As time kept marching on Leon observed what he had come to realize was his own developing body. His core occupying the same space as his heart it was fascinating to watch himself growing and the skill meditation seemed to make time meaningless. He hadn’t slept or even gotten bored as he watched what had to be months and months worth of growth occurring before his very eyes… or metaphysical senses as it were. Within Leon’s core the only real change that had occurred was the amount of light mist that was within it. It still clung to the walls, but it was now nearly at knee height surrounding the entire place.

Leon had an inkling of what the mist was, but he was still wary about trying to do anything within his core. He didn’t understand what may be safe or not within that space. So, he was going to wait until he could ask questions to the people of his new world. It would be years before he got the answers to the questions he was developing, but the wisest course of action was to gather knowledge before he did anything that could possibly result in blowing up his own soul.

But right now, right now Leon was feeling strange. Something was happening and he was pretty sure he knew what it was. Every few minutes he felt a pressure enveloping his body. It was not really painful. But was definitely uncomfortable. He was pretty sure that these sudden bouts of pressure that he was feeling were his new mother’s contractions. And that seemed odd to him. Had it already been nine months? He didn’t think so. If he had to make a guess, he’d gained consciousness around 40 to 50 days after he started developing. That was the usual time when humans started exhibiting activity in their brains when developing if he remembered correctly. But that still seemed like it wasn’t right. He wished he had a way to tell time because his development may have been different due to his titles and trait, and it would be interesting to compare that to normal human development.

The pressure around him came and went for what felt like a long time. When he finally felt a coldness envelop his head then chest and legs. At the same time, he felt huge hands gently moving and maneuvering him around. Wanting to see what was happening Leon finally canceled his meditation skill, and full awareness of his body slammed into his unprepared mind, and he cried out in shock. His skin was so sensitive that he could feel the texture and fingerprints of the soft hands that were cradling him. He opened his eyes and was damn sure that he should not be able to see so clearly. Babies who were recently born were supposed to be very nearsighted as far as he was aware, but the world around him sharp and clearer than he ever remembered seeing in his old life. There even seemed to be colors that he’d never seen before. But before he could get his wits about him, he suddenly felt a cold we towel rubbing him down roughly. He gasped in shock at the coldness of the towel and realized that he lacked the strength or coordination to even move his head around. He cried out, wanting whoever was roughly wiping him down to stop.

In no time, and before Leon could really register what was going on he was done being wiped down he found himself wrapped up in a soft warm blanket cradled in someone’s arms and looking up into a surprisingly small but beautiful face of a woman with dark purple blue eyes, deep navy-blue hair, and skin that was a dark grey color that Leon had never seen on a person before.

She said something in a language that he did not understand. But he did catch one word of it that he understood perfectly. She’d said his name, in her high-pitched voice. Almost cooing it at him several times. While smiling down at him. Leon realized that this woman must be his new mother. But even at his current tiny size he felt like she was very small. And the structure of face and eyes didn’t seem human really. It was then that he remembered that the emergency integration protocol options had said that he would be birthed by a random Sapient capable of bearing him. That he would still be human, but his parents could be anything.

In his internal musings Leon failed to notice until it was too late that his face was getting shoved against a breast and a nipple was suddenly in his mouth. He’d latched onto it instinctually, but then realized what was happening and felt extremely awkward about it. He was kind of regretting choosing this option at the moment.

Ameillia Crumbl

Ameillia held in her arms little Leon Crumbl. She had no idea why she’d chosen the name Leon, it had almost felt like a compulsion, like there was no other name she was allowed to give him. Holding him in her arms now she could hardly believe that he had come out of her body. He was enormous by Gnome standards. But there had been no complications and it hadn’t been as strenuous as she’d have thought popping out a baby that weighed almost 10 pounds from her body. The healers said that there was some kind of strange spatial magic effect going on which she was glad for. Otherwise simply carrying this child would have killed her. Let alone the birthing process.

