I opened my eyes and found myself sitting on a patch of grass, leaning my back against a tree.
"So, this is my new body…" I muttered as I inspected myself. I definitely looked like a 12 year old, I was way shorter, and I seemed to have way less muscle too. But, this was natural for a 12 year old's body.
I was wearing a sleeveless leather shirt, baggy pants, which were quite comfortable, and mountain sandals. Next to me on the ground, I saw a book.
The book was titled "Phelena's Tutorial" so I supposed it was a guide the goddess gave me.
It was written in English and it had information about all sorts of stuff about this new world. I started reading the "Magic" section, which gave me a pretty good base on how to cast basic spells and explained how magic worked in general.
From what I read, a lot of people in this world were able to cast magic freely. However, the difficulty and power of the spell depended heavily on the experience of the caster.
Anyone could create their own spells, as long as they had enough power and magic control. But even then, it seemed that creating spells wasn't a common thing in this world. Instead, they had a pretty long list of "well known" spells that people used as a guide when learning.
"So basically, magic works with imagination… If I can imagine it and have enough power to recreate it, then…" I muttered again as I kept reading the book. After finishing about half of the "Magic" section, I tried to put it to practice.
"Let's start with something basic… Fireball!" I yelled as my palm pointing towards a tree was enveloped in flame for a moment, then shot straight to the tree, making a scorching hole right in the middle and knocking it down.
"Uhh…" I was speechless. I mean, that was pretty powerful. It just knocked the entire tree down when I just expected to burn it a little.
'Maybe I added too much power?' I pondered as I took another glance at the "Magic" section of the book.
Fireball was one of the most basic spells to learn. It was first on the list of "well-known" spells, so I thought it would be pretty weak.
But, just as I thought, it turned out that the amount of power that you use for your spell is what determines how powerful it really is. Not how easy it was to cast or learn.
There was another spell that caught my eye since it had a pretty long section for it. It was a spell called "Inspect," and it was, apparently, one of the easiest spells to learn.
This was due to it being a spell that conveyed information to the caster about whatever they were inspecting and nothing more.
"So, it gives me information? I guess I can try it on myself… Inspect."
As I said the name of the spell and channeled a little magic power, a glowing stone tablet appeared right in front of me.
Age: 12
Skills: Kobudo, Martial Arts.
MP: 10,000
Titles: Child of Phelena.>
"Ah, so this is what it meant." It was kind of like a game, but I didn't fully understand everything written on it.
I got my name and age, obviously, but I wasn't sure what "Skills" meant, and after focusing my eyes on it, a small window appeared in front of the tablet.
<Skills are unique abilities or talents that individuals possess.
Skills can be obtained from birth or can also be learned by gaining sufficient experience.>
"I see, so skills are more personal while magic is more general." I pondered aloud.
Just like the explanation said, people could be born with certain skills or learn them later in life. Seemed like I had kept the skills from my past life, so I hoped they would be somewhat useful in this new world.
After that, I focused on the "MP" tab until the window with the explanation popped up.
<MP is short for Magical Power.
Casting spells consumes MP.
MP regenerates slowly with time.
The number denotes the total amount of MP that a person has.
The higher the MP, the more power they can put into their spells.
A person's MP will steadily grow for 16 years. After that, training is required to raise it higher.>
I had 10,000 MP, and honestly, there was no way for me to tell if that was good or bad. It's not like I could compare it with someone, so I thought it was probably an average number for someone my age.
Then there was the "Titles" tab.
<Titles are accolades given to an individual based on their achievements or experiences. Certain titles could provide the person with benefits relative to the difficulty of obtaining them.>
The only title I had was "Child of Phelena." It made sense when I thought about it. This body was created by her, so that would technically make me her child. When I focused on the title itself, it popped another message for me.
"Huh!? So this title just tripled my lifespan!?" I exclaimed.
I didn't truly know if that was a good or bad thing, but I supposed it wasn't important at the moment.
After I closed the stone tablet, by simply thinking about it, I kept reading the book for a few more minutes before I decided to explore my surroundings.
I was in the middle of an unknown forest, and sadly, there wasn't a map in "Phelena's Tutorial," so I didn't even know the name of the forest I was located in.
I was walking for a bit when I heard a loud rustle from the leaves and bushes around me. Not even a second passed by when a giant cricket-looking bug came down from a tree not too far from me.
The bug launched itself straight at me, and in a moment of panic, I swiped my hand to the side as if I were swatting a fly off my face. With that, I destroyed half of its head and sent the bug flying straight into a tree.
"I suppose bugs in this world are just bigger. They are still just as weak as a normal insect…" I muttered as I approached the dead bug.
It was the size of a big dog, so pretty big for an insect, and its shelled skin was as tough as a rock.
After a bit more walking, I spotted a huge tree not too far from my location. It towered above all the other trees around, so I thought it must have been some sort of important tree.
It took me around two hours of sprinting straight to reach it. Thankfully, my body was keeping up with all this exercise pretty well. I assumed that Phelena gave my body a bit more endurance at first, but honestly, I felt like it might have been too much.
'Maybe everyone in this world has higher levels of endurance… In that sense, this could be pretty average, right?' I thought.
Even with those high levels of endurance, I still felt extremely tired when I reached the base of the tree. To be fair, I did sprint at maximum speed for two hours straight.
The tree was absolutely immense, with at least 50 meters in diameter and 100 meters tall. The bark was dark red, which made me wonder what type of tree it was, so I used my "Inspect" ability on it.
<Great Redwood Tree:
A tree that has been alive for 1000+ years.
The wood is the second sturdiest wood in the world.>
'Second sturdiest in the world? That's pretty good!' I thought.
I opened the book that Phelena gave me and went back to a section that I had read before.
"Aha, nature magic…" There was a chapter in the magic section that talked about a type that could control and shape wood, leaves, vines, and grass. I read the entire section and decided to run a test, but first, I wanted to try it on a more common tree, so I used a random oak tree next to me.
I placed my hand in the trunk, then focused on shaping the wood into a stick, more specifically, a "bo."
I didn't say the name of any spell while casting it since the book said that magic worked with imagination.
As long as I could think about what I wanted to cast hard enough, then speaking wouldn't be necessary. Besides, I wouldn't know what to call this spell either way.
The trunk suddenly caved in, and inside the gaping tree, my first "bo" was waiting for me.
I had to break it off from the rest of the tree, and when I looked closely at it, I realized it was actually pretty bad.
A "bo" had to be perfectly smooth, to the point where it could slide in your hands. This one was rough and had tons of splinters all over.
I felt like if I slid my hand across it, I was going to hurt myself.
"I guess I have to be a little more detailed when casting the spell. I only thought about the shape of the "bo," but I didn't think about its texture or sturdiness…" I muttered as I walked to the giant redwood tree.
I jumped on top of the giant roots at the base and placed my hand in the trunk.
"Let's do it right this time…"
As I was casting the spell, I tried to be as detailed as possible when thinking about my "bo."
I thought about the texture and the size. I even used water magic to fully dry the piece of wood to make it even more sturdy.
The result was surprisingly amazing, as it was definitely the nicest "bo" I ever had.