I never believed in the whole “light at the end of the tunnel” bullsh*t where people, after experiencing near-death experiences, wake up in cold sweat exclaiming, “I saw the light!”

But here I am currently at this so-called “tunnel” facing towards this bright light, when the last thing I remember, I was sleeping in my room (while others call it the royal chamber).

Did someone a.s.sa.s.sinate me?

I don’t remember wronging anyone. But then again, being a public figure of power can give others all sorts of reasons to want me dead.

Anyways….

Since it doesn’t seem like I’m going to wake up anytime soon and I’m slowly gravitating towards this bright light, I might as well go along with it.

Seeming to take an eternity to go towards this light, I half expected some choir of children singing an angelic tune, beckoning me towards heaven.

Instead, my vision of everything around turned into a blur of a bright red while sounds a.s.saulted my ears. When I try to say anything, the only sound that comes out seems to be a cry.

I hear m.u.f.fled voices becoming clearer and I make out a, “Congratulations Madam, congratulations Sir, he’s a healthy boy.”

…Wait

I guess normally, I should be thinking along the lines of “Sh*t, was I just born? Am I a baby now?”

But strangely, the only thought that seemed to pop up in my mind was “So the bright light at the end of the tunnel is the light coming through into the female vag…”

Haha… lets not think about it anymore.

a.s.sessing my situation like the kingly king I am, I noticed, first of all, that wherever I was born into, I understand the language. That’s good.

Next, after slowly and painfully opening my eyes, my retinas were bombarded with different colors and figures. It took a bit of time for my infant eyes to even start working. The doctor, or so it seems, in front of me had a not so appealing face with long greying hair on both head and chin. I swear his gla.s.ses were thick enough to be bulletproof. The strange thing was, he wasn’t wearing a doctor’s gown nor were we even in a hospital room. I seemed to have been born in some satanic summoning ritual room because this room was lit only by a couple of candles and we were on the floor.

I look around and see the female who pushed me out of her tunnel. Calling her mother should be fair. Taking a few more seconds to see what she looks like, I’ll have to admit she’s a beauty, but that might be my half blurry eyes. Rather than a glamorous beauty, I would better describe her as lovely, in a very kind and gentle sense with distinct auburn hair and brown eyes. I can’t help but notice her long eyelashes and perky nose that makes me want to just cling to her. She just permeates this mother-like feel. Is this how babies are attracted to their mothers?

I peel my face away and turn right to barely make out the person who I a.s.sume is my father by the idiotic grin and teary eyes when seeing me. Immediately he says “Hi little Art, I’m your daddy, can you say dada?” I glance around to see both my mother and the house doctor (for all the certification he seems to have), roll their eyes and my mother manages to scoff, “Honey, he was just born.”

I take a closer look at my father and I can see why my lovely mother was attracted to him. Besides the few loose screws he seemed to have by expecting a newborn to articulate a two-syllable word (Where I’m just going to give him the benefit of the doubt and think he said that out of the joy of becoming a father), He was a very charismatic-looking man. With a square jaw line cleanly shaven. His hair, having a very ashy brown color, seemed to be kept short, while his eyebrows were strong and fierce, extending in a sword-like fas.h.i.+on meeting to a V shape. Yet, his eyes had a gentle quality, whether it was from the way his eyes drooped a little at the end or from the deep blue, almost sapphire, color his irises radiated.

By the time I finished checking ou… I mean observing my parents; the wannabe doctor excused himself saying, “Please continue resting for a couple of days Mrs. Leywin, and let me know if anything happens to Arthur, Mr. Leywin.”

The following couple of weeks after my journey out of the tunnel were a new kind of torture for me. I had little to no motor control over my limbs except waving them around and even that got tiring quickly. I realized that babies don’t really get to control their fingers all that much. I don’t know how to break it to you guys but when you place your fingers on a babies palm, they don’t grab it because they like you, they grab it because, like getting hit in the funny bone, it’s a reflex. Forget motor control, I can’t even excrete my wastes at my discretion. It just… comes out. Haa…

A positive was that I was breastfed by my mother.

Don’t get me wrong, no ulterior motives whatsoever. It’s just that ****** milk tastes a lot better than baby formula okay and has more nutritional value okay? Er… please believe me.

