The First

“Born too late to explore the Earth, but too early to explore the cosmos.”

For whatever reason, those few words were all that flashed through his mind as he died. No thoughts of family and friends. No loving memories flashing before his eyes. No beautiful white light so blinding that he’d start crying. There was nothing but those few forgotten childhood dreams.

And for a while, that was it. It could have been mere seconds, or it could have been an excruciating eternity, but there was no way to tell exactly how long he was staring at the endless void.

One moment, there was nothing, and the next, she was there.

Sitting atop a pristine white throne in the middle of the endless void was a lone woman. With long silver hair that reached down to her ankles, even in an elaborate braid, and striking red eyes, the woman wore what seemed to be a strange combination of evening wear and armor. Everything about the woman was immaculate, but to the man in the void, something about her seemed… lacking.

The woman’s smile was warm and inviting, but something in the back of his mind screamed that something about her was off.

“Welcome, dear hero, to the crossroads of the worlds.” A woman’s voice echoed in his mind, but the woman in front of him never moved her lips. “I must apologize for the wait. I am Ithys, Goddess of Carmine, a world not too different from yours.”

The Goddess went on to explain that when the people of Earth died, they were often called to different worlds for one reason or another. Sometimes, to fight great foes, other times to improve the quality of life of a suffering world. The only thing these worlds had in common was that they pulled people from Earth.

Carmine, the world she was in charge of, was one of those worlds. However, it was suffering from no real issue. A millennium-long war had recently ended, and peace had returned to the world. When he questioned why he was being sent there, she simply avoided the question and explained how things worked.

While he would be reincarnated, the people of Carmine were able to notice if someone is an otherworlder on sight. Likewise, he would be able to identify otherworlders without issue, so there would be no confusion. She explained that otherworlders are commonly given up to orphanages that specifically cater to otherworlders shortly after birth; after all, treating what could be a forty-year-old man as a baby would be uncomfortable, both for the parents and the otherworlder. He would be raised there for sixteen years, and then he would be free to do whatever he pleased.

He asked if he had any sort of duty to perform. She told him no, his new life was for him and him alone. Everything he did was to his own digression.

Then, she offered him a cheat. A Unique Skill, she called it, something every otherworlder was granted upon traveling between worlds. While those transported in other ways were unable to choose, those who reincarnated, like him, were given a choice. Some chose strength, some chose knowledge, and some just wanted to be able to grow crops or cook delicious meals.

But nothing she mentioned interested him.

Infinite wealth? No.

Exceptional Reflexes? No.

Communication with Animals? No.

So she asked him what he wanted, but he didn’t have an answer. He lived his whole life unable to choose what he wanted. His hobbies, his education, his career, all decided for him. So when finally given the choice, he was unable to choose.

So she decided for him. A rare service, she specified. Typically, she’d just shove something random onto him and send him on his way, but for whatever reason, she was in a good mood.

She didn’t tell him what it was. A surprise to remember her by was what she called it.

And with that, the beautiful Goddess with the smile that failed to reach her eyes sent him on his way.

In an instant, the void disappeared, and he found himself trapped in the body of an infant, staring at parents whose faces turned from joy to disappointment to resignation in an instant. Despite this, they still decided to give him a name. As customary in this world, even if the child is an otherworlder, it was the parents’ responsibility to give them a name. They murmured to each other for a moment before spitting out a name, likely the first that had crossed their minds.

Fletcher Graves.

Like the Goddess had told him, Fletcher was sent off to an orphanage to be raised among other otherworlders, though there were far fewer of them than he expected. The elder who was in charge of the orphanage seemed sympathetic of his situation, but had seen the same thing so many times that he didn’t go out of his way to interact with the adult man in the body of a child before him.

By the time he had turned sixteen and left the orphanage, he had long since discovered his Unique Skill.

Inventory EX

A shockingly common skill that most adventurers possessed, though there wasn’t a single record of an S rank inventory skill, let alone an EX rank one. While most adventurers capped out at B rank and could barely fit a backpack without having to worry about the items inside breaking or rotting, Fletcher had no issue placing items inside and had yet to find a limit to his storage, nor did he have to worry about the items inside. No matter what, they didn’t break or rot, almost as if they had froze in time the moment he placed them inside.

He had managed to earn quite a bit of savings in his last few years at the orphanage. It turns out, the ability to move items without issue was actually quite useful. Families moving from one home to another would hire him to carry their belongings. Merchants would have him store their goods while they were in town, to maintain the quality of their items, especially perishables like food that quickly rotted.

When it came time for him to leave the orphanage, he struggled to find a purpose. Of course, his skill meant he’d never have to worry about work. No matter where he went, he’d always find someone willing to hire him. But something inside felt like it was missing.

The elder who ran the orphanage, now too old to even walk on his own, was the one to identify his issue. Above all else, Fletcher lacked the one thing that every human needed to live.

Purpose.

It was something he was missing throughout both his lives. Even in his previous life, not once had he had something he truly wanted. He had sleepwalked through his previous life, always doing what his parents had told him to do, even when he had no interest in what he was doing. Life was meaningless to someone who didn’t have a reason to wake up every morning.

When Fletcher asked how you were supposed to find a purpose, the elder just laughed at him. He suggested that if he couldn’t find one himself, why not search for otherworlders like him and see what purpose they found in this world.

So he did. He took the first carriage out of town and started a journey to find one of the many otherworlders.

First, he met an old man tending a farm with his family. When Fletcher asked about purpose, the old man simply told him that he found purpose in living a simple life as a farmer. Fletcher lived with him for two weeks, helping out around the farm, but nothing about the slow life interested him.

Next, he met a bandit who told him that she found purpose in taking whatever she wanted when she wanted it, laws be damned. Fletcher tried it once but failed to find anything he wanted.

After that, he met an otherworlder who had been reincarnated as a monster, a gryphon to be exact. When Fletcher asked if it had a purpose, the gryphon responded by saying that so long as it was the strongest, then its purpose was to fight. They fought once, and Fletcher lost.

One after another, Fletcher met numerous otherworlders, each with their own stories and purposes. From those with noble goals to those who just wanted to enjoy their lives. The otherworlders who made up the world all had a purpose.

But he still failed to find one of his own. Not a single otherworlder was able to help him find purpose. For three years, he traveled the world, searching for purpose.

Yet for some reason, he didn’t grow tired of his journey. Unbeknownst to him, his endless search for purpose had become the closest thing to purpose he had, and he found himself enjoying the scenery as he traveled, discovering otherworlders in the strangest of places.

A four-hundred-year-old witch hiding at the top of a mountain.

A saintess who delivers the word of the Goddess to the citizens of the capital city.

A hero living in the castle of his long-defeated foe, raising the child of the man he had killed for the sake of the world.

By the time he had turned nineteen, Fletcher had seen more of the world than those who had lived for centuries. Yet, something inside him yearned to see more. For the first time in his life, despite the fact that he didn’t understand what the feeling meant, Fletcher wanted something for himself.

And as he traveled, struggling to understand this feeling that he had never experienced before, a voice he had heard only once before echoed in his mind.

“Do you still wish for purpose?”

He glanced up towards the sky, wondering if the Goddess who had brought him here was staring down at him at that exact moment.

“Yes.”