I finally turned three! All I had to do was learn how to sense the very essence of the universe and bend it to my will! (Insert megalomaniacal laugh here) I was never really very good at the classic ‘evil laugh’.

In all seriousness, though, it got much easier when I decided to put off the weird ‘magic sight’ and ‘magic hearing’ to focus on the even weirder ‘magic touch’. Instead of trying to see and hear things that were normally invisible and inaudible it was more like reaching out beyond the limits of my skin to feel things, especially things that were connected with me. To that end my parents gave me various haircuts and I practiced ‘feeling’ my hair; both where it was and if something were happening to it. That wasn’t a big deal because, surprise surprise, my body ‘heals’ my hair back to the exact same length over time. I wasn’t even a little surprised to hear that hair doesn’t naturally grow here, that is how used to the weirdness of this place that I have become.

Either way, apparently ‘feeling’ my disconnected hair was easier to get my mind around that ‘seeing the energies of creation’ or ‘hearing the echoes of life’s actions’. I’m still not sure what those descriptions are supposed to mean but I can see weird not-colors when my parents do anything ‘magic’ related and hear weird not-sounds coming from anything that is alive or was interacted with by something that was. My dad says that the ‘doing’ comes first and that I can worry about the ‘understanding’ of it later. My mom says that it isn’t important unless I want to be a nerd or something and to put off all the questions till I’m not so useless at everything. Those were not her exact words, but that was how I decided to take it.

Mostly it was just boring repetition, watching for weirdness at the edge of my vision and hearing and senses and focusing in on it till it finally clicked. I did manage to get the first level of the whole ‘claiming’ thing figured out, which most people just call ‘tagging’ it. Apparently it is as easy as treating the selected item like my hair as it grows back and letting my ‘essence’ (mana to normal people) ‘grow’ into it. The second level, which most people call ‘claiming’ (despite the confusing terminology), and the third level, which people call ‘absorbing’, are both a ways off for me.

The more interesting thing is that I can now ‘bend the universe to my will’! No seriously, I actually can to a very limited degree. By forcing the magic to avoid me I can also make natural light and sound do the same, to some degree. I’m not very good at it yet, but it still counts as invisibility and I can still do it! I would have thought that invisibility should be a mid level spell and that I would have to work thorough the basic and low level spells before I could have access to it. But nope, this crazy world thinks making everyone into ninjas is a good idea.

I did, very quickly, discover a problem with it. You see my father was sitting on the couch, reading from a pad that he wouldn’t let me see. Meanwhile I was behind him, invisible and sneaky, except…

“I can see you. And no, I’m still not going to let you look.” He said in a bored tone.

I deflated. “That’s no fair, you can’t see me if you are facing the other direction. That doesn’t even make sense!”

“Fine, I ‘heard’ and ‘felt’ you then. Is that better?” he answered with an almost audible eye roll, still not looking up.

“But how? I was so careful. I moved slowly and came from your blind spot and waited till you were distracted and everything!”

“I am also many many times your level and I focus on Wisdom as a primary stat.” There was that.

“This sucks! I’m invisible and I can’t actually do anything with it.” Suddenly a thought occurred to me. “Would Mom be easier to sneak up on?”

He laughed but didn’t answer. Instead, “You should practice your Stability. Or, better yet, finish up with claiming your clothes and knife. As soon as you do we can go out for that ‘adventure’ you want. Getting knocked around by a monster will be a good training for aging up.” I mentally corrected Constitution for Stability. He was still laughing without looking up.

I didn’t answer but frowned and went to my room. I also tried to slam the door in frustration but ended up just closing it quickly instead. I’m currently twice as strong as I used to be but that apparently wasn’t very much when your starting numbers were so low. So instead of dwelling on that I decided to focus on how I could better use my new magic toy of invisibility.

The tricks with it were pretty close to normal stealth except without needing something to hide behind. Movement would make you easier to see while being slow or standing still would make you less noticeable. Distraction, bad angles for perception, and people to hide behind make it harder for people to notice you. Also normal things like walls getting in the way and distance.

I looked over at the closed door and then at my window. A plan started to form in my mind. It might not be the wisest thing ever, but I was tired of being cooped up in this house. Carefully I pushed the window open, trying to keep it quiet, and crawled out the opening that was just barely big enough for me. The thorn bush outside immediately attacked but I managed to crawl past it with only minimal difficulty.