The Satanic demon-summoning place seems to be my parent’s room and from what I figure, this place that I’m stuck in is, hopefully, a place in my world that is the past, where electricity isn’t yet invented.

My mother quickly proved my hopes wrong when she one day healed a scratch on my leg when my idiotic father b.u.mped me against a drawer.

No…Not like, band-aid and a kiss heal, but a full blown, s.h.i.+ning light with a faint hum from her f.u.c.king hands heal.

Where the h.e.l.l am I.

My mother, named Alice Leywin, and my father, named Reynolds Leywin, at least seem to be good people, h.e.l.l if not the best. I suspect my mother is an angel because I’ve never met such a kindhearted, warm person. While being carried on her back by a baby cradle-strap of some sort, I went with her to what she called a town. This town of Ashber is more of a glorified outpost, seeing that there are no roads, no buildings. We walked on the main dirt trail where there were tents on both sides with various merchants and salesman/woman selling all sorts of things, from common, everyday needs to things I thought couldn’t help but widen my eyes at, like weapons and armor and rocks… s.h.i.+ning rocks!

The strangest thing that I can’t seem to get used to are the people carrying weapons like it was part of their apparel. I witnessed a man of around 170cm carrying a gigantic war axe larger than him! Anyway, mother keeps talking to me, probably to try to get me to learn the language faster, while shopping for the day’s groceries, exchanging pleasantries with various people pa.s.sing by or working in the booths. Meanwhile, my body is turning against me once again, and I fell asleep… d.a.m.n this useless body.

Sitting on the lap of my mother who was caressing me in her bosom, I was intently focused on my dad currently casting a chant for a good minute, which sounded like a prayer to the earth. I leaned in closer and closer, almost falling off my human seat while expecting some magical phenomenon, like an earthquake spitting the ground or a giant stone golem emerging. After what seemed like an eternity (trust me, for an infant who has the attention span of a goldfish, it was.) Three adult, human-sized boulders came out of the ground and slammed against a nearby tree.

What in the name of…that was it?

I flailed my arms up in anger and regret but my idiot father interpreted that into a “WOW” and had a big grin on his face saying, “Your daddy is awesome huh!”

No, my father was a much better warrior. When he put on his two iron gauntlets, even I felt compelled to drop my underwear (or diaper) for him. With agile movements that were surprising for his build, his fists carried the force to break the sound barrier, but were fluid enough to not leave an opening. In my world, he could be cla.s.sed as an elite, leading a platoon of a hundred soldiers, but to me, he was my idiot father.

For what I learned about this world, it seemed to be a fairly straightforward world of magic and warriors where power and wealth decided your rank in society. In that sense, it wasn’t too different from my world except the lack of technology and the slight difference between magic and Ki here.

In my old world, Wars became an almost obsolete form of settling disputes between countries. Don’t get me wrong, of course there were still battles on a smaller scale and armies were still needed for the safety of the citizens. However, disputes concerning the wellbeing of a country were based on either a duel between the rulers of the their country, limited to making use of Ki and close combat weapons, or a mock battle between platoons, where limited firearms were allowed, for the smaller disputes.

Therefore, Kings weren’t the typical fat man sitting on throne ignorantly commanding others, but had to be the strongest, smartest man to represent his or her country.

Enough about that though.

The currency in this new world seemed pretty straightforward from the exchanges my mother had with the merchants.

Copper being the lowest form of currency, then Silver, then Gold. While I have yet to see anything costing as much as a Gold coin, normal families seem to be able to live fine off of a couple copper coins a day.

100 Copper = 1 Silver

100 Silver = 1 Gold

Everyday involved honing my new body, mastering the motor functions residing deep within me.

Then one day everything changed…

I was a King. I could have my country’s army a.s.semble at my front feet kneeling down with a snap of a finger. I’ve out-dueled my compet.i.tors from different countries as well as my own to settle disputes and maintain my position. In terms of swordsmans.h.i.+p and controlling Ki, I was second to none, for having personal strength was essential to becoming a ruler in my past world on Earth. Kings weren’t born but were raised. Yet, I can’t think of a prouder moment than now.

I can crawl baby!

