The god waved his hands in the air before talking.

“There are dozens of possibilities and options that are available to the migrating souls of Earth, a few come to mind that would fit the future that you had in mind. You say that you thought of farming by yourself but would you be interested in farming with others of similar mindset but different skills? Or perhaps grouping with other settlers with the goal of creating a frontier town on the uninhabited Norsege Isles?” The blonde-haired man pointed his finger as he explained. A few blue screens appeared in front of Ambrose’s view as the god talked.

[Solo Farming

Being around other people just isn’t for you. You’d rather venture off into the woods with nothing more than your wits and some survival instincts in hopes to carve out your own slice of paradise.

Don’t mind the other hundred people also trying to do the same, each one with varying sets of morals. If they don’t get you then maybe the dangerous animals that lurk in the forests of Norsege will be the ones to leave you dead and fertilizer for the trees.

For all intents and purposes, no help will be given to you for finding people to aid you in your developing farm. Basic Supplies will be given.]

[Collective Farming

You’ve realized that maybe it isn’t such a good idea to brave the unexplored by yourself. There are other people with the same thoughts and you’ve decided to group together, hopefully in an effort to have an easier time settling this new land.

Dave handles the cooking, Cindy deals with the medicine, Harry helps with the herds, but why isn’t Sarah doing anything?

Collective farming relies on each person to pull their own weight for fear of tensions mounting high enough, remember, it's easy to go missing in the mountains. Collective farming will grant each member basic supplies, and the same starting position for each member.]

[Grizzled Veteran Teaches Young Minnow

You’ve decided to learn from a more experienced farmer in the area for a while. This farming mentor will teach you which way to plow your fields and sooner or later you’ll be granted a portion of their farm to do with as you please.

Man, Old Man Whilikers is sure being a hardass today.

Mentors will be decided at random and for all intents and purposes, you will be an indentured farmer while under their teachings. Basic supplies will be given along with inherited connections with the local populace.]

Ambrose frowned as he read the options. The first option was something that he was tempted to immediately pick. Being a mutated freak didn’t exactly make it easy to acquire social skills in the Underground. Someone was more likely to kick him than actually want to talk to him. Plus having what basically seemed like being a slave in order to learn the basics of farming didn’t seem like a fair trade-off either. Ambrose instantly dismissed the mentor option and studied the other two. The A.I. noticed his gaze and spoke.

“I’m always here to give advice,” The soft feature man gave a small smile to the giant Ambrose. Tearing his eyes away from the screen, the Norse man nodded.

“I’ve decided that I'm not going to do the mentor farming, the description makes it seem too undesirable,” The young god chuckled lightly.

“I’d hoped it would. People who had made it to the Norsege Isles are hard people that hate to part with their way of life to outsiders. Even though you may share their appearance, it isn’t likely that a mentor will look favorably on a migrating soul.” The man explained the useful information which Ambrose found interesting.

“So the natives of the land will be able to tell that I'm not from this world? That isn’t like any other NPC dynamic that I've heard of,” Ambrose shrugged his shoulders at the strange feature but didn’t question it further.

“The natives of Eden haven’t developed much past city-state kingdoms and small frontier towns. Norsege Isles has only one starting point on the coastal village of Bjora. A small land that mainly harvests the marine wildlife to trade with other towns via ocean trade. You’ll find most of the items necessary to venture the land to settle from the surrounding stores. But I wander, let's get back to the other two options!” The young man clapped his hands.

“Solo farming would be easily the most dangerous of the three, the Isles are rife with wildlife that could rip you from limb to limb within a matter of seconds. Plus having to deal with the landscape without help could spell your doom. Hidden valleys are plenty but in order to get to them, you’ll have to traverse steep mountain ranges where one misstep could leave you dead. Of course, being by yourself would mean that you get to take more of the profits for yourself, providing that you can actually survive long enough to get anything done.” The god snickered to himself while Ambrose remained quiet.

Ambrose wanted to go out alone but with each word that came out of the god’s mouth, his decision wavered. The danger wasn’t something that Ambrose liked too much and the thought of some extra protection in the form of a community was an appealing thought.

