It took me a few years, but I have come to a conclusion;
this World sucks.
Actually it is a pretty good place from everything that I can grasp.
There is no poverty here. To be more precise, there is no real difference between rich and poor. Even though those words exist, it is rare that they get used to categorize a human status.
There is no racism either here.
I have seen people with so many different features that one could assume that there is at least a slight thought process like in my original world but no.
I like that – everyone is equal in many senses.
But this presents the first part of this world that somewhat sucks.
Even though there are many different skin-, hair- and eye colours, there are only natural ones. Well, one could dye their hair though.
No pure white skin, no natural pink hair and no glowing red eyes… this is in no way fantasy – among the humans that is.
I stood up from my favourite place on the blueish grey couch in our livingroom and walked towards the windows.
The room is quite big and kept in bright colours. The big windows and the balcony door made out of glass highlighted this coloursheme quite nice.
Because I am alone in the apartment at the moment, the door and windows are closed. Not that I couldn't open them anyway, but as I am only five years old now I shouldn't know the pincode to do that.
I sighted and kicked a small toycar without wheels out of my way while crossing the room. There are some toys scattered randomly on the soft, pastel yellow carped. I left them there so it would look like I played with them but I couldn't care less. It actually is a bit embarrassing to play with those when someone else is nearby, so I wouldn't rise suspicion.
To be honest I already count as quite unnormal, so I should be able to stop playing with those in about one or two years without anyone really questioning it.
Sounds about right.
I climbed on the small stool in front of the window that my mother placed there so I could watch the outside. Being small is actually annoying.
But I had no interest in watching the suncovered metropolitan city.
My attention was locked on the potted plants that decorated our windowsills on the inside. Because the apartment is in a quite high floor it would be dangerous to decorate the outside windowsills I guess.
It took me a few seconds until I found what I searched for.
Curled up in some soft, decorative grass, lies a small humanoid creature.
It is about 12 centimetres tall, has a lightgreen skin, that reminded me of rose twigs and leafgreen hair.
As I said; the natural colours are only a standard for humans.
The name of that small creature is "Leef" which translates to "leaf" from an ancient language and is pronounced in the same way the English word in my homeworld got pronounced. When I first heard the explanation, it startled me a bit.
Leef is a so called potted Pixie – a Spirit that controls the life of plants. Actually its much less impressive than what one would imagine.
Potted Pixies keep plants healthy and can adjust their growth like a good fertilizer just by staying near them.
Even though potted Pixies are completely androgynous and have nothing to look at because they are genderless, Leef is wearing a white dress that is usually made for dolls and that my mother gave them.
Many people – my parents included – keep potted Pixies in their home. They feed them with mostly sweet things and give them a few plants to live in and in return the potted Pixie keeps the plants in good health and watches the house.
Well, Leef not only watches the house.
I gently poked the small creature to make sure that it is fast asleep. It twitched for a moment, mumbled something in the language of pixies, that no human would ever be able to understand and started snoring way too loud for such a small being.
I nod satisfied and climb down the stool to get back to the couch.
Leef is on Rell-watch every time I am alone and because my parents both work most of the day, this happens quite often.
I have an older Brother who is with them most of the time and an older sister that I never saw before. Also there is my Grandfather who is mostly with me, but sometimes has other things to do.
I am quite relived that both my Grandmothers already passed away before I was born. This may sound mean but there is only a place for one Grandmother in my mind – my one and only grandmother.
With a short look back to the potted plants – the snoring hasn't stopped yet – I took a small object from the coffee table. It looked like a Smartphone made out of black glass but without any buttons on the side.
I doubletapped on the thing and a few white circles appeared on it. I tapped on the biggest one in the center and a big, holographic screen appeared on the wall opposite the couch.
I instantly turned down the volume and activated subtitles so that Leef wouldn't wake up.
Even though my parents noticed that I can read already and I don't need to hide it, there was no need to do it just so the Pixie could sleep more. No, I didn't do this out of kindness.
I tipped around on the remote control to get rid of the child safety lock and switched the channel. Because I used a one time Pin, it would get locked again the moment I switch back.
The graphics on this screen are more than anything I could have dreamed of in my previous life but even with that, I don't have any interest in some animated show for small children. My goal was the news channel.
I never was a person who had much interest in worldwide news before, but after I got reborn, I really started to like this channel. Whenever someone is home and watches it, I coincidentally want to play with my toys in the livingroom and when I am alone and Leef is asleep I turn it on too.
Why?
That should obvious; this channel gives me all the information I need about this world. And I gathered quite a lot.
First of all this world is quite similar to my old one. Well, it only has two continents – four if one counts the north- and southpole but no one lives there.