‘Till now, I had to make do with the stories mother would tell me while trying to make me fall asleep. I grumbled out noises of complaints when she stopped too soon. My father would sometimes sit me on his lap while idly talking to me about his old days, which gave me some hints as to what kind of world this was and what it was filled with.

Reynolds Leywin, former adventurer, (apparently that’s an occupation in this world) had quite a lot of experience in this field. He was in several parties that went on expeditions to search for treasure and fulfill missions they acquired from the Adventurer Guild. He eventually settled down when he met my mother on the borders of the Kingdom in a city called Valden. He proudly told me how my mother was head over heels for him at first sight when he visited the town’s Adventurer Guild hall she worked at, but I suspect it was the opposite from how my mother slapped him across the back of the head and told him to stop telling Art lies.

My name is Arthur Leywin now, by the way. Art for short, which, as a former King, sounds a little too cute, but hey, after getting a glimpse of myself in the metal sheet they use as a mirror in the washroom, I looked freaking adorable. I got my mother’s glowing auburn hair while my eyes are a bright azure color, inherited from my father. I don’t know how my facial features are going to turn out as I mature but as long as I don’t turn out fat, it’ll be okay.

Watch out future ladies! Prepare to be heartbroken!

Weeks of attempting to crawl, yet only succeeding in barely scuffling in place, I succeeded in crawling, managing to sneak into the family’s library/study room while my mother was hanging the laundry out to dry. Mother rued the day I started to become mobile, sighing, “I swear, you’re going to become as hard to manage as your father.”

______________________________________________

I closed the encyclopedia down and situated myself more comfortably on the ground, which meant I just laid back on my tummy because crawling and sitting upright is d.a.m.n tiring.

Pondering what I just read, this world seemed pretty underdeveloped. From what I can infer, there doesn’t seem to be much technology. The only source of transportation seems to be horse driven carriages, varying in size for land, and s.h.i.+ps with sails for rivers.

Weapons were freely allowed and not really regulated unless you were visiting the royal family or people of that much authority. For G.o.d’s sake, it continues to baffle me every time I see people carrying weapons while shopping for groceries.

Sure, in my previous world, Earth, there were soldiers and guards who carried concealed weapons, but they weren’t for the purpose of killing but to deter crimes from happening.

But here, I witnessed a thief who stole a couple of items from the armory store the other day get chopped in half across the waist by a large, bald mercenary carrying a polearm. Seeing that, the citizens even went as far as to applaud that oversized monk!

A similarity that both this world and my previous world shared is the system of monarchy. This continent of Dicathen has Kingdoms where each Kingdom consists of King and royal family that rules. Unlike Earth though, the King is chosen based on lineage, going from the son of the King, to his son and so on.

After scanning through the encyclopedia, there doesn’t seem to be much information on other continents besides the one we’re currently in. That’s strange, there are s.h.i.+ps that carry goods and pa.s.sengers across the continent through rivers, but maybe the technology on s.h.i.+ps haven’t been developed enough to sail across oceans.

One thing that was going to be hard getting used to is the whole premise of magic in this world. If we’re talking about superhuman powers, sure, the countries on Earth relied on people with them.

On Earth, pract.i.tioners learned how to condense and utilize the innate ki that they had in their body. Think of it as a muscle if you will. Breaking the ki center down through overuse and resting it caused the ki center to become stronger, allowing for a bigger pool of ki to access from. Then the ki is channeled through the body at will and utilized for strengthening of the body.

In this world, instead of ki, it seems to be called mana and the more surprising thing is that it exists in the atmosphere of this world. Thus, Pract.i.tioners, or Mages, would use the surrounding mana and draw it into their body and condense it in their mana core. In my old world, Earth, ki only existed and was formed inside the body. Whether ki never existed on Earth in the first place or ceased to exist because of the pollution caused by humans, we didn’t know.

On Earth, while practice was incredibly important, your innate ki center size was extremely important because of the limited amount of ki you have in your body is all that you can work with, does that mean one’s innate mana core size doesn’t matter as much because of the available mana in the atmosphere?

The bigger the cup, the more you can hold right?

