In a dense forest, which was filled with strange creatures and very dangerous for an ordinary person, there was a boy. He was quite unusual, actually. He didn't have a tail, strange ears, or anything of the sort, but not only his appearance but also his demeanor were strange.

His hair was slightly curly and had a silvery color that almost reached white. His skin was extremely pale, and his irises shone with an intense golden glow that emitted light in front of his body, creating a powerful lantern-like illumination, which, however, was not as helpful when trying to find prey in the middle of the woods.

However, the most peculiar thing was his posture because he was in no way behaving like a child; he seemed more like an adult, carrying a strange and dangerous presence with his back extremely erect and rigid.

After finding what he was looking for, he seemed to utter some strange words and simply vanished. He didn't become invisible, but he simply disappeared into the forest, and when he found his prey, a rabbit about one meter tall, forty kilograms, and with two horns, he finally revealed himself.

Jumping from a tree, he quickly conjured what seemed to be three ice stakes which were able to swiftly finish off the demonic rabbit.

With the three stakes hitting its chest, even though the beast didn't die instantly, its fate was already sealed.

After the child realized that he had defeated the monster quite easily, he quickly celebrated internally. This death, in fact, didn't come without meaning; this audacious rabbit had the nerve to steal various carrots from his family's garden, and being the first one to notice it, as a member, he had the duty not only to eliminate the thief but also, if possible, bring back its body to be used in a delicious barbecue.

This young boy was obviously Howard, who, however, was called so much by his new name that his old name was almost forgotten.

However, he was now eight years old and tried to pass himself off as an extremely talented and intelligent child, even though in reality, he was a thirty-year-old man.

Having trained in magic since his early months, he displayed great talent for the arcane arts, possessing an enormous amount of mana, much more than his consciousness could handle completely.

Despite years of self-taught training and study, he was now capable of defeating weak creatures like this giant rabbit, but he knew very well that he couldn't hold a candle to some of the monsters in the forest that surrounded the village.

In fact, Howard believed that the blame was solely on him because at various moments, he placed more importance on enjoying his new life than dedicating himself to magic. And even though he knew that he could be much more powerful now, he didn't care because he enjoyed being with his family and believed that it was much more important than anything else that might matter in the future.

But even so, he never stopped training, and nowadays, he considered himself quite capable, even though he had asked many times but hadn't been taught much magic, especially true summoning. Up to now, all Howard did were just some tricks, very well executed and creative tricks, but tricks nonetheless. By forming sentences in Emrys, one could create true and complex spells that performed a devastating effect on their own, not requiring much focus for the whole process to be carried out. However, to achieve that, someone would need to master Emrys, something Howard was nowhere near, and he would only start focusing on it when his father thought he was truly ready.

Howard knew that the wait would be worth it. In fact, his father was the son of one of the village elders, who, from what Howard understood, had existed for thousands of years, and surely his father must have learned some things from such an ancient being.

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Even though his grandfather was extremely old, his father didn't even come close; he was no more than sixty years old. That was an advanced age for an ordinary human, but for a Lemnos, it was almost like reaching adulthood, which, as Howard had discovered a few years ago, never ended since it seemed Lemnos stopped aging between fifteen and twenty-five years. Something simply surreal and fantastic at the same time.

Howard had had a simply cosmic stroke of luck to be reincarnated as a Lemnos, but even so, he couldn't understand how a species suddenly stopped aging after a certain age when they used to age normally like any other human. He didn't know and never asked if this came from some past experiment or from some ancestral trait. To him, both hypotheses were equally plausible.

After preparing to carry his trophy back home, Howard realized that he had accidentally torn the sleeve of his shirt, and since there was no repair spell, he knew his mother would scold him. However, at this moment, it was an unstoppable event, and he had nothing he could do. Even though he could control fire and ice with his hands, he still didn't know how to use a needle to sew his clothes, something he understood that every human should know, but he never learned, even in his past life when he lived more than a decade alone.

Obviously, Howard didn't have the physical strength to carry this rabbit, and he didn't know any spell capable of strengthening his body to handle such weight, and even if such a spell existed, it would be incredibly complex. Fortunately, there was another solution to all this, which was simply to make the whole body of the rabbit lighter, so that even though it was still heavy, it didn't compare to its original weight.

For Howard, this was the best solution he could find at the moment, and even though he had to sweat a little, he would easily reach his house with the load.

After walking a few minutes, not even reaching ten, he began to notice that the forest was starting to thin out, and he was getting closer to civilization. Fortunately, his family's territory was located right on the outskirts of the village, so he wasn't far from his parents' pleasant mansion. The house was made of a strange and beautiful completely black stone, which seemed to have volcanic origins, and resistant and beautiful dark brown wood that grew in the forest. However, the house didn't bring a dark atmosphere, but rather one of comfort, whether seen from afar or from inside.

When he was almost at the door leading to the shed, he felt a slight chill in his neck, and right beside him was his mother with a look that could kill even a lion.

"Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus! Where have you been all morning?" Howard quickly realized that his mother was not just stressed by her tone of voice, which was normal, almost like a big trap. In fact, she never spoke beyond his first name, Philippus, and when she used his full name, which came entirely from his father, Howard knew he was in trouble.

"Mom, good morning. Didn't you hear? I told you I was going to look for the little rascal who was stealing our carrots... well, I found it," Howard said while trying to hurry his steps to be able to put the carcass of the animal inside the place where they usually kept all the meat, a place that, in a very mystical way for Howard, completely prevented decomposition, something he clearly saw as magic, not necessarily alchemy, but something he couldn't understand how it was done.

After managing to place the carcass where it belonged, he noticed that his mother was getting closer, and seeing that he couldn't escape this time, he turned to confront her in one of their verbal battles. Howard found it fascinating that even with almost 40 years of intellectual development, he still couldn't win against his mother. It seemed that she always came out on top in their discussions, and he could do nothing but lower his head and agree with whatever she said in the end.

However, it didn't seem like this would be one of those moments, as before he could realize it, his mother, who appeared to be almost twice his height, was giving him a tight hug. Unlike what he had thought, she wasn't stressed but rather worried.

After realizing that he had needlessly worried his mother, Howard spoke in a low voice, "I'm sorry for making you worry," and after a few moments, he continued, "Next time, I'll let you know before I go for real."

Upon hearing this, Howard's mother hugged him even tighter, strangely tighter, and said with a stern tone, "If next time you do what you did today, it won't be your newest prey in that shed."

After saying that, she gave him a sweet kiss on the forehead and went back to what she was doing before.

This only reminded Howard of how terrifying his mother could be at times. He didn't know if she was truly frightening or if it was the body of a child, and therefore, the child's brain that created that feeling, but that didn't diminish the amount of love he felt for her, which far outweighed any fear.