The next day I wake up as the white-haired woman is leaving. She is saying something to mom. I couldn't see what is going on as they are behind a curtain but as soon as she leaves the hut mom walks in and smiles upon seeing me. Dangit! I was hoping to get some meditation in and hopefully figure something out, I want to sense mana if that's at all possible. Mom nursed me before taking me out again.

Mom walked through the village and while we did get a lot of people wanting to see me it wasn't as bad as yesterday. We stopped at a bath where the white-haired roommate is and joined her. Mom snuggled up next to her. Seeing the height difference mom is easily a head shorter. Mom held me close to the both of them, and they both seem to be purring, didn't know we could do that. Hmm, they seem a little too close to be just roommates. Are they perhaps lovers?

After bathing, we separated ways and mom took me to the island. On the way there we passed a large building with huge tubs of fruit. A strong smell of the bathing oil is emanating from that building. There's another smaller fruit processing building next to it that seems like an afterthought. There are a lot of fruit slices sun-drying on racks here. Mom talked to me, pointing at the buildings. Umm, mom, I can't understand you. We walked into the island proper and were greeted with rows and rows of fruit-bearing bamboo trees. Workers are busy plucking the fruit and putting them in large tall baskets.

We walked through the forest, mom humming to me. Looking around I see more than usual green glowing orbs floating around. After walking around the island for a bit we returned to the village and back to our hut. I was put back into the crib while mom moved to another room to do whatever she does.

I immediately went to meditate, trying to open my soul but only managed to sense the wall preventing me from doing so. I try to push against the wall but it doesn't even budge. Hmm, maybe I'm going about this all wrong. Why is there even a wall here? What do walls do? They keep things out, or inside, So what is this wall keeping out? I'm probably going to regret it but I kinda want to know. Ah well, not like a baby like me can do anything about it.

Maybe if I try to actively feel for the energies instead of feeling for it passively maybe I can sense mana, isn't that how it's done in stories? And if I can sense mana I might learn how to use magic!

I slowly open my mind again, clearing it of all distractions and thoughts. Then I focus on expanding my awareness, millimeter by millimeter. All of a sudden a wealth of information assaulted my mind along with several bell-like sounds. A pressure like that of the bottom of the ocean pressed against my mind. It was too much. I immediately retracted my mind as a headache pierced my brain like a hot needle.

I cried out in pain and soon mom is picking me up trying to calm me. She said something but my head hurt too much for me to listen. Mom tried all sorts of things to see what was wrong. Eventually, she settled on holding me tightly and gently petting my head.

Eventually, my headache became bearable and I quieted down. Mom sighed in relief and took us out to bathe. Mom probably complained to the other women but I didn't care. I focused on what had happened but got surprised when words floated into my mind's eye.

Ting! You have gained the Sense Mana general skill!

Sense Mana: You have opened your mind to one of the energies that fuels this world. You can now sense mana in its raw form.

Ting! Sense mana has obtained level 2!

Ting! Sense mana has obtained level 3!

Ting! Sense mana has met the requirements for a breakthrough. Sense mana will now continue leveling past level 10

1st Breakthrough: You have sensed an overwhelming pressure of mana, now you will be able to better sense mana in such quantity and better see slight difference in mana levels.

Ting! You have gained the Pain Tolerance general skill

Pain Tolerance: You have been subjected to pain not many will be subjected too. Whether you've been tortured, burned alive, or by some other extreme pain you've learned to tolerate it so that it seems just a little bit less oppressive.

Why am I not surprised by this? I should be but it's like I read something like this before. Now I think I know what happened. I live right next to a place of power so the mana density here must be insane. Trying to sense mana here would be like staring at the sun. It also seems like skill stops leveling after some time and you need to prove yourself or accomplish some sort of achievement to progress further, sensing such dense mana probably was enough to meet that requirement.

If there are skills then maybe this should work?

I focus on bringing up my stat sheet, and sure enough, a wealth of information greeted my mind's eye.

