It’s been about a year and a half since I woke up in this simulation. Now I am capable of speaking and walking on my own. And by walking, I an waddling around by quickly throwing my fat legs in front of .
Even now, I still fall flat on my face regularly. But I shall persevere. I’ve decided I wouldn’t give myself away yet. I was unsure about my objectives, but I’m sure screaming out, ‘I was a Human Death Commando,’ probably wouldn’t help achieve anything.
I’ve also finally gotten a good look at myself today. Unfortunately, this ho doesn’t have any glass for mirrors, but my mother left a bucket of water outside, and I managed to see my reflection for the first ti. It seems the simulation has pretty much made a perfect copy of both of my parents.
I have light tan skin that is a mix between both my mother and father. However, I have my father’s raven black hair and my mother’s sharp chin and cheekbones. But one of my most defining features is my Heterochromatic eyes. My left eye is a purple athyst, and my right eye is a golden pool. My irises, much like everybody else I have seen so far, also swirl around oddly.
I was staring intently into the pool of water when I sensed my father trying to sneak up on . I quickly turned and stared right at him. “Did you actually hear coming?” he asked with a look of surprise.
Well, of course. My hearing was astounding. I think my hearing is better than it ever was as a Human. It took a long ti to control these ears of mine, but I finally got them down, mostly.
Combine that with my years of hardened combat senses from being a Death Commando, and it was an efficient combination. I also don’t think he was trying very hard.
“Ummm… sorry,” I tried to say innocently.
“Amazing, you definitely got my hearing after all. But you got your mother’s High Elf ears,” he said while rubbing my ears.
I usually wasn’t a fan of being touched, but having my ears rubbed was actually fantastic. They must have had double the number of nerves in them compared to Humans. And this man knew exactly where to scratch them.
But he said sothing I hadn’t heard before. “What is a High Elf?” I asked curiously.
I had heard my parents refer to as their “Little Elf.” I could only assu that is what they called our race. He went on to explain, “Well, your mom is a High Elf, and I am a Dark Elf. You can tell what race an Elf is by their ears, among a few other things. For example, your mom has high pointed ears, so she is a High Elf. I have ears that point downwards which makes a Dark Elf. There are also Wood Elves with ears pointed straight out, sowhere between a Dark and High Elf. And, uh sorry… you probably didn’t understand all of that,” he said while scratching his head.
“Am I a High Elf?” I asked.
“Well… yes and no? You are half Dark Elf and half High Elf, which is pretty rare, but uh… we won’t talk about that right now. Most people will probably think you are a Dark Elf since you have dark skin like ,” he explained, his face having a tinge of red in it now.
“Mmm… okay,” I said.
I had asked my mother many questions, but she would often dodge around questions or answer them with more questions. It seems he is a more straightforward person. Perhaps now would be a good ti to ask about magic. My mother had told she would tell more when I got older.
But I had nothing else to do than wander around the house. My parents didn’t have books that I could find, at least. So I had nothing to stimulate my brain. So to curb my boredom, I had started to pick up random items and bring them to my mom so she would tell the nas of things.
Maybe I could get lucky today.
“What is magic?” I asked.
“It’s, uh… difficult to explain to a child that isn’t even two years old.”
“I’m smart!” I attempted to say in the most childlike manner I could. I even pouted a little bit, hoping to add the extra effect.
“What are you doing?” he gave a weird look then shrugged. “Listen, Kal. Magic is a dangerous thing for a kid. But how about I teach you about mana?”
Mmm. It seems I won’t be getting that lucky. But this is a start. I’ll just have to accept it.
“Sure!” I exclaid with false enthusiasm.
“Alright. How about we take a walk around the village, Kal?” he suggested with a smile.
Finally.
Since my crawling escapades, that witch has kept on a short leash. I haven’t gotten a chance to leave this ho for more than a few monts. When I was just an infant, that witch of a mother took to what I assud was a market at one point. But she had just fed , and I couldn’t force myself to stay awake, so I missed the entire trip!
“Yes, please!” I said while grasping my hands in the air.
He obliged with a soft chuckle while picking up and placing on his shoulders as we walked. I have been able to deduce that my family makes a decent inco. We weren’t peasants, nor were we so noble lords. But we seed to have an above-average ho that was sowhat out of the way from the general populace.
I had also deduced that this was indeed a jungle. The humidity was high and tree coverage was highly dense. It almost seed like the trees were crafted to shade everything perfectly.
