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.


Packing my stuff. You might think that having the Inventory at my disposal makes this a simple task, but you would be wrong. After all, if I walked out of my room with it being almost empty and me not having a single bag on me, that would certainly look very suspicious. Even if a couple people now know I have 'talent', that does not mean they know the extent of said 'talent', right? Keeping a low profile is still very useful.

So, I took my time packing. My siblings -well, the ones capable of speech at least, as my current parents kept breeding- asked a lot of questions about it, but I really could not tell them much more than "I am going to a training camp for gifted people". I did not know all that much myself, after all.

That night, I did not cultivate for once. Instead, I made a mental list of things of abilities that I could and could not train in the new environment. 'In my family environment, the abilities I could train were mainly social or mental, as anything physical or magical would stand out immediately. In an exorcist training camp, I should be able to train physical abilities pretty easily, but magical ones would heavily depend on what they would allow and/or teach. Exercising would be very possible at least. That goes on the list. Probably swordsmanship, shooting, and martial arts as well.'

'A little bit of a problem, though: If I were to improve too quickly, they might want to either send me out into the field early on -which I do not want until I am ready- or start experimenting on me -which would be even worse-. The only reference I have for treatment of children in camps by the Church in this world is from Kiba's past, which does not bode well at all. Probably best to find a way to limit my visual abilities if necessary to stay as 'average' as possible. After all, if I don't stand out too much, they should not select me for anything over others. Gonna have to work on that asap.' After reaching that decision, I continued making my list.

That night passed very quickly. The next morning, I took my packed bags and my current father brought me back to the church, after saying goodbyes to the rest of the family, of course. As always, the goodbyes were quite awkward from my perspective. Downside of being emotionally stunted, I suppose.

Once at the church, the bishop, of course sporting his fake smile again, met us outside the church. He apparently wanted to get this over with quickly, as he ushered me into a van almost immediately on arrival. Having heard of kids, vans, and strangers, I was ready to fight if anything was in the van or was going to enter after me. Surprisingly, nothing of the sort happened.

Instead, the doors closed, leaving me in darkness. 'So glad that I maxed out 'Darkvision',' I thought to myself. It allowed me to sit myself down on one of the benches attached to the sides of the van, military vehicle-style. Due to the 'Listening' ability, I was able to hear the bishop talk to the driver: "Standard procedure. Facility 3 for this one."

"Yes, Your Worship." Was the simple response.

'Pity. I would have wanted them to throw around a bit more exposition on what they were planning, but apparently they are professional enough not to.' I was slightly irritated with that.

When the van started driving, I decided to focus on the movements of the van instead to see if I could keep track of where we were going.

The ability 'Situational awareness' has been created.

The moment I gained the ability, I also got a minimap in the edge of my vision. Looking at the description, apparently the ability unlocks the 'Map' menu, which includes the minimap. The 'Map' menu opens a larger map. The map is blank right now. Not even the road I am on is displayed on there. 'Probably because I can not actually see the road.' I mused.

The ability itself just gives me the ability to notice changes in the environment through more than just my eyes, like the trembling of the car, the surrounding sounds, and the smells from the bakery we just passed. It is quite imperfect at the moment, but it would most likely be vital for fights later on.

After the surprisingly long trip, during which I trained my new ability, we finally stopped in a forest-y area. I could tell due to the smell of the trees and grass, the rustling of the wind through said plantlife, and the sounds of birds chirping. I was quite surprised how much my senses seemed to 'open up', so to say. Luckily, the ability is active, so I will not be bombarded with sensory information at all times.

The doors opened. The person I assume was the driver stood there. The moment, I thought that, the name 'Driver' popped up over his head. I did not pay it any mind. Why? Because I noticed that that happened with everyone I met after I got the 'Memory retention' ability. Apparently, the ability unlocked that functionality. Side note, the 'Memory retention' ability I obtained when I played a game of Memory with my siblings -of course-, and allows me to remember things better. After maxing it out, I actually got the equivalent of 'Eidetic memory'. That is, the ability to retain any and all information you receive. Pretty handy, as long as you pay attention.