Name: Alysara, Sex: Female, Age: 0

Race: Runalymo

(Adept)

Race Trait 1: Mana Generation

Race Trait 2: Spirit Sight

Race Trait 3: Nutritional Milk

Race Trait 4: Heightened Senses

Race Trait 5: Mana sustenance

Race Trait 6: Runalymo's Cleanliness

Race Trait 7: Perfectionists Eye

Race Trait 8: Nexus Adaptation

Race Trait 9: Inspirational Greatness

Race Trait 10: Myrou's Children

Class-

Active skill 1:

Active skill 2:

Active skill 3:

Active skill 4:

Active skill 5:

Passive skill 1:

Passive skill 2:

Passive skill 3:

Passive skill 4:

Passive skill 5:

Bond- Beauty: Level 1

General skill 1: Sense mana 3/20

General skill 2: Pain Tolerance 1/10

General skill 3:

General skill 4:

General skill 5:

General skill 6:

General skill 7:

General skill 8:

General skill 9:

General skill 10:

Mana: 200

Mana Regeneration (/hour): 200 (+200)

Vitality: 100

Strength: 9 (-8)

Agility: 12 (-10)

Endurance: 10 (-5)

Intelligence: 32 (+22)

Wisdom: 28 (+19)

Charisma: 20 (+14)

So I'm female, and my name is Alysara. Good to know.

Mana Generation: Having traded the now unneeded physical boosting trait of their parent species the Runalymo has instead gained heightened mana generation rate by (100%).

Seems like this race is more magical focused, but wasn't always that way

Spirit sight: An old trait possessed by the parent species. This race is tuned to the spirit layer, able to see spiritual beings.

Is that what those glowy orbs are? Spirits?

Nutritional Milk: Having suffered through near extinction by starvation this race has turned to whatever it could in dark times and not succumb to the cursed act of cannibalism. This race's milk is very nutritional, providing a creature with all their nutritional needs for 1 meal.

Seems like a little bit of Runalymo's history has been recorded by the system. Still, how bad is cannibalism that one would have to turn to the milk of their wives and mothers to survive? Cannibalism may be taboo but it doesn't turn you into a monster, or does it? Magic is a thing.

Heightened Senses: An old trait that has been honed and kept through the eons, and although this has not served the Runalymo, as it has their parent species this race still has very acute hearing, smell, and sight.

Fairly standard for a race with large ears like mine. Still, it sounds like this skill has degraded some and is not as sharp as it once had been.

Mana Sustenance: Having adapted to a low food environment and constant starvation this race now passively consumes mana to sustain bodily needs, mana regen cost increases the more that needs to be sustained

Now that I think about it I've never been truly hungry since my birth. Sure I've been a little peckish but not hungry. Again it talks about a past event, which must have been a very significant event. It also suggests that I don't need to breathe or drink but I'm sure if I stop doing any of those things I'll quickly run out of mana.

Runalymo's Cleanliness: The Incessant nature for cleanliness and care of appearance grants this race a (+50%) to beauty essence after bathing and performing acts of maintaining appearance. The more care taken the higher the bonus up to 150%

So that's why they bathe so much? Or do they have it because they bathe so much? Is it the chicken or the egg? Also, what is beauty essence?

Perfectionists Eye: Following the tenets of Myrou this race has taken great care to perfect their arts and crafts. This skill makes it so flaws are easily spotted and never overlooked.

Hmmm, a craft-centered skill. Now that I remember it Myrou is the goddess of creativity and beauty. Also, this skill includes arts so I'm also guessing things like music and paintings.

Nexus Adaptation: Adapting to the hostile and extreme environment of a nexus, even if the vast majority of the ambient mana is being siphoned, has made this race more resistant to heat and mana toxicity

Nexus, is that what a place of power is called? Also, that explains why I can feel comfortable even though we are sitting right above steaming hot water.

Inspirational Greatness: The dedication to the arts and crafts have made this race more creative, granting them a (+100%) to Creativity essence

Another crafting-centered skill and this one also talks about essences. Still don't know what they are though.

Myrou's Children: As dedicated and fervent followers of Myrou the Runalymo can more easily channel her essences of beauty and creativity (+120%).

Channel essences? Maybe it's related to magic?

Next to note is that nothing fills my class slot. Also, my race skills don't have levels like my general skills do. Then there's my Bond not sure what that is but makes sense with these bath-obsessed people and the worship of the goddess of beauty that it's centered aound beauty. I wonder if everyone here has the same bond?

Lastly are the stats. Strength, agility, and Endurance are fairly self-explanatory. I probably get a large negative to these because I am a weak baby.

Vitality: A measurement of one's lifeforce.

So if I lose too much I'll die, in other words, it's health points.

Intelligence: Learning capabilities and magical potential.

Aha! because I am a baby this gets a boost because babies learn faster.

Wisdom: Ability of one's memorization and magical control.

Again, baby brains and all that though I wonder if babies are better at magic.

Charisma: Ability to draw and keep attention of others. Increases Mana flow.

