Chapter 2 - Introductions

Where had that voice come from? A system? Is this another one of those things that I read, with the protagonist getting some overpowered system or something of the like after getting reincarnated? Also Alexander Bellmont? My name in my previous life had been Alexander Norton, not Bellmont. Maybe that was the name of the family I was born into. That couple on my right was probably my parents.

'Where am I and what is the Story System?' I asked in my head. It seemed to work for the people in the novels I read, maybe it would be the same for me.

'You, Alexander Norton, as you can probably figure out, have died. Your soul was then picked up by the Story System that transported it across the Universe to this body here. You are currently in the world of Euclidiya.

It is very similar to Earth with only a few key differences. In this world, the beings here can manipulate and use the natural energy or as it would be called in this world, mana, around them to do what would be considered miracles in your world.

Owing to the fact the beings here can manipulate energy like magic, many more self-aware species are here than in your world. You will learn more about the world as you grow up. As for your second question, the Story System picks out souls with strong wills and the potential to tell entertaining stories to imprint itself upon. You are just one of the people that have been chosen as the hosts.'

Responded the voice that had spoken to me before. The voice was very calming and I couldn't figure out the gender the voice was.

I took the information in quietly and thought things through. So I was just one of the people the System had chosen. Did that mean that I could meet other people with the system here? As if reading my thoughts the System responded.

'I am just a fragment of the main system that was imprinted into you. I only have basic knowledge of the world and system. There may or may not be people with the Story System on this planet you reside on, I am not privy to that information.

Huh, that was interesting. Maybe I will meet another person like me someday. Suddenly another important question came to mind. What did the Story System do?

'The Story System is unique to all hosts, but all have the same goal of telling a story through the lives of their hosts. The system helps to make the story of the host more entertaining in a multitude of ways. In your case, I am a system similar to that of an open-world game.

The system can not force the host to do anything, so in this case, quests will appear with rewards for the host. The goal of these quests is to spice up the life of the host. You just need to know that the system is always here to help the host.'

A game huh, that could be fun. I reflected on my uneventful past life and made a decision. I would use this new chance to live life to the fullest! I would not waste it like I had in my previous life.

A wave of fatigue washed over me as I made that decision and I remembered that I only had the body of a baby right now, and would not be able to do much. I soon fell asleep watching as the figures of my probably parents, talked with each other and the doctor.

-----

It's been about a week now since I woke up for the first time in this world, and during that time, I really couldn't do much, but I learned a lot of things. For one, I was in a glass box of some sort with a couple of holes in it for ventilation and one that fed a tube through.

I was guessing that it was probably filled with nutrients or something that kept me healthy, as the whole time I was in this box I had only gotten fed by mouth a couple of times with a liquid substance I presumed to be milk.

I had finally gotten some control of my body as now I could turn slightly and move my arms and legs, but moving my extremities was still a bit of a stretch. According to the system I named Avery(the name of my past mother), I was premature by over a month and the first time I woke up was two weeks before I was supposed to. This baby's body that I was in had been dead for under a minute before my soul was introduced.

This strangely made me feel less guilty, as instead of taking over someone's body I was only placed into it after they died and moved on. While coming out, the child had a condition of some sort and didn't make it past the first minute of being in the outside world, but that was when the Story System came in with my soul.

This world I was in was sort of a mix of being technologically advanced and being stuck in the past. This was due to the many other species that lived here too competing with and going to war with humans. With all the struggles humans had fewer numbers than they had in my old world as only the strongest and smartest survived leading to a world with technological advancements made with magic, while still having most stuff be "old" by my standards.

For example, this world has simple medical machinery like the one hooked up to me right now but doesn't have the internet and computers like Earth. In this world, many technological inventions such as transportation were simply supplemented by magic and the stronger beasts of this world. This was as much information as Avery had though.

The past few days I had entertained myself by talking to Avery and studying the language spoken here. Avery also helped me in this aspect as they translated some of the words spoken around me and began to teach me the letters of this language. It seemed to be a runic, Celtic language similar to olden English.

From what I gathered, my name was Alexander Bellmont as said by Avery and my parents' names were Katherin and John/Johnathon. As was said by the doctor I first saw, I would be getting out of this box in another week, and would finally be able to move around the place. Boy was I excited for that.

Finally, the time had come for me to move out of my incubator home. I could feel this difference in my size as the once very spacious box had seemed to have shrunken over the past 2 weeks.

I had made decent progress with the new language and seemed to pick it up even quicker than in my last life. Maybe it was due to this new body being able to quickly learn. I could finally understand most of the speech around without Avery's help.

As the time came I saw quite a few people congregating near my box there was the doctor and my parents, and accompanying them was a nurse, an older couple that looked quite a bit like my mother, and what seemed to be two maids along with a butler.

As the doctor had done sometimes before, he reached in through a latched door and felt around my body checking up on my health, and as he saw I was healthy, he opened up the top and allowed my mother to pick me up. For the first time in this life, I felt the warm touch of my parents, causing me to tear up a bit.

As I and my freaked-out mother calmed down people began speaking.

"Oh my god, he's so tiny."

"Isn't he cute?"

"My firstborn son's finally in the real world now!"

"I'm going to make sure he ends up the healthiest baby possible!"

Those last two comments came from my dad and mom respectively. I was overwhelmed by the attention at first, but I remembered how I had felt at holding my baby sisters for the first time and came to accept it.

I moved around in my mother's arms, craning my neck to take a better look around me when I realized that the room I had been in was a bedroom, and a giant one at that. To the far end of the room opposite my crib was a huge floor-to-ceiling window that stretched the entire wall and even had glass doors leading out to a balcony. This bedroom was the size of my living room in my past life!

I looked back at my crib to better position things in my mind. The incubator box was in a corner of the room directly to the right of the double doors leading in. As expected, it was simple with the box, a machine, and a tray table next to it.

To the left of the doors leading in, in the middle of the room, was a giant bed that seemed straight out the medieval times with curtains enclosing it. Opposite the bed on the right wall was a dresser and 2 doors leading to what I presumed to be a washroom and a closet.

'Who's bedroom is this?' I thought.

Was this the master bedroom of my parents? That would certainly explain why my crib was in it, but I hadn't seen them enter the room at night before. Perhaps it was an extravagant guest bedroom or something.

Breaking me out of my thoughts a voice came through, "Let his grandmother hold him."

Reluctantly my mother turned me over to the origin of the voice, an older-looking lady who seemed around 50 or so. She looked similar to my mother with the same stature and dirty-blonde hair, but her eyes were a light green-grey instead of the stormy eyes of my mother. 

"Come on, you're hogging him," came a masculine voice.

"It's only been a few seconds," replied my grandmother.

"Well, I want to hold my grandson as well, Mary."

"Jeez, you old fart, here hold your grandbaby. And take care not to drop him!"

"Just how old do you think I am, I wouldn't ever drop my precious grandson like that."

I was handed over to another older gentleman who couldn't have been over 60 by my grandmother whose name I was surprised to find out was Mary. If my grandmother and mother were 6 feet, my grandfather stood at a tall 6 foot 7, looking like a gentle giant in my eyes.

Like everyone else in my family, he was extremely handsome looking rugged, yet at the same time had a gentlemanly air. He had the same dirty blonde hair as my mother and grandma, but he was starting to get a few grey hairs here and there.

"Now, let's get you out of this room shall we? You must have been bored out of your mind cooped up here. Time for some exploration!"