Hello everyone, I am back home after a looong week away from civilization, no PC, no internet. Well to tell the truth it was not all that bad(I had super time), we celebrated a day(it went for the whole week) as important as New Year or Easter appropriately - Spoiler : http://www.wincalendar.com/International-Condom-Day and St. Valentine too

Now back to my fiction, some said it moved too slow, do not worry, first volume is all about MC learning about the world, later volumes will have way more action. Now each volume will be made of 9 chapters and an interlude + maybe some bonuses. Interludes will contain some pieces of related short stories, they may be 100 years before or after, maybe at present in different location, have fun figuring out when I post them, I will leave clues.

As always, thanks for reading and comment, vote, review, if possible with more that a sentence, it is my motivation for continuing!

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"Hmm Huhumm~" I hum while skipping a step.

At present I, together with my mother, walk to the west side of town where, supposedly, Beata the Ancient Elf lives.

At present winter is in its starting phase, just after my third birthday, neutral merchants that head south from the northern part of the continent fleeing the coming cold bring back many furs and all the other material specific to the north.

What is strangest, that even if countries are hostile, like our Valvinar Kingdom and barbarian Northlanders to the north, special neutral traders are able to carry out trade going between them, their only threat are rouges, monsters, spirits and bandits.

So it is a dangerous job, but a very profitable one, you cannot be officially a part of any nation to be a neutral trader though.

So, despite the many new, unseen, splendorous things to see in the market we are passing through, why am I just walking near my mother humming a tune?

First of course is the reason for our little trip, to see the elf as fast as possible.

Second would be the hand of my mother that locks my own like some sort of steel chain for me to be nearby.

And the last, third one, are the stares from the surrounding women - mothers and elderly, young ones treat me like air.

That is also the reason I am not to run around, those that look at me can be separated to three general categories:

1. Warm smiles - simple warm smiles watching a family outing

2. Gossiping whispers - mostly making me some kind of super child the king-genius or something?

3. Envy stares - mostly done by the women with children my age, some sort of competitiveness with my mother or the like?

It is actually the gossips not the envy that is her concern, well if I was a simple child such talk might make me a Pinocchio, stretching my nose from pride. I suppose this is the reason mother is worried about me in excess.

I also had a great discovery recently, my mature mind is being heavily influenced by my immature body, such thoughts as games and fun influence my resolve to train and right the wrongs of my previous life, turning harsh training into a game without lessening it, I do not like losing control of my emotions, but it helps to reinforce the child image I try to portray.

I dread living though teen years again though, all those hormones are gonna batter my reason good...

In my contemplation we soon reached the outer wall soon, one of the tower was a bit strange, no one manned it, no guards or patrols could be seen, and it gave a chill, as if a great power was inside.

It was hard to see, but after inspecting it as we walked closer to it a bright blue light was emitted from the roof part of the 6 meter tall stone circular tower. I will definitely have to inspect that!

This tower had the air that shouted !MAGIC! in a whole chorus of voices.

Magic is not that unusual, almost all people can use it, though without training only the most basic spells that control existing phenomena, such as making fire hotter, or wind to blow a bit faster. These 'spells' if you can call them such are so simple they need no incantations and are used mostly for simple tasks, cooking, drying clothes and such. You can use these spells without training only if you have affinity for them, training allows to improve them to casting and use simple spells without affinity.

This tower radiated magic so strongly you almost had to shield your eyes from it like from a bright sunlight.

When we approached heavy metal reinforced wooden doors that led inside mother pulled the bell attached to nearby wall three times.

As the bell rang, a small jewel atop the door emitted blue light, with time it changed into green. With the change wooden doors opened by themselves with all the cool grinding sounds made by the doors in haunted house horror movies. I might even skipped a beat, either from fear or excitement, I don't really know.

The inside was not what I expected from a outer wall guard tower, all walls were covered by shelves full of books and other things I can only describe as 'stuff'.

It was skulls, vials, globes, crystal balls and other misc 'stuff'. If I could make a comparison it would be stepping into a abode of a occult mad scientist mage that just got a hold of anything that interested him.

