Erin opened his eyes to the brightest white he had ever seen. At first he thought someone was shining a flashlight into his eyes, but he quickly realized that he wasn’t blinded. The environment was simply such a formless empty white that there was nothing else to see. Pushing himself up to a standing position, Erin looked around himself. He could seemingly see into the distance, but without any objects to act as a point of reference, there was no telling how far that distance really was.

As Erin turned, he finally found something. Or rather someone. A woman sat in a marble throne with just enough gold filigree to be impressive without being ostentatious or gaudy. She watched over him with a beatific smile, silent, but her face expressing benign joy; as if she were thrilled to see an old friend.

“Er, hello?” Erin asked.

The woman nodded, and stood. Behind her, the throne seemed to fade from existence until the space it occupied reverted to the everpresent blankness. It was difficult to estimate her height without any frame of reference, but he had the impression that she was on the shorter side. Her hair was platinum blond, and she wore a form-fitting white toga that emphasized her ample assets without being revealing, or lurid in any way.

“Hello Erin, welcome to heaven.” She said in a pleasant soprano voice.

“Am I… dead?” Erin asked her, his voice trembling as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks.

The kindness in her face gained a hint of sadness. “Yes and no. Sometimes, when someone dies in your world, a god will scoop up their soul, and transport them to their own world with a new body to perform some task that the god doesn’t want to or can’t do themselves. That’s exactly what is happening here.”

“I have so many questions.” Erin muttered. “How did I die? I don’t remember it.”

The blond goddess shook her head. “I would rather not subject you to the trauma of your death. If you don’t remember, it’s because you’ve blocked it out yourself. Perhaps when you’re ready, you’ll remember on your own.”

Erin sighed. “Ok… why take people from my world specifically?”

The goddess coughed awkwardly. “Yes, well, the god of your world got himself killed a while back, so there’s no one to complain when we snag souls.”

“Wait, what? How did he die?” Erin asked in surprise.

“I believe you have an entire religion based around it. He decided to incarnate as a mortal, and managed to get himself executed by the authorities in a particularly gruesome fashion. Normally, he would just ascend again, but something went wrong and he died for real. Since then, your world has become what your people call a meme among the divine assembly.”

Erin blinked in surprise. “Wow. By the way, what’s your name?”

The goddess’s face brightened noticeably. “Almera, goddess of sympathy, and primary goddess to the world of Almenia.”

Erin nodded. “Nice to meet you. I guess the only question left is what do you want from me?”

Almera sighed. “Due to unforeseen circumstances, my world is experiencing a terrible drought. As a result, there is an accompanying famine. It’s not hyperbole to say that if things continue as they are, the human race may go extinct at some point in the future. I intend to send you as my agent to solve the problem.”

“What do I need to do? Do I need to collect magical treasures or something?” He asked.

Almera shook her head. “I’ll teach you water magic, and some basic farming techniques. You should be ok from there.”

“Wait, if it’s that simple, why haven’t the people of your world been able to take care of this themselves?” Erin asked in mild outrage.

Almera sighed again. “They haven’t had time to develop properly. They only know how to use control magic, not creation magic. Being able to control water is all well and good, but it’s not particularly helpful if there is no water. I tried to send them divine revelations. I showed them techniques to do it themselves, but the priests misinterpreted them. They thought I was warning them about people infringing on my divinity, and declared the study of creation magic as heresy.”

Erin groaned. “So I’m going to be fighting the church over this.”

Almera seemed to panic slightly. “Yes, but I beg you not to hurt them. They mean well.”

Erin sighed in resignation. “Well, I guess I don’t have much choice. Is there anything else I should know?”

Almera brightened again. Erin thought the change in mood almost seemed to have a tangible effect on the air around her, as if her cheerfulness was producing a soft glow that was lost in the prevailing whiteness of their surroundings.

“Well, skills are very easy to pick up, and learn on my world. You only need to see a skill to gain access to it, and once you have access, you can use skill points to unlock, and improve it. Of course, you can also grow your skills naturally with practice, and that will also count toward your progression, but most people focus on using skill points.”

Erin nodded. “Ok, how do I earn skill points then?”

“By killing monsters in dungeons of course.” Almera said cheerfully. “And don’t worry about depopulating them. The dungeons are a part of my world’s system. They’re what a gamer on your world would call instanced, so every person or group who enters is walking into their own copy of the dungeon. The monsters also respawn in between visits, so you can fight them to your heart's content.”

“Seems simple enough.” Erin commented.

Almera nodded. “Indeed. Now, let’s get started.”

Though it was impossible to tell time with the empty white sky, and lack of bodily functions, Erin thought he spent at least two weeks in Almera’s bland version of heaven. During that time she taught him magical techniques, farming, and the local language. She even gave him basic self-defense training against monsters similar to what he might encounter in a dungeon. This had the added benefit of providing him with skill points which he hoarded in a miserly fashion. From time to time, Erin would pull up his stat window, a useful ability that every resident of Almenia could use, which showed his skills, and basic stats. The stats themselves were mostly self-explanatory, with recovery counting toward both stamina, and magical recovery. Strangely, toughness governed HP recovery, and general defense at the same time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skill Points: 256

+HP: 113

+MP: 55

+Strength: 10

+Endurance: 12

+Agility: 7

+Intelligence: 15

+Toughness: 5

+Recovery: 6

Skills:

General Magic: 20

Fire Magic(Control): 5

Wind Magic(Control): 6

Earth Magic(Control): 4

Water Magic(Creation): 12

Water Magic(Control): 22

Farming: 18

Hand to Hand: 13

Evasion: 10

Language(Almenian): 25

Language(English): 56

Other:

Spiritual Entity

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of his training, a popup appeared to Erin that surprised him.

“Whoops, I didn’t intend for you to learn that.” Almera said in surprise when he asked her about it. “Basically, I’ve been using a special magical construct to speed up time here relative to time in the physical world. Your mind must have just now processed it enough to reverse engineer a basic version of it. The skill system can be a bit unpredictable sometimes.”

“Wait, how much time has passed?” Erin asked curiously.

Almera shrugged. “Well, in the past two seconds of surface time, we’ve experienced about a year.”

“A year?” Erin semi-shouted. “I thought it was a few weeks!”

“Your mind likely had difficulty adjusting to the fluctuation in timescales, and that interfered with your perception. Don’t worry, if you use the skill yourself, it likely won’t be anywhere near as strong as the field I used. At most you’ll get a one percent time differential per skill level, so it shouldn’t interfere with your perception in the same way.”

Erin nodded, and glanced at his stat page. For now, the skill was only level one, so he closed his page without a second glance.

“Well, I suppose that’s it then. All that’s left is to send you out into the world. Is there anything else you wish to ask before you go? Remember that you may speak to me any time at a shrine or temple dedicated to me. You can even build one yourself if you so choose. It does get rather boring in the holy realm at times, so please feel free to contact me whenever you wish.”

Erin nodded. If he had tear ducts, he likely would have shed a tear at their parting, but his spiritual body only allowed him to feel the sadness. Despite that, Almera seemed to understand his feelings, smiling beatifically at him. “Live a full, and joyous life, my child.” With that, a wave of golden energy flowed out of her to engulf Erin. Before his senses were overwhelmed, he noted a popup appear in front of him.