Chapter 3: Beginning, Abilities Awakening, Hidden Cave Pt1

Chapter 3: Beginning, Abilities Awakening, Hidden Cave Pt1

 (Previously....)

"I hope you will forgive me for what we did to you my friend, for it needed to be done, to save you and constant lives that have been lost, you must change things, Chris. I hope I get to see you again, my friend. If you succeed, it means we never will and all those lives and worlds that were lost, you have saved." 

As he started to fade away, "I hope this will compensate the trouble you will soon be heading into, my friend. I could only do this." He waved his hand to where Chris had disappeared from, and four glimmering shapes appeared momentarily and disappeared as well after a few seconds. Then the ROB faded away into the nothingness, or so he thought...

It seems like this new body was just running on some kind of monotone autopilot, until just recently when my soul arrived in it. So, my new name is Christiano Leonardo Armandeo, born 15 December 1956, born to a relatively well-off Half-American family living in Las Angeles California. My mother looked in her mid-20's, 6' tall, midnight dark-haired, pale brown fiery eyed beauty with curves in all the right places. 

She was young for her age, though she had a right mean streak to her. An Uptown Housewife true to her upbringing who was born in France, then moved to the United States in the early-1900s with my father after she left her modeling career. She used to work for a famous French modeling agency from her early teens to her early 20's. Until she met my father, now they are living in the United States making a family. 

Now my father, he's a wealthy full national Italian half-American businessman, who immigrated to the United States at an early age with my Grandparents who wanted to make something of themselves. In what kind of business was he involved in, I don't know even have the slightest idea, even now, I don't know or remember. 

All I know is that he makes a whole lot of money and that makes me a rich second son rich kid. My father is the typical 6'2" tall, blonde-haired male with piercing bright blue eyes with a body builder shaped body, and I am a mix of both of them. I have my mother's sleek midnight black hair, and my father's sparkling bright blue eyes, the color of the deep ocean. 

I attract attention wherever I go due to the hair and eyes. The eyes because they practically glow if you are looking at them at night. My face is perfectly symmetrical, probably due to my mother's great genes. 'Don't tell my father that, he always gets upset because I choose my mother's side all the time'. Like any new reincarnator, once I was left alone in my room, I tried practicing my powers early on as a baby. 

But I knew I wouldn't get anywhere till I got older, because what I really needed to fix was my body as it grew, it needs to hold a lot of power and magic. What took me by surprise was, I seemed to not have any special abilities yet, then remembered what ROB had said about my magic and that the abilities would not be active until I was at least five years old. 

None of my abilities seemed to have been activated, before going into panic, I remembered asking the ROB for an origin story for my powers. All I could work on at this time would be my mindscape and Occlumency shields. So, I remained calm and decided to enjoy my childhood as best I could and work on my mindscape and shields, for now anyways. 

I need to start making a training schedule and once I obtain my special abilities start training. It feels great when time flies when all you do is sleep mostly the first year. By the way, my life was boring and monotone as ever, eat, shit, sleep, repeat... now that I have been alive with this body, life has been great so far and I'm a year old to date. 

Today is January 12, 1957, and I am a full year old and running at full speed down the hall of our home. I started crawling when I turned three months old, surprising both my parents and the maids as I crawled by them as they sat, drank, and read their morning paper. I started talking full words when I was five months old and started walking two months later, saying my first word 'STUPID'. 

I said the word right after my dad said it, which got my mother very angry at him for saying those kinds of words near me. He slept on the couch for 2 weeks without funny business and I had my mother to myself for those 2 weeks. You might be wondering why I would bring too much attention to myself, if I could hide it early on and not need a back story, right? 

Well, I did it because if I didn't show that I was a genius at an early age, I wouldn't have to worry and cover my abilities to my parents. And not worry about getting suspicious if I did something too smart or out of the ordinary that kids my age shouldn't know how to do. Plus, with the rate that my body was improving, which was really quick. 

It includes the fast evolution of my brain as well due to my automatic body manipulation ability. I will be able to comprehend almost anything easier, then my parents could brag about me to their friends and say I'm a real genius. And yes, I found that I could start to use my body modifications early on, but it was automatic. 

It was something that I could not control yet, it worked at a lower tier pace due to the amount of energy that was needed to be used which I didn't have to much of yet. And as a baby, after the ability activated, it enhanced my brain automatically, a little at a time and it takes time and a whole lot of energy, you know. I ate four times the amount a one-year-old would or could consume as a baby. 

