NOVEL WEB Chapter 4 - The Mysterious Boy
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The sun was bright over the horizon and the sky was clear as water, there was a small cold breeze that caressed the sweaty skin of the farmers working arduously in the crops.
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Wiping the sweat from his forehead, a medium-sized man harvested the purple-colored carrots that had grown enough to be edible.
It was harvest season for the village, which meant that the vegetables were ripened and ready to eat. The villagers hurriedly harvested everything without leaving anything behind.
If the vegetables were to be let to grow any longer, the Mana imbued in the ground could convert the plants into monsters, making them extremely dangerous, even human lives may be lost if the villagers were not to be careful enough.
The man slowly walked towards his house, only having a single room where two small beds and tables were inside… and a boy.
The boy was currently reading an old book.
The boy seemed to be on his two years of age, it should not be even able to walk or speak, even less read. But it was currently sitting on the floor while reading the pages of the book, which is moved with his small hands whenever it finished a page.
The young toddler would look like a human at first sight, but it had abnormally pale skin, making it seem as if it were a doll… its beady eyes were crimson red, and it had short black hair, with a small, black-colored horn poking from the left side of its forehead. It was so small that it could be easily hidden by its own hair.
"Sigh… my son, you're still reading that book?" asked the man, he was the father of the boy, a man in his late twenties.
The boy couldn't speak yet, so it nodded while doing some noises of affirmation.
"Hm," it said.
"Well, it's time for your bath! And today we'll have carrot soup! Your favorite!" said the man, grabbing the boy and moving him away from the mysterious book.
"Hm! Hm!" the boy protested, but it lacked the strength to resist, although it released a thick Mana pressure, his father only felt a small eerie feeling but ignored it, already having gotten used to his half-demon son.
"I know that your mother's book must be very entertaining, but if I don't wash you this week, you will begin to smell very badly. You don't want that to happen, don't you?" said his father, as the boy resigned himself to be washed.
Even though it was a young boy, it felt terrible embarrassment when getting bathed by his father, and it also somehow knew how to write and clearly understand words.
"Sigh… if only I could be able to speak… Although I can recall some of the magic of my previous life, I cannot quickly level it up, I need to gain two more levels until I can learn the 'Telepathy' Spell from the No-Attribute Magic Skill. For now, I must keep training my magic while reading mother's book, I know that there is a hidden spell there that could help me out on my third life" thought the boy… he was Veronica's soul, who had been reincarnated into a half-demon boy living in a rural area of the Human Kingdom.
He hasn't yet understood in what world he was now, but it seemed strangely similar to Kritias in many ways. He recalled that on Earth, there were countless theories made by experts that there was a possibility of 'parallel worlds' that were almost identical to the original one.
Could had Veronica been reincarnated in one of those?
He didn't know yet… but, since he reincarnated as the half-demon boy with the name of Ervas Igni, he had felt that his soul was greatly weakened.
"Could the weakened state of my soul be attributed to the God of Light and Righteousness splitting it in my previous life?" thought Ervas.
However, he had also thought that it could be attributed to another thing…
"As well as the God's attack, my Soul was split in half… could that strange name…? No, it can't be…" Ervas couldn't escape from the truth anymore.
"I really did reincarnate into two different persons. So that feeling that someone extremely far away is connected to me… it must be him or her"
But Ervas also began to think… was he the original soul, or the one with the weird name? After checking on his status, he didn't inherit any skills from his previous life, but only the ones that he started over with on his second life, and the Skill 'Soul Form' had obtained the 'Weakened' status in brackets.
However, thanks to 'Memory Retention', Ervas was able to remember all of the years spent learning Spirit Magic and No-Attribute Magic, and naturally relearned them, albeit at level 1.
"Sigh…" muttered Ervas as his father began to wash his little feet.
"Ervas, why are you such a strange kid? So gloomy… Cheer up, okay? Here, look at my face!" said his father, as he began to do weird faces to make Ervas laugh, though it never worked.
"Dad, you're always such a nuisance, but I appreciate you taking care of me, I will make sure to protect you," thought Ervas.
Ervas released a mild smile, and his father laughed.
"Ah! So it made you happy at least!"
"I hope I learn 'Telepathy' soon so I can ask him about mother…" thought Ervas, while glancing at the old book on the floor.
From what he had read until now… this book contained the magic knowledge of his mother, someone who was born with a special summoning ability. If Ervas was really her son, he was sure to be able to 'awaken' this Skill and probably summon a creature to defend him and his father.
He knew that things wouldn't last long, the gazes of the villagers towards him and his father were evident, they didn't like the idea of his father taking care of a half-demon child.
One day, fear would overcome them, and if he wasn't strong enough to defend himself, death would await him once again.
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<Skill Explanation>
'Enlargement' Skills Category.
These skills are passive effects that always take place on the user, they increase a certain stat depending on its base number. This means that someone born with a low magic stat cannot get a thousand of it out of nowhere when having a Magic Enlargement Skill at level 1.
One must train the respective stat, and as it increases, the skills will take effect and exponentially increase the statistics. The effect of this skill also varies depending on the person and race they are, some have a better talent with magic than others, while some have greater health points growth than others.
But it usually works quite simply. If you have low stats, it will not be the best skill out there, but if you already have a large amount of them, the skill will increase them even further.
In the case of an individual that has zero stats, the enlargement takes on a different effect, granting a certain fixed amount even if the user has zero points in that respective statistic. Such as Veronica, who had 100 Mana and 10 Magic, even if that should have been zero like everyone else.
There is an 'Enlargement' Skill for each stat, and when they reach level 10, they can be further awakened to offer an even greater increase in stats, although the requirements for awakening a skill depends and varies in each individual.
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