Ameillia was no expert on humans. Sure, several of her neighbors were human. But to her, her son looked like he was perfect. He had caramel colored skin that seemed to have no blemishes on it. His eyes were a beautiful emerald green with little golden flecks in them, and his hair (what little there currently was) was a dark brown. Leon was quiet for a baby of any species. He hardly ever cried. Or made much of any sounds really. Honestly, she was fairly certain that he only ever made noise specifically to get her or Gerald’s attention whenever he soiled himself or was hungry.

It had only been a week since he was born. But Ameillia felt like he was already beginning to understand things that she and Gerald said. The way his eyes watched his surroundings and the adorable way he would try to crane his neck around to observe things spoke of an intense curiosity in little Leon. It was almost unnerving watching him that first day home as he’d seemed to examine himself and learn how to control his little fingers arms and hands. He was now far too coordinated for a child of his age. It made Ameillia wonder if perhaps he was one of those people from legends and stories that had gained immortality by being born again every time they died. She would have to watch out for things that stood out as time moved on.

Shaking away her thoughts of possibly having given birth to an immortal. Ameillia hefted the heavy baby Leon into a little enchanted seat that held him upright and would float along with her as she did her work. Having a baby was no excuse to let her orders pile up in her tinker shop. It was not cheap living in any Dungeon City, and this particular one was not any different. About fifty percent of her and Gerald’s monthly income went towards the utilities, hot and cold water, and trash disposal to name a few. Another ten percent was eaten up by taxes. One might imagine that another major expense would be food, but food was dirt cheap in dungeon cities in general on account of the Dungeons themselves producing so many edible monsters and vegetation on their floors. An entire subdivision of the Dungeoneers guild was dedicated to harvesting edibles from the Dungeon. And with dimensional storage crates and bags, a single person could easily carry thousands of pounds of food out of the Dungeon on a single run. Ameillia shook her head; she’d taken a week off to recover from giving birth to little Leon and now she was behind on a lot of work and there was money to be made.

Leon Crumbl

It had been a little over a week since Leon had come into this new world. His tiny, weak, body was a major annoyance. He could barely move around, and he found himself getting bored all of the time and retreating into his inner world with Meditation to see what was going on with his body. That was always interesting… if maybe a little narcissistic. But hey, when the most interesting thing to do is look at yourself developing inside of a metaphysical space in your head could that really be counted as narcissism?

But today was different, his new mother had struggled mightily in hefting Leon into a device that looked like a car seat. Then she’d pressed her thumb to what looked like a diamond near his feet and the whole thing had started floating. Then the seat floated just behind her as she walked around the house then up a set of stairs and into a workshop of some sort.

Needless to say, the blatant use of a magical car seat that floated made Leon’s curiosity soar. How in the world did this thing he was strapped into work? How did it stay just the perfect distance away from his mother as they moved? Seeing the workshop also started his mental gears turning. The workshop looked like a combination of an old-time smithy and a futuristic mad scientists lab. It had a steampunk feel to it that just screamed ‘magical things happen here’. Leon watched quietly as his mother moved over to a desk and started taking apart what looked like a time piece. In no time flat, his new mother had taken the thing apart and then reassembled it after replacing a tiny spring that appeared to be broken. She had then wrapped it up in cloth and set it into a cubby on the wall, then moved to another item.

Leon watched with fascination as his new mom dismantled, repaired, and put back together dozens of items. He didn’t even notice the passage of time as he watched item after item be dismantled and put back to together. His mother suddenly said something and glanced back him. Leon was starting to pick up the language, but when he was not focused on what his parents said he found it hard to determine the meaning of certain words. Leon’s new mother looked at him for a few moments then turned to a clock that was on the wall. “Its time to eat.” She spoke. Leon had definitely learned that particular phrase quite well by now. Seeing as how it always came before he was suddenly being forced to suckle on her nipples. Which still made him very uncomfortable.

“Oh, how I cannot wait for the days when I am no longer a total infant again.” He thought to himself.

Gerald Crumbl

Sighing to himself Gerald sheathed the last custom ordered dagger that he’d be making that day and placed it with the others in his designated area for completed items. Life had gotten a little hectic ever since Leon was born. At least on his end of the business. Apparently, the dungeon had created another layer and the new creatures there were particularly good at destroying gear. Some kind of toad that ate metals from what he’d heard. The influx of new orders had taken up a lot of his time, but it had also ensured that the bills were paid with money to spare.

