As soon as the initial shock of realizing I was a baby wore off, I became extremely excited.
I was already fantasizing about flinging spells or clashing sword and claw against a mighty dragon, but soon the reality of my situation hit me. I knew nothing about this world.
For a few seconds, I thought I would be the main character with special powers that would put me above everyone else, but in reality, that was unlikely.
I certainly don't feel any "great power" within me and to assume I was some sort of protagonist with plot armor to protect me was not only stupid and reckless but also arrogant.
I didn't know if I was the only person transported here or why, nor did I know if this was a fantasy world or not.
For all I knew, I could have been transported to the past or future, a different alien planet, an alternate reality, a simulation, or any number of things.
I could even be in a coma at the hospital right now and this could all just be a dream occurring right before they pull the plug.
With that though naturally came another. Would being in a fantasy world even be a good thing?
I would have no idea how anything functioned. What the economy was like? How available things like food and water were? What countries existed and their politics?
Even something as simple as seasons or the weather could be vastly different than what I’m accustomed to.
Honestly, the best-case scenario was that I was in the present just reincarnated in a first-world country.
If I was reborn in my old world could I even socialize with other children properly?
I might just end up as an outcast again. I didn’t know if I could relate and interact properly with kids at my current age, but friends and close relationships were still important to have growing up and for life in general.
Whatever, I would cross all of those bridges when I got to them.
For now, I should wait and see what happens.
…
We had finally arrived. I moved out of my carriage and took a deep breath of the fresh morning air.
My head butler Kent had already worked out everything for today's schedule and was now escorting me to our first destination for the day, which was the main Exceed church in our territory.
The entire building was mostly white and gray with hints of yellow and black here and there.
The roof had a very classic design with many stone details making it pop to the viewer.
I could tell just by the look of it that the clergy worked day tirelessly to help the structure defy its age by keeping it spotless and immaculately maintained.
I loved when people took the time to do such things. It was a sign of a well-built organization with good guiding principles to back it.
I walked more cheerfully as I entered the building and as soon as my left foot entered the door there was already someone there to greet me.
“Good Morning Sir, we have already prepared a candidate for you,” a nun informed me as I entered the church.
“I was expecting to wait here for a short while at least, that's wonderful to hear,” I said with a cheery tone and a smile.
Kent who was next to me as I entered had told me that it was better to have a demeanor that was easier to approach than what I gave out normally in most situations.
I gestured at him to go to the carriage and get everything ready for us to leave.
In the meantime, I was guided by a beautiful young woman with blond her.
She wore the typical white and yellow uniform of the female nuns here, which consisted of a pair of white loafers, a white long sleeve tucked-in dress shirt with the church's crest on the left breast, and both shoulders.
They also wore a pair of black tight-fitting dress pants which were made of a much softer and more flexible material than they looked at first glance.
Holding up those pants was a black leather belt with a loose white cloth attached to it that covered the left side of the individual's legs.
It reached to about three inches above the ground.
The cloth had an intricate design depicting important symbols and events beautifully woven together in gold.
The intricate design was boxed in a yellow border this border along with the design took up the entire width of the cloth but not the height.
Above and below this border were a set of twelve small boxes organized in two rows of six, making for twenty-four boxes in total.
On her cloth, in particular, only three of these boxes were filled with a design while the rest were empty.
To my knowledge when one of those boxes was filled with an image it was for a specific achievement the person in question made.
The belt had a bright red emblem which contrasted the rest of the uniform on the opposite end from the cloth which displayed the person in question's rank in the church.
While your uniform would change depending on whether you were a priest, cleric, paladin, etc. The belt was an iconic symbol that was worn by everyone in the church.
I was moved from the first floor where people gathered for prayer and worship, to the second floor where the priests used their healing abilities to help the sick, all the way to the third floor where more personal medical needs were attended to.
I tried to make a conscious effort to smile and nod at the people I passed on the way until we entered the second to last door on the right side of the hall.
“We’re here sir” the nun stated as we entered the room.
“This is Miss Mary Smith one of the women who agreed to be a part of the Stronger Tomorrow program,”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“She is the one who has just birthed your soon-to-be baby boy” the nun who lead me here grabbed a large notepad to write something down as she pointed at the lady in the bed.
