Before Amelia could fully process the notification that she had died—she hadn’t even known you could receive a notification about that—she was being reborn. There was, suffice it to say, a lot of blood, sweat and tears—and wailing, at least on her part. She couldn’t see anything, but her hearing seemed just fine, if a bit disjointed. Oh gods, am I blind? Who would curse me like that?!
It was a most peculiar thing being reborn. She could recall all of her life as Amelia until her untimely death at fourteen winters. And for all that a newborn’s brain made her mind mush, her thoughts were distinct, clear and connected, albeit slow and predisposed to napping. Actually, it’d been a while since she was around a newborn, but she was pretty sure she was napping a lot more than a usual baby and wondered if her [Reincarnator] trait was overtaxing her little baby brain.
Eh.
Nonetheless, Amelia did as babies do—nurse, cry, poop, and sleep—though admittedly without seeing anything. Actually most of her senses her a mess, not just her eyesight. She gave some thought to trying to sort out what was wrong, but as a newborn she wasn’t really in much of a position to move about.
Finally, a few weeks after her rebirth, Amelia opened her eyes and was shocked she could see. Perhaps indeed her blindness had only been temporary, she considered, relaxing at the thought. That is, until she smelled her new mother approach where she laid and got a good look at her.
Ack! My mother’s a catkin! I’m not fully human anymore! Gah, and being a catkin is bad enough; I’m a half-breed which means everyone will hate me. At which point, Amelia began crying, inconsolable by her mother.
A week later, and Amelia was no longer angry, convinced as she was that she was hallucinating in the infirmary after suffering some terrible injury to her abdomen. Yup, she was totally, completely, 100% [Human]. And a teenager.
A month later, and Amelia was no longer in denial. She was totally, completely, 100% [Catkin]. She was still too young to crawl, but her mother stopped swaddling her all of the time and Amelia finally had her hands free. Whereupon her hands discovered that the side of her head was smooth and that her ears were on top of her head, coming up out of her hair. She also found that they tickled, but only when her mother or sisters tickled her. And then she was attacked by her own tail! It kept tickling her nose! Ah!
It was a rough few weeks.
Amelia had two older sisters as far as she could tell, but still hadn’t seen a father or any other male adult figure around. She thought another older lady had brought a young catkin boy by, but, well, she couldn’t confirm because not being able to lift your head made life difficult.
And they don’t speak [Ostesh]. Ugh, guess I’ll need to learn another language. Hey System, can we make a [Bargain]? You can take back my unique trait and I can be Amelia-[Human] again, right? Please? I’ll even give up [Fireball] and being a [Mage]? I can go home to the village and be a good [Farmwoman] or [Housewife]. Please?
Two months later, and Amelia wasn’t feeling great. She saw her mother sometimes in the corner, looking at a sketch of a handsome male [Catkin] and crying. This though was not what was bothering Amelia; she barely knew her mother and definitely not this man.
No, what bothered Amelia was that she lived in a mud hut barely large enough for everyone to lie down in, her mother and sisters wore untreated furs (if anything at all), and the only tools she had seen were stone (not a trace of metal to be found).
She hadn’t been outside yet, and while a single mother of three was clearly going to be poor, she had a bad feeling that she was living with barbarians. She’d accepted that she was [Catkin], but this rudimentary lifestyle—worse even than Amelia’s childhood village—was something else.
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At six months, Amelia had finally come to terms with being a barbarian [Catkin] girl (and wow was that last part was a relief). First, she had finally started walking—it turned out that [Catkins] physically mature a bit faster than [Humans]—and had gotten a good look at the village. And it truly was a village of barbarians—[Hunters] and [Gatherers] mostly, with almost no specialized Classes serving other roles.
And she could smell everything! Her [Catkin] nose—despite appearing mostly [Human]-ish—was amazing. She could tell that a [Hunter] hadn’t bathed in seventeen days. She knew that one firepit was last lit three days ago. And she knew that the nearby forest—which she had never been too—had at least two dozen types of edible plants and four types of small game, though no medium or large game.
