It didn’t take long for the looks of expectation to turn to disdain. I shifted from foot to foot, feeling awkward. While in some parts of the world first time reincarnators were quite common, this wasn’t one of them. Our clan prided itself on having almost only two time and up reincarnators, with those who had reincarnated four or five times not being terribly uncommon in our clan. Anything after five reincarnations was relatively rare as well in most other clans, most reincarnators souls falling apart after their fourth reincarnation.

    Eventually, the looks of disdain and pity went away as Sylt yelled at all of us to get back to training.

    “Especially you Sen, clueless first timers need the most training.”

    The rest of the class was spent being singled out by Sylt, every slight mistake corrected, and often hit with his cane as he corrected my posture, the angle my sword was swinging, anything that he said was wrong.

    I hadn’t been a slouch physically in my previous world, and I’d prided myself on my hand eye coordination, but seemingly everything I did here was wrong. Eventually, the lesson ended, with me stinging all over from the instructor’s cane. We then headed off to the next class, the basics of mana strengthening.

    Mana was a mysterious energy that permeated everything, said to be generated by life of any kind, and mana strengthening was enhancing our bodies through infusing the mana into our bodies. There were specific breathing techniques and patterns to allow the mana to flow, and we were told to practice it any chance we got, as it was something that was mainly based simply on how much you have done it.

    There were different techniques of mana strengthening, which focused on different effects, with the best of them even lengthening your lifespan indefinitely, and some were more or less effective, but as simple students, we were given only the most basic of teachings, having a general strengthening technique that evenly strengthened our entire bodies. It would enhance our lifespan, but even if you practiced religiously, it would only triple our lifespan or so. It was still a very good technique considering the entire world, but for our clan it was only the lowest of techniques.

    I was going to be stuck with this, the lowest of techniques, unless I somehow managed to impress the elders enough to learn one of the more advanced techniques, something that was sure not to happen with me being a first time reincarnator, at least until I became much much older.

    I didn’t even have the advantage the other reincarnators had, of knowing techniques from their previous lives. It was relatively common for people nearing the end of their lifespans to spend them on creating more effective mana strengthening techniques with the knowledge they’d gained from that and previous lifespans, compounding the experience advantage, they would have a stronger technique from childhood, strengthening their body ahead of their peers. That was even ignoring the fact that they’d already have more combat experience than me, something which would keep them ahead of me.

    As for combat experience, it seemed to be everything in this world. I’d thought that wars were common on earth, but I was sorely mistaken. Here, wars were fought over the slightest provocation, the world filled with small city states constantly warring. There were a few empires, but they were relatively rare, most of the small city states vying to control even a single more city or mana well.

    Our clan was relatively powerful, controlling multiple cities, and a mana well in the same city I lived in, enhancing the mana density nearby, making mana enhancement that much more effective.

    The only way we maintained our control however, was training every child of our clan in the ways of combat. While the general populace wasn’t trained, as we still needed farmers, artisans, and merchants, every member of our large clan was, forming an elite army, and with multiple reincarnations, the general populace would be able to form a rather powerful militia if conscripted, often having battle experience from one of their lives at least.

    Thoughts of this new world ran through my head as I slowly relaxed, and tried to focus on my breathing technique, a long breath in, held for six heartbeats, followed by three short breaths out, feeling the mana flow in and out of my lungs as I did so, the mana spreading from there to the rest of my body as I guided it, trying to evenly distribute it throughout my entire body.

    While you could focus the mana on specific parts of the body, for example your skin, where it would quickly become tough as stone, while becoming even softer to the touch, it left you vulnerable to any technique that bypassed your skin, something the teacher had made abundantly clear, making an example of one of the students stupid enough to try.

    I slowly lost myself in the sensation of the mana imbuing my body, and the pattern of my breathing creating a constant flow of mana in and out of my lungs. The worry and confusion slowly faded under the feeling, and I didn’t become aware again until I heard the soft ringing of a bell signifying the end of our session, a soft sound so as to not startle us out of meditation, as that could cause the flow of mana to become unstable, causing injury rather than strengthening.

    I was pulled aside by the teacher as it ended, the rest of the students streaming by me.

    “So I heard you awakened as a first timer. Don’t be too discouraged, everyone has to start somewhere,” Jade, the only kind instructor among them tried to console me a bit.

    “I’ll do my best,” I replied, trying to hide my worry about it.

    “I’m sure you’ll be someone relatively strong, if not in this life, then in the next. You’re quite talented in the sword, even if you lack experience. Just keep working hard.”

