ch 2 mk 1

pshhht, some stuffs are supposed to be italicized, but when I copy and paste from google docs, it does dumb stuff so use your imagination.

Naming people is hard. Don’t judge.

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Part 1 -

When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that it was bright.

Reaaaally bright.

I also can’t move. I feel like I’m wrapped inside of some kind of blanket. You’re probably thinking, “like a taco, right?” No, not a taco. A burrito.

Where am I? Is this punishment for failing ‘the game’?

Whatever. I’ll think about it when I wake up.

Part 2 -

“The irony is rich! To have sacrificed so much… yet to have gained nothing. Arguably, you may have even lost something,” muttered the crow with human feet.

Have I met this abomination before? “Who are you?” I ask.

“I am Rin, True god of the Void,” it answered. “Would you like to play a game?”

“A game?”

“Of course.”

“What exactly can I do right now?” I ask

“Well, you can decline to play, at which I’ll give you back the additional memories I stole off you, or you can accept the offer to play, at which you’ll receive an opportunity to win back all the memories you lost in your last game.” It answered.

“Why did you take additional memories?”

“Because I reincarnated you deep inside holy sector. The counter evil system would have blown you to pieces if we tried to get you in there with that kind of shit all over you. If you want to decline, I’ll just kill your physical body, and return you to your ‘parent’ god (AN: lol. Parent god is god apostle is apostle’d to).”

“Why didn’t you ask me whether or not I wanted to play the game before reincarnating me?” I asked, furious.

“Because I knew you were pro-life (against abortions i guess?)… teeheehee,” it cackled maniacally.

“I’ll play your goddamn game… How do I win?”

“All you have to do… is conquer the Kotonashi Great Dungeon!” It said, laughing demonically as it slowly faded out.

Part 3 -

Rin spoke the truth. I really have been reincarnated in another world.

When I went through my memories, I found that there were large gaps. Apparently, I was originally a professional gamer, and then some kind of mind magician. Then, there’s bits and pieces scattered over twenty years. For instance, I remember playing CS:GO and Starcraft just a before I reincarnated… but I don’t remember who I played with or where I played.

Who even am I?

Half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Although I wasn’t really good at any language in my origin world, I’ve seemed to have picked up this world’s language relatively quickly. In fact, my brain seems faster in general… albeit only marginally.

So this is how it feels to be smart… somehow I’m impressed yet disappointed at the same time.

Apparently this world is in the medieval age… so in a sense, Sword Art Online, but with magic. Unsurprisingly, SAO was one of the first games created (by IBM) when full-dive tech was first developed.

With the fusion of magic and the gaming industry, the glorious full-dive was invented. With the first few games being Battlefield 5, CS:GO and SAO… the entire NEET populace became super soldiers within a year. Due to the 10:1 magically induced time dilations, it would probably be more accurate to say “within ten years.”

Time magazine listed full-dive as the most influential invention of the twenty-first century, primarily due to these massive time dilations… and the fact that you can gain combat experience without dying.

Although I’ve been a professional gamer for more than ten years, sadly, I was never able to break into the top 1% of players for any of the games I played.

Uhhhg. This baby body is really weak. My speed rivals that of a… potato.

Every day since I was born, I built my physical strength as much as I could without straining myself. A normal baby would usually expect to crawl at twelve months… but I have managed to do it in six! Muahahahaha you can’t stop me, mother nature! Actually, don’t try… please.

Slowly I roll myself to the side… and right off the bed. I hit the ground with a thunk.

Rubbing my head, I mumble, “Owww… that hut lick ah betch”

Hearing that come from my own mouth sounded really weird. I haven’t spoken enough with this body. I sound like a goddamn drunkard!

Suddenly, a dark haired girl runs in and sees me on the floor.

Hmm… She’s a bit young to be my mom… probably.

Quickly running over, she picked me off the floor and put me back on the bed. Then, putting her palm on my head, she began chanting,

“God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal!”

Chuunibyou? She certainly looks about the age for that. Who the fuck uses a chant when they use magic?!