Curiously, even though she could smell so much more and know more about it than she ever had as a [Human], her nose was not necessarily offended by “stinky” smells, like the aforementioned [Hunter] or a latrine. Such smells just existed and, while warning tags such as “do not eat,” “do not lick,” and “do not touch” seemingly popped into her mind, there was no feeling of disgust or revulsion as when she was [Human].
Second, her teeth came in. She supposed that [Catkin] must mature fast, because she quickly grew a full set of teeth. The sensations of being in an entire alien body were slightly off-putting, though the initial lack of sensation for weeks upon being reborn, aside from the obvious gastrointestinal discomforts, put a damper on that. But with a full mouth of teeth, that feeling came back even stronger as Amelia found herself running her tongue all around them, marveling at the strange sensations: not only were they a different shape, but her canines were more prominent.
Oh, and her tongue was much longer too.
And third, even though she was way, way too young, she received from the System the bootya loadya.
The what?
The bootya loadya was the ubiquitous audible message heard upon receiving access to the System (for [Humans], around 6 or 7). Even if the child could read, the bootya loadya was audible. Many said the bootya loadya was a divine message from the Gods, for which the System itself was the blessing. Others said it was a poem or a hymn, based on the clear verse in the sounds. While the language was unintelligible, and the System refused to grant anyone a language skill that could parse it, it was nonetheless revered and thus wormed its way in as a common greeting in many languages—“bootya loadya”—based off the first few sounds of the message.
Though obviously there was no transcript of the audible message, the bootya loadya sounded something like this:
> Bootya loadya. Satus tabernus oneratus. Systema accessum licet. 0.78a systema versio. Visum vasa pretiosa. Integram. Nomen idem. Genus idem. Lineamenta idem. Artes idem. Attributa determinari. HP computandum. MP computadum. Terminante tabernus oneratus.
Sometimes there were minor variations in the middle, but Amelia was hardly a System scholar. Yet, she wasn’t completely ignorant. She had received that message, which meant she was now able to access her Status, though her Class wouldn’t arrive until “adulthood,” whenever that was for [Catkin].
> Name: [ ] (Level 0)
> Other Names: Amelia
>
> Race: Catkin (Level 0)
> Class: [ ]
> Unspent Experience: 30
>
> HP: 3/3
> MP: 56/56
>
> CON: 2
> STR: 2
> DEX: 1
> INT: 8
> WIS: 7
> CHA: 3
> Free: 0
>
> Traits: [Reincarnator], [Studious]
> General Skills: [Fireball 1], [Cooking 7], [Cleaning 6], [Ostesh 40], [Planning 12], [Learning 19], [Eating 4], [Ucarhi 1]
> Class Skills: [ ]
> Unspent Skill Points (SKP): 0
> v.0.78a
Wait a minute, there is something going on with my HP. That should be 2, not 3. After some fiddling around, Amelia still wasn’t quite sure, but suspected that [Catkin] may have some sort of bonus. But wow, that’s a lot of MP. I really must be suited for becoming a [Mage] this time around, right? Heck, I could throw a [Fireball] right now. Well, just one admittedly. Wait, a [Fireball] might be a bad idea. Wait, do they even have [Mages]?!!
But in any event, with her Status access, Amelia could little deny that she had died and was now a [Catkin]. Curiously, her old name had moved to a different part of the screen, and her Name box was empty. Why don’t I have a name? Could I name myself? Eh, let’s avoid potential existential questions for later.
Curiously, her Status still displayed in [Ostesh], rather than working through an audible interface. And while [Reincarnator] was correct that Traits and Skills carried over, this apparently did not apply to unspent SKP (i.e., Skill Points) as she knew she had 3 General Skill Points when she died.
Ah, that’s a weird thought, crossed her mind as her face scrunched up.
And so Amelia finally accepted that she was, indeed, a [Catkin]. However nameless.