“It seems that you are really pushing for the collective farm, aren’t you?” The god gave a sly grin.

“Humans are social creatures whether they want to admit it or not, you’ll have a better time with a group than without. Would you like to select the Collective Farming option?” The god raised an eyebrow, awaiting Ambrose’s response.

Ambrose wanted nothing more than to say no and brave the untamed wilderness with nothing but his lackluster experience and luck, but a voice nudged at the back of his head. Ambrose wasn’t the same freak of nature that he was back on Earth. Here he was an actual human with a proper face and voice. This was a new beginning that he’d regret for the rest of his life if he squandered. His shoulders relaxed as he made his decision.

“I’d like to select the Collective Farming option.”

“Perfect! Your future companions are now being selected as we speak. If you decide that you don’t like who you’ve been grouped with then you can always go it alone, there are no game rules that force you to stick together!” Ambrose was relieved that he wouldn’t be tied down in case this choice backfired on him. The A.I. forged onwards to now give advice about his skill selection.

“Since you’ve decided that you’re going to be part of a new community then we can focus on some skills more than others. Your [Farming] skill will be the base of your future crop-growing expertise, gaining levels and ranks in that skill will increase the growing speed, quality, and quantity that will affect your plants. Since that will be your main focus then it would make sense to add some supporting skills to boost it up.” the god hummed to himself while selecting a few skills and showing them to Ambrose. But then the god paused.

“You’ll have to forgive me, I sometimes lose myself at this part. Migrating souls only have so many skill points to start off with, and the skills I recommended are probably the best fit. Hence I will give you some recommendations on the skills you should look for at the nearest skill book store when you reach Norsege Isles.

“The [Physical Fitness] skill will be a big part of your farming, it's back-breaking work and you’ll thank me later when you find it easier each day. You’ll need [Cooking] so you don’t have to eat everything raw, trust me, you’ll be grateful when your food tastes better than it would’ve. [Herbology] for collecting, processing, and documenting herbs for your alchemy skill. It was good to put alchemy and taming together, for most taming either requires raising the creature from infancy or proving that you can make their life better, often through alchemy concoctions or food. Let's put [Identification] as a good round skill that can be used for anything…” The god continued on until he finally presented a list to Ambrose.

His skills hadn’t been modified, still showing [Farming], [Taming], [Alchemy], all at (Novice I), and the two apprentice skills [Cold Resistance] and [Wilderness Survival], and the magical skills [Earth Manipulation] and [Water Manipulation]. His recommended skills read out as [Cooking], [Herbology], [Physical Fitness], [Identification], [Archery], [Bowcraft], [Leatherworking], [Herb Growing], [Wood Working], and [Construction]. The two extra skills provided by his race selection were optimal for the wilderness and he was thankful to have them. Other skills like [Archery] would boost his accuracy and damage when using bows. [Leatherworking] to make clothes and repair them, [Wood Working] and [Construction] to make a house and potential daily necessities. His starting skill set was aimed in just the way that he imagined a frontiersman would need. But he had a question.

“Why do I need [Herb Growing] when I already have the [Farming] skill? Isn’t it still the same thing?” Ambrose looked back and forth between the recommended skill list and his actual skill list.

“It's the same thing as skills building upon each other. [Farming] provides a passive boost overall when growing, but [Herb Growing] further boosts the skills providing more effect. The two skills work together to provide a much better result. A person with the [Farming] skill at a low rank but no [Herb Growing] might have his or her herbs turn out as an (Inferior) rarity. While those with both skills, both at a low rank, may have the herbs grow to be (Common) rarity.

“Rarities go in the order of least to greatest. (Inferior), (Common), (Uncommon), (Rare), and (Epic). There are tales of higher-ranked items but you’ll have to confirm that for yourself.” The god gave a playful wink. Ambrose pondered on this new information but his thoughts were interrupted by the A.I.

