‘Just a bit more, a bit more, Come on!’ I thought in my head, concentrating on pulling the mana particles into my mana pool. I was so close to breaking through to the first stage. Coincidentally, it was my birthday the next day, maybe I could try to surprise everyone.

After a couple minutes it finally happened! I broke through! Mana leaked out of my mana pool and spread throughout my body mixing with my blood and organs. Pain agonized my body and I screamed. Why was it hurting so much?! I fell to the floor, writhing in pain. My parents came rushing into the room and were dumbstruck, they knew what was happening and immediately moved my body outside.

“Honey, he’s breaking into the first stage!” my father spoke horrified as he took my aching body outside.

“I’ve never heard anyone breaking through so early, why is this happening?” my mother replied hastily, as she started casting her healing magic on me, for the first time I could hear fear in her voice.

The pain kept worsening as all of my cells were being destroyed and being reborn with a mix of mana. I had read that breaking into the first stage didn’t inflict any pain, then why was it affecting me like this. Then notifications started popping up.

[You have sustained 40 damage]

[Health is being restored]

[Your mana pool is almost at Stage 1]

[Congratulations!]

That was the last message I saw before my brain shut down and my eyes closed.

**

As my consciousness returned so did my body’s functions. I slowly opened my eyes to see my parents by my side and a really old man, hair all white with a long beard, his build reminded me of a mighty warrior.

“He’s finally awake!” my mum cried as she grasped my hand.

“It seems that your son seems to be a peculiar case, not only did he transcend to stage 1 at the age of 3, which is astonishing, his physical body also forcibly developed. This should stunt his growth for a couple years as he already has a 5 year old’s body. How strange.” the old man spoke stroking his beard.

“Son how are you feeling?” my father asked.

‘Should I reply normally or like a kid, if what the old man had said was true, does it matter?’ I thought to myself before answering, “Yeah dad, I seem to be fine, but I need some rest.”

“Seems like even his speech has also become clear. How peculiar?” the old man spoke, still stroking his beard. Who even was this old geezer?

“Honey, I think we should let our son rest, especially as he’s gone through something very strange.” my father said sweetly, grabbing my mother’s arm.

“Okay, that’s fine, Zeref you rest, get a good sleep.” my mother returned, as she got up and left the room. Now everyone had left the room.

I got out of bed, the pain still there in the distance and I examined my body, that old geezer was right, my body seemed more developed and I was way taller. I checked my HP bar and it was full, but my HP max had risen to 150HP and my MP was also full at 100MP. What had struck me to be weird the most was that three new icons had popped up, one on top of the HP bar showing:

[Level: 1]

The other icon below my MP bar named:

[Status Menu]

And the last icon on the top right of my vision:

[Skills Menu]

Status menu and Skills menu? I had never heard of something so odd, the system surprised me everyday. Was this system like those games, kids from my old world used to play? I tried to touch the icon but nothing happened, I figured maybe if I touched somewhere on my body it would cause a reaction but nothing happened; instead I just looked like a fool doing an awkward dance. What if I called out its name?

“Status menu.” I said loudly, hoping for a reaction but still nothing happened, I tried again, losing my patience, “Status menu Reveal!” still revealing nothing, then an idea popped up in my head, “Status menu open!”

Immediately, a blue screen propped up in my line of vision with different texts written on it, which I could actually interact with, each time I pressed something, it made a bell noise and information about it propped up. The texts showed:

[Name: Zeref Amara]

[Species: Human]

[Level: 1]

[Exp: 0/ 100]

[Mana Pool: Stage 1]

[HP: 150]

[MP: 100]

[Strength: 5]

[Stamina: 5]

[Agility: 10]

[Defence/ Durability: 5]

[Weakness: Increased damage taken from Earth Magic, Nature Magic and when consuming Eggs]

‘Eggs really?’ I thought in my head, that was my favourite food, what a shame. However right at the bottom there was a last text that my eye only fell upon when I was going to close the tab:

[Affinity/ Perks: Lightning Magic, Fire Magic, Ice magic, Gravity magic.

Immune to Lightning magic attacks and Mental attacks

Resistance against fire and ice magic

Fast healing

Heightened Senses

Sixth Sense (Unlock at Level 50)]

These perks looked nice, especially As I had resistance against the strong elements and I had fast healing, which could come in handy. I understood all the roles of the different stat variables but ‘Exp’, what was that about, I pressed the Exp icon and information popped up as a new tab:

[Exp: 0/100]

[ Exp or Experience points are credits that can be used to level yourself up, these can be earned through killing beasts in dungeons or defeating strong foes or even doing daily quests (these will be available at level 3 or when your Strength and Defence stats reach 10 points. Leveling up is the fastest way to get stronger so Get Grinding!]