I had escaped!!!

… Now what…

Shrugging my shoulders I turned left and took my well known route to the housing development’s park. It was mostly empty, a few people here and there, but nobody who was doing anything interesting to watch. The place wasn’t exactly the most exciting place ever. There were a few benches and a couple picnic tables but mostly a bunch of trees. Someone glanced over in my direction and I quickly ducked back behind the corner of one of the houses. I was still invisible but this place was nearly empty so there weren’t a lot of distractions for people to focus on. I’d be better off trying somewhere else.

The path back past my house was just as empty as almost every time I walked it. The houses were nice, although nearly identical in their style and coloration. Even the larger two-story examples fit in unobtrusively with the rest. It honestly looked like a stereotypical suburbs except for a few little things. First, there was only one wide walkway thanks to there being no road for cars. There were no carports or cars anywhere, which wasn’t surprising considering what my Father had said about cars not being a thing here. Another oddity was that the front yards were only three or four feet deep and were obviously meant for decoration rather than use. Why even have a house if you aren’t going to actually use it for living in? It was just one more oddity to add to the list. Finally there were almost no people about. It was more than a little creepy.

I continued straight past my house and the dozens of others like it, reached the end of the paved road, turned to the next paved road, and saw the masses of people ahead. This was the direction that Mother had taken to get to the knife salesman. I walked forward to where the masses passed by. Off to my left I could see the bus stop looking place where we had waited for the transporter. It was some distance across the pathway and the people’s passing gave me only an intermittent view, but there was a small group waiting to leave. Nothing else of interest seemed to be happening and so I stood and watched the people go past for a bit.

This was officially my whole world, up to this point. I guess I could also count the street with the crafter, but I had no idea how to get there without help. I couldn’t even remember how long I had been on this world.

Actually, let me think about it. It took me a few days to start talking and another week before I had the whole death thing figured out. After that it took another week and a half to figure out walking, which added up to around three weeks. That seemed long, especially since I had been trying to walk since day one, but my Dad said that wasn’t too bad. From there it took another two weeks to figure out my senses and get myself to lv3. I don’t care if my parents call it an ‘age category’ or whatever, it works like a weird progression based level system. So in total I’ve been here five weeks? I don’t exactly remember enough interesting things happening to make up five weeks worth of time. What I do remember was so boring that it is somewhat surprising that it was only that much time and not much longer. I wonder if my ‘age’ is messing with my sense of time?

Still, this was my first chance to get out and really explore so I should take it. I looked back and forth. The people coming from the right all looked as though they had somewhere to go while about two thirds of the people coming from the left seemed tired and were much more leisurely about their trip so it seems logical to assume that the people coming from the right were going somewhere while wherever they were going was to the left. While it would be interesting to know where all those people are going I was actually quite curious about where they were all coming from. Most of them were going at a normal walking pace, so it couldn’t be too far away. Part of that, I will admit, was wondering if other housing districts were as seemingly abandoned as my own.

So right I went, still sneaking along off to the side. Rarely did anyone look in my direction, though a few got an amused look on their face when they did.

There were other housing districts but they seemed just as abandoned as my own and the people didn’t seem to be coming from them. Finally, in an alleyway between two walled off compounds, I saw the opening of an 'anthill'. That was really the best and the only way I could think to describe it. People were flooding in and out of a hole in the ground as though it was a totally normal thing. Perhaps around here it was. The people coming out were mostly on the lower end of the economic scale, if their clothing and such was any indication, so was the reason why there were no apartment buildings visible because they were all underground? Did that mean that my parents were rich?

I wanted to check out what was down there but, while I was foolhardy enough to run off, I wasn’t quite foolish enough to dive underground just yet. I would have to go down there at some point, however. My itch to explore would allow nothing less!

After around 20 more minutes of walking I was getting bored when I noticed a giant wall up ahead taller than the surrounding buildings. It was amazing and I ran forward to see it more closely. Then, after a couple minutes of that, I started walking again. The wall was still far off in the distance and I was exhausted from that short burst of speed. It was probably another 15 or 20 minutes before I could finally see the opening of the wall around a slight bend of the path and I moved forward to see it as fast as I could without actually running.

