It’s been 2 years since I was reborn. During that time, I had gathered information relevant to the world I was in and its various technological and magical phenomenon…
Is what I would have wanted to say. Unfortunately, I had idiotically denied the tutorial in a fit of anger during my birth and spent the first 6 months moping and feeding.
Feeding was also a terrible occurrence. It feels weird to suck milk from my mom’s breast when I fully know that, even if my age was still a bit hazy, I’m older than I let on.
I could get over that, however. What I couldn’t get over, was getting born.
I died. I did some stupid thing in my past life—jumped in front of a truck? Fell of a bridge? I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out. I felt something off about it. Why would I lose most of my memory? No, that’s not right.
I lost my identity. I lost my name, family, anything pertaining to my identity, just gone and wiped away. I’m a little bit peeved that whoever was in charge of my memories didn’t fully clear out my brain, because with my memory came with my consciousness, and that’s not something anyone would want while they’re getting born.
Childbirth was a miracle, in the sense that the child lived while their entire world worked against them to push them away. Not something I’d want to experience again.
Anyway, while the first 6 months was basically me being a little baby (literally and figuratively), the following months until the present was me trying to learn basic information about the planet itself. Most of the information I’ve gleaned were conclusions I derived from hearing my parents speak and the expressions they use. I didn’t hear a planet name, but I did hear them use the word kingdom (usually with Viyan accompanying it, which probably means that there’s a Viyan Kingdom in this planet—that, or we’re living in it), telling me that the culture was probably still in the medieval stages.
I didn’t like the sound of it—after all, the Medieval ages had allowed slaves to be traded. When I look around my house, I don’t see a lot of important valuables, and there were no guards to be found, which means we aren’t nobles. It increases the chances of being caught and being trades as slaves.
Dark thought, but it’s not paranoia if they’re really out to get you.
There’s also the case of the technology.
Simply speaking, it was similar to the technology in my old world—Earth.
I was a bit thankful for that, really, until I found out that they didn’t use electricity, but used magic.
I was a little bit confused about that, so I asked my new father about it. He just grinned, ruffled my hair and told me;
“I’ll tell ya when you’re older, kiddo!”
I had pouted then, and my mother laughed at my expression and proceeded to smother me and shower me with her unconditional love.
That’s one more thing I’ve been thinking about in this world.
My family. Lovely and airheaded, but were certainly smarter than they let on. I couldn’t really describe what I felt for them other than the fact that I loved them.
Yes, I love my family. It’s not really surprising considering how they treated me. They were wonderful people, and considering my parents’ powers and their occupation, strong too.
They were both Adventurers, and both had Telekinesis as one of their main Skills, which I learned was not only restricted to me, and that everyone had them, which made me a little relieved, since I wouldn’t have to worry about exponential growth and everyone looking at me like I’m the next coming of their religion.
What worried me, however, is what they fought—Monsters.
I had almost laughed then—wait, I didn’t just almost laugh, I did. Thankfully, I’m still a baby and dad just took it as amusement from me as he continued to tell me his adventures to decimate a dragon (I doubted the details—Grandpa has taken to trying to dumb down the things he did. He didn’t seem to refute his claim of killing the dragon, though).
Now, don’t get me wrong—this world seemed to be fine aside from the slavery. I liked my family (Even Leroy, who was a big softy if you get past his grumpiness), liked my home, and I didn’t have much of a problem with the technology.
But, considering the fact that dragons were real, and so were most monsters that I’ve figured to be false?
I need a goal—to get stronger, smarter with my skill, and be just overall better than anyone in my previous world.
But I don’t know what goal I should have. Ever since I was reborn, I wasn’t very ambitious—I was pretty much content with what I had (other than the first few months). I knew I could probably get stronger because there’s a [System] of some sort, but I didn’t really see a point.
Sleeping in front of me was a newborn girl—she was held in my mom’s arms as she cooed and ran her hand across the girl’s head. The girl—my little sister—was not at all disturbed at my prodding with my telekinesis and my mother’s touching of her.
My mom, however, took notice of it and smiled at me. “Well, Kane, do you want to join me and Jane?”
Kane and Jane, I tested it out inside my head. I tested out the words with my tongue, making my mother smile and laugh as she dragged me in the hug. Sometime after that, dad had come in the room and dragged us all to him with his own Telekinesis and enveloped us all in a bigger group hug.
