"Holy smokes. I went for an hour! Haah."
I was laying on the floor again, sweat oozing from every pore in my body.
[Good job, master. You have leveled up again.]
A small, golden window appeared above me.
…
Name: Kaiser Raijin
Level: 3
XP: 0 / 100
Skill Points: 3
Status:
Health: 100%
Stamina: 5%
Mana: N/A
{Skill Trees}
…
"Haah, Finally."
The sun had started to pierce through the windows, signally a new day.
"With this, I can finally learn, haah, what kind of world I'm in."
[Yes. I'll wake you up when you've reached one hundred percent stamina.]
"*Yawn* Thanks."
…
Later that morning...
"Alright, Emy start the upgr–"
Before I could start the next upgrade, the door to the room opened, revealing the butler. This time, he had a plate of toast and eggs with a glass of milk.
"Good morning, young master. I've brought your breakfast."
My mouth watered at the sight, forgetting everything about the upgrade. I quickly made my way over to the table where he had placed the tray of food.
"Thanks." I grabbed the toast and nearly ate half of it in one bite but held myself back to not arouse suspicion from the old man. "I could eat a horse right now."
The butler laughed. "Enjoy your meal, sir. I'll be back later with lunch."
I gave a slight nod in response, trying to hold back from stuffing everything in my mouth.
As soon as the door closed, bread, eggs, and milk were in my mouth. I nearly choked trying to swallow everything.
[Take it easy master, the food isn't going to run away.]
"You never know. In a world of magic, food could walk right off the plate!"
[...]
After wolfing down the meal, I sat down on the floor with my legs crossed.
"Alright, I'm ready. Upgrade intelligence to tier one."
[Commencing upgrade of intelligence to tier one at the cost of one skill point.]
The searing pain that accompanied an upgrade was familiar now. It still made me wince, but it was bearable this time.
As it faded away, new sweat formed on my brow. I exhaled.
[How do you feel?]
"I don't know, let me test it. Give me some math problems."
[The rate at which a kitten gains weight is proportional to the difference between its adult weight and its current weight. At time t = 0, when the kitten is first weighed, its weight is 2 pounds. If W(t) is the weight of the kitten in pounds, at time t days after it is first weighed, then dW/dt = ⅓(20-W). Let y = W(t) be the solution to the differential equation with initial condition W(0) = 2. Use separation of variables to find y = W(t), the particular solution to the differential equation with initial condition W(0) = 2.]
"Which dark crevice did you pull that problem out of, Emy?"
[You said to give a math problem. Do you know the answer?]
"It's w equals twenty minus eight-teen e to the negative one-third t."
[Good job, you got it!]
My mouth was agape.
"I haven't done differential equations since my freshmen year of college! What the hell! When you finished saying it, the steps to the problem basically solved themselves in my head. This is insane! I'm like Einstein."
[Scanning database… Actually, your IQ is higher than any human on Earth now.]
"Wow. And this is only the first tier! How strong is the last tier?"
[Unfortunately, I can't tell you at this point. Only when upgrades are available can I give details on the effects.]
"That's alright. I'm just glad I've got this overpowered system."
[Now that you have the three requirements for the knowledge impartment, would you like to undergo the process?]
"How does it work?"
[Knowledge impartment is sort of like before. I'll use an analogy of a cup. What we did before was like making the cup stronger and bigger to fill it with a denser and more voluminous liquid. Now that your mind is stronger and can hold more information, we can fill it with more knowledge. The knowledge impartment isn't that much this time but since it's your first experience with it, it can be a little jarring.]
"Alright, sounds easy enough. Do I just sit here and you fill my head with knowledge?"
[Yes. Would you like the begin the knowledge impartment?]
"Go ahead."
I closed my eyes and prepared for the pain. But I was not prepared for what came next.
All of a sudden, I was surrounded by complete darkness. Even though I knew I had opened my eyes, I still couldn't see anything.
