After his quick, but painful demise, Grey found himself in a void. It was endless, and yet, he wasn't afraid. He always did feel like death was a black screen, but hoped it wouldn't be.
His soul wandered, and wandered. It felt like ages had passed until a sudden beam of light struck his soul, lighting up the void that was visible within. If Grey could describe the feeling, he'd say it was a static-like sensation that ran through him, before an invisible force pulled at his soul aggressively, and yanked him toward an even greater light.
And then, he opened his eyes. He found himself as a baby, weeping, yet alone. Around him was nobody, not a soul. Just then, the door that he lay before was opened, and a mean-faced older woman looked down at him in the small basket.
"Ugh... just another mouth to feed," She said with disdain.
Grey questioned what was happening. Just a moment ago, he died and was lost in some void; now he's a baby? Of course, it didn't take much to wrap his brain around things.
'Reincarnation. It's real. Who would've thought?'
New hope swirled within him, and a determined, fiery will formed with it, forever etched into every nerve and every bone.
'A new life. A new start. And perhaps... a new world? No matter what, in this life, I will live for myself. I won't apologize for being right, and I won't be a stool meant for stepping. In this life, I'll be selfish...'
18 Years later.
It's been just an hour since Grey left his orphanage. He has no coin to his name, and hardly a soul knows his name. And by the way, he was somehow named the very same thing as back on earth, aside from his nonexistent last name, as mostly only nobles had one. Anyways, he learned a lot since he was born here, and quite honestly, has grown very fond of it. Magic exists here, yes, magic. So do monsters and gods alike. He's half sure about the god part, since people just worship them, but if magic and monsters are a thing, he's sure that so are gods.
This world is called Aurea, or is also known as the "Blue-Planet". But its commonly used name is the first one. Magic came into this world 1000 years ago, and now it's in every atom, every person, and every living thing. There are many iterations for how Prana, the energy of all magic, came to be, but the most popular goes like this:
The Dragon of End rewarded a trusted king with its power. The Dragon of End was then slain by the cursed gods for giving a human said power. Realizing that the cursed gods meant to take over, the Dragon of End spread its final embers into the atmosphere, and with it, sealed away the cursed gods. Those embers became Prana, the very source of magic itself.
Grey had learned up on this back when he was 10, having snuck into the preacher's private library and read some things he found interesting. Now, though Prana exists in all living things, those who can utilize its energy efficiently are few. In this world, strength is authority, and weakness is death. Those with high magic capacity are revered, and those with a lick of it are looked upon with disdain.
Grey was lucky to be average. Because, although his Prana capacity wasn't significantly high, it also wasn't low, meaning he was quite literally in the 'grey' area. He was now all on his own; his clothes and tattered boots were the only things he had.
At times, Grey was also a bit disappointed. He wasn't a big fan of things like anime or whatever, but he watched a few here and there, and perhaps all of the isekai and reincarnation stories he saw, they received some busted power. That wasn't the case for him, and he reminded himself that it was just a show, and not reality.
Grey had almost completely forgotten about his past life, in terms of those he cared about. He still reminded himself of how he was going to live, as he constantly found himself about to return to his old ways, living like some lap-dog for others.
After 18 years of constant correction, he found himself indifferent to hospitality or the well-being of anyone but himself. That's not to say he's a complete asshole; he just knows that if he has to choose another or himself, in a heartbeat, he's choosing himself. The old him would have never even thought of doing that.
Besides that, he's found himself on a back-alley road heading toward the capital of Juloria, a city-state where the Adventurer's Guild's home location is. Why was he headed there? To become an adventurer, of course. Grey had been doing some Prana training since he was younger, and though it wasn't the most effective, he still learned a lot and managed to expand his Prana knowledge.
There are 3 types of spells: Combat, Healing, and Innate. Combat for attacking, Healing for mending and recovery, and innate for specialty. Innate skills are usually racially beneficial, such as elves with nature magic and demons with destruction magic.
There are also levels to spells, and going from worst to best, it would look like this:
[Novice --> Intermediate --> Complex --> Mythic --> Heaven --> Empryean --> Ancient]
There's still a lot more, but these are the fundamentals of magic as a whole. Grey is still a novice, but with his decent skills, he could learn intermediate rank magic in just a year of training.
※ ※ ※
He was deemed unqualified.
He had done it. He made it to the big city, filled with high spires, stone walls, and crowded streets of merchants and civilians.
But when he made it to the Adventurer's Guild hall, he was turned around because his magic prowess was "Too little". He was frustrated; he deemed his skills to be alright, at least enough to qualify for a [D-] Rank evaluation. Grey was also broke, and 10 silver Ͼoins were needed to register. So, he had little magic prowess and no money. He sighed, sitting on a garbage bin, feeling stuck.
He questioned himself, "Should I study for a year, learn some more magic, do some odd jobs, and come back?" He did indeed tell himself he needed to earn some coin, but he told himself no about the year-off thing.
The thing was, he also didn't want to be some bread-seller, and he couldn't do beast or monster-slaying missions without an official registration from the Adventurer's Guild. So, he sighed once more.
'What to do... what to do...?' He thought.
A tingly sensation vibrated in the back of his mind, and then, what floated before him was about to change everything.
"There you are." He said, smirking.
[Welcome to the 1000x Rebate system!]
[Work hard (or don't work at all), and become the strongest!]