Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

It was too late to change my answer.

By the time I regained my consciousness, I was already within a body, the same clone body I had prepared myself with in advance.

What it stated was clearly different than my expectation.

If entering in this clone body was "No" then what did it mean by that question? Where would I return to? What was that thing anyway?

I thought about asking for that voice to speak to me again but something seemed to have happened while I was away.

I slowly opened my eyes.

I was under the same roof as where I was just earlier. My bed was soft and comfortable, as if tempting me back into slumber. I was sure if I fell asleep again, that would mean I had died. In this world, I couldn't sleep and I was sure about it.

My body felt light. Well, I forgot to clothe this clone but there really wasn't anything to see on this body of mine.

I picked up previous set of clothes I had previously worn, that being a sweatshirt, jeans, and runners that were lying on the ground. I quickly fixed them up and put them on.

"Oh well, looks like my old body crumbled into dust without a fey core... I just hope that didn't happen to the other clones where I pulled the fey core out..."

Vorte wasn't around for some reason but it likely had to do with the rumbles and quakes outside my little house. Likely, an enemy and showed up to cause some ruckus. But in any case, I doubted I could contribute much even if I joined the fight. We were in different leagues altogether.

Let's check my status first.

[Level 69 Fey (plant);
Species: Strawberry Phantasm;
Physical: 212/212;
<Health: 212>
<Speed: 158 (enhanced)>
Spiritual: 443/443;
<Mana: 443>
<Mass: 499 (enhanced)>
<Luck: 425 (enhanced)>
Traits: Bewitching, Parallel Bodies, Escapist, Tactician, Creator, Enhanced Spiritual, Enhanced Resistances, Enhanced Physical;
Abilities: Charm, Subspace, Creation, Strawberry Substitution;
Description: An elusive plant fey shrouded in mystery.]

Alright, I managed to remove that demon trait! Hurray! Wooohooo! Hmm... I guess it's too early for party time.

With enemies at my doorstep, I had to level up and evolve. There was no other option. For someone to be able to barge into my subspace, the safest place at my disposal, I had no choice but to fight. Since someone did come, the contract was likely already nullified or that information was quarantined somewhere. However, that currently was not my main concern. Right now, I had to find a way to gain power, and a lot of power.

Levelling up was easy since I had plenty of mana stored away. The first place to pull mana was from the air within this subspace. That wasn't how fey beings normally levelled but I had always been a little special... I meant unique.

Next, from my [creation] menu, I could tell that something was going on the second layer of my subspace. This meant that the third layer had been breached.

Evolution might require quite a bit of time. I doubt Vorte could hold any enemies for too long.

I adjusted the relative flow of time on the second layer and the core. This should buy me enough time to evolve. Now that the synchronization had stopped, the rumbles and space quakes was no longer constantly shaking everything here.

After making all the preparation, I entered into a meditative state. It was just like when Vorte evolved.

Even after reaching level 70 moments ago, I did not stop trying to reach greater heights, absorbing all the mana from my surroundings into myself.

Please, grant me the power to ascend. Without the |devious| trait, I should be able to avoid demonic evolutions. God, I no longer hold any grudges against you. Please, allow me to evolve into a god!

[Requirements not met.]

Hmm? It's you again! What requirements do I need?

[Seed of Life not detected.]

What the hell is this "Seed of Life"? I've never heard of this trait or ability.

[Divine Will insufficient.]

I've never heard of any of this before? Insufficient? So that means I have it but just not enough?

[Limit Breaker not detected.]

I remember that demon had it...

|Limit Breaker| was a trait likely associated with those who managed to reach beyond the 499 stats. It wasn't something I could easily break. In the first place, how one broke through the limit was beyond me. 

So basically, I don't meet three of those requirements? This isn't funny! Okay, how about evolving into a Guardian?

[Guardian path not available.]

Crap, we don't have time for this. I need to evolve, now!

[Alternative path available: Celestial.]

Can you explain what this race is? I've never heard of it.

[Celestial path is a path to Divine.]