There was what I could only describe as a force field across the entire gate and it rippled like water whenever someone moved through it. It tinted everything that went through with a clear blue as though I was looking at the bottom of a lake through calm waters or staring down into the deep end of a pool. It was an incredible sight and made me wonder if there was any sort of real super-science on this world in addition to the magic. Afterall, robot-armor guy had to have gotten his stuff from somewhere.

While the gate’s barrier had grabbed my attention the rest of it was no less impressive. Despite the fact that the opening raised up only a story and a half tall, like a modern day overpass, it stretched across nearly a hundred feet without a single support to hold it aloft. The low height compared to the width was actually the reason why I hadn’t seen it from a distance; the occasional taller building and my low point of view hid the thing till I was almost on top of it. The size was not excessive, however, as streams of people poured through the entrance clogging it to the point of bursting with people, monsters, and the occasional oddball vehicle.

The people didn’t all even look to be human. I hadn’t seen any obvious elf ears but there were a group of dog people, complete with snout, and someone who looked like a rock monster in a well fitted suit. On closer inspection there were other details showing racial diversity including the somewhat uncommon prehensile tail and more than a few clawed hands. The details for most were small and easily hidden and few of their number turned to walk down the path I was on. Most of them, in fact, seemed to be disappearing into those subway-station like entrances that led underground.

From the entrance there were five aboveground paths although the majority of the people seemed to be heading underground. Two of the paths seemed to follow the wall itself, these were the most scarcely populated of the ways that I could see. The roads were almost a three lane highway’s worth of space without any visible structure on the wall’s side, and their sparse use made them seem abandoned. The path I was on and one other split off like a great V from the gate, although the other arm was both twice as large and more crowded despite the space. The final path broke off near the larger path and headed off in the far direction.

While the various paths off of the main road had been sparsely marked on my way in this direction, this was the first place I saw the markings for the road I had been on for so long. The marking read ‘Temple’ but gave no indication as to the affiliation of that place of worship or anything else to mark it. The second sign, labeled ‘MillStorm Colosseum’ stood in stark contrast as it had various other directions attached to it and was surrounded on all sides by advertisements. In fact the entire wider path seemed to be lined with promotional displays to the point where reaching your destination would be a simple matter of refusing to buy anything. It was this contrast that brought to mind the clean simplicity of the street I had just walked. The final street was labeled ‘services’, without a capital letter, and was much more subdued in its soliciting than its mate while still holding that unmistakable air of mercantilism.

I stood there watching for ten minutes before deciding to move on. I wasn’t sure how long I had before my Dad realized I was gone but I was fairly certain that my fun would be over once he caught up with me. The larger path toward the colosseum looked interesting but I wasn’t sure about trying to hide in those crowds. Besides, there was a temple to something or other down my current path and I was curious about people’s beliefs in this world.

Turning around, I hurried back toward my house and beyond. Despite how much care I took to not tire myself out I still ended up moving a little too quickly for my low stamina and had to rest more than once. I admit that my impatience was mostly at fault for the delays, but I wasn’t sure how much time I had before I was found out. After the second such delay I forced myself to slow down and move more deliberately. I may look like a child and feel like a child, but that was no excuse to let my childishness get away from me. At least not if it ends up slowing me down even more.

The path back was the same but I approached it with new eyes. I had seen the eye searing spectacle of the colosseum road and now appreciated the much more organized and subdued look of the street outside the subdivision where I lived. It made me wonder about the larger dwellings that took up entire sections on the edge of this main road. The businesses made more sense, since they were groups of individuals and likely needed workspace, but the multi-story buildings that looked like residences were decadent to a degree that just seemed wasteful for the interior of a town. I passed by my own living development and the nearby ‘bus stop’ with little more than a glance. I’d been out here for an hour, maybe two, but continued forward with my adventure. There was a ‘temple’ up ahead, I could go home after I saw it.

