Disclaimer: I do not own anything except OCs and other changes from canon. Also, any resemblance to real people is not intended. This is fiction, after all.
I waited. And waited. I got bored. What do you do when you're bored? Anything, really. In this case, I got to thinking. I did not want to take the risk to do anything physical, to avoid birth complications. Pretty sure I would die from that pretty quickly. I did not want to try much in terms of magic either, for both the same reason, and the fact that I would get the attention of anyone magically sensitive very quickly. No way that that would go well. However, I could try to feel my magic power -assuming I have it-, so that's what I did.
After some indeterminate amount of time -considering that I had no frame of reference for it- I noticed blinking. Of course, I opened up the log.
The ability 'Meditation' has been created.
I quickly opened up the 'Abilities' screen and selected the new ability.
The ability to concentrate and focus on your inner self. Actively doubles MP and SP regeneration. Can only be used while standing, sitting, or lying still.
'Handy during training. Not exactly useful during battle unless my opponent allows me to. Still, it is something I can do while waiting, I suppose.' I proceeded to meditate for a while, until I got bored of that too.
I then tried -again- to find my inner power. This time, I succeeded. I metaphorically prodded and pulled on it. It moved easily in certain directions and almost refused to move in others.
Out of interest, I started moving the power -that I tentatively called 'mana'- into the direction of least resistance. It flowed through my whole body one limb and organ at a time. Once it made a full lap, my Log started blinking again. 'Seems like that did something. What do we have here?'
The ability 'Cultivation (star 1, rank 1)' has been created.
Time to find out what it does.
The ability to cultivate both your body and magic power by channeling it through your body. Increases STR, END, STA, AGI, and WIS by 1 every 10th level. Increases CHA by 1 every 20th level. When the user fights against others with the 'Cultivation' skill, the one with a higher 'Cultivation' rank will get a stat boost as follows: +10 to all physical stats per rank difference and +100 to all physical stats per star difference. This effect works both ways. Can only be trained while standing, sitting, or lying still.
'Oh damnit. I just fucked up, didn't I? I would get squished by any competent Cultivation user now. Are the stat boosts worth it? Maybe? If it still keeps going into the next ranks and stars, that is. And, if I manage to get it sufficiently high, then I will squish them instead. Even more of a reason to keep a low profile for a while now. Luckily, I am pretty sure Cultivation is only really practiced in China, and I should be about halfway across the world from there. Just keep an eye out for them…when I can see anything, that is.'
After that 'success', I decided it was quite important to also work out a way to hide my magic power from people. Being found at this stage would a huge risk, especially if it turned out to be a 'Cultivation' user.
Physical age: 0 days
Well, I was born. It felt weird. Was it fun to feel yourself get squished out, hearing a lot of high-pitched noises, and suddenly feeling something slimy on my skin? No, not really. I thought I was prepared for the real thing. I wasn't. Would not recommend it. At all.
The suffocating feeling of suddenly having to breathe was intense. My entire being was screaming at me to take a big gulp of air. It felt so much better when I did.
I now understand why babies cry immediately after they are born. The air pressure brought tears to my eyes and the new air in my lungs made my still underdeveloped vocal cords go haywire. Yep, I cried.
I could finally open my eyes, albeit with quite some difficulty. Blinking. Huh, how about that? New ability. Let's check that later.
My hearing was not good enough to notice what was being said. I only heard snippets here and there and I could not make sense of them either.
I was brought before something soft and my mouth was being pressed on something hard. A breast, I realised. I wasn't thirsty or hungry. 'Gamer's body' saw to that. However, I had to keep up appearances, so I started sucking. As well as I could, at least, considering my lack of control over my motor functions. Level 2 'Basic movement' does that to you. It sucks. Pun intended.
Now, you are probably wondering what I achieved in my 6 weeks of solitude. I trained what I could, got shaken around -screw pregnancy gymnastics-, and managed to create 2 new abilities.
