After a long day outside Arya was finally in her crib again. This night there won't be any magic practice. She was too tired.

A few days later Arya still hadn't had any luck with conjuring water. She practiced every night when her parents were sleeping. One night while she was practicing she suddenly heard a loud bell ring through the village. Her parents woke up at once and hurried out of bed. They looked scared. "Honey..." Her mom said. "It's going to be ok, take care of Arya, I'll go see what happened, ok?" Her dad said. He hurried over to Arya and kissed her on the forehead. "Be safe! No matter what!" Tinala said with a worried voice. She hugged her husband, and he went out the door.

Arya was really worried. 'What in the world is going on?!' She hated not being able to do anything. Her mother picked her up and hugged her tightly. "It's going to be ok... the hunters will take care of it" Her mom said. Arya was unsure if she was talking to her or herself.

Hours went by before the bedroom door opened again. Her dad walked in. "It went ok, it was just a small monster horde luckily. The hunters could handle it." Her dad said. Monster horde? Monsters? Arya thought it was bandits or something, but monsters? What kind of monsters were there? She had so many questions, but she couldn't ask any! Her dad comes back inside after what felt like a long time. "We took care of it. No one got hurt" Her dad said and hugged her and her mother.

Time flies by and soon Arya was two years old. She had already started to talk in full sentences and was now walking around instead of crawling. Some time ago she finally got to see herself in a mirror. Her hair was light pink and her eyes were blue. She had seen herself in water and other reflections before, but it felt special to see herself in a mirror. She would also get a little sibling soon. Arya does not want to remember the horrors she had to listen to for that to happen. Luckily they did have the decency to put her crib in the office when they did the deed, but that did not block out the horrible sounds.

She had the chance to read more books. She figured out that would tell her what magic affinities she had. The book said that they would only show up after she tried to cast the spell, and nothing would happen unless you had the affinity required. The reason that you shouldn't try to practice other than the basic elements alone was that different types of magic could be difficult to control, and you needed a teacher to help out if needed.

Ayra opened her status window.

----- Status Page -----

Level 40 (0%)

Health: 300/300

Stamina: 104/240

Mana: 1600/1610

Stats:

Strength: 12

Dexterity: 12

Constitution: 15

Spirit: 136

Intelligence: 25

Passive skills:

lvl N/A

lvl 3

lvl 3

lvl 94

lvl 27

Active skills:

lvl 58

lvl 47

lvl 32

lvl 20

lvl 4

lvl 4

-------------------------------

Level N/A

----------

You have been blessed by one or more god

Cost: None

- Better mana control (From God of creation)

- You will learn faster (From God of Knowledge)

- Your stats will increase at a higher rate (From Goddess of effort)

- You absorb mana/stamina/health at a faster rate. (From Goddess of War)

Remarks: An apology gift for picking your soul up before it got recycled.

Level 3

----------

Lets you better understand different beings

Cost: None

- Languages similar to your own are understood

- Vaguely understand other types of communication

Level 3

----------

Lets you remember more than most

Cost: None

- Slightly more resistant to mind magic that alters memories

- You have an easier time remembering things

Level 94

----------

Lets you sense mana around you

Cost: None

- You can sense mana in a 94 meter radius

- You can sense even minuscule amounts of mana

- Mana is very difficult to hide from your senses

Level 27

----------

Lets you better go into a role you are playing.

Cost: None

- Your lies are harder to detect.

- Your acts are more believable

Level 58

----------

Lets you manipulate ambient mana

Cost: Mana

- You can move a small amount of ambient mana to your will in a 29 meter radius around you

Level 47

----------

Lets you extract ambient mana from your surroundings and fill your mana pool

Cost: None

- You can extract a small amount of ambient mana from your surroundings and fill your mana pool

- You can extract mana made from your own mana signature

- Convert the ambient mana you extract to your own mana signature

Level 32

----------

Lets you move objects with mana

Cost: Mana

- You can move small, up to medium-weight objects with your mana in a 16 meter radius

Level 20

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----------

Lets you meditate to recharge faster

Cost: None

- While sitting completely still you can activate to recharge Health, Stamina and Mana at a 20% increase

Level 4

----------

Lets you cast a spell

Cost: Mana

- With extreme focus, you may use your own mana to form as you will

Level 4

----------

Lets you chant what you envision for a better chance of manifesting your spell

Cost: None

- Chanting while using makes your spell 4% more likely to form

A lot of small changes had happened. Some of the skills had a higher radius and others had the word 'Slightly' removed. So all in all, her skills were a lot better now. There were some weird things like the percentage on the skills and will it just keep going until it hits 100%? That seemed really overpowered, especially with 100% success rate if she chants something. That was probably not how it worked, but all she could do was wait and see.

Arya heard her mom calling from the kitchen "Arya, come here dear, dinner is ready!" Arya ran towards her mother. She raised her hands as her mom picked her up and put her in the baby chair. Her dad came into the room with a big smile on his face. "Daaad! Helloo! Hug?" She said and stretched her arms towards him. "Aw of course you will get a hug! Have you been a good girl today while dad was working?" He said and hugged her. "Yeees!" She said but slowly started to lose her enthusiasm. She was reminded of her old family. Calling someone else mom and dad felt wrong. But she was no longer Elise, she was now Arya. Her dad noticed her mood and looked worried at her "Everything ok sweetie?" Arya was a bit startled at the question but quickly flashed a smile. "No... I just miss granny Jane" she told a small white lie, well it was not like she didn't miss granny Jane, so it was not a big lie! "Aw we should go visit her soon then" her mom chips in. "Yeees!" She said and opened her mouth as her mom gave her a spoonful of porridge. "Mooom can I have a book?" She asked with a cute smile and pleading eyes. "You really like to read, don't you? We can read a bit after dinner sweetie" Her mom replied.