While in my old world, even though my ki center wasn’t that large, I was considered a prodigy at channeling and utilizing my ki effectively to make up for my not so big ki center. With the way I utilized every bit of my ki, I was able to become the strongest of the elite division of Duelists, earning the right to become King.

Now, if I can still practice the ways ki pract.i.tioners use their ki, but do it with mana that is both innate inside the mana core and in the surrounding atmosphere, can’t I essentially double? No triple the strength that I had before?

The book that I next managed to pull from the bottom shelf, explained a couple of questions for me.

“Beginner’s Guide for the Privileged Mages”

“While the power to control mana is largely genetic, there are many cases where children of Magi come out as unable to sense the mana around them. A recent census shows that roughly 1 in a 100 children are able to sense mana but can only be tested to show the extent when the mana core first completely develops, which can be anywhere from early adolescence to late teen years. It is apparent when Magi first awaken by the initial repellence of the surrounding mana around them when the mana core first forms. This results in a translucent barrier formed around the awakened that lasts a couple of minutes.”

Flipping through the pages, I find something that catches my attention.

“…Mana can be used in a couple of ways. The two most common methods of utilizing mana comes through enhancing of the body through mana use (Augmenter), and emission of mana to the outside world (Conjurer)…”

“…. Augmenters are most commonly seen among warriors, utilizing mana and channeling it around their body to strengthen their body and attacks.”

“… The practice of Conjuring is seen in Mages, who, after utilizing their mana, can cast spells to give it a certain effect on the surrounding area or directly on the target.”

Weaknesses and Limitation

“While Augmenters can possess incredible strength, defense and agility, their weakness lies in their limited range…”

“Conjurers possess unfathomable powers, being able to bend their surroundings at will. However, such powers come with limits. Unlike Enhancers who utilize most of the mana used from their own mana core, Conjurers need to borrow mana from the outside world in addition to their own mana core to exert mana into the surrounding in a form of a spell.”

“While both types of Mages, or Mana Manipulators for the more scientifically accurate term, depend on and is categorized by their mana core, Augmenters and Conjurers also have different ways of measuring their apt.i.tude.”

“flip”

“An Augmenter’s prowess or talent is measured by the power of mana channels in their body, which measures the speed and efficiency in exerting their mana from their mana core into various parts of the body…”

“…A Conjurer’s power and talent, comparatively, is measured by the power of their mana veins, which indicates the speed and effectiveness of absorbing mana from the outside world to cast a spell.”

“flip”

“…Mages (Mana Manipulators) are typically categorized into one of these two divisions since attempting to be proficient in both is incredibly time consuming and inefficient. Most are born with a skewed difference in their mana channels and mana veins…”

“…Augmenters do not need very strong mana veins because they mostly utilize the mana from their core, while Conjurers do not need very powerful mana channels because they do not spread their mana into their own body.”

Hmm… So my idiot father seems to be a competent Augmenter and a less than average Conjurer.

That healing light though… What was my mother?

“flip, flip, flip”

AHA!

“There are a few, rare deviants. While there are still some undiscovered, ones that are highly sought after are the Emitters, more commonly known as healers. Healers possess the rare ability to cast their unique restorative mana unto others, directly, recovering injuries and impairments.”

Wow… mother is the best.

Fundamentals of Conjuring

“The proper steps for utilizing the mana for Conjurers is to gather the surrounding mana in the area, drawing it into your body, then, after circulating it into your mana core to stabilize and purify the atmosphere’s diluted mana, you channel it into an appropriate conductor (a staff, wand, ring, of some sort) with the incantations as a mental controller for your will into shaping the mana to whatever spell you want…”

“flip”

“…The more powerful the spell, the longer it takes to draw in from the surrounding mana, store it in your mana core where it condenses and purifies it, and finally channel and release…”

“flip”

“Because Conjuring involves exerting focused mana into a particular spell, Conjurers will notice that they have a special apt.i.tude of certain elements (Air, Water, Fire, Earth). But with proper training, can become adequate in the basics of all elements.

“flip, flip”

Fundamentals of Augmenting

“Unlike Conjuring, much less time can be spent gathering the surrounding mana. Efficient use of Augmenting requires speed and precision in the use of the mana from your core and less from the mana in the atmosphere..”