Arguably the best thing to come out of this uptick in orders was the emergence of a new skill that Gerald had picked up immediately when the gods offered it to him. The new skill, Instant Blank, allowed Gerald to take a billet of hot steel or whatever other metal he was working with out of his little forge and with one strike turn it into a perfectly acceptable blank ready to be ground into its final shape. And it did not have to be just knife blanks. It could be for gears, springs, swords, spear heads, arrow heads, in fact Gerald had found that the skill seemed to be based purely off of his concept of what a blank is. With the skill he could almost make a fully functional lockpicking set with one strike of his hammer. The only problem with the skill was that it required a huge amount of mana. He could only use it two or three time in rapid succession. But the skill had already increased his production capabilities by a half, and it was still only level one. Gerald knew that as time went on and he got used to his new skill, along with leveling it up, he’d probably be able to use it hundreds of times in a row. Maybe even use it to make many blanks all at once.

Glancing across the workshop to where his beautiful wife was dipping a series of blades, he’d made into an alchemical solution he smiled. The baby float that they’d purchased for little Leon was hovering behind her and Leon’s inquisitive eyes were taking in everything that she was doing. Gerald watched as she quietly spoke to Leon explaining what she was doing in detail as she was doing it. Like the little guy could understand her already. Which Leon was pretty sure he did. Leon’s eyes held far too much intelligence in them for a baby of only three months of age. The reason that Ameillia had started talking through everything that she was doing is that, right after she’d started working again, Leon would frantically point at what she was doing, flailing his arms and start crying if Ameillia wasn’t speaking to him. It had taken her nearly a week to figure out that Leon wanted her to explain what she was doing as she did it. But now Leon would mostly just sit there watching her work with rapt attention.

Gerald was positive that his son was someone who was going to change the world someday. The gods had selected their family to raise this child. And he was determined that even with the strange level of intelligence that Leon showed for his age he would show the boy how to live a good a life and raise him to be a good man. Leon would live in a happy loving family and Gerald would make damn sure of that. Especially now.

Gerald had not shared the good news with Ameillia yet. The priests that had helped deliver Leon had given him some amazing news when using their skills on his wife as she slept that first night after the delivery. Apparently, whatever god had decided to give them a human child had decided to add to the kindness by repairing Ameillia’s womb. She had been cured of whatever it was that had previously prevented her from bearing children. And Gerald was just waiting for the right time to tell her the news.

Ameillia Crumbl

Ameillia was absolutely shocked. Looking at her little baby boy with wonder her eyes.

“Gerald!” she called across the workshop to her husband, “He just said his first word! He called me mama!”

Gerald rushed across the room, “What! No, Dada was supposed to be your first word. How could you betray me like this son?”

Leon, who was sitting in his hovering baby chair had a huge smile on his adorable face as her husband wailed lamented not being first. If Ameillia didn’t know better, she’d say her son looked positively smug as he looked directly at her and clearly and deliberately said. “Mama!” again, right in front of Gerald.

Gerald gripped his chest and dramatically fell to the floor. Howling as if he been shot through with an arrow. Which caused Leon to giggle uncontrollably. As Gerald got up and started pleading with Leon, “Say Dada… come on I know you can do it. Say Dada. Just once?”

Ameillia laughed as Leon made the cutest little baby frown that she’d ever seen. She didn’t know how he was pulling off a look off a look mocking disgust that still looked playful, but Leon was very expressive with his face and was doing just that. Leon turned his face to the side and aggressively said, “Mama.” Gerald slumped to his knees then turned started making his way back over to his side of the workshop. His shoulders sagged and fake weeping as he walked away.

Ameillia watched Leon’s little face go through a variety of emotions as the little boy watched his father walk away looking defeated. Leon looked at her then back at Gerald and quietly, almost whispered, “Dada”. Ameillia was certain that it had been too quiet for Gerald to possibly have heard but her husband rounded on them with a look of triumph on his face the second it was said. Leon was eyeing Gerald with mock disdain in his eyes.

