Volume 1

Chapter 7

The first snow of the year is now fresh on the ground. Just in time to help me with my training by making me wear it as protection against the cold.

Ever since I finished the rice training I have been having some trouble dealing with my aura.

I have managed to deplete it by using sharpness and hardness on the axe while I train, but it was only thanks to father teaching us how to clad equipment with hardness that I regained the efficiency from before the whole rat incident.

It’s pretty much the same as cladding one’s weapon, but you do it on your clothes. Really simple.

I also asked father about cladding the skin or even the whole body with hardness, but he said I should not try to do that. It seems the aura from inside the body and the aura from the outside are different things, even if both come from eating and exercise.

If I try to use the outside body on the skin it can damage it bad and make me wounded all over…

Which of course is an explanation I had to put to the test, so now I have discovered I can regrow even fingers.

I seriously didn’t expect for my skin to boil in a moment and for the aura then attack the muscle in my pinky and just evaporate it.

I didn’t even feel any pain. I guess my nerves got severed immediately, so it was just deeply unsettling.

Seriously unsettling.

I have awoken once or twice at night, having nightmares about losing my finger for good.

Oh, talking about nights, we shall move to the living room in a few days.

Grandmother and grandfather are coming over after all. So I, Ann and Jacen will sleep near the fire.

It seems it will be a good thing.

Mother seems happy and relaxed as well. It’s the first time I see her like this in months. With such a calm look. That’s reassuring.

“Alvin.”

“Yes Onee-chan?”

“Concentrate on your training. Your swings are all wrong.”

“Yes. Sorry.”

I keep swinging the twig with sister, of course. It has become a kind of habit by now.

Sincerely, I don’t even know why I do it anymore. It’s just nice to feel I’m doing something with sister.

Sometimes Jacen also join us, and it feels even nicer. Something like bonding over the same activity.

Of course, bonding all day long would be too much, so my routine has become a bit more relaxed when compared to a while ago.

By morning I deplete my aura by splitting wood. Then I do calisthenics. Then at noon I train with sister for a couple hours or something.

The rest of the day, then, I spend just walking around the house, helping mother or things like this.

Why don’t I do more calisthenics? Like all day long?

Well, they sincerely have stopped being useful at this point.

I can already do most exercise like push-ups and squats for a big amount of time without needing my aura. And I mean a big amount. I can go on all day if I want to.

Not to mention the axe training is meant to be used as weight-training as well, and not only aura-depletion training, so my body has gradually become a little stronger than it’s needed to support my own weight.

Even advanced exercises like one-arm push-ups I can do without relying on aura, while exercises like finger push-ups and bone strengthening by hitting against things depend on getting calluses on your bones… something I cannot do too fast without raising suspicion. So those aren’t helping much.

…what ? It’s too early for me to hit a bottleneck? I have been doing training like this for only what… two years now?

Well, blame it on my cheat body which can repair fiber damage instantaneously. I literally become stronger a millisecond after hitting my current limits. Just this much has made my body easier to strengthen to the extreme.

Then, I thought about making the training with the axe something regular like how I swing my twig, but father was against it.

When I asked why he said it was because of my age.

Doing a lot of weight-lifting when young can damage your body. Of course my body wouldn’t get damaged, but he doesn’t know that.

So my calisthenics have come to a halt at my current limit. They may become effective again in a few months, when I’m a bit heavier, but I don’t intend on getting fat just to keep with the training.

I’m not a sumo wrestler you know?

Plus, there’s also the threat of falling into the cistern. I would like to avoid that if possible.

Then, the result is simple: I’m enjoying a bit of laziness for the moment.

That is, if you consider cooking, cleaning, sewing, fire-watching, medicine and preserved foods making as living a lazy life.

Ain’t I adapting well to this place?

Getting away from videogames and the net really did wonders for my depression.

Or was it the chance for a new start with really sweet people?

No idea, and I don’t fucking care!

