I am now being accused of being "inspired" by Bitflame's story, blah blah blah asteroid blown into a game world. Which is a really nice way of saying they think I plagiarized it. All I can say is, if our works are that similar, he must truly be an amazing author. I recommend EVERYBODY check his story out. And leave me a link in the comments below, cuz I can't find it. Let me know if there are fairies in it, please.

Edit: The situation is resolved. Please refer to the first chapter's comments for the final decision. See ya in the next chapter.

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I could faintly hear a voice, and see a light at the end of the tunnel. No...can't be..

"..ke up Duorey!"

I could feel my body shaking, no doubt vibrating from the massive speed at which I was approaching the light.

"It's time for breakfast!"

Oh. I'm not dead?

Opening my eyes, I could see my sister shaking me. Is the fabled little sister line? Did I raise a flag?

No seriously though, I hadn't seen much of her lately.

I blinked, and got out of bed, stretching. Sis stood by, tapping her foot impatiently. She saw I was awake, and flounced out of the room.

I was still in my clothes from yesterday, wrinkled and grimy. Poor bed sheets. Shrugging, I figured I was going to be getting filthy again today anyways, and didn't bother changing.

I headed out to breakfast. It was the same as yesterday, but I certainly wasn't complaining.

I started trying to pay a bit more attention to my sister, but it was hard. Her presence was almost non existent, and it seemed like when I took my eyes off her, she vanished. I wish I had a vacuum cleaner, so I could scream, "WHO YOU GONNA CALL?!"

Mom was staring daggers at me the whole meal, and I was trying to distract myself. Mid-way through the meal, she finally decided to speak. "Your Wisdom increased again, didn't it?" I nodded. "We need to have another talk, about Status Commands. You need to say Settings, and un-check the box that says 'Wisdom Scaling'. You're actually cutting years off your life by leaving it alone."

Come again?

Seeing my shocked face, she nodded, looking a tad grim. "Wisdom is a double edged sword, Dear. The additional age has benefits, but any growth you accelerate past, you miss out on."

Then her face truly clouded over, and she said with repressed fury, "Not to MENTION, you're COMPLETELY SKIPPING my chance to be a MOTHER! Do you think I carried you around for 9 months because it was fun, huh?!"

I paled, and quickly shook my head. "Settings!" I yelled, and quickly unchecked the option.

The storm apparently having passed, Mother went back to her usual smile. Scary..they make drugs for that you know.

We quickly wrapped up the meal, and Dad and I set out for our morning training.

+++

We made it about 30 yards away from the front gate before Dad burst out, in a deep guffaw. "You really got the sharp side of her tongue, now you know how I feel."

I shook my head. "Is she always like this? She seems...bi-polar."

He nodded. "She hides it very well, until you piss her off. Then you're lucky if you don't find your manhood ripped off and shoved down your throat. I guess it comes with the territory, being raised by wolves and all."

I looked at him, questioningly, and he sated my curiosity.

"She's an orphan, I guess. Never knew her parents, raised by wolves, she was picked up by an Adventurer couple who were out grinding. That's why every meal around the house has some meat in it. They taught her to speak, and educated her. She still has a nasty habit of biting though...but you'll probably never see that. Anyways, a few years ago I was out in the mountains training, and took a nasty fall off a 50 ft. cliff, and broke both my legs. I never did ask her why, but Helen was in the mountains as well, and found me. We've been stuck to each other ever since. Got married when I put a bun in her oven, and we came out east to raise our kids."

He clapped me on the back, nearly sending me sprawling.

"It only took me two tries to get the boy I had been wanting, bwaha! You stick with me, son. I'll show you the ropes."

I smiled, in pain, trying to rub my back.

While this conversation had been taking place, we had been sprinting. With my Stamina up to 9 points now, I had almost doubled the amount of time I could spend running. I kept hearing *ding!*, but it was entirely stat gains. Truly, Stamina was impressive stuff. Because it increased the time you could push your limits, it was ideal for training.

Dad consistently upped the pace, yet never broke a sweat. I was beginning to wonder what HIS stats looked like.

Once more, we reached our halfway mark of 2 hours, and turned back. Dad started humming, he seemed to be a generally happy dude. He had a pleasant baritone, deep and full, and it was good to listen to, if it hadn't sounded suspiciously like the theme song to Trueblood.

I, meanwhile, had started enjoying running somewhat. I had started to form a kind of trance, where I just let my body do the work, and my mind shut down. Maybe this is that runner's high? I'm usually more of a walking kind of person, but I guess there's not much point in training my walking skill. It's not like I had weight to burn.

We didn't talk much for the rest of the run, but it was a companionable silence.

++++

When we reached the house, Mom was out front, pulling weeds. By pulling weeds, I mean she would stare at them with a frown on her face and her arms crossed, and they would burst into flames. Wasn't she staring at me at breakfast...? I felt a chill go up my spine.

She noticed we had returned, and waved at us, smiling. "Welcome back boys!"

