"Out Loud Speech"
'Thoughts'
[Powers]
Genuinely important things
First time trying to write in a long, long time. please bear with me.
Waking up after dying is very unsettling. I dont even know where I am and only feel a strong sense of "Wrong-ness".
"He's awake!" a feminine voice far to close to my ears yells, leaving them ringing.
Instinctively I move to cover my ears, pausing partway through when I see my arms, and the proportions are off.
"What is... going on?" I say, voice croaky and decidedly young-sounding.
The Voice from before peaks her head in front of my face, a worried frown on her face. "You are at the clinic, one of the our apprentice's found you in the forest while they were gathering herbs."
Now that she mentions it, I do smell a slight amount of antiseptic. Looking around I see plain white walls and a couple other beds. All empty except the one I'm in.
Coughing into my hand in a attempt to clear my throat, I ask the woman.
"What happened?"
She looks at me with pittying eyes before visibly steadying herself "Thats what I wanted to ask you, Why were you in the Forest?"
I dont remember anything about a forest. I died in a car crash because I was on my phone, In the middle of the city. nowhere near any forest... wait... is this...?
"I.. don't remember.." I say as convincingly as possible, excitement racing in my heart.
Isekai. the best thing to ever happen to anyone ever.
She looks at me again, looking for something on my face before sighing and standing up.
"Well, My name is Jasmin, but you can call me Jaz. Right now your at Mystic Hamlet, the town directly outside the Barrier. You know what that is right?"
She questions me before shaking her head "Whats your name anyway?"
My name eh? I'm a kid again, and no-one knows who I am.. I can call myself something cool.
"Alex"
Before I think of anything cool, my stupid mouth spouts out my name, Goddamn it, stuck with this name again.
"No last name?" Jaz asks, before shaking her head. "Well, it doesn't matter. Our healer healed you up a few hours ago, if you still cant remember anything then its not coming back."
She looks at me questioningly, before I remember she asked me a question..
"Barrier? No. I'm sorry, I don't remember anything about a Barrier. What is it?" I ask to try to buy time, testing all the classic isekai phrases. 'Quests' 'inventory' [Menu] ...Menu Worked!
All it has is 2 options, Items and Stats. I... recognize this menu... This is the Menu from Undertale. is that where I am? But not in the underground... I wonder..
I get up suddenly, Jaz stopping mid explanation of what the Barrier is.
"I'm sorry... I have to go to the bathroom.." I say in a faux embarrassed tone.
Jaz looks down at me and I realize for the first time exactly how young I am. I can only guess but I look about 4ft tall. Probably 9 or 8 years old.
She nods, before pointing to a door in the corner "Just in there. Be careful, you should be fully healed but honestly better safe then sorry."
Looking into the mirror I see myself, Back at how I looked at 8 years old. Long brown hair and Plain blue eyes. No special Sapphire blue eyes or Ocean or anything. This isn't Harry Potter with piercing green eyes or something. I'm wearing a set of plain black shorts with a button up blue polo. I think this was the uniform of my elementary school.
Now onto more Important things, Looking back to the still open [Menu].
Equipped
Armor: Fancy Belt Buckle (3 Def)
Weapon: Empty
Items
Keys (Dont think these will work here)
Portable battery (37% charge)
Lump of scrap metal (this used to be a phone)
That sounds about right, shame about my phone though. Now for the stats...
Stats
Alex LV1 HP20/20
AT:0
DEF:3
MдǥǀÇ: LOCKED
EXP:0
To next level: 10
Ok that seems kind of glitchy. Its always been in my headcanon that humans can use magic. Otherwise how would they have built the [Barrier]? I can feel the bold text somehow.
Maybe this is my Isekai boon? Ill have to ask Jaz about magic... She said something about apprentices earlier, maybe I can segway that into magic somehow.
I flush the toilet before leaving the bathroom, walking out I cant see her in here anymore but the door to the outside is wide open. I find her sitting outside feeding an infant from a bottle, she looks at me and puts a finger to her lips in a motion to stay silent. I nod and look around before I choke out a sound when my eyes come across a large cavern, where inside is a large wall of light.
So this is the [Barrier]. Holy shit. This is way more impressive then in the game. I don't really understand some of the stuff from the game, likely plot holes that have been filled in a real life setting.
20 minutes pass in relative silence as I look at the cave where the barrier is visible. I need information more then anything and this doesn't look like the place to get it. Jaz comes back outside from putting the baby to sleep, sitting next to me.
"How are you feeling?" She asks
"Tired, comfused and oddly ambitious." I replied, not truly thinking my words through.
"Ambitious about what?"
I Wave my hand towards the Barrier "This" I say vaguely "Magic, how did they do that?" I question, not truly expecting an answer.
She grabs my hands and makes me look her in the eyes before pulling me into a awkward side hug.
"Magic isnt something everyone can do. You need to be born with a talent. The talent could be anything, from vague ones with huge potential to extremely narrow ones with specific uses." Jaz says, taking a deep breath before continuing.
"If you are born with a talent then there are two options for you, depending on the talent. If its a common talent like fire, water, earth or air then you can go to an academy. If you have a rarer talent like healing then you can go to a church to learn."
Jaz takes a steadying breath before raising her hands, an image of a battery charging appearing before her.
"Then you have the exotic talents, like me. They arent better or worse but they arent common enough to be taught at a school. My talent is called [Charging]. I use it to charge the [Barrier]. It would take thousands of years for the [Barrier] to deteriorate naturally without someone to charge it, but I do it anyway. its part of my Civil service."
She looks at me and smiles "Of course, you need to test your talent at the Church before making a decision. having magic at all is considered rare but not rare enough to consider not even testing."
I take a minute to soak all the information in, feel a headache coming along yet. Jaz gets up and pulls me to my feet, we start walking towards a very church like building.
oh, were doing it right now.
