“How is my youngest doing?” Baron Krado Martel asked. The baron was a tall man with a broad back and shoulders. In his youth, before he acquired his noble status through military merit, his men would call him Krado the broad. Most who have seen him, believe that he is a descendant of the giants. Just like most giants, his eyes were sky blue and his hair was platinum blond. His skin was pale like ash or bone. He had a long braided beard that reached all the way to his navel.

The long beard represented territorial supremacy for giants. Giants living under their lord would shave their beards and often heads in recognition of the lord. Krado was not a pure-blooded giant, at least that is what he believed. Krado knew his mother and she was a half-giant. At best he would be a three-quarter giant and at worse, he would be a quarter giant. However, that was irrelevant to him. He adopted the tradition of long beards long after he became a baron. A group of giants moved into his lands and wouldn’t obey him until he defeated their chief and grew out his beard. His face, neck and hands were covered in scars, almost every part of his body was, except for his back. Krado the broad had a broad back but he never showed it to the enemy.

His favourite weapon was a large Warhammer. The rest of the aristocracy believed that it was the origin of his surname however, they would be wrong. Krado chose that name in honour of his late mother, who was a blacksmith.

The question he asked was more of a formality, that the baron had to complete every day since his son’s condition worsened. His tone wasn’t surprising to Dara. His youngest son’s personal maid. She knew that the baron loved his children however what displeased the baron the most was being weak. Either mentally or physically. His youngest son Veric was both. He inherited a weak constitution from his late mother baroness Gaelia Martel formerly known as Gaelia Nessari. She died during childbirth. Veric never forgave himself and neither did his older brothers that bullied and shunned him. The baron would turn a blind eye, especially when his oldest, favourite son Oswyn was the perpetrator.

At the tender age of fifteen, Oswyn was accepted into the Academy of The Silver Flame both due to his merit and talent with the sword. At the Academy, boys would be turned into men and later [Knights]. A rare warrior-type class, that would award the owner of the class with perks that were far superior, especially when within the territory of the king they swore their fealty to. A chosen few Knights could undergo the trials of the silver flame and become the Knight of the silver flame a class which was equivalent to that of a Marquess. If his son managed to succeed, then it would elevate his family's status to just below a Duke.

“His fever became stronger, I am afraid that master Veric might not survive much longer. Would it be possible to send for a healer or a priest my lord?” Dara replied with a somber tone. She loved Veric almost as much as she loved her children. She lost two of her own to an illness and they were far healthier than Veric.

“The Martel family is known for its strength and overcoming obstacles. This experience will hammer him down and create a better sword out of him. Microfractures created at the beginning of the forging process can result in the blade breaking after being quenched; the blade should break while it is still in the forge rather than on a battlefield… Life is a ruthless blacksmith. His fever will most likely break tonight. I shall see him tomorrow. If that is all you can go back and tend to Veric.”

“Yes, my Lord.” She replied left his office. Before going back to Veric she made a sneaky detour to the room in which the belongings of the late Lady Gaelia were being stored.

|*|***/*|*|

Tom woke up against his own will, he slept comfortably just a few seconds ago but now he had to face the consequences of the collision. He felt weak and in pain. He had a splitting headache and his body felt wet and sticky from sweat. It was not nearly as bad as one should feel after being hit by a twelve-tone vehicle going fifty miles per hour but it was still bad, especially because of how weak he felt. The duvet he was covered with felt like it weighed more than the truck that hit him.

Where am I? What happened? I had a phone call with the grants panel and then… I was in a car accident… No. I was hit by a truck. Am I in the hospital right now? Why is it so hot in here?

He thought, reliving the traumatic experience. The memories were hazy and easily ignored. He wanted to focus on the here and now. He wanted to assess his situation; however, his eyelids felt glued shut. He managed to pull out one of his arms from under the covers and rubbed his sticky eyes. Once most of the puss was gone he managed to open them.

Golden light assaulted his pupils, blinding him. Those hospital lights are too bright. He thought while squinting. After a few seconds, his eyes managed to adjust to the light. To his surprise, he was not being blinded by an overzealous lightbulb but by a strange semi-transparent golden screen that resembled a piece of a withering parchment scroll.

Four new titles have been achieved:

[Savant of Space]

Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of natural space.

+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence

[Savant of Time]

Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of natural Time.

+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence

[Savant of Matter]

Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of natural Matter.

+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence

[Savant of Energy]

Few in this world can match your knowledge and understanding of natural Energy.

+ 100 Wisdom + 100 Intelligence

Two new passive skills have been Achieved:

[ Accelerated Mind I ]

Your intelligence has exceeded 100 points before acquiring a class. Your brain has reached a new realm of computation power. Your brain can now process information at a far greater pace.

[ Accelerated Mind II ]

Your intelligence has exceeded 250 points before acquiring a class. Your brain has reached a new realm of computation power. Your brain can now process vast amounts of information at a far greater pace.

[ Eidetic Memory I ]

Your wisdom has exceeded 100 points before acquiring a class. Your memory has reached a new realm. Your brain can now recollect any memory in great detail.

[ Eidetic Memory II ]

Your intelligence has exceeded 250 points before acquiring a class. Your memory has reached a new realm. Your brain can now recollect any memory in perfect detail.