The driver told me to get out of the van. I did. Since the driver was blocking the exit, I could not see what was going on behind him, but now I could.

I was right about the camp being in a forest. There were some trees in the camp itself as well. Kinda hilly, too. The camp itself had a bunch of kids -none older than 12, I would guess- and a couple adults keeping an eye on them. Most of the kids were either training their bodies or fighting each other with wooden swords. The youngest among them were looking in my direction, while the older ones ignored me. 'They must be used to this by now.' I thought.

The driver took off back out the gate. The moment the gate closed was when I realised there was a barbed wire fence around the camp. 'Is that to keep people out, or to keep people in? Both, would be my guess. Running from here will be a bit harder now, should I decide to try it.' I thought somewhat morbidly.

One of the adults approached me. "So you are the new one, huh? Don't look like much. You are James, right?" He sounded quite condescending. I kept a neutral face regardless, and nodded.

Probably not used to not getting a reaction, the adult soldiered on. "Well, follow me, greenhorn. Lots of things to show and tell." He started walking off towards one of the 4 buildings I could see. I followed. It wouldn't do to be insubordinate right now.

Seeing me following him, the adult continued. "My name's Lawrence." Cue his name popping up over his head. "I won't repeat anything, so make sure you remember." He gave me a sideway 'evil eye'. He really seems to dislike kids. Realising that he probably wants a response, I nodded again.

Spinning around on the spot, he pointed at me while leaning forward over me. "Since you are new here, I will let you off this time, but next time you get told or asked something you respond with a 'Yes, Sir!'. Understood?" He said accusingly.

"Yes, Sir!" I responded quickly. I remembered this trick from my previous life. I went to a 'Prison escape' event once. Everyone got a 'pep talk' by the 'warden' and we were told to respond with a 'Yes, ma'am!' to every inquiry. Of course, she asked if we understood immediately afterwards and nobody responded, triggering everyone having to do push-ups on the spot. Good lesson, that.

Lawrence seemed a bit surprised that I did not fall for it. Collecting himself quickly and walking off again, he grumbled to himself. "First time that failed." Of course, due to 'Listening' I could hear him clearly, and had to suppress a chuckle. It seemed like he really wanted to have a reason to 'show me my place', but I am not giving it. Too bad for you, Lawrence.

He showed me around the camp. First we went to the 'trainee barracks'. Basically, it was one big room with bunk beds and that's about it. No male-female division, no cabinets or drawers, only beds and walking room. Very spartan.

"This is where you will be staying for as long as you're here." Lawrence told me. "Don't make trouble here. Or anywhere, for that matter. I don't need to tell you that punishment awaits anyone who tries, right?"

"Yes, Sir!" I responded again. 'I won't forget the proper response that quickly, you know.'

Lawrence turned around to move to the next building, which was a bigger one in the middle of the camp, more or less. On the way, he explained some things to me. Wake up at 6 every morning; get food; go to our assigned instructor; do drills or other training as told by said instructor; have lunch at 1 in the afternoon; more training with the instructor; evening meal at 8; 'free time' until 10; lights out; next day. Pretty simple.

In terms of rules, there was surprisingly little: No maiming or killing unless otherwise told; always be on time; good kids go to the 'Holy house'. That's it, pretty much. Other rules exist, of course, but those were not overtly told. 'Keeping an eye on the other kids' behaviours should be enough to figure out the rest.' I told myself.

The big building was the mess hall, combined with kitchen and pantry. It wasn't hard to figure out that 'don't raid the pantry' was another rule. The hall itself had a set of very long tables with simple wooden benches next to them. Again, spartan. To be expected at this point.

