"-and that's how you died and ended up here. Any questions?"
Kou looked at the blue haired stranger in shock, partly because he was embarrassed to be standing in the presence of a goddess, but also because she just described in disturbing detail his untimely demise without batting an eyelash. She smiled curtly at him, tilting her head to the side as she awaited his reply.
"Well," Kou started, rubbing his neck to relieve some of the tension he now felt. "I guess that was pretty clear. I mean, I don't remember that life or anything, but Kou feels appropriate, somehow."
"Yes!" She clapped her hands together, her sapphire eyes beaming into his own. "You may change your name and appearance, if you so desire. I can give you back your memories, as well-"
Kou held up his hand, and noticed that he didn't have a hand at all and that his body was nearly translucent save for the celestial lights bouncing off and around him. Strange, but this whole encounter seemed weird and hurried. "No thanks. I'm good."
"Great! It wasn't remarkable or anything, but that's why you're getting a second go at it! Congratulations! Now, which realm..." She tapped her chin as she pondered all the possibilities. "Maybe somewhere with a lot of fish... No, a desert... volcano island... interspace political warbands... cosmic indefinites..."
"Dragons. I want to see a dragon." Kou put forth. If he was getting another shot at living, it might as well be somewhere he wanted to go in the first place."
"I mean, dragons are cool and everything, but..." The goddess shrugged passively.
"What, does everyone that comes here choose that as well?"
"Well, yeah." She stared at him blankly. Uncompromising in his choice, he stood firm, his hands on his hips.
"Fine," she relents. "but I'm gonna make it cool and interesting and not just swords and sandals and... dragons." She rolls her eyes. "Always with the dragons." She mumbles.
"What was that?" Kou smirked through his transparent expression.
The goddess did a few hand motions and magic seemed to swirl around Kou. Awesome, he thinks.
"Thank you for flying air Nira! Have a good life, er, second life!" A bright light enveloped Kou, and then there was nothing.
His eyes opened staring into a bright, cloudy day as his body floated naked in onto a sandy coastline. He splashed around until he reached land, realizing he didn't know how to swim the hard way. Maybe in his other life he had been a professional diver, but this life did not offer the same skills.
Spitting water out of his mouth, he froze with some intensity, as if turned to stone. Skills. A gear in his head started turning, his smile widening for some odd reason.
"By the way, I'll be checking in on you from time to time." Nira's voice muttered uninterestedly in his mind. "Drag your fingers across your chest to access your system and all that..." The sound of her yawning seemingly ends their connection and he's alone on the beach again.
After a moment, he jumps to his feet and basks in the sun's warm embrace. "Skills! Skills! How many? Oh, this is..."
He swipes his hand across his chest and shoulders and collarbones until a vertical line over his heart pops up his system window. "Yes!"
Kou - LVL1 (STR 01 ATK 01 DEF 01)
FARMING, MINING, COOKING, SURVIVAL, WOODCUTTING, CARPENTRY, SMITHING, THIEVING, AGILITY, INTELLIGENCE, FISHING, ARCHERY, FLETCHING, HUNTING, MAGIC
There was an icon after magic, and after swiping on the icon, Kou discovered there were even more skills to unlock. He rubbed his hands together and offered a short prayer to the blue haired goddess, to which he felt a warm feeling flood into his chest for just a second before it was gone again.
Dying was the best thing that could ever have happened to him. He took off running down the beach and into his wonderful second life, where he can level to his hearts content.