Ten seconds later, the light faded, and I couldn't see anything but forest stretching out in every direction. I looked up, left, right, behind me — trees, and nothing else, for as far as my god-tier eyesight could reach.
After a trillion years spent under a permanently sunny sky, this place — where the light barely touched the forest floor — felt strange and a little uncomfortable at first. I stood there a moment, just breathing it in. Real wind. Real birdsong. The smell of damp earth. I hadn't realized how much I'd missed smelling anything at all.
I decided to walk in whatever direction I happened to already be facing.
Before I got too far, though, I sat down on a low tree branch. There was a part of me that wanted to test every single skill I owned right then and there, just to feel it work in a real world instead of a training void. But I knew this wasn't the time or the place for that kind of experiment. So instead, the first thing I did was conjure a small mirror to check my appearance and make sure I hadn't shown up looking like some ancient, wrinkled relic.
To my genuine surprise, a beautiful young man stared back at me from the glass. Black hair, sharp red eyes that seemed to catch the little light filtering through the canopy, a plain white shirt, and comfortable black pants. Apparently godhood came with excellent genetics.
The next thing I did was make sure my real status stayed hidden, courtesy of 'Hide It.' In its place, I crafted a far more modest, believable version of myself.
[ Name: Lukas Gigonos
Age: 22
Job: Swordsman
Level: 56
Strength: 142
Endurance: 140
Speed: 151
Mana: 56
Wisdom: 45
Skills: - ]
I even gave myself a Level, since 'Can't Level Up? I Just Need to Train!' let me raise stats through training instead of leveling anyway — nobody in this world needed to know that part. I borrowed some knowledge from novels I'd read back on Earth and picked "Swordsman" as my cover job, along with stats that would look reasonable for the role.
Alright, I think my disguise is airtight. Oh — one more thing.
I pictured space cracking open, and the Beautiful Katana slid free of the void, landing gently in my open palm. My very first sword, in my very first minute in this world.
"Alright," I said out loud, to no one but the trees. "Let's do this."
And so began the next chapter of my life.
I walked for hours through the dense, quiet forest, the rustle of leaves and the distant calls of unfamiliar creatures the only sounds around me. This world was so different from the Training Grounds — vibrant, unpredictable, alive in a way that white sunlit gym floor never could have been. Every step felt like stepping further into the unknown, and for the first time in longer than I could remember, that uncertainty didn't scare me. It excited me.
Eventually I noticed a faint path threading through the trees, and curiosity got the better of me. I followed it.