Moving on the building number 3, we walked into the gym. Lots of different equipment around here. Weights, barbells, wooden practice swords, rings hanging from the ceiling, you name it. However, there was nothing electric around. In fact, I had not spotted any sockets in the other buildings either. Curious.

The next building we went to was a building I missed, mostly because it was a shed hidden behind the 'trainee barracks'. It was the toilet. Basically just a hole in the ground with a shed around it. Nasty, but necessary. 'Well, necessary for everyone but me.' I mused.

We did not enter the fourth building I saw when I arrived. Instead Lawrence just pointed at it and said: "That building is the instructor barracks. Don't enter that unless called by a instructor specifically."

Lawrence had calmed down somewhat by this point. He was no longer as snappy as he was when I arrived. Probably because I was very silent and absorbed the information he gave without any questions. He clearly still didn't like me, though. He just seemed to like me more than the other kids.

There was one more building to be shown. This one was all the way in the back corner of the camp. I missed it the first time because the instructor barracks and the mess hall blocked the view. That building was called the 'Holy house', the place good trainees were send to for a variety of reasons. When getting closer, I could hear some faint sounds coming from under it. Whirring noises, muffled vocals, and some other things I could not quite place. I decided to investigate that whenever I got the chance.

After the tour, Lawrence dropped me off at the barracks -for trainees, of course- and told me to choose an unoccupied bed and settle in. I would be assigned my instructor the next morning.


I didn't really do all that much the rest of the day, from an outsider's point of view, at least. Walking around, looking at the training being done, getting something to eat when it was time -to keep up appearances, of course-, and otherwise 'lounging around'. Of course, the first 2 were for training 'Situational awareness' and the last one was for training 'Cultivation', so it was still quite productive.

The evening was spent getting to know some of the other kids there. Especially the younger ones were quite eager to know about me. I told them most of my family situation and things like that. From their responses, it was easy to tell that they had similar family situations.

That's how I spent my evening until just before 10.


The next morning, I 'woke up' and went to the mess hall with a group of other early risers at around 5:30. The mess hall was mostly empty. There were 2 adults here. 'Probably to keep an eye on things. Kids can be pretty rowdy, after all. Especially superpowered ones,' I told myself.

Sitting at one of the tables, a bit to the side of the group -I had a hard time to connect with them-, I started eating. I felt a bit weird.

The ability 'Poison resistance' has been created.

Panic. Then calm. 'Gamer's mind, huh? Anyway, why would someone want to poison me? Also, why do I only feel tingly and not actually in any pain?' My question was answered when I took a peek at my status. There was now a buff and debuff section.

Buffs:
Enhanced strength (minor)
Enhanced speed (minor)
Enhanced mana (minor)

Debuffs:
Hallucinogen (minor) (nullified)
Cognitive inhibitor (nullified)
Nausea
Addiction (minor)

'I just fucked myself over again, didn't I? Although the buffs are nice, I am not a fan of the debuffs at all. Will I now have to keep taking these drugs forever? Damn it. Wait, why are the Hallucinogen and inhibitor nullified?'

Focusing on the 'Hallucinogen' debuff, I got a pop-up that basically told me that Gamer's mind had come to the rescue as 'forcefully inciting hallucinations' was counted as a 'forced mental change'. The same with 'Cognitive inhibitor', as that dulled critical thinking.

The others pretty much did what it said on the tin. The 'Addiction' debuff was worrying, if not for the fact that my newly acquired ability reduces the effectiveness of debuffs obtained by drugs and poisons by a percentage based on the level. If I can max it out, I should effectively be addiction-free.

'Kind of ironic. To remove the addiction my body now has, I need to consume more of what made me addicted in the first place. Who would expect that more of a bad thing could be good for you?' A wry smile grew on my face.

Meanwhile, the adults were looking at me. Gauging my reaction to the food, no doubt. The smile seemed to put them at ease. My expression probably looked quite goofy. Unintentional, but fitting nonetheless.