After reading the information contained with the floating, shiny scroll they disappeared. ‘What is this? Am I hallucinating? How can my mind be faster at calculating? There is no way this is real, but should I test it?’

‘243*543 = 131949. hmm, that indeed felt a bit quick. 7901212*123312 = 974314254144. Oh god, that was instantaneous. How can my mind think so quickly? Whatever this is, it is amazing. What about my memory? page 407 from the third edition of Quantum mechanics non-relativistic theory by L.D. Landau and E.M. Lifshitz.’

”For a symmetrical position of the nuclei, an electron term of the molecule may be degenerate, if there are among the irreducible representations of the symmetry group one or more whose dimensions exceed unity.”

Tom recided a part of the paragraph from memory as if he had a book right in front of his eyes. “I can see individual pages and even the coffee stain I made on page 279. I don’t know what this is but it’s absolutely amazing”

He looked around the room and realised that he most definitely was not inside of a hospital. At least not a hospital from this century. The interior of the room looked more like a mediaeval castle than a hospital. The walls, floor and ceiling were made out of smooth stone. The windows had wooden frames and the glass was too thick and uneven making the outside seem blurry. The mattress and the pillows contained feathers. Every piece of furniture looked abnormally large and antique.

‘What is happening here? Am I still dreaming?’ He thought and rubbed his eyes once again. He opened his eyes and saw his hand. It was small, smooth and completely hairless. A sharp contrast to the hands he was used to.

‘What is this? Why is my hand so small?’ He thought and panicked causing a stream of memories to invade his mind. Not his memories but memories of a little boy. Isolated in his room for years. The memories were incomplete but clear. The boy's name was Veric Martel. Son of the baron Krado Martel. The boy was frail, barely able to walk, his only companion and carer was an elderly maid named Dara. She treated him with kindness.

To Tom, it was like watching a badly edited movie. One second he would be reliving the time his maid would sing him lullabies and the next he would be visited by his older sister Elora. She would come to his room twice a week. She would usually bring him books to read. Out of all of his relatives, she was the most forgiving of the title [Kinslayer]. The title Veric acquired right after his mother died during childbirth.

‘What?! I am stuck in the body of a frail little boy.’ He wanted to deny it but couldn’t. He was looking at his small hands.

‘Is this a second chance for me? Have I reincarnated into this strange world where magic and dragons exist?’

“Status,” Tom said remembering the command from Veric’s memories.

Name

Veric Martel

Vitality

3(6)

Class

[classless]

Constitution

2(5)

Race

Human(Nessari)

Strength

2(4)

Level

1

Agility

3(6)

Experience

0/3

Dexterity

3(6)

Health

17/17

Intelligence

421

Stamina

8/11

Wisdom

418

Mana

100/7139

Willpower

11

Aether

55/55

Titles(5)

Special traits(1)

Attribute points

0

Skills(2)

Spells(0)

‘Hmmm, this is very similar to video games. I saw this in the boy’s memories but seeing it right in front of me is so much better. It’s like a character sheet used for RPGs.’

‘The name displayed on the character sheet remained the same. So the system doesn’t acknowledge me as a real entity of this world or maybe there is a requirement for it to acknowledge me. I have the same memories as the boy, most of them at least. Is that the reason why the system thinks I am Veric? Does the system even think or is it closer to an AI that functions only within the parameters of its programming?’

‘The physical attributes are halved just like in the boy’s memories. Veric had inherited the [Nessari bloodline] trait from his mother.’

Thomas pressed on the [Special Traits] tab.

[Nessari bloodline]

You have inherited the bloodline of the forgotten tribe. Nessari were known to be powerful mages who abandoned their flesh in order to cultivate powerful minds and souls.

Your vitality, endurance, strength, agility and dexterity are halved. In return, your intelligence and wisdom conversion to mana is doubled. In addition, with each level up your intelligence and wisdom will increase by 1.

‘I don’t know why but I feel slightly shafted by this. Five of my attributes were halved and in return, I get a boost to mana. I am pretty sure that the boy died because his vitality attribute was so low. I need to increase it ASAP. I don’t really want to die of a cold.

Thomas looked through the boy’s memories which were now his own and found an answer to his dilemma. ‘I need to level up. Once I level up I will gain 3 attribute points so I can just place them all into vitality. That should increase my health. My mana is off the charts though so I will most likely have to become a magic-user. In veric’s memories, his maid told him that in order to gain levels one needs to unlock a class. How the hell do I unlock a class? Do I need a magic teacher? And why is my mana stuck at 100 even though I somehow have more than 7000?’

Thomas left those thoughts on hold and pressed the [titles] tab and selected [kinslayer].

[Kinslayer]

‘Still empty… The system is heartless for blaming the child for his mother’s death but I can see the logic in that decision. If Veric was never born his mother would most likely be still alive. This suggests to me that the system is closer to being a machine rather than a thinking entity. Or it’s a heartless thinking entity, I know the type. I worked with them for the past thirty years. A bureaucrat through and through. It seems I will never escape them. Not even in death.’ He thought and chuckled which caused his lungs to go into a coughing fit.