Chapter 1

  I drifted around in the dark for an unknown amount of time. I had done my best to defy the universe and steal its power for myself, but in the end, it still wasn’t enough. My final safeguard activated and I severed my connection with the system, casting me out into the beyond.

  After all that time I spent searching, failing at the last hurdle is so typical of me. My connection to my veritable army of minions was cut and for the first time, I no longer had any link to the material universe. No phylacteries or second chances as I drifted into oblivion.

  When I finally regained some of my senses, I realized that my body was in terrible pain. It felt as though I had been stabbed in the gut with a fiery pain coursing through my entire body.

  Then my eyes and ears began to focus and I heard screams and the sound of clashing steel. My eyes watered as I struggled to make sense of the scene in front of me. Vivid orange flames ravaged the buildings around me and the scent of blood and smoke filled my nose.

  It feels like I’m waking up from a deep sleep, but the pain and sharpness of the scene shocked my mind into overdrive. Running on pure instinct, I glanced around at the scene to analyze everything and find the best path of escape.

  I seemed to be in a small village surrounded by forested mountains. The moonlight illuminates the scene of carnage below. Groups of human men and women engaged in a brutal battle with grey-skinned elves ridding large white deer.

  The fight is hard to follow, but the humans seem to be on the losing end. I can hear the screams of children inside the buildings, some of which are on fire. Those that aren’t fighting are running around in between the buildings.

  The village isn’t very big, I’m able to see the wooden guard towers at both ends of the village.

  My only thought now is to escape. I don’t know who or where I am, all I know is that I will die if I stay here. I began to run away from the main battle, weaving between the wooden houses and avoiding any green clad elves in my path.

  It didn’t take long for me to get to the outskirts of the village since the was no walls or fences, only a few guard towers to warn about threats. Clearly, they weren’t expecting to be attacked by a small army in the dead of night.

  Despite the pain coursing my body, amplified with each step, I couldn’t stop to catch my breath or put pressure on the wound on my side. My fear and adrenaline helped me keep moving, so if I did stop I would not be able to run again.

  My confusion wasn’t helping either. I don’t remember anything that happened before I woke up and had no clue why the village was attacked.

  I noticed several groups also running away, mainly women and children, but I didn’t want to be targeted by sticking to a group. The forest wasn’t very dense at first so navigating it was faily easy considering the low light.

  It was only after a few minutes of running deeper into the woods that I began to tire and the pain in my body was beginning to be unbearable. I found a large hollowed-out tree lying on the ground and hid inside it for safety.

  By now, I was pale-faced and panting heavily. Other than the heavy beating of my heart in my ears, I could just about make out the distant cries coming from the village.

  I had lost a lot of blood and my hands were shaking. With my mind starting to clear now that the immediate danger was over, I looked at my stomach and found a deep stab wound on my side. It doesn’t seem fatal and I should be fine if I stop the bleeding.

  I put my hand on the wound and almost deliriously began chanting strange words. When I noticed what I was doing, I stopped in confusion.

  I didn’t recognize the words I spoke and nor did I know why I did that. It sounded like some sort of magic chant but I hadn’t learnt magic.

  Suddenly, flashes of memory came to me and my eyes sharpened from the haze I had been in since waking up. The chant was a minor healing spell used for disinfecting and closing wounds. I wondered how I forgot that.

  From my confined position on my back, I had little room to sit up because of the hollow tree but it was enough for me to tilt my head and see my wound. I was pressuring the gash with my hands to stop the bleeding, but only now noticed that these aren’t my hands.

  They are small, pale, and skinny, looking to belong to a young boy. I ignored it for the moment as I used my shirt as a bandage to tie around my waist. Each movement sent a jolt of pain through my body, but I persevered. I had been through so much worse after all.

  That is when I stop myself once again.

  I know that this small amount of pain is nothing new to me, but I also don’t remember ever having any other injuries. Knowing I’m missing something important, I open the one thing that always helps ground me, my status screen.

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  Name: Lukas Blackart

  Level: 1

  Traits: Child, Demon eyes

  Health: 27/80

  Mana: 50/50

  Stamina: 50/120

  Vitality: 8

  Strength: 17

  Endurance: 20

  Dexterity: 12

  Intellect: 5

  Wisdom: 5

  Mind: 7

  Perception: 5

  “Lukas Blackart?!”

  Like a switch being flipped or a door opening up, my mind began to fill with the memories of my past life. The long life of struggle for perfection that was Lukas Blackart.

  I remembered why that small chant came to me so easily and why I woke up in this new body. Even though many of the memories were blurry, like trying to remember a dream, I knew that it would come back to me in time.

  With new confidence, I inspected my status window to see what I was working with.

  I had been injured so only having a puny eight vitality was a bad sign. All my stats were equally terrible, but it is to be expected of a level 1 human.

