Soul Integration complete.

Initiating "Rise and Shine"...

John wakes up to the sounds of crying and a familiar sound. He wasn’t sure as to what’s happening, since his vision is still blurry. He slowly tried to open his eyes more, but he was unbelievably too weak to do anything. His body is sore and there was pain everywhere in his body. His hand then felt warmth just as immediately he had open his eyes. It was another person’s hand, but he wasn’t sure whose hand is it.

"Wait, was all of that Seto shenanigan just a dream?" No, John knew it was real.

There’s this lingering feeling in him that he knew was extreme dislike. If it was really a dream, then he would’ve not felt anything after waking up. Unfortunately for him, that segment was all too real. Proof of that is his current state. He couldn’t have suddenly turned into a weak husk of a human, unless a supernatural force were to come into play. He was very certain that the supernatural force would be Seto himself.

As soon as his vision cleared up, he found a woman next to his bed in the verge of tears as she looks at him in the eye, and also finding himself inside an unfamiliar room of wooden floorings, walls, and ceilings. Her amber colored hair is messy, as if she has been stressed out for a while now. Her face defied her tears when she wore an expression of joy that John only saw on people that have regained back what they treasure.

“Why..awe you cwying?” he faintly asked with what little strength he has.

Those few words that came out of John’s mouth wasn’t his voice. It was higher in pitch, almost as if his voice is that of a child’s. His pronunciation is also off, even though he was sure he voiced those words properly. It surprised him more than intended to be. Those words however came out a different reaction from the woman beside him, as he embraces him warmly.

“You’re alive… you’re alive!” she exclaimed while hugging him tightly.

John doesn’t know what was happening. Was he about to die? It seems like it given the “You’re alive” thing. What he doesn’t understand is why she’s hugging him when he barely knows her. An admirer perhaps? Or a long lost relative? Either way, he has to be precious if the woman was brought to tears when he woke up. This feeling of importance is nice in a way, though it still does not change the fact that she is a stranger.

“You’re okay now… mother’s here.”

The woman embracing him seem to be comforting him, and she’s claiming to be her “mother”. She looked nothing like his real mother, she was a completely different person altogether just judging from how she looks. This situation is really bizarre for John because unfamiliar fresh info is suddenly being slapped unto his face without knowing why. Then he remembered Seto. It explained everything.

Right now he is being held by this woman and is completely immobilized on his bed. John assumes that something must’ve happen before he woke up, but he just doesn’t know what. All he could think of is that some sort of accident happened, and now he is on his deathbed. John just couldn’t help but conclude every possibility with death.

“Norman! He’s awake!” she announced and freeing John from her embrace.

Looking around the room, there was no other person in sight so this Norman guy must be outside the room. On the far side he could see an open door, and from that door he could hear nearing heavy footsteps.

“Martha, is that true?”

The man, whose name seems to be “Norman”, came rushing in laughing while tears pour from his eyes after seeing me. He clutched his hand and covered it with his own two large graspers. John really doesn’t know what’s going on anymore.

“Aren! Aren, thank goodness you’re alive!”

Norman can only be described as a generic ripped wood cutter, with the beard and packed muscles and all. His brown hair was just as messy as the woman beside him, but not as long. He too looked quite stressed out, and have probably cried more than he had to judging from his reddened eyes.

Happiness was practically etched on Norman’s face. He was smiling wide, and John’s pretty sure the beard just made it more genuine. He’s too weak to move his body right now, so he decided it would be best if he would let things play out. He might get some information on what happened.

A black haired woman rushed in, assumed to be some kind of medical professional. However, her attire struck John as quite odd because for one, they do not look modern-ish. He could see some blobs of strands and stray threads in their clothes, as well as the fact that she is not in a white uniform. She wore what appears to be a robe that falls short on the knees, the rest being covered by her tight leather pants. She also wore an eyeglass and earrings, emitting a sophisticated aura that a doctor would have.

“By the gods…” The woman exclaimed. “This is a miracle!”

There was disbelief in her voice, as well as a mix of shock and excitement. This was the first time for the doctor to witness such a thing to happen, an event that John initiated with the help of Seto.

John was right about the whole accident and near death thing. Apparently, from the conversation coming from the people in the room, he had fallen from a tree. Unfortunately, John, or in this case the body he is in, hit every branch on the way down, sustaining multiple injuries and bone fractures as well as a concussion. The doctor thought that Aren was going to die due to internal bleeding and shock due to pain, but that was not the case. At least, for the body that is. How and why he climbed the tree in the first place was beyond him. John taking over the body only means that the real Aren has died. He offers a silent prayer for his soul to rest in peace.

It seems like Aren held on for dear life. The body’s supposed to be dead earlier due to having no more pulse when the doctor tried her best to heal him. The doctor’s healing allegedly wasn’t effective on Aren when she tried, hindering the recovery process that eventually led to Aren’s death.

“Will my son be okay Karen?”

Norman finally confirms that Aren is his son, prompting John to mark him as his “father” and the motherly woman’s, Martha’s, husband. This also reinforces the idea that he is indeed not in his previous world anymore. Transferred to another body, having two strangers as parents, and outfits that wouldn’t fit in the modern society. All evidences points to him being nowhere his home now, which massively sucks for him.

