Floofy Furball

As I slowly, and rather boringly, grew up in my house, I came to understand this world's rules and customs more. For example, it was customary to bless your food with two fingers facing the sky. Kind of like an "Itadakimasu~" custom. I also learned that there was no in-house plumbing or central heating. That was all handled by magicae-imbued stones. For example,

Speaking of magicae, I learned that that was the formal name for magic (or more specifically, magic particles) in this world. Every living thing had magicae imbued within their bodies. However, magicae affinities vastly differed between individuals. Even family members can have completely different affinities, though some techniques can be hereditary as well. At least, that's what I've gleaned from the few streams of information I can get. Which is mainly my parents talking about work before they took their leave.

Apparently, in this world, both the father and mother take a leave of absence, if their jobs are demanding, of course, for a couple of years. Especially for adventurers, who are often away from their home for extended periods of time. Many families who have some money to spare often hire maids to help out with the child-rearing.

Clothing in this world seemed to be a mix of historical as well as modern clothing. Of course, the maid outfit seemed old style and made out of a cotton like material, but my father's shirts were similar to Nylon. Or, at least, smooth and elastic. A stocking style material was also fairly common in my mother's clothing as well. My clothes were made out of a softer cotton or silk, and they kept me warm and comfortable. I had no idea if that was the norm, though.

I still haven't even left this house once. There's got to be some health issue associated with that.

Though Lilith would often open the windows to allow the somewhat musty, stale air to circulate, I hadn't gotten any real sunlight recently.

I suppose that's because we live on the frontier…

Because my parents were apparently once fairly strong adventurers, the guild would sometimes ask for assistance in some monster subjugations, even after they had retired. So, it was particularly dangerous for a young child to leave the house. I think they could easily defeat any of the normal monsters in the area, but having to do so while protecting a one-year old child is a completely different beast.

Since the house was my only world at this point in time, I had a lot of free time. I clutched onto that Akashic Tome I had received on my birthday, trying my best to read it. But, as it turns out, it was in some sort of ancient language. One that not even my parents could read. Every once in a while, a friend from the adventurer's guild would stop by and greet my parents. That was pretty much how both my parents and I gained any sort of news from the outside world. But, the scope of the information was fairly limited, especially for me. The conversations boiled down to "there's a lot of X monster in Y area," or "Have you heard Z got injured? I am not sure if he'll be able to keep adventuring…"

All of that information was kind of useless for me. But, I did learn a couple of new things from those conversations. The closest frontier village was only a kilometer or two away from this house. Named Cleartown, after the famous clear lake not too far from the village, it was where my parents would buy groceries. Or, whatever they couldn't get for themselves. The lake itself was apparently pretty large and maybe only a couple minutes walk down the road. Most of the people stopping by were actually heading town to the lake to collect their thoughts, or just relax. Our house ended up being only a slight detour to their plans, I guess.

^^^^^^^^^

By fifteen months, my little infant brain had grown by leaps and bounds. My parents were shocked by that quick growth. To be honest, even I was fairly surprised.

"Steele! Look at how fast our little genius is growing!" Freya would say probably almost every day.

"I know!" Steele would always enthusiastically respond.

And that exchange repeated. Day in, day out. Which was kind of funny, but I kind of wanted to roll my eyes every time I heard that.

Speaking of hearing things, I had successfully taught myself the most basic level of this new language I was hearing. I still had no idea what it was called, but that's not super important, in my opinion. Having the extreme malleability of a child's brain was actually kind of coming in clutch. My days of staring at the ceiling doing absolutely nothing other than occasionally hearing a conversation or two was actually kind of paying off, to my surprise.

Though I had learned a very basic amount of the language, there was still a lot I didn't understand. Particularly anything related to magic. Oh, and grammar. It was kind of weird, but I could get a basic understanding of what was going on. Which was fairly impressive for a baby that's only a year and a half old.

I'm proud of that, at least. I mean, what can I say? I am learning a language far faster than other kids. I totally don't have an unfair advantage…

But, that's besides the point. My life so far has been pretty carefree. I didn't have to worry about anything at all. And I was falling into a rhythm, which was nice. One thing I was worried about, however, was the fact that, because my life was so easy, I would become complacent. Or maybe, I already had. But, even if something did happen, what could a fifteen month old do? So, I decided to take it easy for now. Because I could surmise that it won't be so easy as I continued forward.

Gotta take it easy.

And easy I was taking it. Being free from my Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was a boon. Meaning, I could finally relax without worrying about having panic attacks every day. I haven't had one since I died. Maybe because this whole reincarnation beez-kneez had been the thing to allow me to get over my regrets. Or maybe because it was tied to my biological body and brain, not so much my soul. Though, the rifts do run deep. I still think about it from time to time, but it's never a panic attack. It's more of a forlorn memory, at this point.

