Another year has passed. It has now been four years since I arrived here.
Being four years old on this world as a human is of a significant event, not just because it is the time where magic can be practiced, but also because this time is where the humans can safely receive their first tattoo.
Because at this is the time, with the help of magic, the magic infused blood and bones of a person are capable of withstanding the power of the tattoo.
“Leon! Stop playing, the dinner is ready.”
Hearing my mother’s voice I immediately went to the dining room, here my father and mother are already waiting for me in order to start the dinner.
After we finished eating my father suddenly spoke to me.
“Hey Leon, come with me tomorrow, we would go to the woods to get some materials.”
“Father, are you finally going to teach me how to hunt?”
For the past few months I’ve been practically begging for my father to bring me outside in order to teach me how to hunt, although the villagers here are nice, and there are a lot of children here to play with, but being at the mental age of 19 before I came to this world, the games and the things that the children does are pretty boring for me, so I have been nagging my father to join on their hunting to do something different.
“Hahaha.”
Hearing my response, father laughed.
“No, you’re still too weak to join us, and even if you were able to join us, you won’t be able to help us and instead you’d just get in the way.”
“Then why are we going woods tomorrow?”
“You have already turned four last week, we can finally place a tattoo on your body, and tomorrow we will get the materials for it, and I want you to come with me tomorrow in order to get the materials as the way towards that place is safe and it’s a chance for you to see the surroundings of the village.”
“But I thought you said that those forbidden tattoos can only be placed on your body in exchange for something else like a shorter lifespan, a curse or a disability? Would it not be detrimental for me if you chose a tattoo this early that takes away something from me in order to gain a benefit that I may even not be able to use in the future? I haven’t even decided what I wanted to do when I grow up.”
After hearing my response, my father gave a questioning look, as if he is looking at something weird, while my mother is grinning at the side.
“I never expected that at your age you’d be able to think things up to this point. Yes, that is the case for most of the tattoos placed on the body and those are the ones which give a lot of power and might. But not all of the tattoos need something in exchange, this tattoo that we will place on you will make your body stronger, help in the growth of your body, as well as help in the accumulation of you magic gathering. Although this may sound like an extremely strong tattoo, but truthfully, the benefits it can give you is small as the help in growth, body strength, and magic accumulation is not that much, still because it is placed when you’re still young and it helps you since your small, add to that this tattoo does not place a negative effect on you this makes this tattoo a popular one.”
Hearing my father’s response I was able to realize why although four years might be too young to place a tattoo, many people still do it because there are tattoos like this.
“But father, if you will place this on me, how much more tattoos can I place on my body and how long till I can place another one?”
“The time when people usually place another tattoo after receiving the last one is usually 5 years, although it depends on the tattoo that you received last, in your case after you receive this tattoo you will only need 3 years as this one is one of the weakest tattoos available. As for the amount of tattoos you can place on your body, it will usually depend on what tattoos you place on your body as well as your own constitution, I once saw a person having more than ten tattoos on his body while the average human usually only has around four to five tattoos.”
“What about you father how many tattoos do you have and what are they?”
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“Me? I have seven tattoos on me as I am a hunter and we usually deal with dangerous animals, we need to have some life saving tattoos as well as ones to defend and attack.”
Hearing this I immediately got curios as to what those magical looked like.
“Hey dad can you show your tattoos to me?”
“Sure, although only three of them are visible as the other four needs to be activated in order to be visible, and I’m not going to show the four which are invisible as it is a little tiring for me just in order to use it.”
After that my father took off his shirt allowing me to see three different tattoos on the different parts of his body, a bull horns tattoo on the place near his ribs, three wavy lines on his shoulder which are parallel to one another, I’m guessing that it has something to do with increasing his speed as it looks like a wind symbol, as for the last tattoo it was a sun shaped tattoo on his left breast just above the heart, all of the tattoos are colored black while the design is pretty simple.
After seeing it I was curious as to how it can strengthen the human when it looks like just a regular tattoo that I usually see on Earth.
“Dad, how can it strengthen the humans if it looks like just a regular drawing?”
Hearing this, my father just grinned to me.
“Yeah it looks like a regular drawing because the process of the drawing is the important one not the image of the tattoo itself, besides the one who placed this on me was also someone not that good at drawing so the drawing itself is pretty rough, although if you go to the larger cities and request for a professional to place one on you, it looks good and sometimes the object on the tattoo itself looks real.”
“Oh, then what about the power of those three tattoos you have?”
“This horn near my ribs is the one which I’m going to place on you tomorrow, it is called as the Bullhorn tattoo and the power it gives you is the one which I have already explained early on. As for the three lines on my shoulder, it is called as the wind blessing tattoo, it is also a tattoo that only gives benefits while not having a single detriment but just like the bullhorn tattoo it also only gives a little benefit of having increased speed and greater mobility. As for the final tattoo, this is called as the Raga sun tattoo, it is named as that because of that event from a few thousand years ago that happened at Raga, this is the most iconic tattoo that humans have and is the most common second tattoo placed, it enables humans to become greatly stronger for a small period of time then detonate after a few moments, usually even being able to kill enemies far stronger than them. This is the tattoo every human places on them, this is also the tattoo that saved the humans from slavery or even extinction.”
After my father finished explaining I was able to see them smiling bitterly.
I was shocked after hearing that information from my father, here humans are literally a bomb, if they are threatened or in danger they can unleash extremely powerful force capable of even rivaling stronger people, no wonder that although humans are not the majority on this continent when it comes to population they are still quite populous, not because they are strong, but because they are dangerous.
“But dad is there a possibility that it might suddenly activate without you intending for it to?”
Hearing this, my father smiled at me.
“I have never heard anyone where it suddenly activated.”
I just smiled at him after hearing it, although it needs for you to activate it personally, still having placed a bomb inside you makes you feel uncomfortable.
“Leon, you should sleep now, it’s getting dark, you and your father need to leave here at dawn. You will need to walk for a few kilometers from here and it is better if you could come back here before noon.”
“Okay mom, goodnight.”
I’m interested at seeing the world outside for the first time since I arrived here, I wonder if the plants and animals here look different from the ones on Earth.