There’s too much patting in the head to receive by doing my job right, and too less time to worry about a previous life I’m not even sure existed really!

… I mean, it COULD have all been a dream, right?

I cannot explain my gifts and cheats without relying on that, but… did it indeed happened? Or has something else?

Maybe I’m like that girl from that light novel, which discovered her memories had been copied from an earthling and then put into a brand new soul which was sent to a parallel world.

Or maybe I just don’t want to think about myself as being that sorry excuse for a human being anymore.

... I should take care not to be taken by my desire to emotionaly repress who I used to be, uhm?... I should really take care…

***

Grandfather and Grandmother have just arrived!

They brought big bags with them. Those are just cloth with stuff inside, but they surely are big.

It seems they will stay around for almost a year, because grandfather can only really work on the house on winter and summer – and, of course, he won’t do it during winter. It’s too cold and there’s always the risk of slipping on the snow and breaking his neck.

He may be young for earth’s perspectives, but someone over forty is already at quite a respectable age in this world.

I wonder if it’s possible that father and mother will have them stay over forever. Just dump the house and come live with them.

It wouldn’t be weird, right? Even if grandma has a young body, if grandpa is already thought of as someone of age, shouldn’t he live with his daughter?

I guess we would need a new room if this is the case.

But no no, he is old but not so old.

I mean, he isn’t on the age one would have trouble eating or getting sick all the time, right?

Maybe on earth’s medieval times he wouldn’t have a single tooth remaining in his mouth because of poor oral hygiene habits, but here, as much as the hygiene habits are as poor as there, there’s aura covering everyone’s teeth and also healing magic – which can grow back teeth which gets damaged, even by caries.

No brushing, no dentists, and no worries about being toothless when you’re older. Isn’t this a dream place?

… I mean, not that I need to care about that. My teeth are still all baby teeth. And one of them is getting loose already.

Aah, childhood is really an exciting time, no?

People say shit about adolescence, but having lived two lives I can say – childhood brings a lot more changes in the body than adolescence!

Just thinking that my teeth will all fall out and new ones will grow in the place is already much scarier than getting a deeper voice.

Oh, yes, a weird thing is definitely how girly I sound having a young boy’s voice. I even tried some voice acting when I was bored but, despise sister’s smile, it bored me quickly.

Anyway!

I got off track!

Grandpa and Grandma are moving to their room and taking our stuff out.

Our straw mattresses will be kept piled on top of one another and we will sleep once dinner is over.

Since putting grandpa’s bed on our room would be difficult they will put their mattress on a few of the beds combined together while we sleep on the ground.

Our clothes will remain on our chest inside the bedroom, since it’s unneeded to take them out.

All seems nice and cozy.

Plus, everyone seems happy having them. Mother even said she would prepare some special tea for us tonight.

It seems to be called brown tea, and it’s made from those seeds they kept getting from mine and Jacen’s birthdays.

Let’s taste this thing. I wonder if it’s similar to something from earth?

***

One weird thing about couples in this world, is how they call themselves. Mother and father sometimes call themselves by “Ma” and “Pa”.

Like how father wants to ask to mother if dinner is ready. He goes and say something like:

“Ma, is the dinner ready?”

And then she answers with something like:

“Not yet Pa.”

Or just “not yet”.

Now that grandmother and grandfather are with us I wondered if they would call themselves like that, and they indeed did it a few times.

However, they quickly corrected themselves after noticing the habit. Like this they started calling one another “granpa” and “granma”.

They had playful smiles while doing that, like two kids. Aren’t you too old to be finding this funny?

I mean, I’m the third kid born from this house! You two should be used to being grandparents already!

Well, it’s a nice feeling having them around so this is just me being a boring asshole.

Or maybe it’s because mother doesn’t want to allow me to drink the tea.

Really.

I mean, really.

What’s so special about tea?

I drink beer every day since the day I was born!

It’s diluted and almost non-alcoholic beer, but, still!

