Kai walked back through the mists to Kitsune Village. Bursting with excitement, he was having a difficult time holding back from using and testing his new skills, but his family was probably nervously waiting for him to return home. He had been gone a few hours as he waited for his magic class to finally appear. His family had been very supportive giving him his space during the process. They all wanted to be a part of the process of helping him decide what to pick, but Kai remained adamant until the end that this would be his responsibility. His family had been a part of the decision for Garren and Lyddia, so naturally, they wanted to support Kai in that aspect as well.

He couldn’t help but skip in joy a little as he examined his magic class.

Kai noticed a few things, one being that he had a level of 17 already in the foundation realm. Figuring it must be from defeating the occasional Screaming Forest Boar during his training over the years. He probably would have received more levels if his father hadn’t been supervising, reducing the risk factor greatly. Checking he could see his kill history recorded, almost like a paper with words that were embedded in his mind.

-Your group has slain [Screaming Forest Boar – Foundation Level 27]

-Your group has slain [Screaming Forest Boar – Foundation Level 12]

...

-You have slain [Screaming Forest Boar – Foundation Level 29]

A total of 9 boars, averaging around level 15.

With the 17 levels came 85 attribute points. The difficulty was figuring out where best to put them. He would be better off waiting until he was able to test his magic skills more and identify which attributes would benefit him most.

What is most curious, is that my first two kills have been considered group kills. I don’t remember anyone helping or even being there. There were a lot of oddities about that first kill. The whole experience had seemed almost fabricated. Most boars he fought didn’t have behavior like that first one he had killed. It was almost as if it left its territory purposefully just to attack me.

Stopping for a few seconds, Kai decided to test his new-old general skill. He had the identify spell in his previous life, as all humans possessed it. As unlikely as it was, he wanted to find out if anything had changed during that time with the skill. Focusing his eyes on a large old tree, he gave thought to the identify skill.

[Aged Pine Tree]

Although he had never identified an aged pine tree before in his past life, the process and result remained the same, at least for a tree. Kai planned to try it on all different objects and people when he got back to the village to see if anything was altered.

Suddenly remembering he could identify living animals and people he cast his gaze at Akane who kept trotting at his side. Noticing his gaze, she stared back at him, arching one of her eyebrows.

[Forest Fox – Foundation Level 60]

Kai’s eyes widened in surprise. Level 60? I can’t believe that lazy fox is actually level 60. Perhaps that could be high for their species. I’ll have to compare it to the other foxes. Do they hunt, or did they just grow into that level? For the last 16 years, that he had been living in the village, the foxes enjoyed nothing but luxury as they had all their food prepared by the villagers.

Putting the thought aside Kai peered at the rest of his general skills. Pain tolerance 1 was as expected. All humans in the foundation realm had it. The 1 implies 10%. All pain Kai would experience in the future, physical or mental would be diminished by 10%. It was often debated by people that pain resistance helped reduce the damage done to you. In a sense that was true as the mental trauma of experiencing pain might be reduced, the damage inflicted physically was not. Too often Kai heard people wish Pain Tolerance 1 also helped with emotional pain, but it didn’t. Those poor saps had to deal with their heartbreak all on their own.

Walking out of the mists, Kai could see that the villagers had gathered into two lines along the main pathway starting right past the entrance as if welcoming back a victorious hero. There was a clamoring as they all got excited about seeing Kai ‘s glorious return.

He felt his face heat up as everyone started excitedly cheering, whistling, and clapping. Cringing he covered his eyes with his hand trying to avoid eye contact with everyone. Gods, this is such an embarrassing tradition. I asked them not to do this. The foxes even joined in, howling and yapping without end. They were scattered about randomly between the other villagers.

His family and grandfather waiting in a group at the end of the line. His mother was a blubbering mess, tears falling down her smiling face. Past his mother, he was surprised to see Garren, who had been gone for many years. Their relationship had never gotten better over the years. There was no smile, just a cold hard glare from him. What the hell is his problem? Kai thought, staring daggers back at him.

Arielle bolted from the family, not even waiting for him to finish his walk to them. Soaring across the ground she reached him in seconds as she leaped with open arms into his chest. The rest of the family followed suit and joined them with Garren walking especially slowly. Kai finished hugging everyone, including Garren, for appearance’s sake of course.

Eyes gleaming with curiosity Arielle barraged Kai with questions. “What magic did you get? What class did you pick? Warrior? Swordsman? Summoner? Please tell me it was Ash Swordsman. Jacob does my chores if I’m right.”

“Give him some room to breathe Ari,” his father said, pulling her back.

