Danny's existence turned into one of complete helplessness. Either hunger or exhaustion claimed his every thought. How long he existed in this state, he could not reason as time held no meaning for him. Eventually, his lungs became accustomed to the thin air and his eyesight improved but he could only make out the things closest to him. He was used to being near-sighted and wore contacts daily, but his eyesight was now worse than it had ever been.

He tried to make sense of what had happened to him. Was he in the hospital? Where were his glasses? He couldn't see far enough to make out a table next to where he was laying, or anything for that matter. Worse, his body refused to respond as it used to. He was relieved he wasn't paralyzed, but the way his body didn't respond the way he wanted it to reminded him of stories he had read of people recovering from spinal injuries. Yes, the weird sensations he felt and experienced could easily be attributed to his eventual treatment at a local hospital. His mind struggled to attach logical associations with his experience since he had awoken.

All of his theories were thrown out the window with what was suddenly presented before his eyes. Golden hair and brown eyes, the face of a young woman. Her head filled his view, like the Earth looming over the horizon of the Moon. She was gigantic. As she smiled down at him, she cooed and touched his nose with a massive finger. Danny was so overcome with fear he froze in place. The words she spoke held no meaning to him. While she was undoubtedly human, many of the sounds she made did not come from any of the human languages he knew. She laid him down in a shallow area filled with blankets. Released from his fear, Danny tried to escape but found he could barely rock from side to side, let alone flee.

Danny struggled to move his hand up and in front of his face. Shaking and uncoordinated, a swollen and bloated looking thing rose to the side of his vision. That's as far as he could get it to raise. Looking down further, his arm was in the same condition. Taking a deep breath, he could not deny it any further.

Starting to hyperventilate, Danny cried loudly and uncontrollably as he accepted the truth of his situation. His new 'mother' came over to the crib to pick up a baby Danny. She comforted him and rocked him. Checking his cloth diaper first, she then lowered him to feed him, thinking him hungry. Accepting this comfort, Danny ate his emotions until he was full and promptly fell asleep.

Staring up at what he could only assume was a ceiling, he still couldn't see very far. Danny had awoken calmer than before. Trying to ignore what had escaped his bowels and now settled in the cloth rag they used as his diaper, he contemplated how he had gotten to this point. He vaguely remembered the event of him falling and the pain in his head. The next memory he had was him waking in what he now suspected was a womb. Danny shuddered as he had an innate fear of confining spaces.

Reincarnation was something Danny had not believed in. Despite his best efforts, he could not come up with a better explanation that didn't involve aliens or a different version of himself, sitting alone in an all-white room, drooling onto a strait jacket. There had been no white light at the end of a swirling tunnel. No standing at the shore of a river as an ancient and withered man steered his small boat towards him, a long pole pushing the craft through the fog. Reincarnation being the simplest solution, Danny wondered why his memories from his previous life still remained. Also, by accepting this reality, he had to accept that he had died there, that night in the rain on his front porch. Death by junk mail. A true hero's death! Oh the songs they will sing of his final great battle with that rectangular piece of paper! How depressing...

Deciding to accept his situation, he knew he had months of laying here ahead of him until he could raise his head, sit up, crawl, and eventually walk. He was not looking forward to this. Maybe with his knowledge of human development he could expedite this process somehow. He wondered again if his current predicament was like someone who had received nerve damage and was forced to retrain his body to function. He would also need to try and learn the local language at the same time...

He suddenly thought, *What is that!?*

In the corner of his vision he saw a small faint light. He figured it was one of those annoying floating things in his eye. He turned his head as much as he could, but the light stayed at the same point in his vision no matter how fast he moved his head. This was different than the eye floaters, those would appear to jostle around. Had it been there this whole time? Was it a sign of some sort of eye disease? Worried, he tried to focus on the light as much as he could.

*I can't be going blind now*, thought Danny, afraid.

He tried to steady his breathing as worrying wouldn't get him the answers he needed. In his previous life, Danny had suffered from anxiety and had learned breathing techniques to calm his nerves. Doing this now he purposely took deep, long breaths. He started going through his memories while continuing to focus on the light. In the past he had found that focusing on his issue helped him in learning to overcome the fear it caused. He was so focused he didn't even notice when the faint light began to expand, filling his vision. It took Danny a few moments to notice that the view of his crib was replaced by a strange room.

