A glistening, golden droplet of water cascades through a lush green tree. The droplet travels from leaf to leaf, branch to branch, reflecting the golden rays of the sun. Eventually, it lands on the head of a young, unaware sleeping boy, awakening him with its refreshing, cool touch.

The sun was at the zenith; the tittering crickets and chirping birds brought a vibrant breathing life to the scenery. The young boy blinked twice, his azure blue eyes trying to make sense of his surroundings.

"Hm?! Since when did we get a big tree in our dorm room?"

A young childish voice reverberated in the empty field, yet no answer came back.

The young boy tried to get up, but the jolt of pain originating from the back of his head made him wince in agony. With pain also came some unknown memories that were not his.

Damian Sunblade was the boy's name. The fifth child of the noble house Sunblade. The boy had lived mostly a carefree life of solitude, where no one other than his maid even talked to him. But a strong memory of a certain day was etched into the small boy's mind when he had to attend a dinner with his estranged family.

Where his father proclaimed that he was to leave for the House Goldilocks, where the rest of his education would commence. The young boy could not understand why he had to leave his home and started acting stubbornly in protest, though he paid a heavy price for his stubbornness this time.

He fell from the top of the tree where he had somehow climbed up to show his stark disagreement with the unreasonable situation.

"What the hell...!? Don't tell me...."

"Young master... Are you okay?"

Before the boy could fully process his strange new situation, a beautiful voice reached him from a distance, accompanied by the sound of hurried footsteps and breathless urgency.

"Young mas... Ahhh! What happened? Young master, your head... So much blood..."

The young boy attempted to touch the back of his head, but his hand was bruised and throbbed painfully with every movement, so he gave up. A maid came rushing toward him, shouting several names in a panic. Frantically, she reached for a strange flask filled with a yellow liquid, but before she could bring it to him, the boy had already lost consciousness.

****

With a sudden jolt, Ben awoke in his bed. The room was steeped in darkness, but a sliver of moonlight streaming through the open window provided just enough glow to help his eyes adjust to the shadows. It looked like an ordinary room at first glance, yet everything about it felt strangely out of place, as though he had stepped into the setting of a fantasy movie.

There were candles waiting to be lit, clothes made from rough, cheap-looking fabrics, but the strangest and most eye-catching sight was the empty suit of armor standing in the corner of the room. The soldier's metallic plating gleamed faintly in the moonlight, giving it an eerie presence as if it were guarding the room in silence.

"Definitely not my dorm room!" Ben exclaimed.

Ben, who was now known as Damian, stared at the slightly visible night sky from his new room. He could not deny it; somehow he was now in the body of a 5-year-old boy. The memories were proof, but even without them after seeing that maid he had to believe it. Only fantasy worlds would have maids with fluffy ears and bushy tails.

'The last thing I remember was cramming for my post-grad finals... Did I.. Die?'

'Sigh'

"...Maybe I shouldn't have pulled so many all-nighters!"

Damian used to be a student at a prestigious university, pursuing the degree of masters in Chemistry. But now he was just a 5-year-old kid in some noble lord's house.

Being an orphan, he tried his best all his life to make a good career for himself, to become independent, which was the one and only goal in his life; that was probably why death was not that big of a shock to him. No one would mourn for him anyway, maybe some fellow roommates whom he called friends. And the orphanage personnel if they learned of his fate.

Another reason for his lack of feelings towards losing Earth permanently was the memories of the young Damian Sunblade. This world had something that broke all the norms or scientific laws of his previous world—Magic!

According to the memories, he was the fifth son of a noble house, yet something was wrong with either his birth, or something else that made everyone avoid him like some bug not worth their attention. And for some reason, a neighboring wealthy Baron family offered him their only daughter's hand in marriage, so Damian was supposed to live with his new family from now on.

'Like hell I would marry some brat! I am 22 years old for goodness sake!'

'But it doesn't matter right now; I will find some way to get away from all this noble nonsense. Not like I have any future here except serving others.'

Being independent was his goal, and being in a different world did not change anything. More importantly, Damian was fascinated by the strange phenomenon that was the existence of magic. How in the world would this co-exist with the laws of physics?

"Where was it again? Uhm.. yes.."

