Awaken – I
Lucas PoV
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Today marks three years since I came into this world. Time really has passed quickly, from the moment I woke up in the darkness to the present moment. The days to get here may seem long, but now that I look back, it is as if everything happened in an instant, but that is the beauty and the ugliness of time.
Even though I have only lived here for a few years, I have really grown attached to this family, this house, this place, this world. A long time ago, I stopped thinking about who I was in my past life and wholeheartedly accepted my current identity. I already died there, so there is no point in ruminating these thoughts, this curiosity that I have, since the 'me' there was gone at the moment of my death.
After I accepted this thought, I finally felt complete. Completely ending the struggle of the 'two personalities', finally finding a point of balance. In all these three years that I've had to think about it, I've started to wonder if it's really two personalities, and not something else.
It's not like I suddenly turn into someone else, as it should be in someone with a split personality, because I've always had complete control over myself.
Put it this way, it is obvious that this is not dual personality, so I wonder what caused this. Maybe an identity conflict? Could be, since that ended when I fully accepted my current self. Well, whatever, since the cause of it doesn't matter much to me.
The really important issue of these last three years is that the feeling I got when I saw Mom using magic has been increasing, and today, on my third birthday, the feeling peaked, making me feel as if I was about to explode only to disappear into nothingness some time later.
Alice told me that the same thing happened to her, and it baffled me. How could a feeling as strong as this come out of nowhere? As for Mom, she was extremely happy when we told her about it, calling us geniuses - also complimenting herself in the process - but she didn't know the reason for it either.
But the most frustrating thing is that I can't do anything about it. Being a three-year-old who can't do anything to figure out the strange things around me makes me angry. It's like Mom sometimes says when she shows us Magic "Without power you can't do anything," a barbaric way of thinking ... yes. But that's the way this world is.
The only thing I can do is train myself to become stronger, and so I can find out why all this happens. And also why the feeling of powerlessness bothers me a lot.
About the world I am in, I have discovered more in these last three years. It will take a while, but the explanation is necessary.
The world I am in is called World Without End, as to the reason for this name, it is because until today - year 54679 of the 12th era, day 7 of the sixth month - little is known about this world. Even the populated areas represent only 5% of the explored areas of the world, and that would be equivalent to the entire Northern Hemisphere of my old world. With this information, I find it easy to understand why the world has this name.
The "Eras" refer to the World Cycle, where the beginning and the end of the Era are the part of time where the power scale of beings and the amount of mana in the world is the weakest, and the middle is where the power scale of beings and the amount of mana is the strongest. A good analogy would be the triangle, with the ends representing the scale of power and the amount of mana.
We are in the 12th Era, but that is because this is all we have on record, for there were more, but they were lost in the long river of time. We know they existed because of vague mentions in the records of the early Eras, but since we have no hard evidence, we don't count them.
We are in a Neutral Age. An Age in which there were no Chosen Ones, so there is no dominant race in the world. We don't know their cause, but they are there.
What defines the end and the beginning of an Era is the appearance and disappearance of the Chosen Ones of the Era. They are the greatest talents and those destined to rule all living things when they reach their peak. They are unmatched in everything, be it in the amount, control, understanding, absorption and conversion of mana, also in luck, and are more durable than cockroaches.
The way to tell if someone is a Chosen One of the Age is quite easy. All living beings, whether they have ordinary talent or are Chosen of the Age, will go through what is called an "Awakening", which is when you can finally communicate with the Mana in your body and begin your journey to becoming a Magus.
During the Awakening the "Phenomenon" will occur, which stems from the appearance of the "Mark" - the symbol that confirms the identity of all the Chosen - unlocking all the talent of the Chosen, and with their talent for magic being so great, phenomena are formed in the real world.
The phenomena are based on the talent of each Chosen One. For example, if you are talented in the Fire Element, a Fire-based Phenomenon will occur around you. More than one Phenomenon can occur simultaneously if the Chosen One is talented in more than one Element.
For the Marks, there are no fixed forms for them, with each Chosen having their own. They can appear on any area of the body that is visible to everyone, such as arms, legs, head, etc. The colors of the Mark always follow those of the Element(s) with which one has affinity. Recognizing the authenticity of the Mark is easy only with the royals projecting the World Aura - a type of Aura used exclusively to facilitate recognition of the Marks.