    I smiled a bit, belying my worry, and thanked her. She was the only kind instructor, and supported everyone, even those that ditched her class to hide their own personal mana strengthening techniques. If anyone ever had any trouble they could come to her, and with her experience with many techniques, she would be able to help even most of those who had their own techniques if they ran into any troubles.

    I was then off to the next class, mana combat. While mana strengthening gave us a stronger base body, mana combat taught us how to use mana in live combat. If you circulated mana in a certain pattern, it would instantly boost your strength up significantly, though for whatever reason you could only use your personal mana for boosting, as it was called. You could also use your personal mana to create powerful punches, compressing the air to explode it in a shockwave, enhancing your weapon or limbs with flames, or other combat techniques. While our personal mana would be increased along with the strengthening of our bodies, it wouldn’t be until we ignited our mana furnace that we would truly become part of the clan’s fighting force.

    Class was spent practicing the spiraling mana flow within our bodies which led to the instant strength of mana boosting for the few minutes we could handle it, then was spent focusing on creating our mana furnace with another breathing technique, this time for very short breaths in followed by a short then long breath out. We would then grab the mana brought into our bodies through our lungs, and focus on compressing it as much as possible while spinning it. While there were different types of mana furnaces as well, again, we only got the most basic kind, one which reminded me of a spiral galaxy.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    My mana furnace was not dense enough to ignite, and I had chosen to create it around the position of my heart. While it didn’t take up any physical space within my body, it was still there, spinning within and throughout my organs, and I could sense it with a sense I’d never had on earth. It was oh so slowly spinning, with a single arm spiraling out of it. At later stages, it would have multiple arms, and when ignited would generate enough mana for us to spend hours fighting while mana boosted.

    I slowly dragged as much mana as I could focus on into it, and compressed it as much as possible, then would focus on spinning it as fast as I could. Though it seemed to have no effect, I knew over months and years it would slowly accumulate until it ignited. Class was soon over, and thus ended the day.

    I went back to my home, a small building hidden among many similar buildings. I announced my presence with an “I’m home”and was replied to with a “Welcome home” by my mother. My mother in this world was named Odessa, and was beautiful, with blond hair and golden eyes, and I mean golden, not hazel, a bright reflective gold color. I’d inherited them from her, and think they looked quite cool, especially when contrasted with the black hair I’d inherited from my father, who was sitting beside my mother wearing a stern expression.

    I took a deep breath before announcing to my parents in this world.

    “I awakened today”

    “Oh, congratulations! My mother had a smile on her face as she continued. “How many times have you reincarnated?”

    “It… It’s my first time.” Even though I had memories from my previous life, I still felt like a child saying something he knew would disappoint their parents, almost like coming out as gay to heavily religious parents.

    My mother however, didn’t even break her smile a bit, but got a slight bit of pity in her eyes as she continued. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll do plenty well for yourself even if it is your first time.”

    My father on the other hand, simply looked disappointed. I felt I could almost see a little of the disdain I’d seen in the other children’s eyes.

    We ate together that night, my mother making a large meal along with lots of side dishes and grilled meat, reminiscent of KBBQ from my previous world. After the celebratory meal at me having awakened, I decided that the best way to lose myself and avoid the worries and negative thoughts brought about by the disdain and disappointment of others would be to lose myself in meditation for mana strengthening, and if it helped me keep up even a little with the other children, all the better.

    I continued to meditate until my head started to bob with tiredness. While mana strengthening would partially replace sleep, you still needed to get at least some sleep. I then went to bed, tired enough that the negative thoughts couldn’t keep me up.

    The next day went much like the last, with Sylt continuing to single me out as an example, and the other two classes going much the same as they had been going before I had awakened.

    The following days went in much the same fashion, and slowly days faded into weeks, me becoming more and more cemented as Sen Suyun, and feeling less like John. Unfortunately, the classic take advantage of your previous world knowledge was useless here. When everyone has reincarnated, there’s nothing to invent. We have modern toilets, lights, every sort of modern convenience. We even had computers and the internet. Oddly enough, most of them ran off of mana rather than electricity, many of them running off of the ambient mana, with more powerful items running off of mana stones.

    A few weeks later, I found out that my mother was pregnant again, and that led to a large celebration, many relatives I hadn’t known I had showing up to congratulate her. Even with the big news however, classes continued, and so continued my hell in Sylt’s class. Every day, I would be berated, and when I’d finally gotten decent enough with the sword that I wasn’t constantly berated, he had us switch to using the spear instead.