The smaller, eastern continent is the Kingdom of Navani and even though its called a Kingdom it actually has a democratic regime. The landmass of that continent is somewhat round but misshapen like some fried egg.
The bigger continent has the shape of an "L" and it doesn't need much imagination to see that both continents once were one that just broke apart.
I live on the "L"-continent that is called Tyman.
This continent is split in many countries. Every country is made out of one really big city and the land around it. Sometimes there are a few small villages and settlements in the jurisdiction of a city too but never another big city.
I don't have any real interest in how this system came to be, but as long as it works I'm fine with it. And it really works.
Surprisingly there is no war!
I couldn't believe it at first but it seems there never was a real war too.
I would assume there once was fighting over the territories but those seem to be nothing worth to be remembered. All I could find was that there was no war among humans for the last 1000 years.
And this is where things get weird.
You see, there are many Informations that date back more than two- or threethousand even tenthousand years, but the first written down Information is only 995 years old. Even though this information contains exact knowledge from ten thousand years ago. As if someone took good notes, then decided to write it down a few millennia later and burned the notes… that doesn't make any sense.
Sadly, I couldn't figure out what the origin of this curiosity is.
Neither the Newschannel, nor the books in my parents study room gave me anything valuable.
The TV program finished its report about a foodscandal that happened at the birthdayparty of some famous actor and the screen showed the news Anchor – an energetic looking, young man – again. I couldn't really care less.
The pictures that got shown behind him on the other hand got my attention quite fast.
One showed a group of people in white uniforms equipped with modern and medieval weapons of different kinds. Sometimes even a mixture of both.
This group was called the Heroes Party and to make it simple, it is an international acting army.
The other picture was a video of a middle aged woman, that gave the impression of someone who has seen literally everything. I knew this woman already. Her name was Anna Vrega and she currently held the position of the Hero.
This may sound fancy but the so called Hero is just the title of the leading Commander of the Heroes Party.
She doesn't have any special powers like those one would imagine when hearing the word "Hero" but to be honest her strength and fighting ability are nearly unparalleled.
So now one could ask about why there is an army when there is no war?
Its simple.
Like the unnatural skin and hair that Leef has and no human would ever get naturally, the privilege of not having a war is only between humans.
Leef was the first evidence that showed me that this is in fact quite a fantasy world, even though the technology would let one assume otherwise.
There are Monster in this world!
The joy and excitement that got created by this information was near unbearable.
I could already imagine the great adventure I would call my future life when I heard it.
Fighting monsters, discovering ancient secrets, maybe finding a dramatic romance and fulfilling an epic quest to make it bloom! Just like in the games I loved so much.
I cant wait to grow up and make this dream come trough!
…
I thought…
Well it is a bit more complicated.
Ah yes and now I am back to where I started; this World sucks!
First of all – what is a Monster?
The meaning is a bit different than what I knew.
For example Leef is not a Monster but Humans technically are.
So, there are three kinds of - let's say thinking – beings in this World.
First there are Beasts.
Most Beasts are just like Animals and even though there are some dangerous ones, this was the case in my old world too. Like a pack of lions or a rampaging elephant – everyone would say this is dangerous.
On the other hand there are "good" ones too. For example there is the Nam, which actually is just a cow with bright red fur. Nam gets eaten quite regularly.
Hundreds of years ago there even were humanoid Beasts like Ogres or Goblins but they went extinct long ago. From what I got from a book this was done by humans on purpose but I never found out why.
So now there is the question why a Goblin – that would be a Monster in every game I ever played – is a Beast and the Human would count as a Monster?
That's quite simple too, even thought it took me some time to learn of it.
The difference is the amount and natural usage of Aether.
While Beast don't have much Aether and can't really use it, Monster on the other Hand are often blessed with it and the ability to use this.
Aether is a Form of energy that exists everywhere.
It could be called the lifeforce of the planet but that isn't correct because the Sun spends aetheral energy too.
In Games this would be called "Mana" most of the time. A form of energy that is used to activate magic and skills.
This description can't even grasp a small amount of what it really is, but it will suffice for now.
Oh and just to make it clear; a human can use Magic quite easily with the right amount of training, that's why they would technically count as monsters even though the amount of Aether a human is born with can variate a lot.
The Heroes Party mostly wages war against Monsters who are a threat to humanity.
Every now and then they have to exterminate dangerous Beasts and rarely Spirits too.
Spirits are the third kind of beings in this World.
To put it simple; they are completely aetheral.
Now it could be assumed that this makes the species, who count into this category, the strongest beings in this World.
To put it in my old Worlds words; they are made out of magic and have a high affinity with their usage.
That's not wrong but this is actually what makes Spirits into the weakest beings.
Their affinity with the Aether is in fact so high, that a slight disturbance could hurt or even kill them.
