_ _ _ _ _ _ _

After what seemed to be very long span of time, Add’s consciousness began to awaken. He could not open his eyesproperly as they felt very heavy. It was then that he heard a soft voice call out to him.

“Young Master, you have finally woken up.”

As if jolted from an age long sleep, his dull consciousness slowly started to clear and his eyes gradually opened, albeit with much difficulty. Rays of sunlight burst out as soon as his vision cleared.

(I'm not dead ?)

That was the first thought which came into Add's mind. The last thing he remembered was a group of missiles turning his immediate surroundings to kingdom come, and at that distance, his body should have vaporised, and by some sheer stroke of luck even if it wasn’t, he would undoubtedly have died. Yet what he was feeling was definitely not what a dead person would, theoretically feel. His heart was still beating and he was still breathing. Perhaps the only discomforts were that his body was aching in pain as if he had been thrown down from a moving vehicle, and his head hurt so badly, that it seemed like someone had hammered a nail into it.

“Young Master, are you alright?”

The same voice echoed once more. Turning his head he saw a kind looking old lady, looking at him with concern.

(….this is so strange, where am I? And who is this person ? Is…..is… this the hospital maybe ?)

He was very perplexed and found himself lying on a bed in a old fashioned room. The only source of light appeared to be the big windows a few metres away from the bed, but they illuminated the whole room completely. As he was looking around, suddenly a massive pain assaulted his brain as if someone just hammered it with a sledgehammer.

"Guh!"

The pain was so intense that he, a veteran soldier almost fainted on the spot. He was somehow able to stay conscious as this pain lasted for around a minute, which felt like days to him. Along with the pain, a stream of memories not belonging to him flooded into his mind. He felt that he was watching a film in his head, which was fast forwarded at insane speeds and yet he could recall all details instantly.

The old lady at the side worriedly looked at him as she wondered what was happening to him. She could see that he was in pain, but she was powerless to help him. Only after a long time, did the pain finally subside leaving behind a bad aftertaste. Add opened his eyes, and took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He sat up and looked at the old lady who had been standing beside him all this while and said with a light smile.

“Martha…could you bring me some water to drink please..ah and bring a mirror as well…”

The old lady named Martha nodded, feeling strange as to why the young master would ask for a mirror, as the first thing after he woke up, but went to fetch it anyway. She left the room closing the door behind her. Add who was left alone sighed and slammed down back first into the bed.

The old lady, returned after a few minutes bringing a silver glass full of water and a small hand mirror with her. Add quickly drank the water as he was feeling very thirsty and then looked at his reflection in the mirror. Looking at the reflection he was finally convinced.Reflected in it was not the face of a 40 year old soldier as he had expected, but that of a young boy in his early teens. He had silky black hair with some white streaks here and there. His eyes were heterochromatic, the left one a crystal like blue, the right a crystalline red. His face was somewhat similar to what he had been in his younger days, but it was much more refined and handsome. His face was oval and his features were sharp and well chiselled, making him look attractive to both sexes. The skin too was very pale almost deathly white, but smooth and supple, not something which one would usually expect from a healthy person. The only thing that bothered him however was the large bandage circling his head, covering the injury at the back of his head.

"So ...it really happened..."

What Add found very hard to believe was that through some strange event, which he had no possible explanation of, he who had died, somehow transmigrated and his soul had somehow taken hold of this body right after the original owner's soul had departed. To Add all this appeared like he was watching a fantasy film, that he was just a bystander. He felt relieved that he didn’t get some identity crisis.

The body he now had originally belonged to a young boy of 15, was called Adolf Kaiser Weismann. Even more surprising was that he was no longer on Earth, his home world. After going through the memoriesof his predecessor, briefly, he got a gist of the world he was now in. The world was called Iseria by its residents. This was a world straight out of fantasy stories with magic, monsters and all that mythical tales coming to reality. Aside from humans there were many other races here like Elves, Werebeasts, Demons, Dragons, Dwarves, Fairies etc. There were also dangerous beasts which posed a constant threat to humans and the other races. He was currently in a country called Reingleif. It was a large and powerful country in the region and the local language was similar to English in many regards while being completely different in others. This kingdom again was one of the few kingdoms on the large landmass called the Northern Subcontinent. It was called so, as it was a large landmass situatedat the North of a very large continent referred to as the Atlas continent, separated by a large stretch of sea.

