"Wow!" Nox exclaimed. 'These are like background stories for an RPG character!' He thought. 'And it looks like there are some skills and knowledge associated with it too!'

Nox didn't want to rush such an important decision so he thought about the various benefits he would get from each choice.

The orphan background would give him more intimate knowledge of the city, some starting funds even if small and a place to stay. It would also give him some weapon training but it would also make him malnourished and thus weak bodied which is a demerit.

The villager background would give him some fighting skills which he assumed was somewhat similar to the orphan's path weapon skills except bore broad while also giving him some knowledge on dungeon diving which would prove invaluable at the start of his life as an adventurer. This path had no real demerits and gave him some nice but basic skills.

The survivor path would probably give him the best physical condition but it forgoed combative skills for more survival based ones. Although there were sure to be a little of everything needed to survive, it would be self taught and not as refined as something learned from proper instruction.

The last thing he needed to consider, was his own skills he had learned in his past life. While he was no master, not even close. He had learned Hema since young and this even included bows and hand to hand as well as weapon skills. So the path that focused more on physical attributes would be more advantageous to him.

While Nox was very interested about the street knowledge from the orphan background he also thought that figuring out the city on the fly would be more interesting. And so, he made his choice.

"This is what I want for my starting gear and I want the survivor backstory!" Announced Shiki.

"Interesting choices! Very well, time to send you on your way then. And here is one last look at your status before you go."

Name: Nox Lyros

Race: High Human

Gender: Male

Level: 0

Abilities:

STR: I-0

END: I-0

DEX: I-0

AGI: I-0

MAG: I-0

Magic:

Item Box: Interdimensional storage. Different effects based on chant.

                "Open": Creates a portal to the storage near the user. Size is based on mind usage.

                "Close": Close the portals created by "Open".

                "Set": Change storage setting such as size, timeflow and subdivisions.

                "Create": Create new interdimensional storage space.

Skills:

Polymath: Greatly increases effectiveness and growth rate of Development Abilities. Lowers the requirements for obtaining Development Abilities. Any Development Abilities whose requirements are met, are unlocked on rank-up.

Arcana: Drastically improves any magic related activity. Records all spells and curses the user perceives and allows the user to modify them or create new spells based on the principles learned from them. Creates magic circles independent of the mage Development Ability that substitute most chant requirements. The user can meditate to choose which spells to put in his magic slots. Grants one extra spell slot per level.

Exceed: Removes the limit of any aspect of the user's abilities and skills. Greatly increases excelia gain from all actions. Immune to mental effects.

Curses:

Excelia Burn: Expend accumulated excelia for an exponential power increase.

Not even letting Nox admire his new status god immediately sent him away.

"Goodbye little soul. May you have an exciting new life!"

Hearing god's voice becoming distant the soul shouted.

"THANK YOU! I WON'T WASTE THIS CHANCE YOU'VE GIVEN ME!"

To this, god merely laughed. "Hahahahaha!"

An undetermined amount of time later, a thirteen year old boy with shoulder length black hair, violet eyes and handsome to the point of beautiful, soft facial features could be seen lying down in a cave. His toned body was sporting armor while his weapons laid by his side.

This was Nox and soon, he woke up from his slumber. He looked around a bit confused before grasping the situation.

"Time for a whole new life!" He said to himself with visible excitement but soon, something he had not considered occurred even before he could properly evaluate his surroundings.

A veritable storm of memories and emotions assaulted his mind leaving him gasping on the floor.

The terror when monsters raised his village to the ground, the despair when everyone he had ever known died before him and the pure hatred he felt towards the beings that caused all his suffering.

'When the protagonist of a story reincarnated, the memories of his life would merely be a short headache'. Nox simply decided his background with this thought in his head and was thus unprepared for the consequences.

The psychological burden of the background he had chosen was not light at all. Nox mildly sociopathic tendencies softened the blow of losing his fellow villagers as he simply determined that they had nothing to do with him but the fear and hatred of monsters still haunted him.

A while later, Nox finally managed to suppress his emotional imbalance as he looked at his surroundings.

A cave lined with furs, a small table and chair, a makeshift futon made with hay and a two chests with supplies with a wooden barricade blocking the entrance. As he got up, Nox did a check of his equipment and supplies even though he knew them from memory.

Some dried meat, fruits harvested from the forest some spare weapons and gathered from the village's ruins and finally, the starting gear he had chosen.

A black arming doublet with chainmail sleeves down until his elbow, darkened steel plate gauntlets, armguards, greaves, cuisses, neck guard and armet together with a black brigandine cuirass for his armor while he had a warbow, a sidesword, a small round steel shield and a small sceptre like wand as his weapons.

His idea in picking this combination of weapons and armor was to get near perfect mobility with maximum protection, once he got comfortable enough with fighting and had magic to protect himself, he would probably ditch the armet.

As for his weapons, the shield would be strapped to his forearm thus allowing Nox to keep his and free and holding a wand. The sidesword was for good thrusting capabilities with excellent maneuverability while still having a greater slashing ability than a rapier.

The warbow was for engaging distant enemies before he grasped enough magic or simply when he didn't have extra slots for ranged magic .

Nox didn't have memories of ever using the wand but had used the bow for hunting while he brought the sword and shield to defend himself against monsters, he even had the memories of killing a couple of goblin stragglers he had found alone.

That aside, he found a bag of magic stones from the killed goblins. His previous self didn't actually knew their value and was keeping them as a sort of kill counter against his hated enemies.

Nox then decided to return to the ruins of his village for two reasons. One was that he wanted to get rid of the last few feelings he had for his former home and the other, he wanted to see if he could find anything his previous self might not have gathered since he was merely focused on getting things so he could survive.

Although the experiences from his memories were less than desirable, they also made him creep through the forest quickly and silently like a true predator and he soon found himself back at his old village.

His expression twisted slightly as the memories once again came to the surface but he soldiered on, casting aside the memories of all the villagers including his former family but in doing this, his hatred for the monsters that caused this continued to grow.

He knew it wasn't rational yet could do nothing to stop it and as Nox's expression went back to normal, the seething hatred could still be felt deep within his eyes.

Having dealt with his emotions the best way he could, Nox proceeded to loot the village for all it was worth. His reward was a neat sum of nearly 30 thousand Valis and a bag full of magic stones gathered by the village's strongmen as trophies over the years.

Somewhat satisfied by his gains, both emotional and material, Nox Returned to his cave and started practising his magic.

'God said that even though the power and efficiency would be lesser if I don't have a falna, I can still use my skills and magic.' He thought to himself before making a series of tests.

First he checked out his Item Box. Its size was enough for him to stuff it with everything in his makeshift home a couple of times over.

When he opened a portal, it cost some initial Mind based on size and would keep draining a steady amount until he closed it. The portal manifested from a black purplish magic circle so Nox knew his Arcana skill was indeed functioning. In fact, the rate at which he developed the skills necessary for survival after disaster struck, suggested that the Polymath skill was also somewhat working.

He sat down to meditate and feel his Mind pool. A couple of minutes in he detected its energy and tried to move it around, it seemed to originate from an area equivalent to his heart.

During his tests, Nox realized he could speed up his Mind recovery through meditation and after fiddling with his mind for a couple of hours, definitely longer than he planned, he was finally able to create his own "spell" which he aptly named Mind Bolt.

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P.a.t.r.e.o.n is officially up!

The link is: https://www.p.a.t.r.e.o.n.com/lusoba  without the extra dots of course.

You'll get to read up to FOUR week ahead, a full month, but I'll still post here.

There's also my other novel Kage of Kages, do check it out!

I would greatly appreciate any support since this is going to be my breadwinner.