I was a little upset about that until the adults started to laugh at stupid things like the shadows in the winter fire.

…. Is this thing alcoholic?

Ah, sister just put me on her lap. And now Jacen is here too.

Today is a weird day.

“But then I said... hey… let me get a pig here, and then we talk about that!”

“Bwahahahahahaha!”

Jokes about weird nicknames people get are a weird thing indeed. But pig-fucker is a nasty one.

Still, all the adults are laughing.

Weeird.

Ah, sister is resting her cup close to me...

“You want a bit?”

She whispered on my ear.

Well, I don’t look like it, but I’m a very special child you know?

I have the mind of an adult, even though the body is small.

And that is why I must investigate this deeply by tasting what this thing tastes like.

Besides, being the only one sober when others are having so much fun is just boring.

I mean, look at Jacen.

He is dozing off.

So I will take a sip.

Uuhhm… spicy!

This thing is fucking spicy!

Also… this taste… wait… isn’t this… cocoa?!

Those are cocoa seeds??!

This is cocoa seed tea?! Isn’t this thing hallucinogenic in big amounts?!

Oh boy…

Ooooh boy….

Here come the pretty, pretty colors.

Just joking.

I just took a sip of it.

It’s as if I had a big cup of coffee, but I’m not on the level of the adults.

… except I’m laughing at the weird jokes, aren’t I ?

Hahah, yeah, I’m definitely high as fuck!

“Ann! Did you just… did you just gave brown tea to Alvin? Hhahahahahaha..”

“It was just a sip, just a sip!”

“Oh boy… hey, Alvin!”

“It’s a me, Alvin!”

“What?! Hahah”

“Want to see something funny? Come with granpa, come!”

“What Pa, what are you… oh good heavens, hahahahaha!”

And now we are dancing!

Haha, yeah, shake those hips granpa!

Let’s twist again!

Shake´en baby!

Hahahah

That is fun. Drugs are fun.

Let’s just hope I don’t become a crack addict, right!

***

Uuuhm… my… head… it… hurts…. So much… what…happened… WHOA!

Holy shit! Shit, shit, shit!

Sister’s breast on my face! Sister’s breasts on my face!

And this… her hand on my pants?! She is grabbing my butt?

What the fuck happened last night?!

Why can’t I remember doing anything bad?!

Calm down. Calm down.

Let’s access the situation.

We are both together on a mattress. Jacen is behind me, his back facing mine.

Sister’s arm is out of her shirt, and one of her breasts is in front of me.

It doesn’t seem we did anything crazy. Thanks the gods.

Let’s look around… everything seems fine… except the winter fire is out.

I guess it burned through the night and we didn’t notice.

Why is Jacen asleep also, when he should have awoken and kept it lit?

Oh wait… ouch, my head!

Argh… is this caffeine withdrawal?

May be.

Ok, let’s sit down and remember calmly… ah, sister’s hand just… it just passed right through the front of my pants...

Forget it!

Forget it!

Evil spirits, begone! Begone!

Ouch, my head!

Ok, no sudden movements.

After grandfather started showing me how to dance everyone was having a blast.

Then I kept drinking the cocoa bean tea… and Ann gave some to Jacen as well…

Eventually the tea ended and even though father and mother considered the possibility of making more, they decided against it since it was too late.

Then, I went outside to cut some wood… because we would sleep until late… right?

But what did I do to..

Oh… it’s right there at the corner. The wood I went outside to get.

I guess it never reached the fireplace.

I must have just dropped it there and then went to sleep.

I guess I remember sister hugging me right before I started sleeping, but I don’t remember doing anything lewd to her…

Well, I guess I wouldn’t have any condition to do lewd stuff anyway.

Now… there are still some embers on the fire… but it’s getting very cold in here, and very fast…

Let’s clad myself in aura and start the day with the right foot…

Here… detoxification magic and… the headache is gone.

Now, let’s put this fire back up.

First a bit of straw, then… here… some wood and... we have the fire back.