The doctor, whose name was apparently “Karen”, adjusted her eyeglasses and checked up on John.

“He appears to be conscious. Weak, but awake. I’m not so sure about his overall condition, so I’ll have to run some tests to make sure that he’ll be alright.”

Norman and Martha are side by side a distance away from John, looking at him with concern and worry. John smiled weakly and reassured them with a faint voice.

“I’ll be fine… Mom… Dad…”

John is taking risks here. He doesn’t exactly know if Aren called his parents this way, so they might suspect him if the reassurance failed. The smile Martha gave however was enough to tell him that it worked. John mentally sighed with relief.

He relaxes as Karen runs some tests on him. He responded correctly in all of them, but the weakness was very apparent in his every response. Who wouldn’t be so weak after sustaining life threatening injuries? His motor functions also seems to be working fine, along with some joint and muscle pains here and there. As for internal injuries, he seems to be fine.

John looks over his “parents”. They seem to be discussing something. He’s worried. Did they found out? Did his reassurance gave him away? John is already planning every plan he could think up of to escape the situation if they ever come to confront him about it. Such is the perk of mild paranoia.

The doctor interrupted his mental planning by making him look at her. Karen hovered her palm over John’s chest. It looks like she’s about to pray for his health or something else similar. John's questioning this woman's authenticity.

“Breathe and relax.”

Karen’s palm then glowed a bright green light. In that instant, John’s inner child burst out in joyful tears. It’s magic. It’s real. He closed his eyes in bliss, partly due to the warm healing and and realization that magic exists. Karen smiles as he looks at Aren’s eased face.

“Mr. and Mrs. Montrea, I’m happy to tell you that he’ll be able to recover. No permanent damage has been sustained, so rest easy that your child will be fine. I don't know why my heal didn't work last time, but I'm glad it did now.”

Norman and Martha hugged each other in happiness, while John lied there celebrating mentally. He doesn’t know what could’ve happened to his mind if he became impaired or something else entirely much worse. That heal is really effective and he’s thankful for that.

“When will he be released?” Norman asked Karen.

He’s not being hasty, but was just curious about his son’s rate of recovery. If anything, he wants to his son to rest as much as possible. He just wants to prepare a celebration for his son’s recovery by the time he is released, which was also the discussion of their topic earlier.

“From what I’ve seen, about three days minimum. You should let it go for a week just to make sure.” Karen explains. “He’ll need a lot of healing, so he’ll be asleep for most of the time he’s here.”

Meanwhile, John is already thinking of ways to live his life. There’s his priority to keep his identity a secret, as well as learning the ways of magic. He unfortunately had a joyful mental breakdown as he keeps repeating “magic” over and over again inside his head. The thought of being able to use magic broke him. Then the word “magic” made him remember something. He vividly remembers hearing a sound when he woke up. The sound was strangely familiar to a video game sound effect he heard whenever a screen pops out. “What if…?”

A screen suddenly appeared in front of John. He uttered the word “status” inside his head with the intention of seeing this screen, and it worked. Looks like the status screen shows all of the important details about him.

General Info Name: Aren Montrea Affiliation: None Level: 6 Age: 5 Gender: Male

Jobs Jack of All Trades Brawler

Health: 5/20 Mana: 50/50 Fame: 41 Experience Points: 57

Strength: 9 Vitality: 10 Endurance: 10 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 6 Perception: 7 Intelligence: 31 Wisdom: 22 Fortitude: 19 Charm: 10 Faith: 4 Luck: 21

Bonuses: It's Me!

Here's a gift.

Favors: None Discovered

Status Effects: Heavily Injured: You are in a weakened state, and cannot recover more than past a quarter of your max health.

Weakened: Movement is impaired and motor functions are severely reduced.

Sore: There will be slight pain in every movement.

His stats are definitely lacking. The only redeeming attributes he has are Intelligence, Wisdom, and Fortitude, which is appropriate considering the situation he is in. Luck can be put in there too, but it’s implausible considering how unlucky he is to have his normal but happy life disturbed by a whimsical god.

John sees that his jobs are Jack of All Trades and Brawler, him agreeing on the former being appropriate for him while not being able to say the same to the latter. He never works out or physically move intensively, so it means that it's Aren's job. Though he finds the Bonus stuff especially interesting, wanting to know about them first. He has a suspicious feeling that he knows who gave him these. He tries to know what effect does “It’s Me!” have.

It’s Me!

Type: Passive

Description:

You are granted presence of the legendary god of creation.

Effect:

A faint aura of divinity will always be emitted from you.

There will be chances of communication with the god of creation.

A very miniscule chance of Divine Intervention from the god of creation himself.

A lackluster bonus. The effects may be useful in some situations, but they are useless in most that John thinks of. This was a letdown for him. What about “Here’s a Gift.”?

Here’s a Gift.

Type: Passive

Description:

You are granted a gift by the legendary god of creation.

Effect:

You can understand the most common language in the world, as well as increased learning on other languages.

You have the permanent job [Jack of All Trades].