“Yeah, I’m pretty great, right?” She boasted.

Umm… sure…..

“C’mon, let’s go play” She said. She picked me up like I weighed nothing, and took me outside.

Hey! You can’t do this to me! I want to go back to sleep and contemplate existence! This is a violation of human rights or something! I’m only half a year old!

It’s really bright outside. Well, if we’re going to play outside, I might as well make it worth my time… which is kinda worthless to start with… but whatever.

She sat me down on a rock next to the house where she showed me magic.

Pointing her finger at the ground, she chanted, “Flames of the great phoenix, incinerate those who oppose your power!”

A mini fireball flew off her finger and hit the ground before fizzling out.

How flashy… but still… why the incantation?

“Rain of the Water Saint, come to me and obey my will! Water blade!”

A small orb of water formed between her hands. Then, flattening out, it flew forwards and left a gouge in the tree in front of her.

Scary. I must investigate these incantations more!

“And finally, ehh? What are you doing? That’s cold! Eeheehee stop!”

After crawling up to her, I hugged her and pressed my cheek to her back. When she uses magic again, I’ll be able to feel the mana fluctuations.

“Awww, that’s so cute! Do you want to go inside now?”

‘No! Goddammit, show me magic!’ I mentally screamed.

She turned around and stood up. No!!! Think, think how?

I pointed my finger at the tree and said “boom boom.”

Shocked, she whipped around glared at me.

What? Did I do something wrong?

“Your first words were ‘boom boom’ huh…” She muttered.

“Did you want to see more magic?” She asked.

I nodded slowly.

Suddenly grinning, she said, “You’ll make a great magician!”

Once again pointing at the tree, she chanted, “Jailors of Holy Swords, smite the infidels with your true power! Rock Bullet!”

A baseball sized rock flew off the tip of her finger and flew disappointingly slowly before hitting the tree and bouncing off.

The incantation appears to invoke some kind of magic procedure in the brain. I should try these incantations some time. I don’t really know any magic other than mind magic, so these might save me some trouble.

After exhausting her mana, she took me inside.

“Even though there’s such an age difference, they seem to get along really well” My mother commented.

“Yeah, I was worried they would just ignore each other. Rene looks like he’s really interested in magic.” Said my father.

Turning to my sister he said, “Maybe Aiko can show him more..”

So her name is Aiko… Very interesting.

“Yay!” She exclaimed.

“As much fun as magic is, remember not to hurt yourselves” my mother said in a warning tone.

And that’s how I started learning magic.

Part 4 -

I only knew Mind Magic before reincarnation. Back on earth, one of my friends taught me the basics.

I only seriously pursued magicology (made up word, if u have a better word plx help) after I retired from professional gaming, and after I did, I eventually became one of the leading experts in the field.

However, from the mana fluctuations I felt from Aiko, the basic magics of this world are almost nothing like mind magic.

Back on earth, I had to use massive mana crystals in order to carry out my experiments, but here… Since I have all the knowledge from my past life, I can build up my own mana pool to a monstrous level.

There are two different ways to increase your mana pool size. Both methods must be used in childhood before the mana pool stops developing.

The first way is just to use mana. By pouring mana through your mana circuits, you can forcibly improve them and make them adapt by growing.

The second way is to absorb mana. Shit loads upon shit loads of mana. Both methods improve you at about the same speed, however, they can be used in conjunction.

I take a deep breath and begin drawing in mana. Then, I take the mana and begin saturating my body with as much mana as possible, which honestly speaking, isn’t very much. Actually, it’s more reasonable to say that it’s a pitiful amount.

As my body becomes supersaturated with mana, I begin forcing mana through my mana circuits. When the mana particles reach my hands, I use it to bend the paths of some photons (light) straight out of a window and then energize it into a stream of gamma radiation.

If I had a mana crystal, I’d just dump the mana there, but since I don’t, I have to just disperse the mana this way.

My teacher taught me how to energize light to rapidly disperse mana in case of an emergency.

