Second Chance

"Did I really get a second chance?" Ezra asked himself.

The system in front of him disappeared once it delivered the message, allowing him to see where he was. He was currently lying on a bed; he sat up and took a look around the room. The room was not too large, it seemed to be the room of a child.

"A child?" he was hit by a sudden realization, he looked at his hands and discovered that he was a child, certainly no more than twelve. With this realization came an influx of memories, he was in the body of Ezra Blackwood, a twelve-year-old boy with jet-black hair and red eyes.

The memories showed a world that was not advanced technologically, but they had something that piqued his interest, and that was magic and martial arts. From the memories of his predecessor, magic was the manipulation of mana, while martial artists trained their bodies to become weapons.

Ezra became excited when he found out what this world was, but the next second was doused with cold water, as the memory of what had happened to make his predecessor die came to his mind. His predecessor had been cursed by a dark mage, seemingly the mage was angry with his father.

"You killed me because of your grudge against my father?" Ezra seethed with rage as he spoke to himself, he may not have been the one killed, but the emotion of his predecessor was still in the body.

"I'll certainly kill that man, not for my predecessor, but for myself. I have said I will not bow to anyone anymore, if I don't kill him, then it simply means I can't keep my word." Ezra said to himself, he clenched his fist tightly.

He calmed his mind and was about to try to get back that screen that he had seen a while ago, but before he could start it, the door of his room swung open. He looked at the door and saw a young girl standing there. She looked to be the same age as him, her black hair reached down to her waist, and her red eyes shined the same as him. 

She stood there with her eyes wide open, the bowl of water in her hands fell from her hand, it landed on the ground and splashed water onto her simple black dress.

Ezra began rummaging through the memories of his predecessor to find out who this girl was, after a second or two, he found it. She was Lisa, his twin sister. She was a young prodigy who had awakened her mana core when both of them hit twelve, the pride of their family.

"Br-bother?" She looked at Ezra with teary eyes, but Ezra stood looking at her with no emotions at all, he held no emotions for this girl, and even if his body was reacting towards her, he didn't care.

She ran from where she stood and jumped onto Ezra, locking him in a bear hug. She soon began sobbing, she rested her head on his shoulder, crying her heart out.

"Ezr *sob* Ezra, you are alright, you are alright." She kept saying as if to reassure herself that what she was seeing was not a dream or illusion.

Ezra got tired of the hug, but he pushed her off him as gently as he could, then looked straight into her eyes. "Yeah, I am alright, but I want to rest, can you leave me alone for a while?" He asked.

She nodded in response, then she turned and walked out of the room, "I'll tell Mum that you are alright." She said before leaving.

"Mum? I've never had one, what will she be like?" he asked himself.

"No, I don't have the time to think about that."

"Now, how do I get that screen back?"

As soon as he spoke of the screen, it appeared, but it wasn't showing the same message as before.

[User: Ezra Blackwood]

[Shadow unawakened]

[Shadow points: 0]

[Shadow energy: 5]

[Shadow abilities: Locked]

[Vitality: 5]

Ezra didn't understand anything here, aside from his name.

"Is there an explanation or guidebook?" he asked as a joke, but the system responded.

[User, that is the name of the person bearing the system]

[Shadow unawakened is your current shadow status, meaning you are yet to awaken your shadow powers]

[Shadow points are points that can be used to purchase anything in the store]

[Sadow energy is the shadow power within you,]

[Vitality is the cumulative data of your physical attributes.]

The explanations were short, but they allowed Ezra to understand what was going on, well, maybe a little about what was going on.

"Then how do I awaken my shadow power?" He asked.

[Shadow energy exists everywhere; you can learn to absorb it. The second way is to gain the shadow energy from the dead body of an enemy]

"I see, so that is how it is. How can I absorb the shadow energy?" He asked.

[You need to buy a shadow cultivation method from the store]

"Shit, there is no thinking about it, I am broke as hell." He said to himself, he had zero shadow points.

"Then the only option is simply to kill something or someone." From the memories he had, he knew that this world had magical beasts, but they were no joke, he was too weak to kill one.

As he was thinking of a way to do this, a notification came in.

[You have received a mission.]

[Seven-day deadline: You have seven days to get your vitality to ten and gained five shadow energy to awaken your shadow power]

[Rewards: two shadow abilities]

[Penalty: ten hours in the shadow realm.]

"Huh?" 

He read the notification, he was about to ask the system about it, but his door slung open, beautiful woman with waist-length black hair and red eyes similar to Ezra's ran in, she grabbed onto him in a tighter bear hug than the one of his sister.

She lifted him off the ground with the hug, her eyes filled with tears, as she tightened her grip as though he would sleep out of her arms.

"So, this is my mother."