Together with the abilities I gained just now, these are the new ones I got:
Mana suppression: The ability to suppress and thus hide your mana signature from others. The user can suppress their mana signature up to a maximum of level%.
Aura suppression: The ability to suppress and thus hide your aura signature from others. The user can suppress their aura signature up to a maximum of level%.
Basic eyesight: The ability to see colors, shapes, and movement.
Language comprehension (English): The ability to understand spoken English.
The first 2 I created pretty quickly after 'Cultivation' to try and hide my presence -magically speaking-. The latter 2 I gained when I was born.
At the time of my first breastfeeding, my stats were as follows:
True/Mental age: 83 years
Physical age: 0 days
Level: 6 (5/60)
HP: 900/900
MP: 950/950
STR: 9
END: 9
STA: 9
AGI: 9
DEX: 6
INT: 8
WIS: 11
CHA: 7
Yes, I levelled up 5 times. Although I still don't understand where the experience is coming from, I did manage to figure out something. My level up gave me 1 point in every stat. Hence the reason my stats are so high for a baby. A head start goes a long way, I learned.
Now, where my development really shone, however, is my abilities:
Gamer system MAX
Gamer's body MAX
Gamer's mind MAX
Basic movement 3/100
Basic hearing 3/100
Meditation 33/100
Cultivation (star 1, rank 1) 33/100
Mana suppression 31/100
Aura suppression 28/100
Basic eyesight 2/100
Language comprehension (English) 2/100
Why are my 'Meditation', 'Cultivation', and 'suppression' abilities so high level, you ask? Well, having 6 weeks to do pretty much nothing except level them up makes that happen. That gave me another piece of information on the system, by the way. A quick bit of mental math told me that every level took me an average of 30 hours to achieve. A lot? Probably. However, if that were the case for every level, then 'Basic movement', 'Basic hearing', and my 2 newest abilities would not have levelled up so fast.
My theory? Effort and difficulty play a role. Since I could see and hear almost nothing at first, I had to adapt very quickly to the new environment at birth, which could have jumpstarted my levels there. My movement went up once in the womb -when I kicked, as babies tend to do sometimes- and once when moving to suckle. When I did, my SP drained quite quickly. This could mean that it took a lot of effort to do the action in question.
Another thing I noticed is that my bars drain based on the strength I put in. Contrary to 'the Gamer' systems I had read about -in my previous life, of course- mine did not seem to have a set amount of power being used per ability. Instead, it seems like my system recognizes how much power I want to invest into the action and drains me appropriately. I tested this with me suppression abilities, by the way. The higher percentage that I suppressed, the more MP it cost.
Of course, this system has both its upsides and downsides. Upside, I can invest less power in moves to cripple or subdue instead of kill, as well as keeping some power in reserve. Downside, going 'all-out' would actually mean burning through my points almost instantly and thus leaving me easy pickings for anyone that survived the onslaught. I will need to make sure I control my power appropriately.
Tired. 'Oh yeah. I was expending quite some SP latching myself on this nipple. SP bar is….empty. Great. Was thinking about conserving power and the first thing I do is run out.' Although I did not pass out at that, I did stop moving. Luckily, everyone there simply thought I fell asleep, so there wasn't a panic or anything. 'I really need to pay attention more.' I thought ruefully. I decided to sleep to regain my SP. I wasn't sure if any of my abilities were actually visible when using them, so training them right now was a no-no. And with that, I slept for exactly 1 hour.
Physical age: 1 year, 0 days
My birthday. Well, in this world at least. I think it would be a good point to do a recap of what happened this year, but first, the birthday celebration itself.
Turns out, the birthday celebration of a 1-year old in a conservative religious household -yes, these parents were Christian- is actually kind of boring. Before being reincarnated I was an atheist. I still liked a lot of mythological and magical stories, but I never believed any of them to be real. Until I met Gaia, that is. For those wondering, I am now a believer -how can I not, when there is actual evidence in my face all day-, but not a follower. I think that actually praying to anyone right now would expose me quite easily, so I don't, nor do I see a reason to pray in the first place. I have my own power to worry about.