At this point, I still haven't even touched magic, which was kind of starting to worry me. I was supposed to train early to increase my latent abilities. And I wasn't sure how young I'd have to be to increase that threshold. Hopefully, I could secretly train once I could read that Akashic Tome, but I have had no luck in cracking that language.

Every day, I would wake up whenever I felt like it, which was fairly early in the morning. Surprisingly. If this were my previous life, I would be waking up at 4pm. I guess my toddler body's biological clock was kicking in. I would eat whatever Lilith cooked for breakfast.

Thank God it's my savior cooking. I love my parents, but if they cooked for me I would surely already be dead.

After breakfast, I would play around with whatever I could find. Sometimes it was Lilith, sometimes it was my parents, and sometimes it was just some random thing I found on the floor. It really depended on my mood. After I'd get bored, I'd take a crack at decrypting that cryptic book that was covered in dust.

I guess it was covered in dust for a reason…

After I gave up, which was normally fairly quickly, I'd take a nap on the couch or on the floor. I typically woke up to the smell of lunch. If it had a good scent, Lilith cooked it. If it wasn't, I did my best to pretend to sleep until Lilith cooked something in my parent's steed. After lunch, I'd play again, and then take another crack at that Akashic Tome. If there was someone over, I'd try to discreetly listen to the conversation to improve my language skills. Then, depending on my energy level, I'd take another nap until dinner was ready. We'd eat as a family, and I'd just listen to what my parents were talking about with Lilith. After a while, I'd get tired again and head off to bed.

That's my normal, carefree day.

I enjoy that schedule very much.

Though, two or three naps a day is a bit much, in my opinion. But, I like it…

^^^^^^^^^

When I awoke the following day, my father and mother were packing their bags. The materials, though, made it seem as if they weren't going anywhere overnight. After breakfast, my parents as well as Lilith made their way to the door. Assuming they would only be gone for a short while, I started making my way to the couch. Up to this point, I had never been outside of the house, and I assumed today was like any other day.

But, as I started to turn around, my mother smiled and waved me over. I turned back around, and my father smiled widely.

"Son, we are going on a picnic!"

A picnic? Okay, I guess.

This was the first opportunity I had to leave the house, so I wasn't about to miss it.

"Okay!" I replied, enthusiastically.

My dad opened the door and a fresh breeze blew through the room. The smell of cold, fresh air engulfed my nostrils, and I ran out the door. As the crisp, cool air filled my lungs, I noticed a layer of soft, powdery snow.

I guess it's winter here…

The cold air nipped at my cheeks as we walked around the house and down a little path. I had no idea that our property stretched that far back, as I really wasn't tall enough to see through the rear windows of the house.

We walked down a fairly graded path with little incline down to the treeline. Once we reached the treeline, however, the path became a little more rough, though the incline was still fairly shallow. But, that slightly added difficulty was totally worth it when the treeline opened up to a massive lake.

A picnic on a backyard lake? How picturesque…

The lake had both flat beaches as well as rocky outcroppings. Once we got to the rocky area of the shore, however, my father picked me up and placed me on his shoulders just in case this final stretch of the hike was a bit too difficult for me. On top of my father's shoulders, we made our way to a larger outcropping overlooking the lake. The view was extraordinary, and the rock wall behind us protected us from the gusty winds, which made this little outcropping a pocket of paradise.

My mother laid out a quilt for us to sit on, and Lilith brought out the picnic food. It was still fairly early in the day, so this was probably more like brunch. My father pulled out a small silvery-grey cylindrical device and placed it in the center, and activated the magic stone housed within. Almost immediately, the warmth emanated from the device, embracing my skin.

If this was a thing in my previous world, oh man I'd go winter camping so much more often.

My father then pulled out a cast-iron skillet and placed it on top. I surmised that the device also acted as a small stove for backwoods cooking. When my father started pulling out ingredients and cooking with the help of

my mother, I was somewhat nervous, as all my experience with their cooking was, well, subpar at best.

However, I was completely blown out of the water. They started cooking gracefully, as if they were master chefs. And the pleasant scent of spices wafted through the air.

What? How?

Apparently, they couldn't cook at all in a house, but they were masters at cooking in the wilderness. I have no idea how you can be so bad at cooking with a fully equipped kitchen but so good with a singular stove about the size of a typical backpackers stove.

How does that even work?

And that is a mystery I probably would never be able to solve. Once my parents had finished cooking the meat and egg based dish, Lilith plated everything out, as well as things she had cooked prior to leaving the house. I was curious about my parents cooking, as the only thing I had ever managed to see them cook was a couple of charcoal briquettes. Which weren't very appetizing, to say the least.

I stabbed a piece with my fork, and put it into my mouth. Immediately, the soft flavors exploded into my mouth. The oil of the meat softened the egg, creating an almost perfect harmony. The spices had a slight kick to them, piercing the otherwise soft flavors, complementing them impeccably. As I swallowed my first bite, the oily, buttery marbled fat seemed to melt, allowing it to go down smoothly.

"It's so good" I had said with a smile stretching from ear to ear.