  However, something I immediately notice is the fact that I had no class. To awaken and gain access to the system means that your soul is of age and your starter class is awakened based on your souls' compatibility.

  My level 1 status and no class sent a chill down my spine. Did I perhaps mess something up? Obviously, the fact that I’m here means I failed, but did my backup also fail?

  But before I could despair, I noticed the traits and brought up their descriptions.

  Child Trait: Designates you as a child. Ease of forcibly gained stat points is increased. Ease of learning skills is slightly increased. Stat points won’t affect aging. 6 weeks until trait expiration.

  The existence of this trait served to sooth my growing worry. Clearly, this trait somehow replaces a class awakening until the person comes of age. My mind was racing to know more about this and thinking about the implications of such a thing. But before I could think any further I noticed the second traits description.

  Demon eyes Trait: You have faint demon ancestry. Mana perception is slightly heightened.

  “Holy shit, I have demon eyes? This is awesome.” I almost began to laugh before my bleeding side reminded me to behave. The village attackers might be out looking to kill any witnesses so I better stay quiet anyway.

  Demon eyes are one of the traits I had studied extensively back in the day. Many races developed and evolved in tandem with a certain magical affinity and sometimes form hereditary traits like my new demon eyes.

  Demons have a great sensitivity to mana and can naturally perceive it in visual form far better than most others. Their eyes are perfectly adapted for automatic detection and perception of mana to a level that requires extreme talent to reproduce.

  I would know. It was this trait that was the basis for my main mana perception constructs. Out of all mana perception traits I had studied, this was the most versatile and useful.

  Although my new body is still human, so I’m surprised that the small amount of demon ancestry I must now possess was enough to pass along such a powerful trait.

  Since I’m back to where I started, I’m glad I have such a powerful trait from the start. It will save me years of work to reproduce the same effect, and I don’t plan on spending years doing research and studying anymore.

  My plan may have failed, but the backup is just as good as the original… Unless I screw up big time and die. Like they say, no risk, no reward. And this is one hell of a risque. Although I’m glad my memories have come back so fast. I would have been in trouble if I began to level without remembering all that I had learned.

  Although the excitement and anticipation of my new situation were climbing, the blood loss and low health also took their toll. I found my mind blurring and my thoughts dispersing as I slipped back into unconsciousness.

  When I woke up again, the sun was shining at my feet and the sounds of the forest were echoing all around me.

  I spent the night in the fallen hollow tree and seemed to have slept well into the day as the sun was high in the sky.

  I extracted myself and stretched my legs, paying close attention not to aggravate my wound.

  With some of my health restored from sleeping and my wound temporarily fixed, I figured it would be a good idea to get myself healed before doing anything else.

  But to do so, I first had to gain control over the small amount of mana within my body.

  According to my new temporary trait, I was a few months from unlocking my class and therefore won’t be able to rely on any life-steal spells anytime soon. Luckily, I had studied all sorts of tricks, so performing minor healing shouldn’t be a problem. At least, if I get my mana back.

  That is when it hits me. All those spells and techniques I used required a certain level of control to use. I refused to rely on Skills after becoming an Ascended–partially out of spite towards the system and partially because it would hold me back–but I recognize their usefulness.

  As I am now, most of my memories feel hazy at best and my fine mana control seems to have been locked away within my mind. It will take time for my new body and mind to get used to each other and sync up.

  That also means that I need to re-level all of those core skills. This makes me wonder about how acquiring Skills works now. Obviously, something has changed since the last time I saw the system, the child trait is new and I’m sure the are other changes too.

  People usually acquire skills by playing with their class Skills and modifying them themselves. Since I have no class, I have no reference from which to build upon. It’s not a big issue for me, but if all young humans have this child trait, then I can’t see them leveling very far without a class.

  After looking around for danger and making sure I’m alone. I sit down in a lotus pose and force myself into a meditative state.

  I don’t know if I’m just awesome or if my demon eyes trait is just that powerful, but I was able to sense the mana in my body after only a few minutes of deep meditation. It felt like a small pool of warm power in my chest as I strained my mind to integrate it and bring it under my control.

  Funnily enough, when I opened my eyes I had to swint at all the new windows flashing in my vision. I had spent so long without having ever received any new notifications that receiving so many at once was kind of overwhelming.

  Congratulations! New Skill [Meditation] obtained

  Meditation - lvl 0 > Meditation - lvl 1

  Congratulations! New Skill [Mana Sense] obtained

  Mana Sense - lvl 0 > Mana Sense - lvl 1

  Congratulations! New Skill [Mana Manipulation] obtained

  Mana Manipulation - lvl 0 > Mana manipulation - lvl 1

  Level up! Level 1 > Level 2

  After reading the new notification, my face was split open by a wild grin.

  “This is going to be so much fun.”

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