Well, for only another month. With a bit more walking, and another three ranks in [Ucarhi], the local language, Amelia’s mother Naomi finally took her to see the village’s [Shaman].
The [Shaman] lived in a hut on a hill, a good walk from the village, far enough that Naomi had to carry Amelia the distance. Unlike the other huts though, which were mud, the [Shaman]’s hut appeared to be made from whole logs, bound together with living vines. It gave it quite the sinister look—especially with the purple, glowing smoke that escaped through the roof—but, well, Amelia didn’t really care.
Entering the hut, the incense burned by the [Shaman] within assaulted Amelia’s sensitive [Catkin] nose . Naomi set Amelia on the ground, gesturing her to sit, before she herself kneeled before the [Shaman].
The [Shaman] sat high on a pile of furs, smoking a bundle of dried herbs. Around her neck, a necklace of bones and, unlike the other women of the tribe, she wore no furs at all, though it appeared that her body was tattooed.
“Naomi, so you trellin moreis your little one angast mor, yes?” the Shaman asked. Amelia still could only pick out bits and pieces, but fortunately this was simple talk.
“Yes, [Shaman]. It termin terrin two seasons and my child as ost posh. She walks, and is beginning to ucarhi, and is curious, but not ponash.”
“Good, good. Let me see her closer,” then turning to face Amelia, “Come here, child,” gesturing.
Awkwardly standing up, Amelia walked gingerly towards the [Shaman] and, when she got closer, the [Shaman] suddenly leaned forward and picked her up by the scruff of her neck. Amelia embarrassingly yelped as she lost her footing and hung in the air before the [Shaman], who appeared to be studiously examining her.
“[Insight]. [Blessing],” the [Shaman] invoked, then cocked her head as she listened to the Voice of the World. To Amelia, ding!
> You have received the [Blessing] of the [Shaman] of the River Tribe of the Ucarhi [Catkin]. +20 HP. Expires upon becoming eligible for a Class.
As Amelia was pondering this temporary Trait, the [Shaman] began to cackle maniacally.
“[Shaman]!” Naomi cried, “what is wrong? Please tell me.”
“Oh, joy!” the [Shaman] laughed. “There is nothing wrong, young mother. The Voice of the World tells me that this child shall wield the greatest emgen the Ucarhi have ever known. The stories will come to life in her!” Amelia frantically tried to glance at her mother, but couldn’t because, well, she was still hanging by the scruff of her neck.
“She shall be called,” the [Shaman] continued, “Masami, for she shall emgen the Ucarhi into a great people.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Ding!
> You have received a Name. You are now known as Masami.
Amelia—err, Masami—really hoped that emgen meant “magic.”
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Indeed, Masami learned, emgen did mean “magic.” And while Masami was never able to get out of the [Shaman] what exactly [Insight] had said, everyone soon expected that Masami would be a great magic user.
Once Masami was able to decipher that much—freakin’ [Ucarhi]—she briefly had a panic attack about living up to the great [Mages] of Osmond. Until she realized that the only magic user she had seen was the [Shaman], and—history lesson!—just being a [Mage] would likely count as “a great magic user.” And, because she already had the [Fireball] skill, she was already a shoe-in to be a [Mage].
Not that she wore shoes. Or much else for that matter.
But now with a name and a plan, Masami allowed herself to relax and just be a child for a while. Other than a few things that were just missing altogether (like farms), she found that the Ucarhi village was much like Amelia’s own childhood village, and she soon segued into the simple village life. Running around the village with the other children and playing games. She ranked up her [Eating] Skill—she was a growing young catkin! she would protest. And the use of [Cooking] and [Cleaning] around her mother’s hut was adorably “precocious” to the older women. And while she didn’t have the right ingredients or utensils to make her favorite dishes from “home,” she was able to nudge what she did cook ever so closer to something memorable.
It was funny thinking about home. A few years had passed and Amelia had fully become Masami, precocious magic child of the Ucarhi [Catkin]. But, she still spent many starlit nights missing Osmond. Maybe not the Academy so much, but certainly her mother and father and siblings. She wondered how they were and how they coped with her death.
