Nathan – POV

  I have no way of counting the days that pass. No calendar, no clock, not even the faintest sense of time beyond the rising and setting of the sun. Being a baby is boring. People romanticize childhood, but let me tell you, when you’re stuck in a body that can’t even hold its own head up properly, the novelty wears off fast.

  I tried to make the most of it. Concentrating, meditating, attempting to grasp magic or mana, anything to give me a sense of progress. But so far, nothing. All I got was a lot of sleep. Endless naps. My body demanded it, and I had no choice but to obey.

  Still, life wasn’t entirely uneventful. My mother, Dianne, brought me along every day to her work at the tavern. Later, I learned it was called Nancy’s Eatery. Yeah. Real imaginative name. Every morning, she and my older sister Serena walked into town together, mother heading to the kitchen as the cook, Serena helping with errands. And every morning, the same thrashy men harassed my mother.

  At first, I thought it was just crude words, drunken laughter, the kind of harassment women have endured for centuries. But the longer I observed, the more I realized how dangerous it was. These weren’t harmless drunks; they were predators circling prey.

  I was just glad it hadn’t escalated into outright assault. Yet. But I knew it would. Sooner or later, one of those men would push too far. And I feared for my mother’s safety. For Serena’s too.

  I needed to do something.

  But what can a baby do?

  Cry. That’s it. Cry until my lungs burn.

  There was one incident that still burns in my memory. A bald, mean-looking man cornered my mother and Serena in an alley. I couldn’t understand half of what he was saying, but I didn’t need to. His body language, the way he loomed over them, the way his hand reached out. It was obvious where this was going.

  So, I did the only thing I could do. I cried. Loudly. Desperately. I wailed like the world was ending. And bless her, Serena joined in; her voice rising in a duet of panic. Our impromptu rendition of Cry Me a River was so convincing that the patrolling town guards finally intervened.

  We got away.

  Did the guards arrest the man? Punish him? Even slap him with a medieval parking ticket? Nope. They barked at him, waved their hands, and walked away. That was it.

  What a lame place this is.

  To my frustration, my mother didn’t report the incident. She didn’t even complain. She just went about her day, shaken but silent, and continued to the tavern. I realized then that this was her way of coping. Pretend it didn’t happen. Move on. Survive.

  And that terrified me.

  If this was how she handled a near-assault, how many other injustices had she endured? How many times had she been forced to swallow her fear and keep working because there was no other choice?

  The truth hit me hard: peasants here had no protection. No justice. The authorities didn’t care. They were desensitized, beaten down by centuries of neglect. They had no choice but to endure.

  What a fucked-up place this is.

  Back on Earth, we romanticized the medieval era with knights and castles, but the reality was brutal. Justice was a privilege of the rich. For peasants like us, it was nonexistent. And here I was, reborn into a world that seemed to follow the same rules.

  Every day, I grew angrier. Angrier at this world, angrier at my helplessness. Unless I found a way to change things, my family would always be vulnerable. But what could I do? I was a baby.

  As I pondered the intricacies of baby vigilantism, imagining myself as some kind of diapered Batman, I noticed something peculiar.

  A faint blue haze floated in the air.

  At first, I thought it was smoke. A gas leak, maybe. But then I remembered: no gas stoves here. No pipes. No infrastructure. Just wood and fire.

  And then, suddenly, a blue prompt appeared before my eyes.

  Mana Consciousness Awakened...

  Initializing...

  Congratulations! You have awakened your mana senses, thus opening your individual system ahead of schedule. The world’s system recognizes your will and desire to harness mana.

  You are rewarded with +5 stat points to Intelligence. The system also recognizes your soul’s potential and the journey it undertook. You are rewarded with a class “Shadow Mage,” which grants +5 Intelligence and perfect affinity to Shadow.

  Status:

  Name: Nathan

  Class: Shadow Mage

  Level 1

  HP : 10

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  MP : 0

  Strength: 1

  Stamina: 1

  Agility: 1

  Dexterity: 1

  Intelligence: 100 + 5 + 5 = 110

  Constitution: 1

  Affinity: Void SSS+

  Active Skills: None

  Passive Skills: Mana Sense 1

  What the fuck!?

  I was stunned. I had a system. A real, honest-to-God RPG system. And not only that, but I had also accessed it ahead of schedule. My class is Shadow Mage. Is that the same as a Shadow Priest? I hope so...

  Hell yeah! This was the best cheat ever. Thank you, God, or whoever was running this cosmic game.

  This meant I could train earlier than anyone else. I could get stronger, faster, and smarter. I could be overpowered as hell, if everything went right.

  But then I noticed something odd. My Intelligence stat 110. MP: 0. What does that mean? My mana pool?

  The rest of my stats made sense. I was a baby. Strength 1, Stamina 1, Agility 1...yeah, I could barely lift my own head. HP should stand for health points. But 110 Intelligence? That was absurd.

