Swallowing the blood that was threatening to leave my throat, I pry the arrow out of my shoulder. Staring at my supposed allies, I couldn’t help but frown.

  We had fought for many years in order to drive out the invaders from our world, yet, after having driven them out, my own allies turned on me and were attempting to eliminate me. “Why?”

  My question was answered with more blows. It seemed as though they were refusing to elaborate as to why they were suddenly attacking me. I was currently fighting off Max, one of the best swordsmen of our planet.

  Our swords swinged; tens of moves were exchanged within moments. Yet, a sudden cold, along with a sharp pain made me wince. An arrow had pierced my back, and had made me flinch in a way that left an opening, an opening of which, Max took full advantage off.

  His sword came at such high speed that I could only sacrifice my left arm in order to not be mortally wounded. As my arm fell to the ground and pain filled me, I surveyed my surroundings. Behind me was Elisa, the one responsible for the arrows, Jonathan, the knight protecting her from me, in front of me was Max, the swordsman currently attempting to cut me into pieces.

  Behind Max were Mary and Greta, two healers who had been healing Max every time I landed a critical hit. Then there was Karl, a high leveled assassin who kept attacking my flank.

  Using an explosion of kinetic energy, I quickly and narrowly dodged a dagger that had almost penetrated my neck. Only to be pierced by yet another arrow, this time, it hit the back of my right shoulder, making my right arm completely useless.

  Kinetic energy exploded outwards, propelling me towards the archer, only for me to be blocked by Jonathan, the knight. Another kinetic burst pushed me above him, leaving the archer completely open.

  Mid-air, I propelled myself towards the archer, fear evident within her eyes, but I cared not. Arriving in front of her, she barely had time to unsheathe her dagger before my teeth sunk into her throat, ripping out her windpipe.

  A scream filled of rage escaped the knight behind me. Turning around, I stared into the knight’s eyes that were hidden behind the slits of his helmet. “You asked for it.” My voice cold, yet, I couldn’t help but feel sad and confused over the whole situation.

  But I didn’t have time to ponder, as a dagger suddenly pierced my back. Knowing that I had to go all out or I’d die, I made a quick decision and touched the kinetic energy in my surroundings, stopping all movements within five meters of myself, with it, pain immediately filled me, and I could feel myself on the cusp of exploding.

  Turning around, I stared at the assassin currently stuck, unable to move, and bit into his throat, ripping out a good chunk of it. But I didn’t get to finish him off before my technique faltered due to a lack of control, and he disappeared from existence.

  His dagger still within me, I attempted to use my kinetic energy to pull it out, only to realize that I couldn’t. Blood escaped my lips, and I fell, my vision blurry. It seemed that the attack earlier had pierced my left lung, leaving me too disoriented for any precise control, and it didn’t help that I had used a technique of which was currently far beyond me.

  As I landed on the ground, the dagger on my back pierced even deeper, making breathing almost impossible.

  As the knight stood above me, I couldn’t help but laugh at the situation, but the only sound escaping me was a fit of gurgles and coughs. My closest allies had betrayed me, and for what? We had fought the invaders from the merge, we had lived through life and death together, we had seen friends and enemies fall, we had cried and wept together, we had laughed together...

  The knight lifted his sword, and I watched as the sword cut through my neck, separating my head from my body, and the cold embrace of death met me.

  ...

  I didn’t know for how long I was dead, it felt like both an eternity and an instant, but a sudden pull came out of nowhere, along with the feeling of being torn into pieces. The world went from pure black to seeing galaxies flash past me. Then nothingness.

  Opening my eyes, I was filled with cold sweats, I instinctively attempted to use my kinetic reserves, but to my surprise and horror, I found no reserves, nor did I seem to have the ability to absorb kinetic energy from my surroundings or myself. As I observed my surroundings, I slowly calmed myself.

  I was currently sitting in a lotus position within a cave. Looking down at my clothes, they reminded me of what the martial artists and cultivators in stories wore...

  Realization and questions filled me. Taking off my clothes, I inspected my body. It was completely different from mine. Where my muscles had been bulging, this body was lean, almost slender.

  Where my body had scars, this one was completely unblemished, no damage to be found. Putting my clothes back on, I left the cave I was within. As I walked through the dark cave, my surroundings slowly became brighter.

