The Sinful Saint

"It's so dark.... it's cold..... where am I? Am I dead? Why's there just.... nothingness?" said the boy in a sober tone, seemingly calm in the icy void.

There was a supreme calm all around him and in him. He felt comfortable, like he had been wrapped in blankets by his parents on a child winter night. But, in the same breath there was a sense of nothingness. No sound, no sights, no nothing, just endless emptiness. This mixed with the boy's calmness into an uneasy torrent of emotions within him. He felt claustrophobic.

When the boy was contemplating his current situation he heard a voice in his head, 'You've had a hard time haven't you?'

The boy heard a sublime womanly voice echo in his mind. It was a warm angelic voice filled with womanly charm. The boy found comfort in the voice and it washed the uneasy and suffocating feeling of emptiness away.

'I'm sorry I let this happen to you. This wasn't supposed to happen.' continued the heavenly voice. 'What has been done can not be undone. I am sorry for that. But, I am willing to give back what I have stolen.'

"What is this lady talking about? And where did it come from? Where am I? Who is that?" the boy thought in a confused erratic manner.

The holy voice sought to resolve the boy's qualms, 'I know you are confused about your current circ.u.mstances, I'll tell you. Simply, you are dead, but this isn't the afterlife, it is a space you were brought to after going through that portal.'

After hearing those three simple words "you are dead," the boy felt as if his stomach went empty and he felt nauseous. The kind of feeling you get when you are free falling, the bottomless emptiness. At this point he wanted to escape reality, not knowing what was going to happen to him. The calmness the heavenly voice brought was entirely gone and all the boy felt was hopelessness. He felt like having a panic attack.

'Do not be afraid because you are dead. I am a goddess of another world, you may not believe it but that is a fact,' continued the goddess in a comforting tone trying to sooth the boy. 'I can't apologize enough for the life I've robbed you of as I cannot send you back. However, I can offer you a new life on the world I govern.'

"What is this nonsense? Goddess? New life in another world? What the heck is she talking about? This isn't a hallucination is it, or a dream?" the boy questioned as everything that was happening seemed to come out of a fairytale or a web comic. "Ouch!" the boy pinched himself to see if this was real, he could feel pain even though he was dead, thus he thought this must be real. How else could he explain what was going on?

'I am very sorry about that... I was cleaning and accidentally dropped a holy scepter in my room and it opened that portal between our worlds and you happened to be caught up in that...'

"...So.... I was killed... because you dropped something while cleaning?" the boy said sounding dejected in disbelief with an undertone of anger at the stupid way in which he had been killed.

'I'm very sorry about that, at least you aren't dying for real, tee hee,' the goddess responded in a cute voice trying to act innocent.

The boy seething from the absurd attitude of the goddess roared out in anger, "Because of you, my life got ruined! You know I was on track to go to an Ivy League college and have a wonderful life! But now?!?!?! I get killed by some stupid goddess' clumsiness and all you do is go 'tee hee'!!! Also, stop apologizing so much, it's annoying!" After yelling this the boy stood there panting out of breath from his tirade seemingly calming down after venting his troubles.

There was an awkward silence in the empty space where neither the goddess nor the boy said anything for some time. The goddess was the first to break the silence, 'I'm sor- Ahem! You can't go back to your own world because you have died there. So, you now have two options either actually die and become nothingness or be reincarnated in the world I govern.'

The boy didn't have think and responded, "Of course I'll be reincarnated in your world, I haven't even kissed a women! How could I die without even doing that?"

'Fufufu, well then, since this is my fault I will give you a few gifts before you go down.'

The emptiness suddenly changed and filled out to a room the didn't look dissimilar to a Greek temple. The goddess appeared with the ever present structure, she was adorned in a beautiful silk robe and her skin glistened like marble. She had long, curly, golden hair that was like stands of gold themselves. Looking into her eyes was like looking at the vast oceans as the blueness of her eyes swallowed you. In all aspects she was more beautiful than the finest works of art, an indescribable beauty hung around her that not even the world's best artists could capture.

She stood before a hall where white jade-like pillars bordered with many sculptures of the goddess in between and a flooring or gleaming marble and paintings flourishing the ceilings. The hall led to a hundred meter tall room where a throne sat in the middle of the farthest wall. A large fresco painting plastered the massive ceiling, which was one of the goddess creating her world. Other than that, two statues sat on either side of the throne that looked like guardian angles with the rest of the room being empty. The goddess walked over to the throne and sat down then turned to face the boy with a pleasant smile on her face. She then spoke, "This is my abode, isn't it nice? Well, it's not like you care anyway. Well let's get this show on the road!"

[4863... 4866... 4678]

It continued like this for the remainder of the flashing of the images until it finally stopped with the ending of the images and a clap of the goddesses hands. The final number displayed:

[5177]

"Wow! What did you save a country when you were alive?!? Why do you have so many points?!?" the goddess said in astonishment. "Well, aren't you the lucky one? In any case now is the most important time; it's time for you to select your gifts!"

The board changed and displayed a list of categories of different gifts for the boy to choose from.

[Weapons Skills] [Magic Skills] [Combat Skills] [Labor Skills] [Life Skills]...

These were the main categories of skills the boy could choose from. Seeing as he didn't want to miss out on the chance to become incredibly powerful, he decided to carefully look over every skill there was. He was in no rush, so he perused the skills as if he were reading a book next to a fire place sipping a glass of fine wine and enjoying the atmosphere.

A certain category caught the boy's attention. He didn't know why it would be there, especially since a goddess was the one giving the gifts but it was there. The category read:

[Cursed Skills]

[Cursed Skills: Skills that are considered taboo and if discovered will cause people to either fear you or become hostile towards you. There is a possibility that adverse or harmful effects will occur as a result of such skills. WARNING: USE AT YOUR OWN RISK]

[List of skills: All Consumer... Blood Control... Conquest... Death, Demonic Mana, Demon Lord, Dragon's Blood, Dryad... Envy, Evil Eye*, Evoltionary Body, Extreme Growth... Famine... Gluttony, Goddess Shop, Greed... L.u.s.t... Monster's Friend... Necromancy... Pride, Patience... Sloth, Soul Harvester... War, Wrath...]

He read through this skill list. Even before reading he realized that these skills seemed extremely strong when compared to the rest. Some of the skills were ridiculous when he considered the power they could give. He thought there might be a catch for such powerful skills; he was right.

[Dragon's Blood: The blood that flows through your veins will have the power of a dragon and will give you access to the powers of a dragon.]

[Cost: 4000]

After seeing this absurd amount of points for the skills, he understood why they would probably be considered taboo or cursed. They were very expensive and very powerful, additionally they would make him seem less human.

Some of the skills weren't exactly powerful right away, but down the line, they would become incredibly powerful. Thanks to this, the skills that had potential were cheaper than the ones that were flat out overpowered.

For example, the Evil Eye* skill had a further category list that broke up the different types of evil eyes. Some were absurdly power:

[Eye of Death: Eveything that is captured in your vision dies.]

[Cost: 10000]

The boy really would have needed to save a country for him to even think about purchasing something like this.

On the other hand these were others that were not so strong and more affordable:

[Eye of Understanding: Everything that is captured in your vision is "understood"*.]

[Cost: 500]

Obviously, there was some common sense put into the exchange system.

The boy kept searching and final came to a conclusion as to the skills he would choose. He thought while reviewing them, 'I am going to be king in this new world!' He was stoked to be honest, he had finally found something that could quench his boredom and forgot all about the part where he died due to a clumsy goddess' mistake while cleaning. He started to speak out the skills he wanted, "First! I would like..."