My life was hell. That was one of the very few things I knew for certain. Ever since I was four years old I'd been forced to live in a small steel box. It was so small that standing and kneeling were out of the question. All I could do was lay there as doctors did who-knows-what to my body to keep me alive.
When I was four I contracted an unknown disease. It destroyed my immune system, riddled my skin with rashes, and ate away at my muscles, which made it so that I would get sick from even the tiniest of microbes and could hardly move. Not only that, but it also stopped my body from regulating its internal temperature, and it scrambled my digestive track. Each meal I had was goop that was fed into a feeding tube, and I could feel the burning pain as stomach acid leaked through and burned me as it made its way through my intestines.
My existence could be compared to the paradox of Schrödinger's cat. If you put a cat inside of an acid filled box you can't know if the cat is dead or alive without opening the box. In theory the cat is simultaneously dead and alive until proven otherwise.
This machine was the only thing keeping me alive. At least there was a virtual reality headset in here to keep me entertained. Inside was a theater filled with various anime and movies and even a library filled with various manga and books.
It was my only escape, and I used it at every possible second I could. I read so much fiction and non-fiction alike trying to think of things I could do after I finally got cured and was let out of here, but it was made readily apparent after 13 years that it wasn't happening.
So I waited. Eventually I ran out of anime and could only read, and then I ran out of books as well. Thankfully whoever was watching me noticed and supplied me with more. It was probably my parents. I wish they'd just let me die. I wonder, when they eventually open this box will they find a boy or a corpse? I didn't know. I didn't know if I cared either.
Today was my 18th birthday. Hooray... oh who am I kidding. I have nothing to celebrate. Or so I thought.
To celebrate my birthday the doctor's thought it'd be safe to feed me some kind of liquified cake through a straw. It was the first thing I had tasted in 14 years, and it would be my last. I had no intentions of letting this cake smoothie just be a nice treat. It would be the thing that finally set me free.
I didn't swallow anything, and as soon as my mouth was filled to the brim I took as deep a breath as I could. The pain I felt as the cake was pushed down my windpipe was excruciating, but it would be worth it. The freedom would be worth it.
It took everything in my power not to exhale or cough. The doctors were trying to do something, but I put up any form of resistance I could. In the end they opted to finally open this box. I couldn't breathe, and was actively suffocating, but just as the clouds of darkness crept into my vision I was able to see outside the window of my room.
Why they had the kid stuck in a box in a room with a window was beyond me, but I was grateful. The sight of the sunset brought me to tears. Or was that me suffocating to death by cake? I didn't know, nor did I care.
I was free.
And then I was falling.
What?
I looked to my left and then to my right. I looked up and then I looked down. All around me was just a pitch black void and I didn't stop falling.
No.
No no no no no.
I did not kill myself just to get stuck in a bigger box.
I tried bringing my hands up to my throat, but my body wouldn't react.
God damnit!
I don't know how long it's been. Everything hurts. I'm still falling.
Still falling.
Falling.
Was it worth it?
...
...
...
No.
...
I want my box back.
...
Why? Why was this happening? I just wanted to be free. Was that too much to ask for?
{Request heard. Request granted. Reincarnation granted. Scanning soul... scanning past life for possible skills... the unique skills Analyst and Paradox have been acquired successfully. Scanning knowledge for possible skills... the extra skills Forge, Witchcraft, and Craftsman have been acquired successfully. Attempting evolution of skills... success. The extra skills Forge, Witchcraft, and Craftsman have combined and evolved into the unique skill Manufacturer... evolution of Manufacturer confirmed. The unique skill Manufacturer has evolved into the unique skill Alchemist. WARNING! The unique skill Paradox is incomplete. This skill can be released at anytime, but it is dangerous. The power of the skill may put the user in danger. Please use with caution.}
What? Who was talking?
{Beginning reincarnation... failure. Soul's structure is incompatible with the cardinal world... searching for alternative solution... success. Connecting soul to Voice of the World to allow skill growth... success. Reincarnating soul into the six-sided world... success.}
I felt like I was getting suffocated. All I could see when I tried to open my eyes was dark red walls crushing me.
Just as soon as I had awakened I was freed from whatever that was. Then I was met with the face of a beautiful woman with maroon hair and lilac colored eyes. She was huge! She held me easily in one hand and brought two of her fingers to my chest. I reached up to try and stop her, but then I realized just how small my hands were compared to her's... wait a minute.