  Arriving at the exit of the cave, or rather, entrance, it took a couple seconds for my eyes to adjust, but after they did, I observed the outside. The outside was filled with dense forests, and looking further, I saw incredible mountains reaching as far as the eyes could see.

  Exiting the cave, I made my way up a small hill to get a clearer view, and after half an hour of struggling, I was astonished at the sight. A couple kilometers away there was a huge city, and within said city, there were towers reaching even past the clouds in the sky.

  But what was truly astonishing were the two suns in the sky. It was something so absurd, that I had to do a double take.

  I had truly traveled to another world...

  It was then that I felt a tugging sensation, something within me was urging me. Sitting down, I found myself naturally getting into a lotus position, and I looked within my mind. It was something we had learned to do back on earth, after the merge with another world, earth had become saturated with energy, and due to said energy, humans, along with all the other lifeforms on the planet had started to evolve.

  Yet, it wasn’t until a year after the merge, that humans learned how to absorb the energy in a more efficient way.

  Anyway, back to the present.

  I closed my eyes and searched through this body’s meridian construct, all beings had different meridian constructs, it all depended on the species, bloodline, the environment one was raised within.

  I first checked my dantian, finding it completely empty, and devoid of any cultivation, I moved towards my heart, observing it, I found it devoid of anything. In my previous life, my heart had been a Kinetic Heart, something I had spent years creating and perfecting, but now, it seemed as though this body was a completely clean slate. Something that was both fortunate and unfortunate.

  Moving towards my mindspace, I was shocked to find my library of knowledge still there, but then I smiled.

  On earth, the mindspace had always been a topic of discussion. There were many theories as to what it was, what it represented and where it originated from. Many had thought that the mindspace was tied to the body, or more specifically, the brain, but others thought it was tied to the soul, and, having seen that my library of knowledge was still here, it seemed that the mindspace was tied to the soul.

  This was quite the revelation, but the tugging feeling was even stronger within my mindspace.

  Opening my eyes, I observed my surroundings, and finding that I was quite exposed, I quickly made my way back down the mountain and entered the cave once more. Entering the mindspace would leave me completely vulnerable to any and all attacks, as, I would basically be completely unaware of my surroundings while I was within it.

  Sitting back down in a lotus position, I entered my mindspace and quickly observed my surroundings. The first thing that caught my attention was the library of knowledge, it was something I had created within my mindspace back when I was still alive on earth, and, quickly entering, I walked around until I found the book I was looking for.

  Primordial Energies, Series #3: Kinetic Energy. Opening the book, I tried reading it, only to find myself unable to. Confused, I grabbed another book, yet, the issue persisted. Dread filled me, and after looking through hundreds of books, I fell on my knees. All my knowledge had disappeared.

  Or rather, the text was simply unreadable. The text was still there, but it was blurry and when I tried to focus upon the text, I had become dizzy and pain had filled me.

  Leaving the Library of Lost Knowledge as I now called it, I finally decided to look for what had given me the sensation of being tugged. It didn’t take long before I arrived at what had caused the sensation.

  There, floating in the middle of my mindspace, was a crack. It was something I had never seen before, but before I could ponder further, the tugging sensation became incredibly strong, and I felt myself being sucked towards the crack, the force behind it was too strong to struggle against, and as a sense of horror and fascination filled me, I entered the crack.

  A loss of gravity, and a feeling of being torn into pieces was all I felt, then nothing, and suddenly, I opened my eyes, only to find myself in a completely different environment.

  Screams of pain, along with the clash of swords, and the smell of blood filled my nose. All around me, people were fighting. “What the fuck?” looking down at my body, I found myself covered in leather armor, and in my hands, I held a spear, a weapon I had never used before.

  “Stop standing there dazed David!” David? Before I got time to register what was going on, I was thrown to the ground just as an arrow whizzed by. “David you fool! The arrow almost got you!” I was David? I couldn’t help but feel extremely flustered and confused. Why was I now in a different body? How had I left my mindscape?

  A slap awoke me from my thoughts. “David! We are currently being attacked. Stop being a fucking dumbass and help defend!” The man stood up and after getting helped up, I was handed the spear once again. “Try not to die.” He then left to help someone who was crying in pain on the ground.

