The next few weeks went by smoothly considering James felt like he was torturing himself. He reassured his mother and sister that he was ok almost daily. Susy kept quiet mostly and would silently glare at him at times. Still though James was able to achieve his first goal as he was panting in the backyard looking over his gains over the past weeks by viewing his stats.

:::Ding: Gained- 1 Str

Gained- 4 Vit

Gained- 3 End

Gained- 1 Wil

James had noticed that as he trained his body the stats would increase based off what he worked to improve. Lifting chairs or rocks helped his muscles and increased his strength. Running helped both his vitality and endurance increase which he noticed was the biggest gain. Willpower though must have been because he pushed himself to keep moving, he assumed.

It was nice after working out to spend time with the family as she showed them, he was healthy and recovered. What he came to realize is that the old James’s soul must have been weak and not moving around or leading a productive lifestyle contributed to his degrading health only getting worst. Souls were not a popular topic because there was too much unknown, so all of this was just his guesses. The old James’s soul must have combined with his because his emotions were like that of a young boy. When he saw the concerned look on Emily and Susy’s face, he almost burst into tears at times.

Being at the age of ten is when all young children picked their first class and he had to decide what to do. Picking a class would decide their path towards their future and the direction for upgrades. An apprentice fighter could lead to the berserker class after several class upgrades. The physical classes were a little simpler to decide on with plenty of options, but spell-based classes were a different story. An apprentice fire mage could upgrade to the grand fire mage class or fire body mage class if different choices were made in spell choices.

Other main classes that differed from spells or fighting focused on professions even researching for their careers. There were endless possibilities and that’s not including subclasses. Stats while not known by people of the past but now dictated areas of improvement. Looking at his overall changes he is glad that his foundation is built.

Class: N/A

Subclass: N/A

Race: Human

Level: 1

Health: 25/25

Stamina: 20/20

EN: ????

Stats: Str-3 Vit-5 End-4 Int-6 Wis-5 Wil-7

His physical stats have increased but raising any higher would be difficult. He could feel the limit of his body catching up to what it should be capable of at his given age. Doing walks, runs, and simple physical exercises have helped a lot, but growing up would be needed to increase them more. As a mage, intellect and wisdom were the most important stats to increase considering they focused on mana, but it still was good to increase physical stats a bit. How can someone survive a fight without enough health or stamina to move around and survive damage? Dodging, running, and tanking hits comes at a cost that every mage must deal with. Training does not have to be the same as a knight or warrior but having some type of constant activity helps a lot.

James smirked as he says up as he made his decision for his class. He wanted to be a mage again like his past life. Gaining his past class would be completely based off luck but he was willing to take the chance. It takes an affinity to gain a class as a mage, but his experience was a bit different. Affinities are determined based off a person, their life choices, attitude, environment, and their character. There are ways to increase chances for an affinity but once you start growing more it will become stuck and unchangeable. An aggressive person who is quick to cause trouble and lives in a town by a volcano, most likely will gain the fire element for their affinity. James was a special case though because his past life was different.

With a big grin he is glad he kept his secrets in the past. He could have been tied up in a dungeon as researchers experimented on him as they dissected him. Realizing how treacherous this world is he reaffirmed his goal of protecting himself and those close to him.

With his mom and sister out of the house picking up supplies he sat in the backyard legs crossed. Taking one look around making sure the fences are blocking the visions of others he prepared.

‘First step is to feel for mana,’ James went over the plan.

Mana is source of energy for mages and other spell related classes. It helps to build a mana core while affinities and the system determine a person’s element as well as class. The core when created would change to become an elemental core which processed the mana from outside the body. Mana can be felt in all around the world while essentially changing in some locations to become elements which bonded to ores or other things naturally made by the world. The mana is fed to the altered elemental core of a person changing to become said element so they can store it and use later. An apprentice fire mage class will have a red mana core to contain and produce fire element for spells. While an apprentice water mage will have a blue mana core creating water elemental mana and so on.

Slowly feeling for the mana took time and only after sweat started to build up as his head started pounding did James see some progress. Using his past life as a guide is one advantage he had over an untrained mage with no tools or outside help.

He realized this is the most important step and must stay focused. Messing this up could affect his mana core build and class he hoped to again gain.

After what feels like hours does he start to feel the air contain something else to it. It is thick and heavy but kept slipping away from his senses. He didn’t get disheartened and kept reaching out. Eventually it paid off with a ding, but he did not let it distract him to look at his gains and kept focusing on achieving his first class.

:::Ding: Gained skill- Mana Sense Lvl 1

(Mana is everywhere but most can only rely on their core to connect to it. To be able to identify mana is only the first step towards progressing down the path of magic.)

Gained skill- Meditation Lvl 1

(A pose to relax one’s mind and clear out all thoughts. This helps to deter any inner demons and also to gather mana quicker replenishing one’s core.)

Gained skill- Mana Weaving Lvl 1

(To freely wield pure mana in its rawest form is all mages wish. But those mages are lucky to use their own elemental version on their path to power. But weaving pure mana is a skill for a true mage not bound by any restrictions.)

James stays focused afraid he may ruin his progress. Motivating himself to not give up he started push the mana he could feel in the air to build his mana core. Sensing the mana, he willed it to gather in him below his heart. Little by little does the mana join to build the shape of his core. This step is crucial for any mage and is usually guided by a mentor or teacher while being surrounded by elemental mana representing their affinity. He does not have this privilege or want it anyways realizing that it involved some type of commitment or contract. Whether this is serving a king or giving years for the military, James had different plans.

As the core is put together piece by piece, he kept the shape of the core to the best of his ability as he fed more mana. He suddenly felt that he was surrounded by darkness and an unimaginable pressure descended on him. Just as quickly as the feeling was there, does it disappear but not before a quick rip could be heard from inside him. Ding!

Focusing back on his core he was not aware of the affinity of this body and could only hope the system gave him the same class from his previous life if not a decent one that could work with his plans.

Drenched in sweat and aching all over James wanted to look over his stats but was frozen in pain as tried to open he eyes.

Feeling like he was about to pass out he held onto his clarity in hopes he was successful. Seconds tick by and when he started to hear a ringing in his ear, he knew he would have to wait to find out. Drained and hanging on by sheer will power he gave up letting his body sink into sleep as his body cheered.