Seth awoke in a tiny, dark room. His eyes refused to open. Remembering his days in his small cell, he started struggling. For some unknown reason, he felt much more powerful. He sensed that his thoughts were racing through his mind, rather than the slow saunter that he remembered them moving at.
"Aww. See! Little Seth is trying to talk to us!" Seth heard a slightly muffled female voice, scaring him. He noticed he was floating in a liquid. His stomach was chained to the round wall for some reason. It was then he realized. He was in a womb! It had taken him quite a long time to realize this because he never got an education. He had successfully reincarnated and was now a baby.
"Ah yes! Augustus, come meet your little brother!" The sound of another voice awoke him from his thoughts. It was male. His new father was speaking, and Seth had a brother. This was such a novel idea to him. He was a single child in his past life, after all.
"My baby brother is moving around??" A childish voice happily sounded. It was his brother Augustus.
Ding
As always, the system interrupted everything. Seth's vision held a small, gold screen.
---
as you have met the conditions, (Locked): ************ has been granted.
you are unable to use it as it is locked.
---
Reading the notification, Seth was surprised. He gained a locked thing for doing nothing, but he still couldn't use it and had no idea what it was. It was then he realized. His eyes were still closed. How could he still see the screen even though his eyes were closed? The system truly was a marvel. Wait, could he access the system now?
Ding
---
to access the system, just think the word, "system."
---
Seth was blown away. The system could read his thoughts. He had never thought it could even do such a thing. He wanted to see what his stats were and what he could add or change. He followed the system's instructions to open it.
---
Seth Berner
Mortal
(ascended strength soul)
total: 998,805,084
Intelligence [532]
Body Strength [576]
Vitality [529]
Soul Strength [772,338,129]
Luck [1,000]
(Locked)
(Locked)
[shop]
---
Seth's stats hadn't reached the starting value yet. It was probably because he was still just a fetus, and his life hadn't technically started yet. His Soul Strength, for some reason though, was already at 772338129. Thinking he was seeing things wrong, Seth tried to blink his eyes before remembering they were closed. Seth thought about it. It probably had something to do with the ascended strength soul. His status also said something about him being a mortal, he didn't know what to say.
"Augustus, you will be the next emperor! You must promise to me that you will protect your little brother from harm!" Seth was shaken from his thoughts, his father's words gave him a lot of information. His family was the imperial family, and his brother was supposed to be strong enough to stop people trying to cause him harm, all on his own. This must be Family Power and World Strength at work.
"Yes sir! I will always keep little Seth from bad people!" Augustus yelled cheerfully and dutifully in response. His family was so happy about him, it made Seth so happy. It was probably because of the Family Happiness that he wasn't reborn into a perpetually angry family that was at each other's throats. Seth was very happy with everything so far as he closed the system window and slowly fell asleep.
When Seth finally woke up, he was wrapped up in an ornate blanket. He opened his eyes for the first time in his new life and saw that he was in a lavish room. His family really was rich. Being an emperor must be very good for the household funds. He felt even stronger than before he fell asleep, so he checked his stats. They were all 1000, except for Soul Strength. It was still insanely huge, but it had actually grown by one point for some reason.
Seth tried to move around, he wanted to get up as soon as possible to see what his new life will bring. When he tried to stand up, he immediately fell over. His balance was very off and he wasn't used to his tiny baby body. His body made a loud sound when he fell onto his soft mattress.
Hearing a loud sound, some maids that were in the vicinity of Seth's room rushed in. Seth felt a chill run through his spine, he felt like he needed to run. He wiggled his way to the edge of his crib and hit the fence-like side of it. The side completely broke off and fell to the ground. He pushed himself off of the crib just as a large kitchen knife was struck into the cushion he had just dropped from.
Maids screamed, seeing a large knife appear out of thin air, from the hands of one of their colleagues no less. Seth turned to look at the thrower of the knife, it was just a random maid. The maid had bloodshot eyes and an evil grin on her face. She looked as if she were possessed by some demon. She was muttering something, Seth could hear her saying something about the god of light and heaven. He had been attacked by a god, it must have been the master of the ball of light. Seth connected the dots, a god of light must have a servant of light.