All was well.
Considering the type of stories that usually had these kinds of scenes and backstories, though, I shivered. It might not be long until I’d have to use the knowledge I have to full extent.
…
Nah, that’s reserved for anime protagonist, of which I most certainly am not! I’d know if I was an shonen character, I’d have a crazy hairstyle or gravity-defying hair.
---
Gunfire.
I smelt smoke, and I heard the rumbling of tank treads in the distance. I winced as I heard a particularly loud cannon shot go off, contributing to the smoke the gunfire was producing. I heard a dull explosion in the distance as the ground shook and military personnel barked out orders to their subordinates.
Smoke was prevalent, even with me buried under a pile of rubble. I raised my arm to the sky, my vision blurry as I tried to sit up, only to fail as the debris pushed me down. I chuckled.
‘Guess this is how I die,’ I had thought.
For some reason, I thought it was right for me to die here. I smiled as I watched bullets fly and hear sparks crackle. The ground shook with every tank round sent to the enemy, and the army’s footsteps grow louder as they come near me.
“There’s another one over here!” yelled a random troop.
“Dig him out!”
And they did so with energy. I can hear the loud gunfire much clearly now—they were right beside me, shooting into the unknown enemies. I can hear the soldiers’ breaths as they dug me out, I can hear the screams of the other soldiers as they got shot down trying to bring me out of the debris.
… Why?
Suddenly, everything became clearer. The pain on my chest disappeared as I ‘separated’ from my body. It was a bit odd phasing through all the pieces of concrete, and even more odd to see that my body was simply… a humanoid mass of shadow.
Memories came flooding into me. I was Kane Worth. Six years of age with an unknown amount of years in my previous life. Human psychic, has father named Keith and a mother named Selene, and an adorable little sister named Jane.
This was important.
I needed to remember who I am.
I can’t afford to lose any more memories… and the moment I thought that I could finally glean who I was from this vision, for I couldn’t describe this phenomenon as anything but, I still couldn’t remember.
The soldiers, while they weren’t shadows, they were… stock. Like they were stock models from the back of my head. All of them looked the same with their black vests and utilities, guns strapped to their backs and pistols to their sides—they looked like they came out of some sort of game. It was creepy watching several men that looked exactly the same shoot at enemies that looked exactly the same, too.
Why?
I watched as the soldiers finally dug me out, and despite being a fair distance away from them, I could hear the ‘captain’ speak.
“So this is one of them,” he muttered. Them? What did he mean by that? “Pathetic. I can’t argue with the top brass’s evaluation of your Core, though.”
Already, I was finding that I hate him. I hate him, his condescending tone, and his attitude, even though he was the same as the other soldiers, I hated his face too.
But why?
Why did I feel so much… hate?
“This was a waste of men and resources,” The captain spoke under his breath, ticking me off again. “Alright boys, extraction team is coming for us and the VIP in a minute, so none of you better die or I’m going to bring you back to life and kill you myself!” The soldiers under his command roared as they fought back with more vigor, hiding behind tanks and shooting at still unknown enemies.
VIP? Was I important?
And why am I flashing back to a memory like this?
And what was a Core?
Already, the edges of my vision was blurring—but I struggled to stay in it. I needed more answers. Why was I getting dug out by soldiers? Why was I important? Who am I and who was that?
But the questions remained unanswered as darkness flooded my sight.
---
I opened my eyes.
It was dark all around me, but I felt the familiar comfort of my bed under me. I gripped the sheets and sighed as I sat up. Looking outside the open window, I saw the moon just about to start its fall. Apparently, I woke up in the middle of the night due to nightmares.
My breathing was ragged and my emotions scattered. On the one hand, I got back some sort of memory from my old life. On the other, it wasn’t what I expected it to be. Just remembering the events sent shivers down my spine, as if the thing that had happened after that wasn’t particularly well.
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I need to calm down and sleep, I thought drowsily. Calm down… calm down… That was the old me… The new me is Kane Worth.
As if to affirm the thought, I quietly muttered “Status,” under my breath. A transparent window with white text appeared in front of me, showing me my attributes and condition.