I’m on the top floor of the house, so it should be okay… I think…

Slowly, my arms start to tingle after I increase mana supply. After about ten minutes of mana channeling, my arms feel like there are burning wires inside of them.

Let’s stop.

Even after stopping, the pain remains. My arms start to get so sore I can barely move them.

Let’s give that healing magic a shot. I stabbed myself while Aiko was teaching me so that I could hear the incantation again.

“God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal!”

A quarter of my mana disappears.

It doesn’t appear to be very effective…

“God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal!”

Now half my mana is gone. Great.

“God of health, restore the fallen and purge the sickness from your children! Heal!”

I’m down to almost no mana, and the burning is still there… although the pain is gone.

Wow, that’s incredible.

Now step two… the application process. I need to be able to chantlessly invoke this wonderful healing magic without this lengthy chant.

I focus on how the mana disperses around my magic circuits and try to duplicate the feeling. Wonderful. Nothing happened.

Pulling more mana from the atmosphere, I try again. This could be a long night.

Part 5 -

I didn’t learn how to chantlessly use healing magic that night. Or that month. Or that year. But finally, around my second birthday, I’ve finally done it. Now I can draw massive amounts of mana from the surrounding air and force it through my magic circuits without any physical harm because I outheal the damage.

Unfortunately it still hurts like a branding iron if I try to excessively force mana through my body’s magic circuits.

I’ve done this so much now that I can do it subconsciously… although I don’t dare do it while I sleep. Wouldn’t want to accidentally blow something up.. Hehehe

My sister left a month after I started my mana training. Apparently that was the transitional phase just after she graduated from the community magic class. They say she’s really talented, so she went to some hot shot school. Apparently some noble’s dad passed through the town and became really good friends with father. Thus, my sister has a spouse and her tuition is paid for. Still not quite sure how they pulled that one off.

I’m also getting to the point where I’m drawing out mana from the air faster than it can replenish itself.

You may be thinking, well, can’t you just release pure mana from your hands. Well, technically you could, although it would be akin to suicide. Releasing pure mana sends as much as 30% of the mana flying in all directions… Any half decent mage within a kilometer would feel it instantly. An investigation would be started, and from there it would only be a matter of time before they found a little child that knows a little too much…

I casually roll out of bed and fall to the ground. Healing off the minor scratches, I turn and crawl towards the door. Begin mission impossible music!

The door is slightly ajar, so I can open it with ease. In front of me is a long, dark hallway.

I crawl to the furthest room and begin my exploration.

The furthest room had a large canopy bed and a desk. Nothing of interest. Next!

In the next room, I found a ton of boxes. Well then… Next!

In the third room, I found what I was looking for: the study.

There are a grand total of two books that I can reach.

After taking a picture book off the bottom shelf, I flip it open to the first page.

There is a badly drawn picture of a goblin wielding some kind of spear. It looks pretty angry.

The words on the page look something akin to kanji… so far so good. Unfortunately I can’t make heads or tails out of this shit. I need something easier!

The door opens behind me, surprising me.

“Oh there you are, Rene. I was looking all around for you!” My mom exclaims.

“What have you got there? The Silver Teeth? Here, let me read it for you.”

After putting me in her lap, she began reading. “Whitescrew the goblin was a goblin.”

Well no shit! This author has been mentally inspired!

“All he ever wanted to do was live peacefully in his sewage home…”

(AN: Kudos to whoever can figure out where this is from)

After I had her read it five or six times, she left because there was a casserole in the oven or something.

She didn’t come back.

But it was fine, seeing how I already committed the entire book to memory…

Moving between pages, I quizzed myself on the words… which were surprisingly close to Japanese, though not exact replicas.

I need to learn the language so that I can read magic spellbooks from this world. Knowledge on magic in this world has clearly far surpassed knowledge on Earth.

That’s understandable since magic was only introduced to Earth just ten years prior to my birth.

Making sure no one was around, I stood up and looked on the higher shelves. After pulling out an encyclopedia, I began cracking this language.

Part 6 -

It took me three months. Three months of doing nothing but read the title of each encyclopedia page and memorizing it based on the pronunciation and picture. Approximately thirty words a day.

