"'Gamer's World' looks interesting, but what's with all the caution icons?"

The goddess appeared behind Reader, one heavy breast resting on his shoulder as she read the file he indicated. "Ah," she said, her voice sounding regretful and excited at the same time. "They mean 'high stakes'. That world is... late stage, and the scale of the conflict is larger. Most worlds don't have direct action by anything more powerful than heroic humans and their demonic counterparts. In that world, a goddess like me is currently incarnated. That means things as powerful as her from the other side can act as well"

"A goddess like you? Incarnated?" reader repeated, feeling a hollow in the pit of his stomach despite the soothing environs. "What does 'incarnated' mean, does she have an avatar I could run into down there?"

The goddess made an equivocal motion with her head that shifted the comforting weight on reader's shoulder. "She's both more and less like me than any two humans are like each other," she began "Divinity is strange, that's one reason I recommend some extra time in the hero stage of development. To answer your second question, no. She doesn't have an avatar, she has a body. She could die in there, at least as much as you just did. Much more actually, she's lived a lot longer after all".

Reader stared, a cold shiver running over him.

"Her body is the planet you'd be incarnating onto, if that helps you picture what I mean" she added helpfully, pulling back a little so his eyes could meet her deep blue ones.

Reader swallowed, trying to bring what he wanted to ask over his suddenly dry mouth. "Would I... Is it likely I'd make things worse if I?.."

The goddess's smile, worried at first, became reassuring. "Not impossible since heroes can be corrupted. But not likely, since your presence by default would strengthen the one you're going to help. But on the other hand, you would be very likely to get noticed and wiped out while you're still new and ****," She moved closer again, staring at the file for a long, silent moment.

"Though if you delay for a day here and then incarnate, I could arrange things so you're likely to fly under the radar for a while. Might as well take at least that long to look over other options, your help here would obviously be appreciated but... it might be a little much for only your second outing".

Reader nodded, continuing to page through the folder.