The woman looked to be around twenty-five years old and was quite muscular for her.
She remained beautiful with her sharp facial features, eyes and hair that had a vibrant color, and her healthy figure despite what she must have gone through not two hours ago.
This was good of course beauty was considered a sign of good health and lineage both things this program looked for religiously.
The priest who attended to her came up to me and shook my hand with a strong grip.
“Good morning Sir, my name is doctor Ibbolt Gregory and I will be the one helping you through this process” The priest was wearing similar clothing to the nun except his shirt looked more like a thin yellow and white robe which he tucked into his pants.
The man was older than the girl, looking to be in his late forties.
“This is the child that we have prepared for you, He is the son of Magister Ron Grayrats's many children meaning that he will have a natural predisposition to the arcane, however, we have not found him to have any natural elemental affinities yet”
“His mother was only a level 40 adventurer but her son was born with both the Crawl skill and more importantly a staggering intelligence of 27 points.” I smiled at the man as a small sign of approval.
I then looked at the baby before taking him from his mother.
The woman tried to resist at first but I quickly snatched him from her hands.
She gave me an offended look which I didn't care for so I glared in her direction which seemed to put her in her place.
I didn't like it when commoners got too prideful around me.
The child's intelligence was amazing and he got a skill at birth, even though it was a common one it meant that it would be a lot easier to level it up than it would be for others who were not born with it.
I was honestly dissatisfied with the results this church managed to produce for me even if I didn't show it on my face.
That was until I looked into the baby's eyes.
There was a sharp intellect there as he seemed to study me.
The Intelligence stat was hard to Increase but it was almost impossible to improve one's natural intelligence.
Happy with my order I thanked the clergy members and marked the child with my family's ability.
…
While I was lost in thought a strange man walked up to me wearing a black suit and picked me up.
He had dark blue hair with black highlights along with the deepest blue and purple color I had ever seen in his eyes, on closer inspection the colors seemed like they were moving.
[Congratulations you have received the name Norman from Andrue Veneficus]
[Congratulations you have been accepted into the Veneficus Family]
[You can now access the Family Tab in your main menu]
[As a member of the Veneficus Family you gain 2 points in Intelligence, Constitution, and Willpower]
[Congratulations you have gained the following skills from joining the Veneficus family; Minor Soul Sense Level 1, Minor Soul Communication Level 1 ]
Minor Soul Sense
During this skill duration, the user is granted the ability to see the souls in their surroundings in greater detail.
Minor Soul Communication
Allows the user to communicate very simple ideas to the souls around them.
These notifications rang in my mind in what sounded like a robotic female voice as a written version of them floated in front of me in blue game boxes.
I was mesmerized by what I had just seen but before I could process the new information multiple fragmented thoughts and images flooded my mind in quick secession, so much so that I could barely keep track of who I was.
Whenever I tried to decipher or focus on anything in particular I would be bombarded by a fresh batch of ethereal knowledge which drowned out my attempt at understanding.
Even so with the little, I was able to comprehend it felt as if I was achieving enlightenment.
Knowledge of what souls were, how to manipulate and see them as well as basic facts of how they operated.
I continued trying to grasp the new information as much as possible. I was completely consumed by this task until suddenly the images stopped coming and I was left to process what I had just learned.
I began to see little grains of light floating around the man who had just brought me into his family like they were waves moving throughout space in a hypnotic motion.
They were souls bound to him from those long passed.
I could bearly see the strings that connected the souls to him and yet I could not begin to comprehend how he had chained them but over time my level of knowledge would increase along with the corresponding skills that gave me the foundation to learn it.
I still don't know how level-ups worked but I would have to save that for later as that strange man was carrying me into some sort of carriage with flaming black horses pulling it along.
The carriage was incredibly beautiful and looked like something straight out of the victorian era.
As we entered I realized that the inside of it was much larger than how it appeared on the outside, being about the same size as a large living room.
The men entered the carriage with movements that contained the kind of fluidity and sharpness you would expect from a dancer.
