My consciousness returned slowly as I felt my senses springing back into action. I can smell grass and from the ticklish feeling along my body, I am most likely sprawled somewhere on some field or a forest.

"I swear, if I'll wake up half eaten..."

I open my eyes and I am greeted by strong sunlight, forcing me to shut them close again. After a couple of minutes, my sight returned to me... is obviously daytime.

I get up to my feet and check my body.

"Seems like I kept the same clothes...nothing wrong with my body, I can speak normally and I am not in the middle of a forest. Good! A 'bad end' so suddenly would leave a strange aftertaste. Field, I guess? Didn't I ask of him to send me somewhere close to a city at least?"

While complaining to no one in particular, I kept checking my surroundings. Since I saw a hill nearby, I decided to climb it and take a good look at where I am. Judging from my shadow, it seems to be around noon, giving me enough time to do some reconnaissance work.

The flora seems to be just like the one on Earth...not that I know much about it. No animals in sight and no cliche 'chance encounter' with any monsters...

"I think I'm off to a rather good start here!"

I can see in the distance behind me a forest, but that's a no-go! Is common knowledge that when brought in a fantasy world like this, that would trigger events like fights with monsters or randomly walking into some people fighting, for which I am both unprepared and unwilling right now. This hill should allow some insight regarding the topography and give me an idea towards where I have to go next. Is not such a large or high hill, but it helps that there are trees at the top that I can climb and is kind of the tallest spot around me to use as a vantage point.

No fruits in the trees, but flowers are present. Seems like is spring in this world...or at least I think so, as long as the seasons match.

"No overpowered fruits that I can eat and become strong at the beginning... Well let's climb a tree and check the area."

All around me were only plains for as far as I could see, extending to the horizon...except for the forest. Behind the forest, there seemed to be a tower of sorts. Most likely that is a mark of civilization.

"But going through that forest...I really don't like it. It seems like I'm being forced into that cliche..."

Ominous feelings aside, it seems that my direction has been decided. There is no food or water here, so I must go fast. Also, I need to avoid nightfall and camping in a forest at all costs. There are not enough details about this place, therefore is not safe. I need some information...

I wonder if that analytic skill I got as a gift can help me...

"How do I even use it? Do I shout something like "ANALYZE" and hope I get something? What kind of tree is this?"

Oak tree - a common tree with a slightly strong bark. In spring it blooms and its flowers are edible to humans, but highly poisonous to monsters. Doesn't bare fruits.

...I stood there in silence staring at the pop-up window that just appeared in front of me. Mhm...Yup! I guess is an Oak tree then...

"Don't let it get to you! I need to make sure I don't let it get to me! That self-serving game God... Anyway, let's try it again. Does it activate by asking a question regarding the object? What kind of tree is this?"

Nothing but awkward silence and the sound of the wind passing through the leaves, caressing its branches. Well, that guy did tell me that his gift of his wasn't one that needed activation and that it was mostly passive. So, what are the conditions? Since is analytic, maybe curiosity? Or is it more of a matter of focus on the object you are curious about?

After several tries, I managed to have the window popping up again, by focusing on the object. It seemed that if you want to get the details about it, all you need to do is look closely at it, while picturing what you want from it. If you have a strong image in mind, it helps in bringing forth the information window faster.

"But now the most important question...does it work on me?"

I took my time in getting down from the oak tree while stuffing some of its flowers in my pants pockets.

"Since they are edible and pois... it might help later on."

Now at the bottom of the tree, ignoring one more time the description window about the flowers and the monsters, I was rather hyped to see if I can check my information. I raised my hands until they were at my eye level and focused on them.

Name

Michael Corbett

Name

Value

Name

Value

Job Name

Level

Progress

Race

Human

STR

10

Magic

0

Human

1

0%

Sex

Male

DEX

11

Charm

10

Age

25

AGI

12

Luck

10

World

Anhur

END

8

HP

100/100 (+0.1/sec)

INT

15

MP

50/50(+0.05/sec)

WIS

10

Skill List Name Level Proficiency Identify MAX 100%

Fear Resistance MAX 100%

"...common. Whose stats are this!? They are WEAK! I'll lose to a rolling ball chasing me downhill with this stats! At least my HP is pretty high...I think... And this 'World' entry in the info window, I guess it shows the world I was moved to. Anhur?"