It looked like a study he would have liked to have at his old house.

He paused and excitedly thought, *I can see everything clearly!*

Looking around, there were a number of bookshelves and a single desk. The room was not overly large and the bookshelves took up the majority of the room. He looked down and discovered he did not have a body. Panicking, he looked around and saw a door.

Choosing to run, he moved towards the door and light once again consumed his sight. He was back in his crib, his heart was beating out of control, and he couldn't catch his breath. He closed his eyes and tried to slow his breathing in order to calm down. He had little control over his emotions at this age and wasn't ready for someone to come and check on him just yet. With his eyes closed, Danny noticed the light was still there faintly in the farthest corner of his vision. It wasn't in the way, it would just take some getting used to.

Taking another breath, Danny focused intently on the light again and began slowly breathing once more. Finding himself back in the strange room, he paused to look around. Turning away from the bookshelves, Danny focused on the desk first. His perception moved towards it. It seemed his movement in this room was done by focus and intent. The desk was made from a dark wood and had ornate scrollwork carved all over it. It was very large, and had drawers on either side of the chair he now found himself “sitting” in.

It was weird not seeing his body in the chair while sitting in it nonetheless. The large surface held a single piece of paper. Not paper like he was used to seeing, mass-produced and perfect. Looking closely he realized this was parchment. He vaguely remembered that it was usually made from animal skin, at least he thought so. The page on the desk held a language Danny had not seen before. It looked similar to Japanese or Chinese characters except blockier and less flowing. As he focused on the top page the letters began to melt as the page darkened. The dark stains began to shrink and coalesce into familiar characters.

Greetings young one,

Know this! Who or what you are is unimportant. What is important is that you are prepared for what we fear is to come. Read my words carefully and learn how the gift we bring you came at the cost of many lives.

They came to our realm like an all-consuming fire. Though no one learned what they called themselves, many came to know them as the Cataclysmic. By the time word reached us of their arrival to our world, the first cities of Man had already fallen. Seeing our end in sight, we worked quickly. Though their numbers seemed without ending we discovered a weakness. None that faced them doubted their strength but some aspect of our world worked against them and they could not survive long past a single turning of the seasons. It was not uncommon for our scouts to find their bodies without obvious injury, decaying as they lay abandoned by their kind. Our scouts that did return reported that near their portal they were building a great monolith. A team of sorcerers traveled to this location with our best scouts and determined its purpose. One of the sorcerers' familiars arrived a few days later bearing her last report. The monolith was deemed an unmaker. It would take apart those aspects of our world that resisted them, and in doing so turn it against us.

We immediately set about a great work of our own...

Upon reading this, Danny began to receive a vision. Like an out of body experience, Danny’s point of view shifted and he was only able to watch the events that unfolded.

At the base of a towering spire, overlooking a massive city, a group of men in dusters handed a small, blood-red crystal to a second group, comprised of hardened-looking men and women. The second group looked to be wearing armor and carrying various weapons, while others wore dusters of different colors.

Small groups were then seen running in teams of four through the forests and across mountains. Every now and then they would look up in the distance, towards what looked like a massive hole in the fabric of space. Periodically lightning would strike out at the hold, as if nature itself was trying to drive away the anomaly. The groups would set a white crystal so that a specific end pointed towards the tear in space, before moving on.

The warriors from before had multiplied, now numbering in the thousands. They raced towards the tear and joined in battle against an endless horde of what Danny could only describe as mutants or demons. The Cataclysmic were only similar in the fact that the arrangement of their bodies didn't seem to follow any sort of logical order. Eventually the thousands of humans were whittled down into a team of three women and a man. Around the neck of one of the woman was the red crystal. The team had learned a lesson from their fallen comrades and did not try and kill every enemy in sight, but instead cut a path. Bleeding and wounded, they drew near the portal.

