"You could choose everything you wanted as long as your point is sufficient for your choices."
After telling him those words, Vali immediately snapped her fingers once more and disappeared from the blank space along with the board, leaving the man alone with only the transparent panel before him.
Of course, he wouldn't complain about that arrangement.
He was more focused on the prospect of being able to experience a second chance at life, after all!
"Finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally, finally!" He muttered excitedly.
He began inspecting the panel, wondering what it would offer to him.
He scrolled the panel, checking how many options he was allowed to choose. There are only two menus available: Body/Vessel Menu and Skill Menu.
The man opened the Body/Vessel Menu.
There, he was faced with a variety of options. He could become a normal Human, an Elf, a Dwarf, a Dragon, or even a mere Fly. Every option has different prices, with the cheapest at 1 point, while the most expensive ones cost a full 1000 points.
His points were only 81, so the man's options are limited. He should choose it carefully. After all, his choice would be his life.
He had already tired of being a Human or humanoid being, so he immediately erased the Humanoid races option from his mind. That's left him with monsters, animals or beasts, flora, and inanimate objects.
The man was already tired, so he would like to become something that does not require him to move much or struggle to live too much.
That's left him with Flora and inanimate Objects.
Becomes a plant looks cool and all, but he would be at risk of being targeted by mobile beings like Humans. That would be bad, after all, even if he could live just from water, nutrition from the earth, and photosynthesis. There's the option of being a carnivorous plant, but that sounds lame for him, so that's also a no.
Now he only had inanimate Objects to check.
Pebble, Clump of soil, Particle of Sand, Drop of water, Stone, A set of Land, Small Dune of Sand, Rock...
There are a lot of choices.
You could even become a set of clothes, or something as absurd as... Lingeries.
The man pinched his chin as he began seriously pondering his choice.
'It's harder than I thought before. With this many options, I would need forever to decide my choice.'
He looked at Rock. The description said that it was a 1-meter-sized rock. He could even check its stats, which have a full 100 in Density and 10 in Mass, while other stats stagnated at a big 0.
'A Rock...'
The man began imagining himself becomes a Rock in another world. Standing firmly through the flow of time, becoming a silent witness to the change of weather.
'That's kinda cool, but...'
The man remembered that he had seen a type of lizard monster that would eat rocks while bored, being listed amongst the Monsters selection section before, so he might be eaten by it if he chose Rock, so he eventually abandoned it.
He began checking other options. His eyes were seriously and carefully assessing their descriptions and prices.
There's even an option to become a sea, a continent, a trench, a valley, or a giant cloud. These options all, however, scaled from 300-1000 points; clearly out of his league.
In the end, his eyes eventually landed on Puddle.
[Puddle.]
[A normal puddle of water on the ground created after a rain, with a diameter of 1 meter.]
[Price: 5 Points.]
It costs only slightly less than Rock, which costs 7 Points. Considering that the option to choose Human was 45 Points, that's cheap. And with his remaining points, the man could still modify it. Who knows, maybe he could dream of becoming an ocean from a mere Puddle, too?
The man laughed as he imagined he rose in another world from a Puddle to an Ocean.
"That's it, a Puddle it I go!" He stated as he tapped the Puddle option, prompting more options to show up on his panel.
Here, he could choose to increase the size of his Puddle, change the type of water in his Puddle, give it a special trait, and more!
"Let's go!"
Now he began enjoying it.
'Hehehehe, I wonder what kind of Puddle I would become later~?'
The size doesn't seem to be too important for him since he may have even increased it manually—no, maybe puddelly—after he reincarnated later.
He could become an acid puddle, a dirty puddle, a contaminated puddle, a clean puddle, and a lot more types of puddles.
There's also an option to increase the depth of his puddle. The size might not really matter, but depth is important, so the man increased his puddle depth from only 1 meter to 5 meters, reducing his points reserve to only 61 since it could only increase the depth 1 meter at a time, and the cost would continue to double afterwards. It started with only 1 point per meter depth to 2 points per meter depth, to 4 points per depth, and so on.
He could also get a special trait for his puddle. There are options to give his puddle an ability to wield and manipulate magics, an option to give his puddle the ability to walk or move, and a lot more versatile and strange options.
After a moment of consideration, the man chose Clean Puddle and the trait to wield Water Magic, also a trait called Concentrated that gave his Puddle the ability to gather more water from the surrounding and rain, costing him 3 points,1 point, and 10 points each, leaving him with only 47 points left.
He could still take more traits or modify his puddle, but he decided to first check the Skill Menu before that.
He closed the Body/Vessel Menu and tapped the Skill Menu, opening a new myriad of choices before him.
As expected, there are so many types of skills in there.
There are Normal skills, Magic skills, Hell Skills, Holy Skills, and more.
The same as before, the prices ranged from 1 point to 1000 points.
'I wonder what someone should do to be able to take these expensive skills? Maybe somehow pleasing the Goddess or something?' He idly pondering
Normal skills all cost from 1 to 20 points each, Magic skills ranged from 1 to 50 points each, while Hell skills and Holy skills, and other types of skills other than the first two were all priced from 50 to 1000 points each.
That means he could only get his skills from the Normal and Magic skill sections.
That fact alone disappointed him slightly, but not too much. He doesn't really care as long as he can live his life peacefully and as far away from civilization as he can, anyway.
A skill also seems to be able to be trained by the user to raise its mastery, so since he would become a Puddle, an inanimate Object, with a supposed to be eternal life span, he would have all the time in the world to train his skills later anyway. And since Normal and Magic Skills also would have had chances to evolve to higher-grade skills if trained well, buying them now would be his investment for his second life later.
With that mentality, the man was finally able to forget about the existence of other costly skills and only focused on Normal and Magic Skills.
Since he had chosen a trait that would grant him a tendency in Water Magic, his Puddle now would have its own Mana pool and he would be able to learn magics on his own, especially Water Magic. That's why he would only need supplement-type skills that would make it easier for him to learn Water Magic and other types of magic from scratch later.
First, he chose the skill Fast witted, which is priced at a whopping 15 points.
[Normal Skill: Fast Witted.]
[Mastery: Tier 1.]
[Thinking fast, adapting instantly.]
It's strict for his pocket, but it looked like it would help him much later, so it's a must.
Then he also takes two more skills, this time from the Magic Skill section.
[Magic Skill: Mana Eye.]
[Mastery: Tier 1.]
[Mana was an invisible natural force, but you had an exceptional way to see through them in existence, leaving them bare before you.]
[Price: 10 points.]
[Magic Skill: Natural.]
[Mastery: Tier 1.]
[No worries, nature will always be there to support you.]
[Price: 2 Points.]
That's left him with only 20 points. He could still get more skills, but he refrained from doing so.
Because now, he realized that modifying his vessel was more important and more impactful than merely getting more skills that arguably wouldn't work for him. He, after all, would become a Puddle.
He then spent his time carefully getting himself more traits with the hope of making his second life as a Puddle later easier.
Then lastly, a new panel showed up after he finished his last choice.
[Please input a name for your new vessel.]
There's even a transparent keyboard for him to type.
Without hesitation, he typed his avatar name he always used whenever he played games when he was younger.