My eyes opened and I saw it…
My system panel appeared, greeting me with an emoji at the end.
"HELLO! DID YOU SLEEP WELL, DARLING?~ :3."
GYAAAAA!!!???
I was so shocked I fell out of my bed.
The words on the system panel changed.
"Oh my gosh! Are you okay?"
I looked at the system panel with an annoyed face, like saying:
"What do you think?!"
The system window started typing, then after a moment showed new words.
"Don't be like that :7, I've already helped you."
I froze.
The system window displayed more words.
"No need for introductions, right? You already know who I am. If you don't, that's bad!"
I stared at the system panel in shock.
"Goddess?!" I said, trembling.
The system panel showed a happy emoji, then new words appeared.
"Yes, it's me! Your Goddess!"
"Sorry about the tutorial yesterday. One god tried to mess up the plan, because that's his nature. So now this is the replacement for that tutorial. How about it?"
My face instantly turned gloomy.
"Can that bring back their lives?"
The Goddess answered:
"Sadly, no. From the start, that was an unavoidable accident."
"I'm sorry, dear~ but because of that, you have to do better from now on, okay?"
I nodded with a tired face.
"For that, now I'll give you some information, and stay with you for a while."
I quickly sat up and grabbed the system panel.
"What is it?"
The system panel showed a smug smile emoji.
"I'll give you the location of a small Rift nearby. The EXP there is really good! And of course, no interference from that annoying god!"
The system panel looked at me again, my eyes shining.
I hugged the system panel and shook it up and down.
"Balance! Balance! Stop!" it typed, dizzy.
I looked guilty and asked how it was doing.
"It's fine, I'm just a little dizzy. Hurry up and go train! If there's any problem during the tutorial, don't hesitate to tell me." it said, smiling inside my dark room.
Then Leticia, the golden dragon goddess, opened my door and walked slowly toward me.
"Author, what weird thing are you doing now?!"
I pointed at my system screen.
"I'm sure you know her, Leti-chan~." I said with a teasing smile.
Leticia looked at Balance with longing eyes, then snapped out of it and turned away.
"Even so, he's now a new soul. He already has his own life." She walked away slowly, while I watched her with worried eyes.
I sighed.
"Alright everyone! Back to our MC." I said, looking at your phone screen (reader).
Balance walked toward a small Rift his goddess mentioned, hidden between the city streets, to train.
A Rift with the theme of an ant kingdom inside.
Balance continued his steps into the Rift.
The ground inside was sticky, made of mud that the ants used to build their homes.
Balance lifted his foot and shook it to get the mud off his shoes.
"Ugh, disgusting."
"But if I don't do this, I won't get my Soul weapon. Worst case, I won't level up."
In stories, getting something important always requires sacrifice. But what else do I have to sacrifice?
You know? This is really reckless! Entering a Rift without a weapon! And this Rift is illegal!
Yeah, not cool, but… what else can I do? If I go to an official Rift, soldiers will guard it, they'll recognize me, and drag me back home, right?
Balance started walking through the labyrinth to look for monsters. But since this Rift was a labyrinth type, it wouldn't be easy.
Every step I took, every tunnel I explored, I mapped out the labyrinth.
I took my pen to draw every inch of the path I passed in detail, before fighting all those ant monsters.
But it looked like I ran out of ink.
Didn't I see a pencil stone earlier? But… I don't remember where.
Left? Right? Aggghhh I'm confused!!!
Forget it, I'll sit down first.
Balance opened his supplies and took bread from his bag.
He ate the bread with a glass of cold milk.
Five minutes passed, then Balance stood up again, continuing his map-making with enthusiasm.
After several rounds, because he forgot the path, he finally found the pencil stone.
Balance cheered happily. HAHAHA finally!
He started drawing the map again.
Almost three hours passed, and finally the map was done.
The paths were complicated, winding everywhere.
Okay, let's go to the minions first!
According to the map, the minions gathered in the dining area. From the left, then a three-way intersection to the center, then go right.
Hmm, careful, there's a hole?
Balance accidentally stepped into the hole leading to the dining room, and fell.
He held his head to check if it was bleeding, and when he opened his eyes, a swarm of ant monsters surrounded him.
Luckily, there was a dead Council member's remains nearby. Next to the bag of the dead Council member was a baseball bat.
Balance tried to grab the bat and use it as a magic staff.
"Eh, I forgot I have Creation skill. Why don't I use it?"
Balance remembered for a moment.
He started thinking.
"Creation? Is that a skill to make something from materials around us? Or to make our imagination real, like a 3D printer?"
Balance raised his hand.
"Creation!"
A scythe appeared in his hand.
With level E, it should be enough to clear this small Rift.