It was really hard and painful in the beginning (lol no comment), but eventually, I became a word memorizing machine. All praise the adaptivity of the human brain.

I would get really strange looks whenever mother came to feed me. A smile. A tinge of discomfort.

She really freaked out when she saw me reading “The adventures of a traveller and his sword” which was an eroge and actually written quite well, if I do say so myself.

By the time she took it from me, I was already done…

As for the mana training, I’ve found a new power source.

According to a book called 「The Basics of Advanced Mana Manipulation」, I figured out how to convert heat energy directly into mana. The book detailed the process of converting light into mana, but I just applied laws of modern day physics, and bam! Magic! Literally!

Physics are quite advanced in this world, although the proliferation of magic seems to have retarded any research in the field.

Mathematics on this world, on the other hand, is just as developed as math on Earth, albeit fewer people use it.

I’ve researched an array of energy sources, but I have yet to find any fossil fuels on this planet. It’s almost as if they’ve been purposefully removed…

Anyways, in order to convert heat into mana, all I have to do is set up a light-absorbing field set to absorb all wavelengths, then compress as much gas as I can into the space of a needle tip… and light that shit off with my hottest fireball.

I have to heat the fireball slowly or else it creates a large shockwave when conjured… much like a tiny nuke.

By superheating all the matter into plasma, I can separate those shitty electrons off, then when I apply pressure, the nucleuses are forced together… aka nuclear fusion.

It’s a very efficient process because I don’t lose much energy from the fireball. The heat and light from the fireball are reabsorbed, so when I finish cycling mana through my magic circuits, I can just use it to make my fireball hotter.

In all the magic combat sims I’ve played during my life on Earth, I’ve faced a variety of opponents. Quite honestly, I find the non-meta players to be the most terrifying. I’ve seen them use possibly the most stupid creations possible on one hand of the spectrum (free-lo), but then I’ve also seen downright piss your pants and flee noob-stomp tactics (ff m8).

In 2021, a man named Anonymous Gregorovitch invented a practical method to create a magic circuit from information stored on a soul. From there, magical combat shifted to an era of engineers from the era of ‘bursting people down before they can react’. For instance, you could simply pull up a riot shield and that would stop any attack from a casual scrub.

To be honest, I’m not too sure what a soul is either… I just know that effectively infinite amounts information can be stored on one and living things have them. The theory is pretty shifty, but the fact that they now make data centers with a tree inside of it… tells it’s own story.

Wait… now that I think of it… if you were to have a magic circuit on an organ that automatically executes scripts stored on your soul, you could effectively set up what I’m witnessing right now!

That must mean that upon being born, every spell with an incantation has effectively been given to me! I have all the spells! Muahahaha!

I invoke the soul edit spell… and remember why literally no one uses this spell. Everything is in ones and zeros. orz.

Fuck this shit, I’m going to sleep.

Part 7 -

When I open my eyes, I’m greeted by a familiar darkness along with Rin, the bird with two feet.

“Wait what? Why am I here again?” I ask.

“Well, you see… you are progressing too quickly, so I have to implement some Growth Correction.” She explained.

Growth correction? I don’t like the sound of that.

“At this rate, you’ll complete the challenge too quickly. Therefore, the High Council of Awesomeness, or in other words, ME… has decided to bring down the mighty nerf hammer on this game breaking progress.”

“Wait, you mean, you are going to take away ALL my progress?! Bullshit! Do you know how much time and pain it took to make that progress?!”

“Actually, we’re factoring in your progress to the calculations. Originally, I was going to nerf your body’s magic circuit’s maximum output power to the population’s average amount, in other words, the 50th percentile. However, because I’m a caring and merciful god, I decided to make it 55th percentile… also because it would be a shame if you lost all your progress.”

“That’s still bullshit!” Caring and merciful my ass…

“Don’t bother trying to improve your maximum output… You’re currently at the hard cap. Of course, naturally your mana capacity won’t be touched, so you can still improve that.”

