Lucky

Ethan began focusing on his surroundings and instantly felt a fluctuation of mana near him. He began the process of dragging it toward him. When he first started practicing, moving the mana at all bottomed him out. Now he could easily pull it toward himself with little effort.

He felt the mana surrounding his body, a sensation akin to fog caressing him. He wasn't sure exactly where to go from this point. No matter how hard he pulled, the fluctuation refused to go inside his body.

As he pondered what to do, a strange feeling took root in his head. It felt like something tugging at his consciousness. Suddenly he had an idea of how to absorb the mana. It was like an instinct engrained in his body no different from breathing automatically.

Before he could realize what was happening, the mana started flooding into his body. The mana started rampaging inside his body like a bull in a china shop. A wave of unimaginable agony struck Ethan so hard he couldn't even breathe let alone cry out. The pain felt hundreds of times more painful than being shot. 

As he started to lose consciousness from the pain, the strange feeling in his head came back screaming at him to focus. He knew that if he fell unconscious he would certainly die. 

With nothing else but survival on his mind, he let the feeling in his head guide him. He put forth all his will to bring the mana flooding his body under control. Guiding the mana, he pulled the mana through various channels in his body. The channels that were originally sealed shut got blasted open one by one under the controlled mana. 

Every channel opened repeated the agonizing pain, but the feeling in his head was hammering at him to keep going and endure no matter the cost. 

One by one countless channels opened across his body from the tips of his toes to the top of his head. The mana started circulating through each of these channels just like blood in the circulatory system. 

After every channel in his body was blasted open and started circulating mana, the mana started pooling at the center of his chest forming a heart made of mana. At this point his body stopped absorbing mana, causing the pain to fade away.

Ethan slumped over in relief as the pain receded. His entire body was drenched in sweat and was still shivering from the pain. Despite the immense fatigue from the ordeal, his entire body felt stronger and more energetic than at any other point in either of his two lives.

As clarity returned to his mind he felt terrified by what had just occurred. If he had made any mistakes he could have died for the second time. What he did just now was immensely irresponsible and dangerous. 

He was also not sure what to think of the feeling in his head that guided him to do something so dangerous. He endured pain worse than anything else he had ever experienced, yet he also felt infinitely stronger. It was like both his body and mind had been honed into sharp blades.

As he thought about it, he concluded that the feeling in his head was some form of heightened instinct. He still wasn't entirely sure how his increased luck would affect him, but the feeling in his head made him certain that his guess about it being instinct was correct. 

His luck seemed to be manifesting in his instinct being supernaturally heightened to the extreme. He would have to test this further in the future. For now, however, he felt the urge to fall asleep and rest after his tiring ordeal. He quickly lost consciousness and let sleep take hold of him.

-

A year passed in the blink of an eye. Ethan had recently turned one year old. He learned through listening to the caregivers that birthdays generally weren't celebrated yearly in this world, but every five years. He didn't really mind this as it would allow him to avoid more hassles.

Recently he had grown old enough to gain basic motor functions, so the caregivers would force him to play with various toys and the other two babies who were with him. He had zero interest in doing these things, but he tried his best to play along the best he could so they wouldn't worry about him.

During this time he learned that the other two babies were named Mia and Jonah. The orphanage seemed to be grouping us due to us arriving at around the same time and being roughly the same age. 

He did have to admit they were very cute. They reminded him of his siblings when they were babies. 

Despite still being depressed, he had mostly stopped agonizingly thinking about his siblings. Now he was able to spend his time thinking more about various things rather than exhausting himself to sleep gathering mana every day. 

After he had opened up his mana channels and formed a heart out of mana he noticed there was a limited amount of mana he could absorb every day. If he tried to absorb more than that limit, he would undergo agonizing pain similar to when he opened up his channels. His instinct warned him not to do this, so he limited himself to only gathering mana for an hour each day. 

After nearly a year of gathering mana in this way, his mana heart had grown from one centimeter to one and a half centimeters. It grew quite slowly, but he felt his whole body get stronger the bigger it got. He felt that despite being only a year old he could crush an apple with his bare hands. 

He felt if he continued to accumulate mana like he was, one day he could leap over buildings and crush mountains like a superhero. 

Another thing he learned was his ability to open a status page for himself.

—

Name: Ethan Moore

Age: 1

Current Realm: 2 - Soldier

Blessing: Roguelike System

Main Stats:

-Strength: 1

-Agility: 1

-Endurance: 1

-Intelligence: 2

-Mana: 2

Alternative Stats:

-Luck: 6

Racial upgrades:

-Constitution of the Stars (Legendary)

Abilities:

Items:

—

This status page gave him a lot of information he didn't have before. The powers given to him were referred to as a blessing. He couldn't argue that power given to him by a godlike being is anything other than a blessing.

He deduced that his realm level was tied to the highest level of his main stats as it matched his intelligence and mana. His luck was referred to as an alternate stat, so it wasn't contributing to his realm level. 

He still couldn't confirm what each point of the stats represented, but he guessed by the name of the realm that having 2 in a stat is equal to a soldier in power. By that assessment, a 1 should be in the realm of a normal person.

He didn't even want to imagine what a 6 could represent. If just one point is the difference between a normal person and a soldier, what could 5 more points do? If he had chosen 6 strength and endurance would he be capable of crushing mountains as a baby? That image alone is ridiculous.

He was now even more curious about what 6 points in luck could give him. He had already displayed the usefulness of his instinct, but he would have to experiment more in the future. Maybe he could become a god of poker?

Putting that thought aside, he was also curious about the empty items and abilities section. He wondered if he would gain cool items and abilities in the future. He was restless to start exploring everything his system could do, but instead, he was stuck being a baby.

All he could do was steadily increase his mana heart and continue sitting around. He greatly looked forward to when he could move around on his own and start learning more about the world he was in. 

He intended to play the 'genius' card. He was hoping they would ignore his strange behavior and just treat him as a genius, allowing him to explain his fast learning. That way he could skip past learning boring children's stuff and dive faster into what he wants to know.

Ethan stopped his thoughts and started his daily mana absorption. 

While he was in the middle of his absorption, his instinct rang in his head to stop. He quickly ceased as the door to his room opened.

Siara walked in, making a small frown as she entered. She thought she felt a small amount of the room's mana heading in the direction of the babies but the feeling quickly disappeared. She shook her head and dismissed the notion. She knew a baby couldn't possibly absorb mana, doing so would be suicide without an experienced mage guiding them. 

Meanwhile, Ethan was wiping the sweat from his forehead, relieved that he stopped in time. He had forgotten that it was almost feeding time. If his instinct didn't warn him, he could have exposed himself.

He had the feeling that he would be relying on this instinct a lot in the future.