Damian grabbed the square metal piece that was on his side table and stared at the unique symbols etched onto it.

This was what this world's people called a status tool. Damian touched it with both his hands, thinking about his identity, and said aloud,

"Activate!"

A hologram of a transparent blue screen was visible on top of the square metal tool showing the status of the young Damian Sunblade.

\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=

Name: Damian Sunblade Lv.1

Rank: Mundane

Affinity: Water, Space-time

STR: 5

DEF: 5

INT: 45

AGI: 5

DEX: 5

CHA: 19

LUC: 3

Blessings: Godless

Skills: [Beginner Tree Climbing Lv.2]

\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=\=

"Hm.. it's different.." Damian mumbled.

In his memories, which were not his per se, he clearly remembered that the boy had just 2 INT. And not just that, he also had Sun God's blessing with affinity to fire and air instead of water and space-time.

'My intelligence got a boost, which would be the result of my consciousness taking over, but why did my blessings change as well?'

"I was kind of an atheist, but shouldn't these things be in the lineage section and not depend on how a person thinks..? Ah, whatever!"

Most of the injuries were healed, but he still couldn't get up or move on his own without feeling a world of pain.

The night ended and the day came; various maids helped him with eating and daily needs in shifts. No one talked to him or answered when he asked something; he had yet to see that pretty maid with pointed ears and bushy tail too. Did she get fired because of him?

After a week, when he could finally move on his own, his luggage was packed, and he was ready for a send-off.

He couldn't understand why his family was in such a hurry to get rid of him, but he didn't care anyway. No one was talking to him, so asking questions was meaningless.

On his last day, he was washed and dressed in premium-quality goods, ready to ride the carriage. For some reason, his whole family came to see him off, yet not a single word was said.

His father, a lean and handsome noble man always busy with his affairs, stood with his two wives and their four children—two boys and two girls. Each of them wore a solemn, cold expression. Damian's gaze swept over them all one by one, lingering for a moment on the beautiful, mature woman. She was his mother, yet even her eyes held that same icy, piercing stare.

Damian didn't really know what mothers did, and how it felt to be someone's son.. But this was definitely not a normal treatment one should be receiving, that much he knew for sure.

He turned around and climbed into the carriage parked outside the palace gates. A small urge to go back surfaced in his heart, but it was most likely young Damian's unwillingness to leave his home—not like he knew anyone here at all.

The carriage moved, bathed in the morning sunlight, leaving behind the marquis's estate and bringing forth a new mystical world of incomprehensible magic and infinite possibilities for the future.

Damian was both excited and fearful of the great unknown, but one thing was for sure—he would most certainly break out of his bindings and explore this new wonderful world he was thrown into and carve his own path in it.

It took 4 days of uncomfortable carriage ride, wild camping and ample amount of time for various thoughts, but they finally made it to the Baron Goldilock's estate.

Damian had plenty of time to run away if he wanted to, even with 3 soldiers and 2 maids looking over him constantly, but he chose not to. The main reason for that was lack of information. Damian knew nothing about this world at all, the Baron's house might be a better place than any to get some knowledge about this world rather than just wondering on his own, another reason was his lack of strength.

Thanks to the memories of young Damian he knew for a fact that there were adult knights who could slice a thick stone wall with a single swing of their sword and they were at the bottom of the power hierarchy. So he was like an ant who had just spawned among dinosaurs.

The absurdly beautiful, large gate of Goldilock estate opened and the carriage entered the premise. stopping in front of the main entrance of the huge villa. A soldier opened the carriage door and Damian was met with a group of people. The most eye-catching of which was a young girl of 7-8 years old, her short golden hair and big black eyes making her an exact replica of a doll.

On the side was the maid with black hair, a sweet smile on her face. And then there was a middle-aged butler-looking guy with a white beard who came forward to greet Damian. There were other maids in the back, but they didn't look that important since they were standing at a distance with their heads lowered.

"Young master Damian, I welcome you to the estate of Baron Marcus Goldilocks..."

"Uhm.. Yes, nice to meet you." Damian reply curtly.

For some reason, his simple reply surprised him, but it was just for a split second. The man smiled brightly, placing his hand gently on his shoulder.

