At the beginning of time and creation, it is said that there was nothing, no light, no dark, no life, no space—just pure unadulterated nothingness. Only when the Gods, God, or whatever came and called the forth light was the emptiness banished, and the Universe created. Joe didn't know who or what was responsible for creating the Universe, perhaps the Gods of the Pantheon or something bigger. What he did know, as he drifted through an empty void for what felt like an eternity, was that they had obviously done so out of boredom.

 

Currently, Joe had no idea where he was or how long he had been here. He only knew that he was encased in total darkness. He saw nothing, felt nothing, sensed nothing. The only confirmation that he was even alive was the presence of his thoughts. Joe could still think while he floated in the void, but without a body, his mind was unbound. He couldn't help but think of the saying, 'I think therefore I am.' How ironic that he had become the literal interpretation of a famous quote.

When Joe had first awakened after being killed, his initial reaction was that of jubilation. He had done it. He had conquered death itself. With this skill, there was no limit to how far he would be able to go. Joe couldn't wait to climb the Tower again. He now knew what to expect and what challenges he would face. There were so many things he could do better. So many lessons he had learned. He could try out new ideas and strategies without any fear of death.

 

Yet that excitement soon turned to dread.

 

Instead of waking up in the Hall, he found himself stuck in total darkness. He tried to move, look around, or even call for help. Yet, there was no response. Joe wanted to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't going insane, but he couldn't even feel his arms let alone his body. It was then the realization hit him. His body was gone, broken beyond repair. It was likely a rotting corpse by now, and without a body, there would be no sight, no sound, no taste. In other words, he had become nothing more but a wandering ghost, floating around in some God-forsaken void.

The realization caused Joe to panic. He desperately tried to think of some way to escape his predicament. Yet everything he tried failed. Even his attempt to call up his status menu elicited no response. Only after he calmed down could he think things through rationally. He knew that many skills weren't instantaneous—some required time to activate. For a complex skill like [Respawn], there had to be a time delay for the body to 'respawn.'

 

Every purchased skill came with a brain dump of information on how to use it. Joe could only assume the Gods had added such a function to help the user understand the intricacies of the skill without the need to spend weeks mastering each step, like learning how to ride a bike. However, while it gave him an instinctual understanding, it didn't provide an in-depth, step-by-step guide of what to expect, meaning the only way to learn was by doing.

 

[Respawn] was a passive ability, which meant it didn't need to be triggered to work. A beneficial feature since there was always the risk of death by assassinations or accidents. There were only two aspects to the skill that required manual effort. First was charging the skill with spiritual energy, something all skills needed to work. After respawning, he would need to recharge the Sigil. Failure to do so would mean actual death if he died. It was a fatal weakness of the skill but an unavoidable one that made its second aspect just as important.

 

The second component was setting the 'save point'. However, this only needed to be done once unless he wanted to pick a new location. For now, one save point was his maximum and the site had to be within a certain distance from where he 'died' for it to work. Joe was a little upset at this requirement since he wouldn't be able to use the skill to teleport millions of miles in a single go.

 

However, there were two pieces of information the skill had failed to impart. The first was how long the 'respawn' process would take. It could be a day or a year. Joe shuddered in trepidation at the possibility of being stuck in the void for anything longer than a week. The second piece of information he didn't realize was that his consciousness would remain awake during the entire process, forced to count time with only his mind for company.

 

Nonetheless, Joe was sure the process wouldn't take too long to complete. If that was true, he only had to wait patiently. His only fear was that he had somehow messed up the skill activation by setting the 'save point' too far away for him to respawn.

 

With nothing left to do, Joe calmed his mind and did his best to maintain a semblance of sanity. But an unfettered mind is a fickle thing. His consciousness craved an anchor, a sense or feeling to latch on to. The current sensation was akin to being locked in a darkened coffin without the ability to move a single inch of his body. Something that would make anyone go insane. As such, it wasn't long before Joe's mental state began to collapse.

