A joyous atmosphere revolved around the entirety of the house on the day of my first birthday, the sounds of laughter and plates colliding with utensils echoed. Overall it was a pleasant experience that lasted the entire afternoon, by the time I slumped onto my bead I was utterly exhausted. In the end, I got two gifts, one from my parents and the other from my father's friend, oddly named Kangen. When it was time to hand out the present's my parents dragged me to a corner of the room with stern expressions plastered across both their faces, for some reason I had this premonition that I was in trouble.
"Itsuki we know that you've been going to my study to snatch books about magic... First of all, we aren't mad" Declares my mother before releasing a heavy sigh and elaborating some more"Your first child and we may be inexperienced parents but we aren't ignorant enough to believe that a normal baby is capable of such things. It makes us equally concerned and proud that you can do stuff that normal babies can't, all we want from you is that you don't put yourself in danger."
"Since it's your birthday we won't be too unreasonable, just promise us that you will cease your uhh...masochistic training and anything you read concerning magic won't be tested until you can handle it. Your body needs to be able to manage intensive drills and the continuous use of your mana, these requirements will most likely be reached by the age of four. Hmm, I guess your mother and I could also train you in the way of combat once you turn four." Father remarks in his usual poker-faced way. Before I can even reply he confirms his previous decision. "Alright it's decided, on your fourth birthday we will begin educating you on fighting methods. Are you fine with that Itsuki?"
"...Uhh yeah. Sorry to have made you worry, I promise I won't do any of my... erm... training anymore until my body can handle it" I reply. Ever since I've been able to communicate with people I chose to speak worse than what I was actually capable of so that I wouldn't arouse suspicion. Since they already know that I'm not a normal baby there is no point in continuing to pretend, though it is rather disappointing that I'm not as sneaky as I thought I was. Both my parents seemed quite surprised when I spoke with a better capability than they were used to. "Mom, if it's alright with you can I go to your study to read from now on?".
"That's fine with me, just don't make a wreck of the place and also return all the books from your room" Mother responds in a gentle voice. Huh, that was easier than I thought it was gonna be. Afterward, the three of us returned back to the party and Kangen gave me his gift, in fact, it thoroughly impressed me that what I received was a tiny pair of adjustable glasses. Once I took it into my hands a system prompt appeared.
[grade: E]
[Effect: Increases reading speed and comprehension of material read by 10%]
"Your mother said you like books so I thought this could be useful to you" Kangen enunciated with an impassive countenance. Perfect, this is a perfect gift for me since all I'm basically allowed to do now is read, also it seems that I have an appraisal skill or something of that nature? "Thank you very much, I really appreciate it" I reply with a tone filled with audible gratitude. Kangen simply shrugs, looks at a metal artifact on his wrist, and states that it's getting late. Afterward, he states his goodbyes and leaves with a tiny grin on the side of his face.
Today I didn't get my morning and afternoon naps so I'm gonna make up for it by sleeping for fourteen hours straight, I state my goodnights and head to bead at the extra early hour of five pm. Another moon rises, then it arcs back down until it is out of sight. The sun shines less today as winter is fast approaching, once I wake up I disregard my usual routine and instead opt to get some breakfast, and immediately after I find myself in my mother's study.
Unlike the previous times, I visited this space I now have permission to be here, the remainder of my day is spent in this room except for when I eat, nap, take a shower, or sleep. A month passes, then another and another until eventually an entire two and a half years have gone by. During this time I spent every single moment in my mother's study reading books or asking a torrent of questions about magic at mother.
Oh yeah, It seems my mother is a high tier mage based on her abundant knowledge on magic related topics. Father is also a very skilled archer, I've seen him practice sometimes from the window in the kitchen. This is good for me as it seems I will be learning from the best of the best. I also cultivated myself in the subjects of many things concerning this world such as culture, geography, common knowledge, and traditions, another skill I gained is the ability to write in common. My status page has had an amazing development as well recently. 'Status'
{player number 7089}
[Status ||
Name: Itsuki Abara
State: Child
HP: 72 (2/3)
Strength: 25 (2/3)
Agility: 27 (2/3)
Stamina: 26 (2/3)
Vitality: 24 (2/3)
Intelligence: 31 (2/3)
Wisdom: 25 (2/3)
Skills: Language(1/57)
- Common: lv 10 (Max)
- Pain Resistance: lv 4
- Writing: lv 4
- Appraisal: lv 7|| ]
As soon as I turned three I gained the [child] state which resulted in all my stats increasing by five points, ever since then my [Abnormal...] status disappeared and I was finally able to increase my attributes as well. The [Writing] skill was gained when I began writing at the age of two, its function is pretty self-explanatory. The [common] skill also maxed out not that long ago because of me constantly communicating with my parents and Kangen visiting occasionally.
