In the biggest forest of the planet, the sun shone brightly over the trees. There was a light refreshing breeze brushing against their leaves and making a few branches move with it. This dense mass of nature was one of the few untouched places remaining on the continent but not because of a lack of effort in trying to claim it. In fact, various countries have tried to annex it motivated by the impressive amount and abundance of resources present there. Unfortunately, the aggressive races and the well-known monster population in this lush, wild place has practically stopped any military advance and prevented the construction of settlements near the borders of the woodland along with making this location the most dangerous in the whole mainland.

It’s exactly in this thick and impenetrable place, more precisely in the heart of the forest, where a handsome man covered in what looks like black liquid darkness with three pairs of wings is lying unconsciously right beneath the shade of one of the biggest looking trees in the surrounding kilometers. He seems to be sleeping very deeply while the gentle wind caresses his perfectly muscular body and a few wild animals walk slowly and cautiously around him trying their best to not disturb him. The immediate vicinity of this particular location seems to be mostly emptied of monsters and if one were to look here from the sky, it would seem like they are avoiding and running away as fast as they possibly can.

Exactly three hours after this mysterious man appeared here, a small white bird landed on one of the few thick branches of this big tree to try and pick a little fruit hanging there. He tried very hard to get it and after a few minutes, he somehow managed to collect it with his little beak. Then, he prepared to fly away right after securing it. Unfortunately, what could be regarded as one of his worst cases of bad luck for the little fella, made him clumsily drop the fruit right over the handsome man’s face. When he saw what he had done and seeing the man on the ground grumbling and moving a little he decisively started to fly away as his life depended on it.

‘Ugh… God… it hurts…’ I said, while slowly opening my eyes just to get blinded by the bright shining sky. As I looked around everything seemed somewhat blurry so I rubbed my eyes with my fists and tried looking at my surroundings once again. Instantly, what looked like some virgin, untouched forest on planet Earth expanded in every direction that I looked at. It felt somewhat magical and noble at the same time. I made sure to be cautious of what stood near me and carefully evaluated if anything was dangerous. At the same time, I was somewhat amazed. ‘Is this what instincts are?’ I thought to myself.

Surprisingly, I felt very calm and at ease. After making sure there was nothing around that could harm me I finally relaxed and crouched right next to the tree trunk. 

‘My mood surely is weird. Why do I feel so calm? Is this part of my instincts as well? Mmmm, anyways… I should try my skills and look over the knowledge that I obtained to see if everything is okay. Let’s begin with the most simple one I guess.’

“Status.” I said aloud. Right after that, a little floating blue box with white letters on it appeared in front of my eyes and I looked attentively at what it said.

'No name uh... Should I use my old name? Perhaps I should just name myself something more appropriate and in line with what I've become. So, uhh, my themes are Life, Death, and Soul. Do I go for some kind God of Light/Death name? So... Apollo? Nefertem? Hyperion? Those don't sound that cool. I'll go for a God of Death name then... what about Hades? Nah, should I go Egyptian then? Osiris or Anubis? Wait, I got it! Mortimer. That sounds elegant and cool. I'll update it now.'

"Set name to Mortimer." I spoke somewhat excitedly.

 "Ding, name changed into Mortimer."

I was somewhat startled to hear a voice answering me like that but finally, I just ignored it. Then I saw how the 'N/A' that stood beside the 'Name:' category changed into 'Mortimer'. With eyes brimming with satisfaction I started to look at the blue window once again to carefully examine everything else.

I felt somewhat confused by the classification. Shouldn't it be easier with numbers? Maybe the God of Entertainment changed it a bit because it may have been somewhat divine to know exactly how strong one is. To collaborate my thoughts I started to look into the knowledge that came with the skill to clear away any doubt that I could think of. Ah, I see. Now knowing that my theory was accurate I began to search for the meaning of the classification system. A few minutes later I completely understood everything about it.

Basically, there exists a list and meaning behind each rank. They are organized from J till -S-, but that's not where it ends. After -S- comes -EX-, and after that comes -Z-. Now, what does every letter mean? Well, in a few words, J and I rank are those where children, the weak, and the ill are placed. Those that have no ability at all or the ones that are practically useless. They can't harm anyone and their level would be shown somewhere between 1 and 9. Ranks G and H are the ones where normal adults are situated. Rank H is where Human, Elves, and Dwarves or Gnomes are situated and G rank represents the stronger races such as the Angels, the Demons, and the multiple races of Beatswomen. These people may portray enough danger to harm other adults or those below their rank and their power level would be shown as 10 up to 24.

