“How is my youngest doing?” Baron Krado Martel asked. The baron stood tall with a broad back and shoulders, his platinum blond hair and long braided beard, symbols of his commanding presence and strength, reaching all the way to his navel.
“His fever has worsened. I’m afraid that Master Veric might not survive much longer. Would it be possible to send for a healer or a priest, my lord?” Dara, Veric’s personal maid, replied somberly, her eyes filled with concern. She loved Veric almost as much as she loved her own children, and seeing him suffer tore at her heart.
Baron Krado’s expression hardened. “The Martel family is known for its strength, Dara. This experience will forge him into a better man. If he survives this, he will be stronger for it. If he does not, then he was not meant to carry the Martel name.”
Dara’s heart sank at his words, but she pressed on. “But my lord, he is just a child. He is so weak already. Surely, a healer or a priest could help him through this trial.”
Krado’s gaze turned icy. “Do you think the world will always provide healers and priests to tend to our wounds? No, Dara. Life is a ruthless blacksmith. His fever will likely break tonight. If it does not, then he was too weak to live, and better that we learn this now rather than later. I shall see him tomorrow. If that is all, you may go back and tend to Veric.”
Dara bit her lip, holding back tears. “Yes, my lord,” she replied, her voice trembling. She knew arguing further would only make things worse for Veric.
As she left his office, she couldn’t shake the image of Veric lying in his bed, pale and sweating. The baron’s words echoed in her mind. Before returning to Veric, she made a sneaky detour to the room where Lady Gaelia’s belongings were stored, hoping to find something that might comfort the ailing boy.
***
Tom woke up feeling weak and in pain, his body sticky with sweat. The duvet felt like it weighed more than the truck that hit him.
Where am I? What happened? I was hit by a truck. Am I in the hospital?
He rubbed his sticky eyes and managed to open them. Golden light assaulted his pupils, blinding him. After a few seconds, his eyes adjusted, revealing a semi-transparent golden screen resembling a withering parchment scroll.
Four new titles have been achieved:
[Savant of Space]
Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of Space.
+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence
[Savant of Time]
Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of Time.
+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence
[Savant of Matter]
Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of Matter.
+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence
[Savant of Energy]
Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of Energy.
+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence
Two new passive skills have been Achieved:
[ Accelerated Mind I ]
Your intelligence has exceeded 100 points. Your brain has reached a new realm of computation power. Your brain can now process information at a far greater pace.
[ Accelerated Mind II ]
Your intelligence has exceeded 250 points. Your brain has reached a new realm of computation power. Your brain can now process vast amounts of information at a far greater pace.
[ Eidetic Memory I ]
Your wisdom has exceeded 100 points. Your memory has reached a new realm. Your brain can now recollect any memory in great detail.
[ Eidetic Memory II ]
Your intelligence has exceeded 250 points. Your memory has reached a new realm. Your brain can now recollect any memory in perfect detail.
After reading the information on the floating, shiny scroll, it disappeared. Tom blinked several times, trying to make sense of what he had just seen. ‘What is this? Am I hallucinating? How can my mind be faster at calculating? There is no way this is real, but should I test it?’
He decided to test it. ‘243 * 543 = 131,949. Hmm, that indeed felt a bit quick. 7,901,212 * 123,312 = 974,314,254,144. Oh god, that was instantaneous. How can my mind think so quickly? Whatever this is, it is amazing. What about my memory? Page 407 from the third edition of Quantum Mechanics: Non-Relativistic Theory by L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz.’
“For a symmetrical position of the nuclei, an electron term of the molecule may be degenerate, if there are among the irreducible representations of the symmetry group one or more whose dimensions exceed unity.”
Tom recited part of the paragraph from memory as if he had a book right in front of his eyes. “I can see individual pages and even the coffee stain I made on page 279. I don’t know what this is, but it’s absolutely amazing.”
He looked around the room and realized that he most definitely was not in a hospital. The interior looked more like a medieval castle. The walls, floor, and ceiling were made of smooth stone. The windows had wooden frames, and the glass was thick and uneven, distorting the view outside. The mattress and pillows were stuffed with feathers. Every piece of furniture looked abnormally large and antique.