“Are you shitting me? What’s the point of having a water tower of a mana supply if the hose is the size of a fucking squirt bottle?”

“Due to your hard work… A slightly above average squirt bottle.” She said, in a patronizing voice as I blacked out.

Why rito… why?

Part 8 -

Today is my first day of school. It has been about six years since my reincarnation.

I’ve completely given up on finding a way to increase my magical output. Last week, I found a solution to the problem… only to have it patched by Rin about five seconds later.

In a sense, I guess I’ve resigned myself to Rin’s bullying.

After throwing on some random clothes, I went downstairs to eat.

“Good morning, Rene, did you have a good night?” Asked my mother.

“Yeah,” I said, while munching on potato chunks.

“How go your experiments with magic?”

“A failure.”

“Don’t say that… there’s always a way to succeed!”

“I proved it to be impossible. It would probably be easier to make one plus one to equal three.”

“Oh.” She says, sadly.

Both my parents use magic, but neither of them are dedicated mages. They generally just stick to the incantations and don’t have an in depth understanding of magic theory. After all, why would a public service worker and a stay home mom need advanced magic?

After finishing breakfast, mother saw me off to school.

As soon as I felt that I was at an appropriate age to walk, I went exploring through town. Thus, I know the layout of the town very well.

My parents probably should have been more worried, but the town of Haven is a relatively safe place, not to mention there are a lot of guards around that subjugate invading monsters. I also spend most of my time in the library anyways, so there’s effectively no danger… seeing as the librarian is a relatively powerful wizard.

As I enter the school building, the first thing I notice is that I’m very out of place. Everyone around me is head-and-shoulders taller than me. I’m a good five years younger than everyone here.

A girl with light brown hair and green eyes walks up to me.

“Are you lost, kiddo? The nursery is the building on the other side of the street.” She said, condescendingly.

“No, I’m here for the magic school.” I respond, as courteously as possible. The last thing I need right now is a lecture on manners from some delinquent.

Her mood suddenly turned foul as I told her.

“Hmmpf. Some kid wants to play magician, doesn’t he. You need to have your magic tested first, fool. Tell me your name, kid,” She demanded.

Oh, so you need to be tested first.

“Rene,” I responded. “Rene Kaishev.”

“Well then, Rene,” She said, mockingly, “Why don’t I test you first? If you can’t deal with a simple fireball, then don’t even bother trying to do the magic tests.”

She started a chant for fire magic and pointed her open palm towards me.

People started to gather from around us.

I could hear some people from around us, “Hey, isn’t that Aizawa? Why is she harassing a child?”

I don’t have time for this.

I invoked wind magic to propel myself forward. Her eyes widened as I suddenly charged up and drilled my wind assisted punch directly into her solar plexus.

She instantly crumpled, gasping for air.

Ignoring the people around me, I went around her and began my search for the magic testing room.

Five minutes later, I arrived.

In front of me lay a large white room. I was about to enter, but a man at the door stopped me. “Whoa there, buddy, you need to be registered to go in there.”

“My name is Rene Kaishev, my parents should have registered me about a month ago.”

“Rene, Rene… There you are. You are applicant number 12, take a seat in the stands until your turn.”

Thanking him, I went in and found a seat in the stands.

Two men walked into the middle of the room, the first was the librarian (small world, eh?) and the other was a man in a red cloak.

The librarian called out in an amplified voice, “Hello, welcome to the annual testing ceremony. Do your best… you may even qualify to enter Kotonashi Magic Academy at the capital city if you impress the dean of admissions, Horatio Phelms, right here,” he said, pointing at the middle-aged man in the red cloak next to him.

Apparently Kotonashi is the capital city of the Ascen Empire. Apparently the dungeon I have to conquer is there?

The man named Horatio stepped forwards. “Greetings, future students. I’ll be evaluating you today with two tests. To pass the test, you must make sure the outer barrier I create around you doesn’t break! The first test will be a simple fireball! If you survive, you will be admitted into Haven’s magic academy. The second test is much, much harder. To qualify for the academy in the capital, the outer barrier must survive a barrage of ten high-elementary and low-intermediate spells! Good luck!”

