the room. Just as he began to wonder how long he was going to remain a voice broke him out of his thoughts, "Hey, what are you doing here?" the voice asked.

James spun around to see a boy that looked to be around 12 years old behind him. Everything about the boy's seemed to be normal except that his body seemed to be made out of molten gold. "I don't know," he admitted truthfully to the boy's question, "I first woke up in a white void then I just appeared here," he said with a shrug. The boy stroked his chin in a comical gesture causing ripples to spread from the point of contact then spoke, "Ahh, so you're a lost soul. It's unfortunate that you have suffered so much, but I can make all of this right." the boy said with a wide grin.

James just tilted his head in confusion, but he figured that the boy most likely knew more than he did. "I will reincarnate you in a different world," the boy announced, causing James's eyebrows to shoot up. "I have read your memories and found that the world of Danmachi will fit nicely even if it is full of false gods." the boy continued. "I am not merciless enough to strand you without any divine gifts though. I shall grant you a system and give you a suitable body to contain your soul." the boy finished, grinning widely.

"Thank you. I am forever in your debt," James said as his body started to fade. "Don't worry about it, just remember that in your time of need the great Deus Aureus was there for you," the boy said smiling widely. James smiled back as his body fully disappeared and he was teleported across the multiverse. Just before he fully faded Deus Aureus waved his hand, forming two shards and shooting them into James's back.

(Some Time Later)

James woke up slowly. Luckily there was no pain this time. There was the taste of dirt in his mouth though. He sat up, spitting clumps of dirt and mud out of his mouth. He looked up and saw that he was now located in the middle of a grove of trees. He couldn't tell how much time had passed since he had arrived, but he was still feeling groggy and disoriented. A certain thought immediately cleared his head though. 'Status' James thought to himself, half expecting nothing to happen.

[Name: Karna

Level: 0

Strength: I

Endurance: I

Dexterity: I

Agility: I

Magic: I

Skills: Apostle of Gold, Touch of Midas

Items: (None)

EXP: 0]

(A/N: James will be Karna from now on.)

Karna looked at the status sheet and grinned, then frowned, then grinned again. He was excited to see that he has a system, but he was a bit bummed that there was nothing present. Then his spirits lifted again when he saw that he already had two skills built-in. He quickly read the description of the skills and was immediately shocked. He had already had a very good idea what [Touch of Midas] did because he was a fan of mythology before he had died.

[Touch of Midas] allows Karna to turn anything he touches to gold at the cost of MP. There was another limitation present in the skill, unfortunately. He found that he also isn't able to turn higher level people and creatures to gold, even people at his own level could resist the effect. He wasn't too sure about what [Apostle of Gold] was but that is where he got his biggest shock from, reading the skills description.

[Apostle of Gold] was a godly skill which Karna supposed made sense. It increased his gain of EXP and Excelia so he could gain power faster both physically and for currency to create skills from the system. He also saw that there was a miniature 3d model of his body floating next to the status sheet. He grinned and got off the ground, envigorated to start his new life and adventure.

(A/N: If you don't know who Karna is then look at the cover for this novel. Also, EXP and Excelia are different. EXP is for making stuff in the system and Excelia is for improving stats.)