She's not huge, I'm just tiny! Wait that voice! Was I really reincarnated? Wait what did that word mean? I knew it from somewhere, but I couldn't remember where.
As soon as I thought of the question a bunch of information flooded my mind. Yes, I was reincarnated. Not only that, but during my reincarnation I was granted skills by something called the Voice of the World. One of these skills was incomplete, and for now I'd be leaving it like that. I also knew the definition of reincarnation and how the process worked.
The woman looked down at me worryingly. Someone I couldn't see spoke in a language I couldn't understand. The woman holding me answered back and handed me to the stranger. The new woman looked down at me with worry in her eyes. She looked exhausted.
She held a hand over me and said another string of words I couldn't understand. However, I was in for a shock when the woman's hand started glowing and green light fell on me. I was filled with a warm and pleasant feeling. The woman still looked worried and spoke a different string of words and put a hand to my stomach.
It tickled, but she still looked worried. Don't tell me something was wrong with me already. For some reason the prospect of being born sick terrified me. As soon as I thought about it I couldn't help but cry.
After I cried for a few minutes I got super tired and fell asleep.
It's been a month since I was reincarnated. In just one month I was able to learn the language with the help of my Analyst skill. I didn't know my parent's names since they called each other little nicknames and Lilia just called them "my lord" and "my lady".
Lilia was the name of our maid. She did pretty much all the housework, but my mother would occasionally do the cooking. Lilia was the one I spent most of my time with. My mother was worried about my health and forbid me from ever being alone.
I didn't particularly understand it until I saw what I looked like in a mirror. Lilia was carrying me around while she was cleaning. Upstairs in what I assumed was a study was a small mirror on a desk. I could barely see myself in Lilia's arms. I was pale, super pale. Just a few shades too dark to be called snow white, and my hair was blonde, but it was oddly light. Something inside me told me that babies weren't supposed to look like that.
I certainly looked sick, but something inside told me that it was a side effect of my Paradox skill. From how I knew that I figured it was my Analyst skill telling me that. Since I had nothing better to do other than sleep I figured I'd try and learn about my skills.
A bunch of information flooded my mind, and it ended up taking me a few weeks to fully cipher through the knowledge. Thankfully I had plenty of free time.
Alchemist was a pretty diverse skill. It was split up into the sub-skills Forge, Witchcraft, and Craftsman.
Forge allowed me to heat and shape metals with my hands, but for detailed work I'd need to get an anvil. Forge would provide the tools I needed.
Witchcraft allowed me to summon a book that had multiple spells, rituals, hexes, and potion recipes written inside it. Any spells I learnt would be added to the book, and I could even create my own spells by writing in the book. It also allowed me to control plants.
Craftsman wasn't as simple as I thought it would be. Craftsman allowed me to connect and disconnect materials to create objects. For instance if I got the ingredients for a cake I could merely connect the ingredients to create the cake instead of having to go through the baking process. Similarly I could break a cake down into its core ingredients. Lastly Craftsman allowed me to transmutate items. Like changing metals from one metal to another so long as they had the same value. If an object I was transmutating had more value than the item I wanted I would get a bunch of that item, and if an item I wanted had more value than an item I had I'd have to use multiple of that item to get one version of what I wanted.
Analyst helped me do a bunch of stuff. It was composed of the sub-skills Thought Acceleration, Analytical Appraisal, Chant Annulment, and All of Creation.
Thought Acceleration allowed me to mentally process things 500 times faster than a regular person could. Unfortunately this sub-skill only boosted my perception and not my speed, so I wouldn't be able to act during this time. Only think, but maybe if I got good enough at magic I'd be able to use it during that state? Questions for later.
Analytical Appraisal sent out a pulse of magic to scan an item and tell me what a thing is made of, how much magic it has, and if it's under the effect of magic or not.
Chant Annulment allowed me to skip the incantation of a spell simply by saying the spell's name. To do this I needed to cast the spell successfully one time.
All of Creation was not what I thought it was. When I thought of the name I thought it would be some kind of creation skill, but instead it was a skill that allowed me to gain all the knowledge of something once I had a basic understanding about it.