"I'm glad you liked it, Phoenix," my mom replied.

Chuckling, my father said "he has your smile when he eats, honey!"

The side dishes Lilith had prepared added to the picnic meal, but the real star of this show was that meat and egg dish my parents had cooked. I was pleasantly surprised by that unexpected development.

Once we had finished eating, we relaxed on the lake, watching the wind gently blow the surface of the water. After relaxing, we eventually started to pack up the picnic and head back to our house. This time, I had fallen asleep on my dad's shoulders, so when I awoke the following day, I was already in bed.

^^^^^^^^^

By this point, I'd say I am just under two years old. We haven't done the birthday ceremony yet, but it's been about 360 days since the last one. At this point, I finally figured out how to open that stats panel.

Finally, I was worried about that…

After getting away from the almost constant eagle-eyed watch of my parents, I did a cursory search of the basic tabs. From the main menu, there were four tabs not currently greyed-out. Overall, Health, Skills, and Extra. The Overall tab gave me a basic run-down of a few things, such as my level, vitality, and a basic health bar among other things. Swiping down, I had some basic statistics about myself, though most of the information was still greyed-out.

Probably have some sort of prerequisite.

My overall tab was somewhat bare at this point in time, but it did give me some basic information about things I didn't know about myself. I already knew my first name, which was Phoenix, but I learned that my last name was Hammerwulf.

Phoenix Hammerwulf, huh? That's kind of a cool name. But Level 1? That's kinda tough.

Taking a closer look at the Overall tab revealed some more information as well. Some common statistics included birth date, age, experience (broken up into five categories), along with a few other things. Among these included my basic raw statistics. The Combat and Looting tabs were still greyed out, probably because I had done neither at this point in my life.

I tabbed over to the Health section, which gave me a breakdown of each main part of my body. I had 220 total HP, or health points. My arms had 25HP each, legs 30HP, stomach 40HP, Thorax 50HP, and my head was at a measly 20HP.

Well, that seems kind of weak. But I guess I am still under two years old. It should increase with time.

I glanced under that somewhat confusing breakdown of body parts to find a blue value labeled Mana and a green value labeled Vitality.

300/300 MP and 100/100 VT, huh? Mana is not bad, but that little Vitality?

I still had no idea how my stats compared to the baseline two year old, but I was hoping that it was at least average compared to other children my age. By this point, I had been sitting in a room silent for a while, so I decided I would investigate these values later, so as to not worry my parents.

I walked out of the room and plopped myself down on the soft couch in the center of the house. My parents were out doing something, so it was just me and Lilith for the time being. I put the Akashic Tome, which was still comically large compared to my body, and attempted to try and read it. To which I, once again, failed. After giving up, my parents came home and we sat down for dinner and ate a potato stew made by my savior, Lilith.

The potatoes melted in my mouth, and the aroma of creamy saltiness exploded in my mouth. The small chunks of meat and soft vegetables also quickly melted in my mouth, bringing the soft and comforting taste together like a bow on a neatly wrapped present. Each bite was heaven. A Masterpiece again, made by my favorite cook.

Once we finished dinner, I once again found a place behind cover to investigate my status. I had no idea if anyone had a status panel like this, or more likely, if any child had accessed it this early in their development. I found a place in the corner of the house and began investigating the other two tabs. Skills and Extra.

I opened up the Skills tab and realized that, by far, this was the most complicated tab yet. There were three subfolders at the top labeled Skill Trees, Modifiers, and Mastery. When I clicked on the Skill Tree tab, the only tree that was currently unlocked was named Basic.

Basic Skills, huh? I guess something like cooking, smithing, and first aid among other things. Oh, and mana manipulation is also in here.

When I took a closer look at all of the basic skills, I saw they were all labeled with a letter and a number. C-1. When I expanded the skill card, it expanded into Skill: Common, Level: 1.

Common 1? I see…

It made sense, as I had not trained in any of these skills. But, something was not like the others. When I clicked on the <mana manipulation> skill, it read Skill: ELITE, Level: MAX. See MASTERY.

I tabbed over to the Mastery Section and saw one item. Mana Manipulation. As I had expected, my mana manipulation skill was already in the Mastery tab. I took a closer look, and it read Direct Mana Manipulation. If I remember correctly, Sakurai said I had that after I had died. A little star was highlighted in the corner, and when I went to investigate it, it read LIMIT BREAK?

Limit Break? What does that mean?

I ended up clicking on the button out of curiosity, and nothing in particular seemed to happen. I just shrugged and closed out of that menu. I went back to the basic skills tab, and saw a slight change to my <mana manipulation> skill. It read Skill: Elite II, Level: 1. And the little description notified me that I could just manipulate my mana directly. Basically making incantations obsolete for me, I guess.