Giving the maids of our house a workout as they cooked three times the amount of food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The new year that past was just like that, and it had been a very productive year for me, my brain was enhanced to genius levels, and I was building my mindscape fairly well. My shields would have to wait until the mindscape was complete and all knowledge stored away for me to start on those. 

Today's date, February 3rd, 1958, my modification ability had given my new body a better immune system after my brain was complete. I was happy that it would take a lot to get me sick, especially in my early years, thank ROB for that automation that activated my ability. The mid 1950's in the United States was messy, where sickness was rampantly high. 

The medicine at that time did very little to help those that contracted any of those sicknesses that were brought over from other countries, such as the Spanish flu, Cholera, and the Hypothermia that usually came from the immigrants that came from the colder parts of the world to the United States. The streets and hospitals were sometimes crowded full of sick people. 

Well, now that my immune system has got stronger than that of any adult should be, and with this other gift came with it as well. Such as, now I'm as strong as a 15-year-old's physical body at the age of two. I'll need to upgrade it even more when I'm old enough and will need to prepare a food storage bag as soon as my magic activates. 

The energy from that food will be needed for consumption, that way I don't have to explain to my parents why I need so much food to be cooked. Also, this bodies agility got a little bit higher as well, considering that I'm obviously a lot smarter than normal kids my age, that would mean that my brain is getting rewired to adapt to the other changes of this body. 

Thinking back after I started walking and talking, my parents really only have to take care of me from the day I was born to my first year. After that I did everything on my own. Now don't get me wrong, I still asking my mom for milk (in a bottle you perv's) when I was hungry, so as she could feel that I needed her, as did my father as I played with him on his off days he wasn't at work.

Not that I neglected any of my mother and father's family when they came over to spend time with us for any reason. I was still my parents' child, and I acted like it whenever they were around. I was going to make this relationship work with my mom mostly, because I'm a mama's boy. Did I forget to mention my parents' full names, hmmm... okay I'll tell you. 

Well... my mother's name is Jessica Matisse Armandeo, and my father's named is Davidus Alfonso Armandeo, I found out after I started talking and asked them what they were named when they were born, het I was trying to act my age at the time. I was not just going to take advantage of both of them even though their hardly around to take care of me, most of the time I have maids keeping an eye on me. 

Nor was I going to ignore them while they actually took care of me when they were around. I was not going to ignore them just for me to throw them away later, when my powers are activated fully and start my training. When we are all at home or free from business, work, school tutors... or whatever. We spend most of our time eating out, joking around at home, or going out for walks as a family. 

We have several nice parks, forest trails, and stuff... 'nature walks' I guess you would call it. My first two years here flew by pretty quickly, they were amazing though. I practice my mind arts regularly, especially before bed, my automatic modifications were not that big to visibly be affected. Hey, I was only two years and some months old, I believe that ability old was limited for that age. 

And that was a blessing due to my parents' maids, butlers, and hired hands watched me all the time. I just made the decision to work on it when I'm about 7 or 8 years old to start changing things, because then I'll have more freedom to move around if I need it. Right at this moment, I'm in the living room playing with my toys and acting like a two-year-old should do. 

Trying to give my parents a sense of accomplishment, that I still need them in my life knowing that I am a genius. So as to not bring too much attention to myself as well, then a thought, for some reason it hit me, I haven't practiced my mindscape and Occlumency for the past month. As much as I need to, probably don't, I still haven't put up my mind barriers, note to self, 'work on mind shields, ASAP!!' 

So, I'll be ready when some creep like that sparkling vamp, or some kind of mind which shows up unexpectedly. I mean, they could still read my mind at this poin... no they can't. I just remembered that ROB said that the first 20 years I'll be safe. Haah... I got time to make them up. For now, let me act like a good boy and work slowly but on my Occlumency. 

I already have all the information on Harry Potter magic and slapped myself on the forehead for not thinking about that earlier, I meant on what ROB told me, I'm totally a dumbass for forgetting. I still have a lot to partitioned on the magic portion, hey it's a lot, should take me 2 to 3 more years to catalogue all that in my mind library. 

So, for now, night came, and I practiced my Occlumency before falling asleep, I started again practicing meditation and organizing important stuff I might need to the front of my to do list during Occlumency, I'll start with the shields after 3 years. And just like that, seven years in this new world had coming to an end and it was the same throughout those seven years. 

