I just celebrated by first birthday last week, and my suspicions are confirmed. I was definitely born mid-winter as it's cold, and snow is falling. The fire in the hearth is on 24/7... if that's even how long the days and weeks on this world are. I don't know as there are no clocks or calendars anywhere in my home. In fact, there doesn't seem to be anything in this home that would appear to measure the passage of time. Not even so much as an hourglass.
Oh, and my father finally made an appearance! He arrived shortly before winter set in. I have no clue what he does, but he must travel for work or something. He is a tall, well over 6 feet tall and quite the muscular build. he has black hair, blue eyes, and the physique of Arnold Schwarzenegger back in his prime. He is the polar opposite of the old me, the chubby, unkempt, beta male gamer. This man is an absolute specimen. Despite his intimidating appearance, he is extremely kind and gentle with me as well. Again, the polar opposite of someone else I knew.
There is one AMAZING thing that occurred recently that has shocked me to the core. About a month ago, I was crawling around the house, heading toward the hearth where my mom was. i was just a few feet away and behind and off to the side of her. It was at that moment that I saw something I did not expect to see in my wildest dreams. She lit the hearth. I know, amazing right! Not with a match, or a lighter, or even rubbing two sticks together like a caveman. No... she said a word. For some reason this one word registered in my brain in English. At this point, I still can't understand a word of whatever language my parents speak, but this time I did. That one word was: FLAME. She said the word and POOF! A flame literally appeared on her fingertip, like her finger was a zippo lighter. She then lit the hearth with that flame. What the fuck did I just see! No way! Did I really just see that?! I must be seeing things. How did I not notice this before?!
The thing is, I wasn't seeing things. I began to pay more attention to things going on around me. After I saw her produce a flame on her finger, I paid REAL close attention to what she was doing. What else was I missing?! The more I thought about it, the more I began to realize some things that didn't seem quite right around here. I never saw my mother go to a river, or to a well, or even a barrel outside for water, but it was just somehow always around. Where did it come from?!
it wasn't much longer after I saw her turn her finger into a BIC lighter that I saw it happen. She went to a basin where I knew the water was kept in the house, and she said another word, again this word somehow registered in English in my mind. She said, "WATER!" A steady stream of water came pouring out from her palm into the basin! That's not all! that night, I noticed that she did the same FLAME trick when lighting the various candles and lamps around the house. Then at my bath time, she placed her hands on the metal basin used to bathe me, and she said FLAME again! That's how I had warm water in my baths! She literally heated up the water by holding the basin with flame covered hands!
This world... this world has fucking MAGIC!!! YEAHHHHH!!! I have never been so excited in my entire life... EITHER of them! Why did I have to start this life as a baby? I want to learn this shit right now, not 5 years from now, but right fricken now! Unfortunately I'm still just a baby, and I have to bide my time with a mundane baby existence until I get older.
The days go by one by one until soon a couple more years have passed. I seem to be growing nicely. My hair is black like my father's, straight and flowing like a midnight waterfall. Oh, and I finally learned my name. Sigh, this... this absolutely sucks. My name is Christine. Oh, fuck you whatever deity pulled this bullshit! I go from being Christopher Allen Smith, the most generic NPC name to ever exist, to fucking Christine!!! I'm still fucking CHRIS!!! GODDAMMIT!! Oh, but about my last name. Um, well you see, we don't have last names. Apparently only nobility gets to have a last name. A person of nobility receives their last name from the Royal who bestows their title of nobility to them. Royalty has three or more names as members of noble families marry into royalty, and the royal family name is added as a new last name to "overwrite" the nobility's name. Then when members of one royal house marry into another, they gain yet another name. They then have their first name, their noble name, their first royal name, and finally their current royal name. This can continue on and on until some apparently have 6-8 names as the generations pass. That shit must make family trees into a clusterfuck of a bramble patch.