With small strength, Balance swung the scythe like he learned in the previous Rift.
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
Slashing left and right, cutting the ants' necks. One by one they died, giving small EXP.
He wiped sweat from his cheek.
"This is going to take a while…"
His divine stat panel showed warnings and errors.
Warning: the class you received is not allowed to kill directly, due to rule number 2 of the gods.
Balance was shocked. "Didn't I kill a dragon yesterday?" he thought.
THAT WASN'T YOU. WE FOUND THAT IT WASN'T FROM YOUR ENERGY.
Among the ant corpses, Balance felt déjà vu.
"Isn't this like my first kill at Mom's base?"
At that time…
Mom took me to her base when I was 11. After climbing steep stairs, we reached a dark room. Mom pushed me in and locked the door.
Terrified, I banged on the door and screamed.
"MOM, I'M SCARED! IT'S DARK IN HERE, MOM!"
Mom looked at me through the crack above the door.
"Kill him, then you can come out!"
Her words came with a terrifying look.
Then Mom and Uncle left me inside.
Shaking, I looked back. A terrifying aura stared at me. Orange-red eyes glaring, wanting to kill.
I wanted to run, but my back was against the locked door. With only a knife in my hand…
That man walked toward me.
"Yo~ kid."
With a mocking grin and belittling eyes.
"Are you the child of that monster?"
He grabbed Balance's cheek.
The grip grew tighter, hurting Balance.
Balance tried to break free, but as a sickly child, he was too weak. His resistance didn't hurt the man at all.
Then the man raised his hand to slap Balance.
Balance turned his face in fear, breath tight, vision blurring as the hand swung.
"This feeling… warm… like someone hugging me."
And when I woke up, I was already lying on Mom's office bed.
Mom looked at me and smiled.
"Good job, my child."
She stood and walked toward me.
"I know you're strong. Your father is too soft on you."
Mom showed me a picture of that man, with blood splattered across the room. The prison looked like a red room now. His hands and feet severed, guts scattered everywhere, like an explosion cut perfectly.
Of course, I was terrified. Was that really my doing?
What happened?
But as I grew, I started forgetting that incident. Mom understood and never mentioned it again. I searched for what illness I had. Was it split personality? Or something else?
Eventually, I ignored it, grateful I wasn't badly hurt.
So to level up… do I have to switch to him?
He's me too, right?
But why does the system say otherwise? Isn't he my other personality? Is it because our classes are different, even though we're the same person?
His shadow (my other self) smiled wickedly.
If I break the gods' system law, Valkyries and other divine subordinates will kill me.
But…
Suddenly Balance saw in the rules that killing was allowed, but not directly.
Killing directly would make the soul lean toward one element. Balance within your soul is needed to calm the two opposing elements.
"So that's how it is…"
Balance smiled, his body trembling from exhaustion.
"CREATION."
With Creation he summoned a golem filled with acid water that could melt the ant troops.
EXP +20, EXP +30
"My EXP keeps going up as the golem wipes out the troops."
"For now I'll imagine what I need to create an army."
Suddenly I remembered what my father once told me.
"This is Creation, the power to make whatever you like. The wider your imagination, the more things you can create."
At that time I was 7 years old, staring at my dad, thinking it was amazing.
"Dad is really cool."
But Dad told me there's a limit to every person's imagination. Like him, who only understood robots—our family's inherited power could only manifest in things we truly loved.
Maybe because I hardly hate anything and have so many things I'm proud of, that's why I got this special title.
This power also requires a lot of mana. But maybe I'm lucky, since I was born with a huge amount of mana. Still, I have to save it.
Because I won't be able to move without mana.
Balance said this while checking his stats.
Balance kept wiping out the ant troops until none were left.
Finally, inside the ant nest…
Balance at level 105 versus the Ant Queen at level 104.
With nine acid golems at level 30.
KHHHIIIIIIIKKKKKK
The Ant Queen commanded her army.
Slowly but surely, the acid golems devoured thousands of ant soldiers. Balance quickly created archer puppets and shot arrows straight at the queen's core.
NGIIIIING
The sound of arrows fired so fast.
The Ant Queen ran into her palace, and sure enough…
The arrow pierced the wall at incredible speed and instantly defeated the queen. Immediately, all the ant soldiers died after their queen was gone, leaving behind many varied drop items.
Balance created small golems to help him collect all the items.
A total of 200 low-level items—but that was enough for the daily expenses of a runaway teenager (apparently).
The portal to exit the Rift appeared. Balance left after gathering the items and dismissed the golems.
"That was a good lesson."
"Goddess…"
Balance smiled, relieved of the heavy burden he had carried.
~TO BE CONTINUED~