I will not make you read through the dull years. I'll just sum it up as being made up of way too many stupid boxes, yes I'm talking about you Mr. Evil box maker. Seems I get rewarded...or not...for things like learning to walk, learning to talk really well, learning to use the ba...well we do not need to talk about potty-related events. I think I completed around 37 quests during those early years and my grand total of rewards was zero. The first few years seemed to pass by quickly and my knowledge of my new life increased.

For example, I learned that the home I live in is located in the town of Drake's Crossing, which isn't named after a drake liking to cross through the area but after a famous prince who always went through the area while traveling to his winter home. Really, they named the town after the fact that some guy passed by a lot! I also learned that my country is a kingdom named Alorian. My mother tells me that the name means 'Higher Light' in the old tongue. By the way, I once asked my mother why it was called the old tongue when I was told that over half the kingdom could speak it and all official business was conducted in the old tongue. Her answer while laughing was to tell me that language was called that because it was old. What does that mean...simply that all people around here are bad at naming things. Take my name, for example, my mother tells me it means 'Fast Walker'. Who names their newborn fast walker? I'm sorry but please do not expect me to power walk everywhere.

I should probably tell you something about my new mother. I'm told she's the local Vatarian, which is just an old-fashioned way of saying she's the Queen's hand and voice in this area. I'm not sure if I mentioned it but our kingdom is a Matriarchy. There is a king but he's more of a military leader whereas the queen runs the government. I don't care about it, while my mother being who she is means I'll probably be expected to have something to do with the Royal Family in the future but for now, I really do not care about that. My mother's duties do not take much time. Normally she only gets called on when a dispute is either far-reaching or the parties involved cannot seem to solve it on their own. People say my mother is fair, but I'd not know because even at 6 years old I'm not allowed to watch or take part.

So how does one become the Queen's hand? Easy, you spend a lot of time with the Queen working kitchen duty while at boarding school. It seems my mother and the queen went to school together and tended to get into trouble together. From that sprang a friendship that lasted for years and continues today. From what I understand there are two other hands in the kingdom. What I find strange is that even though my mother is a childhood friend of the queen and her hand in this part of the Kingdom we are not considered high nobles. You'd think my mother could be a true power in the kingdom but from how it was explained to me, she is only a baronetess. She is outranked by several Dukes; a good handful of earls and I cannot even count the number of viscounts and barons. So, I guess that makes me lower nobility, the future Baronet of Drake's Crossing. I'm sure you can feel my excitement regarding that piece of knowledge.

Look it's not like I have an issue being nobility, it's that I do not want to be in charge of anything or anyone. I've found myself to be a little lazy, I mean come on remember I'm on my second life here, I think I've earned a break. By the way, being 6 means group schooling has started. I've had private instruction for 3 years now but it's time to move from private instruction to a group setting. How is that a better system? I think I'm smart for my age. Math comes easy, probably because I've already learned more math than this kingdom teaches. Strangely enough, I seem to love history and the subject comes easy as well. I know what you are asking, what about weapons or magic...is this one of those stories? Yes, it is, I mean come on we have crazy rude magic boxes that appear with quests, you better believe there's magic. The issue here is a matter of time. It seems the body takes a few more years to complete the development of the power pathways through the human body. What that means is most people normally develop magic between 10 and 12 years of age.

I asked my mother once about weapons training and she asked me why? 'Who are you going to fight?' was her reply. 'Look around you, I employ the greatest weapons masters in this part of the kingdom, let them worry about that'. Her response seemed a little short-sighted to me, but it's hard to argue with your mother when you are 6. Now that is not to say I didn't pull the same trick every young boy through history has done. I beat up many of the imaginary warriors with my powerful and magical stick. It was a very special stick, a little over 3 feet long, almost straight, and only had 2 or 3 knots in it. It was a true weapon of war until I broke it one day by not paying attention and striking it against the armored leg of a mildly upset guard named Pope.

You're probably asking yourself, why was Pope mildly upset? How hard could a 6-year-old hit a man wearing armor? The answer rests not in how hard the hit was but in the fact that my stick was slightly mud-covered at the time and Guard Pope was headed to inspection and had a very noticeable mud streak running down his leg. It seems the captain of the guard had a thing about clean uniforms and dirt set him off like there was no tomorrow. Poor Guard Pope looked first at his leg, then over to the inspection line, not 10 feet in from of him then back at his leg. I'm not sure to this day I've ever seen such a look of horror as the one he expressed that day. I don't remember much more than that because I more than earned my name that day. Forget fast walker, I became a fast runner that morning. I also learned that my mother knows everything that happens around the town. I know that because it only took her about 30 minutes before she tracked me down and taught me what true punishment is. No, it wasn't a beating, that would have been fine with me. It wasn't a grounding, that really would have been fine with me. No, I learned how to clean armor...lots of armor, and I learned how to do it while a guard captain reminds you in a very loud voice the many ways you have failed, your mother, your kingdom, and worse your fellow man.

