《Number Of Virtues》chapter 8 - How to be born strong and healthy (1)
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Once he regained consciousness former student... well he should probably stop calling himself that, since he was not even sure if there were universities in this world...
Once again then, when Mark regained consciousness, first thing that assaulted him was a feeling of possessing a body.
Not long ago – at least in his perspective - he heard that people often are unaware of their body if there is no proper stimulus. It can be both pain, or pleasure but some kind of feeling is needed to be conscious, truly conscious of your own flesh.
But now Mark knew that the very existence of a body could be shocking enough, at least when you had to spend some time without it.
Especially if we connected it to the fact that he clearly was now in a womb of his mother. Complete blackness, and warm safe feeling as well as body placed in the fetal posture were enough of a clue. Being a baby not even born, was... indescribable experience. It was also obviously not something that he could just imagine. And so there was also kind of finality in this feeling, some kind of 'well I suppose it was not a dream after all' type of conviction.
Well maybe letters flowing behind his eyelids would prove distracting enough until he would accustom to this new situation properly.
Initializing...
Researching...
Connecting...
Connection to the system complete...
“Well lets forget for a moment why they are in English...” There was probably completely logical answer for that, as well as one that he would probably not like very much.
However... this was surprising. So he was reincarnated into a world that possessed some kind of game-like system? “Probably part of this 'find it by yourself' huh...” Mark tried to sigh but it didn't go well, because... you know... still a fetus and all that.
Special circumstances detected.
Soul-form detected.
Soul-form 'Chain' acknowledged.
Benefits allocated.
Oh, and here was all this soul-shape thing... well he probably would need a lot of time to figure that out. Still... Chain huh... This was weird, this was not really word that he would use to describe himself. But then again he had no idea how this soul-things really worked in the first place, even if he doubted that this was some random allocation.
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Well this was also for later term.
Special intervention detected.
Safety check...
Safety check passed.
'Pillars Of Heaven' unique skill acquired.
And this was something that Levi definitely didn't mention. On the other hand the only thing that she was not really trying to hide was that she was hiding a lot of things.
'Pillars Of Heaven' are accessing your existence.
'Pillar Of Wisdom' unlocked.
'Pillar Of Faith' unlocked.
Well he was the last person that would boast how smart he was, but then again he did spend most of his previous – as short as it was - life on learning, so it was nice to have something that appreciated that, even if it was just unique skill of a different world system...
Fine it was decided, as fast as he will stand on his own legs, he will work hard to become more sociable person than in his previous life.
From what however this 'Pillar Of Faith' had come? He wasn't a non-believer, but sometimes even he was not sure into what, he actually believed. And Levi... he was not so stupid to even suppose that she was not somehow connected to this, and she did not make an impression of particularly spiritual person as well.
Uh... well as far as he knew it could mean something completely different anyway. What even this skill was supposed to do?
And even more importantly, since he already was in a world with system then how it exactly worked? Were there levels here? Some kind of attribute points? How he could even use this?
Well... in the first place he should try to call character sheet, or some kind of status. He was not really in situation where he could speak but maybe mental commands will be enough?
“Status”
Name: N/A
Surname: N/A
Species: human
Age: 5 months (Unborn)
Sex: Male
Life Force: 0,073
Magical Power: 0,061
Spiritual Strength: 127
Jobs: N/A (0.02%)
Skills:
N/A
Unique: Soul-form: Chain
Pillars Of Heaven
- Pillar Of Wisdom
- Pillar Of Faith
“... it worked”
Even if he partially expected this it still was quite amazing to have letters appearing beyond your closed eyes just like that. Excited, Mark read through his sheet carefully.
So... this system, didn't recognize his previous name as his current one... well that was quite fair, after all there was not really big probability that he will be called Mark in this new life as well. And while he still planned to think about himself like that before he will obtain a new name it was mainly because thinking about himself 'it' was simply weird.
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Beside that he already come to terms with his death didn't he?
This last though actually made Mark stop for a moment and think about it further. He was pretty sure that he should have far more trauma after everything that happened him. In the first place for him to not even feel guilty about leaving his parents alone...
Wait what exactly was his mother's name?
In the very short explosion of panic Mark started to go through his memories, he was capable to remind himself that his mother name was Sophie, but only after considerable while. The amount of memories that he possessed about his private life was pitifully small, he somehow remembered his closest family – his parents and younger brother, but even these memories were blurred. Briefly he thought about someone messing with his head, before remembering particular fragment of his conversation with Levi.
“I know well that seeing Gehenna Flames can be quite traumatic for ones that managed to remain conscious and hold to most of their memories.”
Well... Mark understood now that 'most' and 'all' were very different.
But then again perhaps this was not a very bad thing, in the first place forgetting about everything was more of a natural way of starting new life, and when Mark was thankful for opportunity to partially continue rather than completely start a new, he understood that clinging to past in such a situation was... nonsensical.
At least he remembered that he didn't have any girlfriend back in his old life. It was good as it would make this new situation much harder to accept
Finally calmed Mark returned his attention to his status. It actually already vanished during his momentary freak out, so he called it again.
The surname column under the name one, was showing N/A as well with reasons being obviously the same as with previous column. Mark briefly wondered if this was world with a society where only high standing people had a surname.
Unfortunately there was no any way for him to obtain such information, so he put it aside for the time being.
Next column did inform him not only that he was going to be born as human – this was actually quite reassuring, but also that this system was capable of influencing other species as well. How widespread this 'system' was.... It was an interesting question for Mark as he could think about both – Every living being having, access to it, as well as it being somehow specific only to him. There were also all possibilities between this two. Unfortunately again there was no way for him to confirm his suspicion.
For a person like Mark who even now still possessed scientific disposition it was very irritating.
Next column was actually main reason for his inability to do anything. If pregnancy here lasted as long as in his previous world (and it probably did) then he would have to spend around four months not being able to do anything.
Sighing – through only in his head do to not even having air to sigh – Mark tried to mentally point one of the first column, in hope of obtaining more information, but unfortunately it was useless.
Fifth column didn't inform him about anything but, it was nice to have confirmation that this one thing didn't change.
The three next though were fascinating. Life force, magical power and spiritual strength... names were quite intuitive, but what they exactly mean? And they were quantified by numbers, with life force and magical power being vastly smaller than spiritual strength... Was the last one something that connected to mental knowledge and maturity? If yes then this large number would have a sense, since it would be something that he possessed thanks to his previous life.
But then again there were no attributes... Should he call this three like that? After wondering about it briefly Mark decided that, yes for now he would call them attributes. But why there were only three? Was it enough to properly describe all of person qualities? But then he didn't have idea how vast field was covered by any of this three...
At least he knew that he had magic power no matter how tiny it was. This actually made him excited.
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