    For whatever reason, I liked the spear more than the sword, even if I ended up berated more often due to the new weapon. When I was finally getting used to it however, we switched to using bow and arrow. I knew that we were simply learning enough about weapons to decide on which one we preferred, at least for those of us who didn’t have a preference from their previous life, but it still made me a bit sad.

    Eventually, more and more of the students began to awaken, and as they did so I started to fall to the wayside, not being as experienced in combat. While most of the students got sent off to instructors that taught specific weapons due to their preference, I got stuck trying a few more weapons before I eventually decided to go learn the spear.

    The new instructor was strict, but not as mean spirited as Sylt, and I quickly took to the spear, unfortunately far behind the other students who all seemed to have years, in many cases hundreds of years, of experience with it.

    The year passed by, and I continued to fall behind, the students with their more advanced mana strengthening techniques pulling ahead in bodily strength to match their lead in spear technique. While I was struggling to learn how to create shockwaves from compressed air utilizing mana bursting from my fist, they would show off the multitude of techniques they had learned in their previous life, flames or lightning cladding their spear, or floating through the air, seemingly only a step away from actually flying.

    I continued to persevere as the year started to pass by however, and soon my little sister was born, and she was absolutely adorable. She’d inherited both the golden eyes and blond hair of our mother, and was extremely loud, constantly screaming for more attention. My poor mother started to be run ragged, but she seemed happy regardless.

    The years slowly passed by, and I slowly grew in strength, continuing to lag further and further behind my peers unfortunately. My sister grew up along with me, and continued to be a constant nuisance for our mother, though she always seemed to be well behaved around our father and for some reason even around me.

    My peaceful time continued, until I went on my first trip to another one of the cities. Our group was walking along with large bus like vehicles filled with mana stones, transporting them to the nearby city of Elin. I’d pestered my father to go along with him until hey’d finally agreed, and was enjoying finally getting out of the massive complex that housed our clan. I was stuck within the bus like vehicle carrying the mana stones, but at least I was going. At first, I’d wondered why we didn’t have more vehicles, but upon seeing the adults keeping up with the bus without any visible effort, I shoved the thought to the back of my head.

    The forests we were going through was beautiful, with trees as large as the redwoods from my original planet standing vigil over the road we were walking along, when all of the adults in the group perked up, and drew their weapons.

    I panicked a bit, and instantly went to the windows of the bus to watch. I looked around, worried, and soon people were pouring out from behind the trees, somehow having hidden even in the old growth forest with a lack of bushes and short trees.

    The people I assumed to be bandits soon impacted the line of adults who apparently had been there to act as guards for the mana stones, and the bandits broke upon them. The bandits seemed to be experienced fighters, but they couldn’t stand too long against our warriors one on one. Unfortunately, the odds were far worse than just one on one. There had to be at least three of them for every warrior we had, and they were starting to pressure our fighters, being pressed back in their circle around the wagons.  

I watched my father, completely worried about him. I may be reincarnated, but I’d come to see him as my real father, at least for this life, and I didn’t want him to get hurt, even if we weren’t particularly close.

    Things were starting to look very grim, as one after another of our warriors started to pile up wounds, their defensive fight slowly looking like it may be lost, when an old man who had been driving the bus snorted, and walked out of it.

    I watched him in confusion as he slowly waved his arms around in some sort of pattern, then started as flames, starting small, started to follow the motions of his hands. I watched, mesmerized as his flowing arms slowly created more and more flames, and after a short moment, he ripped his arm downward in a harsh movement, sending the flames careening into the bandits.

    The bandits were engulfed in the flames, which seemed to cover each and every one of them, while completely avoiding our warriors. As the flames and screams slowly faded, I watched in horrified fascination as the now bodies collapsed. I couldn’t hold myself back, and puked, utterly disturbed by the smell of cooked flesh, but couldn’t hold myself back from thinking that I wanted to be able to control flames like that mysterious old man.

    After getting a hold of my my now empty stomach, I went up to my father, who seemed to have fared better than the rest of the group, as he didn’t seem to have a single scratch on him. I was soon asking about the guy who had controlled fire, as I hadn’t seen anyone have any techniques that were even close to what he had done.

    After asking, my father got a sneer on his face as he mentioned. “Mages. Useless unless you protect them. They focus on external mana control, and have practically no inner control. Give them one good hit and they go down.”

    I held in my desire for now, but soon I would have to ask my parents, I wanted to do that. The flames slowly following his movements had been mesmerizing, and the firepower he’d had had been utterly overwhelming, turning a losing situation into a complete rout for the enemies.