Anhur - one of the one thousands worlds participating in the Game of Gods. Ruled by Anhur the God of War.

Current blessings - Blessing of Fertility, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of War, Blessing of Experience.

Rank: 999/1000

"ISN'T THIS WORLD THE SECOND LAST!? What's with this terrible luck? Is only 10 stat points low? Is it!?"

But this... after calming down a bit, I realized that this is rather important. Not only can I see my status, but I can also see details about other things that could impact it. Like the blessings of this world for example or the rank of the world in the competition. This...I wonder if I can inspect more in depth.

Blessing of Fertility : Increases the chance of a successful conception between members of the same race by 50%. Increases the chance upon conception of having more than one child between members of the same race by 25%. Increases overall happiness of the people by 50% while active and the chance of a higher tier soul to be born by 10%. Blessing of Wisdom: Increases the Intelligence, Wisdom and Magic stat for new souls born since the activation of this blessing by an overall 50%. Through synergy effect with the Blessing of Fertility, each new soul born will start with 100 MP and aptitude for magic. A higher tier soul will have the bonus doubled based on its tier: once for tier 2, twice for tier 3, thrice for tier 4, etc. Blessing of War: Increases the Strength, Agility and Dexterity stat for new souls born since the activation of this blessing by an overall 50%. Through synergy effect with the Blessing of Fertility, each new soul born will start with a 100 HP and aptitude for fight skills. A higher tier soul will have the bonus doubled based on its tier: once for tier 2, twice for tier 3, thrice for tier 4, etc. Blessing of Experience: Increases the accumulation of Experience for every new souls born since the activation of this blessing by an overall 50%. Through synergy effect with the Blessing of Wisdom and the Blessing of War, each new soul born will be provided with an additional 50% increase in the stats is most suitable for. A higher tier soul will have the bonus doubled based on its tier: once for tier 2, twice for tier 3, thrice for tier 4, etc.

"The hell!? Ain't I weaker than newborns? And what's with those overpowered blessings? Are all the children here super-humans? And in that case, how is this world second last? Even when playing, those babies could probably strangle a dragon to death by the age of 4!!!"

It didn't make sense that with all those blessings and the synergy effect between them a God of War would have such a weak ranking. Unless...unless if he didn't make use of the Auction Store and didn't create the war-sim...dungeons as soon as they appeared. Or he realized it late and he tries to catch up now. However...only four blessings? Given that one blessing is provided each rank up, why does he have so few? Representative maybe...and if we consider one rank up per century, then with five blessings only, he chose a hero option quite a lot... five times for that matter. It makes me both curious about the civilization and anxious at the same time for its future grim prospects. Won't I get steamrolled over once other worlds invade!?

"Also, there is one other entry that peeked my interest. 'Fear resistance', is it? From what I heard from the Reaper, only at level 10 will you be granted a skill. And I have two of them. One I got as a gift from him, but this second one seems to be there without his doing, since he talked about balance and what-not. While I could see him do stupid things for his own entertainment, I doubt he would tip the scales too much towards one side."

I remembered also the conversation where he told me that usually, a soul can't be in his presence because of the soul-shattering fear. Meaning that either I had this ability in life, or I got it after I was killed...or during that time.

One thing is for certain: while remembering when I was killed... I was absolutely frightened at that point! Which means that either after or during the time I was murdered, I gained this ability. The number of questions keeps increasing and I am losing daylight here, by doing nothing but wonder.

I open the information window regarding the skill, while walking towards the forest.

Fear resistance: A soul damaged by fright to the extent that, in order to cope and survive, it gained resistance to fear itself. Immune to all mental attacks and states.

And there seems to be my answer: during the time I was killed, but not by having my soul tampered by someone else, rather by my own survival instincts kicking in. Immunity to any sort of mental attacks or altering states is a good perk to have, but remembering how I got it...it really doesn't seem like a fair trade.

"So the moment of clarity I got when I died was because I managed to acquire this. That's how I was able to see her face and talk with her...Oh, it seems like I am close to the entrance of the forest."

Being one step away from entering through the multitude of trees, I could feel something wrong. It wasn't something that I could quite put my finger on...rather it seemed like the same instinct keeping me alive previously. Something told me that this place was bad news for my low HP.