Anyway, the celebration was with family. Quite a big one. Lots of people of my -current- generation. Think of kids 10 years old or younger. However, there was no music, barely any presents -not that I really wanted any, but it is the thought that counts-, and pretty much the only thing going on was talking, which I could not participate in, obviously. It might have been fun for everyone else, but for me it was just waiting, getting cuddled -side note, it is kinda scary when enormous humans scoop you up-, and surreptitiously training when I could. Yes, I figured out my abilities were not visible.
I gained a couple abilities over the year:
Basic mana manipulation: The ability to move the energy called 'mana' around outside your body. Increases INT and WIS by 1 every 10th level.
Reinforcement: The ability to strengthen your bones, muscles, and skin by channelling mana through it continuously. Actively increases STR and END by level in target area. Can only be used on one limb at a time. The central body (chest, abdomen, and back) is considered a 'limb' for this ability.
Mana sensitivity: The ability to discern active mana coming into contact with your own. Allows the user to recognize nearby magic use, magic used on their person, or magically strong people in close vicinity, depending on their magical strength.
The first 2 I obtained by messing around with my mana some more. I interspersed my 'Cultivation' and 'Meditation' training with trying things out with my mana to help alleviate the boredom a bit. Meditation still feels like waiting, you know? The last one I gained when I was baptised. My current parents had me baptised immediately after birth. Of course, knowing there is an 'angel' faction in this world, I was on guard to not expose myself too early. Turns out that the priest that held me for the baptism is somewhat magically gifted. I gained 'Mana sensitivity' as a result.
That was not all, though. It turns out that certain abilities, when they reach level 100, can automatically give me additional abilities. Basically, I get upgrades after 'mastering' an ability. Unfortunately, this means that it will take a while to get to the good stuff.
Anyway, I got the following upgrades:
Advanced movement: Derived from 'Basic movement'. The ability to move limbs in complicated and flexible ways. Increases DEX by 1 every 5th level. Increases STA by 1 every 10th level.
Balancing: Derived from 'Basic movement'. The ability to maintain balance while moving and changing body angles. Increases AGI and DEX by 1 every 5th level.
Individual muscle control: Derived from 'Basic movement'. The ability to control individual muscles in your body. Increases DEX by 1 every 10th level.
Listening: Derived from 'Basic hearing'. The ability to listen to specific individuals or groups with other sounds around.
Observing: Derived from 'Basic eyesight'. The ability to see information on people that they do not consciously reveal. Increases INT and WIS by 1 every 10th level.
Enhanced eyesight: Derived from 'Basic eyesight'. The ability to see more details at different distances.
Darkvision: Derived from 'Basic eyesight'. The ability to discern colors, shapes, and movement better in areas with little or no light.
In addition to that, my 'Cultivation' went from rank 1 to rank 2 by maxing out rank 1.
Now, since the system allows me to stay awake indefinitely, my sensory abilities levelled up very quickly. In addition, I trained my muscles until my SP ran out, then trained my mana abilities until my MP almost ran out -I wanted to keep up my suppression abilities at all times-, and finally focused on 'Meditation' and 'Cultivation'. This way, I could train everything as efficiently as I could think of.
With that said, you are probably curious about the things that happened this year. Well, first off, I was baptised almost immediately after my birth. Sidenote: getting almost drowned in water when you are still figuring out how to see, hear, and breathe normally is not a fun experience. After that, I was put in a crib -as babies are- and was frequently visited by a variety of people. My 'Mana sensitivity' got a hit every time my uncle -I think- came by, but nobody else in my visitors and my family seemed to be magically gifted. At least, not enough for me to pick out.