But soon, I could see a light and felt something grasp me. The light took over my vision and my eyes adjusted to the light. I was swinging pudgy and short arms around. I could hear the cries of a baby.
'Wait, is that me?'
The cries sounded like they were coming from my mouth. Every movement I made was out of my control.
'Is this the knowledge impartment? I'm a baby!'
The grasp around my body intensified and I looked up. An old woman was holding me. She had long, grey hair and bright golden eyes.
'Those look like my eyes!'
The woman raised me up and walked forward with me in her arms.
"It's a beautiful bady, Aileen." She said, looking ahead.
I was lowered and placed into something very soft.
'Ooh, this feels good!'
My head turned to the side and I saw a beautiful woman with light, brown hair and a serene pair of golden eyes. I lost myself in those eyes. They were so enchanting. I felt the most sincere love and kindness from them. Like the woman was only looking at me and worried about nothing else in the world.
'Sh– She's my mother.'
I don't know how I knew, but something pulled at my heart when I stared into this woman's eyes.
Her bright pink lips smiled at me and her eyes closed. She raised me to her face and she kissed my forehead. Her lips were as soft as clouds.
"I'll see you when you turn 18, Kaiser. I love you."
Suddenly, I felt as if I was starting to fall. Everything around me rose up as I was sinking further and further into darkness. Soon, it covered me and I left my mother's embrace.
…
[Welcome back, master. Did you find what you were looking for?]
My eyes stayed closed as I sat there in the training room with my legs crossed.
"Heh. What kind of world did I reincarnate into?"
My eyes opened and I stood up and headed for the door.
"Mr. Davis probably thought I had been acting weird lately."
[I assume it was a success then, master?]
"More than a success, Emy," I said, walking down the pathway to the main house. "I know you can read my mind so I won't bother. This is going to get a lot more interesting in a few days."
[It appears so.]
Before I got to the main house, I turned left and walked around the house to a long shack.
It was the stables, where multiple horses were lined up down the aisle of pens.
I walked up to the one white horse out of all the light brown horses and stroked its neck. The horse neighed in response and pushed its head into my hand.
"It's been a few days hasn't it, Otis," I said.
I opened the pen and grabbed the saddle hanging on the post to the right and lead Otis out. I strapped on the saddle and hopped on top with a swift, practiced motion.
I pulled Otis' reigns and he slowly walked out of the stables towards the front gate of the property.
Standing in front of the gate were two guards keeping watch.
"Ryan, Frederick," I called out to the two guards in silver armor. They both turned around and upon seeing me, smiled and opened the gate.
"We greet young master Kaiser," They said in unison.
"Tell Mr. Davis I'm going to the lake for a bit."
They stood and saluted. "Aye, sir. He'll be notified," Ryan said.
"Sorry for the scare yesterday. I don't know what came over me."
"That's quite alright, young master," Frederick said. "We were just worried about you."
"Yes," Ryan said. "Everything was alright in the end, so all's well that ends well."
"Thank you."
I rode past the two and made my way down the wide dirt path away from the estate. The thick forest trees flanked each side of the road.
I took a deep breath of the air of nature and exhaled.
"It's always so peaceful out here."
Birds chirped in the distance and the cicadas buzzed. The swaying of leaves in the wind brought the serenity of the forest with it and soothed my mind.
"I don't know if I'm ready to leave this place yet."
[You could always stay. With the system, your mana won't forcefully awaken.]
"I know. But, I must follow the natural order of things. If I don't ascend to the mana realm, the Raijin family will be robbed of a potential heir. I can't do that to my family. And besides, they're all waiting for me there."
At a certain point in the dirt road, I turned at a point I memorized and walked through the forest with Otis.
"After gaining Kaiser's memories, I now understand my purpose."
Through the trees, a clearing came into view. We passed through the treeline and came out to a wide, beautiful lake.
"This is the start of it all. Lucas Sanders is no more. This is the start of Kaiser Raijin's story."