It’s now been 8 months since my arrival in this world. I’ve been diligently meditating and soul absorbing ants and other small insects throughout these months, with my significantly higher level and stats portraying this.

* Strength: 18

* Speed: 17

* Stamina: 19

* Endurance: 20

* Durability: 16

* Mana: 27

* Soul Rank: Ethereal

I’ve definitely made good progress, but I could’ve made more. I am proud of the fact that I’m now level 12, but I do have some regrets. My infant body prevents me from venturing beyond my home to find new creatures to absorb. Ants, once a good source of experience and mana, are now less viable. I’ve absorbed hundreds by now, and with my low soul rank and frail body, each level up brings only modest stat increases. However, this will soon change since now, I can finally walk.

I wouldn’t exactly call it walking. It’s more like an advanced version of squatting. If you go too fast, you end up tumbling like a boulder.

“Then, I can accelerate and get to places faster.”

That’s not what I-

Anyway, an update on my soul. My mana flows have finally stabilized, with both flows working smoothly and efficiently. Because of this, and of my…..admittedly poor walking state, I started working on my physical soul flows. They’re in rough conditions, but there’s a noticeable improvement in them. If I start working out alongside my meditations, my physical soul flow should strengthen. With this in mind, I have a couple of goals for today.

My rapid development has also surprised my parents. Typically, babies start walking between 10 and 18 months, so my early steps at just 8 months have them both amazed and worried. They’re unsure if I’m simply ahead of my age group or if my soul has particularly strong physical flows. The idea that I might be a genius has crossed their minds, but they dismissed it as too early to tell. Now regarding the topic of “a genius”, I have read quite a few isekai stories back in the day.

What a surprise.

“Shut up.” Anyway, from what I’ve read, the protagonists typically hide their true capabilities and talent, all for the sake of “living a quiet life.” Which, may I say, is the worst excuse I have ever heard. If you were born in a fantasy world, filled with hot girls and dragons to conquer and tame, and your first thought is “I want to live quietly in a secluded area”, then kill yourself and reincarnate back into your old world. Because honestly speaking, you’re wasting that second life.

Well, damn. That’s pretty harsh. Do you not like the idea of a “slow life”?

“Hell no. You have an entire magical world that you could only dream of, filled with literal magic, dragons, fairies, dwarves, and ELVES!”

……Why the emphasis on elves?

“In my previous life, all I did was read fantasy books. They provided the only source of pure light in my otherwise ‘normal’ life. It was fun imagining the world itself. I loved envisioning myself as a swordsman protecting villagers or exploring uncharted lands. It got so bad to the point that I would try to recite spells in my room.”

Are you acoustic?

“Bro, no. It’s just that reading these epic stories about different and unique worlds sort of…..took my mind off things. I was captivated by the idea of unknown places, untouched by the memories of others, a clean slate. I wanted to see such places with my own eyes. Places that weren’t tainted by history, that I didn’t learn about in school, that I knew nothing about before setting foot in them. Places I could explore on my own."

But, weren’t these worlds in those stories already explored? Didn’t they have descriptions made by the narrator? Did they not have pre-existing adventurers that already mapped out the world? Is it…..something else?

"I don’t know, man. I never really thought about it…but maybe it’s because I hated hearing the same things over and over."

Hearing the same thing?

"Don’t worry about it. It’s just a pet peeve I have.” Anyway, my main goal is to become an adventurer. A strong one, specifically. If I want this to happen, then I’ll need to receive the proper training and help to become one. For this, it’s only logical to think that I’ll need to enroll in the best school possible for me to learn everything I need. This means I’ll need to prove that I’m worthy, like showing everybody that I’m a genius. Of course, I can’t show my soul magic, but I have some ideas on how to substitute for it. Another reason for me to not hide my capabilities, would be to make connections. If I can attract strong people with my own abilities, then it’s only beneficial to make them my allies.

But first, I must focus on raising my soul rank. So, it’s time to start the day. I got up from my crib and duck walked to the main room. It was close to noon, and I was sure that Arthur and Elaine were most likely already playing. My first goal of getting stronger was improving my physical soul flows. A good way for me to do this was by playing with my siblings. They usually played physical games like tag and tug of war, so I felt that this would be perfect for me. It’s not like I could do push ups and such, since if my parents found me, they would probably be both confused and worried on why I even knew what a push up was. That being said, carrying heavy objects and masking the acts of working out with “searching for my siblings in hide and seek” would work perfectly. (For example, to do squats and push ups, I just need to either lie down or squat and get back up, while pretending I’m looking for them.)

