Warmth and comfort is the best way to explain my current situation. My surroundings are colored in a similar way to when you stare at the sun while you have your eyes closed. (Try it) I sometimes hear singing, sometimes I hear conversations, but my surroundings never changed. I have been in this situation for a little over 9 months now.

But I’m loving every second of it. It took me a little over 6 months to realize that I was inside a womb, and when I did, I rejoiced. I had been reincarnated! My previous life was a long one, and I lived quite a happy life.

I am not sure what killed me in the end. Whether it was my old age or something else, but I did not really care. In my previous life, I had lived to the ripe age of 126. My previous life could be summarized in a couple sentences.

I was probably as average as it comes, after completing uni and getting a degree in computer science, I later got a job unrelated to my degree. At the age of 35 I met my wife, we settled down and had kids, and then those kids had kids, etc. After my wife’s passing, I knew my time was near, and as such I wrote a will.

TLDR: Lived a long and happy life. That’s my life in a nutshell, I never really believed in reincarnation or anything like that. I always prided myself as someone who only believed in what could be scientifically proven, yet here I was, inside a tomb absorbing nutrients through my mother.

The thought of having a mother much younger than me mentally felt a little weird, but I decided not to mind it too much. If I wasn’t too wrong, I would soon be born, and I was honestly a little troubled. If I was born as a girl, I’m not too sure of how I would react.

It was too disturbing to think about. I’ll leave the scary future to future me. Though I do wonder what kind of world I will be born into. Will it be earth? Or would it be something else?

…

As the days passed, the time of my birth finally arrived. Just as I was about to fall into a deep slumber once more, I could feel convulsions around me. A suction force suddenly appeared, and two hands cold hands grabbed onto me, as I was pulled out, I was met by the cold air and an intense pain as I tried breathing. Everything became loud, it was as if someone had increased the volume from 4 to 100.

But just as the pain came, it disappeared. Breathing no longer hurt and the loud sounds calmed down. I could feel the brightness of the room through my closed eyes, I could feel people carrying me, and handing me over to someone.

I slowly opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was my mother. As our eyes met I couldn’t help but be shocked. Her eyes were a fiery red, something I had never seen in my 126 years of life. My mother smiled and kissed me on my forehead and whispered; “yeg alve daje.”

If I had to guess, she probably said “I love you.” Fascinating, it didn’t really sound like a language from earth, but I would have to figure that out some other time, because right now, I just want to sleep.

…

I awoke to a conversation between my mother and a man, I slowly opened my eyes and after they got adjusted to the dark room, I still couldn’t see the man. My mother was holding me with my head against her chest. “wahhh” In an attempt to get her to move me in a way so I could see the man she was talking to, I seem to have made a mistake. She apparently thought I was hungry and as such, moved me towards her breasts.

…

Anyway, my attempt to see the man failed, but luckily for me, my mother handed me over to the man after having fed me. So I suppose it wasn’t totally a loss. Looking up at the man that was carrying me, I met his gaze with my own.

He looked Scandinavian, he had deep blue eyes, blond hair and a small stubble. All in all, he looked like a nice guy. As I observed him, he also observed me, after a while he kissed me lightly on my forehead and gave me back to me mother.

I suppose that confirms that he is my father, I don’t think he would kiss me otherwise… I really hope he’s, my father! After being handed to my mother, I suddenly felt really tired, and I quickly fell asleep.

..

It has been about a week since I met my father and to be honest, I really hate being a baby! My mother changes my diapers and breastfeeds me, it’s the worst! Its really humiliating. I’m really looking forward to when I can take care of myself.

Oh and, I got a better look at my mother. She looks like a mix between Asian and Caucasian, her hair is dark brown, and she barely looks 20. Not sure if that’s her age or if she just has great genetics, either way, I feel old.

…

I’m bored! It has been about 5 months since I was born, yet there is nothing to do! I just lie around doing goo goo gaa gaa noises, to entertain the fact that I’m a baby. My father occasionally comes home wearing leather armor and a sword. So he either cosplays or I’m in a medieval world.