Looking at my age-mates, they also got a glazed look in their eyes. 'So it is not a first-day ritual kinda thing, then. Good for me. It means levels in my new ability.'

About a minute later, the kids got enough of their mental faculties back to keep conversing, but it was clearly in a more sedate manner. They seemed to not even notice the change. They were probably used to this by now, assuming they noticed at all in the first place.

As the meal continued, more people came in, including Lawrence. He came over. "Kid, your instructor is Amelia, over there." He pointed. Her name popped up above her head. "You remember your instructions?"

I was about to respond with a clear "Yes, sir!", when I remembered I was supposed to be cognitively inhibited. I waited about a second more and then drawled "Yes, sir."

Lawrence nodded his head and left for the instructor table, apparently expecting my dulled reaction. 'Phew, close call. He might have noticed I am not actually affected much if I had responded quickly. Quite tricky.'

The ability 'Acting' has been created.

'New ability. Neat.' I read the description. It not only increased my ability to act -duh-, it also gave me access to the 'Relations' menu. Why I did not get access to that before now escapes me.

Anyway, the menu shows individuals and groups I know of and my affiliation with them. A great many of them were 'Neutral', although it could be considered more a situation of 'not having interacted, yet'. For instance, the 'Grigori' and the 'Devils' are in there, but I have obviously not interacted with them yet, so they are 'Neutral'. My family is on 'Neutral', probably because I have no real investment in them, although some of my individual siblings have a 'Positive' affiliation, with a score between 60 to 70 out of 100. The 'Exorcist' faction is considered an 'Ally', by the way.

Only individuals get a numerical score. The factions only get a word to represent it. 'I get it. Giving a numerical score would be effectively impossible with big enough groups, as there will always be people in it that will like -or dislike- you.'

My musings were interrupted by most of the kids standing up and walking over to their instructors. I followed a group that seemed to be heading to Amelia. She was a fit lady, but clearly getting in on age. Not the wrinkly mess that some older people have as a face, but a couple clear wrinkles nonetheless. I guessed her to be about 50 to 60 years old.

"Where is the new recruit?" She bellowed. She seems to have a voice on her.

"Do you mean me?" I asked, holding my hand up.

"You James?" She asked, only somewhat answering my question. To be fair, I did not answer hers either.

"Yes, I am." I answered. A glare. "Ma'am." I added as an afterthought.

"Good. Follow me." She walked off. The group followed her, so I did as well.


The drills were….refreshing. I had wanted to exercise my body more rigorously for a while now, and it felt good to finally be able to do so. I could do without the muscle aching, though.

Instructor Amelia was a member of the school of hard-knocks. She did not pull any punches and expected you to follow her orders immediately. She was effectively what I would expect a drill master to be, actually. She was strict, but fair.

Curiously, a couple of the older kids deliberately did not follow her orders. At the end of the day, Amelia would select a couple of the worst ones and call them over to the instructor building for 'discipline'. I wonder what kind of punishment they got that they actually kept being rebellious.

Anyway, the drills were pretty standard. Cardio, sword forms, shooting, etcetera. Nothing that I did not expect. With it, I obtained and trained a couple abilities.

During lunch time and the evening, I made sure to have some food, but not in big quantities. Don't want to overdo the poison thing.

After dinner, it was bedtime, so that meant mental training. Based on the reactions of the other kids, I am considered a bit weird for going with the flow so easily, but acting like a kid now would most likely be counterproductive, so I will just keep doing as I am doing.

That night was a silent night.


Physical age: 6 years, 0 days

I have been here for a year now. Quite a bit changed.

First off, I now had to hold back in spars to not show my true skill. To avoid calling too much attention on myself, of course. Curiously, that increased my level more quickly.