Now this is a better bonus. The bonus of being able to immediately understand the common language of this world was very helpful, as well as the possibility of learning new languages without much hassle is a plus too. John's impression of Seto weny up a little bit because of this. Then he wanted to read what Jack of All Trades is, but he’s got a funny feeling he already knows what it’s about, so he chose to keep it unknown for now instead.

“Aren, don’t push yourself too much next time, okay?”

Martha was already next to his bed after closing the status screen and gave him a slight mental surprise. His body was thankfully too weak to even properly spasm in shock. He calm down immediately after realizing that.

“Okay mom.” He replied back.

Dizziness suddenly strikes him as his eyes fail to keep themselves open. Karen did say something about him being “asleep most of the time” during his time here. Looks like Karen’s heal causes a side effect of sleepiness. Too tired to do anything else, he sleeps soundly on his bed.

A few days passed and John, or rather Aren as he calls himself now to get used to his new life, was finally released. In his walk home, he saw the world around him that he couldn’t see inside the enclosure of the wooden room he was in. There were stone and wooden buildings everywhere, people bustling about on the stone pavement while wheelbarrows and carriages transport stuff from one place to another. From the looks of it, the word is still in the medieval age. Well, at least he thinks it is. There is no guarantee that the level of technology in the world is like of Earth’s medieval age. For all he knows, the world might have steampunky mechas. Speaking of which, he must definitely see that if it does exist.

Behind him in the distance is a tall stone castle that’s sitting atop a hill. He could see its towers protrude from atop the lower storey roofs, and flags decorating under the scarce windows and pointed rooftops. He couldn’t make out what the emblems inside the flags were, but he can see that it’s at least colored in yellow and red.

“Do you feel better now?” Norman asked his five year old boy.

He wore a leather brown jacket and some dirty white long sleeves, but the sleeves was apparently ripped to give way for his packed muscles. He also wore leather pants and sandals. Thank god for no socks in sandals. Judging from his buffed build, Norman may be the reason for the Brawler job. Must be, since Aren can’t think of any other reason. Or maybe it’s from Martha? No way, Martha’s thin delicate arms doesn’t seem like something you would use to punch a boulder with.

“Yes dad. I feel... bwetter now.”

Despite his reply, Aren can’t still get used to his body’s small size, and underdeveloped bodily functions. There’s also the case of not being able to pronounce words properly, but that will be fixed in a earlier time than the previous problems. What he has to worry about now is how to integrate into the family without raising any suspicion. It would’ve been great if Seto just gave him Aren’s memory, but seems like he doesn’t give out advantageous situations that easily.

“I see. Do you want to eat something?”

Norman was normally happy for his boy. He thought that maybe he could give him a treat to celebrate his release.

“Norman, he just ate.”

Beside Aren was Martha, holding his hand as they walk along the road. He wore a motherly peasant dress, and an expression of mild disappointment for Norman. Her sandals clack along the pavement as she syncs her pace for Aren.

“Aww, come on sweetie. Boys like Aren needs to eat lots for their growth!”

“Norman, he’s just 5. Making him eat like a hog will just cause him to be fat.”

Aren doesn’t mind being fat if he could eat delicious food.

“I can make him not get fat though! So what’s the problem?”

Martha hits her husband in the head, clearly angered. Seems like a painful hit too, since Norman is holding his head like a kid hit from his mother. Maybe the Brawler job did came from Martha.

“The problem here is you have been working Aren too hard! Of course he wouldn't get fat.”

Norman rubs his head. “But you knew Aren wanted to be like me. So I did what I had to! I even had your permission!”

The three walked along the road, as Aren tries his best to listen. This might give him some history lessons about himself.

“Norman, you made him over enthusiastic. We agreed that you would train him to the terms that you wouldn't push Aren too hard. And we both know what happened afterwards.” She sternly told her husband.

What Martha said pierced through Norman's heart. He pitifully rubbed his thumbs together and kept quiet after what Martha said. He feels guilty, and he decided that it would be best to keep quiet to not embarass himself any further. From what Aren could gather, the accident was indirectly caused by Norman’s guidance, causing Aren to be too brave and caused his demise from a fall. Aren musn’t let them know that the real Aren has already died.

Martha sighed. Despite her anger, she still loves her husband. She can’t bear to see him like that. Plus, there are people looking.

“But you were the one who did everything you could to save Aren.” Norman’s expression started light up. “I could only wallow in despair, but you shone like a beam. You were really amazing back then. Thank you Norman.”

Martha's lovely smile dealt the finishing blow to Norman. His heart fell in love all over again for her.

What scene came next before Aren was an overly passionate husband trying to hug his annoyed but blushing wife, with people looking at them. Aren can’t help but smile at this sight. He contemplates on the time when his real father did the same to her mother. He misses his life back at home already.

“Let mweh in too!”

But for now, he’ll have to cope with this swelling feeling inside him. What matters right now is to make sure he lives long enough to make it back. Aren mercilessly helps Norman attack Martha with a love hug.

A few minutes later, the three were already riding a carriage back home with the two males drooping their shoulders, with a painful and large lump on their heads lovingly given to them by Martha.