Divine and godhood was synonymous to me.

Oh, why didn't you say so in the first place? I thought there was a way to directly obtain godhood. Alright, let's go with this Celestial race.

[Evolution initialized...]

[Evolving from Fey (plant) race to Celestial race...]

[Evolving from Strawberry Phantasm to Strawberry Pathfinder...]

Unlike my previous double evolution, this one was taking quite a bit of time. All the while I was evolving, I didn't stop gathering mana from my subspace into myself to fuel the evolution. I had to ensure this evolution was a complete success and achieved at the highest level at the end. If I ended up as level one of that new race, I feared that I wouldn't be able to handle powerful demons.

[... Evolution completed.]

The moment evolution completed. I felt my mana slightly condensed even further. Yet, my total mana had increased as well.

[Level 23 Celestial;
Species: Strawberry Pathfinder;
Physical: 342/342;
<Health: 342>
<Speed: 290 (enhanced)>
Spiritual: 689/689;
<Mana: 689>
<Mass: 523 (enhanced)>

<Luck: 425 (enhanced)>
Traits: Bewitching, Coward Tactician, Creator, Void, Limit Breaker, Enhanced Senses, Enhanced Spiritual, Enhanced Resistances, Enhanced Physical;
Abilities: Hypnosis, Subspace, Creation, Celestial Eyes;
Blessings: Enchanted Fate, Forced Destiny;
Description: A divine being born from a strawberry plant.]

Huh, new race, really a new race! Celestial sounds amazing. Finally, road to godhood!

The species name didn't matter to me since it was just a name.

Looking at my physical stats, they certainly increased quite a bit. Well, that much was given since I suddenly levelled up quite a bunch. To be honest, how the level system worked beyond the double evolution was quite strange. I somehow ended above Vorte's level. But, just as before evolution, level didn't necessarily equate to power especially when many factors were involved.

My spiritual stat had somehow broke through the limit of 499. That was probably what I felt earlier. The <mass> stat had also broke through the limit. If I had to guess, it likely was related to the density of my mana.

There were a few new traits. One of them was the unexpected |coward tactician| that likely was the fusion of |escapist| and |tactician| trait. The |limit breaker| was expected for those who broke past any limit.

|Enhanced senses| was one that wasn't able to obtain before my evolution. I considered it a neutral trait which was why I never really attempted to acquire it like some other ones. The ability as it stated, heightened my senses many times. The biggest issue was that I couldn't turn it off which meant I could easily get overloaded with sensory information if I wasn't used to it.

Last but not least, there was this |void| trait. I supposed this was probably the ascendant or special trait that Vorte was talking about. It didn't have any explanation and that voice was undependable when it came to information. In most cases, traits were difficult to use but it should be fairly powerful.

Hmm? Who ate my |parallel bodies| trait? And... [Strawberry substitution] is gone too? No. Who ate it? Spit it out! I want my teleport ability! How am I supposed to get anywhere without my teleportation?

[Your trait, |Void|, allows for spatial transfer.]

Oh, thanks. So, how do I use it?

[Coordinates required.]

Oh, thanks... Where do I find the coordinates?

[Coordinates may be found within [Creation] menu.]

Ahh... Great. I'll check it out after I check my other stats.

Continuing on where I left off earlier, [charm] had evolved into [hypnosis]. If it meant I could put people to sleep, this ability would be pretty cool. It would be even better if it could put myself to sleep but I doubted it.

Next, I gained something called [celestial eyes]. Just like the other double evolved or ascended races, I gained powerful eyes. Demons had [evil eyes], though not all of them. Spirits had [mystic eyes], though probably not all of them either. I didn't know what the prerequisites were.

Hmm... I wonder if my eyes changed again?

Underneath the abilities was an added line called "blessings". I never knew there were blessings in this world, especially for them to show up in my status. I had two of them. It made me wonder who blessed me.

No matter how I looked at the second blessing, [forced destiny] seemed more like a curse than a blessing. It was as if my life path was forced on me.

That basically wrapped up all the abilities and traits I had.