And yes, Beastwoman, you read it right. When I created this world I had the brilliant idea to make this world a matriarchy. How exactly did I do it, you may be asking? That's surprisingly simple as well. I made men lose almost all of their sex drive in addition to pleasure and gave that to the women. But that's not all. I adjusted the average size of a penis to around 8 cm and made it so that all men have premature ejaculation. I also lowered the male average looking standard of the world along with making them physically weaker and more submissive. That leads to a world governed by women, where they go to the wars instead of men, replace them in all the bureaucratic positions, and even go to work while their husbands stay at home taking care of the house and the children. Finally, I decided to make the population ratio of male to female an amazing 1:2. That means that for every man alive there should be two women. Of course in this kind of world, this resulted in having multiple men as a sign of one's status, so powerful women seek various men to take them as husbands. Hehe, I'm a genius.

Anyways, let's continue with the ranking. The letters F and E are for normal soldiers, city guards, and all kinds of common cannon fodder. They may at most mean danger to a village and have a power level that ranges between 25 and 49. After that, we start to reach the first few important ranks. D is what represents the normal Elites. No noble or someone in a position of power has less than D rank. At the same time, they are dangerous enough to become a threat to a town and their levels are 50 to 99. C rank stands for the very best of the Elites like the royal guards, the generals, and the big nobles such as weak Royals, Dukes, or very powerful Marquesses. These people are at least powerful enough to threaten a city and their level shown would be around 100 and a 199.

After that comes B, which stands for the most powerful people; like very strong Royals, very powerful warriors who protect and serve their country as a kind of deterrent to other kingdoms and the women sang in epic tales. These individuals are already strong enough to harm a country and their level begins at 200 all the way up to 399. Starting now things are gonna get juicy. A rank portrays the legendary Heroes. Those whose tales are so great that they have transcended the barrier of time and their stories get told all over the world. At the same time, we can find the ancients or ancestors of big Empires to be here and they have enough power to put in danger multiple countries at once. Also, the power level at this stage is 400 to 699.

Rank -S- will depict the things of Myths. Actions that are so fantastical that their credibility is not to be proved nor assured. Most people here are considered to be fairy tales or just fantasies that someone created but they could perfectly well go against a continent by themselves if they should so desire. Their levels would range from an astounding 700 all the way up to 999. Breaking out of the linear way of ranking we will find the -EX- category right after the -S- one. The sudden change in name also implies a very big change. This is the transition from a petty mortal to that of a demigod. The -EX- rank is rumored to be so powerful that they could go against a few continents all alone and have a power level of at least 1000. And finally, at the top of the whole ranking stands the -Z- category with the words 'simply divine' as its trademark. Destroying a world would be as easy as breathing at this point and to reach this stage one cannot be bound by some paltry numbers. It is necessary to go above that shabby restriction to reach rank -Z-.

Now that I'm sure that I understand the ranking system I'll look into my affinities too. Mmm, they seem pretty simple and well organized. It seems the God of Entertainment fixed some logical issues I didn't notice and eliminated some affinities that I thought of before. But I guess all the changes It did make sense; like for example eliminating the compound affinities such as; ice, lightning, fog, steel, and so on. Now you only need to have the corresponding elemental affinities and combine them together (Water and Air can create Fog). The Holy and Corruption affinities were changed into Light and Darkness as well.

Oh, I see why he did it. Thank God he actually changed it, if not I may have created useless affinities. Why? Because when I created the world, I asked for a world that didn't have any deities in it. That means that I'm the only demigod in the world too. More importantly, without deities, there can be no Holy element nor a corruption one, after all, there are no deities that lend their power to purify or corrupt things. Now, they appear to be similar to elemental magic.

Curse, Potion, Spatial, and Time were left intact. Let's see, what else can I know about Life, Death, and Soul right now, at the end of the day, they are my main Affinities and the ones where my imagination is the limit. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any kind of new info about them. What a shame. The only addition is that I know how much lifespan every action or use of them will cost. Oh, wait. Actually, to retrieve souls, I can use normal mana. Well, that does make sense too. If it wasn't like that wouldn't I make a loss every time I tried to collect souls? The God of Entertainment saving me once again. Anyways, let's continue now with my skills and magic. 

And just like that, a few hours went by, where I tested a few magic spells, my language skill, my stealth, my charm ability, my fighting proficiency, and so on. It was quite productive to do this because I learned that there are some skills where I can think about them to use them while others are passive and basically always turned on. To sum it up, there are skills like stealth or pocket dimension that I can think about them to activate them, there are skills like pain immunity that are passive, and thus always on, and finally some are active and I need to say their name out loud to use them, like Memory Map. Of course, I left the best for the end. Morphing. I was already tired but I couldn't contain my curiosity at all, so after resting for a couple of minutes I went and morphed into my first form. "1st form, Human" I whispered.