Second off, the dynamics in the camp are different now. In this year, I have seen people come and go. Some 'graduated' and left the camp to become exorcists. Some 'ran away' because it was 'too much for them'. I knew the latter was hogwash. Why? Because my sensing abilities were good enough to cover the camp now and I could tell nobody but the instructors, the 'graduated' and the deliverymen left the camp. No, the ones that 'ran away' disappeared after entering the 'Holy house'.

Not everyone that entered that building disappeared, though, but the ones that did not, tended to come out worse for wear.

I had not been called to the house yet. I knew it would only be a matter of time before I was, so I was mentally prepared at all times. A bit tiring to be on guard all the time, to be honest, but it needed to happen.

Thirdly, I noticed some people having special ornaments on them. I should have expected churches to seek out those with Sacred Gears. Those kids were generally treated with more care.

From what I noticed, there were 2 with 'Twice Critical', 1 with 'Staring Orange', and 1 kid whose Sacred Gear I haven't seen before. 'Twice critical' doubles the physical stats of the user for a limited time, so it can be quite useful in a pickle, but is otherwise pretty normal. 'Staring Orange' creates a bow of orange light that shoots homing orange projectiles. Especially effective against devils. The last Sacred Gear seems to increase the power of the user depending on the damage taken by user until its activation. I have dubbed it 'Power Reflector'. I know, I suck at naming, alright?

Despite the better treatment during drills and the like, those kids were unlucky in that they were sent to the 'Holy house' very often. Poor kids looked more and more tired every time they came back out.

I would like to help them, but I am simply not strong or influential enough to do so. All the more reason to keep growing stronger quickly.


Physical age: 7 years, 0 days

Another year went by. This year, we had a special new recruit. Well, special to me, anyway.

One of my younger siblings, Elizabeth, had been recruited as well. My magic senses, that have sharpened significantly during my stay here, told me that she simply had a bigger than average -for normal humans- mana pool, so the artifact probably reacted to that.

When she arrived, she had the same curious, child-like look that almost every other new kid has when they get here. However, that stopped when she saw me.

Luckily, I saw the leaping hug -or 'glomp', if you will- happen from a mile away, so I could set my stance to receive it without falling over.

Being glomped by a happy person felt….nice. 10 out of 10, would feel again.

Elizabeth rambled a mile a minute. I had trouble understanding it all, so I stopped trying. If there was something she actually wanted me to react to, she would say so when she calmed down. From what I did gather, though, is that my siblings were afraid that something happened to me because I did not send any letters. 'Oops. Completely forgot about that. I might want to send one soon. Then again, Elizabeth is here now and she will probably send tons of letters, so it might not be necessary for me to do so as well.' I can be quite lazy with things that don't really interest me.

Anyway, she practically demanded I show her around. Amelia would not have it, if not for the fact that I had a good track record with following orders and training, so she let me off, just this once.

As such, I showed my sister around, while pointing out some of the more overt rules that I found out during my stay here, so that she did not have to find out the hard way.

Less than an hour later, we were done with the tour, so I had her choose a bunkbed. When she found out the beds surrounding mine were already taken, she demanded to know who the occupants were so that she could 'convince' one of them to give her one. Fiery girl, that one.

Say what you will about me being apathetic, but when someone I know is about to walk into a dangerous situation, I will at least remark on it, so I told her: "Good luck with that, but keep in mind that everyone here has had training and is used to intimidation by now, so you might want to take a more careful approach."

Of course, she grew a bit indignant over that. Luckily, she was smart enough to see my point, so she threw her anger my way instead -if a somewhat adorable pout and a stamping foot can be considered 'anger- and then told me to switch beds myself. Clever.

So, I did. No reason not to. All my important possessions are in my Inventory and there were more than enough bunk beds to go around. Moving beds would not be an issue at all.

Now, you might want to know why Elizabeth wants to sleep near me. The answer is, I think, pretty simple: She is scared and I am the only one here that she knows. As a result, she will stay near me until she is comfortable enough here and I do not mind helping her with that.