‘What is happening here? Am I still dreaming?’ He thought, rubbing his eyes once again, trying to wake himself up from what seemed like an impossible dream. When he opened his eyes again, he saw his hand. It was small, smooth, and completely hairless—a sharp contrast to the hands he was used to.
‘What is this? Why is my hand so small?’ He thought, panic rising in his chest. A sudden stream of memories invaded his mind, overwhelming him. They were not his memories but those of a little boy, isolated in his room for years. The memories were incomplete but vivid. The boy's name was Veric Martel, son of Baron Krado Martel. The boy was frail, barely able to walk, his only companion and caretaker an elderly maid named Dara.
‘What?! I am stuck in the body of a frail little boy.’ He wanted to deny it but couldn’t. The evidence was right in front of him—his small hands, the medieval surroundings, the vivid memories.
‘Is this a second chance for me? Have I reincarnated into this strange world where magic and dragons exist?’ The thought both terrified and thrilled him. If this was real, it was a chance to start anew, but the fragility of his new body posed a serious challenge.
“Status,” Tom said aloud, remembering the command from Veric’s memories. He hoped that this strange world followed the same rules as the ones he had seen in Veric’s mind. Immediately, a transparent screen appeared before him, filled with information about his new self.
Name
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Veric Martel
Vitality
3(6)
Class
[classless]
Constitution
2(5)
Race
Human(Nessari)
Strength
2(4)
Level
1
Agility
3(6)
Experience
0/3
Dexterity
3(6)
Health
17/17
Intelligence
421
Stamina
8/11
Wisdom
418
Mana
100/7139
Willpower
11
Aether
55/55
Titles(5)
Special traits(1)
Attribute points
0
Skills(2)
Spells(0)
‘This is very similar to video games. I saw this in the boy’s memories, but seeing it right in front of me is so much better. It’s like a character sheet used for RPGs.’
‘The name displayed on the character sheet remained the same. So the system doesn’t acknowledge me as a real entity of this world, or maybe there is a requirement for it to acknowledge me. I have the same memories as the boy, most of them at least. Is that the reason why the system thinks I am Veric? Does the system even think, or is it closer to an AI that functions only within the parameters of its programming?’
‘The physical attributes are halved just like in the boy’s memories. Veric had inherited the [Nessari bloodline] trait from his mother.’
Thomas pressed on the [Special Traits] tab.
[Nessari bloodline]
You have inherited the bloodline of the forgotten tribe. Nessari were known to be powerful mages who abandoned their flesh in order to cultivate powerful minds and souls.
Your vitality, endurance, strength, agility and dexterity are halved. In return, your intelligence and wisdom conversion to mana is doubled. In addition, with each level up your intelligence and wisdom will increase by 1.
‘I don’t know why, but I feel slightly shafted by this. Five of my attributes were halved, and in return, I get a boost to mana. I am pretty sure that the boy died because his vitality attribute was so low. I need to increase it ASAP. I don’t really want to die of a cold.
Thomas looked through the boy’s memories, now his own, and found an answer to his dilemma. ‘I need to level up. Once I level up, I will gain 3 attribute points, so I can just place them all into vitality. That should increase my health. My mana is off the charts, though, so I will most likely have to become a magic-user. In Veric’s memories, his maid told him that to gain levels, one needs to unlock a class. How do I unlock a class? Do I need a magic teacher? And why is my mana stuck at 100 even though I somehow have more than 7,000?’
Thomas left those thoughts on hold and pressed the [Titles] tab and selected [Kinslayer].
[Kinslayer]
‘The system is heartless for blaming the child for his mother’s death, but I can see the logic in that decision. If Veric was never born, his mother would most likely still be alive. This suggests to me that the system is closer to being a machine rather than a thinking entity. Or it’s a heartless thinking entity. I know the type. I worked with them for the past thirty years. A bureaucrat through and through. It seems I will never escape them. Not even in death.’ He thought and chuckled, which caused his lungs to go into a coughing fit.