The crackling of thunder and pattering rain could be heard outside as a young boy with silver hair and gold eyes could be seen frantically sitting up in bed. His thin body looked like he was on his last years of life. He waked up sweating with a headache that felt like a hammer was taking out a vendetta against his head. After an unknown amount of time his vision started to go blurry. With what felt like death being a second away he finally heard a tear from his very self and was finally able to breathe while the head pounding died down. He slowly looked around when the pain was manageable.

The room only had a desk, chest for clothes, some books scattered around, a wooden shield, and sword on the wall. Taking time to sort through things going on in his head he tried to calm down and process what was going on. A sudden influx of memories took him by surprise but just a moment to sort though.

“Well young James it seems that things did not turn out the best for you….” The young boy sighed.

Lightning happened to wake up with the memories of a sickly young boy who just happened to pass away that night. There was not much to sort through considering the boy’s life was made up of his family and being stuck in a room sick until the very end.

Somehow, Lightning was given a second chance in life at the cost of the young boy. Granted the boy had no chance of surviving but still it did not sit well with him.

James was the young boy’s name. The boy was only ten years old almost turning eleven and was born to a lower-class family. James had both parents, a younger sister, and an older brother. The boy’s father known as Roy is an ex-warrior with a class known as shield warrior. Roy retired for reasons unknown to become one of the towns guards. Emily his mother mainly takes care of the family and does odd jobs to help support her family financially thanks to her tailoring class. The boy’s older brother’s name is Jon and is focused on training at school his fighter trainee class with hopes of providing a better life for his family. Lastly Susy the younger sister is also ten but with a difference of nine months from James and has a bright personality. She always is trying to help James whether it’s feeding him or supporting him in his worst moments.

The town James’s family lives in goes by the name Othar and is on the outskirts of the kingdom of Euronar. Othar is far away from other towns and does not get many travelers visiting. The town is poor overall, but every town has their higher economical classes known as nobility to enforce the laws. Usually, settlements of people range based off capacity, services provided, and location. From smallest to largest they are named a village, town, city, and then a single capitol. The nobility in the boy’s town of Othar couldn’t compare to those of cities or the capitol Raugon. Still though the towns lowly nobility known as the Loor family likes to remind everyone who was superior by flaunting their wealth and power. Since James was sickly and did not focus much on learning because of his health, not much else was known about his situation. Of course, the most interesting memories were stories of the past heroes his sister read to him. From not being able to recall any stories that included Lightning’s past ‘friends and acquaintances’ while looking through the boy’s memories the current year must be far in the future from his old life.

For reasons that Lightning couldn’t realize he felt as healthy as an ox. Taking time to stand up and walk around he realized how weak this body was. It may have been years since the last time since the boy had moved around. Finding himself having to catch his breath and aching he sat back on his bed.

“What do I do from here?” Lightning wondered.

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Realizing his situation, he decided to make sort of plan. Looking through the memories of James he could tell the corruption of the past may have gotten worst. Nobles can decide to make people that are just trying to survive into slaves by a spur of the moment decision. People can be murdered for just looking at someone of high class for no reason besides superiority complex. He remembered it was not this bad in the past, or was it? The only reason the young boy’s family has gotten by was by keeping a low profile and his father’s history as serving as a soldier in the past.

The oddest thing catches his eye in the corner of his vision as he noticed a small blue box that no matter where he looked was still there. As he focused on it the box increases in size to open a list that covers his site.

Class: N/A

Race: Human

Level: 1

Health: 5/5

Stamina: 0/5

EN: ????

Stats: Str-2 Vit-1 End-1 Int-6 Wis-5 Wil-6

“What the hell is this!” he whispered loudly to himself. Never had Lightning seen anything like this in the past so he decided to look through James’s memories as he managed to get a general overview of what was going on. The box has been there throughout the young boy’s whole life. Since James was weak, he never took time to look it over much or even focus on its uses. One time he asked his family which only got him sad, and depressing looks from them, so the boy never brought it up again. James never expected to grow up to achieve his first class in the first place so what was there to worry about the boy would think to himself.

Lightning took time to recall on his own memories of his own past life which involved the holy empire. He was lined up as a young adult with his fellow peers that had graduated alongside him. The leaders of the holy empire were testing them using greater identifier orbs to determine which of the graduate students had hero potential. As his peers got tested there were mostly sad looks covering their faces as they returned until eventually Lightning was called up for his turn. As he put his hand on the orb, he noticed similar numbers and words as the box which got the leaders to cheer and congratulate him. When leaving the test Lightning was encouraged and celebrated for having achieved something he did not understand. It wasn’t until a leader noticed this and explained his high potential as well as what each word or value meant.

From his memory he could determine that str stands for strength and physical potential. Vit represents vitality and determines his health points. End was endurance and can increase his stamina. Int and wis are intellect and wisdom respectfully. They determine energy or mana strength, regen, and total amount. Wil was willpower and was an important stat for any class looking to be upgraded. Health and stamina were easy to understand but En must mean energy. When he unlocks his first class that En symbol would change to become mana he figured. He remembered he only saw these stats through the orb when being picked as a potential hero candidate. While normally schools throughout the empire would use a lower tier class orb that only identified element and then use spell damage to represent the state of a mage.

Lightning took time to put his hands together and send a silent promise to James. He would take over for him and give his family a good life. He will work hard and won’t forget this opportunity provided to him. He would create a life James could be proud of.

“Thank you, James. May you rest in peace….”

Laying back down on the bed the Lightning started to plan for his future. By now the head pounding was gone and it was time to accept the truth. While this body or his body now was only ten years old, there was much to be done to get on track for his future goals. He noticed that when the memories finished being processed in his mind that his feelings for the boy’s family were strong. He could only attribute this happening to the fact that two of them had merged essentially creating a boy that is both Lightning and remnants of James. He calmed himself down as he realized there was nothing he could do for now.

Closing his eyes, Lightning or James now fell asleep as sounds of the pattering rain and crackling of lightning distracted him as he fell into darkness.