Back at the towering spire, the robed men were watching through their scrying pools and sent others to a ritual area on top of the tower. Hundreds of robed men knelt along the great circled rune etched into the floor. A larger blood-red crystal, sat in a pedestal in the middle of the floor. As power flowed up from the four pillars on the edge of the tower that marked the four corners of the world, some of the men started falling to the ground, unmoving. The pillars' powers coalesced into the crystal, casting a single beam of blinding light. Near the portal only two of the previous team remained, the young man and the woman with the crystal. As the man spun and twisted his two blades at the mass of enemies that surrounded his companion, the young woman flung out devastating magics that tore a path closer to their goal. The crystal around the young woman's neck started to glow and distracted the man long enough for one of his enemies to get within his guard and strike a killing blow. As his lifeless body fell to the ground the young woman released a mass of power around them, briefly freeing them from attack. She quickly rushed to man’s side. As the Cataclysmic rushed in to finish the two off a fell wind blew through the area around the couple. A spinning vortex of air continuously picked up speed, and flung the Cataclysmic into the air as it did so. With tears running down her cheeks, the woman held the body of the dead man and screamed up into air. Suddenly she looked up in the middle of what could be described as the eye of a hurricane. Realizing what was about to happen, a small smile crossed her face right before the power hit.

Varying prismatic views, Danny guessed from the white scrying crystals, winked out, until only a single view from far away showed a great flash of light followed by dust, smoke, and debris. When the wind had settled the portal was no more and the strange monolith was barely recognizable.

The vision left Danny and he looked down to continue reading the remainder of the letter.

The remaining Cataclysmic, doomed to a slow death on our world, turned to our destruction as the citadel was the last bastion of human civilization. Knowing others would survive, we sought a way to aid those survivors in the future we knew was inevitable, when “they” would return again.

Some wanted to leave behind great weapons of enchantment but we feared they would be found and used by the enemy. Then I brought forth an idea, one that took a project of mine a step beyond its original intentions. All quickly realized that, if successful, this would fundamentally change the people of our world forever and possibly provide the power required. With the Cataclysmic at the very walls of the citadel we began casting our last spell. The spell was cast on a massive multifaceted crystal. Those of us that remained used our mortal souls to power the spell that would change the very nature of this world's mana. To embed it with the ability to grant innate abilities inherent to all who met the qualifications. I had gathered together the knowledge from our greatest masters of every profession into the crystal. My original intention was to grant this power to our initiates of the citadel. Now we grant this power to you.

We have bestowed upon every being born of this world that develops sufficient intelligence, access to their own mental sanctuary. This was an ability only attainable to the greatest of our magi. This sanctuary will retain all the knowledge and skills you acquire. Nothing will be lost. Your knowledge and abilities will be granted a ranking so you know not only how far you have come but how much further you need to go. When you increase in a skill you will be granted increased power in the form of one of three attributes. These attributes will permanently boost your body and cannot be taken away. As you grow in knowledge and skill so shall your sanctuary.

Please use this gift wisely and grow stronger for what will surely come to pass.

The Last Archsorcerer

David looked up from the letter and at the room around him. So this was a mental sanctuary. If he understood correctly, this sanctuary gave him a photographic memory. He didn't know anything about the attributes mentioned in the letter though.

*Wait...*, he thought.

Danny realized he was on another world! He thought it was possible that everyone was speaking oddly due to his diminished size and the way his small ears were perceiving sound. Another world with a separate history. He hadn't just reincarnated, but had done so on another world. One with mana! He then realized this must be another universe entirely.

Danny fearfully thought, *I hope they have chocolate... and toilets!*

His thoughts then turned to his family. His parents lived back in his home town and his little brother had yet to move away like he did. He loved his family and acceptance of the fact he wouldn't ever see them again would take him some time. Some small part of him had thought he would be able to go and visit them. They might not recognize him, but he could just make sure they were alright.

Lost in thought, Danny's gaze wandered above the desk, and he noticed a large copper triangle affixed to the wall. The triangle was equilateral with one side on the bottom so it pointed up. Inside the triangle was another triangle of red and yellow. This red triangle was warped where the top was sharply pointed and the two points to the side appeared grossly stunted. Words were written at each point of the equilateral triangle. 'Intelligence' was at the top, 'Strength' to the left, and 'Agility' to the right. If he understood this correctly, it was a triangular graph of his attributes given by the sanctuary. The red corner of the triangle, representing intelligence, was around half way to the edge of the copper outer triangle. Apparently he was currently highly intelligent with non-existent strength and agility. Both of the corners of the triangle representing strength and agility were yellow. He was not sure why they were different color than intelligence.