I hadn’t walked for more than five minutes when I began to see two massive structures up ahead, one of which I was certain must be the ‘temple’. The massive thing seemed like a hybrid between a Greco/Roman temple, with tall ivory pillars holding up the multi-level structure, and an Egyptian pyramid with a flat top, due to how each level was reduced in size compared to the lower levels and the way the supports angled up toward the multiple rooves from the ground or the lower level. The combination and arrangement of the triangularly positioned supports and flat levels gave the construction a solidity that it otherwise might have lacked. The whole thing stood out in a gleaming eggshell white for an overall effect like a solid structure built from the claws of the land. Each level covered an area as tall as a three story house and the massive singular slates separating the levels were easily as thick as a man. Between each pillar, in the spaces not occupied by supports, there was bits of color shining through that I could not identify. The mammoth undertaking was easily over a hundred feet tall and dwarfed most of the surrounding architecture, something that was especially clear from this distance.

It was not, however, the tallest thing in the area. That honor fell to the modern looking building directly facing it. This world, aside from magic, so often seemed so primitive; but I looked on at what looked like the hybrid of an modern office building and an space-aged apartment complex. The main structure was built like an open ‘C’ facing forward with a single tower standing tall at the back. Each level near the ground, which appeared to be a bit thicker than a normal house, was riddled with openings and balconies as one might expect from a housing development. It wasn’t exactly like buildings from my old world, most notably it lacked the handrails that normally kept people from tripping and falling to their doom. Furthermore while normal apartments were covered with wood or some type of siding, this building’s external fabrication was entirely of metallic tinted glass. It stood out somewhat jarringly against the backdrop of much smaller and simpler buildings, and seemed even more alien considering the temple opposite it. The singular tower dominated over anything and everythnig else in the area like a true skyscraper. The main building may have been significantly smaller than the pyramid thing to its opposite but the tower more than made up for it to the point where low cloud cover obscured its peak.

As I worked my way closer the street dividing the two buildings took on a weird mirror image. They were alike in that they were on opposite sides of the street with their main gates directly facing each other, but otherwise the two couldn’t be more different. The wall around the temple compound was simple and sturdy, built of a single giant wall of grey stone as though the thing had been hewn from a single piece, but also had opulent decorations added to it like a façade that was trying not to be tacky. Meanwhile the wall around the business building was built of tasteful red and brown colored brick and looked much more comfortable in its decoration, but it showed signs of hasty construction in how the seams were worked together and the standardization of things even where that uniformity didn’t quite fit. The decoration on the temple’s side were alabaster white and gold in a complex and archaic pattern that never seemed to repeat, while the decorations on the building’s side were brick and wrought iron in more of a modern managed look. Even the people seemed largely segregated. To my left the temple crowd was friendly but eclectic with very little binding them beyond a slight avoidance of the other side of the road, while my right was filled with people who were more aloof and similar in dress but looked in distain at the opposite side of the road.

There was something going on here. My ‘superpower’ of ‘common sense’ told me as much. There was no way that these two seemingly antagonistic organizations would just happen to be placed so closely together by random chance. I could try to ask someone about the hostility, but that would require me to abandon my illusion of stealth. Yes, I admit that anyone and everyone who seemed to care could apparently see me, if the way that their eyes jumped to my person was any indication. But actually admitting it by appearing before them, that was just a bit too much. I’m stubborn like that.

So instead I passed by the two buildings to look on toward the final megastructure that appeared in the distance. The place looked like a football stadium and, while it was only about two thirds as tall as the temple, the building itself took up an area of ground that was more than twice that of the other two building’s grounds combined. The structure in the distance seemed to be the grey of either stone or concrete and its giant visible support structures reminded me of the Roman Colosseum. I was far less surprised when I noticed it. The road label that I had seen at the entry of the city had partially prepared me for what towered in the distance and it seemed less of an odd construction than the two that were facing each other.

The two building’s grounds again mirrored each other by coming to the stop at the same cross street and I turned to the right, walking alongside the more modern building, to head toward what I now promised would be my final stop. Absolutely, I would not get distracted again and end up going somewhere else. I mean, how much larger could the buildings get without me being able to see them? So I can be almost certainly sure that there isn’t anything else around capable of distracting me.

And then, as though the universe was determined to make me a liar, I saw a group of kids appear from one of the secondary doors toward the modern looking building. Other children! These were the first ones I had seen my entire time here. None of them seemed to be quite as young as me, though their ages seemed to range from the upper single digits all the way through the more confident upper teenage years. A few of them were in groups, mostly made up of members within the same age range, but the majority seemed to be spreading out and heading in different directions. Do I try to follow some of them to see where they are going? Do I try to reverse their path to see where they are coming from? Maybe I should just keep toward my original goal of seeing the Colosseum?