Paradox was complicated. It allowed me to stop existing in one spot and start existing in a different spot. To do this I couldn't be seen by anyone. So long as I was unobserved I was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. While I couldn't be seen when I stopped existing I could reappear wherever I wanted. Analyst would help me make sure I didn't reappear inside a wall or anything. Analyst told me that the skill was incomplete, and could be completed whenever I wanted, but it'd flood my mind with so much information that if it didn't outright fry my brain then I'd go insane, but there might be ways around it. I'll go through with it if I get bored enough.
I'll live this life however I want, even if that means it gets thrown away by some stupid mistake. So long as the mistake was mine to make. Something inside me burned with the want to live life by my own rules.
That was it for my skills. A tad bit complicated, but nothing I couldn't handle... I think.
For now I'd just practice in secret. I wouldn't be able to summon my book, but I could try experimenting on my crib. The only time where I didn't have eyes on me was when everyone else was asleep, so I just stayed up and waited for them all to sleep.
My brother shared a crib with me, and unfortunately he didn't often fall asleep before I did. He'd just sit there and wait for me to fall asleep before he laid down. It was annoying to just sit there, but eventually he caved and passed out.
Another glance around the room confirmed that my parents were asleep. I grabbed the bars of my crib and tried using Alchemist. I tried being specific about what I wanted it to do and if you paid real close attention you could see the grooves in the wood shift from side to side. I could only keep it up for a minute before feeling tired and passing out.
When I woke up in the morning Analyst let me know that I had passed out because I used to much mana. I guess I'd have to look out for that. Apparently the amount of mana I had also went up.
I wish Analyst could speak instead of just putting the information in my head. Some kind of autonomy would help prevent stuff like that from happening.
I felt a pause in my head as if Analyst was about to grant me more knowledge, but it stopped at the last second. That was weird, but I'll just go about my day for now. And by that I meant start crying so that I can get a diaper change and Lilia's attention. Let's skip ahead shall we?
I was now seven months old and my brother had started to crawl. I had as well, but I wasn't as energetic as he was. I only ever crawled to get from one person to another. Meanwhile Rudeus crawled anywhere he could. He'd even crawl outside the house, but he never seemed to go near the gate.
"I swear. I take my eyes off of him for a second and he disappears just to show up half way across the house."
I peeked over Lilia's arm to see Zenith looking for Rudeus while he hid under the table with a pair of panties being worn on his head. Pervert.
Oh yeah, I had finally learnt my parents' names. My mother was Zenith and my father was Paul.
"Do you want down Young Master?"
Lilia looked down at me questioningly. Her usual stoic expression was betrayed by a warmness in her eyes. It had taken a while, but with Analyst's help I was able to pick up on Lilia's emotional tells. It was all in her eyes.
I answered her by closing my eyes and lying back down in her arm.
At this point I was fairly certain that my brother was also a reincarnator. The way he stared and groped the breasts of Zenith and Lilia simply wasn't normal for a child. He'd squish them together and stuff his face in between them while grasping them with his tiny hands.
It was disgusting, and Lilia despised it.
The way he'd grin just by looking at her made her flinch. At least while she was holding me I could position myself so that if she had to hold him he couldn't grab her breasts. He didn't seem to like me all that much, but the feeling was mutual. For now I'd just focus on something new I figured out while practicing magic.
With my eyes closed I let my mana flow out of me with no real objective. Then I focused on that mana and the way it interacted with the area around me. It first happened about two months ago. When I tried controlling a plant in the window from my crib. The mana was about halfway from the pot before an image of the room flashed in my mind.
So for the past two months I've been trying to recreate it with Analyst's help. It had been going pretty well. I'd been able to catch glimpses of things every now and again, but it seems that today would be the day where I got what I wanted.
The experiment went about as it usually did, but as I really focused on how my mana moved and shifted in the air I started seeing small flashes as my mana reflected against light rays in the air. I didn't remember where I knew that from, but Analyst took the knowledge and applied to my experiment.
Next thing I knew everything got bright and I could see the whole room. I could see every single detail. Every groove in the wood of the table, floor, and wall. I could see each and every strand of hair on everyone's heads and each crease in the clothing everyone wore.
{Acquisition of the extra skill Magic Sense succe- succes- succ- su- s-s-s-... Activating Analytical Appraisal on Voice of the World... success. Way to speak found. The unique skill Analyst may now speak to master through the same means as Voice of the World.}
Woah. I've never heard the voice glitch like that, and Analyst can talk now?