Eat, play, shit, shower, sleep... and repeat, I spent it mostly attached to my parents, making my childhood with them wonderful. It took me almost a full year after the third year to get my Occlumency shields up. After I reorganized all that Harry Potter magic stuff, and with running those shields, they were higher than Dumbledore had his at his prime. 

For three years, I spent strengthening them to the point that no matter who tried to look in my mind, they would get nothing but see an empty void, a black hole that could suck out their soul if looked they tried hard enough to force themselves into my mind. I had fun these last few years as well, worked out my mind and started slowly with my body. Learned a lot of things I never would have thought of as a child. 

Such as climbing cliffs, trees, even climbed up a few buildings, mostly 2 to 3 story types only, didn't want to fall and break something. All in all, I had a great childhood, and that is where we are now. Another year and a half passed, finally arriving on my 8th birthday, which is today. December 15, 1964, and I have finally managed to get a tangible clue on how to get my magical abilities working fully. 

With my constant meditation and Occlumency shields running at Max, I have found the reason behind why I couldn't activate my magical and modification abilities. I needed to have an uncontrollable outburst of emotions, you know being enraged, sense of helplessness, sense of loneliness, or being terrifyingly afraid at an instant, something uncontrollable. 

That emotion would open my closed access to my magical pathways and full control of my body manipulation abilities. Then after having control, I would only have to practice consistently to take full control of my magic casting abilities and be used as they are intended, as well as my modifications to take full controlled and not be on automatic anymore.

All this happened a month after my 9th birthday, today though, my parents and I were enjoying a nice relaxing afternoon at the local park. When my accidental magic occurred scaring the living daylights out of me. I was suddenly startled, when a large terrifying black owl looking thing appeared from a nearby tree, making me run away from my parents as it chased me throughout the park grounds. 

I felt that I had to get away from it with all my heart, or I would die if it caught me, and I didn't wait for it to get close as I ran between trees. I couldn't explain the emotion that came over me as I ran throughout the park, a few minutes later, it had cornered me between two large oak trees with no way to escape and that was when the accidental magic happened. 

As my magic flared, a large branch from the tree behind me tore off and threw itself at the owl as it came near me, knocking the owl away as it vanished into the tree line. Soon after, my parents found me about an hour later crouched in-between the oak trees crying nervously, they said that I sudden ran away, scaring them half to death as they chased after me. 

They had lost me in between the tree's until they found me as I was a few seconds ago. When I my vision refocused on them, I threw myself at my mother telling her that a large black owl was chasing me, which confused them because they saw nothing. I felt terrified that I was the only one that could see that thing, soon after I was held by my mother I blacked out. 

When I reawakened as I appeared to be back at home, far away from the place that I was at previously, that made me relieved that it wasn't real. Good thing that I was only a little farther away from my parents at the time when that happened and the time, they found me. That was when I knew I had accessed my magic and felt very excited to awaken it. 

A week has passed since that ordeal with that thing that chased me through the park, I was too scared to leave the house, and my mother tried many times to take me out of the house. It wasn't that I was scared, not really... well, a little bit though you would be too if you saw what I saw. Anyways, it took a week of constant pushing from my mother to go back outside, and here we are again at the park. 

I was walking in front of my parents hoping that nothing like what happened a week ago to happen again. So, I'm walking about 10 feet in front of them as we decided to have a picnic at the park today and I was happy to be there. "Chris, don't wander off too far from us my love." My mother expressed great concern as I turned around, due to me walking to far from her. 

She was about to sit down with my dad as he put a picnic blanket down for the three of us after we walked through the local park. We were enjoying some homemade iced tea that my father handed us, it felt good after that mess. After the tea I asked, "can I adventure for a bit, not too far from here, I promise." I pleadingly asked. They looked at each other and agreed but to be safe. 

Soon after, I find myself currently walking on my own through some bushes and shrubs, after walking through them, I realize that I was not in Kansas anymore. 'Damn, how the hell did I end up here?' I thought to myself as I saw a large boulder like hill in front of me. As I looked up, I saw an entrance of the small hidden cave that was near a large black looking tree. 

I've never seen a tree like that before, and a large branch was almost connected to the cave entrance, 'probably the only way in,' I presumed. After a few minutes of looking over the area, I saw nothing else here, and decided to head back and tackle the cave at a later date. I wanted to be sure that I could climb the tree first before I hurt myself and that would be bad for me due to my mother's anger. 