Immediately after saying that, the black liquid surrounding me shook slightly and started to move very quickly around my skin. It was quite a noble and mesmerizing sight. The black strips that covered my upper body expanded and squirmed all around me transforming themselves into liquid darkness right before draining into my body. Surprisingly, everything felt quite natural, there was not an ounce of awkwardness or discomfort while it moved under my skin. At the same time,  the already liquified darkness that covered both my legs and feet was just dispersing itself into the environment. I felt that I was looking at some kind of black flame that was slowly extinguishing due to a lack of something else to burn to sustain itself. Following this, I cast some water magic to reflect my image. I was quite curious how I ended up turning so I ended up looking at my naked body for quite the long while. I tried striking different poses and stances from different angles to watch my perfectly sculpted Greek God body. Even I felt that it would be quite a challenge to get more handsome. Did I become a narcissist? Though it doesn't feel too bad to be one, in fact, I could get used to it quite quickly. I glared intensely at my own skin. It felt smooth and warm to the touch. Okay, that's enough. I shall drool over myself at a later date, now I need to learn more about this form.

“Status.” I said aloud very curious about how it would look like.

'Wow, that's some big change there.' I thought very surprisedly about it. 

Actually, what does those Stats represent? Once again I searched for the answer and was pleasantly satisfied by how intuitive this is. STR is strength. It affects my muscles, bones, and organs, optimizing them to make them more powerful. In simple words it is how powerful my body is. END stands for endurance. It portrays how big my stamina is and how much of a beating I can take. VIT is quite obvious as it portrays my vitality. It is directly related to how fast my body heals and influences in a more subtle manner how much of a beating I can handle as well. RES is resistance and it influences the power necessary an attack has to contain to hurt me for real. Following that we encounter INT or intelligence. It illustrates how powerful my magic is and the quantity of the mana I posses. On the other hand, WIS or wisdom stands for how much I'm immune to magic attacks and how good the quality of my mana is. It is similar to how resistance works but wisdom is centered on magic while resistance is all about physical damage.

In addition to all of this, there's also WILL or willpower. This one also affects how much damage I take but it is related to my psyche along with how powerful my abilities that affect the mind are. This should boost my charm ability a little bit. But if one needs to consider how much it will affect someone else, then I'll have to see CHA or charisma. This stat is directly related to how attractive and convincing I am. It also upgrades my leadership and social skills as well. AGI means agility and it is related to how fast I'm currently am. It has a simple relation to how fast I can move so it basically means speed. DEX or dexterity characterizes how nimble, precise, and graceful a person can be. It is related to balance and control over one's body and how perfectly I can move. The last one is perception or PER for short. Perception is all about sensing and understanding your surroundings. It represents how sensitive your eyesight, smell, hearing, mana vision, and so on are. For example, I can feel all the animals, trees, and even bugs that are in every cardinal direction with ease. I can even know what they are doing if they are a few kilometers away from me.

Anyways now that I completely understood what every stat meant I decided to morph into my second form to see its stats.

"2nd form, Celestial Human." I rambled.

Right away, I could feel that I got taller and how my muscles bulged. Mmm, that looks interesting. I didn't feel anything going from 4th form to the 1st ones but when I go upwards it seems I can feel the changes more precisely. Along with gaining height and muscles, my eyes felt warm and I sprouted a pair of black wings from my back. Ignoring the rest of the process because my curiosity was killing me I said: "Status." right away. Then the blue floating box appeared in front of my eyes once again.

Now that is interesting. Did I get an A in AGI because I grew wings on my back? I guess it should be that after all, I don't feel that my speed grew that much. Also, my vitality didn't increase at all. Carefully studying the rest of the box and memorizing its contents I prepared myself to morph into my 3rd form right away.

"3rd form, -Children of the Stars-" I spoke very quickly and impatiently.

That's when black dots started to appear all around me. Then, I felt how my joints started to produce something and it slowly appeared right behind my skin to start covering my limbs and vital organs all over my body looking like some majestic light black armor. The second pair of wings grew at my back and made some bones all over my body make cracking noises. I didn't feel any pain tho and surprisingly it felt very relaxing and comfortable. Like something was pressing me down but right now that pressure completely vanished. After the novelty of the transformation passed I called for my Status right away and this is what it looked like.