{Answer. Through the same means as Voice of the World it is now possible for Analyst to speak and take preemptive action and prevent Master from overstepping his magical boundaries.}
That's great! With that I'll be able to really test my limits. So long as you look after me of course. For now I just needed to figure out how to hold my Magic Sense back. Sure my vision had drastically improved, but this was too much. If I had to constantly see every single detail like this I'd never be able to focus on anything.
{Notice. The unique skill Analyst shall take control of Magic Sense.}
Things dimmed down a little, but I was still able to see all around me. This little upgrade would be more useful than I thought huh. Wait a minute, if you can control the amount of information I get from Magic Sense could you do the same if I released Paradox?
{Answer. To answer this question a full analysis of Paradox must be done. Begin analysis?}
Yes. Do that. Guess all I had to do now was practice and wait.
It's been a little less than a year and a half so Rudeus and I were both 2 years old now. We had both started talking, but I made sure to follow his example and keep my sentences to simple standards. They were never more than 4 words. Well, except for when I talked to Lilia. I spoke regularly when I talked to her.
She had found out about my ability to use magic one day when I had gotten careless. I was so focused on controlling the vines of the plants I had hidden in Paul's study that I didn't even recognize Lilia with Magic Sense until it was too late. I told her I wanted to tell my parents when I was ready, so she had to keep it a secret. Thankfully it would seem that she was keeping her promise.
But that probably had to do with me being her favorite. Rudeus's perverted tendencies had really gotten to her. One night when we were still babies she tried performing an exorcism ritual on him.
Unfortunately nothing about him changed.
But this did have the unexpected outcome of me becoming Lilia's shield. Anytime Rudeus's stares or grabs became too overbearing I always found a way to either put him in his place or to cause a commotion so Lilia had an excuse to give Rudeus to Zenith.
Something I learnt about my body as I grew older did sadden me a bit. Okay it was actually more than just a bit. My body was weak. Terribly weak. I couldn't even manage to open the door to Paul's study. Granted, a broom had fallen and lodged itself between the door and the desk, but I shouldn't have had that much trouble opening the damn thing. In the end I had to cave in and use Paradox to teleport inside.
Once the broom was moved I was able to open the door, albeit with more effort than should have been required. I had to put almost all my weight to pull the door handle down. Inside the room was a desk with a mirror, some paper, some shelves, some vases, and a chest in the corner.
The chest piqued my interest, so I walked over and tried opening the chest. It shocked no one that I couldn't even budge it. Thankfully there was a potted plant sitting on the desk. It was a small flower. Zenith liked decorating with small plants like these. She grew them in her garden outside.
I brought the plant over to the chest and used Alchemist to grow vines out of the pot. With the vines I was easily able to open the chest and pull out five books. Two of them were fairytales, one was a monster encyclopedia, one was a book about various places around the world, and the last one was a textbook on magic.
I put the other books aside and started flipping through the pages of the magic textbook. With Analyst and Thought Acceleration all I had to do was glance at a page and move on. Analyst gave me a photographic memory, so all I needed was a single detailed glance at the page and Analyst would never let me never forget its contents.
Thanks to my skills I had the book memorized in less than an hour. I did the same thing quickly with the other books. Since Paul liked reading Rudeus and I the story of the three swordsmen and the labyrinth I was able to use it to learn the language. Analyst made quick work of it. I placed the books, chest, and plant back as I found them.
I could feel Alchemist reacting to something as I put the books back. Once everything was in order I activated Alchemist and summoned my Witchcraft book. I suppose calling it a grimoire or a spell book would be a better description for it. I'll go with grimoire.
I flipped through my grimoire and found a bunch of empty pages that were being filled out. Each one was a spell that I had seen in the magic textbook, but they were rewritten in a way that made them easier to understand. There was an incantation, magic circle, and even ways to put the spell in a bottle.
The bottled spells were weaker than casting them normally, but could be stored for times when you needed a spell but didn't have the mana. It was an interesting concept, but I'd need a cauldron and something told me that both Lilia and Zenith would be angry if I used the one in the kitchen.
It was just another thing I had to add to the back burner. I carefully maneuvered my way down the steps, which was a major chore, and went over and sat at the table. Analyst estimated that it'd take another month or so until it was done analyzing Paradox.
It was taking longer than Analyst had originally estimated due to part of it being unfinished. To analyze that part of the skill without activating it was extremely difficult, so it was gonna take a while. Once it was done with that it was going to fully analyze my other skills.
Now I had more things to occupy myself with at least.
