I hear the sounds of people moving and talking. What just happened? My breathing is normal, and I don’t feel wet. What the hell is going on?I open my eyes but immediately put my hand up to block the sun. The sun? It was just around 7 pm and already dark out when I stumbled into that back alley. This must have had something to do with meeting Destiny in that other place; my mind was still confused about all of this.As my eyes begin to adjust to the light, I notice something that stayed in the same place no matter how I looked. In the top left-hand corner of my view is a blinking blue icon. I focused on it and discovered it was a blinking star.Suddenly, I was distracted from the icon, something else had caught my attention. My hand was tiny, and suddenly I was aware of the rest of my shrunken body. What the hell? It wasn’t even my skin color.I had tan skin before, and now it was a pasty white. I look at the small hand and skinny arm attached to it and was not impressed. I stopped my

I stood up again and dusted my sack off; I wasn’t going to let this bag I was wearing or my blank AVATAR get me down. I had this system now, and even if my stats were crap, I could get better. Now, I had a chance, an edge on my last life, but how to use it? I looked at Elena, and she waved me forward.“Ok, so we gotta find a quest,” Elena explained to me as I walked toward the opening of the alley-way.“How do I do that?”“That’s a good question. I think you have to look around and find someone that needs help.”“You think? I’m just supposed to walk around in my cute little sack and adorable dirty face and ask if anyone needs help? I NEED HELP! Aren’t you supposed to be my guide?”“Yes, for your functionality! But I’m just as lost on the actual people as you are. Let’s go take a look, and maybe we will find someone that needs our help.”As frustrated as I was, it wasn’t like I had much of a choice, so that’s what I did. I took the first real steps knowing that I had destiny on my side

“So, now my lovely Violet will show you to your room, Marcus. I have some things I need to take care of and a person I need to talk to; please enjoy and relax.”Miss Isabella explained to me as we walked into the house. Once inside, she and the head guard left up the stairs and to the left, leaving me with just Violet. The house reminded me of a fantasy noble’s mansion pulled from a novel.Violet came over to me and started to look at me some more, and then she got really close to me and smelled my hair. I could smell fruit coming off her as Violet stepped back and raised her eyebrow at me.“How don’t you stink? Never mind, come on, Marcus, let’s head up, and I will show you to a room where you can put your,” but Violet paused there and then changed the course of the conversation. “Then, I’ll show you to the bathroom. Then, while you’re getting clean, Tilly, our maid, will get you some clean clothes.”“Thanks,” I reply shyly.Ugh, this might be my previous life’s thoughts, but I can’t

Violet stood in front of me, angry for some unknown reason. I was at a loss as to what I should do at that point. So I tried the direct and straightforward approach.“What’s wrong?” I ask a bit hesitantly.“You! How did you complete a quest while in the bathtub? Or did you get it from tricking me into thinking you didn’t want a bath when getting a bath was the real quest!”“That’s not it at all. You act like I know what I’m doing. I got this notification when I got to the house from helping Miss Isabella get her purse back. I got experience from the world quest and a name change. I didn’t know I would get older and wasn’t sure who I could talk to about this quest stuff,” I finished with a gasp, hoping I would get it all out before she tried to interrupt me.Some of the heat seemed to drain from Violet’s expression and I could see the tension start to leave her body. Violet’s hands unclenched, and her face returned to its pretty lightly tanned complexion. She drew her hands behind her

“Stay behind me!” I yell as the Fishman behemoth emerges from the water.“How can I get any experience then?” Fire filled Violet’s palm and eyes as the little girl in a pink dress stepped up beside me.“Let me distract the big one, and you take out these small ones, then we will finish him together.”“That sounds better, you look like you already got some experience,” a glimmer of shyness almost peaked through as she looked my body up and down, but Violet swallowed it and focused on the fight.As I ran forward, I could see bolts of fire burn into the remaining Fishmen and prepared myself for my fight, letting my blade go. Even with my levels, I only had 10 MANA left. So, I decided to try and use the glove.Running, I point my hand to a large rock and pull it to me. It ends up coming faster than I anticipated, and I’m just barely able to push it away in time. I think the monster was laughing at me, so I tried again. This time the rock narrowly missed the monster, and it stopped laughin