At some point, I figured out what my name was in this world. James Lewiss. The double 's' I only figured out later, when I started to learn to read and write. Boy is it weird to have to re-learn all of this. Apparently, the system itself uses my prior knowledge to communicate, but I actually had to learn the alphabet again for communication with anyone else. Anyway, my close family consists of 3 older siblings -2 boys and 1 girl- and my parents, whose names I do not know, as everyone calls them 'mom' and 'dad' and they have pet names for each other. In addition, my mother was clearly already pregnant again. Seriously, have they never heard of contraceptives?
Not much more happened this year other than that. I don't think I revealed my abilities or my adult mind. My language comprehension is still not maxed out, but that is probably because of all the 'baby-speak' that was thrown my way all the time. That does not really help, you know? Luckily, as my hearing got better, I was able to somewhat make out conversations in other rooms. Only a bit more -9 levels to be exact- to max it out.
Getting back to the celebration -as little as that was to me-, it seemed to be coming to an end. The visitors said their goodbye -in 'baby-speak', of course- and my family began cleaning up. While that was going on, I was carried back to my crib. I was left alone quickly after. Back to training. After all, if a 1-year old already can have the stats I do, the stronger beings must be in the thousands or even the tens of thousands. I couldn't afford to slack off if I wanted to live comfortably here…
Physical age: 5 years, 0 days
My fifth birthday was at hand. In this world, at least. The celebration was a bit minor. Contrary to my first birthday -where a lot of more distant family members and family friends came by-, the subsequent birthdays were with close family only. Pretty much the only difference between a birthday and a normal day was the addition of some cake and a present or 2. Appreciated, of course, but severely lacking in comparison to birthdays in my original world.
In my original world, you would at least be able to bring friends in to play games with, but -now that I think about it- it might not be so much of a 'different world' kinda thing as it is a 'different culture' kinda thing. Of course, the fact that I had no friends here also put a damper on that. My siblings and I were kept in the house most of the time. We were home-schooled -my current parents did not trust the school system not to 'corrupt' us- and the streets were generally dangerous to play in. 'Sheltered' is what I would call this. Not that I mind, on account of having quite a lot of life experience to call on if necessary. Anyway, point is, I don't have friends here.
My family considered me quite….difficult to deal with sometimes. I did not break their rules or anything, but I had a different way of thinking and doing things, as well as being 'hyperactive'. The latter was because I was training abilities.
Speaking of abilities, I got quite an increase in the last 4 years. That should be expected, of course. I obtained 'Sense danger' from when one of my siblings got angry at me and tried to hit me. That happens more often than you would think. The ability just gives me what it says on the tin, which is pretty handy in combat situations.
From the same kind of situation I got 'Dodging', which also gives what it says on the tin, plus a nice AGI boost every 10th level. Although the ability description makes it clear that I can only dodge that which is within my physical ability to dodge. It will -unfortunately- not allow me to dodge supernaturally, unless I boost my legs with 'Reinforcement' or something.
My 'Cultivation' also went up a couple ranks. Enough to get a star, in fact. It turns out that every star takes 5 ranks and then the rank resets to 1. So, right now, I have 'Cultivation (star 2, rank 1)'. Neat.
Quite a lot of other abilities were gained and maxed out, but I'll leave that for later, as you are probably sick of those by now. Suffice to say, I did a lot during these 4 years, ability-wise. Although, unfortunately, not much in terms of combat and survival skills. Kinda hard to train that in a house with a bunch of kids and a mother looking over your shoulder almost all day.
On the matter of my family, I gained a couple more siblings -another 2 boys and 1 girl-. Apparently, my current parents take 'go and bring forth' a bit too literally. To be honest, I forgot all their names by now, as I didn't know them for long. Why? You'll find out soon.
Now, back to the birthday. Something happened that was quite unusual. I already knew it was coming, because my siblings got the same thing on their 5th birthday. After the celebrations, my father brought me to the local church. Apparently, the congregation has a ritual that is done on all children at the age of 5. Why the age of 5? Beats me. I don't know their reasoning.
"Listen and follow the priest's instructions." My father said to me. I did not know what the ritual was, as it was done mostly privately and I was not one of the people invited to my sibling's rituals.
