Chapter 1: Death… Life
Lets get one thing straight.
I'm not looking for pity or even sympathy. I choose this.
There was never any life defining trauma that 'pushed me to the edge'. Just problems I procrastinated fixing. Problems that if I had took the time to work through I probably wouldn't be here.
An ethereal voice spike from eveywhere and nowhere at the same time.
'Real cliche.' I couldn't help but mock internally.
"Does this mean I can pass on into oblivion now? Cease existing?" I was merely a blue flame, but my voice came out just the same as it normally would.
"Then what's the point of my life being in my hands if I can't get what I want?" I asked in annoyance."
I didn't quite understand what it was trying to say, but from what I did understand I was not about to drift off into the darkness.
"Just get on with it, it's obvious I have no choice." I replied.
"Just send me wherever you're going to send me."
I couldn't help but grumble internally about not wanting a second chance, but if all I had to do was live another life to get the peace that I craved then so be it. I'd already lived 15 years of one life, what's another?
The space around me darkened and I felt my flame like body begin to change. It was too dark to see, but I could feel my finger clench, though they felt different than before.
Don't tell it meant a true rebirth…
'Haaaaaa.' I couldn't help but sigh.
Well here's to my life after death I suppose.
'Cheers!' I mockingly cheered with more than a hint of disinterest.
Soon I saw the now not metaphorical light at the end of the tunnel and held back the cringe of disgust that flooded my body.
This was going to be my new mom after all. Maybe she wouldn't be as shit as my last one. Heh. One could dream.
I edged closer and closer, sounds coming from the tunnel steadily grew louder. I felt like I heard the cries of another baby along with various words of encouragement from numerous people.
"Push Mrs. Leywin, the second is almost here!" I heard an elderly voice say.
Second, huh? I wonder what it's going to be like to have a sibling?
With that thought going through my head I felt the space close in around me as I was eventually pulled free. Everything was too bright and too loud.
I could still hear the cry of the other baby. 'Geez, shut up kid.' I couldn't help my grumpiness at this moment. As the light continued to blind my eyes, the world almost cruelly slow in coming to focus.
When I finally could see I found myself in the arms of a beautiful young woman. She seemed kind, with auburn hair and brown eyes. Definitely a step up from my last mother, she wasn't hateful but I wouldn't have been able to call her kind with a straight face either.
In her other arm I noticed the other baby, it was hard to tell babies genders, but if I had to guess it was a boy.
"Congratulations Sir and Madam, their both healthy boys." The old man that had pulled out said.
"Hi little Art," A man walked up, who had ashy brown hair and deep blue eyes. "Hi little Rol, I'm your daddy, can you say dada?"
I had never met my dad in last life, so I didn't know how to feel about this man in front of me. But he gave off a similar gentle aura as my new mother did. For some reason I felt like I could trust them.
"Hmm, they aren't crying. Doctor, I thought newborns were supposed to cry when they are born." I heard my mother's voice.
"There are cases where the infant does not cry. Please continue resting for a couple of days Mrs. Leywin, and let me know if anything happens to Arthur or Roland, Mr. Leywin."
And just like that the old man left me and my new family alone. It was mostly just my father sitting on the edge of the bed, swapping sides to try and visit both me and my brother equally.
Maybe this new life wouldn't be so bad?
Well, I was half wrong and half right. The negatives? I'm a baby and can't move on my own, can't control my bowel movements. And I'll admit it was a little awkward when it came to being fed as well, but it is what it is.
As for the positives? I can't move on my own so nothing is expected of me. Some people would be driven crazy by this, but this is close enough to the sort of peace I wanted.
I just wake up, eat, move some bowels, eat some more and then sleep on repeat. Sure my pride or whatever was wounded at first having to be cared for in such a way, but I grew used to it.
What really surprised me was that this was in fact a new world, and it was a medieval style world. It also had magic! Father, or Reynolds, had bumped Arthur against a drawer and mother healed it with magic!
I'm glad I wasn't the test dummy for such a thing, but I was thankful for older brother.
That's another thing. My brother is strange… I guess you could say. If I hadn't been reborn I would think it impossible, but he at the beginning showed a lot of resistance to things that I was uncomfortable with.
He would look embarrassed while being changed, and he seemed a little toooo eager when it came time to be fed. Does he not realize that's his mother now? Maybe he just really likes milk.
Oh well. Either way I can't prove it yet, so I'll just keep minding my business. And that business happens to be figuring out how to use this magic!
At first I thought it might be a waste of time, thinking you needed to be able to chant spells. But I remembered mother hadn't changed anything to heal Arthur. So I cycled through all my knowledge on things about magic from books.