Only after a few minutes of walking were we at the outskirts of the village. It appeared to be a decent-sized village. The village shared the sa architecture as our ho, using the jungle wood and accenting it with plenty of greenery. Although it was much different than the tal square and rectangle architecture I was used to, it was still very appealing.
The village just gave off a warm atmosphere, kind of like a log cabin in the forest. At least that’s what I imagine it would be like. I’ve never been in a log cabin before, let alone one in a jungle.
We had begun to walk past people on the road. The village seed to be a good mix of Wood Elves, with their pointed ears that ca out to the side, and Humans. The Humans in this simulation looked precisely like the Humanity I was familiar with, besides the whole swirling iris.
I couldn’t help but notice a select few Humans that seed to be slaves, or maybe prisoners? Thick red iron collars were locked around their necks, and most of them looked worse for wear. Their keepers were not far from them, but they didn’t seem like police or soldiers, just ordinary people.
Despicable. Even the Federation didn’t enslave the aliens we conquered. I suppose if the simulation attempted to recreate a fantasy world, then slavery would simply be a part of it. But choosing to enslave Humans was obviously a direct, deliberate decision by the system.
Drawing my eyes away from the shackled Humans was what looked like to be so type of Human-animal hybrid. A person with a hood on and a black cat-like tail ca out from behind them. They didn’t have fur all over their body as a cat would, but the tail that was swishing to the side was a dead giveaway. A pair of black fluffy cat ears stuck out from their hood. I decided to be the “what is that” child and asked as many questions as possible.
“Ah, those are Beastn. Just like us Elves, they have two kinds and different appearances. That woman is just called a Beastn. They are Beastn who have mixed blood just like you, Kal. She looks like she might be a Human mixed with jungle panthers. Then, there are True Beastn. They look just like animals but stand tall like everybody else. They are a very strong and proud race. There aren't too many of them around here, however.” I nodded in response to his information.
This was very informative. I should spend more ti with you.
Impressive as always, the Navy really has created an actual fantasy world here. It was amazing and so realistic. But not wanting to get sidetracked from my main objective, I continued and pressed on while asking about mana.
"Sooo, what is mana?"
My dad readjusted on his shoulders. “You see, son. All living things have mana: the trees, animals, that Beastn, and even monsters. Mana is simply just the flow of life inside a living thing,” he explained while pointing at all these things.
“Then everyone can use magic?” I asked.
“No, just because you have mana doesn’t an you can use magic. But you do need to have a lot of mana and have the necessary gifts to use magic. Lucky for you, your dad is a powerful mage, and one day, when you are older, I’ll teach you everything I know!” he said proudly, puffing his chest out.
But he realized too late that he might have already said too much, as the smile got wiped off his face and was replaced with a worried look.
Haha, too easy.
In an attempt to salvage his mistake, he continued with a warning. “Well, you can use magic when you are older, but learning magic when you are so young is dangerous. You could hurt yourself or soone else since you don’t know what you are doing. Of course, if you promise you won’t try to use magic until you are a bit older, I promise to teach you everything,” he said nervously while a bead of sweat dripped down his forehead.
I couldn’t help but grin a little as he looked back up at .
“I promise!”
I lied.
—
It has been over two years now. Unlike Humans, it appears Elves don’t celebrate birthdays yearly. They have one at five years after birth. Then at ten years, then fifteen, then twenty. After that, Elves tend to celebrate birthdays every decade or so. Apparently, Elves have incredibly long life spans. An Elf that doesn’t et an untily death can live to be almost three hundred and fifty years old if everything goes well.
And Elves who have a lot of mana can live even longer. Of course, this applies to everyone else as well. As far as I could tell Humans tended to live longer lives as well. I’ve seen at least one ancient-looking Human so far.
I tried asking the witch, Seana, how old she was, but she wouldn’t tell . She said it was “rude for a boy to ask a girl how old they were,” whatever that ans.
It’s just a question...
I finally figured out Seana was my mother’s na, my father’s na was Alanis, and our family na was Shadowheart. Apparently, when Elves got married, they would often mix the last nas together and make a new last na. So that makes Kaladin Shadowheart. I’m not sure how thrilled I am about being the child of a Xeno, even if this is all just a simulation. I just need to take things in stride.