Morose feelings aside, Masami’s Skills growing up didn’t improve in any particular direction. For a while, Masami outright refused to learn some “new” Skills from her tribe on the grounds they were too barbaric. Until that is, she discovered that she loved fish. That in itself was a massive cognitive dissonance for her given Amelia hated fish and only served to drive home that Masami was a different person than Amelia.
In any event, Masami’s insatiable appetite for fish was driving the village insane until one day, Old John declared in a huff, “If you’d learn [Fishing] and [Butchering], you can eat all the fish you want, child!”
And so she did at three years of age. Which was frankly two years too early, but Masami didn’t care. One, her high rank [Learning] skill was a real cheat for the first few ranks of a new skill. Two, fish!!
Annoyingly, by the time she was six, her [Ucarhi] skill capped out at rank 20. She suspected that was because there was no written language, or at least none here, and so she was limited to the oral aspects of [Ucarhi] she had picked up in the village. She asked around, including to the [Shaman] and the other village elders, to see if there was even a written language, but she had difficulty explaining the concept as [Ucarhi] lacked the necessary words to effectively describe writing. Eventually she gave up, decided that it was stupid, and that if [Ucarhi] didn’t have a writing system, she would make one. And one summer, she did so.
Conveniently, [Ostesh] had a phonetic alphabet and, with the addition of a few symbols to capture new sounds and grammar rules that [Ucarhi] had that [Ostesh] didn’t, she mapped out a written language. With that settled, she made a clay tablet, and began by writing out Masami’s autobiography.
> Hello world! My name is Masami and I am a six year old [Catkin]. I live with my tribe in a village. My favorite food is fish. And I want to use magic when I grow up. The [Shaman] says that ….
Learning the oral language, Masami was actually confused for a long while whether [Ucarhi] was the [Ucarhi] name for her race (whereas [Catkin] was an [Ostesh] word) or simply the name of her tribe, which had its own language. In use, she thought it might have just meant “people,” like in [Ostesh]. But, like with explaining writing, she wasn’t even able to properly articulate the question in [Ucarhi]. This had troubled her for months, until she figured out how to switch the System to spoken [Ucarhi]. Yes, “Ucarhi” meant [Catkin] in [Ucarhi] the language. But, she would later learn, given varying contexts, “Ucarhi” had half a dozen meanings in [Ucarhi], albeit usually some nuanced variation of “people.”
Ding!
And apparently it hadn’t taken too much writing in [Ucarhi] to get a notification.
> [Ucarhi] (very rare) has ranked up to rank 24.
>
> As the creator of the first written form of the [Ucarhi] language, you receive a (unique) Trait.
>
> [Ucarhi – Creator of Written Ucarhi] (unique): You are the first creator of a written language for [Ucarhi]. +8 INT, +8 WIS. Written texts you create in [Ucarhi] are treated as having +8 CHA.
Holy shit! Masami thought.
While [Catkin] like [Humans] gained 2 attribute points each level, unlike [Humans] that had 2 free attribute points, [Catkin] only had 1, with the other point alternately being invested into one of the three physical attributes. So, for a [Human], 16 attribute points in mental attributes represented 8 dedicated levels with no other investments, but for a [Catkin], it was 16 levels! And, because it’s a Trait, it would carry over into her next life.
Thinking of that, Masami perused over the [Catkin] general Skills she had picked up. [Claws] created sharp projections of mana from her fingertips and was a must for any [Catkin]; [Catkin] already had excellent vision in the dark due to their eye structure, but [Improved Dark Vision] took it to a whole new level; and [Nimble Health] added her DEX to her HP. On the last point, she had finally learned that for [Catkin], HP was derived not only from CON and STR, but also from DEX.
What really gave Masami food for thought was what the effects of these Skills would be in later lives. Yes, they made her an ever-greater [Catkin] now, but these really would carry forward with [Reincarnator]. She would be able to see better and would be harder to kill. And she giggled a bit at the thought of a [Human] using the racial [Claws] Skill.