I forgot to mention, but there can only be 2 Chosen Ones for each race.
I've explained enough about the Eras and the Chosen Ones, so now let's get to the current situation of the world.
The map of the populated parts follows the compass location a bit, with the Empire and Human Realms facing North, the Union where the Equator would be, and the Esdroz Empire - where I currently live - and the Spirit Beast Realms - which is the correct name for our race, since we have a Soul with a different spirit than Magical Beasts - facing South, the Elven Empire facing Southwest, and lastly the Demon Empire in the far East. "Facing" for not having the whole world explored, so we cannot state our actual location in the world, only the approximate direction.
As I said before, there are four empires in this world, which are the Esdroz Empire inhabited by Spirit Beasts, the Lunora Empire inhabited by humans, the Alari Empire inhabited by elves, and the Kyen Empire inhabited by demons.
All races follow the same hierarchy, the strong controlling the weak. But as history has shown a few times, the strong are not always the best, with intelligence overcoming strength. Therefore, a balance between the two is necessary if you want to have a stable reign.
Since the kingdoms are not few, I will not go into detail about them. The basics are: each kingdom serves the Empire of its race, paying tribute, helping out in times of war, etc., basically the same job as an ordinary citizen.
Superficially, all races are at an impasse on the question of power, but I particularly doubt this. The power ceiling may be the same for everyone, but the amount of beings in it is not, so it would be inaccurate to say which is the strongest.
The world is peaceful since we are at the end of a Neutral Age, so there are no deep enmities between the races today. Apart from the Human Empire and the Demon Empire, which are like water and oil for their different beliefs and bloodshed since the early Eras.
Uuf, I think I have finished with all the explanation I had to give. How much time I spent thinking about how to organize this information... at least a considerable amount. Damn, I forgot to talk about the Magi. Here we go again.
There are 9 levels of mages, which are:
- Magus Beginner
- Magus Intermediate
- Magus Advanced
- Magus Superior
- Magus Master
- Magus King
- Magus Emperor
- Wise Magus
- Magus Saint
Everyone begins as a Wizard Apprentice, the only difference is when they undergo their Awakening, which is defined by their talent level.
The Chosen awaken before all races, no matter how talented the non-Chosen are. But based on a common talent, the order would look like this:
- Magical Beasts - from birth
- Elves - 7~8 years
- Demons - 7~8 years
- Spirit Beasts - 10 years
- Humans - 12~13 years
Magical Beasts can use Magic from birth, but as a 'price' for this advantage they are chained by their Bloodline, which defines how far they can go in the path of power. Of course, the talent of each beast is important, but no matter how talented they are, they cannot escape their own Lineage. Of course, there are exceptions to this.
Elves, Demons and Spirit Beasts are also handcuffed by a handicap, which is also being handcuffed by their Lineage, but a little different from Magic Beasts.
While Magic Beasts are limited by the degree of their Lineage, Elves, Demons and Spirit Beasts are limited by the Elemental Affinity of their Lineage.
In other words, a Spirit Beast with a lineage related to water cannot conjure Magic of any other Element. That is, as long as that Spirit Beast is not a mutant.
A mutant is a being that can be born into any race, leaving out only the human race. They are special beings in their species, because they can break through the limitations of their own Lineages and unlock affinity with other elements. Mutants are born with this peculiarity, but it only comes to light after the Awakening. In the event that a Magic Beast is a mutant, it will change the degree of the Lineage along with obtaining another Affinity.
Humans have no disadvantage when it comes to magic, or perhaps you could say that their greatest advantage is their greatest shame. Because of their late awakening, Humans are not hindered by the concept of Lineage and its limitations. In this way, the only thing that limits them is their own talent and their Affinity.
Because they are not affected by Lineage, in theory a Human can learn Magic from all the existing Elements, but this is only theory, with practice being very different.
The study and understanding of the Elements that you have no affinity with is difficult even for geniuses, as a number of factors such as time, patience, understanding, conversion, compatibility and others are necessary for success. So a Human that can master all the Elements is a dream that will never get off the paper.