Name Kane Worth Title --- STR 18 (-7) Race Human Condition Child END 15 (-7) Age 6 years, 4 months Jobs LV. 2 Psion DEX 16 (-7) HP 120/120 --- INT 51 Mana 510/510 --- WIS 44
Right… the child debuff. It was lessening one point every 2 years. It was an annoying debuff, considering that I wanted to get stronger. Stats seem to increase when a person practices one stat for a time, the more strenuous the better. Job level ups, however, give free attribute points to seemingly random stats. My Psion job leveled up from me using my Telekinesis as a secondary eye.
There seemed to be tiers for skills as well, but I haven’t gone past the [Simple] tier of Telekinesis yet, so I don’t know if there are any bonuses for them.
Oh well, at least with the Child condition, my physical stats advance at double speed! The added fact that my INT and WIS grow with age also helps. I may not know what exactly the attributes do, though I can certainly make guesses, but it’s always a good idea to have a high value on anything resembling a stat.
Overall, it doesn’t seem awfully different from my knowledge of Earth. There was just an extra sun at the sky that appeared during the morning, the moon had an obvious crater sometimes and the stars were brighter.
An area behind my eyes pulsed, and I shut them as I tried to contain the pain. Not only my eyes were hurting, but there was something inside my head too. I grabbed my temple as I massaged it, trying to stem the pain.
It didn’t work.
Something was surfacing. A memory? I don’t know, but it probably could be. It didn’t seem to be a good one from the feelings I was getting from it, though…
So, deciding that I already had enough angst for a night, I subdued the memories…
And it hurt.
I let out a scream of surprise and pain. My head felt like it was gonna split apart as I tried to forget the memories. The resurfaced memories from my nightmare came up, and a new one popped up next to it—a scene of me sitting with a shadow person— and I was filled with an immense amount of anger.
Mind Resistance is now LV. 1!
I felt the pressure inside my head lighten, but it still hurt. Moreover, Mind Resist? What did that mean?
Suddenly, the door behind me slammed open. My mother, I saw with my telekinetic vision, was sprinting towards me when she broke the door with a tackle. I heard someone curse in the tree line in front of me, and I felt the distinct feeling of a telekinetic grip around my body as I was carried away.
“Kane!” My mother tried to grab me back with her own Telekinesis, but it failed. It didn’t seem as if I was getting dragged by one person too… there were three distinct telekinetic signatures, not including my mom. I grimaced.
Ah… a kidnapping.
---
“Shit… faster!” One of the enemy psions cursed as he pushed trees aside with his own telekinesis.
“I’m trying!” Another one was lobbing huge amounts of earth behind them, cursing whenever another one was lobbed back and another simply shattering as a huge amount of psionic force crushed it from all sides. “We shouldn’t have taken this job!”
The last psion was holding a black haired and green eyed child wearing a white shirt and brown shorts. He was dazed from the mental attack caused by the one holding him.
The one holding him was smaller than the two with him, but he had a defining feature of having green hair and red eyes. The other two psions both had brown hair and black eyes, a typical feature of any normal Viyan human.
They weren’t any normal Viyan human, though. They were one of the few to have the Psion job, and they weren’t pushovers either. They couldn’t be with who they had to hide and run away from, after all.
Selene Worth, the Queen. She will make you kneel with the amount of psionic force she was constantly releasing. Everything around her will flatten, and if you get inside her aura, you were pretty much dead. That wasn’t to say that she was shabby at anything other than crushing her enemies, she also had an unprecedented amount of control, making her S Rank adventurer status understandably undisputed.
Then there was her husband. Officially Keith Worth, but previously only known as Keith. Keith the Destroyer—the one way to describe him was pure power. Psionic beams known to raze forests and magically fortified castles in one go, grips that would make any normal human pop from the sheer pressure alone and a powerful metal fortitude, making any kind of illusion magic or mental attack useless on him. He, like his wife, was also an S Rank adventurer.
In short, they had no reason to steal their child away from them and every reason to run away before they had even arrived at their residence. They can’t even use the reason that they just passed by, since the place was at least ten kilometers away from the nearest village!
Unfortunately, this information wasn’t revealed to the three kidnappers when they accepted the job. They were just told to kidnap a child to initiate a hostage situation, but when the one holding the child initiated [Mind Blast] on him, they didn’t expect him to keep on standing. They didn’t expect him to scream in pain either.
They also didn’t expect the parents to be Selene and Keith Worth.
“Go, go! The clearing’s a few dozen more meters!” The psion holding the child yelled. “We should be able to call—“
ZOOM.