Once I was satisfied going through the Skill Tree and Mastery Tabs, I went to the Modifiers tab. I took a gander at some of the items within, and realized they were all just body modifiers. Like Strength, Resistance, Perception, etc. Pretty much all of my modifiers in here were still only level 1. There didn't seem to be any tiers here, as none of them were labeled common. The only skill that wasn't level 1 was perception, which was about level 7. That was pretty much the only thing I could actually do. Perceive the world around me.

At first, I was stuck with only my sight, smell, and hearing, but I was eventually able to perceive things with touch. So, in turn, that was the only skill that I had leveled up. However, some of the EXP bars were starting to fill up already, which was a good sign.

I guess just living and breathing can level up these modifiers.

I had been looking through my skills for quite a while now, but I only had one main folder left. The Extra folder. When I opened it, there was only one card within. No sub-folders, and No clutter. Just one card, labeled Automatic Co-Processing I. On the corner of the card, I saw a little unlocked padlock icon.

I guess this thing is ready to unlock.

I had no idea what it did, but I had already limit broken one thing already with no side-effects, so, without thinking or reading further into the little description, I just unlocked it. Suddenly, an overload of stimuli filled my brain. I could sense things that I definitely shouldn't have. Like the dust falling on my skin. Or the distance to where I was gazing at my eyes. As well as an imaginary floor plan and map of the house I was in.

Once the stimuli overload has somewhat calmed, I actually investigated the skill card.

**THIS ACTION CANNOT BE UNDONE**

Cool.

I read into it a little bit more, and it seemed to be a mental coprocessing function to increase my maximum mental processing power. Kind of like an assistant. Somewhat bewildered, I looked back down at the skill card to notice a small line leading to another card.

Auto-Translate.

There was no unlock button this time, but rather a slider at the off position. I turned it on, and looked down to the cover of the book I was clutching.

Holy Shit. I can read.

Right at that moment, my mom walked into the corner I was at. Apparently, I didn't say that in my head.

I swore out loud. Shit. Talk about bad timing.

My mother looked down at me bewildered. And I looked back up at her. Also bewildered. She turned around and started yelling at my father.

"STEELE! DID YOU SWEAR AROUND OUR CHILD? WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"

"No? I never did? I think?" he responded, somewhat perplexed.

Lady, you just swore in front of me, you know…

"WELL, HE JUST FUCKING SWORE! HOW WOULD HE KNOW HOW TO DO THAT?"

Ahem, you did it again…

I walked out of the room and just smiled at my father as innocently as possible.

Sorry, dad. The blame is pinned on you…

And then, Steele was lectured by Freya for who knows how long. I was exhausted and just fell asleep on the couch.

^^^^^^^^^

When I awoke, I rubbed my eyes, and saw something different in my field of vision. Just like when I was in the previous world, a word was superposed in the center of my vision, though this time it was a white tinge.

Initializing…

Maybe three seconds later, three bars appeared in the top left. One pinkish-red, one blue and one green. Then, a couple small boxes appeared on the bottom, with the message Chaincast: RDY.

I guess I can chain cast some spells?

I had no idea what it exactly entailed, nor the spells I could chaincast, but it was there. So I could chain cast spells in the future, which I guess was somewhat like a combo critical attack.

Interesting…

In the bottom right corner, there was a -/-. I think that was either durability for an equipped item, but because I don't have any items equipped, it's just -/-. In the top right, I saw a time and a date.

21/3/302 @ 07:22

I guess the clock works the same way here. Nice.

Once I had adjusted to my new HUD, I realized that today was my second birthday. It has been officially two years in this carefree world. At least, carefree for me. I hadn't had to worry about anything yet. I would eat Lilith's heavenly meals on a daily basis, which, in my humble opinion, felt like I was being spoiled rotten. I rolled out of a child-sized bed and walked into the dining room, and was promptly surprised.

"Happy Birthday, Phoenix!"

"Thanks mom, dad, Lilith," I replied with a warm smile.

I walked up to them and bear-hugged all three of them. I wasn't sure if they were surprised that I somewhat started speaking the language almost perfectly, but I couldn't exactly see their faces, so I would never know. After a while, I finally let go and saw a box on the table, along with that same cake Lilith had baked a year ago.

Oh hell yeah, I can't wait for bites of heaven.

This time, instead of one candle, there were two candles to denote me being two years old. We gathered around the table and they sang another Happy Birthday song. Though, this time I can actually understand what they were saying. Or, at least, it was translated in a way I could easily understand.

Man, this Co-Processor is coming in handy.

Once the birthday song had finished, I immediately dug into heaven on Earth. Or well, whatever this world was called. I still wasn't completely sure where we were living, and I haven't even left the property yet.

"Son, we are going to go into town. You can pick anything you'd like for your birthday, within reason of course," my father said, with a warm smile on his face.

I smiled and nodded in affirmation. That picnic we had a couple months ago was technically still within the boundaries of our home, so this would really be the first time I would leave my home domain and go to a village, too. I could finally see how the exchange of goods worked in this world, and whether it was primarily money-based or barter trades.