  It was then that I suddenly hit by a pang of memories, the memories of David. But I ignored the useless memories and sorted through the most recent ones.

  David was a mercenary who had been paid to protect the small city of Langshire from a goblin army, and that's when I had inhabited his body. Along with the memories, something completely alien appeared within my vision.

  System integration complete.

  Status Menu unlocked.

  Status:

  Name: Alexander (David)

  Titles: -

  Attributes: Strength: 1 (3) - Constitution: 1 (2) - Agility: 1 (1) - Energy: 1 (0)

  Skills: (Basic Spear Mastery Lv2) - (Pain Tolerance Lv1)

  Energy level: -

  Energy types: -

  Affinities: -

  Giving it all a quick gloss, I ignored it and quickly started helping my supposed allies. Arriving at a man struggling against two goblins, I flanked behind them and stabbed the spear into the back of one of the goblins.

  It let out a screech and started having spasms, leaving it completely open, allowing the man to cut its head off. The other goblin meeting a similar fate.

  Mine and the soldier's eyes met, giving me a slight nod, he continued on his duties, going to help another soldier. I let out a sigh and looked over the battlefield. There were hundreds, if not thousands of goblins, and based of just a quick estimate, it seemed as though they outnumbered us five to one.

  It was an impossible battle, one of which I would not be participating in. While it might’ve come across as cold and indifferent, but I had absolutely no loyalty nor urge to die.

  While I had indeed returned from death once before, I did not want to try my luck again, death had been the most unbearable thing I had ever experienced, and I was in no rush to experience it again.

  Sneaking away into an alleyway, I quickly disgarded all the armor I was wearing, but kept the spear, just in case. After doing so, I snuck my way through the city. Though, I didn’t really need to sneak around, it seemed that all the guards, soldiers, mercenaries and men within the city had gone to fight off the goblin army, while the families hid within their houses.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  It was only when I arrived at the end of the city that I realized how stupid I had been. “Of course...” In my haste, I had completely forgotten that, if there was a wall on one side of the city, there was a pretty good chance that it would cover ALL of the city.

  In front of me was a gate, yet, while there were barely any guards here, there were people, and a small army of soldiers. Crouching low, I got closer and listened in on them talking.

  “We need to escape my lord; they can only hold them off for so long.” One of them said while bowing to a man who had an aura of arrogance, yet, a hint of cowardness. He wore the clothes of a noble, his attire giving away his position within the city.

  “It is as you say, yet, I feel it quite a shame to leave my palace until reinforcement arrives.” The noble responded with a voice that seemed almost bored of the whole conflict.

  New Skill: Sneak Lv1 Unlocked.

  Ignoring the hologram within my vision, I observed as the gates opened, and the noble, along with servants and a small army of soldiers left through it. A hint of rage filled me, something I found quite interesting. It seemed as though the body of David was reacting in a way that the original David would have.

  But I quickly suppressed the rage. I truly did not care for the city. This was not my world, nor was I in any rush to die. Even if I had listened to the body’s demands of beheading the noble, I would die before I even got within ten meters of the man. The aura emanating from the soldiers was no joke, especially the one closest to the noble.

  After confirming that they were nowhere in sight, I left through the now open gate and started running for the forests. I had to quickly make my way far from here, gather my strength and figure out how I had arrived within this strange world.

  There was also the thing calling itself the system, something I found quite concerning in of itself.

  ...

  I wasn’t sure how long I had trekked through the forest, but I was running on an empty fuse. This body of mine was truly weak. In my previous life on earth, I could’ve easily traveled hundreds of kilometers within hours on foot, and exhaustion would’ve barely been a concern, yet, here I was, panting in exhaustion.

  New Skill: Trekking Lv1 Unlocked.

  There it was again, the system as it liked to call itself, telling me that I had unlocked skills. Something I found quite interesting in of itself, but the concept of having an almighty power somehow knowing everything about me didn’t sit right.

  But the thought slipped and I started worrying about my future. I had a sinking feeling that this world wasn’t one that would last long. I wasn’t sure why, but in the pit of my stomach, almost an instinctive feeling, was telling me that this world was dying.