So the system replicated a game? How peculiar? I wasn’t sure how many people in this world had systems like mine, so I decided to keep it a secret. I lay down in my bed and opened up my last icon the Skills menu:

[Skills Menu]

There were many locked skills and some that were already unlocked:

[Lightning Mana Skills:]

[Lightning Aura: Level 1]

[Lightning Cloak: Level 1]

[Skill locked: Unlocks at Level 5]

[Skill locked: Unlocks at Level 10]

[Skill locked: Unlocks at Level 20]

[Skill locked: Unlocks at Level 40]

[Skill Locked: ???]

[Skill Locked: ???]

[Skill Locked: ???]

[Skill Locked: ???]

[Skill Locked: ???]

It seems like at my level I’m still extremely weak and can only use two skills, and what were those question mark locked skills? A smile stretched across my face as the excitement of the unknown gave me another goal, grinding levels to figure out the truth about my body and why I was chosen as this ‘candidate’.

This new information that I had received drained my mind, as I kept thinking about the answers to all my questions. I didn’t realise as my eyes became heavy and I fell into a deep slumber again.

**

“Why did this have to happen to our son?” my mother cried hugging my father, “Why us? What have we done wrong? We were the saviours of this kingdom, why did the monarchs curse us like this? I just want a normal life.” her eyes bawled out with tears of remorse and frustration.

“It’s okay Rosaline, we can get through this, don’t worry about it. Me and father will sort something out for us.” my father replied comforting her by stroking her hair.

“He is quite an odd boy, I have to say myself, I could sense no stop to his potential, I had used my All seeing eyes skill to see what was happening to his mana veins and arteries, I can tell you he’s extremely special, the mana flowing through him is extremely pure, I’ve never seen anything like it and he’s only been in this world for a couple years. If he gets any stronger nobles will start hunting for his head, we need to train him Peter.” the old man suggested stroking his long white beard again.

“Peter, do you think this is anything to do with that contract we made with that monarch? He said we’d have to repay him somehow for the power he gave us? Is this our fault?” Rosaline (my mother) wept for the end of innocence, pulling my father closer.

From the other room, my sleep was being abruptly broken by their arguing. It was still so early in the morning, I got up to see what the fuss was about, rubbing my eyes, I slowly opened the door and sneaked next to the counter to get a better look and listen at what was happening. The living room was quite standard, with an open plan kitchen with a counter separating the living room from the kitchen. I hid behind that counter looking over and listening.

I tried to gauge their power levels or their mana pool stages but nothing was popping up from the system, I thought maybe some levels would show like on me but nothing popped up. After a lot of squinting a notification popped up.

[Congratulations!]

[You have discovered a new skill – Inspect: Level 1]

I ignored the notifications and activated my inspect skill. My green eyes Changed their hue to blue, as texts popped up on top of each person in the room’s heads. I looked at the old man first, as he interested me the most.

[You have activated Inspect, you will lose 1 MP every 5 seconds]

[Name: Zeref Amara]

[Level: ???]

[Mana pool stage: ???]

[Weaknesses: ???]

I couldn’t see much apart from his name, maybe because it was because my inspect skill was still so low, another reason why I had to level up! I used my inspect skill on my father next.

[Name: Peter Amara]

[Level: ???]

[Mana pool stage: ???]

[Weaknesses: ???]

Again the skill wouldn’t let me see any more than just the name, at this point I didn’t even want to check my mother’s level. I stopped using the skill, checked my MP and it went down by 7MP, leaving my MP at 93MP.

[MP will regenerate by itself at 1MP per minute or through meditation]

Well, even though that was pretty slow, I had no other choice apart from letting it regenerate itself, I had to listen to the argument.

“I think it would be better if I take your boy under me, I wouldn’t mind training my own grandson.” the oldest man in the room spoke. Wait, he’s my grandfather?

“I don’t know father, do you think the nobles, elves or the other will be looking for him after what happened to him last night?” my father returned, “If so, it might be the best option if he’s under your custody.”

“I can also tell he’s special, I don’t know if it’s anything to do with our contract with that monarch, but from now, he will become a target for the other races, what happened last night exposed incredibly pure mana signatures across the kingdom -”

“NO! I will not let my son be taken away from me! How can you say that Peter, he’s only three years old, he’s an infant, he hasn’t even had a proper childhood yet and you want to train him and expose him to the horrors of this world. I don’t care whatever happens to me, that’s my son and I want him to live a normal life!” my mother butted in, shouting, the mana in the atmosphere trembled with her speech.

I could see the rage in her eyes, something that I had never seen before, it made me realise how scary mothers could be if the matter was about their children. Who were these people? My body shivered as her mana caused the surrounding to become ice cold.