But if by chance an immortal Human were to emerge, it would not be an impossible dream...
Uuf, I think I'm really done explaining everything now. I hope I haven't forgotten anything.
After all this monologue organizing the information, I am sleepy. I hug Alice and get ready to fall into the world of dreams.
Yaaawn...
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Waking dazed from my much loved sleep, I find myself in a strange place, if I didn't know I was awake I would believe it is a nightmare.
Endless plains as far as my eyes can see, but instead of lush green lawns and a clear blue sky, all I see are corpses of all kinds of beings torn to pieces on the ground, rivers of blood as deep as a zigzagging abyss, a dark green mist in the air giving a mystical and deadly touch to the landscape, and a sky of such a deep black that it seems to want to consume the world.
But instead of the expected reaction of any normal person, which would be to go into shock and feel utter revulsion at the horrendous carnage in front of me, I feel completely calm, unaffected by what I see.
I feel no empathy for anyone but my family.
I realized this trait of mine when I was about a year old, witnessing when a stealth-type Magic Beast appeared in the Village and killed a woman in front of me.
While the people around the event choked with shock and felt sorry for the woman, all I could think about was how fragile life was and how weak the woman was. If she was strong she wouldn't die, she would go on with her fragile life after just a little scare. But unfortunately for her, her life ended in that instant.
Trying to find the reason why I think this way, the only conclusion I came to was that it had to do with my cold side - I forget what I called it at the time - from when I was reincarnated.
Although I thought about it, I quickly put the thought aside, since I don't really care. And since it doesn't seem to negatively affect me or my family, I made even less of a point of knowing why.
I may be explaining all this mentally, but I haven't stopped assessing the situation from where I am. Right now I am walking towards the only strange thing I have seen in this place. An isolated mountain in the middle of nowhere.
Although I have the body of a three-year-old child, strangely enough I didn't feel even a little tired while I was doing this walk, which was a little long.
After twenty or thirty minutes of walking, I finally reach my destination, which is not really a mountain, just a pile of stacked corpses that look like they have been pressed together, creating a grotesque scene.
I go around the hill, looking for an entrance or something else. Even after fifteen minutes of searching, I find nothing, so I give up and begin to consider the idea of going up this hill.
Looking up, I estimate that it must be seventy meters high. As for the estimate, I just approximate how many houses I would have to stack up to get to the top of the hill, and with my house being ten meters high, I come to the conclusion that it is probably seven houses. I am a genius, am I not?
I am lucky that the hill is not too steep, otherwise it would be hell to climb it, and since my answer is probably here, I am grateful that the climb is not so laborious.
Well, here we go. Time to play mountaineer.
First I check to see if the place where I am going to start climbing is really firm, since I don't want to fall and risk hurting myself there.
Calmly and surely I continue my climb, always being careful about where I lean and the actions I take.
Forty minutes later - I honestly don't know, I am just guessing at all the time I have spent in this place - I reach the top of the hill, and the sight that greeted me at the top let out only one word from my mouth
What?
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Hello,
Sorry for the delay in posting, I was just lazy to write, but here is the chapter
Um capítulo bastante grande, 12.300 caracteres no total, com as informações do mundo e mais alguns pensamentos de Lucas revelados.
Os próximos capítulos serão principalmente sobre informações, seja dos eventos do time skip ou dos eventos atuais com Lucas e sua família, então se você não gostar peço que seja paciente, pois é necessário
Quanto ao despejo de informações, você gostaria que continuasse como está, sendo bem detalhado comigo tentando encontrar todas as lacunas e fechá-las ou algo menos detalhado e mais rápido? Eu particularmente gosto do jeito que está, mas por favor me dê seu feedback, pois posso trazer um conteúdo melhor para você.
Eu deveria ter perguntado isso no último capítulo, mas esqueci. O que você acha da gramática? Melhorou? O que posso melhorar? No que devo prestar mais atenção?
Você pode me dizer coisas que acha que deveriam ser melhoradas também, já que não adianta eu achar que algo é bom se a maioria dos leitores não gostar.
E isso é tudo que eu gostaria de dizer
Cuide-se, beba água e cuide-se
Autor: D-