Then Gerald rushed back to Leon, “I knew you were holding out on me you little rascal!” Her husband exclaimed as he started tickling Leon who squealed with laughter as he was assaulted with wriggling fingers attacking his belly.

‘Only six months old and he’s already said his first two words. And he’s gotten so big!’ Ameillia thought to herself as she watched Gerald playing with Leon affectionately. She sighed,

“Alright it’s time for us to get back to work, coins not gonna make itself.” She said as she gently pulled the tether to the hover chair while pulling Gerald away and shoving him back towards his side of the workshop.

Leon Crumbl

Leon was pretty happy with how this new life was turning out. Learning the language that his parents spoke had been a breeze. In fact, learning the language had only taken a day or so after he’d gotten his mom to start telling him what she was doing. He’d basically trained his new mother to explain everything that she was doing as she was doing it while working. In the process learning that she was a Tinker and Alchemist by trade. A Tinker apparently being a repairman, or in her case repairwoman, for anything and everything. She had a few skills that let her take things apart and diagnose what was wrong them then put them back together once she’d fixed the problems. She worked on repairing enchanted doodads and clockwork devices for nearly ten hours each day. The Alchemy that she did appeared to be something that was purely for enhancing Gerald’s products with things like corrosion resistance or even making the metals harder to break or deform. It was all fascinating.

What was even more fascinating was how different he himself was from before. For starters, Leon had discovered that he didn’t need to sleep at all. He didn’t’ even need to use meditation to not sleep, it was simply like his mind and body never needed rest. Then there was the fact that he was growing much more quickly than a normal human child should be growing. At six months old he’d been nearly the size of a normal twelve-month-old human child. And now at a year old he was pushing 35 inches tall and weighing in at nearly thirty pounds. Leon only knew this because his new parents took him in to the priesthood of the Healer every month to get a checkup and they were charting his growth and always exclaiming about how ridiculously fast he was growing.

Leon had actually grown too big for his parents to adequately move him around and had had to hire a human live-in babysitter to help them care for him. His mother being only about three and a half feet tall, and his father at four foot tall even. Leon almost weighed half as much as his mother now, and he was only going to get bigger.

But what Leon had discovered in his inner world had been even more interesting. During the first week of his new life here he had inadvertently discovered what the giant Stalagmite/Stalactites actually were. He’d had an inkling of what they were before, but now he knew for sure. One night he’d been deep in the center of his meditation induced inner world. His awareness hovering inches away from the pulsating basketball sized orb of light. He’d been staring deeply into it trying to discern what it actually was. His theory was that it was the Source that his Trait gave him. He’d turned the entirety of his awareness on the thing and just trying to feel, or see, or discern anything that may be useful about it when suddenly a line of bold floating text appeared in vision.

You are eligible for the skill: Mana Senses. Would you like to learn this skill?

Accept? Yes/No

Of course, Leon had immediately mentally slammed the yes option. Prompting another block of text to fill his vision.

Congratulations!

You have learned the skill Mana Senses (lvl1)

Mana Senses is a skill that allows the user, (For a small cost in mana.) to perceive mana with any and all of their senses. Be it touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing or any other form of perception the user may have. Each level increases sensitivity and accuracy of the effect by a small margin while lowering the mana cost of the skill by a small amount.

Trait: Mind And Body Of The Traveler has absorbed skill (Mana Senses).

While Leon had been reading the blocks of text, he had noticed peripherally that another Stalagmite had shot up from the floor of his crystalline inner world, forming and then just as suddenly getting absorbed back into the floor. He’d dismissed the text as soon as he could and saw the last bit of the stalagmite sink back into the clear crystal that made up everything there in his inner world. The second that the stalagmite had disappeared entirely his inner world changed. The clear crystal that made up everything shifted ever so slightly. The little lines of light that were moving through his entire system shifted their patterns ever so slightly and then Leon felt the effects. He could feel the light moving through his body. He could see the light outside of himself. He could hear it entering his ears and taste it entering his mouth. He could even smell it as it entered his nose. But the greatest sensation of them all was the basketball sized orb of light in the center of his chest. It was like his soul was connected to a high voltage powerline and it was pulsating inside his chest.

