He was first met with a barrage of unknown memories rushing into his head accompanied by a piercing headache soon after.

His name was Eliott Hearthrom, the only son of the local librarian. His mother passed away due to an illness when he was younger and grew up with his father. At least, the body belonged to the late Eliott Hearthrom. Now it was the home of Lukas, the now fortunate soul who crossed over.

After the pain disappeared he found himself on the floor, surrounded by a few scattered books and a wooden ladder that has seen better days. The head pain slowly ebbed away with the sound of hurried footsteps increasingly getting louder.

“Eliott! Eliott, are you alright? I heard something fall and the sound of something snapping! Eliott!!” A concerned shout rang through the air.

[Processing…. 5%]

[Processing…. 32%]

“Eliott?!”

Lukas amidst the confusion of the shouting and the words he could see shouted back, “I’m fine! I just took a small fall, nothing bad.”

[Processing…. 79%]

A shadow fell over him and a scruffy-looking middle-aged man rushed over. Despite his series of protests, the man looked about before questioning, “This is a small fall to you?! You could’ve broken your head stupid boy!”

[Processing complete!]

[Congratulations you have gained host privileges to the “Fantastical World Maker System”!]

[You have been given a 1x Creator's Package!]

[Main task established: Fantastical Origins. Introduce the wonders of magic to the world through the use of the system’s tools. Time remaining: 23:59:32]

“Answer me Eliott! Did you lose your head?!”

Eyes wide, Lukas came back from the shock and surprise of what he saw. He looked up to the gentle eyes of the man in front of him, his father, Gareth Hearthrom.

“I- I’m fine father… just didn’t see the state of the ladder is all.” He laughed with a wince of pain from his head.

[New task established: Filial Piety. Your family is on the verge of complete ruination due to some unforeseen circumstances. Help your father tide through the troubles and save the business.

Reward: Runes and Variations by Faust XX, 1x Essence Orb (Small).]

“Sometimes you worry me child, but I always attribute it to your mother’s imbalance that you have inherited. Just make sure you don’t hurt yourself and leave me as well…”

He ruffles Lukas’s hair lovingly, giving him a once-over before taking the broken ladder and leaving. “I’ll have to get a sturdier ladder next time,” Lukas hears him whisper under his breath.

“I’ll take care of it father, just worry about the library. I can get a new ladder and take better care of myself in the future.”

His father stops for a bit, then shakes his head with a huff before disappearing behind some shelves.

Now that he’s alone with these thoughts, he can’t help but try to process everything he just went through.

The death and rebirth of sorts.

The system.

The missions.

His new family is in a tough spot already?

And the elephant in the room, what the fuck is this system?!

[Explanations are given to the new host. You have been given the chance to give this boring small world a new chance. Failure to do so will be followed by the subsequent termination of the host! So please dutifully complete the main tasks!]

[Additionally, subsequent tasks will be assigned to the host in response to various events around them. These are purely optional and will solely rely on the host to identify and complete without the help of the system tools.

Upon completion, rewards may be given. Otherwise, the host will experience the natural consequences of failure or neglect. So please be dutiful when assigned tasks!]

What kind of bullshit system is this?!

Termination upon failure? He was only given 24 hours, to begin with! This was a death sentence!

Lukas looked around as he got up from the floor. The pain in his head had slowly gone away, but things were still fuzzy with the interruption of the system’s prompts.

[Host is advised to explore the system’s tools to avoid termination due to neglect. The rules have been explained, the system cannot be blamed for host incompetence.]

Lukas practically spit blood at the statement. Cheeky!

He decided to get to that after looking around first.

Lukas gathered the fallen books on the floor and promptly read through their titles as he stacked them up on a nearby table.

Mysteries of Xerveres. Fortitude and Health. Tales of the Continent: Hubert’s Issues are among the more interesting titles. The rest seem to be illegible to him or are mere works of fiction.

The rustic look of the library interior seems to be older akin to the medieval era of his old world. Things are made of wood or crude designs of metal. He can hear the faint sounds of the town outside the stone walls which protect the books he was working with.

His only sources of light were his lantern and ember sconces that lined the walls.

Everything was old but quite ordinary.

------

Lukas inhaled, feeling a bit better than he did a few hours before. He was now seated in front of a table in the quiet library, just finished cleaning the mess the late Eliott made. Rest his soul.

After further consideration, he just seemed to pass suddenly.

[Previous owner of the body failed due to functional error with the organs. Another reason for the host to be more dutiful with the main task. Current time remaining: 21:17:02]

What the fuck?! Does this body also have issues? Aren’t people who cross over in the novels supposed to have a hidden talent to their body or at least a problem-free one?

What did he do to Lady Luck in the past life?!

Alright! Show me the tools! Let’s get going before I up and die too!

A few tabs popped up in Lukas’s brain with the second and fourth options being grayed out.

[Create]

[Inventory]

[Tasks]

[???]

[World Record]

Surprised by the clean layout, he decided to look at the tabs that he was able to explore.

[Create. This allows you to influence the world through various means at the cost of Fate. Creations are limited by the essence quality and size of the world. The host is eligible to use his Fate to influence creations if world Fate isn’t enough.

Warning: Excessive use of personal Fate will result in adverse effects to the host which may include termination of the soul.]

[Inventory. Self-explanatory considering host experience and history. If needed a more in-depth explanation, the system might feel host incompetence was higher than expected.]

[Tasks. A summary of the given tasks with rewards; of which are automatically transferred to the Inventory upon completion.]

[???. The host is currently restricted from accessing this feature. Too weak!]

[World Record. Records important events in history that are subsequent effects of the system. All your highs and lows may also be recorded here, so please be a diligent host!]

Once again, Lukas was perplexed… mostly at the daring descriptions of the system! There were also some interesting bits of information in the descriptions which the system ignored all inquiries.

Shaking his head, he had a feeling that the first task was one he should get over as soon as possible. If not for the sake of his new body, but the first steps in his new life as Eliott Hearthrom!

But first, there was still an unopened package waiting for him.

“Open the Creator’s Package!”