His frown deepened as he assessed the level of pain. Bruises, even deep ones didn’t feel like that.

The cut might be closed, and the injury at least visually might have appeared healed, but it was not. Under the layer of mended skin, the injury persisted.

“Damn,” he whispered to himself. The spell was as terrible as he had feared. It was false, and its flaws represented an active danger. It only healed superficially. Its magic worked exclusively to close surface cuts. The deeper areas of the injury remained untouched, which was dangerous. Given what he knew was happening, he was not surprised to observe that a nasty bruise was forming almost as he watched.

Trash. Total trash, he thought in annoyance. He had known the instant he had read the description that it was going to be so, but it was annoying to have confirmed it so completely. Unless it was used very selectively, it was more detrimental than helpful. Ignoring the internal injuries while healing the skin was more dangerous than leaving an open wound and allowing the body’s natural processes to fix it.

But I got it after a week of practice, he reminded himself. The first version was only ever the start, and he had always been planning to evolve it into something better, anyway. So, its issues really weren’t a problem. He would, as a matter of course, need to be selective whenever he used it. If he suffered a graze, it would be perfect… then he chuckled to himself.

“For minor scrapes it’s wonderful,” he told the room. “But for self-inflicted stab wounds it was a no go. That’s a skill that belongs as the first step in the path to slaying a dragon” He laughed harder and then reconsidered the way his mind had jumped to the negative. This way might actually be better because of his title Unique Skill Creator. Thanks to it, by the time he finished it was possible his healing spell would have extra sideway evolutions which would make it stronger. The extra steps he needed to take to make it better would give that title more chances to activate.

Annoyed and satisfied at the same time, Tom went back to the book and checked his to-do list. He wanted to use the remaining hour and a half to do some research and answer some of the questions he had.

The first item researched was physical training. He had only practiced with the spear for ten minutes, but he had to admit it had felt good to have a weapon again. The question was whether doing so was problematic. He ended up cross-referencing multiple books before he was satisfied with the accuracy of the answer, which was basically a firm yes - he could train to his heart’s content.

Physics, biology, all those things he had taken for granted on Earth did not necessarily flow as linearly in Existentia. How the young of species developed reflected one of these quirks. The gist of it was that it was near-impossible for a child to create muscle mass or calluses through training.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Basically, the enhanced healing everyone got in Existentia was responsible for it. In the absence of any system, which is what children got, the healing restored you to your prior state. On earth, physical activity made a difference. Where your skin was continually worn away, callouses would form to reinforce the area. When you lifted weights and damaged muscle fibres, extra ones would grow. Basically, biology allowed the human body to adapt to the conditions thrown at it. In Existentia, that feedback of stimulus causing adaptation didn’t work. Instead, when you became an adult, the system took over that role. That was how he had gained natural points of vitality and strength in his last life - even if the natural part of that designation couldn’t have been further from the truth.

It was not all doom and gloom - his attributes would increase as he aged; however, it was determined by diet and genetics, not activity. There was no known way to force attribute gain, outside of elixirs, while the system considered you a child.

Training was back on. That made Tom smile, even though he knew it wouldn’t alter his body like it would have done on Earth. It meant he could secretly develop spear abilities, which was a part of his long-term build.

Next, he checked on the history of reincarnated kids and their subsequent assassination, because he figured it was something he had to know.

In moments, he was engrossed in the text. It was fascinating, especially since it was about real people with consequences driving societal adaptations, which even fifty years after it all started, were impacting him personally.

The first reincarnated children had been identified within six earth years of the competition starting. Tom absorbed that information with surprise.

That was early.

Without the ritual to force the issue, the emergence of past memories were supposed to happen when they were five or six years old. Add on nine months lag for pregnancy… It meant the child would have to have been conceived in the first year and possibly even earlier. Potentially only months after arriving in Existentia.

That…

His brain struggled to understand that. The biology urges after over a decade of isolation made sense. He had also indulged, but birth control was so easy. He couldn’t imagine a child being a mistake. Unlike the group he had started with, other groups had obviously decided that the best way to earn ranking points were to have children and build up a larger population.

Tom could understand that reasoning. If you could double or triple your numbers every generation then a starting group of a hundred like his could have ended up having nearly a thousand people by now. Having ranking points be generated by ten times the number of people could only be a good thing, so he could definitely see why a group could have made that decision.

That is, if most of those born survived. In practice, he knew from his own experiences that Existentia was too harsh a mistress to allow that. A lot of men and women, he realised, would have been reincarnated into a child as part of a nomadic tribe. He shuddered, thinking of the difference between the challenges that they must have faced versus the situation he was in, with his dedicated training rooms complete with encyclopedias’ worth of knowledge.

Tom tore himself away from his own thoughts and continued his research.