Adolf was the only son of the Weismann household, a noble family which governed their own territory within Reingleif. His father who was called Henry Ritter Weismann, with the title of a Marquise, was the current lord. His father and Adolf’s grandfather Rudolf ScheilderWeismann, had served as a great general of the army of the kingdom of Reinglief. Under his command, the country and had many repeated and outstanding military exploits. As a result when he retired, he was given his own territory to rule over as a reward by the king.However, worried that the Weismann family would become too powerful, the king bestowed upon them a remote and barren land in the northeast. Due to his loyalty to the king, Rudolf helplessly accepted the territory, took his own family and came to this region to this wild lands to carry out development and form a place for people to settle down in. The piece of land that was bestowed upon him was a massive place, and was called the northern wilderness, by the people of the country.

The territory was located on the foothills of a large mountain range called the great dividing ranges on the east, andbordered by the Great Forest of Waldestein in the west which covered nearly a fourth of the northern subcontinent. To its south was the rest of the kingdom, and between them was a vast stretch of plains and grasslands. The kingdom on a whole had the forest in the west and had two large mountain ranges bordering it; the first being the ‘The Great Dividing ranges’ which went from north to south, nearly bisecting the continent in two, and the second one, called the ‘Southern Arken Ranges’, which followed the southern coast from east to west. As such Reingliefwas located in a central spot surrounded by natural defences.

The total area of the Weismann territorywas around half the size of Germany back on Earth, and the population was around half a million. However compared to the total size Reinglief it was not that large. No other lord in the kingdom had such a large fiefdom as the Weismann family did, if comparing the sheer size. But that did not bring any huge benefits to the Weismann family. The land was large, but it was mostly wilderness and forest with a temperate climate, with around 5 months long winters. Theyclimate made it difficult to grow wheat, which was the staple food of the country. The people wouldhave managed somehow if it was just about the climate, but the real problem was that this territory was plagued with local wars and skirmishes with the countless tribal forces that lived here. There were also many large bandit groups which had been living in these outlands. They often raided villages and robbed and pillaged whosoever was unlucky to meet them.

In addition to the local tribes and bandit groups, there werethe mountain forests and the gargantuan forest of Waldesten, which were home to countless monsters. These were creatures similar to animals but were much morestronger, dangerous and ferocious. These included, goblins, trolls, huge animal like monsters, serpents, giant insects and many more. There were also many monsters that could use magic, and were called magical beasts. These monsters often attacked villages and towns creating chaos and destruction everywhere they went.

The King’s bestowal of this land thus was easy to understand. If the Weismann family could settle the problems of this place, then these land belonged to them and they could enjoy its riches. But if they didn’t have the capacity to achieve that, then there was nothing to be done. Before this the kingdom had placed no major importance in this area, as it was too much of a hassle to develop it. But Rudolf Weismann wasn’t a person to easily give up. He used his military talent and with the help of his sonHenry, the Weismann family began to conquer the area.After 30 years of hard work, they were finally was able to build a small town in these barren lands. The residents mainly came from nearby villages and slums of the big cities which were located further south, hundreds of kilometres away. They came in hopes of a new chance at improving their lives. However, because of the military struggles and monster threats, the population of the territory never really grew a lot. Most of the people in the territory lived in small villages and the communication between them was not very good.