A thick blue beam raced above their heads, making them all slow down. They gaped as the beam struck the so called clearing in front of them and exploded.
Stone flew everywhere as a new crater was formed on the ground. The once large clearing was now one huge hole on the ground, and a vengeful father floated down from the sky and stopped just a few meters off the ground. The mother appeared behind them, and an old man—Shit, that’s the Hurricane!—and a teenager appeared to seal off all exits.
“Were we sent here to die?” The mental attacker muttered. He glanced all around him and then at the crater. Then he looked at the child.
Except the child wasn’t quite dazed anymore and was looking around him with wonder. Ah, maybe he should—
“Don’t even think about it,” the mother scowled. The three kidnappers paled as they were stunned by the bloodlust Selene was emitting. Keith’s face was thunderous, and the two other males were of equal anger. All of the people surrounding them weren’t pushovers, and while the kidnappers themselves weren’t either, it doesn’t look like the matchup was a good one.
They were at a stalemate—one with the kid, and the other without. The one without couldn’t force them to the ground with the kid so perfectly held by the one in the middle and the one with the child couldn’t even hurt their foes. Moreover, they couldn’t access a communication crystal since their supplies were buried under the clearing, which was nothing more than a smoking crater now.
In other words—they were fucked.
The stalemate finally broke when one of the kidnappers stammered. “I—I can’t, Dirk, let’s go!”
“Wait, you cowards—“ the two cowards suddenly pulled out two scrolls and, with a light application of mana, started to glow as the embedded [Spatial Magic] did its work.
“Guh…” The remaining kidnapper was now the full focus of the four psions. They could now do whatever they want with him—but the man didn’t intend to find out what exactly it was. He was sure they would want at least one thing, though.
Information.
A knife sheathed beside him suddenly came out and flew to the child’s neck, prompting the child to widen his eyes in shock as the knife pressed against his throat. It was pressed in a way that, even if someone were to grab the knife, he could push the kid into it and still slit his throat somewhat.
“N-now,” the kidnapper stammered as killing intent filled the air and attempted to choke him. “Y-you better listen to my demands, or the kid dies!”
That was stupid. He couldn’t make demands. He was, after all, only a LV. 37 Psion and LV. 96 Rogue, while the ones around him were in the high 90s in Psion and some various other classes. He would still die.
And that was exactly the point of this farce.
---
When I had been taken by the kidnappers, I was mostly dazed and confused as I tried to sort out what memories had been brought up by the mental attack. I had ‘fixed’ the problem, gaining me another level in Mental Resistance and stopping the regained memories in my head from, for the lack of a better term, jumping around.
My head had finally stopped pounding and I had finally regained my consciousness. I had ‘woken up’ to the sound of a loud explosion and a heavy amount of fear than turned into reassurance. I saw mom, dad, grandpa and Leroy surround the trio. I held my breath as they glared at each other and assessed the situation (or so I figured).
But then, the kidnapper had to pull a knife on me.
You know, when there’s a knife to my neck, I can’t really help but examine the blade. Pure white. Really sharp. It was burying itself into my neck really slowly.
It hurt.
I almost cried out, then I realized that it would probably worsen the situation. My parents were horrified, grandparent equally so, and Leroy looking like he was having trouble with his stomach.
Why am I joking at a time like this? Ah, that’s right, because I know my parents will save me.
My father was just about to jump forward when grandpa held out his arm in a scowl. “Keith! We can’t afford to act hastily!”
“He’s holding Kane hostage!” He roared. The arm holding me shook. Why did you stop him, grandpa?
“Look at his weapon! What do you think his Job is?!”
… Ah, wait, we can have more than one job? I thought this guy was a Psion?
Dad frowned as he glared at my captor. The man simply gulped as he pressed it harder on my neck.
I finally felt the fatality of the situation and promptly panicked.
FUCK HE HAS A KNIFE TO MY NECK! was the general direction of my thoughts.
My mind flew at incredible speeds as I tried to process several ways of escape. I could wriggle out, but the knife would go in my throat. I could kick his nuts, but I doubt I would hurt him. Considering the speed he went while running, I doubt he was some sort of weakling.
My mind came up with more solutions to my problem, but in the end, it came up blank.
What could I do against a superior opponent?
The answer came immediately.
Trickery.
And so, I gathered up my mana.