That lead me to core, or wells, even qi and chi centers. All of these things had something major in common. Meditation.
Of course there plenty of magic in media where your Magic capabilities are predetermined at birth, but I was looking bigger picture. The sooner I got a head start on magic, the better off I'd be.
At the very least my control could be ahead of others if I can't grow my capacity. And so that's what I did, I slept or meditated. As much and as often as I could.
Being breastfed? Meditating. Diaper change? Meditation. Being tossed around by my father? You guessed it. No meditation. It's kind of hard to concentrate when you're suffering from vertigo and motion sickness.
But the main thing is that I felt like it was working. At first I wasn't really sure how to go about it, but I decided to treat it like cultivating. Surely if this was a magical world then magic had to be in the air. Meaning if I pulled it in, then I could use magic.
Well I couldn't use it, but I was definitely starting to feel the magic, and the more I felt the more distinct this orb came into focus. I imagined the magic flowing in and then traveling it's way through my veins. That's what they did in wuxia and cultivation stories anyways.
Meridians had gates blocking the flow and all that jazz. And they always equates them to veins or magic channels.
Anyways that's how my life went.
"Arthur, why can't you be as easy to manage as your brother?" My mom said exasperated. It hasn't been long, but recently Arthur began crawling. Of course I could too, but I had bigger matters to tackle. Though the places my new brother crawled did intrigue me and only further increased my suspicion that he may be a reincarnator as well.
He was constantly ending up in the library/study room, where all the books were. Couldn't fault him for wanting to be an academic, I imagine there aren't too many scholarly types in this sort of world.
Soon I decided that my brother was on to something and joined him on his library excursions. He had our mother's auburn hair and our father's blue eyes. While I got stuck with the dull features of the 2. Dad's ashy brown hair and Mom's brown eyes.
He only looked at me for a moment before he turned his attention back to the book, and watching him I was finally 100% sure that he was like me.
I moved beside him and peered at the book as well. I had only gotten about halfway down the page of the 'Beginner's Guide for the Priveleged Mage' when he tried to turn it. So I stuck my stubby little hand out and thankfully he seemed to understand.
Once I finished I just nodded my head. I was right, there were mana cores in this world, meaning I was in the right path. The more we read the more I realized I knew which path I hoped I obtained. The conjurer. It was more traditional in how it what I think about when I think of mages.
Casting magic rather than just augmenting their bodies with magic. I wasn't entirely against hard work, as I obviously didn't plan on being an obese, week conjurer. But if my whole combat strategy was hit thing over and over again, I'd rather it be with magic than some kind of melee weapon.
The next section is what caught my eye.
"…A conjurer's power and talent, comparatively, is measured by the power of their mana veins, which indicates the speed and effectiveness of absorbing mana from the outside world to cast a spell."
Which meant that I was on the right track. Assuming becoming an augmenter or conjurer is only random because children don't know about meditating as the form their core. Meaning if I focus mainly on my mana veins, widening them and increasing the size of my core, I'll be almost sure to awaken as a conjurer.
Hmm but it seems I can't completely neglect my channels as once a mage reaches a significant level they can start using both types of mana manipulation.
It also seems I can be hurt if I try to use a spell that uses more magic than the capacity of my core. I guess it's similar to filling a balloon until it bursts. That really drives home that I want to make my core as big as possible. The bigger it is the more mana it can hold.
Soon Arthur closed the book and for the first time ever he began meditating, so I joined right along side him.
"There you two are! Art, Rol, honey, are you having trouble taking a poopy?"
Foiled once again by my infantile body I realized I really had filled my diaper while I meditated. What can you do. I held my arms up towards Alice, and she lifted me and Arthur up at the same time.
2 years later.
Today… Well I'm not exactly sure how to describe it but Arthur exploded. Not into a million pieces mind you, though I can't say the same about our poor house, but a concussive blast had spread out from him.
It seemed he had formed his augmenters core. That's convenient, that way he can be on the front lines as my meat shield.
I ended up real lucky, usually I would have been in the bed with Arthur. However I was saved by the fact I had needed to use the bathroom. The explosion had quite literally scared the shit out of me and after I realized what happened I was more upset that I had pooped myself.
After all I hadn't had an accident in half a year! Damn brother. I quickly tossed my soiled clothes and pulled on some fresh ones from the laundry that had luckily not been part of the 3/4 of the house my brother had exploded.
I walked over to where he was to find him floating over a crater with a translucent barrier around him.
"Art go boom!" I pointed at him and soon found myself scooped up in a pair of arms, my mother's
"Mana, Art!" I said still pointing at him. It pained me to speak like a baby, but at only 2 years old it would probably creep them out if I spoke normally.
