Jerald hesitated and then pushed complete and it moved on to the next step in the creation of the core persona. The next screen was the historical part of the core persona and why it was cool to have a back ground. He was confused on the point of it.

He had no history except the one from Earth, and to be honest, he didn’t want to continue that one. The fact that he saw there was a continue button meant that it wasn’t completely necessary, but he always did like to write and create. He decided decisively that it would be good to have a fresh start even though it was just a illusion. The more he thought about the more he was interested in having a fresh start and one he could control.

The first thing that came to his mind was how lonely he was growing up with out a family and few friends. It was the main reason why he allowed himself to be used by the woman he loved, and the friend that betrayed him. It was a regret that nagged at him and why he tried to let it go. He knew deep down inside it was a knot that was so tight that it could never be untied.

This opportunity to rewrite his past almost made him feel relieved in a way. He had to do it right, and make sure he was happy with it. To Jerald it was a exercise in freeing his soul, and the thought of it made him smile or at least as much as he could for a gray alien that had no lips. He let out a mental sigh and organized his mind and then with just a thought his new life story flowed on to the screen.

When he was done, he weaved a story of young man that cherished his family and friends growing up and his wish to grow up to be strong of mind and body. He tried to depend on wisdom to always find a way to fight through any difficulties.

He went through hardships, but as he grew, and his prowess grew and became more powerful. He had fallen in love with many woman and had several children with several loving wives that stood beside him. He wasn’t overbearing but focused on invention and protecting his family and the people he had sway over.

Jerald almost felt like he had lived that life as he finally passed away and ascended to where he was now. His core history moving forward and his previous life from Earth just a poor memory of dream he didn’t truly enjoy.

He truly felt happy as he looked at his history on the screen before him and surprisingly the history filled in with names of people he loved and children he raised and memories he had just created. He was satisfied and with out him having to press continue the screen moved forward to the last screen of the process, which had all his information on it and a simple phrase.

“Do you want to complete your core persona Jerald Mercer?” Yes or No

Jerald didn’t decide and looked over his information once more.

___ ___ ___

Name: Jerald Mercer

Title: Digital Transmigrater

Age: Day 3

Soul Core: Base Level 1 [15%]

Soul Energy: 123 Units

Soul Sanctuary: None

Personas: 0 (Temporary Persona Remaining time: 4124 minutes)

Soul Talents: Charismatic Essence, Eidetic Memory

Soul Shards: 0

Karma: 193

Talents:

Friendly Aura: 13,358 UC

Advanced Comprehension: 14,627 UC

Mental Fortitude: 7,334 UC

Fortunate Attractor: 18,303 UC

Unusually Lucky: 29,352 UC

Danger Sense: 12,127 UC

Familial Bond: 11,001 UC

Abilities:

Healing Touch: 72,934 UC

Temporal Sight: 63,582 UC

Body Control: 31,257 UC

Shape Shift: 93,421 UC

Bloodlines:

Demonic Bloodline: 173,559 UC

Belmarion Bloodline: 183,523 UC

Core Persona total cost:

Body: 84,230 UC

Traits, Abilities and Bloodlines: 721,378 UC – [40%] = 432,827 UC

Total Cost: 517,057 UC

___ ___ ___

If it wasn’t for the 40% discount it would have taken up over have of his total UC he had, but it still took up quite a bit. He had 1,734,528 UC at the beginning and after he accepted the core persona, he would only have 1,217,471 UC left. It felt like it was a huge fortune at the start, but more than a quarter was gone with the first persona he created. He couldn’t do anything about it though and with a heavy heart he accepted by thinking yes at the prompt.

Jerald once again felt the connections with his body dissipate and new connections form. It was only a few minutes he felt nothing, but he really didn’t like the feeling. Soon he could feel his arms and legs again and when he reached up, he saw a human hand in front of him and he smiled. He looked down and was still naked, but at least what he saw was his body he just created. He looked down to make sure he was the right gender and saw that everything was in the right place and then he opened his interface again.

Name: Jerald Mercer

Title: Digital Transmigrater

Age: Day 3

Soul Core: Base Level 1 [39%]

Soul Energy: 123 Units

Soul Sanctuary: None

Personas: 1 [Core]

Soul Talents: Charismatic Essence, Eidetic Memory

Soul Shards: 0

Karma: 193

Current UC: 1,217,421 UC

Jerald looked around and there was nothing there not even walls where he was. He tried to think back to if there was anything there when he was given the temporary body and he couldn’t remember anything but a screen after he awoken his interface. He blinked and smiled because he could blink now, and he looked around the mist filled room area.

“Hello, are you still there?” Jerald asked.

“I am.” The voice said. “How may I help you?”

“I don’t know what I should do next.” Jerald said.

“To enter other parts of the Epsilon System you need a core persona which you have created, a sanctuary which has the proper portal pads to the systems you wish to enter.” The voice responded.

“So, the sanctuary should be next.” Jared cringed as he realized that there went more UC.

Jerald opened the main page of the interface and opened Sanctuary tab, and like the creation tab there were numerous options. The base sanctuary was a 100,000 UC, and as he opened it up to look at it wasn’t anything special. The human model came with a living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and two portal rooms could host portals that were F class portals.

Jerald looked at the information and wondered what it meant by F class portals and decided to ask. “Can you tell me the difference in classes for portals?”

“Each world in Epsilon System has a rating and to go to those worlds you have to have a high enough portal rating. A F class portal rating can only go to F class planets, but a S class portal rating can go to any planet in the system and take you to different systems within the nexus. Each portal spot can only go to a specific world and if you want to go to a different world you will have to add a F class portal pad and upgrade it or take one you have and upgrade it to the rating of that world.” The voice explained.