 

Time passed as Joe switched between bouts of sanity and madness. Can a mind or soul exist if it is cut off from the body? The answer to that question was apparently yes, but not without consequence. The feeling of being submerged in complete darkness proved to be worse than being crushed by a 10ft Ogre. At least that experience had an end. Here, his mind ran at the speed of light, switching between conscious thought and bouts of hysteria.

 

Eventually, after what felt like an eternity, a change occurred. Just as Joe's mind was about to begin another round of mental collapse, a light abruptly appeared, encompassing his very being. The light flashed, and the next moment, Joe felt a 'pang' of pain from collapsing on a cold hard stone floor. It took several moments for his mind to process the intense wave of sensations that hit him all at once. Sights, sounds, smells, his mind lay there, drinking in the long-forgotten feelings until he instinctively remembered to take a deep breath. He rejoiced as he felt the sensation of inhaling the sweet air.

 

A few moments later, he fully opened his eyes. After such a long time in the darkness, the exposure to light blinded him, forcing him to raise his arm to block out the glare. He wanted to yell out, happy to have appendages again. Eventually, his eyes adjusted, allowing him to gaze up at the ceiling and the walls. He recognized the majestic arches and stone statues. He was back in the Hall of beginnings.

 

It took Joe several hours for him to sit back up. The rush of sensations was almost too much to bear. Joy merged with sorrow as he lay on the floor crying. Partly out of elation and party out of the pain of what he had gone through. The experience had left a mental scar, a trauma he wasn't sure he would be able to overcome. Yet he couldn't just lay there. He had things to accomplish and things to do. The memories of Smokey and the others emerged from the back of his mind. That's right. He had a promise to keep. That purpose gave his mind something to latch onto, helping him pull himself up and survey the familiar surroundings.

 

The Hall was just how he remembered it. The statues and altars stood unchanged, almost eternal. However, this time it was eerily silent. Of course, the silence was nothing compared to his soul being separated from his body. Still, the lack of people in the giant hall gave it an inauspicious feeling.

 

"What the!" Joe muttered out loud in surprise. He looked down to see he was once again naked.

 

He wanted to knock himself on the head for being such an idiot.

There was no reason why clothes would respawn along with his body. He still had too many assumptions about how this place worked from playing games. He just presumed his items would respawn with him. It was a mindset he needed to fix lest it gets him killed.

 

Joe did a quick once over of his 'new' body. The thought that the respawn skill had effectively re-attached his soul to a newly formed body was bizarre. Did that mean he was now technically a clone? He wasn't entirely sure, nor did he want to find out. As far as he could tell, everything worked correctly, even the machinery down below. He just hoped it was the same for his stats.

 

"Status," Joe said while preparing for the worst.

 

Name: Joe Heraldson

Level: 5

Experience Points: 300/2950

Race: Human (F)

Grade: Mortal

 

Blessings: Heaven's Chosen

 

Strength: 19

Vitality: 17

Agility: 20

Will: 18

Spirit: 15

 

Free Stats: 0

 

Joe sighed in relief. Not only had he not lost any stats or experience, but he had even gained an extra 3 points in Willpower. Knowing that he wouldn't have to start over from scratch every time he died took a weight off his shoulders. The cost of doing so would have made the skill prohibitive. However, the thought of even attempting another 'respawning' made him want to puke. No. He would do absolutely everything he could to avoid dying ever again. Joe turned his attention to the three additional Willpower stats. How he obtained them was a mystery, though the experience of respawning had placed immense pressure on his mind and Will. Was it possible the incident had ‘trained’ his Will like weights trained the body? The possibility of training to increase stats opened up a whole range of options, meaning he could gain attributes through other ways than leveling.

 

Once he finished checking his stats, Joe quickly made his way to the altar and activated the orb, sending him into the white space of the Divine Store. The one upside of returning to the Hall was that he would again have access to the shop. Before anything else, he needed to buy new equipment, plus he was curious to see how many divine points he had earned.