"Yes, baby. I see." She nodded with tears at the corner of her eyes, as she held me close. Seems she was quite worried about us.
Soon mom was rushing towards Arthur as she passed me off my Reynolds.
"Art! Oh my baby, are you alright?" Before Arthur could respond he was squeezed into a tight motherly hug.
Reynolds began walking over there as well, patting mom on the back before messing with Art's hair.
"Congrats, Art honey." Mom said. "You awakened, Champ." Dad grinned like he was the proudest person in the whole continent of Dicathen.
"Yay, Art!" I clapped my hands together, and soon we were all in one big group hug.
Couple weeks later
I wasn't jealous of my brother's early awakening, if anything for some reason I really was happy for him. However I had my goal in mind, I wanted my core to be big. Of course I didn't know what constituted as a big core, but surely I was on the right track.
I mean Arthur started way after me, and already formed his core. Though I guess that could mean he was just a genius and I was slow. But I'm trying to be positive in this life, if only a little to help my pride!
I could form my core at anytime if I forced it to condense, but for now I'll continue to focus on my mana veins.
During those weeks, dad had asked some of his adventurer friends to come and help rebuild the house. This process was a lot faster than I had expected considering the lack of technology, but magic shows its usefulness yet again.
And now it was May 29th, mine and Arthur's birthday. For presents me and Arthur both received wooden swords. Though I acted gratefully I really hoped this didn't mean I was going to have to kill myself with the sort of monstrous exercise routine our father did.
Plus i could understand it. Even if somehow I didn't awaken, it would still be very useful to be physically fit and know my way around a blade.
With our birthday came our first lessons, mother teaching us to read and write, which we obviously just pretended to learn quickly. She didn't seem too suspicious, likely her joy at learning so quickly blinding her to such things.
Our father also begin to instruct us about the mana core. Of course this was mainly for Arthur as he had formed his core but both him and mother thought it would be for the best if I learned as well.
It was interesting to hear about the stage of a mana core and it really did remind me of cultivation stories. Their stages were of course more mystical sounding a lot of the time, but I felt like the principle was the same.
Anyways the core stages were:
Black
Red
Orange
Yellow
Silver
White
And each stage had 3 sub stage. Dark, middle and light. The lighter the color the closer it was to advancing to the next stage. Pretty simple if I say so myself. And it didn't seem like we needed to collect herbs with crazy specifactions. Such as the "flower that that blooms facing the moon with three leaves and has been freshly dewed by the summer solstice's breeze on the fifth day of the 5th hour" blah blah you get the idea.
Like this nearly a year passed. Physical training with dad, lessons with mom filled our days. Until one night at dinner.
"Honey, I think it's time we get Art a proper mentor."
With that our parents devolved into an argument while me and Arthur warred with our food. I had grown to like Arthur I thought as I launched several peas with my fork at his carrot warriors.
I had been worried that he wouldn't like me, but he was just as kind as Alice and Reynolds. And it was encouraging and motivating to see someone may age, even if he may be a reincarnator, progress so quickly. I was just about ready to form my core finally as well. Maybe tomorrow.
"Art, this is concerning you, so you have a say in this as well. How would you feel about going to a big city and having a teacher?" Father finally turned to us just as Art launched a carrot at me but it missed my plate entirely and I caught it in my mouth with a crunch.
We looked back and forth between each other and our parents before chuckling.
"Uhh. What about Rol? Can't we all go together?" Art asked and I was touched by his concern for me, though maybe he just didn't want to be lonely.
"We'll at least formally have his mana core and channels tested. We can figure out what to do from there." Mother spoke up with a sigh.
With that decided, mother and father immediately began preparations for a 3 week long journey! I thought surely with magic we wouldn't need to take so long, but maybe this world is just that big.
The next day, early in the morning, I formed my core. I was much better prepared than Arthur had been, and made sure that I was outside when I finished forming it.
Though it ended up being a lot bigger than I expected. Rather than an explosion like Arthur, mine was more of an imposion. My crater was smaller, but it was filled rocks and various other debris that had been vacuumed towards me from the force.
My family ran out of the house, a chunk of bread still hanging from Arthur's mouth where I could see him grinning.
"Awesome, Roland! You formed your core!" Arthur yelled as he ran towards me, our parents following close behind.
"We have 2 geniuses. Both awakened before they were even 4 years old, honey." Reynolds said almost in disbelief.
"Yep. Rol, just couldn't let Arthur leave him behind, huh?" Alice hugged me tightly as she teased me.
Not long after the day of our departure arrived. Our journey to the big floating city of Xyrus.
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