Wait, there’s something inside… is that… uuhm… what IS that?

Let’s see…

First, surrounding my body with aura like how I avoid the could to get to me… then… there we go.

It’s just an old rusty nail. Back in the fire you go.

But taking it from the fire depleted a HUGE chunk of my aura just now. I didn’t do this before because I thought it would deplete the same amount as defending from the cold or only a little bit more…

Well, I guess my training can resume now, can’t it?

As long as I deplete my aura with a similar method I can split the wood without using any of it and start getting stronger again.

But now… to enjoy the last of my lazy days.

So I returned to the bed and let sister embrace me.

Her boob?

… she is the one pressing my head against it.

I’m not the one doing it.

I’m definitely not to blame here.

Plus, her hand is just back on my butt.

That means it’s at least mutual harassing, right?

Let’s pretend I’m just a little kid and enjoy it a little more.

***

The family was up around midday.

It seems everyone had a case of hangover, so I volunteered to use detoxification magic on everyone.

Grandmother, Grandfather, Father and Ann allowed me to, but mother and Jacen would rater do it themselves.

Also, for some reason mother was a bit anxious after I finished.

“Listen All.. we will talk about this later, but don’t use detoxification in so many people at once outside home, okay? It’s very bad. Mother?”

“It’s too late to start the training now, so let’s prepare lunch and have the talk after that darling.”

Uh?

Uhm?

Training?

Grandmother is going to train me at something?

I mean, the aura control technique she passed us was interesting, but what else would she train us in?

Let’s just ask.

“Grandma is training us?”

“That is right sweetie.”

“What will grandma train me into? Are you going to teach me words?”

“Uuuhm… yes, I guess I can teach you how to read. But let’s talk about this after lunch okay?”

“Okay!”

That’s it!

The day I have been waiting for since my first days of talking!

I will finally learn how to read!

Oh boy, I hope the alphabet used in this world is closer to the Greco-Roman alphabet I knew in life than to oriental alphabets.

This way it will be easier for me to learn.

I wonder, is the reading here the same as in earth? From left to right?

Or is it somewhat different and weird?

I can barely wait!

It’s over three years now. I have been waiting for over three years for a chance of learning how to read, and maybe getting some books!

I can barely contain myself, so let’s go outside and finish my wood splitting for the day.

This way I can vent some anxiety.

Oh, but, before…

I clad my hand on aura and put it over the fire. If I should conceal myself while doing this?

Well, ever since I got punished by eating rice treants I made a vow not to hide this kind of things from my family, right?

So let them see it.

See? Most people aren’t even looking at me. Only grandma is paying attention to what I do.

She looked surprised, but I was done in a moment, so let’s go and...

“Alvin, what did you just do right now?”

Oh, she decided to investigate.

“I was spending aura!”

“So you can train with the axe?”

“Yes!”

“Show me how you did it.”

“Right! Like this!”

I showed her how I expanded my aura around my hand to protect it from the fire. It started to make me very tired at this point, so I did it for just a brief moment.

“Did someone taught you how to do this?”

“.. no. I was cold in the toilet, so I tried that and it worked.”

“… I see. This technique is called Aura Cushion, and it’s an intermediary-level aura technique. You must not use it when others are seeing. Also, when you do it to protect yourself from heat, be sure to keep your aura moving around your body. This way you will move the heat away with the aura, the wind will cool it a bit and the amount you spend to protect yourself will be lower. Right now you want to spend a lot, but in the future you may need to spend little, so train hard to increase your control and do it right, okay?”

Oh. Grandma is even more knowledgeable than I thought at first.

“Okay!”

I have a good feeling about this.

***

Lunch was very simple, as it had to be. If mother were to make something too complicated it would take a long time and we were all hungry, so she just used some of the wood I cut the day previous to light the fire and start cooking.

It was a mix of lunch and breakfast. There were scrambled eggs and wheat and oat porridge, but also some fried sausages and a hot soup with spices, picked vegetables and a good amount of ham.

