Chapter 1: A Healthy Baby Boy

  After a couple of weeks, I gleaned all I could of my past life’s concepts, and even remembered a couple of memories that seemed important to me. I could tell my time was almost up, so I chose to try and commit it all to memory instead of learning more.

  I felt myself shift at times, feeling a sense of rotation slowly take hold until I was finally upside down. It must not be long now.

  The pressure came steadily over the course of several hours. It started at my head, and it accompanied the rhythm of my mother's heartbeat elevating, thudding loudly in my ears. I tried to move, finding I could, but with firm resistance.

  After what seemed like forever, I began steadily moving downwards.

  Soon I saw a light, and tried my best to wiggle towards it.

  As the light enveloped me, I was greeted by the wrinkled face of an old woman. She had clearly seen a lot of life, and knew what she was doing.

  She smiled at me as she lifted me from between my mother's legs, and cut my umbilical cord.

  The instant of pain was quickly drowned out by the raw feeling of the air on my skin. It was harsh and cold, like needles pricking every inch of me all at once. I'm not too ashamed to admit that I began to cry.

  As I screamed out in pain and discomfort, I caught sight of a well dressed young man with short black hair and silver eyes, as he came rushing into the room.

  I’m guessing this man is my father, given his apparent concern for my wellbeing. He exchanged some hushed words I couldn't understand with the old woman, before I was neatly wrapped in a soft blanket. The words caught my interest, as they didn’t sound like any of the languages I had heard of in my past life. Before I could think more than that, I was handed to my mother.

  Having been angled away from her until this moment, the first thing I noticed about her was her eyes.

  They were deeply bagged from the exertion of childbirth, but even still she had the most breathtakingly vibrant blue eyes. They were the most striking eyes I had ever seen in both my lives. Granted my sample size for this life was a scant three people, but all the same, I could tell they were something special.

  As I stared into her eyes, I caught a glimpse of something strange in them, as a feeling of pressure washed over me. My mother then smiled softly as she looked me over from head to toe, before settling back on my eyes.

  Maria Blackwood's Point of View:

  Breathing heavily I pushed one final time as the midwife, Granny Olbeck, encouraged me on. I don't remember the birth, so I must have fainted for a moment, because I only remember being roused by the sound of a crying baby.

  It was my baby crying.

  Leon rushed into the room, immediately asking what happened and why our child was screaming. Granny Olbeck assured us that our baby was fine, as she wrapped the baby in a soft blanket and handed him to me.

  Speaking in a wizened tone she said;

  “Its a beautiful baby boy”

  As soon as I was handed my son, I intended to look him over carefully, but I was captivated by his seemingly intelligent eyes.

  They were a mix of his father's silver and my sapphire blue.

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  After a brief pause, I realized he was no longer crying. Concerned, I used my Appraisal skill on him, and met no resistance as I pulled up a copy of his status in my mind.

  Appraisal(Rank 3):

  Name: Unnamed Blackwood.

  Race: Human (0 star).

  Health: 5 of 5.

  Mana core: N/A.

  Magical affinities: N/A.

  Magic: N/A.

  Skills: 0 of 5.

  Status effects: None.

  Description: “The recently born child of Lord Leon Blackwood, and Lady Maria Blackwood.”

  Letting out a sigh of relief I looked back into my beautiful boy's eyes, as he began to giggle.

  “I think we'll name you Loxus.”

  ***

  Loxus Blackwood's Point of View:

  As soon as the pressure faded, a chime sounded in my mind, as well as a thought that wasn't my own.

  “You have unlocked the Utility Skill: Appraisal(Rank 1), would you like to accept?”

  *YES/NO*

  With only a moment of hesitation, I thought “Yes” to the prompt, and a new thought appeared in my mind.

  “You have learned the Utility Skill: Appraisal(Rank 1), you have used 1 of 5 skill slots.”

  Current Skills:

  Appraisal (Rank 1): level 1.

  After a moment to register what had just happened, I began to giggle uncontrollably, unable to hide my excitement.

  In my new world, there was some form of system, and on top of that there were skills! I didn't remember much about my past life, but I was certain skills like this didn't exist in it.

  My mother then began speaking to me, though I still couldn't understand her. A moment later I was met by another chime, and a notification in my mind.

  “Congratulations, you have been given the name ‘Loxus Blackwood’ and have achieved the race grade of Human 0 star.”

  ‘Loxus, huh? I like it.’ I thought, while wondering just what Human 0 star meant.

  I thought about what I had learned for a few minutes as my mother was cradling me in her arms. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to be able to learn more about any of it without some time to experiment.

  Returning my thoughts to that of my new skill, I considered trying to appraise my mother. That thought lasted only a moment until I remembered the feeling of pressure I felt just before I gained the skill.

  Putting two and two together, I quickly realized it was probably brought on by the use of the skill on me, given the way my mother seemed to scan me up and down as I felt the pressure. Having no way to know if that feeling of pressure could be felt by everyone, I weighed the risk of being caught using the skill, and I thought better of it.

  After deciding against trying to use the skill on my mom, I figured I would just try to use Appraisal on myself instead.

  My thoughts were twofold; One, I wanted to try to get a better idea of what the Appraisal skill actually did. And two, I hoped that it might give me a clue about how this system functioned.

  After a lot of trial and error, I was finally able to appraise myself, which pulled up a status-like screen in my mind

  Appraisal:

  Name: Loxus Blackwood

  Race: Human 0 star

  Health: 2 of 2.

  Mana core: N/A.

  Skills: 1 of 5.

  - Appraisal(Rank 1): Level 2.

  Experience: 9 of 125.

  As I read through what I could only describe as my ‘character sheet’ I froze, captivated by the field titled ‘mana core’.

  Did this mean what I thought it meant? Does this world also contain magic?!

  My mind began racing with the possibilities. I was so captivated by the idea of magic, I almost didn't notice the section labeled experience. Thinking about my previous questions, I started to think about how my race and experience might be connected. I decided I didn't have enough information to make any conclusions, but I put a pin in it for later.

  As my mother dozed off, me still in her arms, I soon joined her in sleep.