Rudy and I were now three years old. Similar to me, Rudy had started practicing magic, but he did his practice when he was alone upstairs in Paul's study. He's been making some large messes with Water Ball, so I've had to ask Lilia to keep his secret as well.
She noticed something was up when she entered to clean the room and the floor was soaked. She immediately noticed that the textbook he was holding was flipped to the Water Ball page. If not for me she may have told our parents about his magic.
The only times I could practice magic were when everyone was asleep or when it was just me and Lilia. Since it was early in the spring both Zenith and Paul were fairly busy with their jobs, so I had plenty of free time. My only issue was that beginner tier spells haven't been able to fully empty my mana pool in a while, so my mana pool was still growing but it wasn't growing as fast as what it could be.
"Hey Lilia, can I help you with sweeping? I want to practice my wind magic and this seems like an efficient way to do so."
Lilia stopped sweeping and bowed.
"You may do as you wish young master."
Lilia stopped sweeping and started dusting. I used Alchemist to summon my grimoire and flipped through the pages until I got to the Gust spell. It was basically the wind version of Water Ball. I pointed it at the pile of dirt Lilia had gathered and opened the door.
"Air, heed my call. Stir and rise. Carry the breath of the earth into motion. Let the wind awaken. Gust."
The dirt was carried on the wind and thrown into the yard.
Lilia held her stoic expression, but mild curiosity lingered in her eyes as she glanced at me.
That was my first time casting Gust, but it was supposed to be more of an experiment instead of practice. I usually practiced Water Ball since that could get me something to drink, but since Water Ball couldn't put a dent in my reserves I thought maybe a different beginner tier spell could work, but it seems I was mistaken. Even if I had a constant stream of wind flowing through the house I wouldn't empty my reserves.
I lazily flipped through my grimoire to see if there were any spells that weren't destructive or too noticeable. I got past the spells I already had and I started flipping through various witchcraft instructions. Past that was a bunch of blank pages.
I was going to go back to double check, but something told me to keep going. It was reminiscent of when Analyst would give me random bits of information before it gained its voice.
At the very back of the book were seven pages filled with weapon schematics. Despite not being able to read whatever language these schematics were written in, I was able to perfectly understand what they were trying to convey. These weapons were bad. Or at least they weren't good.
Simply knowing about these weapons' existence was the second highest count of blasphemy one could commit. The highest count of blasphemy would be making and wielding the weapons. What it was blaspheming against I didn't know, but what I did know was that it would be near impossible to forge these things.
The simplest list of ingredients was for a special magic spear. First you needed a regular spear to add onto, then you needed a wrathful spirit, a shard of a broken vow, the blood of betrayal, the echo of a dying scream, a shard of war, and a human soul. And this was only the first part.
This schematic alone was weaker than the others, but once you made the spear the schematic would change to show you how to upgrade it to get to their level.
Something told me I wouldn't be able to make these weapons for a long time. Or I'd at least need to find some way to gather these things. I didn't even know how you'd get a shard of a broken vow, an echo of a dying scream, or a wrathful spirit, but if I had access to these things then maybe I'd be able to make them, eventually.
Analyst estimated that it'd take longer to analyze the ingredients for a single schematic than it took to analyze Paradox. I had it start analyzing the spear, which was named Violence, and flipped past the schematics. There were only 5 pages left, and the last page only had a picture of a bunch of threads. The threads were neatly spun on spools and neatly arranged in a box.
The other four pages had the recipes to craft items used to summon great beasts. The body parts of these creatures could be used in both forging and potion making. Once I was a bit older I'd look forward to that. Of course I'd need to find a way to increase my strength before that.
My eyes were drawn to the last page with the picture of some threads. My hand instinctively reached forward and went inside the picture. I grabbed the box and pulled it out of the picture. The box held seven threads and two needles.
There was purple, red, orange, green, yellow, cyan, and deep blue.
Unlike the schematics I couldn't understand what the words referring to threads meant, but the needles were a different story.
One needle was used to stitch the threads and the other was used to unlock someone's skills. It didn't let me grant skills however I wanted, but instead it let me allow someone to gain skills. They'd go through the same process I did and would gain skills based on their knowledge and life choices.
I yawned and closed the book. So I couldn't do anything other than cast those other spells? But intermediate and advanced tier magic were too dangerous to be cast inside. Should I tell Rudeus about that? Nah, even he's not stupid enough to cast intermediate magic inside. Besides, he's just been sticking to Water Ball for the past year.
