Playmate?

A 5 year old Artem sat at the windowsill, the sun shining gently on his figure as he flipped the page of the book in his hands.

5 years had passed since his arrival into this new world, and despite Artem's surprising inability to cultivate normally Artem resorted to cultivating his body without Ki.

Through physical exercises, of course out of his parent's eyes.

His parents doted on him and when they learned he could understand the world around him at 3 years of age, the couple had hired incredibly skilled tutors for him.

Through the lessons, Artem learnt more and more of the world he was in and quickly he learned why he could not cultivate.

The energy that permeated this realm was different, Mana instead of Ki. A different kind of energy, one that belonged to space rather than nature as he understood it.

Mana permeated and blended through everything, even when life was devoid mana would persist, maybe in a slightly different form.

Ki however required the presence of life and more importantly, the Dao.

In this world however, it seemed there was no Dao. But there was. Dao was the rules of the world, laws which it operated on. Without it not to mention life, Order would not exist and everything would be in Chaos.

It simply meant one thing, it was not the Dao he knew, and Heaven and Earth here was different.

Quite possibly, this realm was so backward that it was not within the influence of Heaven and Earth.

That, or he was in a different system, a different place outside of the innumerable lower realms.

After having calmed down over this amazing piece of information, Artem had asked to learn mana and magics which utilized mana as fuel to form spells.

However his parents dissuaded him from doing so.

Due to his divine blood already affecting his growth, a lesser energy like mana would disrupt the process and taint his body.

The consequence of such ranged widely, from varying skin tones to new appendages, the worst was the crippling of his mana circuit and core.

Artem gave up quickly, a decade's or two was nothing to him.

Aside from these events, Artem had also found himself a new playmate.

Well, his parents had found him one.

A girl of similar age, a year younger, was introduced to him a few months before.

Her parents had come over to meet the ducal couple and brought their child with them.

On first sight, Artem could tell they didn't have divine blood, yet their bodies carried blood that could stand against his own and a there were sharp horns at their heads.

The couple introduced their daughter to him when he greeted them.

"Come now Sui, introduce yourself."

"Hello... my name's Suiren... nice to meet you..."

The little girl hid behind her mother's legs, her head poking out slightly to greet him.

"Hi! My name's Artem, nice to meet you too!"

The girl withdrew her head and hid fully behind her mother's legs.

'Uh... was I too enthusiastic?'

Artem felt a little worried that he wasn't behaving his age, but it was a needless worry.

"Sui, how about you play with Artem, hmm? Mommy and Daddy needs to talk to Artem's parents, it might take a while so we will come get you when we're done okay?"

"Mm..." The girl replied softly from behind.

The two couples didn't stay after that, leaving the two children alone.

'Crap what do children do?! Play? But what do they play? Shit what did I do when I was her age?! Uhm.... Right! I studied in the library... it should be fine I guess...'

Artem gave Suiren a pensive look and turned to walk to the library.

Suiren quickly followed after him, staying silent the entire time.