…

Magic exists! It happened about 8 months after I was born, my father came home full of injuries, and I could see my mother running up to him. After she examined him, a bright green light appeared out of her hands, and as it did, the injuries on my father started to disappear.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, and in my excitement, I somehow fell over from my sitting position that my mother had put me in. I didn’t get injured or anything, but my mother used her magic on me and a warmth similar to when I was in her womb filled me.

As quickly as it filled me, it disappeared, and my mother sat down next to me exhausted. My father who was basically fully healed helped me and my mother up on a chair where he cooked my mother dinner.

…

I finally started being able to move on my own, I could now crawl around using my tiny hands and feet! I still couldn’t pronounce any words, but I was slowly getting there!

…

On my first birthday my parents took me out on a walk and when we left the house, we were in I was met with a beautiful sight. It was spring and the clouds were nowhere to be seen, we were surrounded by fields of wheat, a couple trees and medieval houses. We went into many different shops, where they bought many things, they also bought a cake! When we arrived home, they sat me down and prepared food for themselves.

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I crawled towards a bookshelf and grabbed a big red book that had a huge golden star on the cover, opening it I saw tons of text and huge pictures of sigils. I looked through the book slowly tried reading.

After two hours of trying to read I gave up. I would have to ask my parents to teach me how to read and write, but that was for later. Tis time for cake!!!

…

It has been four years since I arrived in this world. I’ve learned how to speak, read and write the Roxian language. I have been reading the many books we have and through them I have learned of this kingdom, its history, and its people. Turns out that the red book I found so many years ago was a book about spells and incantations.

The sigils that I saw were magical circles, used to aid in casting magic, while it is possible to use magic without using incantations and magic circles, it’s a rare skill that not many possess. On my third birthday I started to learn magic through the book.

At the start, whenever I tried to cast a spell, I would fall unconscious due to my low mana. But after many months I was able to finally use magic.

Flashback!

When using magic, one needs to imagine the mana around them forming into the element one wishes to use, whether that be fire, water, wind, ice, etc. Turn to page 144 to learn about low-class water magic.

Turning the pages, I kept reading.

Low-class water magic. When using low-class water magic, or any water magic overall, you want to imagine your mana as a wet liquid. Slowly move the mana within you towards your palm and concentrate the mana into a ball of water. You should now be seeing a ball of water floating in front of your palm, slowly release your control over it if you wish to drop it. If you wish to throw it, imagine a force propelling it forward and release it. 

“Easier said than done” I quickly ready a bucket underneath so that I can catch the water that will drop down. I close my eyes and imagine the mana within me moving towards the palm of my hand, I slowly start to feel drained, and I suddenly lose consciousness.

Flashback done.

I had repeated this for a year and each time I got further and further until I finally made a fist sized ball of water, I can now make about thirty fist size balls of water before I lose consciousness. But I’m not done yet.

According to the book, everyone has an element that they have most affinity towards, and I plan on figuring out which one, but fire magic and such will have to wait until I’m older. I have yet to tell my parents of my magic, as I am currently learning in secret. There is no particular reason to this, I just don’t want the risk of them finding out and stopping my training.

I find magic really fascinating. I have also been debating on whether I should try to use the magic particles that are floating all over instead of what is within me, but while it could work, it would probably stunt my growth in magic.

My mana capacity has increased by a lot since I started learning magic. Its hard to put into perspective, but if we use game terms, let’s say I started with a mana of 0, and as I grew, and was able to make a fist sized ball of water, I gained 1 mana, I have also learned that I don't need incantations.

But then again, it could be less, but based on how many fists sized balls of water I can make, I’m going to say that I now have a total of 30 mana. This is just my own system though; I will most likely change it in the near future when I have more information.

I have been thinking of using more medium-class magic, but if you use a spell that requires more mana than what you have, you risk dying due to mana deprivation. There are three stages of mana deprivation. After using about 80-85% of your mana you will start to feel tired and lethargic, this is the first stage. After using 90-95% of your mana you will fall unconscious due to your body protecting you from using more, this is the second stage. And finally, the third stage is when you use 100% of your mana, when you reach this point, you have a chance of either dying, becoming crippled, unable to ever use magic again, or in rare cases, you’ll only be unable to use magic for approximately 1-4 weeks. During these weeks you will feel really, really lethargic, and tired.