  Finding a tree trunk that looked comfortable, I sat down on it, and as soon as I did, exhaustion truly caught up to me. The miniscule number of stamina and strength that I thought I had, quickly left my body, and I found myself unable to stand up again.

  The throbbing pain within my legs wasn’t helping either.

  Grabbing my legs, I forced them to cross, and I sat in a lotus position. While this would leave me vulnerable to ambushes, as I would have no way of detecting any hidden presences, I knew that I would be dead either way if I didn’t gather any strength.

  So, closing my eyes, I let my body relax, and tried clearing my head of thoughts, concerns, or anything else that would distract me. This would be an important moment, I had to find out whether this world had any energy of which I could absorb and use as support for my body.

  Forcing myself into a fully mindless state was difficult, if not impossible, but it wasn’t completely necessary to be completely empty. One only needed to have minimum thoughts, minimum distractions, something I had mastered back on earth.

  Forcing myself to only think of my breathing and the beats of my heart, I felt my mind wander less, and after a certain point, I focused within my heart. With each heartbeat, I followed the bloodstream, learning of the patterns that my meridians followed, seeing how they interacted, and if they were currently absorbing any energy whatsoever.

  It was difficult, and it took me what felt like hours, but after hundreds of heartbeats, I felt it. A small thread of unknown energy entering through my nostrils, down my lungs, and my heart absorbing it.

  I watched as my heart tried to let the energy flow through my bloodstream, yet, the energy dispersed as soon as it left the heart, leaving only normal blood being pumped. But I wasn’t discouraged. This was good. There was hope.

  Incorporating a breathing technique of which was common way of absorbing the ambient energy back on earth into my breathing, I was hoping to achieve the same result. This kept up for what must have been hours, as, when I finally opened my eyes, the sun was down, and it was dark.

  But it didn’t come without rewards, and as the holographic message appeared within my vision, a small smile escaped my lips.

  New Skill: Mana Breathing (Passive) Unlocked.

  The name was strange, as, back on earth, the technique was called: Common Techniques, series #5: Ambient Breathing.

  It was an ambiguous name, but it had fit. What the technique did was quite advanced, but basic at the same time, quite simple.

  Ambient energy was everywhere, problem was; ambient energy contained all energies, water, earth, fire, electricity, kinetic, life, light, dark, there were hundreds, if not thousands of different energies. All of which filled the energy that was always there. So the reason the technique existed was to filter through all those energies, only absorbing the energy one needed. In my case, I tried isolating the most similar energy to kinetic energy, which was fire.

  That was if one wasn’t being technical, I mean, from what I know, kinetic energy is what all energies were made out of. That was, if one truly looked deeply into kinetic energy.

  Kinetic energy was the force that drove the world, it was a radiant energy of which was above all else. To create fire, one needed the atoms to move in a certain way, and in order to make them move that way, they needed a force that made them move, and what did moving result in? Kinetic energy.

  Kinetic energy was within everything. You could not get to freezing temperatures if things didn’t stop moving. I never got far in my research, but my theory had been that, if I had truly learned how to control my kinetic energy in a more precise and detailed way, I would have eventually been able to use many different primordial energies, and, if I had reached a certain level, I would have even been able to make the whole planet stop moving.

  In my fight against my allies, I had used my small amount of knowledge and my incredible amount of experience to absorb all kinetic energy within five meters of myself.

  It had been a very taxing thing, as, when I absorbed kinetic energy, it wouldn’t just disappear, no, it would fill my body, the atoms making up my body would literally become hyper active.

  It required precise control, along with me having to use the kinetic energy within a certain time limit, or I would explode.

  That was why I would not attempt to relearn the techniques of kinetic energy any time soon. Not just because of the fact that the technique was lost to me, but also because it was extremely dangerous at the level my body was at.

  At my peak, no regular human weapons could hurt me. The reasons the arrows, dagger, and other weapons from my ex-allies had been able to hurt me, and me being able to hurt them, was purely due to our strength and the energies that would enhance our weapons.

  It could be said that it would take a nuclear bomb to kill us, and even then, it wouldn’t be the explosion that would kill us, nor the heat, but the radiation, as, radiation in or itself was a primordial energy, one that sought the destruction of everyone and everything.