At first it was a massive sensory overload that had even forced him out of his Meditation skill. The information being fed to his senses was so different from anything Leon had ever experienced that it was overwhelming. It had been all he could do to just take deep breaths and try to ride it out until he understood the new information.

Once the overwhelming sensations were parsed through and Leon managed to adjust to the new sensory inputs, he’d smiled to himself and nearly burst out laughing. But he had managed to contain himself for the sake of his sleeping parents at the time. This new development had confirmed several theories he’d come up with. Mainly, that the light that was flowing through him was actually mana that his body was absorbing from outside of his body. Secondly that the stalagmites/stalactites inside his core were a physical representation of his skills inside his core. And thirdly, that ball of light at the center of his core was definitely this Source he had from the very same trait that had eaten his skill. This also confirmed to him that his trait did not require mana to operate. Which meant that he’d gained a new set of senses without having to actively pay any costs.

Now, almost a year after that night that he had learned all of this, Leon had several more of those Stalagmites/Stalactites within his core. Mana Manipulation, Mathematics, Identify, and Perception Filter.

Mana Manipulation and Mathematics were fairly self-explanatory. One made it so he could move mana around and the other made him able to do math better. Identify was interesting because it let him look at an object or person and gain information about it or them. It was an insanely useful skill.

Perception Filter was a skill that Leon was fairly certain no body should ever have… Ever. He could see it becoming a ridiculously powerful skill in the future.

Perception Filter (lvl1): This skill emits a field around the user that interacts with the perceptions of others within the field and filters the user’s presence out of those perceptions. Mana Cost: Very High

Range and potency of the filter increases by a small amount per level gained, mana cost is reduced by a small amount per level gained.

Leon had gained the skill by humoring his new dad with a game of peekaboo one day. And frankly the skill scared him a bit. The fact that it was even a possibility for skills like this to exist brought into question a lot of what was possible in this new world.

For each new skill that Leon had gained, a new stalagmite or stalactite grew in his inner world pointing directly at his Source in the center. The new skills stalactites/stalagmites were much smaller than his previously existing two. They were only about a third the size of Meditation+++ and Utility Pocket+++ and Leon was absolutely sure that the plus symbols at the end of the skills had something to do with it.

Aside from that he had also gained another skill that had been absorbed by his Mind And Body Of The Traveler Trait. Endurance had been promptly absorbed by the trait when he’d gotten it by tiring himself out over and over again whilst trying to get his body to move and cooperate with him. He hadn’t even had time to read the skills description before it was promptly eaten and integrated into his soul.

On his new family’s front Leon was also learning a lot. His babysitter was a young woman named Ellie. If he’d had to have placed her back on earth he would have failed. She had the build and facial structure of oriental decent, but her skin was a lighter pink, almost red complexion Leon had never seen before. Her hair reminded him of red velvet in color, and here eyes were shade of yellow he’d never seen either. Honestly, he would not have thought that she was a human if not for his parents saying that she was one.

Even though he hadn’t really been out much and hadn’t had the opportunity to see a whole lot of where they lived, Leon had been able to determine that they were in a fairly modern city. And from the talks his parents had and the things that Ellie talked about, Leon was learning a bit about the politics and structure of the society he was growing into.

The biggest news though was that his mother Ameillia was now pregnant again. And this time she was carrying a proper gnome baby in her womb and not an interdimensional hitchhiker. Gnomes had a gestation period of two years Leon had learned, his gestation and birth had been exceedingly quick comparatively. This meant that by the time he was three years old he would have a baby brother or sister. Leon had found that he quite enjoyed the idea of having siblings in this new world. He actually liked his new parents and by the way they treated him he figured that they would make exceptional parents to a child that did not have thirty years’ worth of memories already rolling around in its head.

Yes, life was progressing nicely, and Leon was really looking forward to growing up a bit more so that he could start trying to gain some more skills.