After a long term of battles and struggles, Rudolf Weismann finally died of old age. He had only one son, Henry who became the next lord. His wife, Adolf’s mother, had passed away just a few weeks after his birth due to her internal weakness and strain from giving birth. As a loving father Henry spoiled his only son dearly, trying to fulfil all his wishes and desires. As a result the boy had grown to be a hedonistic young master. He ate, drank and gambled all day long. Not to say that he was a fool though, in fact he was proficient in quite a few things. Sadly gambling was not one of them. He had squandered huge sums of money, and was famously known as a good for nothing. However, no one dared to say anything openly, lest they trigger the wrath of his father. Unfortunately for Adolf though, his good days did not last. Two days ago, when he was out hunting game with his father, a strong monster had suddenly attacked their group. In the chaos that followed, the unlucky Adolf had suffered a serious injury to his head. The last memory he had was of the monster trying to bite him to death. As it turned out, the injury to his head was quite severe and Adolf had died as a result and for some unknown reason, Add’s soul took hold over it andbecame its new owner.While he was absorbed in his thoughts the old lady Martha spoke out once again.

“Yong Master are you feeling well now? You didn’t wake up for two days, even the physician had no idea when you would wake up…”

According to the memories, Add knew who this old lady was. Her name was Martha. She served as the housekeeperfor the family while also holding the position of the head maid. She had been working in this house for more than three decades, ever since the settlement was first established in these lands. She was one of the few maids serving in the household. Adolf had seen her here ever since he could remember. Looking at her he could see that grief was visible on her wrinkled face and her eyes were very swollen, as if she had been crying a lot. Seeing her appearance caused a feeling of pain to well up inside him. Add realised that these were the residual feelings of his predecessor.

In the entire territory, the boy Adolf was only afraid of this old housekeeper. After the death of his mother right after his birth, old Martha was the one who was entrusted with taking care of him and she was the only one who could control this hedonistic young man some degree. His father was too doting to scold or punish him seriously. Granted that Adolf was a rowdy boy with no redeeming qualities but he really cared for and respected the old lady. He had no mother, and his grandmother had died before he was born, the closest thing to a mother and grandmother to him was naturally Martha, that’s why he listened to her words and never refuted her, only trying to sneak past her and enjoy life. Add sighed internally. He was an orphan in his last life, and it seems this boy also had it bad in that regard. He shook his head and smiled at Martha.

“I am fine. Although the wounds hurt, and I feel weak, other than that, there is no particular discomfort in my body…putting that aside, Martha what exactly happened? I remember being attacked by the monster and then it all went black…”

Her shoulders shook, and she looked at Add with a conflicted gaze, unsure of whether to say something or not. Noticing his calm face, she made up her mind.

“Young Master…Its about your father…”

Father… The word sounded very foreign to him. In his past life, for nearly half a century he had no family to speak of, so suddenly having a parent sounded a bit troubling to him. his thoughts did not show on his face as he calmly asked,

“Ah I see, it’sabout Father. How is he ? What happened to the monster that attacked us?”

Trying to answer his question, the old lady’s eyes welled up in tears. Sobbing she slowly spoke,

“Young master, after you were injured, your father, the Lord…. To protect you he fought the monster, and managed to defeat it. But….he suffered many grievous wounds, there was nothing we could do….by the time he was brought back to the house….already..it was too late…Young master, your father… he has passed away…”

For some time, Add was not sure how to react. A part of him felt pain and suffering, probably due to the lingering feelings of Adolf, however the fact that Henry was just a stranger to him, made his death of little significance.

“I see…”

The room was filled with silence, only the muffled sobs of the old lady could be heard. After some time, Add decided that there was nothing he could do other than put away those conflicting thoughts. He closed his eyes and heaved a long sigh,

“I would like to be alone for some time.”

“Then I would excuse myself. Young master, you must not push yourself too hard. Please take proper rest. I will visit you again later…”

Martha bowed and quietly left, her sobs had only gotten quieter and never stopped. Add realised her grief. Martha was originally a personal maid of his late grandmother, and she doted on Martha a lot. Naturally, Henry became a son like figure for Martha, and it was understandable why she felt such sorrow. After she was gone, Add slowly left his bed. His head was still in pain, but he managed to walk, albeit wobbly. He went up to the window and looked out. The first thing he saw, was the bright blue sky above him, with beautiful clouds floating around.