"Yes, Young master Damian it is indeed nice to meet you."

The man guided his attention towards the young lady, introducing her as Lucian Goldilocks - His future wife. Damian made a courtesy to her as well but he only got 'humphh' in return after which she turned around and left. Her face stone cold, not betraying even the slightest of emotions.

Yeah, that's exactly how Damian thought this would go. The maid frantically did an apologetic bow towards him and hurried after her lady grabbing her maid dress looking really silly, after which the butler started giving a tour of sorts until they reached a room where Damian was supposed to stay. They left him there telling him to ask if he wanted anything.

The soldiers and maids that came with him returned the same day while he was resting in his new bed which was more or less the same as his last bed along with the room and everything, actually it looked to be in better condition compared to the one he had spent a week in.

That night Baron's family who were present in the keep, held a small welcoming ceremony of sorts for him. Damian met the lady of the house and some distant cousins or relatives who were either squires or in handmaid training.

His supposed fiancé ignored him with passion, other people had somewhat similar opinions of him, except the butler who was for some reason adamant about making him feel welcomed. Damian ate, showed the minimum respect that he was supposed to show, and left right after it ended. The Baron was not there, and it seemed like no one else cared much about him.

Finally, alone in his room, Damian breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid they would ask him to show his status tool, but it seems that wasn't such a big thing for them. Perhaps they already had all the information on him and judged it meaningless, but anyway, it was good news for Damian.

Now all he needed was information about his place in this world, gather as much strength as possible to survive in the wild and a good chance to run away.

So the first thing Damian did, the next day after waking up, was to head directly towards the Library. It was pretty far from his room and he had to ask several maids for directions, before he reached the large room. It was pretty big hall with thousands of books neatly placed on large wooden shelves.

"I guess Baron Marcus really is loaded!" his voice echoed in the large closed room, the windows were so big it brightened the whole place. So they had glass.. and of good quality at that.

From last night's absent-minded conversations, He knew that Baron was in a better situation than the rest of his neighbors, including Damian's own family, even though they had higher status as the Marquises.

It was nice to see that he was not under any kind of supervision, or maybe someone was keeping an eye on him but he just didn't know. But then again he was supposed to be just a 5 year old dumb kid.

Damian began to casually stroll through the bookshelves, browsing to get a sense of the selection. Thankfully, despite taking much longer to learn than his siblings, young Damian had been taught to read and write. Compared to Earth, though, people in this world were really hardcore.

After checking all the bookshelves he started with history, then geography, somewhat avoiding philosophy and politics since it was not that important yet, and finally Damian went into the main dish which was magic and the class system.

History was mostly useless crap about royal propaganda, and what king defeated who. The most important bits were that this world or this continent, had a rather strange strength-based class system. The more power you possess, the higher your position.

The royalty must always be the highest ranked individuals in the kingdom, while Dukes, marquises, counts and other nobles were a fixed number of people, one could get that position with individual strength alone. There were various rules of course, and rarely anyone got it with a challenge but still, it was an option. The system was old and not as reliable anymore.

Though, the five kingdoms had been in a long lasting peace for over a century, which was something.

The kingdom Damian was in, was called Dawnstar and the area he was currently in was far North of the mainland.

The magic system though, now was a game changer. According to his few hours of reading, there were five main classes that every person could acquire. One needed mana for some of them but even without mana you could train your body to the limit and become a pugilist.

Five classes :

1) Mage: Those who possess mana in large amount and can control it with finesse. High INT is needed to become a mage class. There are hundreds of subcategories, types and branches in the incredible art of mages, which are still refreshed every few decades.

2) Pugilist: At the peak of one's physical limit, body breaks through the limits of humanity and becomes a conduit for the world's mana, which a pugilist could use as their aura. The amount of mana a pugilist can channel is only limited by the limits of their body.

3) Spellsword: A unique combination of physical techniques and Mana channeling that only the very best of both can achieve. Balanced stats are needed to become one.

4) Esper: A unique magical ability that is different for every individual who receives this class. Everything that is strange or unclassified belongs to the Esper class. A large amount of mana is required to activate their abilities, they give the ability to use their mana for anything other than their Esper abilities in exchange.