Hmmm. You know what screw it. I'll unleash Paradox. What could possibly go wrong?
{Notice. Complete the unique skill Paradox?
Y/N?}
Yes.
An intense pain stabbed into my head. I wanted to scream, but it felt like I was frozen. It felt like someone was grabbing my head and tearing it open with their bare hands. As soon as I blinked I was sitting in an entirely separate room.
The room was constantly rotating, and even though I could feel gravity pulling me down when I was upside down I never fell out of my seat.
I wanted to look around, but my focus sat on the man sitting in front of me. He was wearing a shirt so torn up that it covered nothing. His chest was covered in countless scars.
Thankfully his pants were intact. His skin and hair were both stark white. His right eye had stitches across it that kept it shut. Underneath his eyes were heavy bags.
His lips were gone, so his teeth and gums were completely exposed. His one opened eye had a silver iris.
Just before I could speak he opened his mouth and his words were channeled straight into my head.
"Heh. It worked. So Nanahoshi was right after all."
To my surprise the voice he used was the same as the Voice of the World and Analyst.
"Wh-who are you?"
"Me? I am you. Oliver Greyrat. More specifically, I am you from the future."
What? But how can-
"You just awakened Paradox. I'm just gonna get straight to the point. I'm stuck in a loop. I'm born, I die, I get reborn, and then I start all over again. This is the first loop that's diverged from the usual path. Mainly in the fact that instead of being born again I was thrown back into that damned void."
I couldn't help but flinch at the mention of the pit.
"Sorry. I guess that that hell is still pretty fresh for you."
"If you really are me and you're stuck in a loop then why are you here?"
The man shifted slightly in his seat.
"You see kid, I've made a few mistakes. Oh hell who am I kidding. I've made millions of them. It all went down hill after I awakened Schrödinger, or as you know it Paradox. Right now as we're having this conversation your mind is imploding, and the Voice of the World is pulling all the strings it can to keep you alive. You're more valuable than you realize. You're the Voice of the World's only foothold in this world. I don't know what it's looking for, but it's been trying to get its reach over every world it can. So right now it's using one of those threads in your grimoire to cool your head. Literally."
"What?"
"Each of those seven threads holds something called a sin skill."
He pointed at the cyan thread on his right eye.
"When it gives you this skill, it and Schrödinger will be the only skills you carry through your rebirth. Alchemist and whatever else you get won't follow you. When it gave me mine it stitched my mouth closed to stop my screams. This led to multiple complications, so I had to rip them out and put them somewhere else. That somewhere else was my eye. I stepped in to stop you from dealing with that, so the stitches will be on one of your eyes. The additional skill will be better if your original incision is in your eye anyway, so it's a win win."
I didn't understand anything that he was talking about. Sin skills, additional skills, what did any of that mean?
"Well I can answer one of those questions. And before you say anything, yes, I can read your thoughts. The additional skill is something you get whenever a sin or holy thread is used on you. You only get one for each thread, and the skill you get is based on where the incision is. Mine was the mouth and gave me a skill that let me telepathically communicate with whoever I wanted, so long as I had made some form of physical contact with them. Since your first incision will be your eye I don't know what skill you'll get."
"Okay I can get you telling me about the loop, but I don't get this whole lecture on stitches and incisions."
"It's so that you don't recklessly use the threads. One of the mistakes I made was thinking that there was no consequence for using the threads. For now you only have sin threads, but once your Alchemist evolves you'll gain access to holy threads. If you get anything out of this chat then let it be this. Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should you use the threads labeled Michael, Satanael, and Lucifer. They will only cause harm, and if you ever have to use them then use them on yourself. It doesn't matter if they could save the person you love the most. You must NEVER allow those three to be let loose."
The room started creaking and I could see cracks appearing on the wall behind him.
"Seems time is running out. Things are gonna be a bit of a mess when you wake up. Rudeus may be smart, but he sure as hell isn't wise, but try to get along with him. You'll want him as an ally, and if it looks like he'll be your enemy then trust me when I say that it isn't worth the risk of leaving him alive. As for Paul, do me a favor. In the extremely likely chance that you feel the need to kill him before you do, turn him into a young girl and sell him to a noble named Darius Silva Ganius in the Aruran capital. Not only could you get some hefty sacks of gold for him, I'd love knowing that bastard could suffer for the shit he's done."