My decision was simplified by the fact that the path toward my original goal went right past the exit at the back corner of the compound where the youth had been pouring out of. Why choose one or the other when I can have both? Nobody would blame me for looking carefully at the sights as I passed by. And if they did blame me I could probably, hopefully, maybe run away before they made an issue of it. This road was the largest one I had found so far, which made sense considering it went past the three largest locations in town, but it also meant that I would likely be able to hide in the crowds of people if I needed to get away.

So carefully I made my way along within the flow of people, crept up to the opening as carefully as I could, and took a look in.

It looked like a school had been built into the corner of the much larger building. There were stairs leading up to where the doors were set and hundreds of children seemed to be flowing out. I must have just caught them at the end of classes or something. Many of them seemed to be spreading out to the courtyard rather than leaving and even here I could start to see cliques forming, especially among the older ones. This section of the inner courtyard completed the schoolyard look with some playground equipment, a few decorative trees, and even what looked like tennis courts in the distance.

I stared in at the masses of people when a thought occurred to me; why should I care that they are kids ‘close’ to my own age when I’m closer to an adult on the inside? Sure, I may look and feel like a kid, but I still remember who I am and can usually ignore my instincts when I know better. Except, was I failing to act like an adult right now? I was in the process of running away at this very moment, mostly because I was bored of focusing on the repetative 'training'; that didn’t seem like a very ‘adult’ thing to do. But on the other hand I wasn’t just running off in a random direction without any thought; I actually had a plan that was way more complicated that I would expect from a normal three year old. So what was I? An adult that feels like a kid? A kid with thoughts like an adult? Something else completely? Maybe, if I go back to my ‘the world is a video game’ theory, all this means is that my adult mind is constrained by the dialogue options given to my child avatar? At least that option doesn’t make my head want to explode trying to figure it out.

Oops, time to stop mulling things over and go. One of the older kids seems to be heading in my direction and he has a bit of a frown on his face. He is staring right at me, seems to have noticed that I saw him coming, and is now moving faster in my direction. I’m not looking forward to whatever he has to say so away I go. ‘Goodbye disgruntled person’, I think to myself as I make my way through the crowds. I still had the Colosseum to check out, after all. I’m sure I could check this place out later once I got the hang of the whole ‘Claiming’ thing.

As I moved forward toward the giant building ahead I noticed something odd, there were no advertisements except for the businesses themselves that lined the street. I had thought that the lack near the temple could have been for propriety’s sake but had assumed the eye searing displays would have resumed as soon as we moved beyond its area. The street was more than wide enough to take on the much larger crowds and I started to wonder if this wasn’t the main path through the city. It was surprisingly relaxing journey and I started paying more attention to the nearby shops, especially when I started to smell something delectable.

One of the stalls was selling something that looked like fried chicken. Have I mentioned the fact that I haven’t actually eaten anything in the entire time I have been here? Because that place made me remember just how long it has been since I have eaten anything. Also the stir-fry looking place had the same effect. And some place that seemed to be focusing on various types of boiled egg? That seemed a bit weird. Oooh! A candy place! Apparently chocolate and caramel are truly universal! Or would that be multiversal? Either way, I found a place that has it for sale!

There were also places that sold much more boring stuff like knickknacks and junk. Nothing like those ‘I Love New York’ touristy shirts that I expected to see, or I guess it would that be ‘I love MillStorm’ to be locally appropriate. In fact I saw very little in the way of clothes at all, especially for a tourist trap. There were a few places that offered ‘Adventuring Gear’ that had some stuff and a few higher end places that focused on apparel but even these were somewhat rare. What was far more common were the weapon shops. I have now confirmed that guns are a thing, right alongside catapults and mass produced suicide jackets (‘Complete with special coloration showing you mean business!!!’). The uniqueness of some of the offerings was just something I would have to get used to.