This is where it clicked…. Augmenting was very close to using your ki except you can also draw mana in from your surroundings. The reason why there weren’t any kinds of conjurers in my old world of Earth was because there was no mana in the atmosphere to draw in and create a phenomenon.

My gaze tensed as I read on.

“…Augmenting requires proper distribution of mana into different parts of the body depending on how the user sees fit. While it seems simple at first glance, Augmenting requires much insight into the individual’s own body. Being able to utilize the mana channels efficiently requires years of both mental and physical practice.”

“flip”

“Because Augmenting involves extracting the user’s mana core, the purest form of mana, there are no highly notable distinctions in an elemental sense. However, Augmenters are able to control their mana more freely, resulting in vastly different forms of fighting through Augmentation.”

“flip”

“The phenomenon called ‘Backlash’ occurs in both types of pract.i.tioners. For Augmenters, it occurs from depletion of the mana core, causing extreme bodily pains depending on how strenuous the damage to the mana core is. For Conjurers, backlash occurs from overfilling of the mana core. This is caused by overuse of spells beyond the pract.i.tioner’s capacity or using a spell too powerful for his or her mana core to handle.”

Closing the book, I propped myself up to my b.u.t.t, digesting the overload of information that I just read.

Because of the uncanny similarities between the ki center from my old world and the mana core in this world, I found it hard to believe that you needed to be a young adolescent to manipulate mana. In my old world, children started meditating and sensing their own ki scattered inside their body. Once the ki migrates into a single place, the ki center forms.

Testing my hypothesis, I began meditating, trying to sense the mana in my 7 month old body when…

“There you are! Art honey, are you having trouble taking a p.o.o.py?”

Mother! I’m about to begin my journey to become the greatest Mage in this world! Do not make me out to be a constipated infant!

Picking me up and gently placing me in her arms, I was forcibly taken away to have my diapers changed, which, surprisingly, were full by the time I noticed.

ALICE LEYWIN’S POV:"Arthur has to be the most adorable baby, and I’m not saying this as a doting mother. No."

Him and his scruffy little patch of glowing auburn hair and playful eyes that almost radiate a blue light, while his gaze, at times, seem almost… intelligent.

No no, I told you, I’m not a doting mother. I plan to be a strict and just mother. I can’t rely on my husband to teach little Art any common sense. For G.o.d’s sake, he tried to teach my baby how to fight when he can now barely crawl.

I know this little rascal will turn out just like his father if I leave him be. As soon as he started crawling, I was so proud I was on the verge of shedding tears, but I didn’t know how much of a handful he’d be as soon as he became mobile.

I swear, there’s not a single moment where I can take my eyes off of him before he crawls into the study room. How weird. We made sure to buy him lots of stuffed animals and wooden toys to play with but he always ends up going back to study room. THAT, at least was directly opposite of his father, seeing how Reynolds almost gravitates away from texts longer than the weekly newspaper.

Looking at how excited he gets when we go out to town, I’ve decided to go shopping for food once every other day instead of twice a week.

No no, I told you, I’m not a doting mother. This is for his education of the outside world and for fresh food in the house. Yeah haha…that’s it.

My son seems to be interested in a lot of things. I can’t get enough of his head that seems so disproportional to his little body turning left and right, trying to take in everything around him. He seems particularly intrigued by his father’s practices.

Reynolds was a pretty competent adventurer back in the days. Being a B cla.s.s at the age of 28 is actually pretty fast. Becoming even an E cla.s.s, the lowest rank, required taking a test so we don’t send eager but ignorant adolescents to their deaths. As for the higher ranks, I’ve only seen a couple of A cla.s.s adventurers in my years of working there and I’ve yet to see a S cla.s.s adventurer, a.s.suming that they actually exist.

Working at the Adventurer Guild, or what we just called Guild Hall, back then in Valden, I got to see too many eager teens. I swear, I was surprised they didn’t float off from their ego inflating their heads.

At least they were ambitious.

One time, I was a.s.signed to proctor a basic practical exam where the examinee just had to demonstrate fundamental competency in their mana manipulation, but before even the test began, the kid crashed straight on his back because the sword he was carrying was too heavy for him.