"Of course, father." I responded. He was adamant he be called 'father'. He was strict like that. As for why I was so obedient? Simple, I did not want to stand out too much yet. Creating trouble would also hamper my ability to do the things I want to do, so I just suck it up and do what they ask. Yes, even when it is scrubbing the toilet. Bleh.
Anyway, I moved to the priest, who was clothed like you would expect any normal priest to be clothed, so I am pretty sure I do not need to describe it. Also, I prefer to only describe interesting people, and the priest was not interesting in the slightest. Well, except for the object he was holding, that is.
He was holding a normal Christian ornate cross, except it had some orbs embedded in the center and extremities, as well as 2 white feathers sticking out diagonally. It gave the feeling the cross would fly off if the priest wasn't holding it.
The priest spoke to me. "Come, my child. Don't be afraid. This ritual will be very simple. Just kneel in front of the altar over there-" He pointed to the main altar of the church. You know, the one every church has in the back of it. "-and pray to The Lord. While you are doing that, I will hand you this holy artifact-" He held up the cross. "-and it will determine how pure you are." That sounded sketchy, but I had already said 'yes' to my current dad and I am not a liar.
I moved to the front of the altar, knelt down, held my hands together -in a praying gesture, of course-, closed my eyes, and did decidedly not pray to the Christian god. As I mentioned before, I never did that, as that would probably expose me to the faction too early. It's not like they can check that my mind is actually praying, anyway.
I was given the cross and felt a pull. Not a physical one, like someone pulling me out of my position. No, the pull was on my mana. By the time I noticed, it was already too late. The gasps from the priest and my current father were very audible in the empty church. I opened my eyes and saw the cross shining. 'Shit. This cross must have been for measuring my magic power. I was careless.' I thought. Panic would have hit me if not for 'Gamer's mind'. As it was, my mind was running a thousand kilometers a minute, trying to come up with a way to make this look like a fluke. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do.
The priest seemed ecstatic when he said: "Incredible! I have seen many a blessed person come and go from this church, but you are the first to get such a strong reaction from the artifact! This…you must be an up-and-coming saint! Or maybe even a prophet! I must inform the bishop immediately!" I was honestly dumbfounded that a man as calm as him -I met him every Sunday- would run around giddy like a child on a sugar-high. After coming over my shock, I facepalmed. 'So much for staying off the radar of the Angel faction. What do I do now? Do I run? No, my current father is still here and he would probably try his damnedest to keep me here until the bishop gets here. Hide? Same problem. Attack? Assuming I can even overpower him, it would only get more attention thrown my way. Seems like the only option is to wait and see. Great.' Stopping my musing, I removed my palm from my face and looked in my current father's direction. He was still stunned. I can somewhat imagine. After all, he had had 3 of his children before me come here and do this ritual and they probably did not get a reaction at all -judging by the lack of reaction my 'Mana sensitivity' ability gives-. And now, suddenly, the 'weird child' gives off such a strong reaction that the priest immediately calls said child a 'saint'? Yeah, that will come as a shock, I would imagine.
After about a minute of tense silence, the priest comes back and brings with him a bishop. Apparently, this bishop lives close by. Same thing as the priest, this bishop was not at all remarkable. He was a portly man, but not fat. He seemed to have more of a muscular build, actually.
Anyway, the both of them marched in. The bishop asked the priest: "Is this the kid? The one you claim gives a big reaction?" He pointed at me, obviously. The priest nods. "That's him, Your Excellency." You could practically hear the capitals in that.
The bishop then turned to my current father. "This kid is your son, I assume?"
"Yes, Your Excellency. His name is James, James Lewiss." My current father dutifully replied. Honestly, I only heard the phrase 'your excellency' twice and I was already sick of how high-strung is sounded.