“I’ve just been notified that your collective farm group has been assembled, a few are still in the skill selection phase but I believe that it is diverse enough that everyone can advance in their respective fields.” The blue-eyed boy smiled in glee, which caused the grim Ambrose to let out a small grin.

“Can I look at the list?” Ambrose wanted to at least get a bit of a feel for who he would be spending a long time with.

“Certainly!” A blue screen popped up in front of Ambrose, who studied the list of names. Due to them all being on the collective farm their skills were listed which Ambrose made note of. A few builders, hunters, farmers like himself, and many more. In fact, the diversity caused Ambrose to raise a question.

“Why is it called a collective farm when not everyone is a farmer? I see someone here with his skills focused around blacksmithing?” Ambrose had a fledging of an idea which was confirmed by the smirking god.

“I guess it should really be called the Frontier Settlers option, the group of around thirty people are the start of what everyone hopes to be a new village. It's basically grouping up enough people with different professions in the hopes that they’ll make it long enough to officially establish a new town. Make sense?” Ambrose nodded as the possibilities opened up in his mind. Humanity was essentially having to restart civilization as they knew it, this collective group option being the skeleton of former Earth residents to mark their land on Eden. It also meant that Ambrose wouldn’t have to worry about doing everything himself, which the loner habit he had developed throughout his life found strange.

Ambrose continued to take note of who had what skills but was once again interrupted by the god.

“With our time together drawing to a close I have only a final few selections. One which is your name.” Ambrose had no reason to change his parents' given name, if anything it was a small tie to the two that had decided to live their final years on a dying Earth.

“Ambrose Jay,” he said with no lack of sadness.

“Ambrose! Great name, since you’ll be starting in the Norsege Isles it’d be smart to choose your equipment to suit the land, would you like a recommendation?” Ambrose gave a curt nod as the god smiled.

A myriad possibilities of a wardrobe of leather and fur clothing filled his view and he didn’t waste time browsing the apparel. The insulating hide clothing was meant to protect more against the elements than its metal counterparts but Ambrose was sure that it’d be the right choice. Adorning his body was now a pair of brown leather pants that reminded Ambrose of thick jeans. A pair of leather boots protected his feet against the ground. A fur coat that reminded him of a seventeenth-century trapper draped itself across his shoulders. Each item only provided the bare minimum for defense but Ambrose figured he could always craft his own gear later on.

When he was done with the clothing a new weapon rack appeared in his vision. A hunting bow was his first choice, its finely treated wood felt smooth to the touch, hide wrapped around the center of the bow provided a sturdy handgrip. A quiver of arrows with metalheads was strapped around his back and a long iron knife was sheathed around his waist, even though he didn’t have the skills to go along with the weapons, he hoped to eventually acquire them. Along with a bunch of underclothes such as shirts, underwear, and socks Ambrose was ready to go.

“I’ve taken the liberty of selecting what you’ll need to survive in the wilderness along with what you’ll require to start up your farm,” The A.I. dropped a large backpack packed with a tent, bedroll, ax, saw, pot, and pan, with other minor items such as flint and steel. Ambrose also noticed a seed bag filled with a few basic crops that seemed to be native to the Norsege Isles. Ambrose tried to pull up information on them but soon realized that he’d need a [Identification] skill to bring up anything on them. Ambrose immediately put the skill at the top of his needed skills. It would suck to pass by any herbs that he could’ve harvested, but failed due to not knowing it was an herb.

After a quick examination of the rest of the contents of the bag, Ambrose was ready to go. Slinging the backpack across his shoulders let it rest across his back, tightening the straps across his chest to limit its movement. He was once again thankful that the game system of Eden allowed more to be stored on the inside of the container than would’ve been possible on Earth.

“I think I’m ready to go, thank you very much.” Ambrose nodded his head in gratitude towards the helpful A.I.

“Glad to be of service, I look forward to watching how you earthlings adapt to this world,” Ambrose promptly blacked out. The first step on his long journey in a new world, one where he could change his entire life around. One where he wasn’t bogged down by the mistakes of those that lived centuries before him.