Mmm, that's very weird huh... My vitality jumped over -S- rank straight into -EX-. Why is that so? Mmmm, I felt as if some weight that was holding my body suddenly disappear before. Was that some kind of barrier that prevents reaching higher ranks? Did I pass some threshold and that's why I jumped into the -EX- rank in one go? Maybe there is something that prevents normal Humans from doing that? Is it related to the name of my form? After all both 1st and 2nd have 'Human' in there. I should try to get some test subjects to test it. Haaa, whatever, I'll take care of that in the future. "4th form, -Ruler of the Void-." I said to change back into my most powerful condition. Now it's time to think about searching for civilization signs and I should start to create a background or backstory to me as well. Mmm, something intimidating enough for people to not mess with me but nothing that gives them an excuse for a crusade. That also implies that I can't just massacre living beings for their souls. Should I try to pose as an actual God of Death? That would help me in collecting souls too because everybody would start to give me their own voluntarily. With my power, I could also pose as some kind of being of great power that gives anything for souls as well, like some kind of Devil's merchant.

Actually, isn't it possible to pass as both? God of Death in my 4th form and Devil's Merchant in my 1st one. Hehe, I'm so smart. But then what would I need to pose as those things? For the God of Death, I'll need some backstory that makes it believable that I'm an actual God. Maybe some kind of majestic black castle? But that would make me settle somewhere so that's not very clever. Wait, I got it! A majestic flying black castle. It should be able to camouflage itself so that when I move it around, people won't notice it. But that would also give me other problems... ultimately, how would I explain my lack of presence? I have a flying castle but I don't make myself known? What bullshit is that? The most important and biggest question is; How do I introduce myself for others to believe I'm a God?

Mmmm, actually, couldn't I give someone important some kind of knowledge about me? Maybe some ancient relic or something? Oh shit, I think I have it. I'll make some temple ruins. They will be full of murals with some kind of story about me, how mighty I am, a few legends, and some rituals as well. Hehehe, I think I know now what I'm going to do with that.

Now, for the Devil's Merchant, what would I need for that? This is actually a lot simpler than the last idea. I just need to locate individuals with desires strong enough to sell me their souls. For that, I just need, some kind of thing or minion that would locate my potential costumers and finally a place that would give me the presence and personality of this kind of character. Maybe I'll just envelope people in some fog and send them to a majestic mansion full of servants with exquisite customer service. Also, I'll need the contracts too. With my power over Life, I could even add lifespan to others, and from what I learned from the knowledge included it's very cheap to give extra lifespan to weak individuals. I would start to make a loss at A rank, so even B rank individuals might be tempted to trade with me.

Anyways, let's see how much my ideas will cost in terms of lifespan. So, I need a majestic black flying castle that can camouflage itself and is somewhat fast. "WHAT KIND OF GARBAGE CHEAT IS THIS?!" I screamed enraged as I looked over at the little flying box with the price that I was being charged. It read as follows:

"FUUUCK!" I yelled full of frustration. My own lifespan is around 30 thousand years so this would consume almost 50% of it. At the same time, this is not a small sum to collect either, after all, there are around half a billion people in this world. That means that this castle is as expensive as the lives of 20% of the whole planet's population. Okay, calm yourself. You have to look at this like it is an investment. If I could get at least half of the souls of the dying population and I take into consideration that there are around 30 thousand deaths daily that would mean that in a year I would get around 5.5 million souls. Converted into lifespan that would mean 600 hundred years harvested. Adding the fact that souls given to me voluntarily are 12 times more effective would mean an impressive amount of 7.200 years harvested for each period. I will need to fine-tune some problems but from what I see this is absolutely profitable. Hahahah so it wasn't all that bad. Okay, let's stop here for now. 'I'll buy the castle and leave it here while I go and search for some civilization already, after all, those souls won't harvest themselves.' I thought with a cheeky smirk in my face.

"Buy the 'Death God's flying castle." I said.

"Ding, Castle has been bought. Deducting lifespan and initializing construction." A voice resounded in my head.

"Memory Map." I whispered softly.

'I'll mark this place so that I'll be able to know where my castle will appear.' Right afterward I shook my wings and aimed at the sky. 'It is time. Mmm, to my West there is a mountain range, North from my position is a big river, Eastwards is more forest and on the South stands another big river far away.' I thought to myself while suspended in the air looking all around me. 'Let's go South and I'll follow the river. Stealth.'

And then, I finally took off.

Shakkos

Next chapter: The best way to introduce yourself to a pretty girl; available on September 8th.