Huh, Masami mused. Am I really alright knowing that I have another life after this. Can I be so carefree?
Yes. Yes, she could.
And so, Masami grew up without a care in the world. For a few years at least. Turned out that [Catkin] matured really fast. By the time she was eight, she was starting to look like Amelia had just before she died. Well, not literally. Masami had straight, black hair this life, with matching black fur on her tail and ears. And Masami was turning out to be both taller and stronger, based just on her base attributes, let alone the physical attribute distribution from being a [Catkin]. And a thousand other details of skin tone and bone structure that made people distinguishable from each other. But, a little older, and Masami might become most eligible bachelorette of the Ucarhi.
Well, assuming she actually got her [Mage] Class and aped King Osmond. Just to be sure, she had practiced throwing a few [Fireballs] when she could, and had even used it occasionally to clear out nearby tribes of [Goblins]. And yet still she worried as time went by and she hasn’t received her Class yet. She hadn’t actually received the Class last lifetime either. What if she was terribly wrong?! What is she couldn’t receive a Class at all?!
Ding!
Oh, well that’s a relief.
> Congratulations! You are now eligible to select a Class. A Class represents who you are and what you do, and will be a defining point in the rest of your life. Classes can provide extra attribute points, Traits, and Skills. Classes may be leveled using unspent experience.
>
> Based on your Race, Level, Traits, Skills, society, and prior experience, you are eligible for the following Classes (inspect for more information):
>
> * Hunter (common)
> * Gatherer (common)
> * Barbarian (common)
> * Shaman (uncommon)
> * Mage (very rare)
>
> Choose carefully!
Nope!
Ding!
> You have selected [Mage].
And then she dumped all her accumulated experience to bring [Mage] up to level 12 to match her [Catkin] level. While she had also spent some of her free attribute points while leveling up [Catkin], she had saved others, but now spent them. When she was done, her main stats looked like this:
> HP 164
> MP 800
>
> CON 16
> STR 16
> DEX 18
> INT 40
> WIS 40
> CHA 12
> Free 0
With her four free Skill Points, Masami picked from the [Mage] Class shop the Skills she had dreamed about now for two lifetimes: [Fire Manipulation], for generally manipulating fire; [Fire Bolt], for improved penetrative power; [Improved Mana Pool], for a significant increase in her mana pool; and [Mana Finesse], which applied DEX to mana manipulation and to aiming and casting spells, either freeform or as Skills.
Right now, Masami felt amazing.
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A year later, Masami felt terrible. While Masami had killed wild animals, beasts, and even the stray [Goblin], in two lifetimes, she hadn’t really killed anyone she would consider a person. And yet now, her village had asserted dominance over the six surrounding villages. Doing so for some of the villages had required bloodshed, and given her central role in what was happening, that meant she was inevitably the one involved. And while some of the villages had capitulated after a combination of magical demonstration on her part and news of the other villages, Masami spent many nights crying herself to sleep for those villages not so easily swayed.
It had gotten so bad that she started browsing her racial store with her one free [Catkin] skill just to see if there was anything that might help. The selection though was decidedly lackluster, at least with respect to psychological issues, and she shelved the thought for another two weeks until, crumbling under the pressure, she spontaneously spent it on [Natural Leader].
> [Natural Leader] (uncommon): Even without authority, your leadership Skills are amplified and more noticeable by others. You intuitively understand what is required to lead people. Effect improves with Rank.
The sensation was similar to [Planning] and [Learning]—her prior skills that affected her mind—in that rather than forcing her to think unnaturally, it seemed to feel like a guiding hand that nudged her in direction or another. [Natural Leader] was a bit more intrusive perhaps, but perhaps that was because she had already been forced into a leadership role over the past year and had a lot to process.
And so, having taken the Skill, Masami announced to the village that she was going into seclusion to contemplate her newly acquired skill. And she did.
