1 Chapter 01 - Taking stock

To be honest, I didn't really know what to make of my current situation. I wasn't even really sure who I really was at this point either. This was because I had two sets of conflicting memories in my head, neither of which felt like they were wholly complete. I'm not sure how to describe it either, perhaps hazy? 

Regardless, I'm currently a recently descended god in the dungeon city of Orario. Something both my sets of memories contain information on. One sees it as a place where he and his fellow gods descended mainly to seek entertainment while the other sees it as a relatively popular story about a young man's quest to become a hero (and get a harem). Sadly, neither set of memories grant me a major advantage. 

For one, my identity as mortal in a world where there was either no supernatural presence or a hidden one didn't really grant me a major advantage since I apparently hadn't been a major fan of the story and only had some casual knowledge of it. I hadn't even watched or read the whole story, not that it was completed at the time of my transmigration. Which I still not sure about by the way. As far as I can tell, it happened in my sleep and I just woke up here. Regardless, I suppose I at least got most of my skills and knowledge cultivated through that life, though it's hard to tell how much was lost.

My second identity, the one as a god, is both helpful and not at the same time. It didn't grant me any meta-knowledge I could abuse to game the system so to speak nor did it give me a wealth of connections to other gods. Apparently I was self-aware enough to know that I was considered a loner and introvert by the other gods, so I didn't really have any friends or enemies. What I had was acquaintances which didn't have strong feelings about me one way or the other, at least as far as I was aware.

A big part of that reason was related to my godly domain, which I assumed was a major part of my current situation. I was Ren, the god of the multiverse. And no, that didn't mean I was some higher god who ruled supreme over the whole multiverse. As far as I could tell, I was no different from other danmachi gods in regards to power and scale. It was hard to explain, especially with my memories as messed up as they were, but I think I and others like me basically ensured that the different multiverses stayed in their own lanes so to speak and didn't violently crash into each other all the time or suddenly collapse into themselves. So I had basically spent most of my time peeking into the multiverse to entertain myself rather than socialize with the other gods.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure my current situation was due to that identity. I have no idea if all this was planned or not. I can tell that just like all the gods that descended, a large part of myself was still left in the higher realm to tend to my duties. No matter how capricious and uncaring the gods can be at times, there is no denying that their very nature would not allow them to completely desert their domains, so everyone had left 'parts' of themselves to tend to their duties. I honestly can't really explain how it works from a mortal perspective. But the avatars that inhabit the lower realm can be seen as distorted and inferior versions of the real deal. 

Regardless, my speculation was that my godly self had added my mortal self into this avatar somehow using his domain over the multiverse. At this point I wasn't sure if that part of me was just a random lucky(?) soul that got picked somehow or if it was someone that I(?) had created and/or cultivated for that specific purpose. Honestly, at this point I'm just gonna roll with it and move on. Not like I can do anything about it at this point regardless. 

So, I'm currently in a small house in the western section of Orario. Apparently the guild was kind enough to grant newly descended gods a grace period of half a year to get situated and find a way to earn money. So they give you a small house that you can live in rent free for that period and a stipend to cover living expenses. It wouldn't do to have gods live on the streets after all. Of course, you were free to turn it down and mooch off other gods if you wanted, which is what I assumed Hestia did in the story though why she would do that was beyond me. 

Speaking of Hestia, she has not descended yet. I have tried to figure out just where I am in the timeline, but at least I'm pretty sure I'm a couple of years ahead of canon. Assuming I'm even in the canon universe that is, my identity as a god of the multiverse pretty much implies that there are probably more than one version of danmachi, but I'm just gonna pretend that rabbit hole doesn't exist and just think of the canon information as something akin to a guideline rather than an absolute truth.

So, the information that give me any sort of hint of where I am in the timeline is that the Zeus and Hera familias are gone, Evilus is still around, the Astrea familia is still around and the Loki executives are their canon levels. I'm pretty sure that puts me a couple of years ahead of canon, but I didn't know enough to say just how many. Definitely less than 10 but more than 2, at least I think so.

Anyway, as is tradition, being a transmigrated soul comes with a cheat. Well, if you can call using your godly powers a cheat anyway. I don't really know why I know this but mixing myself with a mortal, however it was done, allowed me a bit more leeway with my powers. It didn't allow me my full power or anything like that, but it did allow me to use a bit of it.

To put it in mortal terms, what I could do was act as a fisherman with the multiverse as my pond. I would use my powers to cast a line into it and seek out souls suitable for transmigration. That's right, I could basically act as a gacha summoning and summon characters across the multiverse. The power came with a lot of caveats though. 

For one, it wasn't up to me if a "fish" (character) would bite the lure so to speak. Theoretically I could spend the rest of eternity without a single bite. But I could also get a bite within seconds. I wasn't even sure how a "fish" would know how to bite the "lure" either. I just knew it worked somehow.

Secondly, there was no aiming. I would basically just cast it into the pond and let it drift around. I suppose I could direct it if I wanted to, but I had no way of knowing where it was and in which direction specific universes were so there really was no purpose to pushing it in a specific direction.

Thirdly, even after biting, the "catch" was by no means guaranteed. As far as I could tell, since I haven't got a bite yet, I would confront them either the moment or shortly after they bite and give them the choice to accept my falna. I'm not sure how much time I had to convince them or how their world would react to my presence, but I knew I needed them to accept my falna for me to be able to get them to the danmachi universe. I believe it worked by basically using the falna as a hook to "drag" them back with me when I return to danmachi.

Fourthly, it is an active process, meaning it isn't something I can just have going on in the background while living my life as normal. It doesn't require my complete focus, but it does require me to be at least somewhat stationary while doing it. So I could perhaps do it while walking around slowly, but not much more. I can do it while reading or writing, but it's quite taxing to do so. Regardless of being a god, my mental capacity in this form was apparently not that different from a mortal. The movement aspect has something to do with anchoring myself, but for some reason I'm not completely sure about the specifics.

Fifthly, "fishing" was something that took power to use so it wasn't something I could do indefinitely. I couldn't just sit for days on end waiting for a bite, the powers I had access to didn't stretch that far. I was limited to a couple of hours a day. How much power it took to "fish" varied from day to day which I'm sure was at least partly due to where my "lure" happened to be in the multiverse. And it wasn't like I could aim so I pretty much just had to deal with it.

And finally, I'm pretty sure there were personal risks associated with the process for me. At least I assumed there were beings with similar power levels or perhaps even higher that wouldn't take kindly to my interference in events. Though perhaps my domain would allow me to slip past their notice? This was mostly my own speculation so I didn't know for sure. Regardless, I was willing to take the risk. I suppose the future will tell if I was a fool or not.

Anyway, let the "fishing" begin!