Unfortunate beginnings after the end.

I died.

There's nothing more to it than that.

At just 15 I died because a telephone pole tried to land on me.

I jumped out of the way only to spill coffee on a gangster's shirt, and when he shoved me back I flipped onto a road.

I looked to my right and car tire was the last thing I saw before things went dark.

Honestly I only sighed to myself as I embraced the blackness.

I had been unlucky my whole, so much so that it was a miracle I'd made it this long.

I only wish I had gotten to read The Beginning After The End more.

I had only made it to the part where Arthur falls off the cliff. *sigh*

Huh?

Did I just sigh out loud?

I open my eyes not realizing that I had ever closed them to find an empty grey room.

Gold lettering floated in the air that said.

"Congratulations you have been chosen to reincarnate into TBATE.

Enjoy your new life unfortunate soul.

As a boon you will be able to heal yourself, as well as get one elemental affinity.

Choose wisely."

After years of misfortune, I had just learned to roll with the punches.

I still wasn't wholly convinced this wasn't just a bring prank, but I answered anyways.

"Fire."

The words faded into wisps and an image of myself materialized from the vapors, and began shrinking.

The body had shrunk to that of a small child, maybe 5 or 6.

The bright blonde hair remained the same as well as the bright blue eyes.

Words formed above the child like version of myself.

"You will be sent to this world at the age of 5 as a gift from me you will already have a core though only of the black stage.

You must train it up yourself from there.

Good luck. Malcius."

As I read the final word everything around me began to swirl and disappear into an oppressive darkness.

When I opened my eyes again it was to the destruction of a caravan.

Bodies with their guts and hanging out and expanding pools of blood spread out around me.

With my unfortunate luck I had stumbled across a dead body or 30 in my past life.

All of them had been in varying forms of death, from fresh to weeks or even months old.

That said this sight didn't hold much weight to me as I just observed my surroundings.

Leave it to me to be brought to a new world surrounded by a pile of dead bodies.

"Hey, boss! The kid's alive!" A shrieky voice calls out.

Turning my head toward the noise I'm met with a man in tattered clothes, small frame and a pencil mustache along with greasy slicked back hair.

My eyebrow twitched in annoyance as I observed this man and the others that began approaching.

Great. Bandits.

"So he is." The supposed leader replied with a raspy voice.

He was a tall and burly man, with many scars around his body.

The most eye catching one was a scar that went from his chin up to his right eye at a curve.

"Kill him." The leader grinned broadly as well as his crew of bandits.

The first one with the greasy hair approached first and I held up a hand to shield myself before speaking.

"You would be missing out if you killed!" I yelled before the grease hair could get any closer.

The eyebrow of the leader rose and he stepped closer, grabbing me by my shirt and lifting me into the air.

Now eye level with the man I could smell his terrible body odor and even worse breath as he breathed into my face.

"And tell me, why would miss out if we killed you." His grin only widening as I squirmed in his grasp.

"I can heal." I muttered out, his grin turned to anger as he threw me back down my hand getting stabbed by a stray piece of wood.

Blood trickled down my hand and I could only smile inwardly through the pain.

Now I could prove my claim.

"Do ya take me for an idiot boy! You're no older than 5 and you expect me to believe you have a core." Spittle flew from the leader's mouth as he leaned down toward me.

"Tezar, the boy doesn't lie. He has a core, although only at the black stage." The leader that I now know is named Tezar turns to a fat man with a bald head.

He wore a vest that barely covered any of his bulging belly, he stood with his arms crossed.

"Are you positive, Clause?" Tezar questioned Clause, who only nodded.

Tezar looked back to me and then saw the cut in my hand.

"Well then brat. If you can heal, then heal that cut on your hand." Tezar smirked at me and I narrowed my eyes at my hand in determination.

All the knowledge I could remember on how to treat cuts came to mind, however little it was.

I didn't know how healing actually worked in this world, I didn't know if I didn't disinfect if infection could still settle into the flesh after I closed the wound.

So with that in mind I closed my eyes and concentrated on the point where I was bleeding.

The black space from closed eyes slowly gave way to an image of my hand.

The skin tore away, and layers peeled back until I found splinters of the wood embedded in my hand.

I pushed the splinters to the surface and began healing the infected areas that looked sickly green compared to the normal red the rest of the area took.

Eventually when no more green spots were left I began using mana to repair the damaged tissue and rebuild my skin.

When I opened my eyes I found my hand completely healed without a scratch.

Looking up at Tezar, he looked at me with a complicated expression before looking to Clause.

"He will be a valuable asset, Tezar." Clause spoke and Tezar held his gaze before nodding and standing up straight.

"Very well boy, you'll live to see another day.

You will be Wailing Wench's personal healer from now on.

Any funny business and you're dead. Got it?" His eyes hardened as they glared at me and I just held his glare before nodding.

Inwardly I was wrinkling my nose at the terrible bandit crew name, but I suppose they aren't the brightest bunch.

I suppose I'm the property of bandits now, but that'll change.

I'll have to bide my time until I grow strong enough to take them down, but I can wait.

I was hoisted up by another member who smelled even worse than Tezar.

At the this new vantage point I was able to look around and see how many bandits there were.

I was able to count 40 in total and that included Tezar and Clause.

Sighing in my head I further curse my misfortune as 40 bandits is a lot to take out, especially considering I can sense mana cores inside a few of the members.

"What's your name kid?" One of the bandits asked, that was walking beside the guy carrying me.

"Malcius." I responded, the bandit seemed to test the word on his tongue a few times.

"Welcome aboard Mal. Wailing Wench is one of the finest bandit crews operating around Cam City."

I frowned at the nickname, but didn't comment on it.

It's not like It's really going to effect anything if he calls me that.

After about 30 minutes we arrived at their base, with the horses and wagons they could take with them.

It seemed they had a pretty good haul as the wagons were stocked with food and alcohol as well as gold, silver, and copper coins.

I was thrown into a cage, that had stains from the previous owner still staining the floor and bars.

A bowl with some scraps was tossed in with another bowl full of water.

I hadn't realized I was hungry and thirsty until the items landed in front of me and I devoured them like an animal.

Food and water now settled in my stomach, I felt the fatigue in my body grow as well as the weight of my eye lids.

Soon my vision grew dark and I fell asleep, my first day spent in this world was amongst dead bodies and now sleeping in a soiled cage.

What else could wrong? I mentally asked myself as even my thoughts faded away and all that was left was the nothingness of sleep.

><

Chaps will be about this length. Could be longer, could be shorter.

In relation to Arthur, the MC is 5 years older.

Arthur's birth was the same day Malcius got brought here.

Next chapter will have time skips.

Enjoy.