The cracks were spreading faster and faster each second.
"All we've gotta do is this."
The older me flipped one of his hands so that the palm faced upwards. A line of purple stitches ran across it. The stitches were torn open to reveal a mouth with jagged teeth and a long slithering tongue.
"Someone I cared very deeply for gave me this. You'll meet her soon. The girl with blue hair is older than she looks. I'm gonna die now. Probably for good. When that happens, assuming this works, I'll turn into a marble. Eat that and I'll be absorbed into your skills. We'll really be Schrödinger's cat then. I'll exist in your soul as a dead version of you, and you walk around the material plane as the living version. Which one is real? Is it both? Or neither? Cough cough cough. Ugh. My memories will be written in your grimoire like a journal. I hope that it along with whatever power you get from absorbing me helps you to not make my mistakes."
The tongue grew larger and started wrapping around his arm like a living bandage. The tongue stretched further until it fully wrapped around him like a cocoon, and popped. A small black orb fell down and rolled towards me. Now in control of my body I reached down and picked up the small orb.
I popped it in my mouth and swallowed. Shockingly it didn't have a taste and disappeared before it even got down my throat.
Then I woke up. Only one of my eyes opened up. Feeling my right eye I could feel the thread crossing over the eye from my cheek to my eyebrow in X shapes. They were spread enough that if I could open the eye I'd still be able to see through.
I fought the weight of my eye and barely opened it enough to see through it. Everything I saw had some kind of string flowing off of it. I didn't know what it was, and for the first time ever Analyst didn't tell me what something was when I asked. I got my answer as to why soon.
{Notice. Thread of Sloth confirmed. The unique skill Sloth has been acquired successfully. Incision occurred in the eye. The unique skill All-Seeing Eye has been acquired successfully. Absorption of individual Oliver Greyrat confirmed. Unique skill Paradox has evolved into the ultimate skill Schrödinger, Paradoxical Lord. Ultimate skill Schrödinger, Paradoxical Lord has absorbed the essence of Oliver Greyrat. A paradox has been created. The extra skill Shift Layer has been acquired successfully. The consumption of Oliver Greyrat, the acquisition of Schrödinger, Paradoxical Lord, and Sloth has led to the acquisition of insanity immunity. Unique skill Analyst has absorbed the essence of Oliver Greyrat. The unique skill Analyst has evolved and split into the unique skills Clairvoyance and Investigator. The unique skill Clairvoyance has been absorbed by All-Seeing Eye. Investigator has been absorbed by All-Seeing Eye. All-Seeing Eye has evolved into the Unique skill Prophet. Attempting race divergence evolution from Human to Chaos elemental... failure. Attempting race divergence evolution from Human to Human Paradox... failure. Researching reason for failure... no compatible evolution. Reason: not enough mana. Using Prophet to see the future... estimated time until evolution: 2 years.}
That was the most I'd ever heard the voice talk. So I've not only got some new skills, but some of my old ones evolved? Nice.
Now I had a more powerful Analyst. I'd have to get its details later. I closed my right eye and peaked around. I didn't see Lilia anywhere downstairs. I raised the output of my Magic Sense and saw my parents arguing upstairs. Rudy and Lilia were also in the room. I couldn't see the wall, so I decided to go upstairs. Lilia had finished saying something before I walked in.
I don't know what I expected, but a giant hole in the wall definitely wasn't it. As soon as I walked through the door my mother screamed and grabbed my face.
"Ollie what happened?! You're so pale, your hair, and what happened to your eye?!"
"Would you believe me if I said a spell gone wrong?"
My mother blanked and my father looked dumb founded. In the corner of my eye I could see Rudeus snicker.
"Heh. That makes two of us I guess."
"At least I knew there was a risk when I cast my spell. Plus I didn't destroy a wall."
Rudeus flinched at my one-eyed glare.
"Oliver Greyrat. Explain."
My mother's facial expression showed that she couldn't decide to be happy or angry.
I immediately activated Thought Acceleration and came up with a lie that Prophet thought they could believe. I could instantly see that Prophet's Thought Acceleration was more than double Analyst's. I'd have to reveal my grimoire for this to work, but I should be able to keep my other secrets.
"I tried casting a spell called All-Seeing Eye. It worked, but I had to create this magic stitch to control it. The spell was way stronger than I thought and tried showing me the whole world. It was too much, so I used magic to stitch it shut. I can still see just fine though, so you don't have to worry."
