CH5: Journey Begins 

***

CH5: Journey Begins

Under the quiet bloom of a blood eclipse, the world of Arun bore witness to the birth of a baby boy.

The birth of the baby was long and arduous. However, the blood moon seemed to persist to guide the coming of the child into the world.

The child came into the world, but his gateway crumbled.

His mother was too weak at the time of his birth. She barely managed to push out the baby boy from her womb.

Though weaken by the labour, she requested to see her child.

A smile blossomed on her face as she saw her baby, who had a head full of hair like a mane. The hair was red-gold.

Her smile was melancholic because she knew this was the first and last time she would see her son.

So, she gathered the last of her strength and said,

"You have a lion's mane like your father. Your name... shall be... Leo... son of... Xander."

The mother died with the child in her arms. Even in death, it took a great effort for the midwives to pry the child away from her.

This was the birth of Leo Xander.

*

Leo Xander spent his early childhood with an old woman, by the name of Asta, who lived with his mother before her death.

The old woman took care of Xander like her flesh and blood. She showered him with the love and care a mother would a child, although she'd never had a child of her own.

Leo Xander grew up like a normal child... that is until he became seven years old.

On the boy's seventh birthday, the day of the boy's awakening came.

A massive influx of mana shot into the boy.

Fortunately, awakening was the norm of the world. Every person... every parent knew how to prepare for it.

The boy was placed in a seal circle that focus the mana influx around him within and prevented it from affecting the surrounding.

The large influx of mana was a good sign. The massive amount of mana meant the chance of a complete first awakening was high!

Soon, the mana formed a visible vortex which drilled into the red-gold haired boy's head.

Asta, Leo's guardian, grew worried.

The large influx of mana didn't reduced but increase instead.

If not for the fact that Leo didn't seem in pain, she might have entered the circle and interrupted the ceremony.

What Asta didn't know was that a massive change was going on within Leo.

*

My rebirth into the new world wasn't as smooth as Loki made it sound.

For the first seven years of my new life as Leo Xander, I had no recollection of my old one as Alex Fury.

It was the massive influx of Mana which awakened my dormant memories.

My 'awakening' wasn't to awaken Mana, rather it was to awaken the memories of my previous life.

Interestingly, the amount of Mana I consumed to do this, was tenfold what a denizen child of Arun needed to completely awaken the Mana affinity.

It looks like Loki wasn't joking when he... or she said my existence in the new world would be resisted.

I spent most of the time within the circle accepting my old memories. It was in this moment, just when the awakening was about to be completed, that I discovered a set of memories that weren't mine.

It turned out, Loki left a message within my inherited memories.

"Hello, human. Loki here. I'm leaving this message to inform you that sending your Soul into the world was trickier than I anticipated. I had to make some minor adjustments."

"In order to let you reincarnate unnoticed by the world, I sealed your memories so that you'd only recover then during your first awakening. I also took the liberty of preparing a nice background story to explain your lack of Mana. Don't forget to thank me later."

"Due to the change, you won't be able to fully unlock my blessings until the second awakening, but I trust someone of your capabilities can make do with what you have till then."

"Don't worry too much. It won't be a bad thing. This will give you the perspective to appreciate my gift when you finally get it. I made it into an interface that is easy to use. Once you wake up from the incoming coma, the gift will activate partially."

"I pray your luck is good, because what you will get from this partial unlock will be key to your future. It is a random thing but you won't be wrong to say it will determine your future."

"I think that's all...?"

"Oh! I almost forgot. This is a word of advice. You are not entirely Manaless. Or rather it is wrong to say you're manaless. It's just that the way you use mana is different from the denizens of this world."

"Mana is a form of energy denizens of this world ABSORB. However, you DEVOUR energy. I know you're a smart man. You'll figure it out."

"Alright. I believe that's truly all."

"Well, if there's anything I forgot to say, you just have to figure it out."

"This is your Patron Spirit, the Lord of Mischief, Loki signing out. Thanks for fulfilling your role in my greatest masterpiece. I hope you live a wonderful life."

"..."

"One more thing... Don't forget, Alex. Live a life better than your last."

Immediately after listening to Loki's message, I blacked out and the awakening concluded.

*

I slept for an entire day and woke up sundown the next.

I opened my eyes to see a worried Asta at my bedside.

It looked like she had aged quite a bit.

"You're awake." She hugged my weak body.

I didn't react.

I was still feeling a slight vertigo from inheriting the memories of my previous life.

The mistakes and betrayal I experienced in that life was fresh in my mind. I unconsciously raised my guard against Asta.

I quickly went through the seven-years memory of my second life.

I heaved a sigh of relief when I didn't notice anything amiss from my relationship with Asta in those years.

It wasn't enough to convince me to completely put down my apprehension, after all there was only so much a seven years old boy would notice, but it was enough to make me give her the benefit of the doubt.

So, I hugged her back.

"I'm fine, Grandma Asta."

