I found myself in a dark, cramped place. There were many sounds that filled my ears, but they were mostly gurgling with a few booms occasionally. I was weak, and it felt like I was being squeezed from all sides. Most importantly, I couldn't breathe! I panicked momentarily. I don't need to breathe? it was a strange feeling. Comforting to be sure, but very weird for someone who definitely remembered that breathing was a thing needed to keep themselves alive.

I found, after some time, that the squeezing I thought was everywhere, was missing on the top of my head. I tried to move my arms to find out why, but both the weakness and something slippery got in the way. I pondered my predicament but came up with nothing. Maybe I'd been swallowed by some kind of snake? The panic welled up again, but I suppressed it again. If I were eaten, I'd imagine there would be a decent amount of pain, and I felt mostly warm comfort with a little discomfort thrown in from the squeezing.

After being certain I wasn't dying immediately, I focussed on the feeling of being squeezed. I could tell that the squeezing feeling was moving me somewhere, slowly, but it wasn't possible for me to determine where or how quickly.

An hour or so later, I wasn't sure of the time... just that it felt to be about an hour, I felt some of the squeezing focussed on my face. This hurt a little bit, but not enough that it'd leave a bruise. Slowly that pain slid down my face until it hit my shoulders. Then I felt something rough grab my head and pull.

With a plop, I slipped out of wherever I'd been. I coughed. Wait, I had to breathe now? This was news to me! I'd spent a long time not having to... such a cruel world. I coughed again and tried to open my eyes. The world was very bright and out of focus. I shut them immediately. Something smacked my ass and I instantly cried. Whatever fluids had been left in my lungs were out, covering whatever was in front of me or below me.

I could hear some voices speaking. My ears were still leaking fluid and I couldn't hear what they were saying. However, I did understand that they were excited and happy. it finally hit me as the crying ceased. I'd just been born. I was a baby.

The first few months of this new life were nothing to write home about. My eyesight was worse than the chances of making a half-court shot at the buzzer. I could see, to be sure, but the world around me was very blurry. If something got close to me, I could see it ok, but even then it was somewhat out of focus. My hearing was alright, though. I was able to understand some of what was going on. My name was James, which was consistent with what I remembered from before being born, even if those memories were foggy like a dream. My parents were happy around me. They were fairly young by the standards I remembered. I had two siblings: Anna and Max. Anna was the oldest, probably around 5, where Max was 2 or 3. Mostly, I spent my time sucking milk from Mother's breasts, pissing and shitting into diapers, and sleeping.

At six months, with my sight and hearing better, I could focus on the conversations around me. People wouldn't expect a child of my age to already have an internal monologue and strong memories, so many things a child would otherwise not be privy to were discussed around me.

The world I was in was different than the one I'd come from. Apparently, there was some kind of calamity that had happened when my parents were very young... young enough that it was a note in a book rather than something they remembered directly. The world was more dangerous, too. There were monsters in the spaces between human populations centers. Father was a guard where we lived, so he would occasionally talk about the monsters he had to fight. Thankfully, it wasn't often as it worried Mother.

My mobility was better, too. I could crawl, if slowly. Coordination wasn't something I could expect for a while, but it was something I worked on every day with conscious effort in the hopes that I would exceed what a child could do. The house I lived in was not the smallest I'd seen in my previous life, but it was small for the number of people living in it. My siblings shared one room and I shared the other with my parents. There was a kitchen, dining room, living room, and one bathroom in the house in addition to the two bedrooms. Any more kids would be problematic in this particular home. I figured we'd probably move in the next few years to have a little more space... but that was a problem for the future.

I crawled across the wooden floor into the tiled kitchen, I hated the tiles. They hurt my knees and they were cold. Mother and Father were talking as I entered. Mother turned to keep an eye on me but they didn't stop their conversation.

"Did you check your Status after?" Mother asked.

"Yeah," Father responded. "No levels or skill-ups or anything, sadly."

"Status." Mother smiled. "Looks like I've improved my household skills again. You'd better keep up!"

"Hmph."

I smiled inwardly and crawled out of the room. There seemed to be something there. Thankfully, the language they spoke was the same as I remembered speaking previously, or at least translated into my mind as such. Entering the living room, I reflected on what they had talked about.

Status? I wondered

Name: James McPherson Level: 1 Class: None

HP: 14/14

MP: 24/24

SP: 12/12

Attributes: AGI: 1 CHA: 1 CON: 2 END: 1 FIN: 2 INT: 4 STR: 1 WIS: 7 Affinities: Black: 10% Blue: 10% Green: 10% Orange: 10% Red: 10% Violet: 10% White: 10% Yellow: 10% Skills:

That's certainly different.

I recognized most of the attributes. Strength, Intelligence, etc. They made sense. I was weak, as a baby, but my mind had a head start from being aware since the beginning. I hadn't a clue what affinities were, and I had no skills yet. That was to be expected, given all of this was new to me. I didn't know what to make of all of this, but it reminded me of games I used to play a world away from here. I hoped the rules were somewhat similar. If they were, I resolved to take full advantage of this. I could at least test some of this in my spare time.

I spent several weeks around the house doing pushups and lifting other objects where I could without being seen. Being a baby, I imagined they looked pathetic, but I could feel the difference. Some of it was from growth alone, sure, but my efforts helped. I grunted as I finished the set with some blocks as weights.

STR +1

It works! So this is very similar to what I'm used to. I'll see about training some of the other stats. I think they'll grow as I grow, but some effort on my part will get me ahead of the game.

I reaffirmed my decision to take advantage of what had been given to me on a silver platter.