Chapter 2 Reincarnated In A World Of Spirits And Mysteries
-----
It has been around a month since I was reborn.
I was reborn against all expectations, as a little human boy. I didn\'t know what world I was in, nor what I was going to do in here. But it seems I could barely do anything anyways.
All the power I had cultivated was gone. The Blood Qi I could use was gone, the Vampiric powers I had were gone too. The only thing I could do was helplessly rest in my cradle while looking at the ceiling for the entire day long.
Eventually, my mother would come to pick me up and feed me milk. My father was also here two to three times a day. He seemed to be working hard outside the house. I had faintly seen through the window that there was a big farm with crops growing out of the dirt.
My family was no royalty nor anything like that, we were farmers. And not the ones with money, they were barely wearing leather clothes, so we were rather poor. Assuming how poor we were by the rate of crops, most likely these crops didn\'t even completely belong to us. Perhaps my parents are giving a large portion to whatever nation, duchy, or country they\'re living in.
Due to that, we don\'t make enough money and therefore our clothes are quite pitiful. To think that I, the man that conquered countless planets and over a hundred galaxies was reduced to being a poor human farmer.
"Guuhhh…"
I muttered this as I looked into the distance angrily. I gritted my teeth, but I had no teeth, I gripped my fists, but they were so little and feeble it was very difficult! Agh! Damn it all! I want my powers back! No way in hell I am going to stay like this, right?
Right…?
…
Sigh.
I have begun to believe this is some sort of curse. My powers had been restrained from flowing out of my own soul… something wrong is going on in here. Did Lucifer really reincarnate me? If so, it makes sense now. He cursed me and wanted to see me struggle while laughing back at me. That damned fallen archangel! He didn\'t die… he actually survived my all-out attack at the end.
Well, deep inside I also had that fear, that it wouldn\'t actually kill him and all of this… would be in vain. So hopeless it made me frustrated beyond belief! I grip my fist even harder as my eyebrows furrow angrily.
"Gguuuhhh…!!!"
My mother noticed my weird and bitter face as lay in my cradle, she looked at me worriedly and grabbed me, holding me in her tender arms.
"What\'s wrong, Blake? Are you feeling alright, dearie? Is your tummy hurting?" she asked.
"Guhh… Muh!"
I tried to speak but I could not. It was still very hard, I tried to tell my mother that I was very frustrated, but she didn\'t get it.
"Huh?" she had question marks all over her face. She was indeed very confused over my weird antics.
"…Muh."
I sighed and gave up on that. Even if I could speak, I couldn\'t let my parents know my past. They would probably feel creeped out if they were to learn I used to be a being of such a caliber, and even more, they wouldn\'t believe and only call me insane or something, so there wasn\'t any point in doing that.
I had wondered what I should do now. I should probably grow stronger somehow, cultivating Mana is the first step to enhance my body and soul, which could let me grow stronger. Perhaps if I can manipulate enough Mana, I could bring back my old techniques, spells, and arts, and probably relearn my millenary Soul Devour, which allowed me to devour souls and strengthen myself quickly.
Nonetheless, I had no idea if this world had any advancements in magic. Magic in the entire universe was a fact, every world developed some kind of magic anyway, so it was impossible for this world no matter what to not have any magic at all. I had to just discover the magic systems made up by this society of humans, learn them, replicate them… and boom! Magic is mine once more!
I will use my magic to probably boost my growth and- Well, I don\'t know what else. Fighting Lucifer? Well… it feels stupid at this point.
Perhaps I should lay back and… relax for once.
My entire past life was filled with hardships, battles, and more, until the point, I conquered it all and grew bored. My entire mind and body were sharpened through battles, relaxing to me was a chore and I couldn\'t do it properly.
I regret this deeply, of course. I wish I could have enjoyed a better childhood.
Although this seems to be a poor family, it is already better than my previous life childhood, and my parents seem to care for me as well.
Maybe… I should simply try to protect them and start anew, like Eleanora always wanted.
Eleanora…
My mother suddenly noticed I had become sorrowful out of the sudden.
"Blake? Dearie? What\'s wrong now? Are you hungry? Want some more of mama\'s milk?" she asked gently, rubbing her tit over my face.
Agh! Wait! You perverted woman; I don\'t want this!
"Gaahhhh…!!!"
I pushed her breast away from my face. I am sorry for being rude, mother, but you\'re a stubborn woman, I didn\'t want this!
"Eeeh? Y-You don\'t want mama\'s milk?" she asked, feeling down.
Ah… Now she\'s making me feel guilty.
Fine…
I ended up drinking her milk for the rest of the day, and then took a nap.
A baby\'s life is not as easy as they say.
…
My daily routine continued like this for several days and weeks, caged inside my room and my cradle, until I was already half a year old.
After many hardships, I was finally able to move a bit! Well, mostly walk on four feet, which is very hard in this weakling body…
So, after a lot of boring baby life, I had finally decided to crawl outside of my cradle and get to know the world outside.
My mother and father were not here, so it was the perfect time.
I sneaked outside the cradle and walked over the wooden floor.
With all my strength, I pushed the door open.
But what greeted my sight was rather… not expected.
There was a cat-sized golden-brown rat, seemingly made out of some sort of energy, looking at me while twitching its ears.
This was certainly not a normal rat.
I stood there looking at it for a few seconds, and quickly moved back.
Was this a monster?!
"Chuuu!"
The rat, however, gently reached me and licked my face. After that, it began running around me adorably.
Wait, this damn bastard is cute! Is this the house pet? I never saw him before.