I have also recently learned Seana was an accomplished seamstress before she took ti off to raise . That teal blanket she would often wrap in was her handy work. She explained to that she could imbue the threads with her mana using magic, which allowed the garnts to have so interesting magical properties, like helping my mana pool grow.
It appeared that manaweave regulated temperature perfectly. Even though this place was unbearably humid, I was never once miserable in the wraps. Even the skin-tingling sensation it gave was oddly pleasing. If anything, it was so comfortable it was uncomfortable waiting to be wrapped up in it. I use it more or less like a blanket now though.
Seana had begun taking on work again to help Alanis out. Alanis was a hunter or so I was told. He, along with a few other people from the village, would take small excursions out into the jungle and clear it of dangerous wildlife, gathering their materials and at to sell back to the village.
It sounded like hazardous work. Yet, I had never once seen him co back ho injured or even mildly inconvenienced. The wildlife must not actually be that dangerous, especially since he leaves his armor set and spear at ho, opting to use a far inferior wooden spear and bow for his work.
Seana had so coworkers over this morning and they were weaving while gossiping about the happenings in the village. This had been going on a few tis a week now and it was a perfect ti to make myself scarce and attempt my hand at magic. I slowly crawled my way out of the house and hid behind a tree that was behind our ho. So far, any attempt I have made to replicate the few spells I have seen has failed. I simply don’t understand the process.
I have been attempting to create a ball of water I can throw, but nothing happens when I try to make it work. I’ve tried everything from willing it to happen to manipulate an existing pool of water to trying to throw water from my hands. It has been a frustrating few months, to say the least. Perhaps I should try a different approach.
I rember Apollo was a fan of ditating. He rambled on about how amazing it was and how it helped him focus and achieve his goals. I didn’t really understand as I didn’t need to ditate to focus on my tasks, but I was willing to try almost anything at this point. I rember Apollo saying to clear your mind of unwanted things, then focus on the thing you wanted. Then control and steady your breathing.
So, I plopped onto the ground and crossed my legs. I cleared my mind and focused on wanting to create a small ball of water. I steadied my breathing and relaxed. After about five minutes of sitting on the hard ground, I got up and let out a nice “DAMN IT!!” into the air.
Ah, I feel better. Who needs ditation?
My frustration had hit a boiling point. So I sat back down, shoved my face into my hands, and began to wrap my brain around what I knew about magic and mana.
Apparently, everything had mana, but not everything could use magic. I have seen sobody use magic, but that isn’t enough for to know how to use it myself. I can’t seem to feel anything at all when I try to use said magic.
Perhaps the system has created sothing that I can’t use… no, that doesn’t make sense. Why would they go to such lengths of creating this magical system and not have be capable of it? I had the foundation I just needed to think… and that’s when I rembered.
I am pretty sure I have had magic cast on before. When I first awoke that old man did sothing to . I was in excruciating pain, and it was wiped away in an instant. I rember that warm feeling spreading from the center of my body as it stretched out towards my fingertips. Perhaps, if I recreated that feeling or at least delved into it a bit more, I could achieve a breakthrough.
I went back into my pose and redid all the steps for ditation again. But, instead, this ti, I would focus on that warm feeling in my chest. After what felt like forever, I suddenly felt a tiny bit of warmth in my chest.
It wasn’t anything like when the old man did it, but it was sothing. So I focused on that feeling even more. It began to feel almost like a drop of warm water in the center of my body. I tried to force it to my fingertips, but it died away only after a few seconds as I lost control of it.
Damn. I am closer than I was yesterday. This is a start. I can’t stay out any longer today but I shall continue to train.
—
I started my journey five months ago with this little drop of warmth in my chest. It took many…. many… hours of trial and error, but I have finally managed to guide the warm water to my fingertips. I’m not sure what this does but now I am going to attempt to do…sothing.
So, I sat in my little spot in the shade and guided the warm droplet all the way to my fingertips. Now I was going to try to make a spec of water, the tiniest little droplet. I focused intensely on every aspect that I wanted from the droplet; the size, shape, color, how it was going to sll, even the chemical components.
And I sat there for a long ti attempting to do this until…. nothing.
I couldn’t do it!
Damn! Maybe I really needed a teacher or sothing. Hell, even a dang book explaining this would be more straightforward! I kicked a branch in frustration and sat back down to think, I couldn’t give up, not yet.
Mmmm… maybe I should use fire? No, I can’t. If I do sothing wrong, I might burn the entire jungle down along with myself.
