In front of me was a landscape of white, not snow but white. As soon as I saw it reminded me of the Gate of Truth scene from Fullmetal Alchemist. Of course minus the Gate. What was there, however, was a man sitting upon a throne. The man wore a mask with the depiction of a Joker in one eye and the Devil within the other with a crescent moon shaped smile adorning it. He was wearing an animal leather cape with some sort of mane on the top, and what appeared to be silken pants and shirt, and a pair of rough leather boots. What was most striking about the man was his hair was never a set colour, it kept shifting to a different colour every few seconds, which only seemed to add to his eerieness.

"Hello young lad, I am the God in charge of your afterlife. We'll be seeing each other often, best regards." The voice that came out neither seemed old nor young, masculine nor feminine, just neutral. But one thing it did sound like was very facetious.

His words brought back my last moments and realisation dawned upon me. I was dead. Now it seemed there truly were Gods who ruled the world.

"So what now?" I finally managed to squeeze out a question after breaking out of my shock.

"Now my boy we decide what'll happen to you and where you'll end up. Maybe this time next millennia I'll be seeing you burning in a pit of fiery brimstone. Or maybe you'll be living luxuriously surrounded by heavenly babes gorging on delicacies? Who knows? Oh wait, I do! Hahahaha!"

It seems this God had a sense of humour that was lost on me due to the circumstances.

"Well boy, here's the deal, due to Godly interference your fate was changed. You were originally meant to live till the grand old age of 103 all alone but having done great research into the fields of biochemistry. But alas fate be a cruel mistress, and instead you died a dog's death. So you get compensation. That compensation is one of three choices."

"#1 - Ascend to whatever your religion or beliefs system version of heaven is."

"#2 - Reincarnate back into the Earthly Cycle."

"#3 - Reincarnate into Gaia's Cycle"

So my real choice is to reincarnate or give up on living? No matter how heavenly it is, there would not be the excitement of the chaos of a true life. So cross out option 1.

"What is Gaia?"

"Oh goodie, I'm so glad you asked, it's very rare someone gets the privilege to reincarnate there so I rarely get to do the speech on it." He honestly seemed really excited as if this really was a great privilege.

"Gaia, the land of heroes, where all legends originate, where even a simple slime has the power to destroy all life on Earth, where Gods fight for power and champions try to earn their favour. Gaia, the apotheosis of creation and a holy land for combat where monsters roam and demon lords are as common as a field mouse. Gaia the land of opportunity."

So that means my options are to go back to a peaceful but dull life on Earth or an exciting but dangerous life on Gaia. Well I guess 'nothing ventured, nothing gained' is an apt expression here.

"I choose Option 3. Is that it? Do I just reincarnate straight away or is there some extra compensation?"

"Good lad, that intelligence will serve you well in Gaia. You do in fact receive extra compensation besides the choice. Firstly you get to retain your memories from your previous life. Secondly, you'll get two surprises once down there, one as a gift from myself."

"Really? Well thanks, I guess..." Having only talked to the man for a couple of minutes I was feeling extremely grateful for his help.

"I wouldn't be thanking me yet. Well time to send you down." He said as a wicked grin formed on his face.

"Huh?" I couldn't help but feel that I had fallen for something, causing alarm bells to go off in my head.

*Whoosh*

"I hope you'll amuse me young lad, or else my effort would have been wasted..."

After what felt like a car crash I began to feel as if free falling through the sky, but instead of air rushing against me I felt what seemed to be flakes of all different colours and auras surrounding them but they all seemed to radiate friendly feelings towards me. I kept feeling as if I was on some acid trip.

This didn't continue for long before I got the feeling reminiscent of squeezing into a tight pair of jeans but with my whole body. And once I finished squeezing into the 'jeans' I passed out.

When I woke up, I felt as if I had just had a refreshing sleep and was raring to go. Yet my body wouldn't respond, all I could manage was a twitch or spasm at best, I couldn't even manage to open my eyes, instead as soon as I started moving something was shoved into my mouth and starting releasing a sweet liquid which I instinctively started drinking with gusto. After drinking my fill I felt stronger but I still couldn't do much, I guess sleep is the only option I have in this state.

Once again waking up, this time I could at least manage to open my eyes which I should probably count as a blessing. Though what I saw nearly sent me back to the afterlife due to shock. Lying in front of me was a three-headed dog and 4 smaller regular dog pups. Oh God, how did I end up in a cave with a Cerberus? What the fuck is that Gods deal?

When I tried looking closer at the Cerberus I was once again shocked by what greeted me.

Cerberus Reputed as the guard of the Underworld, this beast is the child of the Gods Echidna and Typhon.

Anyone capable of slaying it will immediately gain great fame and valour.

Um.... What? Is this a description of it? A status maybe? Does everything have one?

Testing my idea I decided to try it on the pups

Flare Pup One of the children of the Guard Dog of the Underworld, due to this it is a variant breed at the start of its life Frost Pup One of the children of the Guard Dog of the Underworld, due to this it is a variant breed at the start of its life Volt Pup One of the children of the Guard Dog of the Underworld, due to this it is a variant breed at the start of its life Void Pup One of the children of the Guard Dog of the Underworld, it is a rare breed with great possibilities for future evolution

So, for now, we can conclude that everything has some form of status, I'm guessing that includes me. Usually, in these types of situations, main characters would think Status to themselves and then BAM, Status. No harm in trying.

Status!

Status Name: Lugh Species: Sun Pup Level: 1 Health: 40/40 Mana: 260/260 Stamina: 60/60 Strength: 3 Agility: 4 Intelligence: 13 Vitality: 2 Wisdom: 17 Luck: 25 Titles: Reincarnated One, Child of Cerberus, Blessing of Loki Skills: Appraisal, Fire Magic, Light Magic

Wait a minute! I'm a fucking dog!? How come!? Wait a minute, Loki? Don't tell me that God was Loki? I was right, I was being tricked! Give me back my gratefulness you bastard! He even got my name wrong, some God he is...

At least I know magic so I'll have something to do while I wait for my body to develop. I just need to figure out how to use my mana. Whenever I saw it in shows or shows with something similar it would either be stored in an organ or be something similar to blood. So at least there's a starting point. So I closed my eyes and tried sensing something inside of myself I guess.

After what felt like hours I finally got some results. I found something shaped like a grapefruit in proportions just behind and below my stomach, and stored within was a transparent substance which I can only assume is my mana.

Willing it to flow towards my mouth I spit out a ball of propertyless mana that just glowed in front of me. Sucking it back in and trying again this time so as to add either my fire or light property to it. As I was trying to get either to affect the mana, it seemed instead of one I got both and instead of another plain mana ball, I got a mini-sun.

You have learned Sun Magic!

Sun Magic was apparently its own sub-category of magic, which probably means any fusion of magic types will probably have its own sub-category magic.

Too bad I didn't have anything to try it out on, but the show must go on. Next Experiment, changing the form of the ball.