I had just awakened from a nearly three yearlong separation from reality, with memories I knew I should have but didn't, just to hear my father say something about how it was time for me to start gaining levels.

I tried to replicate the ways in which "I" had talked before, but it didn't work. "What was that? I didn't quite hear."

My father looked surprised at my ability to speak for a moment, which was far beyond the capabilities of the fake soul that was in me before, but just that moment. He sighed as though he'd already explained hundreds of times, and began to speak.

"Hadran, today is your fourth birthday, and so you should start to do what you need to survive in the rest of your life. Our species, the Anastiens, reach physical maturity far sooner than most other races, at the age of 12. And in order to prepare for that, as well as the hatred of other races, we need to be stronger than any other people that age. This is why we start to level early on, commonly around four or five. And you, my little boy, have just reached the right age to start. Another reason to get stronger, like I just said, is because a lot of races hate us because we look like demons, but you won't have to worry about that for at least four years."- he paused here to breathe, looking at me to see if I understood. - "Back to the topic at hand, leveling is the easiest way to gain strength in any way, so that's what we'll start with."

He turned away then, heading towards the door, only to stop to look at me questioningly.

"Are you coming son?"

I started at that, having drifted into thoughts about what he talked about. I hopped out of the chair made from a single stone I was sitting in, running at an odd pace, like a sheep trying to walk on its hind legs.

My father slapped me on the back, and bent down, hoisting me onto his shoulders as he pulled back his claws. He gave me a small amount of warning, before setting off at a pace beyond the limits of a dozen horses, with an extra pair of legs created from the dirt in front of our house.

Ding! Hector has added you to his party. You will gain a percentage of all of Hector's level progression as our own.

Party Member: Hector (Leader) activated Racial Trait: Physics Manipulation (Middling), Subskill: Inertial Shift on party mode.

In less than a second, we were already outside of the gates of our relatively large house, past all of our neighbors' houses, and down several "blocks."

The city we lived in was a large one, with all of the buildings being in impossible shapes, like perfect spheres, diamonds, or organic lumps of stone. The farther inwards you went into the city, the more insanely the buildings were shaped. We lived nearly directly in the center of the city, near the massive crater that was a remnant of the old town, and our house was in the shape of a Möbius strip. Apparently, there had been a fight between two of the strongest fighters of the youngest generation resulting in the destruction of the city that had been here before about fifty years before I was born.

I expected my father to turn left at the end of our road, towards the woods outside of the city he took me too, but instead he turned right, towards the crater. I had never been there, just as I hadn't been to a lot of places, considering I was only a four-year-old, and so I was surprised to see that it was absolutely massive, at least 120 kilometers long, filled with remnants of stone buildings and what looked like a small sun with mountains floating around it. I knew what it was immediately, as I had seen a much larger for version of it floating above the peninsula to the west of town, and had its purpose explained to me many times.

It was a gravity well, a conglomeration of the manipulative abilities of our people, that would last for longer than anything had a right to, devouring everything around it endlessly, only to recreate it as though it were new matter, reshaped and orbiting the well. The one on the nearby peninsula was so ancient that it had inhabited islands floating around it, having existed since the day we came into existence, and large enough to seem like a second sun throughout the entirety of our continent, according to my father at least.

It was only as my father started running into the crater at full speed, daggers made from compacted dust off the ground in his hands, that I noticed the monsters around us. They were clumps of stone and metal held together by strands of golden energy, surrounding a sphere of the same energy. They were shaped like all sorts of things, but all were twisted forms of animals, with more legs, or horns, or any other change.

My father pointed at the smallest of them, before looking up at me and saying, "Try to analyze that one as well as you can. Look at anything about it that might tell you what it is, or how it works. Then, do the same to the Gravity well."

I did as he said, looking at the small thing, watching the strings of golden energy contract as its joints moved, contracting before slashing out towards motes of light in the air. I saw that it had no face, only a hole leading to the core in its center. I watched it move, shambling, then loping, then climbing over the rubble on the ground. Each time it grabbed one of those motes of energy it grew, and as it grew it gained more control of its movements.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

[Unnamed Gravity Elemental, Level 2.78]

Ding! You have gained the trait Identifying Eye, Tier 1. You can now gain knowledge of objects and creatures by focusing on them.

You have gained 10% Enlightenment. You have gained 0.15 Level progression.

My face must have changed as I saw the message, succinct as it was, because my father immediately slapped me on the back, smiling widely.

"Nice job champ! That was one of the quickest first observations I think I've ever seen, besides my own. Now look at the well like I told you too and tell me what it says."