 

Divine Points (DP): 2850

 

Urgh, Joe winced at the pitiful amount. An inspection of his notifications showed a level 1 goblin had only given 50 DP. In comparison, level 4 goblin warriors handed out 250 DP per kill. He had killed over ten goblins during the 4th round, which meant his point count was about where it should have been. It was lucky the system didn't do point sharing. Otherwise, his earnings would have been significantly lower. He couldn't help but mourn the loss of his sword and items. He had spent a whopping 7500 points, an amount he would never get back. He cringed at how wasteful he had been. Though, in retrospect, he hadn't planned on dying so quickly.

 

Twenty minutes later, he walked away from the shop with a simple outfit, a good quality pair of boots, and a cheaper [Basic Gladius] and [Heater Shield]. In total, he spent 1850 points. His outfit was essentially the same, except for selecting the cheaper options. He decided to still go with a good pair of boots. They would prove essential in the muddy fields, but he had switched his long sword to a sword & shield combo. The long sword had been a great weapon, but it provided little to no defense. With no one to back him up, he had to play it safe this time, and a shield was the best way he could think of to fight against multiple opponents.

Joe lamented the thought of going in alone. While he enjoyed the solo aspect of games, he would choose a team any day in real life. With no group or healers to support him, the risk of dying was significantly higher. A single injury could mean death or incapacitation, and Joe refused to die anytime soon.

 

For a moment, he briefly considered giving up on revenge and re-joining Adam's group. However, he quickly threw such fantasies away. For one, he had no idea how much time had passed since he 'died.' It could have been a few hours or days. Adam and his group were likely long gone by now. The other factor was that he wasn't sure the portal would take him back to the same spot. Several other groups had walked into the blue portal before them, but there had been no sign of others when they arrived on the first floor. Of course, the most important reason was that he couldn't stomach the thought of working under people who would sacrifice others like that. There was no way he would lower himself again and disrespect the memories of Smokey and the others who had perished.

 

In the end, there was no choice but to go solo for now. He winced at the thought of facing off against the Ogre alone. A challenge he wasn't even sure he would be able to pass. Hopefully the Tower would adjust the challenge based on the number of participants. It was a long shot, but what else could he do? He couldn't stay here forever. The system had forced everyone out of the Hall after 24 hours which would likely happen again. Besides, he only had a few hundred points left. He would only be able to afford a couple of weeks of food and water before running out.

 

Joe considered how much time he had left before his eyes went wide with horror. He had utterly forgotten about recharging his respawn skill. Joe rushed to sit down and quickly forced his spiritual energy into the skill Sigil. He only hoped he had enough time before the Tower kicked him out.

Joe did his best to concentrate as he fed waves of spiritual energy into the [Respawn] skill. It hungrily absorbed the power like a bottomless pit. He hadn't expected the skill to require so much. At this rate, it would take hours to charge fully. He only hoped his fear of the Tower forcing him out was wrong.

 

Two hours, then seven hours, then eighteen hours passed. By this point, Joe had thought he was in the clear until he heard the dreaded announcement.

 

'Ding' 'Tower Announcement - One hour left until all participants are forcefully transported to the first floor.'

 

'Damn it!' Joe sensed the Sigil was only 90% full. He would have to go into the Tower at this rate without the respawn skill activated. A risk he couldn't afford to take the risk. Joe closed his eyes and began to try and sense the energy flow through his body. So far, his manipulation of energy was through brute force. As though he was grabbing chunks of energy from around his body and forcing it directly into the Sigil. It was a primitive method at best. Joe took a deep breath while centering himself. His Spiritual sense was weak, but Joe almost felt like he could discern a light flow moving across his body.

 

It was as if the Spiritual energy wanted to follow a predefined path but was prevented from doing so. Joe contemplated allowing the energy to follow its natural course. He calmed his breathing, no longer trying to force it into the Sigil directly but instead allowing it to pursue its own path. His spiritual energy churned, seemingly correcting itself before it began to flow in a circular motion around his body. At first, Joe worried it meant the energy was taking a longer route, yet as he followed, the speed and flow of the energy began to pick up momentum. Soon enough, the energy flowed around his body at a much greater rate than before. Almost 20% faster. Joe calculated the time left and clenched his fists. He would make it in time.