Also a Spirit is bound to special places. For example the potted Pixies; they can only survive near plants and their whole lifeforce would vanish within hours, if they just stay away a few dozen meters from any plant.
Thinking about that I stared at the TV where Anna Vrega gave an interview about the extermination of a Drake – a big, dragonlike lizard that counts in the Monster category. I didn't really read what she said in the subtitles.
A sound from the apartment door catched my attention. Someone was out there and seemed about to enter.
Quickly I switched the TV program back to the children show, turned of the subtitles and increased the Volume to a level where I could hear normal but it wouldn't risk to wake up Leef.
I dropped the remote control on purpose so that it would look like I only needed it to turn on my show and then lost interest in it and sat down on the carped.
Not a moment too early.
The apartment door got opened and closed shortly after. I heard the fast steps of an seemingly agile person crossing the hallway towards the room I am in and just moments later a man entered.
He was tall, way to muscular for someone in his early sixties and had a leathery, suntanned skin. My Grandfather.
His dark eyes with the sharp look in it found me immediately, but I pretended not to notice and instead focused on the TV.
He made a short "tch" sound and I now looked at him, as if the sound just made me realize that he is there. He smiled knowingly, but I pretend not to notice.
"As if you would really watch that.", he murmured with a deep voice. "You are way to intelligent to really be interested in this. And don't even bother to pretend that you didn't notice me."
I smiled at him and tried to look innocent while doing so.
Ah who am I kidding. My Grandfather got sharp instincts and an even better intuition. If it wasn't for this body, he would have seen through me in an instant, but like this he seemingly assumed that I am some kind of genius child.
I liked that man.
It's hard to see my family in this World as a family because I already have one, but with him it is easy.
He can be grumpy, is strict and at least three times a week he forces me to undergo physical training that should be way to hard for a five year old. When someone complained he just told them that it is for my best and because he is the head of the Family no one can really oppose him.
About half a year ago he gave me a wooden sword and some kind of training-gun. Tools – no literal weapons – I could have killed myself easily with.
Well I didn't really mind and followed his instructions.
Because my mind wasn't that of a child I would use the weapons carefully and never got hurt with them.
What hurt me was the stick my grandpa used as a weapon while training me with the sword.
He was quite ruthless and beat me up many times while complaining that I could do much better.
The training was harsh but I was convinced that it would be good for me so I endured it.
In the end it should boost my stats quite nicely and even give me at least the basic skills for different Kind of combat, right?
Wrong!
The training that my grandfather made me endure let me realize something horrible; there is no System in this word!
For games a System is normal and nearly everything that used the Isekai-trope had on too… but this World didn't.
I tried out so much - but nothing.
No voice of heaven.
No weird form of intuition.
No mysterious Text in my head.
No level.. no stats… no skills…
Nothing!
This sucks so much I could scream.
How am I supposed to become a Hero – or maybe even a Villain like I'm used to be – when there is no cheat ability I could abuse?!
All I could do was train to get stronger but it never showed in a way that I am used to see: Leveldata and the likes.
I nearly sighed out loud while remembering.
"Leef?" my grandpa asked and I snapped out of my thoughts.
I pointed at the grass and he walked over to it.
He poked the small pixie a few times in a gentle way, that didn't fit to my picture of him until it woke up and looked at him with its big, poppyred eyes.
"Listen Leef," he started in a gentle tone. He was the one who told me to always be nice to a potted Pixie, but somehow it just felt wrong seeing him being so careful. "I will go out with Rell for a few hours. If someone comes and asks; you haven't seen us since this morning and you don't know where we are, okay?"
The Pixie smiled and made a saluting gesture while nodding. Even though Humans cant understand their language it works quite well the other way.
Nodding with a satisfied smile my Grandfather turned around and came to me.
He grabbed the remote control, turned off the TV and then put it on the coffee table, before he lifted me up with ease.
"Why?" I asked carefully.
His smile froze for a moment and then vanished, so that he looked as grumpy as usual.
He seemed to ponder while carrying me out of the apartment. While walking he grabbed my shoes that waited next to the door.
"Your Sister is coming and wants to see you." He muttered as we entered the lift and he let me down so I could put on my shoes. "And when I can prevent that, I will do it."
The look in his eyes made clear that I shouldn't ask any further.
My sister huh?
I never met her and at home no one really spoke about her. When I asked, I only got told that I am to young for those matters. Can't do anything about it.
My grandfather quickly noticed that I started to drift into thoughts, so he changed to a friendly tone.
"Want to visit the Zoo?"
I happily nodded to this question.
The Zoo in this City is great and I could see so many Beasts, Spirits and even some Monsters there. I wont get answers anyway, so I could at least enjoy the day.