My father crossed his arms.
"And just where did you find this spell?"
He looked... proud? Why? Ugh, it's Paul. Why do I even ask?
I held out my hand and summoned my grimoire. It floated in the air above my hand and flipped through the pages before stopping on a fake page. It depicted a spell called All-Seeing Eye. The page listed the risk of casting the spell and how to help, which was a made up way to use magic to make stitches.
"Where'd you find that?"
Now Paul looked angry.
"It's a part of my soul. Doesn't everyone have one?"
To prove my point I dismissed the grimoire and summoned it multiple times.
"But what do you mean my hair and skin?"
Zenith and Paul exchanged worried glances before my mother picked me up and brought me to the mirror in the room. Shockingly it was left unharmed despite the debris sitting around the desk.
My skin and hair had gone stark white just like the future me. My hair had also grown slightly. It was now almost to my shoulders. My eye had even gone from a light blue to silver.
"Ha! Would ya look at that. Using magic to peep at ladies. He's got more Greyrat blood than I thought."
Huh? Both my mother and Lilia looked at me. Lilia almost looked understanding, but my mother looked near furious. Guess I'd really have to sell this. Another use of Thought Acceleration not only gave me another lie, but also gave me an idea for later.
"What? No. I wanted to try to see a place where some special herbs grew. I wanted to make a potion that made me stronger. That way I wouldn't have to be so weak. I'm not a creepy weirdo like you."
"Ack! H-hey come on now. Surely you don't mean that? It was just a joke right?"
Mom looked relieved and Lilia had her stoic expression back on, but her eyes had a light glistening in them that I hadn't seen before. I hid behind Zenith as Paul tried reaching out to me. His face was pitiful.
"Of course Ollie wouldn't use a spell for such degenerate acts."
Zenith looked back at me worryingly.
"But do you really think you're weak? You know it's normal for kids to be weaker than adults right?"
Oh right. I never really spoke about my lack of strength around Zenith. Actually I'm pretty sure the only one who had known was Lilia.
"I know that, but I'm weak. Compared to Rudeus I'm like a feather. I have to struggle to open doors if they aren't left cracked. I can hardly hold the books around the house without pulling a muscle, and while I'm not fragile I'm not exactly durable either."
The sentences I was stringing together were definitely too large for a regular three year old, but they would already think I was special because of my grimoire, so this should be fine.
Rudeus put a finger to his chin and hummed.
"But could you use that spell to peek on them?"
Now it was his turn to be in the spotlight. Paul immediately lost his grin when he saw Zenith's face.
"Technically speaking, yes I can, but to do so would be a breach of privacy. To use a spell for such degenerate acts is disgusting."
Rudy kept glancing between me and my grimoire. I sighed, reached in, and tore out the page with the All-Seeing Eye spell. I then burnt the page much to his despair. Lilia's stoic expression cracked as a small smile spread across her face.
Mom also looked happy and Rudeus looked dejected. At least I'd be able to freely practice magic now. Something told me that these next few months would be pretty interesting.
So a new horizon approaches! What's up everybody! Most of you probably will be coming here from my other fics, Rosey Reincarnation and Withered Reincarnation. I also welcome the people who haven't read those two and this is the first one of my fics you've read. Similar to Withered Reincarnation this fic doesn't have a set release schedule, but will instead update as soon as I finish proof reading and editing chapters.
To hopefully help with chapter production this fic's word count will be from 5k-7k per chapter. This chapter was 8k since I wanted to get to a certain stopping point and the extended Author's Notes.
I would've had this chapter out about a week ago, but I started rewriting the chapter to find a good way for the reincarnation to happen without it dragging on, but to not have it be a snap your fingers situation. I've got about 6 different versions of this chapter all of which have about 4k words.
Small explanation of what happened to Oliver before his reincarnation since there's no way to fit an explanation into the story. Instead of proceeding to the after life after his death Oliver was cast into the void. The void constantly ate away at his mind until it consumed all his memories. Each little cut is about a 2,000 years jump ahead. By the time he is reincarnated he has lost all of his memories and can only access his knowledge because his skills hold onto it for him.
Unfortunately the Withered Reincarnation chapter may be pushed back a little, but the chapter will be out by the 20th. I had some unexpected things pop up like getting sick and rescheduling a college tour, but these next few days I have nothing planned.
See you guys in the next one!