I looked over, activated the skill, and nearly choked at what I saw.

[Andros Denoran- Gravitational Soul, Unbound, Level 78.93]

"It's a Gravitational Soul named Albert Denora," I said, looking at my father. "What is it?", I ask, before coming up with a new question. "Why is its name so similar to ours?"

"A person's Soul remains behind after they die, and if they were powerful enough it can even materialize, creating distortions and even regaining sentience if it doesn't disperse. The elemental attribute of the soul, in this case gravity, is rare and only exists if someone had a complete mastery over the element," my father paused here, looking at the Soul sadly, before he turned to me. "As for why it nearly has our name, that's because it's what remains of your uncle after we had a fight."

I took a moment to process what he said, before looking at him fearfully. It was odd though, as I didn't feel the emotion in my mind, only a physical urge to run and hide, telling me that I should be afraid.

"About 60 years ago," said my father. "There was a massive hill that rose from the ground below the Well. This hill came into the reach of the Well, and it had its top sheared off, taken to be reformed and released into one of the lands in the sky. Except it wasn't cast into those islands. The hill was reformed into two children, who were flung from the heavens to the fields of a pair of farmers, who had watched the hill rise and be devoured by the Well, by the star, by Anas. They saw these children, unharmed from their fall of thousands of miles to the land, and knew they were children of the land, of the earth, of Tier. Those farmers, caring as they were superstitious, gave the children a home and each a name, the names Denoran and Denora," again my father paused, staring out over the crater in which his brother's soul rested.

I looked at him as he sat, staring out, with a tear crawling down his cheek, and a pair of horns floating around him, shaking and dipping and rising.

"These children were raised normally, given the same childhood as you. Taken to the forest to hunt for the first time, as you would have been. But when they began to grow in strength, they were unparalleled. That was when they truly began to differ. One became an unparalleled genius in one field of his heritage while the other became well versed in all. One hunted to find truths and secrets hidden by time, the other for the thrill of it. Then they began to see different values of the world and life, and they fought. One died, one wished he had for years. The saddest part is, the dead brother couldn't die, and I have to watch my twin suffer for years gone by and years to come, both waiting for one of our immortal minds to break, after a simple miscommunication."

Here he looked at me again, this time with tears filling both eyes, and patted me on the back. He blinked back the tears, smiled and hauled both of us up in one motion.

"Well then, I guess it's time we get back to the lesson, and time for you to get your first level."

We went back out, not talking for hours until I managed to gain a level from riding on his back and slapping elementals on the head. When the notification did hit, I was dead tired, barely able to read the message in my eyes, until a rush of energy hit me, filling me to the point I couldn't wait to run around the entire crater.

Ding! Level increased to 1.00 from 0.80. 5 free Attribute points awarded. 1 Attribute awarded to Strength and Dexterity

Warning. Current body cannot accommodate an increase in level. Upgrading physical body to accommodate.

Before I could process those words, I felt a pain like someone dragging a knife over my entire body, tearing me into chunks with space in between them. I looked down and saw that I had been separated, with each joint in my fingers cut off, and at points an inch apart on my arms, legs, body, and even what I could see of my head, each bleeding like a knife wound. I felt an immense amount of fear as everything seemed to stretch, then compress, then spin and fold inwards and outwards again, shuffled around, as I felt my brain be cut up and grow new parts. This process continued in my mind before moving onto my limbs after minutes of this twisting.

I could only watch as my arms and legs were cubed and stretched, then bubbled, growing out new bone, muscle, and flesh from the bleeding stumps. For an hour, I was in more pain than I had ever endured, in whatever world it was. Then, everything connected. I could feel as nerves snaked through my new flesh, and the muscle strands worming through holes all over me. Worst of all though, was the fact that my heart kept beating, pumping, and living, as it was cut into pieces. I could see the organs and veins in my chest, all pumping and thumping in time, spraying blood across the ground around me and the small linen pants I wore. When they came back together, they stopped beating long enough for me to die again, and I saw a golden face with white eyes staring at me for a moment, before my heart gave a thump, and I woke up.

The moment I came back to reality with the ability to move, I threw up. I couldn't even turn over or shift my head before my entire chest and neck were covered in bile and bits of vegetables and meat, that actually smoked when it came into contact with my skin and hair. It was only when I tried to turn over that I realized I was barely able to lift a clawed finger with the same amount of energy I used to move my entire arm before.

"Well," said my father. "I didn't expect all of... whatever that was to happen."

Then I noticed the changes.