Death

I looked around the dark room around me. It was endless darkness in all directions. Except for the beautiful woman in front of me. She had this ageless quality to her. She was beautiful, but in a way that made her feel like a gentle mother.

It was a different kind of beautiful.

"Where am I?" I asked the woman in front of me.

"Well," she looked me up then down slowly, "You died."

"No," I was so confused by the words that came out of her mouth, "I just had a cough, and a fever."

"Nope sorry," She looked almost bored by my lack of belief, "Pneumonia. You're parents really should have taken you to a hospital."

"Last time I saw my parents they were...." I frowned to myself.

"High as a kite," The goddess finished my sentence for me, "Drug addicts for parents, and dying at such a young age." She looked so bored, "You've been selected for reincarnation. I know this is all so sudden for you, but I have a thousand more to guide to the other side today, and they're all so surprised that they died."

"But what about my parents?" I was genuinely worried about my irresponsible parents, "They needed me."

"You died caring for people who didn't take their son to a hospital when he had a fever of a hundred, and seven degrees," The goddess in front of me rolled her eyes, "Do you really want to go back to taking care of the people who were supposed to care for you?"

"Not really," I rubbed the back of my neck.

"Tell you what," The goddess got a mischievous look in her eye, "I need some entertainment in my eternity of life." she paused, "I'll give you two options. One, you can be reincarnated as whatever you want. Two, you can reincarnate with one of those systems that are so popular in the manga, and anime of your world nowadays."

"Like a, level up, video game system?" I could feel the excitement welling up.

If I could level up I could be as strong as I wanted. Maybe I could use some skill points to get some unusual skills.

"Will there be magic?" I asked as I put some serious thought into the idea of being reborn with a system.

"Well," She smiled, clearly amused by the fact I was taking her idea so seriously, "I'm not allowed to reincarnate you in the world you were from last because you might encounter someone from your last life, so I can arrange your reincarnation into a world of magic."

"Okay," I made up my mind with a smile, "I want to be reborn with a system."

"Are you sure about this?" The goddess clearly liked my choice.

"I don't like the idea of being your entertainment," I smiled when she frowned, "But I think getting a system is worth it."

She smiled. Clearly happy with my choice.

"Enjoy your system," She waved at me as the world around me faded to nothing.

I woke up with a start. Only to find my eyes shuck shut. Where's my system? A stats window popped up in front of my eyes.

Species: Sparrow

Level 1

XP 0/10

Health 2/2

Strength 0

Speed 0

Agility 0

Mana 1/1

No skills

What?

What!?!

Am I really just a tiny little sparrow? How is that fair? Was this what she was planning all along? God damn that goddess. A warm blob bumped into me, and I chirped in protest.

The blob chirped back. Great so not only am I a sparrow, but I'm not an only child. I wanted to scream, and yell but all that came out was angry chirps. I tensed up, and flapped my pathetic little wings. All my protests ended when something was shoved in my open mouth.

I swallowed it down because I couldn't spit it out.

Worm consumed 1xp awarded.

I mulled over my situation slowly. I still did have a system after all. It obviously worked so all I had to do was keep leveling up until I got strong. Right now I was the weakest most fragile little thing in the universe. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed with my eyes stuck closed like this.

I learned an important lesson pretty quickly. I got hungry often, and if I didn't kick up a racket every time I was hungry, I didn't get fed. If I didn't get fed, it got painful. It was hard to keep track of anything with my eyes stuck shut, but I could still see my systems xp slowly going up each time I was fed so there was that. So naturally I became obsessed with checking my xp. I checked it often.

Three or four times between each feeding. I was actually looking at my stats right now.

Level 1

XP 9/10

Health 2/2

Strength 0

Speed 0

Agility 0

Mana 1/1

No skills

I chirped when I got hungry again, and this time I hoped I would level up. My parents stuffed food in my mouth again.

Level up. 10 skill points awarded. Congratulations you are now level 2.

Level 2

XP 0/20

Health 4/4

Strength 0.25

Speed 0.5

Agility 0.5

Mana 2/2

No skills

10 skill points available

No skills available for purchase

I glared angrily at the stat screen in front of me. In my glaring I realized that I could see a sliver of daylight through my just barely open eyes. Finally I was getting somewhere. All I had to do was keeping eating for xp. That seemed too easy.

I'd probably loose that when I leveled up a couple more times.

"You're right about that," I could hear the goddesses voice in my head, "I thought it would be unfair of me not to give you some way to level up when you can't really move."

Well thanks a lot you jerk. Could you have at least reincarnated me as something that had some kind of strength? Instead of useless blind blob?

"Where's the fun in that?" She chuckled, "I'm quiet busy so I don't have much time to chat, and I really don't want to interfere with your progression so this will be the last time we chat. Have fun with your system."