"When was the last time the skies were this clear ?" he thought

Years of intense warfare had turned the skies of most of the major cities of Earth murky and full of dust and smoke. It had already been years since Add had seen such clear skies. He saw a fairly large garden with many shrubs and trees below him. He was currently on the first floor of the two story house which was called the Weismann mansion. The morning air was cool and fresh and Add felt a weird sense of calm and tranquillity as he closed his eyes and stood there silently.

He had already accepted the reality that he was no longer on Earth, and instead on a strange world which he knew very little of, but this didn’t cause him to panic or lose his mind. He was a soldier who had been through hell and back many times, this with his training from a very young age had already made him very adaptable to his situations. His mind was calm and composed. Since he was alive again he might as well live this life.

Add was an atheist. He believed in practicality and science, and never put his trust in stuff like the supernatural. However now, this seemed like the only possible scenario. From the memories of this body Add understood that he was in a very different world from Earth. It was a world where society was like that of the late medieval times of Earth, however the similarities were only so many. This was a world of sword and Magic. Here science had stagnated and instead magic, which was thought to be a thing of fantasy was real. This was a world ruled by strength where the biggest fist always won. The law of the jungle prevailed here.

(So it seems I would have to live on as Adolf Kaiser Weismann from now on… Well its notthat bad, at least I am not reborn as some criminal or other pitiful person….lets deal with things as they come….)

He returned to the bed and lied down, with the condition of his body, it was unwise to put needless stress on it. After sometime Martha once again arrived, she knocked and on permission from Add, entered his room. It was probably lunch time and she had brought some milk in a large bowl with pieces of bread soaked in it, there was also some honey in it. It was a simple meal, but Add who had served in the special forces and even had had to eat worms to survive, was not someone to look down on food, how frugal it maybe. After he had finished with his meal, Martha collected the dishes, while also reminding him,

“Please have a good rest now, your body has not completely healed yet, you must not push yourself. You must remember that you are the only one left of the Weismann family now, the responsibility of the family now lies on you.”

The maid once again left, leaving Add alone. As he was wondering what to do with this new lease at life, had a sudden realization. He looked up at the sky, it was very similar to that of Earth before the war. One sun shining brightly, clouds, birds flying and such. He closed his eyes and stayed silent for a long time, and when he finally opened them, they were dull and cold.

“Well…that means I can probably never return back home….”

He was a soldier who devoted his entire life in the service of his motherland. One can only wonder how much courage and dedication those people had to have to sacrifice their everything just to keep their motherland safe. But now, Add realised that he would probably never be able to set foot on Russian soil ever again, his homeland. Although he had no particular attachment, no friends or family to speak of, nor any debts to the world and neither was he so weak as to be crushed by this sense of loss, but he felt a sense of deep melancholy within him. For him who had lived solely to serve the motherland, suddenly had all reasons of his life snatched away. The training in the army camps, his comrades most of whom had also died, the snow covered forests, the parties they had on their vacations, he had left all of that behind, never to return again.

(….Never mind…being stuck in the past will get me nowhere..who knows maybe there is some way to return…but for now…I will have to adapt to this new world, or else I won’t be able to survive….)

Add cleared his head of these idle thoughts and returned his focus to reality. It was then that he suddenly heard a peculiar sound like a bell ringing.

*Ding!*

*Possible host detected*

*Analysing host*

*Compatibility 100%*

*Identifying User*

*Selecting Format*

*Booting System*

*Booting Successful*

*Preparing System launch*

*System is Now ready*

*Initiating Final Scan*

*Scan complete, Registering user*

*Activating System in 3…2…1…0*

*WELCOME HOST!*

A mechanical voice which lacked any intonation suddenly spoke in his mind. Following that aBluish translucent screen which reminded him of some high end holographic projections, suddenly appeared in front of his eyes. The screen showed "WELCOME HOST" in bright white letters. Add tried to touch the screen wanting to verify if he was hallucinating but his hand passed through it, while the screen remained there.

"What the heck?"

As he was wondering, the words on the screen changed and a new set of lines appeared.

[Would you want to go to the tutorial ? Yes/No (Tutorial Recommended)]

The two options were sparkling, it appeared to Add like some of those games back on earth. Intrigued by it, he decided to click yes, but his hand would not be able to touch it so he wondered how he was supposed to do that.