The old woman cupped my face tenderly.

She looked at me with an expression I knew.

Love... Selfless love.

"You had me worried there, Leo. Don't do that again. It's too much for my poor heart to take." She rubbed her cheek against mine.

"Stop, Grandma. Stop." I pushed her face and chuckled.

This was something I did unconsciously as this was the usual relationship between the two of us.

The reaction had already become a subconscious one at this point.

Asta only stopped after indulging herself for a minute or two. Then, she stood up.

"You must be hungry. Let me go get your food."

"Thanks, Grandma."

"Silly child. You don't need to thank me."

She left to get me food.

I watched her back as she left.

I propped back on the bed as I tried to digest the jumbled up memories in my head.

Somehow, I was finally able to arrange the memories in my head.

It took a bit of concentration but I was able to lock most of the memories from my previous life away so that the memories of the seven years in this life were the most dominant.

I didn't want my behaviour to change suddenly and tip-off (worry) Asta to the changes in me.

Speaking of Asta, from what I can see, it seems she didn't hide the fact that I wasn't her child.

I mean it would be difficult to hide, right?

There are other children I played with. And I saw their parents... how young they were. It didn't take me too long to realise that Asta was too old to be my parent.

Plus, there's the tiny detail that she had always insisted I called her grandma.

So, one day, the young and curious me asked her about my parents.

I think because of the lifestyle of this world, Asta didn't think too long before telling me about my parents.

As it turned out, the world of Arun was a constant battlefield between humans and beasts.

The only reason I hadn't experienced this in my seven years living in this world was because there were humans called hunters, who hunted down the beast so they couldn't threaten the human domain.

They were the ones who kept small towns like ours safe from the threat of the beasts.

Apparently, my parents were among these hunters.

My birth father and mother came from the city and settled in this town, Pryford. They built a cottage here a few years before my birth.

The cottage was a vacation home to them where they rested after a long hunt period.

They hired Asta, a Pryford local, to care for the house while they were away.

A year before my birth, my mother returned with injuries. She told Asta my father had died but she didn't tell her how, so the old woman assumed he died on a hunt.

As you would expect, the mortality rate amongst hunters was quite high.

My mother was also poisoned at the time.

Since she didn't say much, Asta assumed they faced a poisonous beast which reduced them to their fates.

Nothing worked to relieve the poison in my mother and she had to use her strength to protect me from it. This meant the poison seeped more into her body while she protected the foetus me.

Asta said my mother held on by willpower alone, only giving up after bringing me into the world.

I didn't meet my mother, but from Asta's stories, I had a lot of respect for her.

Anyway, after my mother died, Asta took it upon herself to raise me.

According to her, she initially saw it as a way to repay the favour my parent did her, but she eventually began to see me as her own.

She truly saw herself as my 'grandma'.

Incidentally, I don't know if it was a sick joke by Loki, but once again I didn't know my birth parents in life.

I am glad that I at least have Asta who is as close to a parent as I could've gotten.

While I mused about the last seven years I lived as an innocent child, something appeared at the corner of my sight which caught me off-guard.

[Assessing host's condition...]

[Host confirmed to be awake and fully conscious.]

[Initiating User Interface. Standby...]

[Initiating... 0%]

[Initiating... 10%]

[Initiating... 40%]

[Initiating... 70%]

[Initiating... 99%... 100%]

[Initiation complete.]

[Booting User Interface.]

[Booting... Standby...]

[Booting... 50%]

[Booting... Error!!]

[Restarting... Standby...]

[Booting... 50%... Error!]

[Unable to finish booting!]

[Diagnostics in progress... Standby...]

[Diagnostics complete!]

[Conclusion: Host too weak to bear User Interface.]

[Solution: Host becomes older and stronger.]

[Initiating: Fail Safe #047]

[Partial Start-up...]

[Partial Start-up complete!]

[Host will choose life path and Interface will shut down for now.]

[Does host want to choose Life Path now?]

[Y/N]

Everything happened so fast I could hardly process what just happened.

Then, I recalled Loki's message and realise this was what it meant.

I hesitated for a moment.

Eventually, I made a decision.

Fortunately, the Interface was user friendly. I only had to think my answer.

'Yes!'

[Generating selection of main life paths.]

[Fighter... Archer... Swordsman... Spearman... Shield Warrior... Healer... Assassin... Thief... Beast Tamer... Alchemist... Blacksmith...]

I recognised the Life paths as a wide selection of professions from fantasy games.

Although I hardly had the time for games in my past life, I knew a bit about them.

After all, just because I've never tasted apples before doesn't mean I don't know it's green (or red).

{A/N: Sounds so much better in my local language.}

[Randomly selecting Life Path... Good luck.]

[Life Path selected!]

[Assassin!]

(To be continued...)

[A.N: If you're enjoying the book, please leave a review, vote with power stones and golden tickets. Gifts are also very welcomed. Also, please check out my other book Soldiers of Time. Thanks.]