Oh, I should also add that there is no fear of running low on supplies.

Since grandpa and grandma will be staying with us they have brought their share of food with them.

There are a lot of new chickens in our backyard and the pantry is stuffed to the ceiling with so much food!

Of course, grandpa didn’t bring their whole pantry, but there’s quite a lot more than usual.

Farmers do have it easier than militia guards, it seems~~~

Or maybe it’s just my impression. They brought a lot more grain, but there isn’t much more meat with it.

So I guess there’s pluses and minuses to the farmer life.

Regardless.

Lunchfast was good. The talk was something like father saying how the tax collectors had trouble this time because of a broken wheel in their wagon and trying to protect the cargo near a hex rat’s nest.

The guys aren’t exactly hated around the place since there have been no wars for a little over thirty years now, but misfortune happening to taxes collectors is always a sweet tale to the ears.

I guess this is the kind of vibe I’m getting.

On the matter of wars and taxes, it also seems our country is a good place to live and our county specially gifted.

That because even though there are other countries around the place, in most of them the local feudal lords can go into battle with one another without any permission from the king. They just needed a reason for that, and there was an assortment of reasons like staining someone’s honor and whatnot.

But our country is considerably centralized, so the feudal lords cannot go into battle against one another easily. They must follow strict rules and march only if the king approves.

Then, our county seems to be the main source of food for the capital and also a land under the direct management of the king’s seneschal.

On another words, there is no way someone is going to attack us unless they want the full might of the king to rain upon them. Not only that, but the king as well is rarely demanded to produce troops to fight alongside nobles against rebels who lost their nobility in war and stuff like that – so conscription doesn’t happen too often.

I wonder what would happen if Ann or Father were conscripted to the army.

Could I take it if someone just barged into our house and started to drag them to the army?

… in the end this talk took a really weird shape on my mind, I don’t know why.

It’s almost as if the atmosphere was making me think weird things…

But then, indeed, the atmosphere has become heavy all of a sudden.

“So… let’s start.”

Uhm?

Start what grandma?

“Alvin and Jacen… both of you pay attention to grandma now. Me and your parents have been talking and we decided to tell you something very important. It’s something you ought to be taught when you reached ten years old, but we decided to do it sooner.”

“Ma, wait a moment please. I will make us some tea.”

“Sure dear. I have brought beauty grass tea with me. Feel free to make some.”

Mother is weirdly anxious, isn’t she?

But now I’m curious as well.

…. This doesn’t have anything to do with me sleeping with sister, right?

It can’t be that this world has weird rules on female purity?

… worry not family! I will take full responsibility and marry my sister.

We will move to the capital, and I will support her on her mission to become a knight. Then we will build a cozy home and have a lot of children. I will work as an adventurer and do suicide missions which will grant me a lot of money due to me being immortal.

And if someone says I’m a bloody redneck bastard for impregnating my sister I will cut their necks off and skull-fuck the hole.

Ah, but then I guess I will have to start my research on immortality, won’t I?

…Thinking well… me, Ann and Jacen all probably have eternal youth like mother and grandmother.

But father and grandfather doesn’t.

Doesn’t this mean I will have to watch as they grow old and die in front of me?

… I guess I will have to start researching as soon as possible.

Delusions apart, the so called beauty grass tea has come.

It smells just like…

Yes, this is chamomile tea. Let’s forget those heavy thoughts for a moment and concentrate on something else. I will address this problem again in the future. Maybe I will have to change my strategies after all.

I don’t want my siblings to die of old age, so I need to hurry up with a solution to grant them immortality.

I may not have so much time to spend around lazily or keeping my little secrets….

Why didn’t I think of this first?

I guess father just seems full of vigor, so the thought didn’t go through my head so far…. It took me taking a while to analyze grandfather’s white hairs and remember of this basic fact of life. That everyone dies someday.

