Al didn’t want to admit it, but it seemed like the most likely possibility. This means the next step is to figure out just what kind of world it is. Judging by Al’s streak so far, it will probably fit in with some trope. Who knows, maybe he’s in one of those eastern cultivation worlds

At that thought, Al reflected on the outfits the 5 workers of the orphanage wore, and they really did seem kind of eastern. Their hair was mostly black or dark brown too...

‘Oh no...’ In fact, all 20 or so of the kids here, whose ages ranged in between 3 and 12 or so, had those kinds of hair color too, making Al’s silvery blond (apparently the same as in his original life) stand out like a sore thumb.

‘That means they probably call mana ‘ki’ or whatever that is like in their language right?’ Al was going out on a limb here, but knowing his luck, he felt pretty confident he knew what kind of world he was in.

Since Al couldn’t kill monsters to level up (at least not yet), and he had heard that physical training would stall the growth of children, he decided to train his mind so as no to get squished to death due to his own idiocity again.

He knew that the best way to train Intelligence and Will was to get the [Mana Manipulation] skill and circulate and replenish his mana. He hadn’t gotten this skill in his past life until about one year before he died since his life was basically a permanent battle, and he didn’t have time to train it, so he just used his measly internal mana to strengthen himself. But now he had all the time in the world, so he spent a few days trying to feel the mana inside him until he couldn’t stand the headache.

You have acquired the skill: [Mana Manipulation]. You can now move mana inside of your body.

Al was delighted when he saw the message, and was surprised at the huge change. He could feel once again that thick gas-like substance flowing through his whole body, and for some reason it was thicker in his navel area this time.

‘Wait, it wasn’t like this back on earth!’ Al was surprised ‘Does this mean I have that Dantian thing?’ Al decided to leave it in his ever-growing pile of questions for when he could talk, and started training.

And train he did. He manipulated the mana inside his body and let it regenerate when he was spent, and did so everyday until his body and mind were both wrung out.

Over the weeks, he started learning different words and meanings of the language of this world, and although the bits of information he could find out were all from mundane conversations, they basically confirmed his suspicions about the nature of this world.

After about three weeks, a message popped out in front of him:

Intelligence has reached E- Grade

Suddenly moving his mana became considerably easier, and he could absorb it faster from his surroundings too. The level of ambient mana of this world seemed to be considerably lower than that of his own, but that would only really matter to magicians and magitech machines.

He hoped he would be able to improve his Will soon too, but he only managed to do so twice in 10 years, even if he didn’t specifically train for it. He knew it would still be a while.

Time went by, and almost two months after his reincarnation, both his Dexterity and Strength advanced a grade. It still felt weird, since he was used to having a dexterity of B grade, not a measly G. Well, he couldn’t really complain about such things after being literally returned from death.

Al also observed that the woman, who was probably called something along the lines of Kan-wan, had spread that his name was Al, something he was grateful for.

He started understanding the language bit by bit, it was harder than expected, which made Al wonder how normal babies managed it. Well, they did say that older people have a harder time learning languages.

When his Toughness went up a grade, Al looked at his status once more.

Alberto Peñas

Age: 6 months

Level 1

Strength

G+

Dexterity

G

Toughness

G+

Will

E-

Intelligence

E-

Assignable

0

Skills:

[Mana Manipulation] (Low)

It was still hard to get used to seeing dexterity as his lowest stat instead of his highest, but it was slowly coming along.

He also realised that since his rank-up in Intelligence, it was easier to make connections between the language of this world and his own, and he remembered words easier. For now, he would keep training his mental stats.

Another week later his Will also ranked up, and it reinvigorated his drive. He kept on grinding.

Another couple of weeks, and his Intelligence improved for the second time since coming to this world. Al found out he would have to stop here though, since from this point onward training seemed to barely do anything.

It did help a lot with his language comprehension though, and now he knew what the adults were talking about most of the time. Of course, there were many words he didn’t know yet, but it was one hell of an improvement.

If there was one catch, it would be that Al was having trouble staying still in one place for so long. Ever since he turned 14 he had never stayed anywhere for more than a couple of nights, maybe three, and it was really taking a toll on him.

He was starting to respect the mages from Earth a lot though, even if everyone was given a short tutorial at the beginning, mages had to grind their [Mana Manipulation] at least till Mid proficiency to be able to use any spells at all, and spell books were rare, especially during the first years, since you could only get them in dungeons.

And even if they could use spells at Mid proficiency, they were weak unattributed ones, since a mage only gained their element when their [Mana Manipulation] reached high proficiency.

That’s probably why there was only a single pure mage in the continent’s elite, without counting that prick Eric who called himself a magical swordsman.

Al caught himself rambling internally and decided to get a new goal to work towards. He desperately needed to move around, so he made his resolution. ‘I’m gonna learn how to walk!’