Unfortunately, [Pain Resistance] didn't level up much since I had to stop my special... training. [Appraisal] is something I discovered a while ago, I obtained the skill when I first received the glasses for my first birthday. Ever since then I've been constantly using this skill on everything that my eyes happen to stumble upon, I even tried it on my mother but it didn't work because the ability wasn't high level enough. But it did sort of work on father, there was minimal information because of its weak level as well.
[Status ||
Name: Konza Abara
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
State: Adult
HP: 1350
MP: 234
Strength: 421
Agility: 532
Stamina: ??
Vitality: 450
Intelligence: 78
Wisdom: ??
Skills: ??|| ]
From this I was able to conclude that dad was most likely a warrior build, I also learned that the [Intelligence] stat directly correlated to the [MP] stat by a factor of three. Sort of like [vitality] and [HP] connection with each other. This helped me learn many things, but the only thing I was unsure of was that my father had [MP] and I didn't, why is that? Maybe when he told me to wait until my body was able to handle it he meant that it world develop [MP] by the age of four? So many things I don't know, but for now there's nothing I can do about it. I guess I'll just wait until my fourth birthday to find out.
____________________________________________________
I hate it, I hate it so much. Winter is here and my training has begun, large drops of sweat slowly forge trails down my frowning face. Although my memories have been tampered with, I can remember everything about myself all too well. That's why I'm very certain that the previous me would have given up long ago. These minor insecurities I felt about my unusually small stature, the way I used to pretend to be working in class, and every other detail concerning myself are still relatively clear in my mind.
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-five days, five birthdays, and one year of training have passed since I've been reborn into the world of Ainsel. About a year ago, on my fourth birthday, I went outside the confines of the house for the first time, It was a brief journey. I simply visited the area around our home and observed the surroundings before I was quickly ushered back in. It seems my parents are apprehensive of the outdoors, ever since my birth, the number of times I've seen them go outside can be counted on one hand. It's quite odd seeing as we have plenty of food.
Father began training me in the way of the bow, every fantasy novel depicts it as a weak weapon but I've seen firsthand what it can do. Once father shot an arrow and it tore a huge hole through a tree and still had the momentum to continue on its path of destruction, following that incident I became a devout practitioner of the bow and arrow. Not wishing to lose face in front of my father, mom has been tutoring me for countless hours a day on the principles of magic and its many, many uses, she also began a training regimen for my magical practices. Whenever I wasn't busy shooting arrows in the basement or doing basic exercises my time was spent in class with my mother, and when I wasn't doing any of those things I was reading a magical theory, or arrow techniques book.
During my past life, I was a lazy, good for nothing, and an undisciplined fellow. I used to see others succeed but I thought that if I just waited and eventually snatched a good opportunity I would end up just like them. What good did that do, I lived like this with no clue about my future until I eventually died due to crashing my own drown onto myself. Delusional is what I was, opportunity doesn't come towards you, you come towards it! That's why this time I will snatch opportunity and success by my own damn hands, and the first step is to have enough individual strength.
I've thought about the reason for my reincarnation numerous times but I simply couldn't figure it out, the only clue I have so far is the word 'Prestige' that was inside the message before I reincarnated. If I'm not wrong this should refer to any accomplishments or fame I gain, right? Since it's all I can think about I guess I'll go for that, but what type of accomplishments and what should I be famous for? Ugh, there is no point in thinking about useless things.
Currently, it's wintertime and I'm outside training. Today my regime consists of a few dozen pushups, situps, squats, lunges, supermans, and arm circles. Father also added the requirement of hundred burpees spread throughout my day. These exercises target all the main muscle groups, thus allowing me to have a balanced body, and to effectively maintain it I train with this exact routine five days a week. Don't worry, there isn't any child abuse or anything going on, I only do these for sixty to ninety minutes a day and my dark elf and dwarf bloodlines cause my body to be many times more powerful than an ordinary five-year-olds'.