I quickly got ready and threw on some clothes and shoes and grabbed my little bag and slung it around my back. My parents smiled at my enthusiasm and we made our way to the door, waving a quick goodbye to Lilith. As the door closed, we made our way to the front gate. I stopped in front of the front gate and took a deep breath.

This is the first time I'll leave the property…

I stepped over the threshold onto the road after my parents, and we started walking down the road. As it was spring, the trees and bushes along the road were blooming deep hues of green. I held my parents' hands and walked down the road enthusiastically, my mother on the right and my father on the left. The village was only a kilometer or two up the road, so the walk wasn't too bad. It probably wasn't much further from our house down to the lake. And my legs had definitely grown a lot stronger since then.

As we walked down the road like a happy family, we passed by some other travelers. But I hadn't seen any modes of transportation other than walking, which seemed somewhat inefficient. I suspected, however, that this was the frontier, so it would make sense that there was no other infrastructure yet. Or at least, I hope so.

Within the hour, we made it to the village, which was somewhat tucked away from view, at least from afar. The treeline, which was mainly made up of coniferous evergreens, shielded the village from the worst of the elements and perhaps invasions as well. Though the village was critical in maintaining supply lines to the frontier, it most likely provided little strategic value in conquest.

On most maps, this village wasn't marked, and if it was, it was hardly visible. Only regulars and adventurers knew of this secluded yet bustling village. As my parents and I took the small offshoot road through the thin treeline, I noticed that the village was full of life. The daily commerce within the village breathed a sense of life as well as closeness within. Most people were on a first-name basis, and because it was kind of an adventurers pit stop, the shops were tailored towards that.

In the center of the small village was a guild office, in which the overwhelming smell of liquor loomed out of the windows.

My mother bent down and whispered "We have to stop in here quickly, then we'll go shopping!"

I nodded and my father opened the door and we walked inside. Most people within were drinking their liquor, eating their food, and having friendly conversations with one another. A couple people looked up and either nodded or waved to my parents, to which they responded in kind.

I guess they're fairly well-known around these parts.

As we made our way up to the front desk, a younger girl enthusiastically welcomed my parents back to the guild. She had green eyes and blonde hair tied back into a ponytail. Her red accented guild uniform contrasted her blond hair and green eyes.

Wow. She's really enthusiastic. Almost suffocating.

My parents spoke to her for a bit and then went into the back room, leaving me out in the lobby. Now left to my own devices, I kind of just sat around, anxiously waiting. I didn't have anything to do, so I just found a place to stand by the desk. I scanned the room and saw a man sitting by himself at a table. He had rough features, but his eyes looked warm and inviting. He quietly sat and drank by himself. But what really caught my attention was the instrument which was wrapped up in a cloth. I walked up to him, having nothing else to do, and asked him what the thing wrapped up in the cloth was.

"Mister, what is that?"

He smiled and answered "Oh, this is just a guitar…do you want to see it?"

"Yes, please!"

He unwrapped the guitar, which looked somewhat similar to an electric guitar, but under the pick-ups was a magic stone labeled "wind." He strummed it a little and the pick-ups glowed a soft blue-white. As he played, I felt as if my body became a little lighter.

"I use this instrument to support my team," he began. "I'm what's called a bard."

"Wow, that's so cool, mister!"

"Hahaha, I'm glad you enjoyed it," he heartily laughed. "Care to give it a go?"

"Are you sure?" I inquired, to which he nodded in affirmation.

"Okay, here goes nothing!"

I gripped the instrument, which was surprisingly not heavy nor bulky in my hands. But because my hands were so small, I couldn't properly strum in the normal fashion. But, due to some design difference, the neck of the guitar tapers off a little bit more than usual, so I could grip it normally. I decided to just go fingerstyle, as my hands wouldn't have to be as big that way. To my surprise, the notes given by the strings without any input was the same as a guitar in my previous world.

It took me a few minutes to get used to, but I got the hang of it fairly quickly as it was fairly similar to the guitars I knew from the previous world. Though it was a challenge for my small, soft, uncalloused hands, I plucked a few notes out to get a feel for the instrument, and then just closed my eyes.

Letting my fingers take me wherever my mind decided, I started playing a little bit. And then I kept playing. I just left the current reality for my dreamland. I had said this before I died, but music is an extremely powerful thing. It was so powerful that you could even heal friendlies in this world, apparently. I just kept plucking away at the strings for a few minutes, and once my little high had started to come down, I played my last note.

Once I had opened my eyes, I found that large burly man tearing up, with salty droplets staining his red beard. I looked around a little more, and just saw everyone staring at me. Including my parents. The entire once-bustling guildhall was in silence.

Well…this is awkward…

I just smiled and gave the man his instrument back, and walked over to my parents. It seems that I have blown everyone there out of the water. I mean, I guess that makes sense, but still, this was exceedingly embarrassing. I felt my cheeks heat up due to the embarrassment. Even my parents had their jaws glued to the floor. Then, breaking the ice in that frozen over guildhall, the enthusiastic receptionist started clapping. And everyone eventually followed suit.