Talking about airheads, Reynolds back then sure came off as one. The moment he saw me in the Guild Hall, his jaw literally dropped and he just stood there until the guy behind him in line elbowed him to hurry up. He wiped his drool and managed to mumble a “… h.. hi… can I trade in th…the stuff for the mission?” I just giggled as he turned beet red from embarra.s.sment.

He managed to gather up the courage to ask me out for dinner and we just hit it off from there. Even now, I can’t help but smile when I see his droopy blue puppy eyes looking at me.

Art somehow wound up with both our redeeming traits, making him that much more adorable. You should see him when I have to change his diapers. I don’t know why, but he starts turning red in his cheeks and he covers his face with his tiny little fingers.

Can babies his age even get embarra.s.sed?

The next landmark that made it to my baby journal, which is purely for educational purposes by the way and not because I am a doting mother, was when he first said mama.

HE SAID MAMA!

I told him to say “mama” again and again just to make sure I didn’t hear wrong. Reynolds sulked for the day because Art said “mama” before “dada.”

Haha, I won!

The rest of the year went by pleasantly with my son sticking by me wherever I went and oftentimes looking out the window to see his father practice after dinner. I’m glad Reynolds gave up being an adventurer and took a post as a guard nearby for our town. Being an adventurer may bring more money but not knowing when or rather if my husband comes home is not worth any amount of extra money.

To our relief, Little Art never got sick, but oftentimes, I would find him sitting still on his b.u.t.t while closing his eyes. At first, I thought he was having trouble relieving himself but after checking the first couple of times, that didn’t seem to be the case.

How strange, I didn’t know how to really make it out. I thought babies his age were supposed to be energetic but after his episodes of escaping to the study room, he seems spend a lot of time sitting still, almost meditating.

I was worried at first but although it happens a couple times a day, it only lasts for a couple of minutes and Art seems strangely happy afterwards. The way he holds his arms up and looks up at me makes me just want to gobble him up.

*Ahem* Not a doting mother.

ARTHUR LEYWIN’S POV:

About two years has pa.s.sed since I made my difficult journey to the study room.

Since then, I’ve been constantly trying to gather the little bits of mana spread out in my body and focus it to try and form a mana core. Let me tell you, it is a slow and arduous task. I would find myself having an easier time trying to learn how to walk on my hands and eat with my feet in this d.a.m.nable body than trying to will my mana together.

I can see why the book says that it’ll take until at least the adolescent age for a person to ‘awaken.’ If I let the mana particles in my body move by themselves, it’ll take at least a decade for them to gravitate towards each other to form anything remotely close to a mana core.

Instead… A perk in having the mental capacity of an adult means I have the cognitive ability to consciously will my mana particles together. This was something I did as a child in my past life, where they teach you from youth in schools to learn how to control ki. Essentially, it’s being able to sense the ki, or mana now, in your own body and force them together near the solar plexus. If left alone, the particles will eventually slowly float towards each other anyway, but I’m just grabbing the feathers and shoving it down to the ground instead of waiting for them to float down by themselves, figuratively speaking of course.

Daily rituals consisted of trying to spend as much of my limited energy into gathering my mana while avoiding suspicion from my mother and father. My father seemed to think that throwing a child into the air would be quite enjoyable. While I understand there is a kind of adrenaline effect that may excite some people, when mana is used to reinforce his arms, and I am thrown into the air like a high-speed projectile, the only feeling I get is nausea and a traumatic fear of heights.

Fortunately, my mother has a pretty firm handle on my father, but my mother scares me as well sometimes. I oftentimes catch her staring at me, half drooling, looking at me like I’m some kind of premium meat.

I tried to adapt myself to my body by only talking in very simple sentences. After I first said “mama” to let her know I wanted more food, she almost burst into tears of joy. It’s been a long time since I received this sort of motherly affection. Since then, I limited myself to just trying to talk enough to get the point across, no grammar necessary.

Besides that, the pace of my training was strenuous and slow, but I was getting a pretty big head start from everybody so I wasn’t complaining.

I was in the middle of gathering the mana particles. These past two years, have not gone to waste for I finally gathered all of my mana into my solar plexus and was in the middle of condensing it into a mana core when… BOOM!