---
“A-alright,” the kidnapper started, steeling his nerves. “My demands—I want to come out here alive, alright? I also want 100,000 GP!”
Keith’s breath hitched. 100,000 GP was enough for a commoner to buy a mansion, build a village around it, hire servants and maids, and fully staff it with guards while paying their full salary for at least two years.
It was a lot.
It shouldn’t have been a hard choice for Keith. He was, after all, a family man. He would have caved in to his demands had the old man not been here, as Hosef would berate him about not using his massive amounts of INT and WIS to analyze the situation before him.
Selene had gone silent as she stared at their son’s captor with shock, Hosef was clenching his fist tightly and was probably waiting for the right time to strike, and Leroy had gone back to the house to make sure that no kidnappers would be going for Jane as well.
It was a situation that was all too good for the three, and while he understood that the kidnapper was a Rogue, he was feeling guilty and frustrated that he couldn’t save his son.
He could simply crush the man and get on with it, but Hosef would object to it. They needed information. Who was this man and why did he try to kidnap Kane? Was there any motive other than money? They mentioned being given a job, so who gave them the job?
They certainly weren’t anyone the family recognized, so the kidnappers themselves weren’t the ringleaders of this operation.
So Keith was torn between his family side and his intelligent side. He was told that love was illogical, but it felt plenty logical before this situation happened!
But then, something happened.
There was a pulse of mana, and the kidnapper suddenly slipped.
That pulse of mana…
It was from his son!
He would be overjoyed if the kidnapper’s knife had moved away from the knife, but considering the situation, all he could do was roar out in despair as the knife dug deeper.
“NO!” Selene screamed, then there was another pulse of Telekinesis, pushing the kidnapper off the child, originating from Kane as well. The kidnapper crashed against a tree, making it make creaking sounds as it tumbled down. The kidnapper started to crawl backwards as Keith flew forwards in anger, but found that he couldn’t anymore.
He was held in place.
Selene held her hands over Kane’s throat and chanted “[Heal]!”, making soft green light appear from her palms and touch her child’s throat and knitting the wounds back together. It hurt, if Kane’s expression was any indicator, his mouth and eyes wide open as he tried to scream.
Keith really wanted to kill this man right now.
“Please, hang in there, Kane,” Selene murmured as her hands glowed green. Hosef stood beside his daughter, as still as a statue. His expression was stony, but there was no mistaking the fury held in his eyes as he watched the kidnapper.
“I’m going to hurt you,” Keith warned the man softly. “I’m going to hurt you. A lot.”
The man whimpered.
Selene finally pulled her hands away from Kane’s throat. There was now a horizontal scar present on his throat, Selene choked back a sob as she hugged her son, overcome with relief.
Kane opened his mouth to comfort his mother.
No words came out.
---
It’s been a day since Kane was found to be mute. His little sister, Jane, had been confused for a bit, before she sobbed as she hugged her brother and tried to comfort him. Smart girl, she knew what happened after we told her that Kane was probably going to be silent for a long time.
Permanent injuries to the throat were some of the wounds that could never be healed unless healed by a [Hero], and those are rare and in between. Keith doubted that a [Hero] would heal a random child, anyway.
He was losing hope. That’s no good.
He was scowling in front of an exhausted and wounded kidnapper, who revealed his name to be Batholomew. He walked out of the temporary prison that Hosef made and left the old man there to do his job. A stormy expression constantly covered Keith’s face as he waited for Hosef to drain information from the man.
I could have protected him, Keith thought sorrowfully. I was incompetent and complacent. Damn it, if I’d been a little faster..!
Keith heard the soft padding of child feet on the wooden floor. He looked up and saw Kane walking up to him, the scar on his throat a constant reminder of what Keith had failed to do.
Oddly enough, he didn’t seem scared. No—that was wrong. He was scared, but instead of being weak like Keith, he was putting on a brave face.
He was holding a piece of paper and looking at Keith resolutely. The father wiped away any kind of weakness from his face and settled to smile at his child. “Hey kiddo, what’s up?”
Kane replied with a nod. Keith’s heart ached as he realized he wouldn’t be able to talk any time soon…
Before Keith could devolve into a series of self-deprecating thoughts, however, he was presented with the piece of paper.
Keith almost laughed as he felt his spirits lighten.
Please make me stronger, Dad!