Wow. Getting praise like this, it feels…weird…

The receptionist exclaimed "I didn't know your son was so talented!"

"We didn't know either, actually," my parents replied.

A bunch of adventurers put some money in a basket and gave it to me. I smiled back at all of them, and gingerly picked up the massive felt bag full of various coins. It had some heft to it, but I managed to put it in my little backpack. And thus started the rumors of a talented musician pulling at the heartstrings of hardened adventurers at the wee age of two.

I smiled and waved to everyone and pushed open the door, my parents in tow. I could finally look around the village and see what I wanted to get for my second birthday.

^^^^^^^^^

As the scent of beer finally left my nostrils, I sighed heavily. That interaction ended up really draining me mentally. Even in the previous world, I had not been used to dealing with that kind of attention. The fresh air cleared my mind, and I regained some of that energy I had lost in the guildhall.

Somewhat running ahead of my parents, I made my way to the scent of food being cooked in street stalls. As the salty scent wafted through the air, my mouth watered. It was about lunch time, and my stomach had also begun growling.

My parents had finally caught up to me, and we bought some meat skewers. They were just seasoned with salt, but you can't really mess those up. Unless, of course, they were charred to a crisp. Which was possible.

After finishing up the skewers, I just meandered down the street market, trying to find something that interested me. The whole reason for this trip was to find a present for my birthday, after all. I investigated the street to find something I wanted, but nothing really struck my fancy. Most things were either too unwieldy or just not my style. But, just window shopping was pretty fun, especially with my new family.

As the afternoon was coming to a close and the sun began setting, I was losing hope that I would be able to find something I really wanted. And then I found it. A little green-furred fox. Stuck in a cage.

"Hey little buddy," I whispered, putting my little finger through the little cage.

It looked up at me and whimpered a little bit. Almost like a certain someone's pouting face. But this time, the little creature actually seemed to be in pain. And extremely lonely. For some reason, I felt a connection to this creature. Like I've been in its place before.

"Okay, I'll be right back."

I found my parents a couple stalls down, and with my largest puppy dog eyes I could muster, I asked them to come and see what I wanted. To them, I wanted a pet. For me, I wanted to save this little guy from being lonely or abused for the rest of his life.

"Mom. Can we buy him?"

"Erhmmm. I'm not so sure…" She responded, holding back what she wanted to say. "Steele?"

"I mean, a pet though?" he began. "Who'll take care of it?"

"I will!" I blurted.

As I stole glances at the little green furball, my suspicions were peaking. I had an unshakeable feeling that it was Sakurai. I don't know what, but the mannerisms kind of reminded me of her. If she was a green fox pup.

"I don't know…" my mom began.

"Well, he seems dedicated. And he's a smart kid…"

"But, I'm just not sure about a pet. Especially a captured magic beast."

I looked up at my mom again, trying to accentuate the tears building up in the corners of my eyes.

Damn, I'm a good actor.

"Please-Please-Please?" I said, emotion welling up in my voice.

"But. Oh my god, he's just too cute, Steele. I can't say no…"

"I don't have a problem with it, I guess…" he replied, reluctantly.

My mom knelt down so we were eye to eye.

"Phoenix," she said softly. "Taking care of a pet, a magical beast at that, is hard work. You'll need to do it yourself. Of course, we'll help you, but you need to take initiative."

"Okay!" I said, smiling and bear-hugging my parents.

One the embrace was over, my mom rang the bell and the shopkeeper came out from behind a curtain.

With a somewhat charismatic and commanding voice, my mother said "Hello. We'd like to purchase this fox. How much is it?"

"Oh, that thing? Like three silver. It just sits there doing nothing, I'd be glad to get rid of it," the shopkeeper replied.

Man, throwing away something this cute? Fuck you, man.

My dad reached into his pocket, but before he could pull out the three silvers, I jumped up and slammed three silvers onto the counter.

"Done."

Somewhat surprised, the shopkeeper tossed me the key to the cage. It seemed as if I was paying for the cage rather than the animal, not the other way around. Which was fine by me, because I wanted to buy the little green furball with my own money. Or well, the money I had just earned by accident only this morning.

I caught the key and walked over to unlock the cage. The key slid right in and the door popped open with a satisfying click. Almost immediately, the green furball jumped onto my head and laid there.

"Already comfortable, little guy?" I had asked him.

It yipped in satisfaction, and put its head down. As it was getting late, we started heading our pretty short journey home. Though it had only been a kilometer or two away from the house, it was as if an entirely new world was unlocked for me.

As my extremely eventful day came to a close, I almost skipped the entire way home, my exhausted parents in tow.

^^^^^^^^^

With a smile on my face, I made my way to the door and reached for the handle with my little green furball on my head. Because I was still pretty short, I had to jump up to grab the handle, which I was able to do on my second try. Though fairly negligible, I wasn't used to having a furry weight on the top of my head.