Moving back to my homely family, my father I learned was an adventurer. Can you believe that! A REAL adventurer!! That explains his physique! He has a massive ornate axe that he brings with him whenever he gets home. He has an intimidating set of leather armor, padded with animal fur, and studded with steel bands and spikes. He is a warrior. A REAL WARRIOR! I guess it is only natural that adventurers exist in this world, since magic exists, and so do strange monsters. If magic, adventurers, and crazy monsters exist, then I wouldn't doubt that Dungeons also exist in this world. This is just making me more and more excited. I can't wait to grow up!
Well, the good thing is I can now understand and speak the language. Interestingly, it doesn't actually have a name. Whenever I ask, my mother tells me it's just the common tongue. Does everyone speak this same language? So far as I can tell, it's the only language spoken where we live. We live out in the countryside and occasionally we make a trip to the city for supplies. While in town, everyone there speaks the same language. Also, much to my disappointment, it seems the local city is a human city, as that is the only race of people that I see on our trips to town. I was at least hoping for a cat girl or a bunny girl!
This world, I learned, is called Cardial. It roughly translates into "Great One". I am guessing this is similar to the Gaia hypothesis on Earth, however on this world, the people are much firmer believers than we were on Earth. The continent we live in is called Verdant, which means the exact same thing it does in English: Green. I told you it was green here! So green in fact, they just named the fucking place a fancy word for GREEN! I hope that kind of practice isn't too common among these people. It would get real annoying traveling to brown city, or blue town on the beach!
As I said, we live out in the sticks, in the rural countryside about 50 miles southwest from the city of Creshent. What does that name mean exactly? Well, the southern portion of the city is bordered by curved canyon, giving the city a distinct crescent shape... so you get it now? Creshent = crescent city... We've got a real imaginative bunch here! It really won't shock me to travel to another town in a desert and learn it's called brown city. Anyway, enough about where I live and the stupid unimaginative people that live in it. Fucking NPCs.
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My mother I learned was a mage, who was originally in the same party as my father, but she decided to quit adventuring to take care of me when I was born. This makes sense as she seems really adept at magic as I found out very early on in my life here. As soon as I could talk, I started inquiring about the magic I have seen her perform, and how to do it.
"Mommy, how do you make that fire and water come out of your hands?"
My mother just laughs and says, "You are still too young to understand my dearest. Once you reach 5 summers in age, you will have your awakening, and only then will you be ready to learn about your class."
"My class? Awakening? What does that mean?!" I ask with genuine curiosity.
A class I can figure out. Most likely what your job will be, like my father is a Warrior, and my mother is a Mage. However, the awakening part is what piques my interest. What is that exactly?
"Well sweetie, I don't exactly know how it works, nobody really does, but once you reach the required age, you are imbued with a talent, or skill if you will. This skill determines what your class will be. There are many classes, such as Mage like I am, Warrior like your father, Monks, Priests, Thieves, Shielders, Merchants, Fishers, Farmers, Butchers, and various other crafting classes."
Well, that confirms what I assumed about what the class actually is. It interesting to note that my mother says nobody actually knows why people are imbued with skills. How can something like that just happen and nobody knows why or how? Has it always been this way since the dawn of time on this world? Do animals have similar awakenings? After all, if adventuring is a thing, then they must fight monsters that have abilities as well. How do they get their abilities? I don't get to dwell on these questions for long as my mother continues...
"So far from what I can tell, there are really no limits to classes and skills that are possible. It's even possible, but very rare, for people to be imbued with two skills, allowing them to be two classes at the same time."
"Can you get many skills, like even more than two?" I inquire.
"No dearest. Such things are only fantasy. The things of legend. Tales do speak of heroes and kings of the past being imbued with numerous skills, but those are just that. Legends. Stories to entertain children."
This is astounding! It's like I'm literally in my Fantasy Realm Online! Magic, skills, classes!!! I have to know more! It's understandable that I am literally drooling to understand the nature of this whole thing, but why does it seem like nobody in this would even ask the important questions... Why does this happen? HOW does this happen? Is it a case of, "it's just the way it's always been." And nobody questions it?
"Do I have a choice as to the class I become, mom?"
