The black faded and I was back in the meadow on which I had started the testing. Alkmene was with me again. "Welcome back, traveller. I see that you had an impressive performance in your testing. Why, the gods themselves judged you and I can tell you, some of them were quite impressed by your feats, well, impressive for a mortal, that is. Let's see how they rated your attributes, then we can see where you might fit into the world of Mundus."

  It feels like the developers wanted to make everything clear like a nice, muddy puddle. 'Impressive for a mortal'? What on earth does that mean? A blue screen interrupted my musing.

  Ok, so if I read this right, my physical stats except strength are on the high side for a normal human but my mental stats except charisma are exceptional. But what are Astral and Divine power? Let's ask my companion. "Can you tell me what Divine Power and Astral Power are?"

  "In simple terms, Astral Power is extracted from the astral rivers that flow all around Mundus, it's used by mortals to cast spells. It can also be given to the gods in prayer, hoping that you gain some of his power for yourself. And that is Divine Power, power that a god lent you, it allows you to perform small feats of the Divine, those depend on your chosen deity."

  So if I understand it correct, there are two ways of spell casting, Astral and Divine, one for the classic mage-archetype, the other for priests or clerics? Alkmene went on with "Sadly, only extremely few mortals have the natural aptitude for true magic, most of their so called casters simply know on which deities door they can knock to get help and boost their pathetic skill."

  When the boxes appeared, Alkmene was visibly surprised and told me, “Truly impressive, I was not aware that you did that well. I only saw the attributes and was unaware of your other achievements. It is a rare being that steps into the world a true Mage with multiple affinities. Now, however we have to see about your race. I feel that using the guise of a human would be a burden to you. Here are some races I feel would be better suited as your guise.”

  Wait, four races? “Are there more races to chose from? Can you show them to me?” The next thing I saw, was a long, long list of races, containing pretty much everything from Amazonian to Zora. I scanned the names but nothing truly jumped at me so I decided to go with one of the four suggested by Alkmene, after all she was a lot more knowing about the world than I was.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Going by exclusion-principle, I wasn't too hot with Moon-Elves and White Kitsune, both seemed rather bound in their culture and I wanted to walk my own path after I had lost the team I had nurtured for years to the greed of others and the dictatorship of the majority. No, if I would be in a community it would be either strictly short-time for a certain purpose of mine or I would be the uncontested leader, no more feel good democracy for me. Both Naga and Firn-Elf have their own appeal but the snake-body and the 'sticks close to water' are off-putting. So, Firn-Elf, sounds good to me. Fitting.

  “Well Alkmene, I think my guise will be that of a Firn-Elf, I think it fits me best. Can I alter my appearance to fit as a Firn-Elf?” I asked. “Why, yes, of course. There you go.”

  An editor appeared before me, to show me my looks as a Firn-Elf and customize on them. I didn't change much, I wanted to keep my overall body close to my real body to keep my body-coordination so I mainly sharpened my features. I resisted the temptation to get some strange hair-colour and stayed with raven-black. That contrasted nicely with their natural slightly bluish hue. I chose my natural green eyes and silvery-blue lips to finish the look.

  “Now, Morgana, we need to talk about the path you want to walk. The decision which path to walk is a monumental one, your path can't be changed and while it is possible to stray from your predestined path, walking on the path will always be faster and smoother.”

  Ok, I'd be a fool if I discard my already gained traits, I have a feeling they can be incredibly usefull on the right path and if I'm honest, I want to play a caster anyway and not feeling terribly devout I think the Arcane Path will be for me.

  After selecting the Arcane Path, Alkmene was visibly relieved. “It would be sad if you were to become one of the sheep, blindly following a cult. Walk your path and later you can still look for the divine on your terms.” she told me. “And here I thought you are a servant of Hecate and would be happy to add someone to her believers.” I replied. “Yes, I'm a servant of wise Hecate but do you think that she who guards the crossroads would take any traveller into her cult? Only those who are worthy may join and only the mistress herself is able to make that distinction. So if you want to join, you will have to summon at least an avatar of the mistress or even herself. Not like those other cults in which even mid-level clerics can induct newcomers. They only value quantity, Hecate places little value in having a herd of bleating sheep, she prefers a small stash of true gems.”

  Sounds like there is some resentment there, interesting.