Or maybe it’s because I still have the mind of a child. Didn’t people say children sometimes doesn’t understand the concept of death?

…. No, I understood it very well when I killed the monster earthworm…

Ah, forget it. I’m overthinking this. Let’s drink the tea, listen to grandmother, and then dedicate this night to thinking on what to do about this immortality thing.

Common. Get into the tea. Savor it.

Forget about the shadow of death looming over your dear ones, forget the anxiety of being all alone and deprived of those who you love.

Just focus on the tea.

Take a sip, let it warm your insides.

Meditate a bit.

Yeah, one-second meditation. Just like that, all is illusion.

All things are void in the nature of their essence, and the void is what composes all.

Hear me Sharipura. There is no mouth, no ear, no body, no soul, no life-and-death and no after life-and-death.

All form is void in its essence and void’s essence is form.

There is no thought, no feel, no desire. Free of all bindings, the bodhisattva stands on the peak of absolute purity.

Gate gate paragate parasamgate Bodhi svaha.

Or something. I don’t remember the whole sutra. I don’t even know if it’s right.

I used to listen to it on youtube to be like ~~ah, it feels good, it feels nice~~ but I’m no budist in the end.

Still… Bye bye fear of death. Bye bye fear of loneliness. You shall also pass along. I’m good here, calm and centered on the reality that everyone is still alive and happy.

With my family, listening to winter stories in happiness.

So relaxing ~~~

***

Uh?

Why is everyone looking at me like this?

Grandma is shaking. Mother is biting her lower lip. Grandfather is pale as a ghost, father’s tea is all over the floor…

Ann is staring at me dumbfounded and Jacen… Jacen is just as confused as me.

Ah, mother just pulled me on a hug.

Wait, is she… is she crying?!

What… why?!

Why have I made mother cry?!

Is there anything weird with me?!

Have I done something improper?!

Someone explain things for me!

***

Things have become weird somehow.

Mother is still crying and clinging to me, but now everyone is trying to help her.

Grandmother is pale, saying things like:

“It’s okay. I will help you darling. It’s okay. Don’t be afraid. They can’t get him here. They don’t know where we are. No one must have seen it.”

Then there is father, holding her:

“Don’t be like this. I love you. I love you. No matter what, I love you.”

Grandfather just holds her. Then he calls Ann and Jacen.

“You two, come closer and hug your mother. Here.”

It took a few minutes. Then I noticed mother was hugging not only me against her body, but also hugging her own belly.

What… what is just happening here…?

Just... just for precaution, I hugged her as well.

Ah, something is boiling inside of me again… my eyes are weathering up…

But, still… I can control it, right?

For some reason I don’t feel the need to cry right now.

It’s okay, I guess. I can help her more like this.

Just like I used to do on earth. Hugging her with my heart.

Feeling her crying, her emotions, all of this chaotic thing… it’s okay. Just be strong, just be here, just be calm and perfectly available as someone to hug and embrace.

Well, I don’t know if it helped her, but I’m surely better now.

Ah, she is stopping a little bit at a time.

“I’m… I’m sorry… I…”

“It’s okay dear. In your condition, it must be hard on you.”

Mother’s condition? I wonder… could it be?

“You… how?...”

“I’m your mother dear. Don’t you think I would notice?”

She’s crying again.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…”

“Marie, what is happening?”

I would also like to know dad.

“Nothing much… just that… the two of you will be blessed again, I think.”

Oh, so that was it uhm.

Father is looking at mother’s eyes.

“Alice… is this… is this true?”

“Uh…uhum..”

Ah, is there something bad on mother being pregnant?

“I’m… sorry… even though Alvin was like this… I accepted you and this happened again…. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“Wha… what are you talking about?! I couldn’t be happier! Alice! Alice! Look at me!... I love you. I love our children. Thank you.”

This feels so heavy… mother is sad for having children?

What…

What is…

Grandfather, grandmother, even Ann… me and Jacen are the only ones who don’t know about it in the end…

Well, at least it seems mother is now crying less painful tears.