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

I did precisely this, playing tag and the like with my siblings. A few hours had passed by, before Arthur and Elaine had to go to the local school. Our village Lurindell had a small school for children aged six to twelve. They taught basic subjects like math, (addition and subtraction), the history of the world, and of course, the language “Valtharin”. It was a humble place, meant only for basic knowledge to help the children better understand the world.

It was around mid-afternoon when they had left. Dad was out chopping trees for his daily quota, while Mom was butchering a bird-like creature. It was unlikely for me to be able to try to hide away and continue my exercise, since Mom was keeping a hawk-like look on me. So, I decided to try out my second strategy. In the main room, at the back center was a firepit, with two chairs looking at it, and a table to the left. There were floor mats with an interesting pattern, with flowers and trees covered in vines. My main focus was on the chairs. With my current physical stats, it was nigh-impossible for me to even make one of them budge. However, this was exactly what I had wanted. As long as I kept attempting to push it along with pulling on it, it should serve as a good means of improving my physical state. It’ll be slow progress, but it’s progress nonetheless. It also wouldn’t seem that strange to my parents, since it’s seen as a normal thing for toddlers to mess with things, like rearranging things in a room. I did this for the entire afternoon, pushing and pulling on the chairs, while doing proper pushups and such when no one was looking.

It eventually became night time, and it was time to sleep. Arthur and Elaine had already gotten home, and were exhausted from a long day at school. We all quickly ate our dinner, and they rushed off to bed, racing on the way. I waited for Dad to carry me off to bed, while Mom was busy cleaning the table. Dad then picked me up and started walking off to their room. Before Mom got out of my vision, I had a sudden realization. If she has brown hair, and Dad has black hair, while Arthur and Elaine have corresponding colors, then why is my hair silver?........No way, did Mom-

No, dumbass. You just inherited that hair from your elven grandfather.

“……My grandpa?”

Yeah.

Huh. I actually haven’t really thought about my grandpa for a while now. I wonder if he’d be disappointed in me. If he’d be mad that I abandoned my past life for this. If he’d berate me for leaving my family and friends behind……..Man, fuck that. My parents would be completely fine without me. They really only saw me as a machine anyway. Not once did they ever let me do anything fun or anything that I actually wanted to do. It was always work, work, work. Not one single day of break around them……..I’m sure they’ll just make another kid to use instead of me. As for my friends, they’ll be good. Robert would go to a nice school and get a decent job at some software tech company. He also has that girl he was talking to, so he’s probably going to be fine. For Sam, he’ll be alright……..heh, that’s a lie. He’s definitely cooked. But, that’s not my problem anymore. I tried helping him out with his grades, but he never wanted to apply himself. All he wanted to do was play games and sleep. It isn’t on me if he fails in life and becomes homeless. Whatever happens to him is on him. For all of my other “friends”, fuck them too. They’ll get all sad and weepy over me for a couple of days, then they’ll go back to living out their boring and ordinary lives. They might remember me once every few years, treating me like I’m some long forgotten memory. But, I can do the same. I don’t have to remember them. I have a new life to worry about.

“If my grandpa in this life is an elf, does that mean I’m part elf?”

Amazing deduction, Shitlock Dolmes. How did you manage to figure that out?

“Can you just move on?”

If you paid close attention, you would notice that your mother’s hair is braided in a traditional elvish manner, along with those traditional elven floor mats.

“How could I possibly know about-”

It’s most accurate to say that you were lucky with inheriting more elven blood than your siblings.

“Really? Let’s say, hypothetically, I were to….marry an elf. Would that be considered incest?”

What the fuck?

“Just a hypothetical question.”

……..No, it wouldn’t be. Elves share a common ancestor, the Grand Elven Sage, but through generations, they’re not in any danger of disabilities from mating with fellow elves. You, being mostly human, have even less of a chance."

"You know, it’s nice learning this. Learning that my grandpa was an elf, that I’m part elf. It’s almost like a miracle that you told me now, rather than never mentioning it."

…..Your parents would have told you eventually.

“Nice dodging.”

Shut up.

“That does give me a few more questions, though.”

Like what?

"For one, I thought elves generally didn’t like other races, especially humans. How did my grandpa end up with a human, let alone marry one and start a family?"

How the fuck would I know? Go ask your parents for that.

….Could’ve just said no.

Any other questions?

“Are there other elves in the human kingdoms then?”

There are some, but most are adventurers or teachers at magical institutions. There are also halflings in various military forces in all 3 kingdoms. For instance, there is the “Greenfoot Scout” of the Verdant Vanguard, a patrol squad that watches over Therandor. However, almost all elvenkind live in the “Elven Realm”.

“What’s that?”

The Elven Realm? It’s on the right side of your map.

“My map?”

…….Did I also forgot to tell you about your map?

“You piece of-”