Considered to be the weakest or strongest class, depending on what ability one gets, which is always a gamble. Can't use magic in any other way.

5) Rune Shaper: Mainly a crafting class. Every profession that uses runes for channeling, or harnessing mana is called the Rune Shaper Class. It is rumored, that the Runes are the ancient language of gods, which was left in the mortal world for the betterment of humanity.

"If strength is what I am most after then becoming A Spellsword is a good option, but a balanced stats are needed for that. With my 45 INT mage is most likely what I would be offered and should select.

But mages are very limited in practicality, they have to build their spell knowledge and I barely have any way or time to do that, right now my INT is high but for future growth I am wholly relying on my bloodline. Which is another form of gambling. Hmm.. I will have to think this through..."

The fact that to get a job people of this world had to do an ascension ritual, which was more of a rank-up exam was fascinating to Damian. His first ascension would commence when he would reach level 25. The job options one gets offered, during this ritual are based on what kind of skills one acquires before ascending.

Most nobles put emphasis on trying to get all kinds of skills to unlock a prestigious job.

In the vibrant afternoon sun, amidst a picturesque garden, a dazzling sword fight unfolded between two young souls.

A golden-haired 8-year-old girl, her eyes burning with determination, faced off against a 5-year-old black-haired boy. Their wooden swords clashed with swift, precise movements, and it was evident that the girl possessed a natural grace and skill far beyond her tender age.

In every strike and parry, her movements flowed effortlessly, showcasing a mastery that seemed almost supernatural. Though the boy tried to fight valiantly, his limited movements couldn't hold his ground and the outcome became inevitable.

As the duel progressed on, the girl's superior abilities prevailed, overpowering her younger opponent with each resounding strike, until she ended with a final kick to his exposed front, sending the boy sprawling in the dust.

Damian lay staring at the clear blue sky, a sigh escaping his lips. It had been a week since he had arrived at this new home and was only given a day to settle in before his 'education' began. Which felt more like him being an unwelcome addition to the genius young lady's classes, a grievous offense according to both the lady and the various teachers for some reason.

"Hmmph… What a disappointment… "

The golden-haired girl turned around and left the area, accompanied by the sword-training teacher, who stood by her side constantly lavishing praises on the young lady without even sparing a glance at the beaten boy.

"Aghmm…"

With a grunt, Damian pushed himself up and spat the blood in his mouth to the side. Grabbing his small wooden sword, he headed for the guest bathroom, ignoring the maid with a wave of his hand, who offered to help him out.

The only silver lining, if he could call it that, was that he now understood why his family had abandoned him and why everyone he met treated him like a nuisance. It all boiled down to his low Intelligence stat.

In this world, usually, when an average 5-year-old receives their stats it would start with the base stats of 5 maximum, which is very essential for early development of a child. If you couldn't understand the importance of why you must train and work hard, then there wasn't much point to it, is there?

But for some reason, Damian had just 2 INT, which was reflected in his old behavior. He was too stubborn and slow at learning things, yet he had far surpassed any child from earth.

Nonetheless, his family didn't even give him a chance and when the neighborhood Baron proposed a deal in which he would take their boy as a homemaker husband for the lady heir in exchange for large fertile land and an iron mine—his family quickly agreed to it.

"What an irony!" Damian thought aloud bitterly. "I might have the highest INT stat in this world for a 5-year-old, and yet I am condemned for it."

But all that was just useless chatter today. Today was the day he was finally going to do what he had planned to do from the very minute he transmigrated.

After stealing some basic ingredients from the kitchen, Damian had performed some simple chemical experiments in his room, but to his disappointment, nothing much had deviated from his Earthly knowledge. He thought that maybe having mana in the atmosphere would affect the stolen NaCl solution in some way or form, but it was the same old.

Today, however, he had managed to steal a magic stone from the lamp in the main hall—a feat that had taken him a week of careful planning to distract the ever-present watchful guards, nonetheless, he had managed to do it.

From 4 in the afternoon until 6 in the morning, Damian was mostly left alone, mostly to read various books—surprisingly, he was allowed to take them to his room.