Then I think about it, ancient elves might have the lifespan to actually delve fully in all those things making full use of the experience. This might be better then I thought, I might learn that much more from this person then I thought, need to make a favorable impression.

With that mental decision I saw a shadow growing bigger under my feet, mother was already looking up with a smile.

"Got you little boy" I heard a soft whisper just above me, before I could react I was scooped into the embrace of a beautiful woman.

"Eh" I leaked a short sound of surprise.

"Don't scare him too much lady Beata" mother said chucking.

"Ha ha, little Astrid, why don't you call me aunty like you did before"

"Nu, don't make fun of me Beata" mother said getting a flush of embarrassment on her face.

"That is revenge for the 'lady' you just uttered"

"How did you do that??" I finally freed myself from stupor observing their talk while still being in the arms of the elf.

"Did what? Ahh, you mean how I took you by surprise, it seems you trained a lot for your age boy. It is simple, I just floated to you from above, thus making no movement sounds"

"FLOATED???" I got riled up, if excitement could be manifest, my eyes would be spewing stars out of them.

"Yup, a spell of [Levitation] to be exact"

"MAGIC!!!" I got even more riled up.

"Egil, I think you are old enough to stand by yourself, do not bother la-, Beata too much."

"Ah, I am sorry mother, lady Beata" I hurriedly leave her embrace, embarrassed red as a tomato.

"Do not worry child, you can call me aunty like your mother, great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother once did" She said smiling. Wait, one generation is missing?

"Beata, how was your journey this time? Anything of interest?"

"I visited Argent City and met the Silver Lady and Obsidian Knight in their throne room, to tell the truth I did not expect such friendly demeanor from a former High Elf and 'that'. Well the ancient city of 'NORTH' is till the same, they are making some progress against the undead, but any real push is due only in some 200~ years so it is of no danger to Baldr, Orcmen still fight against the traitorous Wild Elves and barbarian Northlanders, if Vikos does not move against them they will remain in the east, on the other hand Frost Giants are coming south from the northern wastelands, Silver Lady asked me to warn Valvinar about possible push of barbarians as they are assaulted by giants and pushed south."

This talk is too high level for my present knowledge, I take it all in, but my eyes are still drawn to the shelves and all the strange things they contain.

"Huhuhu, boy, it seems like our talk is a bit boring for you, you can look at the things here, touching is ok, but please try NOT to damage anything" Beata says with a bit of intensity at the end.

"But Beata that is..."

"Do not worry Astrid, nothing dangerous is placed on this floor, lets return to our conversation."

I soon run to the nearest wall, these shelves contain mostly books and things completely new to me, inspecting this part alone would take me at least a day, to read so many books would be at least a year, so I start making use of my limited time.

***

"It is getting dark, maybe we should go, I still need to pack Baldr for his trip back to the fortress..."

"Astrid, you should let him to his own choirs more, even if he is a powerful and high ranking warrior packing his own things up should be manageable, you spoil him too much. I am a bit hungry, maybe you could make me some of your delicious sweets, here, take this gem, it should cover the cost of ingredients"

"But Egil is..."

"No worries, I will look after him, or you started to doubt my child rearing abilities after you grew up?"

"No, of course not, you looked after me at least as much as my own mother did, very well, I will return in a couple of hours with the desserts, Egil, listen to everything Beata tells you to do"

"Yes mother" I answer without leaving the new 'toys' I found, getting a sigh as a response.

After mother leaves Beata calmly approaches me.

"Now boy, lets talk. I see you are more than you look, you posses intelligence beyond your years but lack knowledge. Do you wish me to teach you a bit while I am in town?"

"Yes!" She even approached me by herself, now I don't need to try sucking up to her to learn things.

"Boy, what do you want to become? A powerful mage, or a strong warrior? A priest or simply to live your life in piece?"

"I train with father in martial arts and weapon handling, but magic is definitely something I wish to learn!"

"So the path of a magic fighter. You know, before the fifth year of ones life soul is still not synchronized with ones body, preventing the use of magic, but there is a way around this, it has its price though, that is the reason I sent your mother away."

"What is the price?" I ask gingerly. Why is she gets this heavy talk as soon as mother left, more so to a three year old brat that is possibly more than few hundred years her younger.

