The first thing I noticed about my new body was is that it was so freaking cold.
The second thing I noticed was that I was sitting inside a cardboard box.
The box was roughly the size of what in my previous life might have contained a small refrigerator. The sides were damp and the flap I had apparently been using as a door was hanging out.
I looked at my hands, they were my hands more or less. My nails were clean somehow which was surprising because I had expected the universe to be less considerate after MAKING ME FREAKING HOMELESS. My clothes were thin and slightly too short and they had a tear along the left sleeve.
I got used to my situation quickly though since at this point nothing would surpriseme..
I was also surrounded in this alley way by these huge stone walls on both sides and a narrow strip of sky overhead showing the kind of stars that only exist in places without light pollution. There was also this awful smell of fish coming from somewhere nearby. Also I heard theb sound of people chatting and something that might have been music. I also had this pile of what appeared to be my new belonging. I had one blanket, one small bag, one dented cup and a half a loaf of bread wrapped in cloth.
I picked up the bread and It was stale to the point that i felt like i was holding a rock. Of course it was stale.
"Okay," I said to myself. "New world. Homeless. Cardboard box. I can work with this."
I could not actually see how I was going to work with this. But one of the things I had learned in twenty four years, was that saying things out loud with moderate confidence sometimes helped them become more true.
And then, without any warning at all,
A voice came back.
Not that deities voice in the darkness. It was something different. It felt like there was a voice inside of my head.
[ SKILL ACTIVATION NOTICE ]
[ User has entered a new world. Preliminary scan in progress. ]
[ Unique Skill: DRIFTER'S DOMINION Active ]
[ Passive Skill: GUTTER INTUITION Active ]
[ Passive Skill: UNCLAIMED TERRITORY Active ]
[ Latent Skill: CELESTIAL BEGGARY Dormant.
Conditions for awakening: Unknown. ]
[ System voice initialized. This unit will be referred to as ORACLE. ]
[ Current status: Vagrant, Grade 0. No fixed abode. No party affiliation. No recorded history in the Kingdom of Velthas. ]
[ Note: Several additional latent skills detected. Classification pending. Origin: Undefined. ]
"Oracle?" I said slowly.
"Confirmed," the voice in my head said.
"You're the... system voice. The skill guide thing."
"That is an acceptable description."
"How in the hell did u end up in my head?"
Oracle did not respond.
"HEY!! ANSWER ME"
Oracle did not respond.
"FINE....have it you way."
"What does Drifter's Dominion do?"
"Drifter's Dominion is a Unique Skill that allows the user to claim temporary authority over any unclaimed or abandoned space, object, or territory. The user is treated by all passive magical systems as the acknowledged owner of that space for as long as they occupy it. Additionally the user passively accumulates residual ambient magical energy from any space they claim, which feeds into the reserve used for skill activation."
I looked at my cardboard box. .
"So right now," I said, "I own this alley."
"Technically you own the specific portion of this alley that you currently occupy. Ownership radius scales with level and intent."
"And what about Gutter Intuition?"
"Gutter Intuition is a Passive skill that enhances the user's ability to read their immediate environment for threats, opportunities, and useful information. It functions similarly to danger sense but operates primarily through social and environmental cues, rather than magical detection. Essentially it gives you an extremely accurate instinct for when something is about to go wrong, who is lying to you, where something valuable has been discarded, and which way to run."
"Thats actually suprisiingy useful."
"Okay what does Unclaimed Territory do?"
"Unclaimed Territory is a Passive Skill that allows you to interact with, perceive, and navigate spaces that are magically sealed or hidden from ordinary detection, provided those spaces have been abandoned, forgotten, or are otherwise considered ownerless by the ambient magical field. Dungeons, ruins, sealed vaults and so on. Anywhere that belongs to no one is somewhere you can enter."
I sat with this for a moment in my cold alley, on my damp cardboard box, with my stale bread.
"Oracle," I said.
"Yes."
"THESE SKILLS SEEM PRETTY FREAKING GOOD! Arent they?"
"They are substantially above the baseline for a Grade 0 Vagrant, yes. The Gutter Intuition alone would be considered an A-rank passive by the Kingdom's Adventurer Classification Board. Drifter's Dominion has no existing classification because nobody has ever had it before."
"Because it was a mistake?"
"The system registers it as a distribution error,
"Okayy Great." I took a bite of the stale bread. It tasted like bread had given up halfway through trying. "What about Celestial Beggary."
"Unknown. The skill is dormant. Oracle does not currently have sufficient data to provide a description. Its energy signature suggests it is of divine origin."
"Wow that so awesome....." I repeated sarcastically.
"Yes."
I chewed my stale bread trying my best to not chip my teeth. I looked at my damp cardboard box. I thought about the prophecy the deity voice had mentioned before dropping me here, the one about the Celestial Hero arising from this exact alley.
"Oracle," I said.
"Yes."
"Sooo im supposed to save the world, arent I."
A brief pause. "The available data suggests this is a statistically likely outcome, yes."
"From a cardboard box."
"You have excellent skills for someone with no home."
"Thats genuinely so fucking rude and the least encouraging thing anyone has ever said to me."
"Oracle will note your feedback for future interactions."
I finished this piss poor bread, it wasnt good, but it was food and there was apparently a Demon Lord planning to screw up reality or whatever and im in this random new city where people will either try to help me or try to kill me depending on which side of the bed they woke up on that morning
I stood up and pulled my poor excuse of a blanket around my shoulders and picked up my battered cup and stepped out of the alley.
The city of Caldenmere stretched out and was lit by these magical lanterns in shades of amber and pale blue. It was like this medieval fantasy city that looked super freaking croweded since there was people innevery direction. It also had these buildings thay leaned against each other and the streets were cobblestone and uneven. The smells were all over the place and In the far distance I could see towers of what looked like to be either a castle or a government building of some sort.
I looked around more.
A person sleeping in a doorway nearby opened one eye, looked at me, decided I was not worth the effort to even analyze and went back to sleep.
I had arrived in this new world as a homeless person with no money, no history, no reputation, and no fixed address.
I had also, accidentally, arrived with skills that nobody else in this world had ever seen.
"Oracle," I said quietly.
"Yes."
"Where's the nearest place that might have some food."
"Gutter Intuition indicates a fifty-three percent probability of edible scraps within forty meters, northeast, near the fish market's back entrance."
"Thats perfect," I said. "We are going now!"
Somewhere above the clouds, if that stupid deity was watching from above
I hope they werent expecting anything impressive. I had literally just got here.