From the way, he shifted his head to acknowledge the people he went past to the way he lifted his hand to pardon what I assumed to be his butler or servant. It all could only be described as graceful.
The butler had a pretty ordinary face. He wore a very clean and well-tailored blue and purple suit with no accessories and by his posture seemed quite well mannered.
I made sure to make a mental note of him.
While in the carriage, I was laid down on an impossibly comfortable sofa.
The butler entered as well and I could tell by the shaking that the carriage had begun to move.
Before anything else, I had to confirm a few things.
Was this an actual isekai-like fantasy world similar to what I read about in web novels?
I tried I imagine and form a status-like screen in my mind like I was in a video game but nothing happened.
I then screamed in my head “Open Status” which also did nothing.
“Can I view my stats please” I begged no one In particular?
A black and white screen suddenly appeared in front of me showing the following tabs one on top of the other.
[Atributes]
[Quests]
[Skills and Feats]
[Classes]
[Family Ability]
Well, that’s another point in the fantasy world column. Interestingly enough the words were written in English, a language I could easily understand even though no one around me had spoken it yet.
Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that English as a language didn’t exist in this world, quite the contrary for all I know I could simply be in this world’s version of Germany or something.
What it does go to show is that the translation of the system is person-specific.
More importantly, I had confirmed that I'm not in the present or the past unless this is some kind of augmented reality experiment being done on infants.
The other people around me don't seem to have reacted to me opening this screen in front of me, nor had they seemed to acknowledge its presence.
Them not recognizing it could mean that the status screen is only visible to me, or that it’s so commonplace that no one pays attention to it.
Another quirk of the second option is that human babies in this world would have to be intelligent for them to be expected to operate this thing.
Imagine if all babies born into this world were reincarnated, that would be very interesting in its way.
I extended my little hand which was far harder than I expected and tapped the [Attributes] button.
Name: Norman Venificus
Level: 0
Species: humanoid (Basic)
Birth Season: Astral Summer of Earth
Stage of development: Infant
Attributes:
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Constitution: 3
Intelligence: 29
Wisdom: 1
Willpower: 4
Charisma: 2
Awareness: 1
Poise: 2
An interesting observation is that the one of original options said classes plural instead of class which means it may be possible for me to have more than just one.
Still, I want to make as few assumptions as possible.
A class could refer to some sort of education or simply an occupation.
On that, note “level” could also be referring to a stage rather than the traditional RPG level system I’ve grown accustomed to.
The attributes seemed quite standard for a tabletop RPG, but in real life, I could easily guess what each of them did but seeing how exactly they would function in the real world would be interesting.
How much of a difference does one strength point make exactly.
The thing I wasn’t sure about was if the attributes acted just as a basic multiplier for skills and day-to-day activities or as just barriers for using items.
Like you need ten strength to use a basic dagger properly.
Intriguingly, my intelligence is so much better than my other attributes.
I briefly moved my focus from my stats to the other people in the carriage.
The man who adopted me and the butler was in the middle of a discussion that I couldn’t understand.
What I found strange about their interactions however is that they both seemed very relaxed and close to each other.
Which seemed to contradict the master-servant type relationship that I saw when I just entered the carriage.
I wondered if that was just an act for the public or not?
I didn’t have much time to ponder their relationship as we quickly arrived at his estate and were greeted by a set of maids, about ten in total equal parts male and female all of whom were wearing blue and purple suits and dresses respectively.
The mansion was large and had an extravagant garden that contained beautiful blue and purple flowers with a dirt pathway leading to the door.
The house looked relatively modern in design if not a bit too large.
There were two weird things about the building.
Firstly it continuously simmered with billions of scintillating specks of light similar to the souls I saw floating around my father.
The second which was even weirder was that no matter how I tried to describe the house I couldn’t find the words.
Not to say that it was particularly complex or weird looking.
While It didn't strike me as unordinary the moment I tried to seriously put what I was looking at into words it was like the thoughts dissipated in my mind.
It was very similar to how my skills functioned when I first got them but it happened every time I looked at the building.
I didn't have much time to think about it however as I was quickly rushed into my new home completely unaware of anything that was going on around me.