Months had passed since I had been reincarnated again. While not much had transpired during these last few months, I was still terribly busy in my own little way.
I have been doing my utmost best to understand the language that my parents were speaking, despite the initial difficulty I started to understand them eventually. My mother spent most of her time taking care of me while my father went off to go work.
From what I could tell stuck in my own little bubble I called home, this world wasn't very advanced in terms of technology, in fact it seemed like I was reincarnated in a mediaeval world with elements of magic.
These last few months gave me ample time to think on what I wanted to do with this new life, I wanted to become powerful – so powerful I could never ever be trampled on. I hated being weak, being powerless, I experienced it too many times in my previous lives.
'The strong prey on the weak, and the weak follow.' I recalled from one of my past lives while watching my mother do her usual household chores. I watched her with great interest as she used magic spells to clean every now and then. They seemed simple in the way they were cast, wave your hand in a certain way, say the magical worlds and them bam! Magic.
The midwife a few months ago and my mother's practical use of magic in her day to day activities only served to motivate me further to want to learn of the arcane. Reincarnation fantasy novels and books I read from my past life were the basis of my assumptions and experiments. I wanted to feel that energy again, it felt foreign yet powerful, powerful yet controlled. I needed it. I needed it desperately.
***
None of the things I tried and practised in my spare time worked for the first few months.
'This was stupid,' I thought. 'How the heck are fantasy books supposed to help me at all?' I continued, but then I suddenly had the bright idea to use a training method from my second life.
'There's no chance this will work, but I have nothing to lose,' I thought.
In my second life, where I was forced to become a soldier for the Kanjan Empire, we were taught a meditation technique to absorb and circulate 'Ithnir'. Ithnir was a drug that contained a mysterious essence that would strengthen soldiers, it was meant to replicate what the rival empire we were at war with was doing, except this was dangerous and harmful to the body. Of course, us soldiers that came from poor families didn't have a choice, we were nothing but cannon fodder. But, if this worked, it could maybe give me a headstart in this life.
And so I tried.
Doing my best to clear my mind as my mother would work in the background, I deep dived into the furthest corners of my mind as best I could. I found myself in an empty dark space, devoid of any sound, the first step was complete.
With that, I started to feel these little particles of energy circulate and pulse around me, they were so small that if I lost concentration for even a moment, they would disappear and elude themselves from me. This was completely different from what would happen with Ithnir that was directly injected into the body.
I then proceeded with the second step which was to routinely breathe in and out in an attempt to draw all the energy towards my heart. Unfortunately nothing happened.
'Tsk.' I tutted. This was frustrating as the first step worked. How were these two energies different? Firstly Ithnir was directly injected into the bloodstream, while the magic energy in this world seemed to constantly float around us, imperceivable to the human eye unless you really concentrated.
As I continued breathing in and out, I lost myself in my thoughts for a moment, which is when I noticed that the magic particles were being drawn to a particular spot in my navel. I then focused my thoughts on my skin, its many pores, and most of all my navel. I did this for a while as the particles continued to approach my body, they seemed to get more and more drawn to me, and then it happened. The first particle went inside my body, I felt a slight power surge within me. It was very faint but this was progress! The mana particle seemed like a grain of sand inside an hourglass, but it was enough for me to notice it because of how immersed in my own mind I was.
Cutting me from my concentration, it was feeding time with my mother as she picked me up and sat down on a chair in our living room… Ugh… But I had no choice.
***
Besides my first discovery of magic and teaching myself the language, I wasn't allowed anywhere outside of the house to the point I had gotten so familiar with our wooden abode that I recognised which room my mother was in based on the creaking of the wooden flooring. Our home was simple. We had a kitchen, a living room in front of a humble fireplace, and 3 rooms: mine, my parents', and a storage room.
Despite all the self-teaching, my days were peaceful and fruitful. Yet in the back of my mind I had an inkling it wouldn't last forever. Peace never does.
***
With that another 6 months had passed and I was getting closer to a year old. I decided to call the spot where most of the magic particles had gathered in my navel my mana core, and it was close to getting full. It looked like a marble whenever I would use the Ithnir absorption technique. It was smaller than I thought, and I wasn't sure what would happen if it were to actually fill itself.
Then one day it happened.
A blinding light erupted from my navel followed by a small explosion that caused nearby objects and furniture in the house to fall or topple over. Luckily enough my mother was outside the house tending to laundry.
I was completely fine and unharmed, but I had made a mess. My hair was in cahoots and I looked like I had gone completely mad.
Hearing the loud bang from outside, my mother rushed back into the house.
"Oh my gosh Darian! Did you fall? Are you okay?" She asked worriedly, thinking I had hurt myself while playing on the floor with the carved wooden toys my father made. She continued caressing and checking me for any injuries before setting me down on a chair in the living room while she got the house back in order.
I, on the other hand, was overjoyed. I felt a newfound strength well up from within me. I felt whole, stronger, better, this was the first step in realising my ambitions. I would never allow myself to suffer like I did back then.