[To select an option the user just needs to accept it in his mind.]

The same voice instantly answered his doubts. It was as if whatever this system thing was, it could read his mind. However considering that he had been reborn in a strange world, he paid it little mind. Following the advice, he selected yes in his mind, the screen changed again.

[Welcome to The System New Host! The system is a unique and wonderful existence designed to help its Host reach the peak of everything.]

"What is all this ?"

The texts were appearing on the screen one after the other making Add a bit confused. Then the screen showed a Menu in which various icons were glowing.

[User, please inspect your status by thinking of the STATUS icon or saying 'Status']

Hewas still confused but did as told and selected the Status icon and a display appeared.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

STATUS

Name : Add (Adolf Kaiser Weismann)

Race : Human

Credit Points : 0

ATTRIBUTES :

Vitality : 2

Strength : 2

Agility : 2

Dexterity : 2

Defence: 2

Intelligence : 5

Wisdom : 4

Stamina : 2

Charm : 3

Magic Aptitude : Enhancement Magic (Low)

_ _ _ _ _

After looking at the screen which showed strange lines resembling those of RPG-games he sometimes saw back on earth, he was more confused. Albeit, if he was an normal human or a normal soldier he would undoubtedly know what this game-like thing was. But alas, he was born in the age of a global war and was trained from a very young age. His instructors were not so much keen on letting their troops play games, if they had time to play games, they better train some more using that time. So he had very little knowledge of such games.

“What is all this ? A System? What exactly is this ?”

[The System is an Entity which was created specifically for the purpose of helping intelligent beings break though their natural limits and become something greater.]

“So you are like a computer program? Sort of an AI assistant ?”

[Yes. Applying your original world logic, in the simplest of terms you can describe it as such.However, no AI can compare with the system and rather than being an assistant, the System is a mentor which will guide and direct your future growth.]

“You even know that I am not from this world? How did you know?”

[The system knows everything about its host, even if you had died and been reborn for 10 times, it would still know everything]

Add was quite impressed. Whatever the System was, it was clearly intelligent enough to rival the best AIs back home, maybe even better. The lack of an emotions in its words, and the way it communicated gave it a rather, robotic feel.

“So then, System who or what created you and where did you come from?”

[The System was made by a Higher Being. Any more details are unavailable as all records have been erased. The system has travelled across the multiverse in search of a suitable host for zillions of years , until it found you! The only one compatible with this System !]

Add felt a bit strange as to why he in all the possible candidates was chosen, but the system just said that he was the only compatible host and refused to say anymore. ‘But that seems rather strange’ he thought. Something which could create such an entity, maybe only the term ‘God’ could describe that… Since there was no use worrying over that, Add chose to learn more about this status…

“System can you explain what these status actually is?”

[ Host, the various stats represent your body’s various parameters.

Vitality represents your overall health. The higher its value, the more damage you can take and still survive. While having low vitality means it is quite easy for you to die, from injury disease etc.

Strength represents your overall physical power.

Agility shows your overall speed, and affects your movement speed, speed of reaction etc.

Dexterity represents your skill and ability to perform various tasks.

Defence represents the innate defensive capabilities of your body.

Stamina shows your endurance level. Higher your stamina stat, the more work you can do.

Wisdom describes your willpower, perception, knowledge and intuition.

Intelligence refers to your logic, common sense , problem solving abilities, and ability to analyse information easily and solve problems.

Charm stat represents your attractiveness to other people around you. As your charm points go higher, the impression you give to others becomes more favourable.

Magic Aptitude shows the kind of magic your body is best suited for. Having an Aptitude for a particular type does not mean that other kinds of magic are unusable, but its still very hard to usemagic which you have no aptitude for.]

Add carefully read all this information and took a few moments to digest it. The status showed him his overall abilities in a gist. However, the low values against his stats troubled him as he had nothing to compare them with.

“Just what kind of thing did I get into now….” He wondered while looking at the screen.

_ _ _ _ _