Since then, she has grown a lot more comfortable around here. She kept her fiery personality. In fact, she took it upon herself to 'protect' me from the 'bullies'. Basically, the kids in camp knew that I was quite reclusive. I did not like socialising and they quickly understood and left me alone.

Elizabeth, however, saw them not interacting with me and assumed that it was a means to bully me with. Couple that with the fact that I held back enough during spars to always be slightly on the losing side, and she considered me 'in need of protection', even though I had almost 2 years of combat experience over her.

I actually had to pull her aside at one point to explain that I was comfortable being largely left alone and that they were not bullying me. She took it with a grain of salt. That is to say, she still considered me in need of 'protection', but she toned it down for everything except spars now. 'Oh well, can't fix everything, I suppose,' I thought at the time.

Despite having friends of her own in camp, she stuck close to me most of the time.

In one of the conversations we had, she showed me one of the letters she was sending home. Other than the standard 'I am doing well' and the 'We learned this and that', she also included what I did. Again, I did not mind. Letters are not my thing, and I do not care all that much about what is being said about me. I told Elizabeth as much. She continued writing home about me after that, as well.


Physical age: 7 years, 49 days

Today, we had a special guest coming over. That is all we were told. Well, that, and that we had to gather near the entrance in a line formation.

A little bit later, the gate opened and a fancy car came rolling in. The driver stepped out, opened the back door, and helped out a man. A man I recognized.

Valper Galilei, the -future- Genocide Archbishop.

'What is he doing here?' I screamed in my mind. This was not shown in my face, however, courtesy of the combination of a couple abilities, including 'Acting' and 'Gamer's mind'. 'I really hope that he isn't here to recruit for his 'special program'. Who am I kidding? Of course he is. Why else would he be here?'

Valper casually stepped out and observed us. Meanwhile, the driver walked over to the other side of the car, opened the door, and let out another person. This one was a kid. A kid I also recognized.

Freed Sellzen, the -future- rogue exorcist and natural Excalibur wielder.

He stepped out, looked at us, and said: "You fuckwits look weak!" A couple of the kids were getting angry at that. Disregarding that completely, Freed turned to Valper and said: "Do we really have to test these noobs? Can't we just kill them and get it over with, old man?"

He was clearly trying to rile us up, considering that he said all that in English, despite them both being Italian.

With a fake hearty belly laugh, Valper replied: "Of course! We will need more young people for out project. Killing them will have been a waste of our trip!" With that said, he turned back to us.

"Let's see if any of you have what it takes…to be a holy sword wielder!" He said, flashing a smile that did not reach his eyes.

'Damn it. Why does this happen to me?'


AN: This chapter was hard to write. I was getting stuck on how I wanted to approach this chapter so I rewrote, rewrote, and rewrote the chapter again. Don't really know why it was so hard, but I suppose it happens sometimes, especially when you are still trying to find your writing style. Suffice to say, if this is not writer's block, then I really hope I never get writer's block. Anyway, I wrote my way through it and hopefully it will not happen anymore.

On a somewhat related note: I have decided to not be as explicit with the System anymore. Important abilities and changes to the System will obviously be mentioned, but there will be many skills that will not be mentioned until they are used. When they come up, I might make a reference to where it came from, like "Memory retention", but mentioning every ability gained every time will quickly become tedious for me and highly likely for you too. Plus, it gives a bit of an air of mystery as to what David can do. That should make things a bit more interesting, right?

Also, I again apologize for the delay. It was not just the difficulty with the chapter itself. I also have work, driving lessons (including theory), and a whole host of other things to do as well. I want to write. Really. But life can make it quite hard to find the time for it.

As for the next chapter, I am planning on continuing the 'surprise visit' -of course- and a bit of what happens after that.

I did not reach the point I actually wanted to reach in this chapter yet, but I decided to stop it here, regardless. This is 9 full pages people. That is quite a lot :P

With that said, until next time. Hopefully, the next one won't take as long….