I didn't want to face her anger; I've seen what happens if she gets mad. My father could attest to that, when he slept on the couch for a week when he angered her, and when I saw him, he had a black eye on him. That would mean NOPE!! NOT AGERING MOTHER, EVER!! As I neared my parents that were sitting on the ground, "I'm back!! I had a great adventure, I followed a squirl through the bushes and it climbed a bog tree, it was great." 

I explained my adventure to them, and they seemed happy that I was out of that funk I was in before. It was early when we arrived at the park, so we ate a light lunch together, man those where the days. After lunch, I wanted to explore again, "don't run off to far, Chris, okay?" She warned me. "Don't worry mom! I'll be around this area, not too far away." 

As I said back to her, I walked up to her, kiss my mother on the cheek as I walked away into the forest again. I was started walking back toward the forest cave I found earlier. I wanted to try to explore that cave area again, so wandering for a few minutes I stumbled again into that same area, but it was a little different this time. The are seemed foggy, I could hardly see more than a few feet in front of me. 

As I walked further in, I walked into the large black tree I saw before. As I started to inspect it, it was thick as a bus, tall as a 10-story building and the branch that led to the cave was at the highest point leading to it. 'Why the hell has nobody seen this huge tree before, I mean it's in the middle of the damn park for god's sake. What about the cave? Do they not notice this here?' 

I thought to myself as I looked around and scratching the back of my head in confusion. I didn't understand how I didn't notice the tree in front of the cave in the first place, I thought it was smaller two hours ago. It looks like it's some type of legendary tree from one of those fantasy world's stories. Is it leading to a hidden place? 

Strange, it gives off a felling of compatibility like my magic as my chest is pulsing to something in there. Why is my body reacting to both the tree and the cave entrance as if they are a part of my magic or magic apart of them? I walked around the tree for a bit and looked up at the tree branches to get a better understanding of what I needed to do further in the future. 

When I suddenly noticed a strange-looking notch engraved on the tree leading up to that one thick branch that led to the cave. I've seen these trees before, in an anime I saw in my past life, it portrayed that there is a hidden treasure in that cave that is meant for me. Looking around the tree, no other groves or markings were noticeable. 

So, that meant one thing, I had to climb the tree to get to the cave and the treasure. The strange cave entrance was pear shaped and had it felt like my magic was pulling... no demanding me to head toward it. My magic felt hungry, like it wanted to consume whatever was within the cave. Looking more carefully at the large tree, I still couldn't recognize what type it was. 

The only other difference that tree had from others was that it had some type of holy aura coming off of it, making it shine brighter than the others, like a bright light beckoning me here. I was stared at the tree for a while, then I immediately recognizing it. The origin I mean, I saw a picture in a book a long time ago about ancient trees that used to exist in the past. 

Fary tale stuff, and that tree looked just like it, like the tree the great Sun Wukong climbed when he ate that immortal fruit in the God realm. I mean it was a story from ancient China, stories for children, meant for them to dream of adventure. Was ROB giving me extra stuff or what? I wasn't told of anything extra or maybe I wasn't paying attention if the ROB did tell me. 

Oh well, better stuff for me. 'Now, how to get up there without killing myself in the process?' I started to think of ways to get up that tree as I was looking up. Hmm... The trunk of the tree was simply too large for my small arms and legs to grab hold of, and my small 9 years old hands I couldn't muster enough strength to hold onto the trunk notches for very long. 

So, I opted for throwing stones, there were many around, somewhat large branches that were on the ground around me as well, so I could try and add extra or even deepen the notches for me to use and climb easier. Unfortunately, after trying to deepen the notches, nothing came even close to damaging the tree further that it already was, the tree was simply too thick and too damn strong. 

After about 30 minutes of non-stop throwing things at the tree, I fell on my butt exhausted and just kept staring at that one branch getting upset with myself as I just couldn't reach it for now. "How can I get up there without hurting myself, hmmm..." I said to myself as I lay on the ground, stared up at the branch and cave entrance. 

"CHRIS! Chris my son. Where are you? It's time to go." I suddenly heard my mother's voice calling loudly for me from outside the secluded area. "Yes Mother! I'll be right there!" I shouted before standing up and brushing off the dirt from my clothes and body. As I started running back toward the direction of my mother's voice. 