Finally there were some much more normal looking shops that you might find on any strip mall anywhere. Hair salons, makeup artists, work out gyms with 'special pricing for a limited time'. I was more interested in the place that looked like an electronics store. I had seen my parents using solid pads to do work on. The confusing thing about it was that they had never heard of something like the internet and microchips wern't a thing, and so I was almost curious enough to abandon my earlier quest to see what they had. The only thing that held me back is that I had no money and window shopping for things I couldn’t afford would probably take hours and leave me with nothing to show for it. I would definitely be coming back though. There were also some parts stores that I wanted to check out as well.

It took me some time to reach the end of the street where it opened up around the colosseum. The place looked even more like a football stadium up close. The only notable difference from what I expected was that the exterior wasn’t hollow, but was rather filled with multiple levels of who knows what. Probably private sitting rooms and more shops, if I were to guess.

As I moved around the outside of the open area I heard a sound coming from one of the alleyways. I turned to look, since it sounded like a kitten. It made a noise again, a soft mewling sound, and I moved to investigate while staying where I could be seen from the entry to the alleyway. What I found was, unsurprisingly, a small kitten hidden behind some refuse. I reached down and tried to coax it forward. It pulled back, refusing to move forward, and I continued to gently attempt to entice it into my arms.

“Thank you for the meal!” Came a male voice from behind me. I jerked around in surprise to see a man in dull grey clothing standing there with his hand out. My instincts told me to dodge and to run, but it was already too late.

For several seconds my world existed of nothing but pain. As it faded I tried to force myself to focus outward but my eyesight was blinded from the pain and my nerves felt like they were fried. It was all I could do to not fall over right then. There were noises of a struggle, I did notice, and then silence. An eternity of a few seconds later my faculties returned and I turned and looked. My Father was standing over the unknown man’s body. There was no blood and the only indication of what had happened was an odd hole on the man’s neck with a clear miasma around it like heatwaves coming off a vehicle in the summer. My father’s face was hard, an expression I had never seen before or even imagined that he could take. His hand held a short sword but otherwise he looked completely normal. He glanced up at me, made a failed attempt to smile reassuringly, and then returned to watching the body.

I was actually less surprised to see him there than I would have expected. I had thought myself so clever when I had snuck out, trying to evade his senses, not even considering that he focused his growth on that exact area. Even if he hadn’t I still should have remembered that he was an adult and I was three. There was no way that I could have been able to fool him even if he only had the baseline abilities for his level.

But the same was true of my assaulter. I looked down at the body as it slowly started to turn into mist, along with the now irate kitten. The mist was a strange solid miasma that I could feel from my spot several feet away. That man outstripped me just as much as my father did. There shouldn’t have been any real pain, it should have been over just as quickly as when my mother stabbed me with that kitchen knife. No, it should have been even faster; my mother used a cooking implement unsuited to battle and the man used actual abilities on me.

He didn’t want me to die. He wanted to keep me around, in pain, as he used whatever that ability was on me. If my father wasn’t around then there was no telling how long he would have kept it up.

I now truly understood what my dagger was meant for.

And, as I watched him turn to smoke and disappear, I realized that I had never actually seen someone die before. There was something of a substance to him that was not part of the abilities that I had seen from others. It was like the abilities I had seen before were nothing but the water vapor that condensed around a block of dry ice. What I felt from him was more real, more alive, and yet less active than those other lessor but more mercurial things. It was an old growth oak compared to the wind that moved the leaves or, to turn the analogy around, it was the transience of a man’s breath compared to his heart and mind. I could truly understand how a burst of this sensation escaping could alert everyone for miles around about the danger. This feeling was not meant to be uncontained. This impression was meant to be an arm or a leg, a man’s beating heart and life.

Immediately I also understood why I could never succeed at ‘Claiming’ my dagger or my clothes. To use one analogy to describe another: I had been shoving energy, the ‘wind’, into them and hoping that this would be enough to make it a part of the ‘tree’. I could put so much essance into the thing that it would regrow from damage, but with that method it would always be outside; other. It would never take on the properties of that strange cloud of 'being' that was the very core of who I was unless I broke down the separation between my body and the thing I would ‘Claimed’ as part of myself. It would then become an extra limb and, while I would not be able to sense it through nerves and blood, it would hold the same sensation of being essentially me as any other part of myself. My expanded senses could no more ignore that feeling than one could ignore the ache of a sunburn or the calm of taking a deep breath of air.

So I took my dagger, held it in my hands, and made it me.