The bishop continued on. "I see." He turned to me. "My child, do you have any idea how much talent you have? Based on the fact that the artifact is still shining so brightly, your blessing must be tremendous. How about we find out what the blessing entails, shall we?" I completely forgot I was still feeding mana into the artifact. Oops. I wanted to drop it, but I knew that throwing away or dropping the artifact would only get me animosity and I am already in a precarious situation as it is.
Apparently I took too long to respond, because my current father reprimanded me. "His Excellency asked you a question, James. Answer him!"
Before I could respond, the bishop calmed my current father down. "It is fine, my son. Little James must be overwhelmed with everything that happened today. How about we discuss this in my room instead? Maybe a cup of tea will calm everyone down."
Without waiting for a response, he turned around and walked off, obviously expecting everyone to follow. My father and the priest actually did. I decided to go along for now, as running away at this point would probably incite a man-hunt or something.
We entered a room where the bishop was already warming up water for us. The tea bags on the table had the name 'Yorkshire' on them. I have heard of that before. A pretty popular brand, apparently.
We sat down, we handed a cup of tea each, and began to sip from it. I was still on edge, but my body relaxed. Blinking. I opened the Log.
Gained the status effect 'mild muscle relaxation' for 10 minutes
'Fantastic. Now running has become pretty much impossible. Let's hope that they don't…No! Don't jinx this! Whatever happens, I will be fine. I have the system, the ultimate adaptable ability. Keep calm and see what he wants.'
The bishop watched me sip and smiled. The kind of fake smile that is there just to put lesser people at ease. It seemed to work on the other 2 people in the room, but not me. I had 'Observing' to tell me it was fake.
"So, now that we have all calmed down a bit, let's begin." He motions to me while looking at my current father. "Your son has a lot of talent in the holy arts. He seems to have been chosen by The Lord himself for something and I want to help him achieve it, as my Lord desires. To achieve this, I would like to invite him to a training camp of sorts. A place were people with blessings can go to learn how to use them. What do you think, mister Lewiss?"
'A training camp? Of course! There must be more people with magical talent. Exorcists must come from somewhere, after all. This camp is probably for training talented people into exorcists for their faction.'This actually put me at ease, as that means I would be somewhat protected from other factions and I would not be hunted anytime soon. In addition, I would be able to train combat skills for real now.
My current father easily agreed. No surprise there, honestly. He was so devoted that a bishop could ask him to jump off a cliff without a parachute and he would still do it.
Despite the agreement, some questions were still asked and answered. Basically, I would live there from now on. Contact would be possible, but only through letters. I could not write anything about my activities or location, probably to stop attacks on the camp from happening. Standard indoctrination-style stuff. Did that bother me? Not really. I already had a mature mind, so I was not that easily susceptible to such tactics anymore, and it would give me an opportunity to train properly.
We were eventually sent on our way with the instructions to pack everything I needed and come back to the church the next day.
I was apprehensive, but also excited. Let's see what this camp is all about.
AN: Hey there. I would first like to apologise for the wait. Writing time-skips in Gamer stories is a lot harder than it would seem. You have to imagine what the MC does in that time period and convert it all into new abilities, experience gains, stat gains, and ability level increases. Then you have to calculate all of that and double-check it to make sure all the stats are correct. It's quite a chore. Still, I managed, somewhat. I didn't want to make you all wait much longer, so I cut it a bit short at the second time skip. I'll make sure to catch that all up later. Don't worry.
You might have noticed that this chapter is a lot longer. That's because I had set a goal to reach for myself for this chapter and it took a bit longer to get there than expected. I wanted to give background info, the MC's personal opinions to develop his character, and of course move the plot forward somewhat.
You might also have noticed that David calls his parents his 'current' parents. This is entirely on purpose. He considers his 'true' parents to be his original parents and feels disassociated from his current ones due to a lack of imprinting.
The next chapter should focus on the happenings in the training camp and what other abilities David has gained. Hopefully I will manage to create some interesting interactions with others there. Please keep in mind that I am still learning, so creating distinct characters is still a bit of a challenge for me, if one I am quite looking forward to. See you next chapter!