Thinking on his past life, Danny sarcastically thought, *This doesn't describe someone who worked as a chemist at all... nope.*

Underneath the triangle was an inscription.

Intelligence for adaptability, speed, and simultaneousness of thought.

Strength for power, fortitude, and stalwartness of body.

Agility for speed, dexterity, and precision of movement.

Opening the drawers and not finding anything of interest, Danny moved to the bookshelves. Each bookshelf held a placard title on the side and were not uniform in shape or size. The first bookshelf he came to was titled "Language". Only two of the shelves were occupied. The books on the top shelf were titled "The English Language (Spoken)". There were eight books on this shelf. Volumes one through five were additionally labeled "Apprentice Level" and Volumes six through eight were labeled "Journeyman Level". He focused on the first volume and knowledge filtered through his thoughts about the sounds consonants and vowels made. He found this strange but interesting. Moving on, the second shelf held seven volumes titled "The English Language (Written)". These two sets of books confused Danny as he assumed anything held in the sanctuary would be related to this world. Based on the fact he was apparently on another planet, English was not something that should have been held in that crystal. Maybe the sanctuary was set up to allow new skills to be added based on knowledge and experience. Would this enter into the system as a whole for anyone else he taught English to? If so this was truly amazing.

Moving to the next bookshelf it had a plaque that read "Craftsmanship". On this bookshelf there were five volumes of "Alchemy". There had to be other craftsmanship skills that should have transferred over. Frustrated, Danny admitted to himself that some skills were better than none.

The next shelf down was titled "Mercantilism."

*Why not just business*, thought Danny.

Under this he had five volumes in "Trade", two volumes in "Investing", and four volumes in "Accounting".

*Please, don't let me come to this world just to become an accountant*, thought Danny.

The third shelf that Danny had was titled "Charisma". On this shelf he had four volumes in "Persuasion", one volume in "Intimidation", and two volumes in "Deception". A frown crossed Danny's face as he focused on the books under "Deception," thinking he didn't like to be called a liar. He did see a few techniques for telling believable lies, but there was also quite a few other techniques for hiding in plain sight and convincing others you were someone else.

*Acting*, Danny thought with a smile. He was always getting in trouble for his sarcasm, which no one seemed to get.

The second to the last shelf was titled "Leadership". Danny had always been a bit of an introvert so he figured leadership wasn't really his forte. There were just two books called "Management." This probably had to do with the times he had been given new employees to train and coach during the different jobs he had had over the years. He had always figured his own managers had just been lazy but it had helped him here.

The last bookshelf was titled, "Healing." Here there was only one set of books. He had five books in "First Aid." Treating himself and having to help take care of his little brother must have upped this skill. Also, the lab he worked at had him take CPR and first aid classes.

*That's it*, Danny's thought shouted in his mind. He couldn't believe his twenty seven years of existence had only garnered him advancement in... twelve skills! Two of them were for a language he seriously doubted he would come across on this world. Danny moved back over to the desk and looked up at the attribute triangle. Then he looked back over at the six bookshelves, deep in thought. Maybe he was limited to gaining skills with attributes only in intelligence. The redness of the intelligence must represent recent growth. Maybe certain skills couldn't be awarded till he accomplished them again in his new body?

Danny then decided to see if there was anything on the other side of the room, past the bookshelves. It was darker on the far side, but he could easily make out a doorway. The doorway appeared to be sealed up with stone blocks. A metal plaque was affixed at eye level that read "Mana (Sealed)". Did he have mana? That would be a dream come true! Though it was sealed... He focused on the door and nothing happened like with the exit door. There didn't appear to be a keyhole, so how was he supposed to unlock it?

As he pondered on this puzzle he heard a voice and recognized it as belonging to that woman.

*How did she get in here*, Danny thought, when he was suddenly jerked from his position and flung through to the exit door. The door didn't open so much as his perception passed through it into a white emptiness.