  Returning to the topic at hand, I willed my “Status” to appear, and to both my delight and slight dread, it appeared.

  Status:

  Name: Alexander (David)

  Titles: -

  Attributes: Strength: 1 (3) - Constitution: 1 (2) - Agility: 1 (1) - Energy: 1 (1)

  Skills: Mana Breathing(P): Lv1 - (Basic Spear Mastery Lv2) - (Sneak Lv1) - (Pain Tolerance Lv1) - (Trekking Lv1)

  Energy level: F-

  Energy types: Mana

  Affinities: -

  __

  The status had changed quite a bit. The energy of this body had grown from zero to one, a small, but sure improvement.

  Apparently, the energy I had absorbed was mana, it was something we had back on earth, but it wasn’t an energy I had ever focused on myself.

  My previous focuses were: Kinetic, Qi and Soul energy. The latter, was one I had never truly achieved, but it was one of my goals, and still is. The reason was simple.

  The soul contained close to infinite energy, the only limit being the strain it put on the body, soul, and mind. The original reason I had started to research it had been because the strongest invader that I, and my allies had ever faced, was a warrior who harnessed the energy of his soul to fight.

  The fight had been brutal, and, the thing with soul energy, was that it was so pure, that it completely ignored any natural defense and struck true damage.

  True damage was one, if not, the most terrifying things there was. True damage was different from regular wounds. If one was injured by true damage, it would not just damage the body, but the soul. While the soul did indeed heal with time, if struck enough times, even the soul could shatter, meaning true death, there would be no reincarnation.

  The reason I know how terrifying it truly is, is because one of my closest allies back on earth had fallen to it. After having defeated the soul warrior through sheer luck, determination and sacrifice, we had used the best of the best healers, but healing did not work on true damage.

  When the soul was struck, the only known way to heal the soul to both my, and everyone else on earth’s knowledge, was to let it heal naturally. Meaning, due to the severe damage that my friend had suffered, his soul had simply deteriorated to such an insane degree that his soul had simply shattered into thousands of pieces, and there was no way to return from having one’s soul shattered.

  ...

  Returning to the topic at hand, I knew there were many different ways to use mana. The three ways that most people mainly used it for was; Spells, Enchanting, and finally, but not least, Body Strengthening.

  There were also other ways to use mana, but those were the three main lines that people followed.

  I was still not sure which line I would follow, there were ups and downs to all of them. First:

  Spells came in many different forms, but they all worked with the same logic. Intent and attunement. Intent could be explained very simply; If I wanted to create a fireball, I would channel my intent as I formed the spell, but intent alone wouldn’t be enough, one would have to attune it. Mana was a wild, but also mild-mannered energy.

  If I wanted to throw a fireball at someone, I would have to first attune the mana within myself to a certain logic, I would have to make my mana become more fiery, angrier and rageful through intent. Meaning, if I wanted to be able to throw fireballs with great power, I would have to become a pyromancer.

  But that was also wrong.

  Because there was also another way to form and use mana. It was less orthodox, as, it would mean one would be a lot weaker than someone that specialized in an element, but one would basically become a jack of all trades, and that was, rather than attune one’s own mana to become a certain way, one would instead control the ambient mana.

  It was a lot more difficult, but it was also quite manageable.

  To reiterate, someone that focused on a certain elemental tree, would have to attune their heart into becoming a certain kind of mana heart. Example one: A Pyromancer would attune their heart into becoming a fiery orb, something that sought to burn everyone who angered it.

  It would result in the person basically becoming incapable of using any element that wasn’t similar to fire. A Pyromancer would never be able to use the spells that a Cryomancer used, and vice versa. The logic was sound, but also flawed.

  Because one could also become someone who wielded multiple elements. The techniques were unknown to me, but there had been strong humans on earth who had been able to control Fire, Ice, and even Air. It had been a deadly combo, but many of them had fallen due to their energies just not living harmoniously within their bodies, tearing them from the inside out.

  So, while it was rare, it was possible.

  There had also been mages who specialized in Time, Space, and even Void energy. But those were so far and few in-between that it was basically impossible for me to replicate. As it required incredible amounts of affinity for those primordial energies, along with a huge talent in mana weaving.