The tears are still there, but they are less painful. That is good, right?

I feel like I should back off a bit, but she’s still holding me.

Holding me while being held by dad.

Let’s just wait until this is over. And if I did something bad… I apologize. Please forgive me.

***

Mother went to sleep for a bit, and father went with her.

The rest of us are here at the living room.

“Grandma… did I… do something bad?”

Grandmother touched my hair and patted my head a bit.

“Not at all darling… it’s just… you are too special, and your mother got a bit scared. That is all.”

“Why is mother scared with me?”

Grandmother’s eyes… they are at the same time deep and sweet, but… also… weirdly profound.

They carry a certain anger at them.

“A long time ago, somethings happened. Special people aren’t liked in this country because of that. You will be at danger if you let others see things like what you should us today. Well, with this degree of talent maybe you would have been at trouble no matter if today or in the past.”

Uh?

What she means?

“Alvin, honey… do you know what you just did?”

“No.”

“While you were sipping your tea, your whole body started to emit a bit of light. Then your aura enveloped it, and started to become visible. We could see many colors in it, and then it calmed down and flowed around you like a river. Your skin became very brittle, full of cracks… and then evaporated, showing a new, smoother skin under. Do you know what is this?”

I have no idea!

What the hell!

I was just calming my thoughts!

“I… no!”

“Alvin, how did you learn the [Body Refining] technique of [cultivation]?”

“Wha… what is [body refining]? And [cultivation]?”

“You know how when you close your eyes and move your aura around or manipulate the emotions on the inside of your body? Like how you did right now?”

“Y.. yes.”

“That is cultivation darling. How did you learn it?”

“I…”

Should I tell her?

…

Oh, screw it, I will tell her.

“I remembered being someone in another life, and there I learned it. Then I became a baby again and I knew it.”

I still don’t know the word for reincarnation, so let’s go with an explanation.

“So you learned it from a dream…”

Well, it isn’t a dream but actual reincarnation… but why are your eyes so sad right now?

“Listen honey. You just did something very difficult to do, okay? These techniques you use, do not show them to absolutely anyone. Don’t practice them out of the house either. No one can know you know them.”

“Uhm. But what did I do?”

“You… well dear, you just became a Superior Being.”

***

Wait.

Wait a fucking moment.

A fucking moment, wait!

The hell.

Superior beings. They are humans who have undergone a special process which allows for them to become ultra-powerful.

They have special bodies which give them power to accumulate more aura than a normal human being.

They are mostly humans who have underwent the same transformation an animal goes through when it becomes a monster.

So am I monster now?

No, Superior Beings shouldn’t be monsters. They should just be humans with special powers.

“I see your father explained to you something about Superior Beings. Tell me what he told you.”

Ah.. what father… father…

“Father said... when you reach a certain amount of accumulated aura, you can’t accumulate anymore… if you do, then your body will mutate into a monster… but if you become a Superior Being you can accumulate more…”

Grandmother stopped patting me and sighed heavily.

“I guess this isn’t totally wrong, but it isn’t totally right either. I have a lot to teach to all of you. Let’s start when your mother has recovered. Now, go to sleep a bit. You must be feeling tired, but this whole commotion probably kept you awake. You need to sleep in order to recover from your first transformation.”

Actually I feel like I want to try moving my qigong a bit. Indeed, I’m feeling a little tired, but somehow I want to see if my previous bottleneck is gone or something.

“Grandma… can I train a bit first?”

“Why would you want to do that?”

“I had problems and couldn’t go forward… now I want to try before sleeping.”

“… very well. Go on and do it.”

I sat with my legs crossed in lotus position.

Really, I love this flexibility.

Now, to start the training.

I immediately plugged into a very deep meditative state.

I don’t know exactly why, but it was very easy this time. It’s almost as if this was the natural course of things.

Ah, I can sense something…

My connection with heaven… it’s increased several fold!