Or so the book says, I have never used more than enough to fall unconscious, so the information afterwards is just from the book.

Within magic there are many different ranks to an individual, someone who has yet to learn the basics, but are able to control the mana within themselves are initiate mages, when someone is able to cast a low-class-spell, they are a novice mage, when one has learned two medium-class-spells, one turns into an apprentice mage.

But this is just how it is on paper, the book also states that one’s mana has a say in one’s rank, someone who has little mana, but knows enough to become a higher rank, won’t be able to rank up due to low mana. But the same can be said for someone who has a lot of mana but only knows a small number of spells. A balance is needed for ones rank to increase.

Each rank signifies an increase in level of one’s existence. Each rank up not only increases the capacity of mana one can hold, but also one’s lifespan, learning capabilities, overall health and more. When one reaches the grandmaster level, one’s lifespan is said to be in the thousands. But according to the book there are only said to have been less than ten thousand people in the history of Roxia.

But that could be due to Roxia being a small empire, its history is vast, but it’s only a low-tier kingdom.

According to a history book I read in the past, there are Low-tier kingdoms, Medium-tier kingdoms, High-tier kingdoms, Peak-tier kingdoms, and finally empires. The book didn’t go into detail on how these tiers worked, but it’s not that important for now.

What is important is that I’m going to try to use earth magic. I concentrate on moving the mana within me towards the palm of my hand. After gathering a sufficient amount, I slowly change the nature of the mana into a hard but bendable substance, something akin to mud. All the mana slowly turns into this substance, and I try to make a circle shape out of it. As the circle forms, I move towards a small table and place my creation upon it.

As I touch the circle I created, it feels quite nice, its smooth and bendable, yet its sturdy and hard. Its quite the contradiction, yet it just works. I then attempt to use wind magic, this time, I move my mana to flow around the circle, I make the wind weak but strong enough to spin the mudball, and the result is great, the mudball starts to slowly spin.

I put my hands around the mudball and start to shape it, my goal is to make an urn. My intention is to gift it to my mother. But after another 6 minutes of working on it, the drain on my mana is apparent. I cancel my tornado and look at the half-done urn in front of me. This was a great experience. Its unfortunate that I didn’t get to finish the urn in time, but I learned a lot.

I sit down in a lotus position and start meditating. I place my focus towards my mana heart and after sensing my capacity I feel it. From this exercise, my mana capacity has increased by 1%. While it is only a small bit, if I keep this up I will be able to increase my mana at a steady pace.

After confirming this, I start to focus on the mana particles around me. It’s time to try one of my theories. I read through the red book multiple times, but there is nothing about collecting the ambient mana floating around everywhere. So, I am going to try it.

I want to see if I can increase my capacity by making the ambient mana mine by absorbing it. I slowly reach out towards the ambient mana particles around me using my own mana. I slowly pull them towards me to absorb, and as I do so, I can feel the particles enter my mana heart.

I suddenly feel weird, I focus on my mana heart and as I do, I’m shocked. The particle that I absorbed was collapsing upon itself and when it did, two new mana particles appear, but these ones have my mark. Did I just duplicate mana?

I start shaking in excitement. The fact that I could duplicate these mana particles and make them mine fills me with greed and as a result I spend well over an hour doing the same over and over.

…

As I look at the capacity of my mana, I feel a sense of satisfaction. From this session of absorbing mana, I have increased my mana capacity by 50% A whole 50%! In game terms, I have gone from 30 mana points to 45 mana points! I could now make 45 balls of water!

“Ynval! It’s time for dinner!” I suddenly hear my mother yell from the kitchen. I stand up and pat my legs. I quickly walk to the kitchen. “What are we eating today mother?” I ask in my childish voice. My mother smiles and tells me that we are eating rabbit stew today. My favorite!

As I sit down to eat, father comes through the front door, apparently, he had been called to the guild due to an emergency. Based of the exhausted look on him I decide not to ask questions. “Hi father!” I say while giving a bright smile. “Hello son” he responds with a tired voice. After taking off his shoes he sits down beside me and wait for dinner.

Mother quickly brings the food, and we all eat together. This has been our routine for as long as I can remember, and I can’t help but feel happy.