One good thing that came from that was my friendship with Pope. It seems that tradition states that anyone who survives a session with the captain of the guard earns respect from the rank and file. Also, the fact that I received the punishment in place of Pope sealed the deal. So, I had a friend, my first one who was willing to show me how to swing my new very powerful and very magical stick was an added plus.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

So for the next few years, I was able to spend an hour or so every few weeks receiving some one-on-one training from the guard. This was mostly from Pope, but the other guards would make a comment or two, and over time I learned how to at least hold a sword correctly. I was in no danger of becoming a master swordsman, probably not even an expert but I was probably skilled enough to win against most farmers and probably the local baker. I think my mother was a little concerned during this time that I wasn't making friends my age, but she never really interfered. What she didn't understand was that I found it hard to relate to other kids. My head was full of memories of being older than my current age. Not the full details but just the knowledge that I was older than I seemed to have put me off.

Things continued to progress until I turned 10. My mother decided it was time to have the talk. Yes, the dreaded talk, the one all kids hate to get. The talk about which magic class you will probably be proficient in. My mother was a rare dual-proficiency mage. In her case, it was Water and Sound. I guess I should explain magic a bit. Almost everyone had some level of proficiency in magic. Most had low or mid-level proficiency in a single class. A small percentage of people were gifted with dual proficiencies and even more rare were the 1 in 20 million with 3 proficiencies. In all of history, there has only been 1 person recorded with 4 and that was around 2300 years ago. Magic itself is grouped into classes. Earth, fire, water, air, light, dark, sound, time, space and divine. Thought divine was special and only the gods could access that class. Most people were put into the basic elemental classes, earth, fire, water, and air. Rarer were the other classes. My mother being a sound mage already classed her as a rare citizen of the kingdom, which was why she went to the same school as the princess, but when she tested as a dual it classed her as a national treasure.

My mother explained to me that history showed that a parent's class had nothing to do with a child's class. She said most experts believed this was nature's way of keeping balance. Nature prevented humans from controlling which class dominated the other classes. It was hard to plan domination when you had no control over the skills of the children. That seemed strange to me and later in life, I would study it and find out that these experts were not even close to the truth. The truth was simple and unique at the same time. I would discover that genes had nothing to do with it at all. So, while the experts were correct that your parents had nothing to do with your class or classes, there was no balance in effect at all. What I discovered was that your class was based 100% on location, location, location. If you could see the magic of the world, what you would see are millions upon millions of lines of power running throughout the world. The power lines were each a single class of power. You had fire lines, you had water lines, you even had sound lines, those of the major elements were far greater in number. The simple truth was that your abilities were directly related to what line or lines you were on at birth. Most people were over a single line and that power had the primary effect on their birth. Some people were born while being over a small knot made up of 2 or at very rare times 3 lines. My discovery regarding that would lead to years of debate.

So using the accepted knowledge of the time, my mother told me not to expect to be a water or sound mage and not to be upset if I was only a single-class mage. 'Nondol, people put too much into classes and proficiencies, but the truth is that any power is useful and how you use it matters more'. My mother was smart and powerful but at the same time, she didn't understand people. To the average person, power was everything and those with more power were, in fact, more powerful. My mother then reminded me that the awakening wasn't something planned and that it would happen when it happened. Which in my case wasn't sooner but rather later, 4 years later.

When I turned 11 my mother wasn't worried because I was still in the early stage of average. When I turned 12, she reminded me that the 10 to 12 range wasn't set in stone but just a guideline though I could see concern in her eyes. When I turned 13, she called in experts to find out what was wrong. The experts cast several spells and ran several tests and told her nothing was wrong, that my pathways were still developing, and that sometimes a person was just slow and she need not worry about my development. When I turned 14 even I started to get worried about how far behind I was. I mean being that 1 in 20 million with 3 classes would be great. However, being that 1 in 50 million with no class not so much. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to be that 1 in 50 million longshot. After 4 months I began to wonder if being reborn had somehow messed something up. That was until 5 months after my 14th birthday, on that day I completed my Awakening. You are probably wondering what an Awakening is. It's an event, that's about the only way to describe it. I sat down for breakfast with my mother when I felt a strange feeling pass through me. The air in the room started to move in a circle around me and I swear an arc of lightning flashed between myself and a candlestick in the middle of the table. The wind in the room picked up to the point that it blew out the candles and the darkness was only dispelled by the arcs of power flowing between myself and the metal items in the room. I do not remember much but my mother told me the display lasted around 5 minutes before I fell to the floor and passed out. She said it was one of the most powerful awakenings she had ever seen or heard of.

QUEST COMPLETE – Awakening

You've awakened to your inner power. Sure, it took you like 3 years longer than the average person but you have a history of taking your time so what did we expect?

REWARD: Unlocked Magic Class(es), full System access granted.