It was mostly because in this world, from age 5, when a person's stats were first revealed, until the age of 10, when they received their first job, children were made to work relentlessly to accumulate skills, increasing their chances of getting prestigious jobs.

And now that Damian's name was permanently attached to the Baron's family, they grudgingly allowed him to access anything that would help him achieve a better job. Still, no one expected much from him, assuming that his low intelligence made him hopeless.

Damian locked his door and took out his stolen utensils. He hoped to get his hands on clear see-through glass, but guess they were too costly even for the wealthy Baron. He would have to make do with what he had.

After preparing the simple saltwater solution, it was time for some answers. He pulled out the magic stone from his hidden pocket—a pale yellow-looking misshapen crystal of condensed mana—and put it in the bronze container before waiting while holding his breath.

Five…ten…fifteen minutes passed and to his utter disappointment, nothing changed. Or maybe… there had been a change, but it was too subtle and impossible to be observed through the naked eye.

"Even the crystal has the same color and shape and the solution is… Hm… wait, the solution is…"

Damian rechecked all the necessary parameters again and again, even replacing the solution with a fresh batch, but the results came out the same.

There it was—hardly noticeable, but a set percent of the reduction in the volume of solution.

The magic stone had undergone no visible changes that could be observed through the naked eye and all other properties of the solution remained the same, including its thickness. Yet, somehow, a few micro ml had disappeared.

Either the liquid was absorbed by the magic stone or somehow it got evaporated due to an invisible power that is related to mana. There could possibly be a dozen different explanations, but there was one theory that Damian thought stood out the most—gravity.

It seemed the closest to the laws of physics that he understood.

'If the magic stone is condensed mana, and what the books said about mana being in everything is true, then wouldn't the greater volume of mana attract the loose particles of mana that are supposedly present in the solution? That would explain why the decrease in volume stops at a certain point and doesn't show any effect after that. It also affects the same kind of particles for some reason.'

"Because all the mana in the solution gets absorbed by the magic stone—or more accurately, the mana stone…"

'If this theory is true, then that means this solution, after mana extraction, was the most perfect version of the NaCl's atomic structure.'

'Ding'

[Truthseeker Lv.1 Acquired.]

"Hm? I got a skill just from doing random experiments?"

Damian picked up the small iron slab and imagined his status screen activating. Sure enough, a new skill in the skill section had appeared. He tried focusing on the name of the skill and it expanded like a drop-down menu.

[ Truthseeker Lv.1: A seeker of truth who uncovers the hidden mysteries of the world. (Effect : The Truthseeker's Eyes.) ]

"I got some kind of 'eyes,' but it doesn't say what they exactly do."

So without thinking twice, Damian activated his skill. Nothing happened. No changes at all.

"What the hell? Did I just get scammed? Have I really sunk so low that even the system is trying to pull my leg?"

Well, at least he had gained a skill. Damian had read a lot about jobs and skills from the books over the past week, but never had he seen or come across a skill called Truthseeker.

'Must be some kind of hidden skill,' Damian thought. He needed three skills leveled up to 9 if he wanted to reach level 25, the requirement for getting his first job.

He had already gotten one so far, so he just needed to level it up somehow. As for the second and third skills, he was already working on them, reading and doing sword training—both of which generally granted a skill upon reaching a certain level of knowledge or mastery.

"This skill seems related to doing experiments and coming up with various theories and stuff, I guess," he thought.

"Hm… wait… since I got the skill after thinking about the mana particles absorption theory and the skill is about unveiling the hidden truth of the world… Does this mean that my theory is correct? Man, scientists from Earth would kill me if they ever found out that just thinking about a theory here magically confirms it!"

Determined to level this skill of his as quickly as possible, Damian decided to conduct as many experiments as he could with his limited resources.

And so, he did just that by spending his days in a steady routine: early morning for breakfast, running and learning survival skills, after that for various lectures on history, geography, politics, proper etiquette, jobs and skill-related knowledge and even some details about common monsters and their weaknesses. After lunch came sword training until four in the afternoon.

However, the real work started after that. Damian conducted all kinds of experiments he could think of with whatever materials he could find in the kitchen, read all kinds of books in the library he found interesting, and sometimes even practicing the sword techniques he had seen Lucian perform on him.