“Applicant number one! Step up!” The librarian called.

The first applicant stepped up and the dean created a double layered barrier around him.

The first applicant then created another barrier layer over it.

After ensuring that he was ready, the dean materialized a fireball and launched it.

Without delay, a white hot ball of fire smashed itself onto the outermost barrier and exploded, cracking the barrier.

After the applicant repaired the barrier, the dean threw out a water blade that pulverized the outer two barriers.

“Thbbbt! Game Over!” The dean said, sticking out his tongue.

That water blade was worthless! If I hadn’t been nerfed by that dickhead god, I could shit all over this scrublord!

The next ten applicants did about the same as the first. They could all survive the first test’s fireball, albeit with varying amounts of difficulty, but no one could even get past the first attack for the second test.

Then it was my turn. Five minutes haven’t even passed yet.

As I walked up to the testing area, the crowd went quiet.

“I bet he won’t even survive the first round,” someone called out.

“Well, no shit, Sherlock,” someone else yelled.

Hmm, maybe I should try to barely pass so that they think it’s a fluke or something. That’d be pretty funny.

“Aren’t you a little young?” The dean asked with a smirk.

“Maybe… We’ll see.” I reply.

The librarian grinned and gave me a thumbs up. I guess he recognized me.

The air around me shimmered slightly as I got the two layered barrier.

Well, shit. I don’t know any barrier magic. Fuck it.

“Are you ready?” The dean asked, slightly worried.

I nodded.

Without chanting, the threw a fireball at me.

I countered with my own fireball.

I stared unflinchingly as the two fireballs collided and exploded, throwing up a small plume of smoke before they dissipated.

The crowd went totally silent. So much for the fluke strategy.

“Chantless casting at your age, impressive if I do say so myself.” The dean said, before asking, “Are you ready for the next test?”

I nod yes and ready myself.

The dean waved his arm and a water blade flew at me.

I threw out a fireball into it’s path and rapidly erected a thin stone wall betweeen us.

The wall held against the weakened water blade… barely.

I threw myself out of the way as the dean smashed a watermelon sized rock into the wall, sending chunks of rock in all directions.

The dean didn’t let up; sending something like a bolt of white hot fire flew towards me.

Reflexively, I intercepted it with a large rock and set up a light absorption field around the point of impact.

The point of impact turned black for a second before I disabled the field.

This is bad. I need cover!

I sent out fireballs at random spots between the dean and me. I made them with the intention to smolder, so when the fireballs hit the ground, they created large amounts of smoke.

Jumping behind a particularly large plume of smoke, I started construction on a block of stone a meter wide and slightly taller than me.

The smokescreen bought me enough time to thicken the wall to about a foot thick.

Then, a mini-tsunami goes by, extinguishing my fireballs, followed by a gust of wind.

There goes my smokescreen.

I force out as much mana as I can to reinforce the wall

A flurry of spells smash themselves into my rapidly shrinking wall, sending shrapnel in all directions.

Suddenly, the spells stop. Well shit, I only counted nine spells!

I can feel the mana in the air rushing towards the dean. Shit shit shit shit shit!

I turn from the wall and flee as fast as possible.

Not a moment too soon either. A massive shockwave from behind me sends me flying into the far wall. I use wind magic to reorient myself so that I hit the wall with my feet. From there, I drop to the ground and look at the wreckage behind me. Where my wall was, now sits a gently smoking crater.

As the dean clears the smoke, he says, “Congratulations, Applicant 12, you’ve passed both tests.”

When I return to the stands, most people are staring at me, dumbstruck.

In the end, only three others pass both tests, but unlike me, they used superior barriers to block everything.

I need to learn this barrier spell…

Life is way too hard without it.

When I get home, I tell my parents that I passed.

“I knew you were good, Rene, but I didn’t realize you were that good…” my mother exclaimed.

“That makes two skilled mages in the family,” my father said. “You guys make us so proud.”

~

The next day, I left along with the dean and the other three for Kotonashi Magic Academy.