“So, the base sanctuary would give me everything I need to start and link two worlds to the sanctuary correct?” Jerald asked.

“That is correct it would give you the necessary things needed at the lowest cost, but like most base models it is highly inefficient.” The voice said.

“How so?”

“A sanctuary is the core of your powers and the more stable it is the more stable everything that follows is.” The voice said. “In your human race a person lives a hundred years and then passes away, but here your life is literally eternal, but the condition you live your life is not. There are some that live there life humbly and are happy, but others in some worlds are thought of as gods.”

“I can’t die?” Jerald asked.

“You can die, but not the same way as on your world. Your core is the most important thing and its health and stability is vital.” The voice said. “The stronger your core the more you can do and the larger your sanctuary the more can be created. On the other hand though, if your core is weak and has no stability it can eventually weaken enough to collapse. If that happens your persona and life collapses with it and becomes destabilized spiritual energy that will never be able to hold a consciousness again. So yes, you can die if you do not care and solidify your sanctuary where you live. A base sanctuary is less costly, but quite a bit less stable too.”

“How can you tell how stable your sanctuary is?”

“Your sanctuary has a percentage that tells you how stable it is or how stable it will be to build in the interface.” The voice explained. “It ranges from 0% to 100% with 100% being more stable. If you choose the base sanctuary it will be reasonably stable, but to make it more stable will cost more funds in the long run.”

“How do you earn UC then?” Jerald asked.

“Your sanctuary doesn’t have the resources to earn UC or Universal Credits, but when you go to another world through one of your portals you can actually donate currency or items to add to your UC. It can be done through your interface or by ritual where others offer you it via donations or prayers.”

“What you mean like to a god?” Jerald asked.

“Yes, that is exactly what it means.” The voice said. “You though are a long way from that.”

“Let me get this straight.” Jerald said. “For me to survive I have to go down to convince digital people to donate to me so I can earn UC and make my sanctuary stronger?”

“Yes and No.” The voice said. “Yes, you must go down and either donate the funds you earn or get people to donate to your name, but you are wrong about something. What makes you think the people in the worlds aren’t as real as the ones in the place you came from?”

“I was digitized and sent here.” Jerald said. “Isn’t this a place created by artificial intelligence to house those that are thrown away by their worlds?”

“You did arrive here through a digitalization process, but Jerald this is real.” The voice said seriously. “The only reason why you are in this position right now is because you had positive karma and thus have started out from a better position. Those that have negative karma are reborn on one of the worlds to live their life to balance out the negative karma they have. There death takes them right back in the reincarnation sequence, but you are having over 50 positive karma have been given an opportunity. It is an opportunity you can lose if you lose all your positive karma. Many that take the shape of gods have fallen because of they don’t understand this.”

Jerald was about to make a sarcastic remark, but then stopped when he realized he was standing in a body he just created, and he was about to make a comment on a world he really knew nothing about. He would be the fool in this situation, and he took a deep breath and realized he was sick and tired of being the fool. The momentary pause let him gain his train of thought and he finally said.

“Your right of course.” Jerald said calmly. “I wasn’t taking this serious enough, and I am going to try to not make the same mistakes I made in the previous life.”

Jerald listened to the voice and didn’t choose the base sanctuary, but he did use it as an example. He saw the stabilization rating on the base, which was 50% which made sense. I opened several human type structures and took the time to start to piece them together.

The first one had a 102,352 UC cost, but the stabilization rate was less and had dropped to 43%. I frowned and broke it apart again and time after time again I built and broke down. The best stabilization rate I had received was 58% and the worst was 39%.

He was frustrated and changed after a while he took off the filter and the multitude of other options were shown and in stead, Jerald broke them down in to room types rather than human types. The stabilization rate of my sanctuary rose, but so did the cost as well, and Jerald had lost track of how much time it took. He finally had a breakthrough and gained a stabilization rate of 81% and a cost of 312,934 UC.

The sanctuary design used several alien races designs and, in the end, he only had two human rooms. The first was the bathroom and the second was the portal pads. Everything else was of alien design and to be honest the human portions really did make the house look blander than the alien designs. The living room was a semi garden with a circular pool that condensed into a data screen.

The kitchen was similar and looked like a natural garden rather than the typical fridge and stone. There were a few natural stone surfaces for somebody to cook, and plants scattered located in different positions that had ingredients waiting to be plucked off the vine or pulled from the ground. The whole living area was shaped under a glass dome that allowed natural lighting in.

There were three archways in the living room that turned into glass walled hallways that lead in different directions. A long hallway lead to two separate small glass rooms that hosted the two portal pads. Another hallway lead to the bedroom and to the bathroom that was the only room that had solid walls.

The last hallway lead to the exterior of the house and another large garden area that had everything from fruit trees to a large pond. The sanctuary was more like a garden home that was surrounded in white mists looking more heavenly that the normal base setting.

The house and ground were fully stocked with vegetation and daily necessities from cooking pans to simple clothes and shoes in the bedroom closet. Jared could only sigh at the look and he could now see how people could think of themselves as gods if they all lived in such beautiful places.

He left open plans for expansion in the future but for now he accepted the sanctuary and confirmed the purchase. Soon he found himself in the sanctuary and with out hesitation he walked toward the bedroom his body still naked and toward the closet where he found a set of small clothes and simple white trousers and a shirt and put them on.