Armored knights ran into the room. The screams of the maids caused quite a commotion. Seeing the crazed maid, a knight knocked her out with the hilt of his sword, or he tried to at least. The maid whipped her head around and punched the knight in the chest. There was a loud cracking sound as the knight flew back into the wall. Seth could clearly see that the knight's armor was brutally dented and that he was no longer in the realm of the living. Seth was amazed. That maid was insanely strong. Much stronger than anybody he had ever seen before.
The maid looked over at him, staring into his eyes as she lunged toward him. Seth didn't feel fear, like the other people in the room. Instead, he felt a rush of exhilaration as he faced off against this strong opponent. He looked back at the maid that was now just feet away from him. In his rush of excitement, he jumped to his feet and punched out his fist to meet her. Air rippled around his arm from the speed and power of the strike. The maid punched out as well, their blows meeting. For one second, it seemed as if time stood still.
Wind blew everywhere. The room was razed to the ground, and the others were blown away. It was just the maid and the baby prince, the maid's arm crumbled to pieces under the unimaginable force. Her body was unable to withstand the power of Seth's punch, as well as her own strike. As her body crumbled, her eyes widened. She seemed to be seeing something.
"You. You lied to me..." She whispered her last words and breathed her last breath in complete disbelief. Her frame completely crumbled away, fading into nothing, leaving only a pool of blood. Seth felt like he heard a booming laugh, just like the one he heard when he had died. Seth slumped over and fell into the bloody puddle on the floor as soldiers and knights shouted in the distance.
Seth was exhausted. He had no energy left to get back up, as he had used it all in his punch. Knights that had run over picked his body up and marched him away. They had not seen what happened, but they knew that it had something to do with their new prince. Seth lost consciousness once again, hopefully for the last time.
When Seth woke up, he was once again in a crib. This crib, however, was made entirely of metal. There were guards all around the room as well, it seemed like they had learned their lesson. Seth tried to get up, he felt no traces of his earlier exhaustion at all. He fell over once again, he was not used to his body. Seth wondered why he was suddenly able to stand up when he saw the maid. Remembering the feeling, he wondered when he could fight against a strong enemy again. Seth shook his head. Before he could fight people, he had to be able to walk around first.
Seth tried to stand up once again, this time he was mostly focused on maintaining his balance. As he slowly rose from the mattress, a guard noticed that their baby prince was awake and moving. A prince who had just been attacked a few hours before. This wasn't supposed to be possible, people don't just fully regenerate their energy in a couple of hours. This new prince surely is not human. Seth was able to stand up finally, albeit unsteadily, after a long time of balancing.
Seth noticed the guard that saw him stand up and nodded to him, he would keep this secret. The guard apparently did not take the nod the same way Seth meant because he immediately whispered to the other guards and ran away. Seth sighed, this new world truly was weird.
Seth went on to balance for another ten minutes before trying to take a step. His body was strong enough to walk, to actually do almost anything. He just had to get used to it.
When Seth started trying to walk, he brought himself to the attention of the guards again. Seeing the monster in human skin walking around just hours after his birth scared them out of their wits. Seth looked about as he walked in circles around the inside of his crib. His steps were slowly getting more steady, so he decided to increase his speed. His movements, which had started out jittery and uneven, had eventually become smooth and agile.
Seth was practically flying around the crib. It was pretty small, so it only took a few steps per round. Seth jumped over the walls of the crib and onto a guard's head. The guard, feeling the weight of Seth's body suddenly appeared on his head, paled and froze in place.
"Hello, Mr. guard!" Seth tried to start a conversation with the guard. He was surprised at his voice as it was high pitched and childish. He was just a newborn, after all. The guard dropped his sword and picked Seth up off of his head. He put him back in his cradle and picked his sword back up, all without saying a word. The guards had seen what happened. They were afraid, the weakest of which had peed their pants. A baby had jumped onto the head of their friend! And it had talked to him!
Although Seth was not tired in the least, he still decided to sit and wait until a family member came over. He wanted to actually meet his new family, to see what opportunities his new life will bring.