“That’s enough!” my grandfather bellowed, the atmosphere reverberated, even the mana shaking in fear, “Why don’t we just ask the little boy himself, of what he thinks of this matter.”

I blinked and he was gone. One second he was there and then he disappeared. I couldn’t fathom the idea, did he teleport?

“Kiddo!” I jumped from the heavy human contact on my shoulders, the old geezer had his arm on my shoulder, the grip so strong, I thought my clavicle would snap.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked in shock, I genuinely thought they couldn’t sense me, a mere toddler eavesdropping on their conversation.

“Who do you take us for?” the geezer chuckled, releasing his grip, “Come sit with us.”

I followed the physically built old man to the sofas and sat down. I could see the grim expressions of my parents, I didn’t know much about my parents so it was best I knew their real identities before I left.

“Don’t mind me asking but who are you guys actually?” I asked hoping that life could just go back to its peaceful state, when my only worry was the rash on my bum.

“Before we answer you, I want to ask you one question.” my mother spoke up with a soft tone, she wiped her tears and spoke again, “Are you still our son?” tears rolled down her face, for the first time it made me want to also bawl my eyes out of my own will.

“Of course mother, I am and will always be your son.” I lied, how could I tell them, I was reborn into their child’s body?

“Okay, that’s enough of the sentimental talk, Rosaline even though your son is only three years old he’s very peculiar and very mature in fact, however, I sternly do believe that he’s still your son,” the geezer comforted, he then turned and looked at me, “Now to answer your questions, kiddo make sure you listen carefully to what I’m about to explain.” I nodded and sat down on a sofa nearest to him.

“This world is separated into two realms, the upper realm and the lower realm, mages are ranked from F to A, then S rank – which is given to special top tier mages – based on their powers and mana ability. I’m pretty sure you know what mana pools are, every mage above rank B has a mana pool at stage 6 or over.” he explained, “These mages inhabit the lower realm.”

“What about the upper realm?” I questioned, intrigued by this new information.

As me and the geezer spoke I could hear whispers, “He reminds me a lot about you, you know, he’ll be a prodigy, I can sense it.” I heard my mother whisper. I ignored it and continued listening to the old geezer.

“Answering your question now, Beings that transcend the S rank gain new powers unimaginable to man, they’re transcendent beings known as monarchs. They’re not exactly gods but they’re extremely powerful beings. There are 7 monarchs, each a master in a specific element, some even mastering different elements.

“There are monarchs for Fire, Water, Earth, Lightning, Nature, Darkness and Beasts. Every 300 years, monarchs pick their own candidate in the lower realm, these candidates have to ascend to the upper realm and challenge the monarchs for their seats.

“Since the monarchs themselves are not immortal, ascenders are picked to battle them and take their seats, the most powerful ascenders can sometimes occupy more than 1 seat, and it’s said in myths that if an ascender can occupy all the seats, they’ll have control over all realms, even the parallel realms .”

Immediately, a wave of understanding struck me, so that blue figure I met after my death, might have been a monarch? I decided not to ask any further about that matter to not raise any suspicions, but what did that last bit mean.

“Gramps, what are the parallel realms?” I asked hoping for an answer but he ignored my query and continued talking.

“Now that I’ve given you the context about our little world, let me summarise your parent’s histories quickly. 100 years ago, there was a great war between kingdoms. Although our kingdom was the biggest -” he stopped mid sentence and stared with wide eyes at the door. What was shocking him?

A droplet of sweat rolled down my face as I felt the intense pressure being emitted by not one, but a dozen beings that were standing behind our door.

“Father, leave with Rosaline and my son now, use our emergency portal, I’ll try my best to fend them off.” my father spoke sternly. His reactions were quick.

“Honey please be rational, just come with us! We’re used to running.” my mother tugged at his arm, tears forming around her eyes..

“Please, don’t be dramatic, both of us know that only 3 people can use a portal at a time, plus what are the chances that they won’t try searching for you after. I won’t let that slide.” leaving no room for discussion, my father drew his sword and prepared for combat.

The old geezer immediately advanced forwards, I grabbed my mother’s hand and followed the old man. It all happened so fast! Gramps still hadn’t answered all my questions! Who was after us? Why were they after us?!

He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a circular device with his veiny hands. I turned around and saw the door being smashed into smithereens, as figures shrouded in darkness appeared, at least 10 of them, all of them giving off this intense unimaginable pressure, my breathing halted as the atmosphere became dense with dark magic mana.

How ominous could someone’s mana pressure be? Why was everything happening so quick, one event right after another?!

“Please Peter don’t overdo it, we love you, make it back to us safely.” my mother cried as we entered into the blue coloured circular portal.

[You have entered a Blue portal]