When there’s a will, there’s a way

Vorick slept better then he had slept in the last few days. When he woke up the next morning he felt refreshed and rested, however, he was being held down by the sleeping weight of two little boys, one of which was his twin brother Mack Who stupidly sacrificed, four years worth of life essence to have a mana core created making him only a year older physically than Tony. The other was a boy that Mack had grown attached too over the last few days named Tony. A boy who used to be a man until he offended a god and was cursed to become a true four year old doomed to slowly forget his life as an adult and be re-raised. According to what Roy had said before they left yesterday, Tony has a son a little older then Vorick himself at the age of 13 who lives in the dorms of the academy where he is training to become a soldier. According to law he would be classified as Tony's big brother now and be completely responsible for Tony's well being since the boys mother is out of the picture. Vorick knew this would cause some additional drama later, but Vorick would cross that bridge when he got to it. Mack had never really had anybody to hang out with aside from himself but he was always training which left Mack on his own most of the time. This apparently caused him to be desperate for friends. Which led to their current situation.

Vorick had a growing problem, he had to pee, he looked at the two little ones sleeping peacefully all snuggled up against him but he had to move them quickly or he was going to have an even bigger problem. He gently rolled Tony over on his side and did the same to Mack. Mack groaned as he was pushed away. He opened his eyes and frowned "hey, what was that for" he complained as he rubbed his eyes "I was comfy and warm"

"Well, sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep, diaper boy, but I have to pee and unlike you two I'm potty trained" he said with a giggle as he scooted to the end of the bed and ran to the bathroom.

Mack frowned when his brother made fun of his situation. He wanted to be a smartass but couldn't really figure out a good comeback mainly because his brother was right, even though in his mind he was potty trained. He looked over and noticed Tony still sleeping. it was still very early in the morning and he didn't want to disturb the guy so he just waited for Vorick to finish in the bathroom. When he finally did come out of the bathroom he climbed back in bed. They remained silent for a few minutes until Mack couldn't take it. He scooted closer to his brother and whispered in his ear. "Thank you for saving me bubby, I owe you big time"

Vorick looked the younger version of himself in the eyes and smiled "your welcome dork" he said "answer a question for me though. Why did you agree to go out their. You would have been in the same situation even if you had not sacrificed 4 years worth of life essence. You were and are still weak and unable to protect yourself."

"How do you know I sacrificed my life essence. How do you know I wasn't cursed by the daggers on the table like Tony was" asked Mack shocked.

"That's not important at the moment. What's important is knowing why you thought it was a good idea to leave the castle. To leave me behind" he said as his bottom lip quivered while tears threatened to slip from his eyes. Vorick was in fact, only 10 years old and still working on controlling his emotions.

"Oh Ricky" said Mack as he hugged the bigger boy "im sorry I hurt you like that. I just thought it would be weird to be your personal servant"

"I wouldn't have treated you badly" he said wiping his eyes

"And that's the problem" mack smiled "you, mom, and dad would have treated me differently then the other servants. Which would have caused issues between me and the rest of the staff. It was for the best, but it looks like I have no choice but to except my fate now that I'm to little to be on my own."

"I would hold off on resigning yourself to becoming my personal servant just yet. You have a mana core now so you may not have to do that" said Vorick "even though you have a mana core, it's empty, which is not good for the plan that we have. And our plan is to fill your core with mana before the council finds out and sends Veritas to verify. If we can do this, we can play it off as though the old man is senile and losing his touch. But according to our system, you only have six months to awaken your core."

"what do you mean by our system? And how do you know all of this?" Asked Mack in confusion "wait wait wait, don't tell me" he started to think hard about how his brother could possibly know anything about his mana core or his sacrifice without being told by him himself was. And there was only one logical explanation. "you're the disciple of youth that was supposed to come help me….. but how could that be?"

"The God of youth hijacked my awakening and made me one of his disciples. I had to pay a price though to fuse with the system." He explained "so if you would have just been patient and listened to the system, you wouldn't be a diaper wearing five year old"

"Were the same age dummy" pouted Mack

"Mack nobody is going to care that you are 10 years old mentally. All people are going to see is A five year old boy who's mature for his age. And you will remain a five-year-old boy until we can figure out the system and get your life essence back but that's only if we can awaken your mana core in the Allotted timeframe"

"what happens if I can't awaken my mana in time" asked Mack

"You'll have to grow up like a normal boy your age. Cultivating till you reach the age of ten and awakening naturally. Now that I think about it, that possibility doesn't seem so terrible. And the reason for that is because I'm gonna have to teach you five years worth of lessons in six months.

[if hosts would ask questions every now a then and actually look at the system they have you would know that even though you don't have any skills at the moment or life essence reserves, you have divinity points that can be exchanged for whatever you may need whether it be Healthpoints, mana, maybe you wanna get stronger etc., and shared with each other. Just keep in mind that once those divinity points are gone they're gone.]

Mack was startled by the random transparent screen that popped up in front of his face. But read the words that appeared in front of them. It appeared that the systems were indeed connected in some way. "All this can't be that easy there's got to be a catch to using the divinity" he asked the system

[of course there is a catch. Mortals can't just go around using divinity willy-nilly. Call it a type of exchange program. For every one point of divinity used. One years worth of life essence will be deducted from the host.]

"how many divinity points would it take to fill up Mack's core" asked Vorick.

[in order to fill up Mack's mana core completely The cost will be five divinity points. Would host like to convert five divinity points into Mana and transfer it to Mack?