Afterward, I do around three hours of archery training with a break in between, on my fourth birthday one of my presents was a composite bow fit to size specifically made for me by Kangen, it was also accompanied by twenty-five custom made arrows as well. I asked him once and he said that he was in fact a blacksmith. Such a cliche, I mean common, the first dwarf I meet is a blacksmith, haha truly funny. I've used that bow every day ever since then, for archery practice I shoot around a hundred arrows per hour. Right now my accuracy is about a six out of ten or sixty percent for none moving targets, pretty good but it could definitely be better. Recently I've been practicing on moving targets, the only thing with that is the fact that I need my mother to be around to use her mana to move the target around since no one else in our family has enough control to accomplish that, yet.
Once my archery practice was finished I walked back upstairs drenched in sweat and quickly took a shower before heading towards my mother's study. "*knock* *knock* may I come in?" my childish voice resounds from the exterior of the miny library, not long after I hear a curtly reply and after the quick confirmation I enter.
"Have you finished the books?" Questions my mother with an inquisitive expression. I take a few steps forward before arriving in front of my mother's desk, where she is sitting with a stack of books and papers sprawled around. My hands reach towards the chair and as I plop down my mouth simultaneously replies's "Yah I finished the two books about magic infusion and am currently halfway done the one about the nature of mana". Her eyebrows rise for a second before the shock is replaced by a proud little grin on the side of her face, ah this feeling of making your parents proud is bliss.
"What are your thoughts about these books I recommended you?" My mother asks once again. " I enjoyed them quite a bit and I think that the process of mana infusion in objects seems a little complex but still doable, I guess. Although, the one about the nature of mana was really interesting". Every day I come to this study and we discuss books, magic theories, questions about magic and I also receive bonus lessons about magic from my mother. This is my favorite part of the day since magic didn't exist back on earth I find it really interesting and cool, after a not so short conversation I leave the room with a new book in my hands and some additional knowledge on the topic of magic.
This one year of training has also included magic, for this subject I'm currently only allowed to do the basics because my body is still now fully ready. I don't mind much, it's still cool being able to mold your mana and infuse it into your fingers to crush the poles on your crib, well the last one I'm not allowed to do anymore but it was fun while it lasted. Arriving in front of my bedroom door I turn the knob and quickly enter, afterwards I plop onto my bed that I acquired around two years ago while opening my status page. 'Status'
{player number 7089}
[Status ||
Name: Itsuki Abara
State: Child
HP: 135 (2/3)
Strength: 48 (2/3)
Agility: 54 (2/3)
Stamina: 51 (2/3)
Vitality: 45 (2/3)
Intelligence: 59 (2/3)
Wisdom: 43 (2/3)
Skills: Language(1/57)
- Common: lv 10 (Max)
- Pain Resistance: lv 6
- Writing: lv 9
- Appraisal: lv 10 (Max)--> Evolved into [Novice Appraisal: lv 3}
- Archery: lv 10 (Max)--> Evolved into [Novice Archery: lv 10} --> Evolved into [Intermediate Archery: lv 4]
- Magic Infusion: lv 4
- Dash: lv 6 || ]
[Intermediate Archery: allows player to shoot an arrow with decent accuracy and effectively have enough force to greatly damage or maybe even kill an enemy.]
[Magic Infusion: allows player to infuse mana into simple objects with an Uncommon rating or less.]
[Dash: allows player to run at a faster speed, the duration depends on player stamina amount.]
I've improved a lot recently. Due to my higher leveled [Appraisal] skill, I can see more details about myself. The [Intermediate Archery], and [Magic Infusion] skills' origins are quite obvious. The only skill that really surprised me was [Dash], up until now I never really knew where it came from but after running around the perimeter of the house really fast while trying to figure out my top speed it leveled up, from there on it wasn't hard to connect the dots. I believe it might be quite useful in the future if I ever need to escape real quick, the fact that my skills could evolve was also surprising but I guess it was to be expected. I close the tab and head to bead, tomorrow I'll finally learn my elemental affinity and my mana nature as well, hehe.