Kirkegaard

I woke up feeling the chill of winter envelop my body. Even though I was wrapped up in my blanket, it seemed like the cold would still penetrate it.

'It wasn't a dream I guess...'

Thinking about the long night I had just gotten to experience, my head ached. It seemed like even if my new body had higher than average intelligence, it was still hard to process such a large amount of information.

Sighing, I took a deep breath and prepared myself to face the cold. Pushing away the blanket I put my feet on the floor... Or at least I dangled them on the side of the bed. Seems like my mind was still not quite used to my current stature, even with the integration of the new memories.

Jumping down the last few centimeters to the ground I was first thinking of washing my face but, as the room was quite cold, instead I made my way to a small closet where I had hung the few pieces of clothes that I owned. Taking out a matching pair of black pants and a hoodie, as a set of sportswear, I made my way to the bathroom.

My body started to follow its already ingrained routine of washing my face and brushing my teeth. Looking up at the mirror above the sink, I was once again met with reality. The jet black eyes which seemed to devour all light around, and the purple-tinted black hair. Shaking off the confusion I continued to follow my body's instincts. According to my memories, I would always start the day by running before eating breakfast and I could feel my body getting more and more restless by the second. Although the speed stat increased all sorts of speeds, such as calculative as well as the speed of the arms, etc, the basics were, after all, rooted in running.

At the door, I found my white sneakers and put them on, with hands that seemed all too accustomed to the process. As I walked out of my apartment I was met with an even harsher chill than inside. Putting on my hood I started walking down the stairs connected to the balcony.

Yesterday, when I was transported here in a big van by the men in black suits, they told me I didn't need a key. Naively I assumed it was because the academy was well protected or because the students were all elites, upright people who would never stoop so low as to enter someone else's living quarters without permission. Now my perspective had changed.

As the sun had started rising I got a much better look at the apartment block I was living in... It was a rut, a complete joke of a building where it seemed like even rats would not live if they could avoid it.

Looking around it seemed to be the most isolated building in the area as well. Although I can't recall if there were anything like separating students based on performance, this indeed looked like the most logical reason.

When comparing my shabby two-story block, of randomly assorted garbage, to the other buildings, this seemed like the most logical conclusion I could think of. The other apartment buildings all seemed to be very well constructed, and although some seemed to be less exquisite than others, all of them adhered to a quite high standard. Looking more like mansion-like hotels than apartments, I could only guess that it was either just a temporary solution or they regarded me as absolute trash.

Gathering strength in my legs, I started to run. My body started to move forward at a pace faster than I had ever moved before, not counting my memories as Miren. It was strange. My short skinny legs seemed to contain an enormous amount of power, at least when it came to movement. In most worlds, this would have also translated into powerful kicks but unfortunately, it seems like that was also a product of the stats of strength and speed. Even if a piece of paper flew incredibly fast into someone's face it would still just be a piece of paper.

Running like a cheetah, or maybe a hare as I wasn't all too threatening, I went around the academy grounds touring outside of the facilities in the area. From the vast fields, which seemed to be for combat practice, to the outdoor gyms. An area full of practice targets for marksmen to structures for mages and as well as what seemed to be workshops gear construction.

With mana present in all things there was bound to be a rise in new occupations. Laborers such as blacksmiths, tailors, and alchemists were a necessity as machines couldn't imprint mana into products. A machine could make a very sharp sword out of ordinary steel but it couldn't process the mana in adamantite to form it into blades or spears.

Finally, I ended up in front of my final destination, the massive auditorium in the middle of the academy grounds. Looking up at the building I found my target. The big clock. Not having a clock at the apartment was quite a flaw, especially now when I was gonna have to be on time for a multitude of appointments. The men in black had told me I had to be ready to get picked up at 8 am today in order to go to the mana orb reading.

As I looked at the big clock it seemed like my body's basic instinct of waking up early was still prominent. According to my estimate, I had been running for about 2 hours, running around and looking at every single accessible part of the area. The exception being, some living quarters guarded by big stone walls and giant gates. Looking at the clock it was still only 6:45 am and it probably wouldn't take more than a couple of minutes to run back to my apartment block.

I decided to walk back just to have some time to collect my thoughts and start planning a little bit for the future.

'Survival is key.'

I didn't have any massive aspirations. I had no plans to become someone prominent in history, nor did I have any plans to go out of my way to make huge amounts of money. I just wanted to live. After approximately 40 years of combined years of being alive, I had still not felt like I was living. The joy of accomplishing personal goals, the happiness of creating a family, and the pride of being strong. Those were my aspirations, that is what I was gonna accomplish with my new life.

Funnily enough, it felt like when my memories had merged, I had gotten more complete. Instead of storing two complete entities in one body, it had merged two broken souls into one more complete. Maybe. I'm not really sure. What I do know is that the eternal boredom from my earlier life seemed to have disappeared.

First things first, I needed to become stronger. With this feeble and small body, it might pose a bit of a challenge but at least I had the Inherent Disposition of [Boundless]. As long as I put in the work and time it should work out.

I did also have memories of the core mechanics of the game which this world seems based on. I knew how magical elemental manipulation worked, how the main characters trained to become stronger as well as some of the weaknesses of monsters and demons.

Maybe I could even get taller somehow! It felt like the second goal of creating a family might be a bit far-fetched when I seemed to be a full head shorter than the average girl my age. Being a 16 year old who had stopped growing, only reaching up to the shoulders of the girls around me, seemed to be too tragic of a joke to be true.

*Clack*

Opening the door to the poor excuse of a home, I went in and sat on my bed. Looking around the shabby room only further reinvigorated my feelings of wanting to change my situation.

"Okay, let's do this!"

My mana grade was the first thing I had to fix in order to make a change. Being a grade I in an academy where some students would have already reached grade III when starting would be catastrophic. There was a very real chance of me suddenly dying during our first real hunt, even with teachers supporting us.

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, I closed my eyes. Concentrating, focusing, and trying to isolate...

"FUCK!"

I couldn't help but swear out loud. What was I actually trying to do? All I knew was that the characters in the game would meditate to circulate mana, to stimulate their mana reserves. I had no idea what mana felt like, much less how to circulate it.

Having nothing else to do I chose to just try to figure out how mana feels. Closing my eyes once again I tried to focus on locating something foreign, something I did not know. Feeling the cold air around me, my mind seemed to pick up something foreign. In contrast to the cold air, it seemed quite warm. At first, I thought it was something external but as time went on I could confirm it was something inside my body. A tiny seed, a minuscule swirl right below my belly button.