Dad swept her up in a bear hug, and I could feel the pink gathering in the air. I walked by them, intent on lunch. I don't know what it is, but the food here is absolutely divine.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Sis opened the door for me, smiling. "Welcome back brother!" apparently she was over being mad at me for growing up so quickly. My bet is that she just inherited Mom's mood swings..

She was practically skipping, as the family gathered around the table.

"Something good happen?" I asked.

"Nn, it's my favorite for lunch today!"

I looked at the pot sitting on the table, as the lid was lifted, to reveal...

What the hell is this..?

It looked like a bubbling, seething mass of white rubbery chunks. Like someone had put raw octopus in a pot with oil to bubble. I turned slightly green, but awaited my fate, as everyone took their portions, and started mowing it down.

Steeling myself, I lifted a bite to my face.

It tasted exactly as I described it. Rubbery, and fishy. When I swallowed, a spicy burn shot up in my mouth, and my tongue felt like it was literally burning.

Dad belched, and about a foot of flame emerged. Are your innards made of steel?!

Realizing there was no escape, I manned up, and ate. Occasionally throughout the meal, we would all burp and let out small jets of flame. I have to say, it was one of the strangest things I've seen lately.

Everyone else at the table seemed well content, nay, they seemed to be actively enjoying the entire meal. Dad looked over, and grinned with his teeth.

"Your first time having high class stuff like this, eh boy? We can't normally afford stuff like this, but we figured what the hell, our debt can't get any higher."

This is high class food?

I looked dismayed, and I guess it showed on my face. Misinterpreting it, Sis reached over and patted my hand.

"Don't worry bro! We usually eat like this once a week at least!"

I resigned myself to my fate. The rest of the week out weighed one bad meal.

+++

Mom and I went out for afternoon magic training. Instead of the clearing, she took us to the forest this time. We stood on the edge of a rather stiff incline, with a winding river flowing below. I asked Mom why we came specifically here, but she refused to answer, muttering something about a "conducive atmosphere..."

I was definitely getting the hang of mana manipulation. I was learning to adjust the properties of the mana, with her help. There were a variety of ways to shape it. I could turn it hard, floppy, stretchy, brittle, and I'm sure there were more forms.

I turned the mana into a long, floppy string, and started jump roping with it. I looked to Mom, who had a bit of a far away look in her eyes.

"What's wrong, Mom?" I asked.

She shook her head, and her eyes cleared. "It's nothing dear. I was just thinking."

"You can talk to me, you know. I am your son, even if I may not act like it at times. I really do appreciate the effort you put forth to bring me here. I wouldn't have this chance, if it weren't for you." I was keeping my reincarnation on the DL. I was honestly a bit worried that I had taken over someone else's chance to be her son.

She looked at me intently for a while, and then nodded. "Alright. I'll let you in on what's going through Mommy's mind. Honestly, I'm worried about your sister. she hasn't been the same since she started going to Ninja school. Every time I get a chance to talk to her, all she says is Hokage this, Hokage that."

...surely, this isn't what I think it is.

"I don't know what to do with her. Every day it seems she's a bit more distant. She was really excited about you, but I'm worried, because now she's missed her chance to be a big sister. She's getting better and better at stealth, and I'm worried one day she'll completely disappear, and I won't be able to even remember she was there." Mom was getting more and more worked up, the longer she spoke. I could see tears glistening in her eyes.

I grabbed her by the hand, and pulled her into a hug. She leaned down, resting her head on my shoulder. She didn't cry, but she took deep breaths, her whole body trembling as she tried to calm herself. I patted her head.

Eventually, she calmed enough to break the embrace, and gave a weak smile. "Sorry to dump all that on you. I know there's not much you can do, but I feel better just having talked."

I shook my head in the negative.

"I'll do my best to try and bring Sis around. I don't know her very well yet, but I can fix that. It's the least I can do for you, with all the things you've done for me, without asking for anything."

She rested her hand on my head, running her hand through my hair.

"Thank you, Duorey," she said with a soft smile.

We stayed like that for a few minutes, and then she gripped my hair by the roots.

"You're not getting out of training though."

"I wasn't trying to!" I said, laughing weakly.

I went back to skipping rope with the mana. It was difficult because I had to move my body, and focus on keeping it in shape. In addition, I was using both hands to maintain it's form.

Something crashed through the forest, and my head whipped around to look at it.

Unfortunately, I never got to see what it was, because I let go of one edge of the mana rope, which promptly got caught around my legs, as I was mid skip.

You can imagine the cliche'd thing that happened next.

I fell over, and started rapidly rolling down the hill. I literally couldn't stop myself, as stray branches and stones tore at my clothes and skin. I felt the sharp, stinging pains as I started to bleed, combined with a disgusting nausea as I rolled head over heels, the world spinning in a blur of motion.

Finally, with a plop, I landed in the river, bashing my head on a rock.

Then everything went black.