Going into the church was kind of nerve wracking, as there was another smaller barrier protecting it. Jaz explained it as some kind of ward that keeps monsters out. We went in fine and she didn't seem to think it was anything special. She looked amused as i hesitated before crossing the ward. Nothing happened and I let out a sigh.
"Caretaker Jasmine, nice to see you again!" a very friendly man in robes says loudly.
"Priest Hennic, it is nice to see you again aswell. I need to have a childs talent tested, would you be willing?" she asks, smiling at the man.
Hes clearly a Priest, I dont know of what religion and I dont want to know. If I was asked if I was religious before I would have said no but now? Maybe Buddhist. Reincarnation being the very clear reason...
wait I wasnt paying attention
"Alex, yes?" The Priest asks, I must have missed alot of the conversation if I missed her saying my own name.
"Hello.. Priest Hennic, it is nice to meet you." I say plainly
"Are you ready to have your talent tested?" He asks in a very friendly way I could imagine some mascot making, trying to make me excited. I am but I have a Image to build!
"yes"
"..."
"..."
"Well? Come on up to the center of the runic circle." he says with a bit of impatience.
ah, he must have explained it while I wasn't paying attention. oops
I walk up the steps and stand in the middle of a circle that I can only describe as looking like something from FullMetal Alchemist, just imagining this might be some kind ot human transmutation gives me a feeling on my back.
The Priest grabbed a handful of some powder and threw it at me, the powder froze in midair while near me and the Runic circle lit up, all the powder getting absorbed into it. I feel something in my chest when
words pop up in front of me.
Congratulations!
You have unlocked Your [Magic]!
Assigning talent:...
Amplification!
A large addition sign appears above my head (), before the Priest lets out a sigh I can only call pity.
He leans into tell Jasmine something before walking away.
She looks around in a sad kind of confusion before looking at me and waving back to the door, towards the care center we were in before.
Jaz ends up explaining to me that Amplification magic is considered a null magic, granted she didn't call it amplification. They just called it Addition. No one knows what it does, or how to use it. This lets me know that I'm the only one with a system, as otherwise it should be obvious.
A couple days pass before Jaz comes back to me and explains that as there are no missing persons reports and no one knows who I am, that they are going to have to make me a new identity. And that officially I am now a resident of the care facility of Mystic Hamlet. Odd name for a village .
A few weeks pass before I get a hand of my magic, throwing rocks and amplifying the speed. Its massively draining and Im making very little progress on increasing my magic capacity. Jaz dosent know im training my magic at all and just thinks I'm playing outside.
Considering theres no one who knows how to use [Amplification Magic], I've decided to keep it to myself. Originally Id planned to [Amplify] myself, but I dont have the capacity for it yet. Every day Im gaining more, training it as one does a muscle. Growth through use is the only method I found on the Librarys computer that was universal, other methods exist like Meditation but thats a bit later on.
Ive only been able to [Amplify] myself in short bursts, like before a jump. Its incredibly taxing and makes my muscles burn like ive only felt during Gym class. I think I might have found a Shonen training style, making my muscles break down before letting them grow back stronger.
Im immensely worried about my physical growth so Ive decided to take it easy on the muscle growth. Dont want to Stunt my growth.
"Alex, Where have you been!" Jaz faux yells as I walk into the care room. its been about 3 months since ive been reborn, and im feeling antsy.
"Outside, Jaz. Like always!" I say childishly. Being a kid again wasnt all bad, especially like this. As long as I show up for every meal and before dark I can get away with training all day... If I wanted too.
Oftentimes Ill just stay in the library reading about magic. And monsters. Its well known that the monsters have a website called the "UnderNet".
I have been trying to get onto it but havent had much luck. It should be possible but frankly I don't understand how.
"Are you even listening to me?" Jaz calls out, holding a bowl in her hand "You must not be hungry!" She smirks at my face, before putting the bowl in front of my usual seat. Chicken and dumplings, a favorite of mine.
"So what have you been doing Jaz?" I ask, changing the topic.
"Oh same old same old. Spend my magic on strengthening the [Barrier], clean the place, cook for you and the baby. What have you been doing outside? I hardly see you if its not during meals or at night" She replies, giving me a look that says she wants a real answer and not to change the subject
"Magic" I say simply
She glares playfully.
"Really?" She says, an odd tone in her voice.
"Really." I say. I dont really want to spread my magic or its capabilites. I think I would get forced into some kind of support role in a military. If they have one, but Im not eager to find out.
Jaz looks at me, before smiling and shaking her head, letting it go.
Materializing my Soul was grueling. It took days but I did it. Its also kind of cringe. My Soul is Silver. With a metalic Sheen.
I dont have to say why its kind of cringe but I think you understand. My soul acts as an amplifier for my magic... My magic which is Amplification. My Amplifcation magic is being Amplified. God shut up brain.
My soul is Extremely resiliant to Physical damage but weak to magic, so I probably shouldnt keep it Materialized for to long. My magic has gotten to the point where I can Amplify myself for 10 minutes without feeling any effects.
I throw a stone at a tree, amplifying the stones speed makes it shoot through the tree like a bullet. Not quite there yet, Clover.
Opening the computer to the UnderNet took months, but I finally figured it out. It was slow, and I needed to move a computer suspiciously close to the barrier but I did it.
ALPHYS: If your sure you want to come down here, let me know. I can contact someone to pick you up in the ruins.
After finally connecting to the UnderNet the first thing I did was contact Dr.Alphys. I told her about my magic and my plan. She agreed whole heartedly about amplifying Asgore with 6 human souls. Monsters go free and no one else has to die.
The idea of traveling the Underground seems fun but I havent seen any indication of a save button, I dont want to risk dying. Not again.