  Mana also had another weakness, which was that, while they could control elements to certain degrees, a Pyromancer, would never be able to beat someone who controlled the primordial energies themselves.

  The difference between a primordial energy, and a lower energy such as mana, qi and other such energies, was that primordial energies were the origin, and due to that, they were so incredibly pure that they would simply ignore the attacks of lower level from the same element.

  So, me having been able to control Kinetic energy had been a godsend, yet, while it had taken me far, I hadn’t gotten far into cultivating my affinity towards it, nor my techniques to a high enough degree to become unstoppable.

  Then there was Enchantment. Enchantment came in many different forms, bodily enchantments, weapon enchantments, runic enchantments, and many others. The most orthodox was enchanting weapons, armor and jewelery.

  But one could also enchant ones body, it was incredibly risky, but the rewards were worth the risks. One of the biggest causes of deaths within the body enchantment community were due to overloading oneself with too many enchantments, resulting in their bodies exploding into mists of blood and gore.

  I didn't know much of body enchantments, but there were many different ways of doing so. You could make constructs within your body, constructing them on either flesh, bone or even within your own dantian, heart and mind.

  I was really interested in enchanting my bones, because, while it was incredibly risky, and would be extremely painful, bones were simply a much better conduit than flesh.

  Flesh conduits were also more prone to fail, as flesh simply wasn't that great of a conduit. One could also enchant ones own mind, but that was simply far beyond my knowledge, and I knew nothing of it.

  Then, there was my favorite way on how enchanters fought. Runes. They would draw runes within the air, it was a lot weaker, but there was no risk involved.

  Then came body strengthening. This was the most simple approach to mana warriors. They would fuse mana into their very essence, their being. As they progressed in strength, their bodies would become more and more one with mana, until even the ambient mana within their vicinity was within their grasp, something that was incredibly strong.

  I had only ever met one such warrior before, and he had been the toughest fight I had ever been in if I dont count the soul warrior, for every wound I had caused him, he would simply regenerate instantly by using the ambient mana. Each of his attacks were filled with pure mana, not elementally attuned, no, pure mana. Someting that not many had ever mastered.

  I had only managed to kill him due to my kinetic energy and combat techniques having been superior to him.

  I would have to think deeper at a later date.

  ...

  But all these theories and thoughts were incredibly meaningless, as, currently, I had such a low energy reserve in mana that it wasn’t even worth mentioning. And I had yet to learn how to manipulate mana either.

  This would take time, and I was in a rush.

  Skill: Mana breathing Lv1 -> Mana Breathing Lv2

  Ignoring the text, I focused on trying to pull in as much mana particles from the ambient energy. It was a straining process, and it would likely take me days to even reach the level of a novice mage, time of which I didn’t have.

  ...

  Skill: Mana Breathing Lv2 -> Mana Breathing Lv4

  Letting out a sigh, I stopped absorbing energy actively. It was too straining, and while it did indeed help lessen the time it would take for me to become capable of casting spells, I had to move, so I let my passive breathing technique take care of the rest as I started my trek through the forest once more.

  ...

  An hour into the trek, I felt a peng of hunger, and with it, exhaustion, but it was not just my body that was exhausted, my mental health was also slowly declining. I was becoming exhausted in both mind and body.

  I had to find somewhere safe to rest, and I would have to find food and water, or I’d be as good as dead within four days. If not from dehydration, then from being ambushed in my sleep.

  Skill: Trekking Lv1 -> Trekking Lv3

  Skill: Mana Breathing Lv4 -> Mana Breathing Lv7

  Attribute: Constitution (2) -> Constitution (3)

  Attribute: Energy: (1) -> Energy (3)

  It seemed that my attributes and skills were increasing, but I had only felt a slight difference in the strength within my body. I could walk slightly longer before taking breaks, and my mana breathing was slightly more efficient. I also tripped slightly less, and walking through the forest while avoiding fallen branches and roots became noticeably easier.

  It seemed that whatever this system was, it was definitely helping, but not in a sudden way, rather, it felt as though it was simply guiding my growth. It was as though my body became more efficient at what it was already doing. It was almost as though the system had always been there, yet, now I could see everything in a numerical sense rather than having to guess.

  Good pace?