Maybe… could I try wind? I have seen Seana use fire magic and water magic. So, if it was based on the elents, then perhaps there was wind and earth? Since I didn’t know what earth magic looked like, so I focused on making a small gust of wind instead.
I also decided to adopt another approach, I have never seen anyone use magic while ditating, so maybe I needed to be standing for it. I squared myself off with my knees just past my shoulders and dropped my base. I wasn’t sure what kind of stance I should take, but I figured this would be fine.
Then I refocused and moved the tiny drop of warmth all the way back to my fingertips, where I imagined it turning into a small gust of wind. As soon as the droplet hit my fingertip, an ever-so-small amount of air ca out from my hand, it was barely enough even to shake the leaves of the tree. But I did it! I used magic.Finally!
But my joy was imdiately replaced with a feeling of complete and utter death. Only a few seconds after I made that slight breeze I began to feel awful. I felt like sobody had bludgeoned my entire body with a tal bat and kicked a few tis for good asure.
I tried to move, but instead, I just fell forward as I lost control of my body and face planted into the dirt. I couldn’t move my body at all, not even wiggle my fingertips as I lay there inhaling the dirt. Nor could I speak to call for help. I just laid there for well over five minutes.
Slowly but surely, the feeling returned to my body as I regained control over it again. I was still in agonizing pain, and I was completely drained. I felt like I needed to hibernate for fifty years.
I waddled my tiny fatigued body back ho, where Seana called out to , “Kal baby, are you okay? You don’t look so good... and what happened to your clothes and face!” she said with genuine concern.
I must have looked as terrible as I felt. Seana dropped the fabric she was working on and rushed over, and began to clean my face. “I fell and I don’t feel so good,” I said.
It was a half-truth. But it was better not to alert her that I could use magic, even if said magic might just be a death trap.
“Go lay down! I’ll go get Doctor Jacobs right away,” Seana said, scrambling to get ready.
I wasn’t sure if I needed a doctor but it probably wouldn’t hurt, I doubt they would be able to tell I used magic.
—
“So, you used too much magic, boy?” said the old as dirt doctor.
He was the sa old man I rember seeing when I first awoke. The geezer looked like he might fall dead at any mont, yet I didn’t actually see him struggle to move. Alanis was currently away hunting, and Seana was running to go get so soup from one of her coworkers, so it was just him and .
“No… I no feel very good,” I lied. The Doctor once again fixed with whatever magic he could use. I went from feeling like death walking to just being very very tired in monts.
“Anyone ever told you that you suck at lying boy? From the day I pulled you out of your mother, I knew you were going to be a hellion. But I sure didn’t think you were gonna cast a spell before you even turned five!“ he cackled.
So apparently, five is the age where people can start casting spells?
“I don’t know magic.”
I tried to cover for myself as best as I could. I already had a train of lies, I might as well double down.
“Listen here, squirt, I have been putting people back together before your mommy and daddy even thought about having you. I know what mana sickness looks like, so don’t you lie to . Now, what did you do?” he said while poking in my fatty stomach.
“I made wind.”
I take that back. It seems doubling down wasn’t going to work here. I wasn’t aware there was an identifiable illness associated with this…
There was no point in lying to him any longer. He had clearly seen through . Now I knew that there were so severe repercussions if I overused magic.
“Huh, you tried to use wind magic, huh? You are an Elf, so naturally, you should be pretty good at it. But maybe you just lack an affinity for it? You try anything else?” he asked.
He seed less concerned for my health and more interested in my abilities.
“I tried water. Didn’t work.” I said simply.
“So, you even tried water magic. Fascinating. Elves are famous for having loads of mana and being extrely adept at nearly all types of elental magic. They even start casting spells earlier than nearly every other race. But at almost three years old? I wonder what you are capable of… ” he trailed off and got a far-off look in his eyes.
Oh, no.
Suddenly those erald eyes of his gazed into and he moved close to my face with a speed that surprised even . “I’ll make you a deal, boy. I won't tell mommy and daddy about your little magic experints. But you have to co with four tis a week and train in magic. It will be our little secret.”
Wow. All I had to do was nearly kill myself to learn magic? I should have done this sooner. I’d be an idiot not to accept this. Yet I couldn't help but feel I was making a deal with the devil. I decided against my better judgnt and agreed.
“Okay,” was all I needed to say to secure myself a magic teacher.
I guess magic really is dangerous after all.
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