Glancing back one last time at the tree and then at the cave, I made my way back to my parents. "I'll be back for you, and you will be mine very soon, whatever is in there, bet on it!!" I said while running back out the forest and making my way to my father and mother. We finished having our small picnic at the park and guess what I did after I got back home, you got that right, I started to train my body intensely. 

For the next five months, I had pestered my parents to go back to the park every other day, just so I could try and get to that cave. I would spend those days trying desperately to get the up that tree but to no avail, my arms and legs just weren't strong enough yet. I even asked my father for help once, but when we arrived where the entrance to the tree was, it... just didn't appear the day, and my father imagined I was playing with him. 

It was strange, every time I was accompanied by someone, the giant tree or the cave would simply not appear, I tried taking my mother once as well, with no tree in site, and then went alone again and the tree would appear as usual. As if I had called it back from wherever it was. And there it was again, as glorious as the first day I had seen it tall, thick, and unclimbable. 

'So, I can't get up that tree until I'm trained enough,' I guessed on my own. So, let's start with that then. Every single day after that, I went alone without my parents, I would run around the lake that was in the middle of the park next to the tree to strengthen my legs. I even had my mom from time to time run with me, you know mother son bonding time, it was great. 

At first, I started with a 1km run for a warm-up, believe me I had a lot of trouble doing it without stopping, especially with a 9-year-old body, it was exhausting. Then after I completed my 1-km run, I did the Great Saitama challenge with a twist, 25 push-ups with 5 kg weights on each arm, leg, and waist for added weight so my body could adjust to it. 

Then 25 sit-ups with the same weights attached, 15 pull-ups on the park monkey bars for muscle strengthening, again same weights, and to finish the workout off, 25 squats with the same weights on the upper body for thighs and calve strengthening. At first, my parents were a little worried and surprised by my sudden interest in healthy habits and intense workout regime. 

But weren't against the idea since it was promoting good healthy habits at a young age. And just like that, another year and 8 months quickly passed, with today's date being December 21, 1967. Now that I'm 11-years-old, I kept increasing the intensity of my workouts and weights by five kg each month after I started, striving to get stronger. 

So, I could get into that I could climb and get into that Mysterious magical cave, as I started calling it, 'My Precious'. Yeah, I know, Lord of the Caves... I mean... Rings theme, right? After all, I believe something special is in that cave, with a large shiny tree usually meant great treasure... right? Humm, just waiting for my magic to devour it. 

Anyway, I was now 11 years and some months older to date, and what I had begged from my parents a few months ago as my gift was here, I had asked for a rubber band slingshot Winchester gun. Hey, I wanted to start practicing my marksmanship sooner than later, you know get a head start on things I might need for the future. 

My parents were against it at first when I brought it up but after my continuous begging, they finally relented and agreed on the conditions that 'safety first. And not to hurt myself with it or take someone's eye out,' hey they said it not me, in which I used it safely... when they were around, other than that I used it on birds and other small animals when alone. 

With my newly acquired tool for long range firing, I quickly ran off to the forest to try it out. As I walked through the forest, on the now overly familiar path leading to, 'My Presious Holy Tree'. On my way there I armed myself with a couple of good-looking rocks, immediately storing them in my jeans pockets and I was ready for war... I mean target practice, yeah that's it. 

Once I finally reached the glowing tree, I aimed my selected weapon at the magical tree and took the first shot. I saw a nice-looking squirrel on the branch I've been unable to get too, and I was a little jealous of the thing. So, I aimed and shot at it hoping to have good shooting aim, but to my dismay I had none, aim that is. 

The first round whistled through the air and missed the damn squirrel by a lot, more than a foot, 'man I need to create an aiming skill when I get a chance, that shot was pitiful, and I'm right next to the wide ass tree.' I thought to myself as the squirrel looked like it was laughing at me from up high. When I reloaded to take the second shot, it got way worse, as I had completely missed the damn target again. 

Man, I missed the whole tree in general, that was totally pitiful. I think the tree might be affecting my aim, yeah that's it. The tree moved, not wanting to get hit by foreign objects not from its own bark. I refused to give up, so I kept shooting rock after rock, none managing to hit the fucken tree or the squirrel, it didn't even make any of its leaves fall. 

Some managed to hit a fruit that was hanging from the tree but only the bottom of said fruit didn't even make it shake. It simply stayed unaffected by my attacks and stood strong as if laughing at my expense. After a time of constant shooting, I called it a day and retreat to think of a better plan of attack, like let's climb that damn thing next, I said internally. 

(To be Continued...)