LIGHTNOVELONLINE Ch-1-The storm
When I opened my eyes next, all I saw was the infinite black, but before I could let my mind spiral and think that everything that just happened was a figment of my overactive imagination, a gold and white colored screen appeared in front of me. On this screen was the animated body of a woman who was about 18 years of age with brownish-black hair and a pair of fox ears with a white-tipped fluffy tail.
When I thought about her reaching back and touching her tail, she did exactly that as I felt the touch, and a spike of an unknown sensation hit my brain. This made me realize two things.
The first is that I can feel everything she feels at this exact moment, even though when I look down at myself, there is nothing there, kind of like looking in a mirror and seeing the body that you should have without having one.
The second is that I should never let anyone touch my tail.
After this crazy experience, I turned my attention to the rest of the screen, where I found a bunch of sliders, dials, and number inputs, along with a number of tools that culminated into the ultimate character creator experience. With a slightly mad look in my eyes, I realize that I have all the time in the world to make this character and that I will be stuck with it for the rest of my life.
Cracking my knuckles, I get to work like any other well-experienced gamer invested in a game, being told that this is the only character they can ever make.
This was going to be fun.
After what feels like days of work, I finally have what I would call a perfect character for me. She is six feet or a little over one point eight meters tall, with blood-red waist-length hair, fluffy fox ears the same color as my hair on the outside with white fluff on the inside, and a two-tone fluffy tail that was blood red in color with a sharp fade to white at the tip.
Her head is slightly almond-shaped and comes to a rounded point. She has sharp, slightly glowing blood-red eyes, a small nose, and a mouth with a natural, slight smile that is on the smaller side. There is a small but permanent blade scar that crosses over her left eye, which is already partly covered by her hair, as well as a light smattering of freckles on her cheekbones. The scar itself was not anything that would leave harm but was more like permanent movie makeup.
The rest of her body is slightly curvy, leaning towards the lithe beauty aesthetic, with a well-proportioned body that has slightly smaller but notable assets. Then, to Finish it off, there is another blade scar that lies horizontal on the right side of her waist, going halfway to the center of her body.
With that done, I believe that I am finished with character creation. I even get a finalized confirmation screen, but when I confirm, a new screen pops up, telling me to select my traits. It is here that I see my second wish having come to fruition in the form of two traits.
[Genius Mind: Having an intellect nearing the limits of the mortal world, you are able to learn any information that exists with relative ease.]
[Martial and Qi Origin: You can create new techniques, martial arts, and even completely new methods of cultivation with relative ease.]
This panel also showed six different stats alongside spiritual roots and physique, with a certain number of points in the top right corner. The six stats were Strength(STR), Endurance(END), Agility(AGI), Intellect(INT), Sensory(SEN), and Energy(ENE). The only confusing one was energy, as it is not normal on Earth or most Earthlike parallels (if they exist).
Energy represents the body's adaptability to Qi and other energies as well as its efficient usage of such. This stat started at nine due to my second trait, while my Intellect started at nine due to the first trait. Sensory started at seven due to my race being a fox girl, and all other stats were five, which is the racial standard.
The amount of points that I had was two hundred, and the maximum number of stat points was ten. This felt off, but at the current moment I could not care as I was having too much fun. The first increase in stats always costs two points, and each subsequent increase costs an additional point. Using four points, I increase my Intellect and energy to the max. Three more points increased my sensory to nine, and another four points increased my Agility to eight. For the last stat increase, I spent three points on my endurance, increasing it to seven.
This leaves me with one hundred and eighty-six points left. Checking the spiritual root shows that It is currently labeled as me having none, resulting in me being unable to cultivate, so I changed it to the best one available, which cost fifty points and is called the Heavenly Ten Element Revolving Spiritual Root.
Without looking at its description, I move on to the Physique category, which is currently labeled no physique. Opening it, I scroll down to the best available one, the Primordial Empress Body, and choose it.
I didn't look at this description either, so I moved on to the traits category so I could spend the rest of my points on some useful things. The first thing that catches my eye, however, is something called evolving bloodline. When I click on it, a window pops up telling me that my bloodline is not strong enough and that picking this will cause it to evolve for an additional sum of points.
After picking yes, I am then given a few options for how I wish my bloodline to evolve. After seeing the first option, I picked it without thinking and evolved into a one-tailed Kitsune. This evolution does not change anything about my character, and all I feel is a slight tingling in my fingers, as well as seeing a new trait show up along with my picked trait.
[Retractable Claws: The natural physical weapon of many beasts or beast-adjacent species.]
[Evolving Bloodline: You are the start of your own bloodline, and thus, it will evolve with you and grow more powerful while gaining new traits as you grow stronger.]
Feeling satisfied, I look at how many points I have left after doing that and see that I have sixteen, which is just enough for some quality-of-life traits.
Once everything is over, I am asked to finalize again, which I do before the screen disappears, and I fall unconscious.
"Cap'm, the skies seem to be clear tonight, and even the wind has died down for the time bein'. Are you certain that old fraud of a fortun' teller was right?"
"I don't know skipper, but if he is, I don't want 'im to be right."
"Then I'll have the men double-check the supplies and make sure 'here secure."
"That'd be best, lade, that'd be best."
At this moment, thunder cracked as a lightning bolt raced across the sky before arcing and striking the calm surface of the sea. Clouds in the shape of anvils seem to almost instantly form in the sky overhead as a strong, vicious wind blows and churns the sea as if angry and trying to swallow the ship whole. The captain starts to bark orders in an attempt to get moving and save at least their lives, if not their ship, as well.
As this happens, far above them, a few clouds part, revealing the figure of a young woman clad in a one-piece white dress with golden hair flowing down their back as well as covering part of her face. While under normal circumstances, she would have come across as pretty or even beautiful, but here, she looked like the incarnation of death, with the darkness of the storm dyeing her dress a dark shade of gray and her hair leaving flickering shadows on her face.
The crew of the ship below started to panic when they saw her, and not even the captain's shouting could calm them. Seemingly unfazed by the sailors below her, she raised her hand towards the ship, causing the crew to believe it was their end before a bright ball of orange fire appeared next to her and flew toward the ship.
After the ball of fire crashes into the ship, damaging the top deck, the woman in the sky disappears while the storm grows more intense and starts pushing the ship toward the shore, which, unknowingly to them, is guarded by a large coral reef.
The captain, seeing a potential escape by running their ship aground, starts to guide the ship toward the shore when her port side is smashed into the coral, nearly breaking her in half.
She, however, ends up making it out and starts to limp toward the shore once more, only to strike herself on the other side. This time, she succeeds in completing the job and breaks in half, sending her entire crew and cargo into the darkness below, as well as her unknown passenger who appeared on the fire-scorched area of the deck.