Once I had unlatched the door, I almost tumbled inside, though I caught myself before I face planted on the wooden floor. Of course, I made a ruckus trying to get inside, so Lilith walked into the main family room and saw my new little friend on my head.

Still not having named my little green floofball, I wasn't exactly sure how to answer when she asked me what its name was. But, she got the message just from my facial expressions. Luckily for me, she liked fluffy things, and smiled when the furball jumped into her outstretched hands.

Nice. I wouldn't have to convince her to let him stay.

At this point, I kept calling it "him," but I still had no idea what his gender was. And so, what was the quickest way to figure out this conundrum, you may ask? Well, just lift the little guy up and see if there was a dick. Just one quick glance, and I would have my answer.

And so I did. I lifted my little green furball up and didn't see anything hanging down there.

Ah, so you're a girl, huh?

Yeah, dumbass.

I wasn't sure if I was hallucinating or not, but I swear that's what I heard coming from a somewhat familiar voice in my hand. But either way, that was the vibe I was getting from her facial expression.

Once satisfied with my new discovery, I put her on the ground, and crashed on my little bed. Today has been full of various new sights, smells, and experiences. Even for someone who was mentally in his thirties, it was a lot of extra stimuli that I wasn't used to. And I was still affected by my biological body.

We gathered around the table for some late dinner, and I was pretty happy with my birthday present. I wasn't expecting anything else, but after we had finished eating, my parents pulled out two wrapped boxes.

Out of excitement, I tore through the wrapping of the first of the two boxes, this one being smaller. Once I unwrapped it, I unhooked the latch holding it shut and opened it to find a little wooden sword.

My father smiled at me and said "We are going to play with that sometimes!"

Man, I know that you want to train me, but isn't this a bit too early?

I smiled and thanked him, and immediately tore open the other box. Inside was a smaller version of the guitar that the man at the bar had.

This time, my mother said "We were impressed with your skills at the guild hall. So, we bought this so you can keep practicing."

I got up and bear-hugged both of them, smiled, and said my thanks before heading off to bed. By this point, I was extremely tired and it was getting fairly late. The sun had already completely set by this point.

Almost immediately after dumping all of my mass on that soft bed, my new fox pet jumped up with me and laid down, allowing me to use it's tail as possibly the softest pillow ever utilized. I immediately dozed off to sleep as soon as my head hit that new pillow.

^^^^^^^^^

As I dozed off to sleep, I was cast off to some semi-familiar place. I was lazily lying on the grass. The warmth of the sun and the breeze was comforting, and lying beside me was a green furball.

As the blurriness faded and I came to my senses in this dreamworld, I remembered where I was. I was sitting in this very spot just two years prior. Well, my soul was standing here.

"Oi, Sakurai," I called out.

Suddenly, my little green buddy which I have yet to name transformed into that same goddess that reincarnated me two years prior. But she still had the fox ears and tail. Which was a mood.

Damn. That's kinda…wow…

I looked her up and down multiple times, as, well, I was extremely surprised.

"Stop staring, you're going to make me blush!" she exclaimed.

I'm pretty sure we had this conversation before…

"We did," she replied.

"Still reading my thoughts?" I had sarcastically asked. It was a rhetorical question, but she didn't seem to understand.

"Yeah. I am!"

"So, how did you get caught?"

Sakurai tried to look away and dodge the question. Attempting to whistle, she was kind of failing miserably. Like, the air was just kind of blowing through her lips.

"Oh, come on, don't try to dodge the question," I began. "You got caught."

"W-well…" she stammered. "I, uhh…"

"Let me guess," I started. "You came down into this world as a little green fluffy fox, got hungry or something, and got caught in some hunting trap."

Silence.

"Well, am I right?"

"Pretty much…y-yeah…I guess so…" She whispered quietly.

"What? I can't hear you." I had said, even though I knew what the answer was.

"Yes, Fine. That's close enough to what happened. It was scary, y'know?"

I just put my hand up to my face and started rubbing the bridge of my nose.

"Oh come on, it feels so embarrassing when a child is doing that to me. I know I was stupid, but you're just rubbing it in at this point!"

Sakurai made her signature pouting face and actually looked like she was about to cry.

"Well, at least those three remaining brain cells rattling around in that empty head of yours acknowledges your flaw."

That may have been a bit savage, but it was what I was going for. By this point, her eyes started watering up and she started lightly tapping on my chest like a child having a tantrum.

I swear…

"Well, whatever. You're now my pet. So, I have to take care of you. From others."

Sakurai stopped pouting and smiled at me.

"But mostly from yourself."

"That's just mean!" Sakurai exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, it's the truth," I responded, not batting an eye.

"Hmph!"

Bruh. she hmphed me.

"Anyway, you brought me here for a reason, right?"

"Oh, yes. Let's get into that, shall we?"

