Liam's eyes held an excited and curious glimmer as he scanned the vampire's image again and again.
'Vampires feed on blood, sucking it through their nails. They are capable of conversation, and have intellectual capabilities. Found in the Parag Continent, but are rumored to be violently hostile and territorial. Fabled to possess immortality.'
'To think that other races exist…' Liam thought with shock, before flipping the page.
The next image he saw was of a fair-skinned lady, wearing a silky, long-flowing green dress with particularly loose sleeves. Her hooded eyes were a bright emerald, while smooth, light-azure hair fell over her most distinct feature.
Her pink, pointy ears.
'Elves. Nicknamed the 'blessed' race. Not much is known about them.'
Liam flipped the page once more.
The next race he saw couldn't be mistaken for anything else.
'Goblins. Short, green-skinned creatures who— when working together— can cause devastating damage to towns. They target women, as well as little children.'
'Yikes.' Liam thought, staring at the image and flipping the image for the last time.
'Dwarves. Midgets with amazing architectural abilities. Rumored pioneers of nearly all forging methods. Not much is known.'
By then, Liam felt ecstatic. He couldn't help but want to grow older quicker.
Then, he shifted his focus to the 'Thousand Year War' book, opening it and skimming through its coarse, worn-down pages.
'Ages ago, when myths and legends were common knowledge. For a millennium, the world was at war. Most probably for much longer, but mortals just kept dying before they could continue the count. No one even remembers why the war had begun.'
'The Ashuras, a cursed demonic race— though little in number— wrought havoc on the world. The pantheons of the human and non-human countries formed a momentary truce, combining their strengths to fight against them.'
'It took long… too long to defeat them. By the end of it, entire lands were uprooted and countless lives were lost, but the demons were finally wiped out. So was their description and history.'
'Or so the legends claim.'
The book ended with that sentence.
'To think this world had such a background.' Liam pondered, before his mother finished with her cooking and picked him up again. 'I need to learn more. I won't be satisfied if I don't turn over every rock I find.'
Like so, more months passed.
Liam was aging quite nicely, and over time, his features became more prominent.
Strangely enough, he resembled nothing like his mother, since Liam had sharp green eyes and smooth blonde hair.
'My dad's then.'
On his first birthday, Eve baked him a pumpkin pie, which Liam had to admit tasted better than anything he had in his first life.
On the same day, a knock surfaced on their house door.
Eve opened it with Liam in her arms, and a burly, stern-faced man donning hunting attire handed her a satchel filled with meat, along with five gold, and twenty silver coins.
"Here, Miss Eve. I've been told to deliver this to you." The man said.
Eve accepted the items with a "Thank you," but her worried gaze fell on the coins a second later.
"But Adrian agreed to much more than this… I can't afford to feed my child with this much alone!" She argued, panic in her voice.
The hunter shook his head.
"I don't know much about your circumstances, Miss, but I have my orders."
With that, the man turned around and left.
Eve closed the door and instantly began sobbing on the spot, unaware of the cold gaze in Liam's eyes.
'Of course this has to be complicated. I always wondered where she got her money from. Now I know it's from my father, 'Adrian'.'
Eve clutched Liam tighter to her chest.
"I'm sorry, my child. Had it not been my selfishness, you wouldn't have been born in this cruel world."
…
Years passed, and Liam's living circumstances had taken a turn for the worst.
Once it was time for him to eat solid foods, Liam made sure to eat as much as he could to grow as strong as possible. Even in his first life, he didn't have the best nutrition growing up.
Eve made attempts to ration their meals, since only once a year, would money and food arrive. However, Liam simply ate too much.
His mother was kind enough to feed him some of her own meals, but the rate of consumption was too fast.
Noticing how Eve's features became skinnier over time, Liam promised to help the one person who helped him unconditionally.
Soon, he could walk and talk clearly, and was allowed to leave his home by Eve's permission.
However, there was a silver lining in their situation.
Liam was a step closer to cultivation.
He soon realized that Ucladd's guards weren't normal people.
Now and again, some peasants daring enough attempted to rob in broad daylight, giving Liam a chance to witness more magic.
It wasn't too complicated, tendrils of the earth wrapping around an escaping thief's foot, gales of wind stopping an assailant from stabbing someone, etcetera.
These cultivators worked in 'Guilds'. Large, four-story buildings situated around the city.
From what Liam knew, each building served a different purpose, yet he wasn't allowed to enter them at all.
Civilians were strictly barred from those areas, and the only way he could enter them was if he did so silently.
'I guess there's no other option. There's one more month left until the hunter comes. When he does, I'll creep behind him and enter silently. I'll have to ask someone to teach me, though.'
Liam was a month away from being ten years old. By then, his looks were far beyond those in the peasantry, with his cold green eyes giving him a mature look.
However, his plan depended on someone being kind enough to teach him, which was its biggest weakness.
Soon enough, the day arrived. He watched from afar as a scar-faced man knocked on their door, a satchel of meat and a handful of coins in his hands.