I can feel a lot of energy coming from above. It’s filling my dantian…

Wait, my dantian feels weird…

Indeed, it’s… wobbly?

Wooly?

It’s weirdly soft.

Ah, the energy is filling it and…

Argh! Gods, this hurts!

It’s a piercing pain…

And still, I feel like this is right… there are no masses being formed by my qi… it isn’t hardening… it’s just… pushing my dantian’s walls.

It’s stretching, stretching… it hurts, but it isn’t a bad pain.

It gives me a good feeling. A certain excitation.

I know it. From inside my gut, I know this will make me stronger somehow!

This is how it should be. This is the good pain of getting to your limits and going beyond. The good pain of achieving something extra, the hidden treasure only completionists can find in a game!

It stretches… then it started to compress again… compressing the qi in there… it’s becoming hard and powerful…

Oh.. the heavenly connection is small again.

It’s still around double what it used to be, but it’s smaller than before.

Also… somehow my qi is being sucked fast.

And the dantian itself seems… ticker?

It’s getting ticker.

I see. It’s as if it was getting more muscle.

This is the perfect time for training it.

I wonder if it’s because I have instantaneous regeneration, but it’s clearly becoming stronger just like a muscle.

So let’s try my best to make it even stronger.

I tried increasing my connection to the heavenly energy.

It increased a little bit again, and my dantian hungrily took the energy.

Argh.

It hurts just from entering.

A caustic pain.

Urgh.

This isn’t good. It feels like burning. It isn’t that good pain anymore. The dantian feels like it has become chaotic and bad.

Let’s purge it.

I directed all that energy outside and cleaned the dantian. Then I filled it with some common qi from the air and the food I had eaten.

That is, by doing breathing and qigong exercises without using the energy from the void.

The dantian is returning to normal.

It’s as if it had been burnt and now is recovering.

I added a little bit of the void energy, and it alleviated the weird feeling.

Indeed, it’s like I thought.

I cannot depend only on it. Only on heavenly energy, that is. I need to mix heavenly and earthly energies to ensure the dantian grows strong and reliable. Balanced.

I may be able to use only void energy if I want, but then my energy will become too heavenly and my progress will be marked by the consumption of my body and the inability to access the earthly and kind energies of this planet.

Let’s cure the dantian with a stream of compassion and love from my nidan and let it heals.

There.

It’s healed.

I opened my eyes, and it was night already.

***

*phew*

I let a small sigh out.

Grandmother is looking at me.

“Wanna eat a little All?”

“Please. I’m hungry.”

I started eating the soup she presented me. It’s cold, but it’s better than nothing.

It seems me and her are the only ones awaken now.

Jacen and Ann are sleeping in the floor right next to us. The rest of the house is silent, so I guess the rest are sleeping as well.

“Sincerely… you are really unlucky to have been born at this time….”

I looked at her and talked with the spoon still in my mouth.

“Why?”

She patted my head again. So much patting.

“It’s just that, if had been born a few hundred years sooner… maybe two or three hundred… you would probably be a royal prince now.”

That displeases me. I’m not here to be someone’s puppet. I’m here to enjoy this world to my heart’s content.

“I don’t want to.”

“And why wouldn’t you want to?”

“Princes have to do a lot of stuff for others, right? And they don’t see they mothers and fathers, and they have really lonely lives. I want to live with mother, and father, and Jacen, and Ann, and grandpa, and you too grandma. I like it better.”

“Pff.. hahahaha..”

Grandmother is laughing, but I do mean it. I’m having a nice family for the first time in two lives. I wouldn’t trade it for royal life in a million years.

“Right… I guess you’re still four anyway… come here with me.”

Uuuhm… grandma’s hugs are warm.

“I would also give up royalty to live with everyone. So go to sleep. We will talk tomorrow, okay?”

“Okay”.

Now I really feel like I can sleep like a baby.

So let’s hug sister from behind and…

I slept before even having time to think on something lewd.