Hmm, not sure what it means by mana flow but I assume it's related to how fast I can cast spells? The fact that each stat has an additional effect means I should look a bit more closely at the physical ones too.

Strength: Ability of one's strength and maximum amount of magical augmentation.

Let me see if I get this right. Strength also increases how much you can magically buff or augment yourself?

Agility: Reaction time, running speed, dexterity, and ease of magical augmentation.

So strength is how much you can do and agility is how easy you can do it?

Endurance: Ability to resist poisons, diseases, physical and magical damage.

Yeah, this one was self-explanatory.

After doing some rough math my baby modifiers lowers strength and agility but ninety percent my endurance by half and increases my intelligence, wisdom, and charisma by seventy percent.

We got out of the bath and back to the hut I was put back into the crib and with my mental exhaustion fell asleep almost immediately.

It's been a few days, I am now 10 days old! I've also learned a few phrases "Laeso" (La-es-o). It's a greeting used in the morning and during the afternoon it's the same word but the "es" is spoken in a higher pitch. In the evening the greeting is "Laesoo" with the "O" dragged out, it's nuanced and was hard to figure out at first but it clicked and I was able to get it. Lastly "Laa'' Is used when parting. In short those roughly translate into "good morning" good afternoon" "good evening" and "goodbye". But laziness shows up everywhere and a lot of people just say "La" or "Laa" when greeting or saying farewells, talk about confusion. My intelligence and wisdom stats seem to be working overtime here. Babies usually take a year or two to learn these things but it's taking me significantly less time, although I don't know how much of that is because of my reincarnation.

Other than language I've learned that these people bathe three times a day. After they wake up, After work, and all together in a special bathing area after the bonfire. Bathing in the special bath without everyone else is not allowed, although it is allowed to not bathe with everyone else, but probably frowned on.

I've not used sensed mana since. I know I should grind the skill but every time I am about to do so I remember the pain and that discourages me from doing so.

Mom takes me everywhere she goes especially when visiting friends, she likes to show me off to her friends. That is where I met the bane of my existence. A jealous three-year-old the daughter of a woman who looked similar to mom and even has the same eyes. I remember her, she was there at my birth. I'm pretty sure she's mom's sister, my aunt. Which makes the bully, Nyam, My cousin. Ever since I've been introduced to the group all the women have been gushing over me and poor Nyam has been left out. She's thrown quite a few tantrums. Pulled my ears and tail three times and hit me a few other times. I've nurtured quite a grudge against the little devil.

Nyam is very slightly boyish, although wearing feminine clothing. Has black hair like her mother and amber eyes.

"Nyam! Faun!" A black-haired woman sternly said. She's said "Faun" numerous times whenever Nyam was acting up so I am assuming it means to "stop" or "cease".

Nyam ignored her mother and continued throwing things. When her mother stood Nyam scampered off. The black hair woman sighed, sitting back down, and muttered something while burying her hands in her face. The next thing I know I felt a tugging on my tail.

"Whaaa!" I cried out in surprise and mild pain. Mom is holding me but my long tail is hanging out from the blanket I am wrapped in. An impish laugh is heard and Nyam runs away. The black-haired woman chasing after. I still cried as mom tried to soothe me. I know it's petty to continue crying even after the pain subsided but I don't want to be here if Nyam is going to bully me and hopefully I'll be left behind next time.

Soon enough Nyam was caught and brought to us to apologize. Nyam threw a tantrum instead and started crying. The group broke up early today as Nyam had to be disciplined.

Serves you right for pulling an innocent baby's tail!

Sure a three-year-old doesn't have much strength but I'm a baby!

We returned to our hut after that and mom went back to doing whatever she does in our hut. Meanwhile, I meditate. I want to improve my mana sense but I know it's going to be painful, eh, I'll do it tomorrow. For now, I go back to the soul wall. I probably shouldn't mess with it but what's the worst that can happen, really? I gain some cool new skills?

I halfheartedly poke and prod the wall, tried to go around it but the wall did what walls do best, kept me out. Soon enough we are off to our after-work baths. We met mom's white-haired lover(?) companion there and they did what they usually do and snuggle up for a bit.

After the baths we, including mom's companion, visited a different hut, this is a large two-floored house. There my Aunt waited. Standing next to her with an arm around her stood another woman a head taller. She is the first person I saw not wearing a dress instead she wore pants and a shirt. I can easily see her toned abs and defined arm muscles. She looked like a professional swimmer, she even has wet brown hair. The most surprising thing, however, is her pants have an unmistakable bulge.