"In a limited capacity, yes dear. While the skill you are imbued with is chosen entirely at random for you during your awakening, that skill will basically determine what you are good at. If you get a skill where you utilize mana, you can choose any number of spell casting classes.
Well, not exactly what I was expecting. I'm not sure what I was expecting really. Maybe a character creation screen that allows me to select my starting class? Well, that was just shot right out the window! So, whatever I get, I'm stuck with it apparently. What kind of random character generator bullshit is this?! Time to change subjects. I can learn about that later. Right now, I need to figure out how to cast magic.
"I think I get it mommy. But how do you make the fire? You didn't tell me that!"
"Well, as I said, you won't understand unless your class is mage, and you begin learning about magic."
"Oh, please mom just tell me!"
My mom chuckles, "OK OK dear. First, you have to understand that every living thing has mana in it. I have it, you have it, the grass, trees, and animals have it. It's even in the very air around us."
"When I wish to cast a spell, I pull some of my mana from my body to my hand. When I speak the incantation, FLAME, the mana is converted into the flame you see. The same with my water spell. I pull my mana from my body, concentrate it in my hand, and speak the incantation, WATER. The concentrated mana is converted to water."
"Ummm, I don't get it!" I lie. Oh yes, I damn we'll do!
My mom burst out in laughter, "I told you that you wouldn't understand. You just have to wait until your time comes, my love."
"Ok mommy, thanks for telling me!"
"Ok dear, run off and play, I have to get lunch started."
Oh, I understood. I understood it all. I just wanted her to think I was clueless. I'm not running off to play. Hell no! I'm going straight to my room to see if I can figure this magic shit out! I have to! I can't spend two more years without being able to do magic! I will literally go insane!
Over the next several weeks, I practice and practice for hours. I mainly concentrate my practice on mana control. I got to the point where I can shift my mana throughout my body. I can feel it. It feels like, almost like fluid shifting from one part of my body to another. I bring it from the core of my body to my left hand. Then I shift it from my left hand all the way back to my core and all the way over to my right hand. I can even bring it down to my feet. This is absolutely fascinating. I wonder if I concentrate my mana in my eyes, if I will be able to shoot lasers from my eyes like Supes! What about a Kameha... ya know what, I think that's enough delusions of grandeur for today. Time to get back to the real deal.
"Ok, I think I have this mana thing under control now. Let's see if I can make this work."
I concentrate my mana into my right hand. When my mana starts to concentrate, my hand starts to tingle. At this point, I say the word: "FLAME!"
"Hmm, nothing happened. Maybe not enough mana?"
I concentrate my mana to push even more into my hand. The tingling intensifies, almost like the vibration sensation from my video game console controller back in my past life.
"Ok, let's try again. FLAME!"
I gasp as a quick puff of smoke pops out from my palm.
"Oh my god! I'm almost there! I need more mana!"
I concentrate even harder, pushing more and more mana into my hand until it feels like my hand is being shocked with electricity.
"Oh, this doesn't feel good. It is now or never! FLAME!!!"
A flame bursts forward from my hand, but quickly dies out into a puff of smoke.
"Holy shit I did it! I ACTUALLY DID IT!" I shout celebrating my success. I have to cover my mouth as I was being a bit loud there. I don't want to alert my....
"Wait, what the fuck is that?!" I say in surprise as I see something in my vision change.
I see a small blue triangle shape appear in the lower right-hand corner of my vision. It's blinking on and off slowly.
"What the hell is this?"
I try to focus on it but whenever I move my eyes to look at it, it just follows my vision and stays in the same place. I try to poke it with my finger, but nothing happens. I just look like an idiot poking the air.
"There has got to be a way to open this."
At that moment, at the thought of opening it, the triangle glows brighter and expands to a small screen. I gasp loudly as I stare in shock at what I'm seeing. I suddenly have to take a massive breath of air as I had literally stopped breathing from the shock of what I'm seeing. How is this possible!
"Is... is this what I think it is?! HOLY SHIT!!!"