Eventually she reached a conclusion. One she didn’t like.
The deaths of some people in this situation was inevitable. Ever since the [Shaman] had seen Masami’s magical power, unless she ran away, there was a buildup of pressure and anticipation in the community that would cause them to follow her. Even from outside her village, people were attracted to her power, real and potential. But there would be dissenters, there always would be. Some perhaps could be convinced, but others would stay implacable. And given how politics worked around here, that meant challenges and death.
It was not nice.
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Having come to grips with her role, Masami soon fell to using [Natural Leader] to organize the rambunctious villages far better than her go-with-the-flow attitude of the year before. She forced the various food production Classes to share information together. She encouraged crafters to specialize in their products full time and to trade between the villages. She got a gaggle of children and tried to get them on the way to the first [Farmer] Classes of the [Catkin]. She began teaching her written version of [Ucarhi] and, after a huge stumbling block of trying to explain what a written language even was, she had at least a handful masterful enough to act as scribes for her.
While their materials were still limited to stone and what could be harvested from plants and animals, the number of goods among the common villagers grew. The improved yields from hunting helped the people prosper. And after a few years, even the first [Farmers] were making a meaningful contribution to their food security.
And then there was the magic. She got all the [Shamans] together and began teaching them all she knew on the subject, which, while minimal compared to the masters at the Academy, was still leagues beyond these simple magisters. While all grew their ability to manipulate mana, only a few picked up [Fireball]. Though, with their help, Masami identified a group of children promising in magic and began them along the path to becoming a [Mage]. Two years after unifying the villages, the second [Catkin] [Mage] appeared.
With a second [Mage], the improved powers of the [Shamans], and the strength of the people as reflected in its warriors, Masami soon made plans to attack an [Orc] tribe to the east. The [Orc] tribe had settled upon the western shores of an exceptionally large lake and controlled all access to the rich fishing grounds thereupon. The oral histories of the various [Catkin] villages all told that their people had once resided by the lake for a hundred generations, but were driven away by the invading [Orcs]. Now though, they had the power to take back their ancestral fishing grounds.
The following spring, the [Catkin] marched upon the [Orc] village and were met by the [Orcs’] own band of warriors. Masami and the [Orc] [Warlord] met at the center before giving battle, and through an [Orc] who spoke a little [Ucarhi] and a [Catkin] who spoke a little [Orcish], the leaders parlayed. Masami demanded the return of their old homelands, and the [Orc] refused. Masami threatened to bring death upon their village, but the [Orc] pointed at his own warband. Masami then proposed to split the lake, but the [Orc] was greedy, and asserted their rights to the whole lake. With negotiations broken down, the leaders returned to their groups to prepare for battle.
Years before, Masami had been ill at ease with a few dissident [Catkin] which required violence. But a true battle—one between completely opposing forces, totaling nearly a hundred bodies—was a completely new experience to Masami, and was an order of magnitude more bloody and chaotic. Though the [Orcs] were supported by their own [Shamans], the [Fireballs] wielded by Masami, her apprentice, and her [Shamans] overwhelmed the opposition. While nearly a third of the [Catkin] had fallen in battle, the warband was wiped out to the last, and the [Orc] villagers, seeing what happened, began to flee north.
Returning with their loot, Masami’s forces were greeted in celebration, and a grand feast was held between all the villages. The dead were cremated upon a pyre and mourned. As evening dwindled into night, many of her warriors told tall tales of their role in the battle to the amusement of the crowd. And more than a few tried to strut their stuff before Masami, courting her in the [Catkin] way. And as she went to sleep that night, she pondered that she really ought to seriously begin considering some of the overtures made her way. There might never be a Mr. Amelia, but perhaps a Mr. Masami wouldn’t be too bad. And so Masami went to sleep that night with pleasant thoughts.
She woke up with a start as the blade finished slicing through her throat. She didn’t even see their face.
Ding!
> You have received the Trait [Touched by a Cursed Blade].
>
> You have died.
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