You almost forgot why you summoned me here, didn't you?"

"No, I didn't!"

"Reading my thoughts again?" I started. Then, an idea popped into my head. "So, why didn't you read the hunter's thoughts? You could've easily avoided those traps otherwise…"

"W-what? W-why…why didn't I think of that???"

She genuinely sounded surprised by that question, which prompted an exaggerated facepalm. So hard, in fact, that the imprint of my hand was noticeably red on my childish face. I had absolutely no words. None.

After an awkward pause, we resumed our conversation.

Because we had not talked in over two years, the first thing we did was catch up. I explained to her my experiences of being a child and just staring up at the ceiling for a couple of months, and then that traumatic experience of being breast-fed. Sakurai laughed at my embarrassing situation, and, in retrospect, it was rather funny. But, I didn't have to deal with that anymore.

One thing that I noticed in this world was that I seemed to be growing up faster than usual. At least compared to my old world. But, I had no real way to compare it to the other world, so I asked Sakurai outright. According to her, It seemed that the first three years were faster than usual, but then development slowed down afterwards. Maybe it was because of natural selection that it ended up being that way, but I would never know.

The second thing that I was curious about was the question of my stats. By this point, I had raised some of my modifiers to level two, and increased my raw stats by a couple points. My overall level was still one, however.

"So, what is an average person in this world? Stats wise."

"Well," she began. "Your current stats surpass most children your age by 5-10 times."

Wow…

"If you are looking at non-combatants, some adults have lower raw stats than you. Especially in the mana department. You can use any common magic tool you can come across already."

"But what about adventurers?" I had inquired.

"Well, of course, their stats are suited to combat, so they are naturally going to be higher. You have some ways to go, though they didn't have as high of skills as you did when they were your age."

Impressive. And Reassuring…

Basically, I was on-track to being powerful. And I was ahead of the curve as well, for my age.

Our conversation meandered for a while, but then we finally got to the topic at hand.

"So, any suggestions?" I had asked her.

"For what?" she replied.

"For, you know, the future. What do you think I should go and try to do first?"

"Hmmmm…" she started. "I think you just have to grow up at this point. You've already accessed the status menu, right?"

"Yeah."

"What things popped out to you?"

"Well," I began. "I had Elite 2 mana manipulation."

"Ah, so direct mana manipulation," she said, finishing my sentence.

"Yeah. And an extra skill called <Automatic Co-Processing>"

"Co-Processing? If I remember correctly, that offloads some of the calculations you otherwise need to do with your own brain."

"Yeah. When I first unlocked it, I had a stimulus overload. I could sense things I normally shouldn't have. At least, they were heightened."

Basically, a normal human brain rules out excess stimuli it deems unnecessary because the overload of information would normally decrease performance. The Co-Processor takes some of that unused stimuli and processes it for me. And so I can calculate things much faster.

I remembered something, and blurted it out.

"Oh, and built into that was an auto-translate feature…"

"Really?" Sakurai questioned. "That's almost cheating."

"Kind of, but I have it. And I am going to use it."

"Well," Sakurai began, "you can try and start reading that tome you found."

"The Akashic Tome?" I replied.

"Yeah. That one. There may be something helpful for you somewhere in there."

"Might be?" I inquired.

"I don't know. I can't read that language. But with that skill, you probably can…" Sakurai replied.

So a language that even a god can't read? Wasn't expecting that…

"So, I guess I am going to be your pet for the time being…" Sakurai began. "So name me."

"Name you?" I asked. "Uhh, well your name is Sakurai, right? So I guess just…Sakura? Your crystal pink irises kind of remind me of Sakura blossoms…"

"Alright, I am Sakura the fox."

Sakurai seemed rather satisfied with the name, as she said it a few times and nodded a couple of times. Also, the line of reasoning made sense, even though it was kind of a somewhat lazy, on-the-spot naming.

After that conversation, we just enjoyed the imaginary scenery with the sun peaking through a thick cloud cover. With the breeze flowing and the river running, I once again dozed off in my imaginary dream world on Sakurai's lap pillow.

I didn't know you could fall asleep in a dream world…

And then I finally fell asleep for real. No dreams, just a deep slumber.

^^^^^^^^^

After that conversation with Sakurai, my dreams shifted into a typical kid's dreams. Flying around, Breaking things. Basically doing whatever I wanted. I didn't have any issues with this, as it was pretty fun and relaxing.

I woke up here and there, half-asleep, ang glanced out of the window.

Still dark?

I would immediately reposition and then fall back asleep. The bed was comfortable and warm, and I had no complaints about my current life. I knew that I would have to actually start properly studying the Akashic Tome tomorrow, so I just wanted tonight's sleep to be completely fruitful and fulfilling.

And then morning finally came, and I slept through it. I slept through breakfast, and lunch as well. I hadn't realized it, but my little toddler body was extremely tired.

I almost slept through lunch too, but Lilith woke me from my slumber.

Thanks, my savior…