  The only explanation I could think of was my knowledge. My memories of Earth. My understanding of science. Maybe this world recognized that. Maybe it operated under the same laws of physics and chemistry, and my knowledge gave me an edge.

  Interesting. Very interesting.

  If that was true, then I could use my brain to help my family. To change things. To give us a fighting chance.

  The thought elated me. But I knew I had to be careful. Humans are greedy. Envious. I knew that because I was one. If people discovered my abilities too soon, they’d exploit me. Or worse.

  Still, the possibilities were endless.

  If 1 was the baseline for newborns, what was the average for adults? 10? 20? I had no idea. I’d have to ask someone eventually. Maybe my parents. Though I doubted peasants like us had access to that kind of knowledge. The aristocrats probably hoarded it, using it to maintain their power.

  But that didn’t matter. I wasn’t disappointed. Far from it. I would forge my own path. I would overshadow them all. And I would protect my family.

  That would be my primary mission.

  My secondary mission? Live my life to the fullest. Enjoy what I can do. Because who knew how long I had.

  All this thinking was exhausting. My tiny body demanded rest. My eyelids grew heavy, my thoughts sluggish. Babies need sleep, after all.

  I yawned, curled against my mother’s warmth, and let the darkness take me.

  Tomorrow, I would plan. Tomorrow, I would begin. For now, I slept.

  I awoke later that evening, the dim glow of the hearth’s dying embers casting long shadows across the room. My mother and father lay asleep on their bed of straw, covered with a rough, patched blanket that barely kept the chill away. Their breathing was steady, peaceful, the kind of exhaustion only peasants know after a day of endless labor.

  No sign of my siblings. Probably tucked away in another corner of this hut—though calling it a hut feels unfair. It’s more of a small house, if you’re generous. Worn down, grimy, the kind of place that smells faintly of smoke, sweat, and damp earth. Typical peasant dwelling in a feudal society. I wouldn’t be surprised if the roof was patched with cow dung. Eww. Definitely something I’ll have to fix later, once I’m not trapped in a body that can’t even crawl.

  As for me, I was nestled in what passed for a crib. Not the polished wood and soft bedding of the modern world, but a large basket woven from reeds. Crude, but functional. Honestly, I couldn’t complain. It kept me off the cold dirt floor, and that was luxury enough here.

  I shifted slightly, my tiny limbs useless for anything more ambitious, and that’s when I noticed it again, the faint bluish haze drifting lazily through the air. Mana. Magic. Whatever you want to call it, it was there, shimmering like mist in moonlight.

  Now the question was: what to do with it?

  I tapped into my deep reservoir of manga, anime, and web novel knowledge. If countless isekai protagonists could figure this out, so could I. Should I try to gather the ambient mana and make it my own? That’s how it usually worked in the stories. And considering my earlier attempts at meditation had already awakened my mana sense and the system, it wasn’t a stretch to think it might work here too.

  Decision made, I closed my eyes. Lying there in my reed basket, I focused, imagining the mana flowing into me. I willed it, demanded it, pictured it seeping into my body like water soaking into dry earth.

  At first, nothing. Just silence, the faint crackle of the hearth, the steady breathing of my parents. Then, slowly, my mana sense stirred. The haze responded. The blue mist began to drift toward me, drawn by my will.

  It worked.

  Excitement surged through me as I guided the flow, pulling it inward, directing it toward my chest. I imagined it condensing near my heart, gathering at a single point. The blue haze shifted, deepening, changing; light purple now, glowing faintly in my mind’s eye.

  At first, there was no pain. Just warmth, a strange fullness in my chest. But as more and more mana poured in, the warmth sharpened into an ache. My tiny body trembled under the strain. My chest burned, as though my heart itself was being reforged.

  Still, I didn’t stop.

  I clenched my will, forcing the light purple haze to tighten, to compress. I imagined it condensing into a sphere, a perfect core of energy. The ache grew sharper, unbearable, like a knife twisting inside me. My vision swam, though my eyes were closed.

  And then...The pain vanished.

  In its place came a rush of clarity, a sense of completion, as though something fundamental had clicked into place. A prompt appeared before me, glowing in the darkness of my mind.

  Congratulations!

  You have successfully created your own Mana Core!

  Warning! Corruption Detected...

  Emergency Protocols Initiated...

  Failed...

  Reattempting....

  Failed...

  Recalibration....

  Attempting Adaptation...

  Searching Database...

  Affinity Found...

  Adjusting Mana Core to Shadow Fel Energy Core...

  Compressing...

  Combining...

  Success...

  Initializing....10%, 27%, 49%, 83%, 100%

  Complete...

  Congratulations! Your mana core has adjusted to Shadow Fel Energy Core!

  You are the first to achieve this feat—and at such an early age!

  For this astounding accomplishment, you are rewarded with:

  +10 Intelligence

  New Class: Warlock Demonologist

  I lay there stunned, my tiny body still trembling, but my mind alight with triumph and dread. Fucking hell! This just transitioned from your typical isekai to straight up World of Warcraft. This was not I expected...