Yes or no?]

Vorick looked at Mack who's eyes were as big as saucers. "Ricky if you do this you'll be my age physically. How are we going to explain it to mom and dad."

"Mom will be happy to have her babies back again even if it is temporary" he said "system is there any other option?"

[unfortunately there is not currently]

"Ricky you don't have to do this. I can just grow up naturally. I don't want you sacrificing everything you've worked so hard on for me. I'll be fine." Pleaded Mack

[none of the hosts stats will decrease. It's one of the perks of being a disciple of youth. As I've already said, once you are able to absorb life essence you will be able to age back to your normal ages]

"I agree to the exchange" Vorick told the system. He immediately Felt a draining sensation. He also felt himself start to shrink.

"Wait don't I get a say in this" said Mack as his eyes grew wide watching his brother get younger

"No bubby you don't" he responded in a small boys voice "this was the only way" his lower lip quivered and tears welled up in his eyes.

[divinity has been converted to lower to the type of man's mortals can use. Would you like to transfer mana to Mack?]

"Yes" Vorick whimpered out.

[hold your brothers hand]

As soon as Vorick held his brothers hand he felt the excess mana flow out through his mana vains and into Mack. Who gasped in surprise at the new sensation he was feeling. He had never cultivated so had never felt what mana felt like as it traversed his body opening his dry mana vains. It scared him a lot "w…w…what's h…h…happening b..bubby" he said as he trembled. He looked into his brothers glowing golden eyes for comfort and saw tears streaming down his face. He felt the Sensation reach his navel and the feeling of a glass being filled could be felt. The sensation built quickly alarming him. "Something is happening bubby. I…I…I'm g…going to explode"

"It's ok m…Mackey" said his brother "don't be scared. It's just the mana filling up your mana core. It's about to awaken. I can feel it."

Suddenly Mack felt a pulse of energy in his body and a golden aura surrounded both boys. Their eyes glowing with golden light.

[congratulations Mack you have successfully awakened your mana core. You have awakened the affinity of youth and will forever be a young boy.

Hidden quest: activate mana core has been completed.

Rewards: +50 life essence, +1 skill card

Voricks main quest: help brother awaken mana core before the time runs out, has been completed.,

Rewards: +50 life essence, +1 skill card, +1 level up card

Would Vorick like to use his level up card?]

"Yes" he said

[level up successful. All stats have increased by 1 point.]

"Ummm… Ricky what's all this mean." Asked Mack as he was staring at the screen in confusion.

"Oh…right, I guess I should tell you about the system. Lord Yang told me that he got the idea from a different realm where their technology is way more advanced then ours. The system is based on something called a computer game. He didn't explain what a computer was however. The system is run by a part of his divinity. That divinity is tasked with helping us grow stronger by giving us tasks to complete and rewarding us for completing them. It's also a way for us to keep track of all of our affinities, and skills. The system also has an inventory that can store supplies as well as a shop where we can exchange shop cards for things like armor, weapons, skills, affinities, and survival gear. You can also exchange life essence for these items as well" he explained as he showed Mack all the features of the system that they had access to. "Unfortunately the shop and inventory won't unlock until we reach level ten. Also if you say, system interface, your status panel will appear" suddenly a screen appeared in front of Mack.

[Name: Mack Evergreen

Race: human

Cultivation level: 0

Cultivation stage: Basic Novise

Gender: Male

Physical age: 5

Mental age: 10

Titles: disciple of youth

*stats*

Strength: 1

Agility: 1

Intelligence: 7

Child like innocence: 10

Child like cuteness: 10

Mana: 25/25

HP: 100/100

Life essence reserve: 50/100

Divinity points: 100/100

Host has 1 skill card. Please choose from the following skills:

Age manipulation: host will be able to temporarily control his own age two years in either direction. Skill caps at hosts true physical age of 9. Advanced levels will allow host to control the ages of those around you.

Essence devouring: drain the life essence from your enemies and add it to your reserves. Skill can be used to advance age back to normal after sacrifices and punishments. (System recommended)

Beam of ablivion: send a beam of golden energy towards an enemy that will regress them into a puddle of fluid.]

Both boys looked at the options.The first one was immediately dismissed as it wasn't really useful at the moment. The last one sounded cool but also kind of morbid not to mention messy. They weren't really sure what kind of liquid one would turn into if they regressed to far. In the end the second one is what they chose because the system recommended it. Vorick also felt himself get a fraction stronger and felt his mind get a bit sharper as his level increased.

"You'd better go pee again before you have an accident in the bed Ricky" said Mack as he noticed Vorick wiggling uncomfortably which set him into a fit of giggles

"I'm not going to pee the bed. But your right I should go again" he said as he got out of the bed and ran to the bathroom his underwear falling down around his ankles. Which only caused Mack to giggle that much more as he watched his twin brothers naked butt disappear into the bathroom. Eventually he came back out covering his middle.

"Why are you still naked" asked Mack

"Hhhhh none of my underwear or clothes fit me" he said

"Go get a T-shirt and use that as a nightgown" said Mack as Vorick disappeared and returned wearing a t-shirt. He hopped back into bed and covered up. Mack scooted closer to him and wrapped his arms around him. "Thank you Ricky for everything. I really appreciate it. I love you so much bubby. If the roles were reversed I'd do the same"

"I love you too Mackey and your welcome" he said in response. They remained silent for awhile till they eventually fell back to sleep.