I didn\'t know that in this world they domesticated rats. That\'s something new for me. Perhaps this world is based on rat tamers? Well, that would be certainly disappointing if it was the case…
"Chuu! Chuu!"
Suddenly, the rat generated soil out of thin air and left it on the ground.
"Huh?"
T-This is…
Magic!
-----
Magic, an essential power that everyone in the Universe could wield as long as they had Mana. And Mana, an essential power that everyone in the Universe harbored inside their souls, even if a little bit, everyone should have Mana one way or another.
Those with a lot of it at the beginning were called geniuses and talented people, while those with little starting mana were called talentless. Anywhere you went, it was like this. However, even talentless people were able to conjure magic as long as they trained diligently.
However, this rat used it like nothing to make up some dirt! Odd, who the heck are you even?
"Chuuuu!"
The rat was fond of me and licked me, and then, it offered its back to me.
Oh?! You want to become my mount? Good choice! I see that you\'re a sharp rat to realize who I am really! I will take your humble back.
Carry me outside, my humble steed!
I commanded the rat to carry me outside, as it began to slowly walk over the corridor outside my room.
However, my parents quickly emerged at the other side, stopping us from going anywhere else.
"H-Hey! That\'s my mouse?!" asked my father.
"Idiot, you let it go around the house again!" sighed my mother.
I tried to escape from them with my humble steed, but we were hopelessly captured by the vicious and strong hands of my parents.
Damn it!
"Calm down, Earth Mouse… And why were you carrying Blake with you? You\'re awfully independent for being a low-rank Earth Spirit…" sighed my father.
Earth Spirit? Wait… Spirits? Does this world have Spirits? From all the knowledge I had accumulated over many years in my previous life, I know that Spirits come in all sizes and shapes, but essentially, they\'re living beings made up mostly out of elemental energy.
This mouse… I see, so that\'s why it had this glow on it and could use earth magic. It was actually an Earth Spirit. But my father who seems like a common human has an earth spirit? This seems odd.
"Chuuuu!"
The Mouse didn\'t seem to like my father grabbing him, but he suddenly turned into energy, pure and glistening light, and flew towards my father\'s chest. For a moment, I noticed my father\'s chest glowing brightly, as if he had some sort of core inside of his chest, where the spirit entered.
I… I had never seen such a power before. How strange… What kind of world is this? Perhaps it is one I had not conquered before…
"You\'re going to stay in my Spirit Orb for the rest of the day, I am not going to let you out!" said my father, reprimanding his Spirit.
"Blake, dearie, are you okay?" sighed my mother, looking at me with worried eyes.
"Baah! Imma okay!" I muttered. And suddenly, I realized I was able to muster some words at half a year.
"Oh?!"
My two parents were suddenly frozen in time.
"Y-You can talk already?!" asked my father in shock.
"By the sacred spirits!" said my mother, as she raised me high into the air.
"Our son can already talk!" the two said at the same time, celebrating this occurrence.
It was still very hard to make up words, but I ended telling my mother "I\'m okay", which triggered this entire thing.
"B-Blake, can you say mama?" asked my mother.
"Say papa too!" said my father.
Ugh… Who do you think you are?! I won\'t obey you simply because you tell me to say your… Well, they\'re my parents, fine.
"Ma…ma…! Pa… Papa!"
"Uoooohhhh!" my father almost exploded out of surprise.
"Oh, my son… You\'ve really said it!" said my mother, as she began crying out of joy.
They\'re so exaggerated, what\'s so special about a baby speaking? Everyone speaks at the end of the day! Wouldn\'t it be natural to do it as soon as possible? What\'s so special about doing something so common?
Ah, well, I cannot really understand humans sometimes, they\'re so strange and bizarre for getting surprised over things that are so normal that- Ah! Right! The spirits!
"Spiwit?" I asked. I couldn\'t form very complicated works, so I pointed at my father\'s chest and asked about spirits.
"Oh! You\'re interested in Spirits already, Blake? Well, you\'ll surely develop one at some point…" said my father, as he carried me in his arms and mother followed him at his side.
The two quickly sat down in the chairs around the table. They were in the mood to speak about it just because I asked, such serviceable parents! I guess it is not so bad to have them.
"If you can understand us, then I guess it isn\'t bad to introduce you to this as soon as possible." Said my mother.
"Wha…?" I asked curiously.
My mother\'s chest suddenly glowed with bright golden light, as a mass of energy came out of it and suddenly materialized in the floor, a sheep. Indeed, there was now a very fluffy sheep in front of us, this was… my mother\'s spirit?
It had fluffy fur over it, and two golden horns, but it seemed rather weak and calm… I could sense some hint of Life Attribute within it, it was probably a Life Spirit.
"You see that? These are spirits! Amazing, isn\'t it?" asked my mother.
"Wooow…"
I was left rather speechless, my eyes shone brightly in surprise at this. I felt happy to finally see some display of magic at long last.
"Everyone develops a Spirit Orb inside their chest while growing up, whenever you reach a certain age, usually five or six years, you will develop your own personal spirit… It could be anything!" said my father.
"A spirit grows stronger with you, so whenever you have a spirit, you\'ll need to do a lot of activities with it so it can grow strong." said my mother.
"Well… yeah, although our Spirits can\'t… really fight." Sighed my father.
"Oh…"
It appeared that my parents were not very talented, as they stated they had weak spirits that couldn\'t fight.
"But even then! They\'re still useful! Yeah, yeah!" said my mother.
"My Earth Mouse helps me make the soil of the crops rich so the plants can grow!" said my father.
"A-And my fluffy sheep… can produce wool so I can sell it… though it costs a lot of Mana…" said my mother.
I see… so this is what it feels like to belong to a humble family.
-----