In the middle of a vast, dusty training ground, a group of children, their faces flushed with exertion, practiced with wooden swords under the watchful eye of a towering, burly knight clad in heavy chainmail. His thick beard, streaked with gray, bristled as he barked instructions.

His broad arms were crossed, a steel sword sheathed at his side, glinting in the sunlight. His stern gaze loomed over the children, who swung their swords with determination, though their strikes were wild and uncontrolled.

In the center of the group, a boy, much like the others, swung the wooden sword again, sweat dripping down his brow, but the tip of his weapon faltered most of the time. His breath was labored, and frustration was evident in his young eyes. The knight, his deep voice booming like thunder, stepped forward once more.

"Control, lads! It's not about how hard you swing, it's where and when! You're dancing like headless chickens!" He stepped closer, towering over the boys like a mountain.

"Watch your stance! Left foot steady, right foot light!" The knight planted his boot in the dirt, demonstrating to the young lads how to brace themselves.

Michael bit his lip, trying to suppress his frustration. He adjusted his stance and raised the sword again, this time with more focus, but the tension in his arms betrayed his struggle.

Around him, other children were engaged in the same act of practice, striving to showcase their skills and prove their worth to be noticed by Head Knight Adrian.

[You have learned the Basic Sword Skill]

‘’Finally’’

Michael sighed with relief upon seeing the notification hovering before his eyes. He had been practicing for the last ten minutes, and only now had he managed to gain the skill. It had been a week since he arrived in this world in the body of a 10-year-old boy.

"Patience," Adrian continued, his voice softer now but still commanding. "A sword isn’t for thrashing about. It’s an extension of you. If you can’t control it, you’ll lose every fight."

Michael took a deep breath, his grip tightening around the hilt of the wooden sword, determination flickering in his eyes once more. This time, he was able to perform the swing perfectly, all thanks to the Skill he had just learned.

‘Swish’ ‘Swish’

Michael kept swinging the wooden sword in the same manner, and his movements slowly began to refine. The grueling training lasted for more than four hours before they were allowed to rest.

[Basic Sword Skill leveled up to 2]

"Thank God. I finally leveled it up. It took a lot of time to advance to the next level. I wonder what the highest level of a skill is. Maybe level 100? We’ll see in the future. For now, I should take some rest."

Michael muttered to himself and sat down on the ground, taking deep breaths. In the past week, he had settled into this new body. It wasn’t easy at first, but thankfully nobody suspected anything since he didn’t talk to too many people anyway.

He had turned ten yesterday and was eligible for the mandatory Knight training. That day, after waking up, he discovered he was living in the castle of the Count. His father’s name was Jabel Morgan, the head of the Morgany family.

‘Noble titles start from Baron, Viscount, Count, Marquis, Duke, Prince, and then The King. It’s pretty much the same as I read in the past. So, my family is third from the last. I think being a Count is a pretty big deal.’

Michael mused when he learned the title of his so-called father. He was one of many children of Jabel Morgan. According to what he had found out, he had more than fifteen brothers and five sisters. ‘I wonder if every count is in fact a pig?’ Michael muttered to himself.

His mother passed away when he was five years old. She was merely a concubine in the eyes of his father, with whom she had spent only one night while working as a maid. After discovering her pregnancy, Jable made her a concubine and provided her with a lavish room, never to see her again.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

Most of his children were born in a similar manner, and he was among many. All this information was recorded in a diary he found after searching through everything in his room upon waking that night. He learned about this boy, Michael, from that diary.

‘Good thing this boy wrote down everything that happened in the diary. Otherwise, things would have been much tougher for me at the start.’

Michael expressed gratitude to the previous owner of the body for maintaining such a good habit. Gradually, he came to terms with his death and new life. He didn’t really have anyone to return to anyway. He wanted to pursue his passions in this life while also exploring the world along the way.

**********

The name of the world was Vidrian. The size of the world was currently unknown to him, but he read that there were more than five continents in this realm. He wasn’t sure if this was a spherical planet like Earth, but observing the rising and setting of the Sun, he figured that might be the case.

‘Those things don’t really matter to me for now. I just need to focus on my current environment and how to handle everything that is going to come my way.’

There wasn’t much information in the library, but he found enough to understand his current situation. He had indeed reincarnated into a world full of magic.

He was living in the Kingdom of Barsara, located on the eastern edge of the continent of Cardania. The kingdom was roughly the size of Australia from his old world, or at least that’s what he could judge by looking at the map he found in the library.

Barsara shared its borders with the Kingdom of Holy Light and the Kingdom of Oxordian. Both kingdoms were quite friendly with Barsara, so the chances of this Kingdom facing war anytime soon were minimal.

‘’I’m glad this kingdom is somewhat peaceful, at least on the surface.’’

He knew every Kingdom had its dark side. Social hierarchy existed everywhere, whether he was back in his old world or this one. He just needed to keep himself safe in this new world where superpower users could be found everywhere.

‘I think the power of the Adrian could rival that of Captain America, or maybe even be stronger.’

Micael thought to himself and shuddered inwardly. He didn’t want to die right after gaining a new life, especially when he had the chance to use magic in the future. He recalled the information he had read in the library.

‘Those skills are quite useful; it’s hard to believe sometimes.’

Thanks to his two skills, Enhanced Memory and Quick Learning, he could remember all the information after reading it just once. He didn’t want to be a knight, but he had no choice but to train, as he didn’t want to be kicked out by throwing tantrums.

‘All I need to do is endure and wait for three years to go through ascension; then I can choose my own path easily,’

Michael said to himself. In this world, when a person turns 13, they can undergo the ascension ritual, allowing them to awaken a class that will determine their future path to success or downfall. After awakening, that person can be categorized as a Tier-1 Class holder.

There are different tiers, and one must go through ascension each time to increase their tier. According to his current knowledge, there are a total of nine tiers, but that is just a legend or myth. The world has only seen six tiers of class holders.

‘I read that it’s not easy to pass the class ascension trial. Many people fail even after trying five times. The good thing is that we can initiate it again after failing. If I fail, I’ll have to wait a full 30 days before trying again. I guess it serves as a cooldown period.’

There are many different types of classes in the world. One needs certain skills to awaken a specific type of class, which can also depend on one’s bloodline. For example, if parents are fire magic users, then there is more than a 50% chance that their offspring will also be fire users.

“Now, I need to find out how to learn a skill that will help me awaken a class that keeps my passion alive even in this world,” Michael muttered to himself as he opened his panel once again.

[Skills:]

-Appraisal (Level 1)

-Analyzer (Level 6)

-Tweaking (Level 6)

-Electronics (Level 8)

-Sleep Resistance (Level 5)

-Mana Sense (Level 1)

-Basic Mathematics (Level 10)

………

-Basic Physics (Level 10)

-Basic Running (Level 2)

-Basic Climbing (Level 2)

……..

‘There are too many skills on the panel. I didn’t realize learning skills would be that easy, but leveling them up is difficult, except for the knowledge I already possessed.’ Michael sighed as he looked over his status panel.

He was able to learn numerous skills, starting with Mathematics. All he had to do was think about the knowledge he had from the past, and the skill was obtained. He ran on the first day, and after a few minutes of running, he was able to learn a new skill. These skills, in fact, helped him significantly; just the running skill allowed him to learn more steadily and for longer periods of time.

‘I guess there are many benefits of the skill that I still don’t know about. I will have to explore more in the future,’ Michael mused. Shaking his head to remove those thoughts from the head from mingling any further and focused on the most important knowledge he had learned: The Runes.