Reading helped with increasing intelligence. Practicing mana skills helped raise spirit. Her strength and dexterity got raised by moving her body, and apparently constitution just naturally got higher as she got older. After she becomes an adult you could only raise constitution by getting hurt and letting it heal apparently. That was what the books in her mom's office said at least. Arya has learned a lot of things about the world in the last two years. The name of the village was Hearthrock and had a population of around 500 people. It was not a lot of people, but it made the village quiet and calm. Once every month a merchant showed up and sold his goods to the villagers. There was no healer in the small village, but a few villagers knew basic first aid. If something serious happened they would need to get help at the nearest town Cragwarf. It was possible to get home visits from healers, but that was expensive. Especially when they had to travel all the way to the remote village. She also learned that the capital city was called Dragonhelm. She still didn't know if dragons existed or not, when she asked her mom she just started telling old legends or something.

Arya had not forgotten about . She usually practiced at every chance she got. Every night she tried to conjure water, it wasn't until recently that she succeeded. She studied water at any chance she got and she saw that water mana was actually a thing! So there was no H2O here? She had no idea. She learned at the same time. It seemed like the chanting didn't need to be too specific. It was mostly used so you could concentrate and control the better. She read that some people preferred to use lengthy chants for less room for failure for example 'I summon a drop of water to the top of my palm' and others just said 'water drop' and they could have the same effect. It mostly mattered what you were envisioning while you were casting. Arya decided that after she had leveled to a higher number she would try to cast spells chantless. In the books, they say that casting chantless would be stupid, as it would leave a bigger room for failure. Arya thought differently. It would be so cool to cast spells out of nowhere after all!

Arya still hadn't told her parents about her magic talents, she wasn't sure how normal mages were, but in her village, there was only one known mage. She had asked her mom about why, and she was told it was because mages usually went to the big cities. She would definitely tell them after a while, but not until she was a bit older.

Her mom came into the kitchen with a book in hand. She picked up Arya with the other hand. And they sat down on the living room couch. Tinala started reading, but Arya stopped her. "Mom, can you teach me?" She asked. "Oh dear, you are a bit too young to start reading, but since you like books so much I can ask your dad if he can buy a notebook or something to write on, on the way home from work tomorrow. If you still want to learn reading tomorrow I can show you some of the different letters." Her mom said. Arya hugged her mom. "Thank you! You are the best mom!" She still wasn't completely sure how she should talk for her age, but she just winged it. She wanted to pretend to learn how to read, so she could ask her mom why they had books on magic. To her knowledge, her mom and dad were not mages. She had asked about mages before and that's when her mom said that there was only one mage in the village. Arya wasn't sure how to feel about that. Was it that rare to be a mage, or did most mages move to the big towns for some reason?

Her dad bought her some pieces of coal that were designed for drawing on the rocks outside. After that Arya pretended to learn how to write. Her mom and dad would show her different letters and she would copy them. Paper and ink were too expensive for a child to use. Her parents were astonished by her speed of learning. Arya made them show her at least one letter each day. The faster she could be done with this, the better!

After a few painstakingly slow months of pretending to learn how to read she could finally ask her mom why they had books on magic. "Hey, mom? Why do we have magic books?" Arya asks while sitting on her mother's lap. "Oh, that is because your aunt is a mage, you haven't had the chance to meet her yet. She lives in Dragonhelm, it's far away from here. She told me she would come to visit soon... but that was a year ago. Knowing her it will probably take another year before she shows up." Her mom said while picking up the book called 'Beginners Mage Book' and opening it. "We used to live here together with our father, your grandfather, he built this house. Sadly you never got to meet him, he passed away before you were born." Arya hugs her mom. "Oh..." She didn't know what to say. "It's ok sweetie, he is in a better place now" Her mom said. "You're so smart for your age, you are already so good at reading!" That made Arya giggle. "Mom, can I learn magic too?" Arya's mom paused, she looked worried for a second before she smiled. "Sadly only people with the skill can become mages. And that skill cannot be learned, you have to be born with it. But don't worry, there are a lot of other fun things you can do when you're older." Her mom said. "But mom, I have the skill!" Arya said with a big smile. She really wanted a magic teacher, there was no magic in her old world after all.

Her mom was speechless for a few seconds. "Arya, skills are something you see on your status page. Your status page, also called the system window, is a blessing from the god of effort, when you're a bit older we will go to the temple to activate your status page. The system lays dormant in your soul until it is activated by a priest." Her mom said.

This was odd. Arya had activated the system by fiddling with the blue light in her chest, did this mean that the blue light was the system? "I already activated my status page on my own... is that bad?" She asked her mom. "What?! Tell me what the page says." Her mom seemed worried again. Arya told her mother about her skills, but she left out , , and . She also didn't tell her the levels of her skills. "You really did unlock it... and you have already learned and . When my sister comes to visit I will ask her to teach you a bit about magic..." Her mom was stunned.

Tinala had never heard about or . She said that she would ask her sister if she had heard about any of them. Arya wondered if it had been a mistake to tell her mom so much, but she didn't want to hide everything from her parents. It was tiring to live a lie. She would tell her parents more about her abilities when she had more information about it. The only thing she would never tell them was that she remembered her past life.