"It will lower your magic capacity, also reduce the effectiveness of the spells from divine schools if you have affinity for them."

"Those are some major demerits lady, why someone would want to do it?"

"Because you lose nothing, it is just redistributed to your other statuses, so what do you say boy?"

Hmm, it is not that bad of a deal I think, my mana capacity should still be big enough for many spells augmenting my fighting style, plus I will still grow for many years improving my abilities, but further this talk goes more wrong it feels, why did she make mother leave, should she not be here to help me make this decision, both my mother and Beata possess a strong trust for each other, this talk should be no different from the one before.

"I am ok with it, but we should wait for mother to return, she should help me make such an important decision."

"Don't worry, I myself had my soul stabilized, even became a mage. Your mother won't oppose this, let's make a surprise for her. Wait, I'll get the tool we need."

Beata again used [Levitation] and got to the second floor, after some rummaging sounds she came back with the said tool.

While I was cautious of what kind of tool it was, she carried a crystal ball filled with something like smoke, like the one used by the phony seers back on earth, easing my worries.

"Just place your hand on the ball, and it will be over, no pain or any sort of inconvenience" she said pacing the ball on the table.

What should I do? This seems suspicious, but she would not dare to hurt the child of her dear friend, being unable to use magic for another 2 years means I lose the best times of childhood training, when you can learn easiest. What harm can a crystal ball do?

I slowly place my hand on the ball and feel no pain like she said, only a feeling like having your hand wet and all the water is being absorbed into the globe.

The globe itself start to slightly vibrate and the smoke inside to swirl.

!WARNING!

You have used the Globe of Status before your fifth year forcefully fixing your soul to your body, gaining trait Bound Soul with all its effects

!WARNING!

You have used the Globe of Status, your status is recorded in the globe and can be seen on material plane until it is recharged

!SYSTEM MESSAGE!

You have used the Globe of Status before your fifth year forcefully fixing your soul to your body, unlocking 'Skills' and 'Traits' menus and their purchase options

Egil TammNorthlander HumanOtherworlderLevel 12SP 213Strength42(+36)Constitution60(+46)Dexterity40(+24)Agility35(+14)Wisdom27(+63)Spirit54(+43)Health410(+841)Stamina275(+465)Mana305(+835)DivinityMortal - Common[/tr]

"Oh shit!" shouting I try to turn around as Beata was standing behind me a few meters away.

Unfortunately as soon as I did that a great pressure assaulted me, as if gravity itself doubled, without being able to move I had my neck pierced by her estoc. Thanks all the gods it was only skin deep.

"Who, what, are you?" She asked with such intensity, with that the pressure seemed to increase, I couldn't move, opening and closing my mouth to get some air like a flapping fish out of water.

"It was a good choice to travel and seek advice from the Silver Lady after I found anomaly in you during healing, using the globe was a good suggestion."

"So who are you? I know some higher ranking demons can shapeshift to deceive others, they brought down southern empire like that, but your stats are way too low to be one, so talk or die!"

"I-I am human, m-my status show that too." I manage a stammer.

"True, but no one can get a class before their soul stabilizes, and your bonus stats from traits and skills are way too big, even if traits are from birth. I never heard of Otherworlder class too."

What to do??

Fight? No, she handles that estoc too well, I would definitely lose and die.

Run? No, it looks like I would die from her magic even faster and more gruesome.

Her eyes seem to pierce even my soul.

***

So what did I do?

I talked, as if I had no tomorrow, probably that was closer to the truth than I want to admit.

I told her what she wanted to know.

I told her what she didn't want to know.

I told her what she wanted to not know too.

We were around the third chapter of my mental book 'Life of Paul Oaks - by Paul Oaks' when she looked outside and sheathed her weapon, releasing her pressure at the same time.

"Astrid is coming back, I deem you not harmful, but come here tomorrow to finish your story, if you run, I WILL hunt you down."

To those words I am just able to wildly nod.

After all that we ate the sweets mother brought in a cherry atmosphere as if nothing happened before returning home.

"Look up your status again, we will talk more about them tomorrow" were the last words she whispered before I departed home. What did she mean by that?