“Can we talk about it when we go home?” Kai asked, still red in the face as he looked around at the mass of people that had encircled his family.

“You might as well tell us now. No way your mother isn’t going to tell everyone later anyways,” Octavian said giving his wife a side glance.

With at least some decency to act embarrassed, his mother gave a small cough. Looking down, she was still smiling.

The entire town quieted down as they waited for the big reveal. With a sigh Kai knew his father would be right, it was pointless to try and hide his magic in the village. “Gravity and Vanguard,” Kai stated proudly aloud for everyone to hear.

The response from the village and his family was a murmuring of confusion.

“Told you it would be weird, I win the bet,” Jacob called.

“Nu-uh, you said, “new magic” and “warrior,” he isn’t a warrior!” Arielle called back determined not to lose and do extra chores.

Looking around he saw that his mother and grandfather were smiling with happiness. What was concerning was Octavian staring at him with eyes of pity.

“Kai would you please meet me in the training yard?” Octavian called out to Kai who had been staring at his screen nonstop since their family lunch ended half an hour ago.

Strolling out to the courtyard, he found his father and older brother waiting for him. His father had an expression of seriousness, which was unusual to see. Garren an indifferent blank stare, as if what was happening didn’t concern him.

Distracted by the festivities, Kai realized he had forgotten to use his identify on his family during the meal.

[Human - ???]

[Human - ???]

To be expected... Dad is in the 5th realm of power or so he claimed, so his information wouldn’t show up with identify. More shocking was that his brother was unable to be identified. That would mean he is already in the Adept realm of power or higher. Identify could be properly used on beings at most one realm of magic above your, anything higher than that it would be all question marks like the two before him.

Noticing the tension Kai couldn’t help but gulp.

“I would like to hear about what happened today, specifically your options and thought process,” Octavian said staring into his son’s eyes, conveying his seriousness. “You see, the affinity for gravity is very rare, even in more populated cities or planets. And even those who have an affinity for it, often refrain from picking it. The difficulty and danger of using it can be substantial. Gravity requires a lot of precision and control. It is very possible you could hurt yourself or even endanger your own life if you misuse gravity magic.”

When put that way, Kai felt an explanation was necessary to defend his choice. He told them about his available options and choices, leaving out the part where he believed gravity to be a gift from his past life. Instead, he told his father that gravity magic seemed like a gamble, that if he could master it, he believed he would become very powerful.

Even after the explanation, he still received looks of concern. Rubbing his chin, Octavian contemplated what he heard. “Six affinities, that’s quite something. But this Vanguard class, it’s not something I’ve ever heard of before. Not that it means much with thousands and thousands of classes available. Anyways what’s done is done. We have a few weeks to get you used to using magic so let’s get started.

“The way it was described to me is, using magic is like using your arm. You will your arm to move through processes in your brain. And magic is no different. However, instead of using limbs, you have been in control of your entire life, it’s as if you gained a third arm. It takes time and effort to be able to use magic instantly or unconsciously Now I want you to–”

Stealing his father’s thunder, Kai turned on his [Domain] skill, enveloping the entire area in a very mild increase of gravity. The strain on his body was noticeable as he felt his weight increase slightly. Feels like I have small weights hanging off every part of my body. Although using the increase in gravity to train my body would have been helpful, it doesn’t make much of a difference now because no matter what the achievements I could make training naturally will no longer ever compare to the development I make by leveling up and putting stats in.

Clearing his throat, Octavian gave his son a proud smile. “I was going to say trying to turn one of your skills on... I am impressed. It’s common for people to believe that all it takes is thinking of the skill to use it. It’s more than that. What truly matters is willing it into existence, connecting that mana inside of you to take shape and form into your magic skill.”

Kai just smiled. Well, it wasn’t so easy the first time I tried using magic. I feel a little guilty earning that compliment, but I can’t help that I was reborn.

Kai noticed a drain on his mana. Already it was at a tenth of his maximum, the area skill domain had a hefty drain on his resources after only one minute.

“You should have noticed your mana reserves have gone down. Do you mind telling me how much mana you have left?” Octavian asked.

“9 out of 100,” Kai replied.

“Whoa, that’s quite a mana intensive spell, pretty strong for foundation stage too. I know it might not seem like it to our enhanced bodies, but you’ll have to trust me on that. I’m not sure how to measure the increase in gravity without proper tools so it will be up to you to find how much gravity is increased by when using your skills.

While the increase in weight and pressure had been nothing for his father and brother, Kai had felt it. The increase in gravity would be detrimental to him if he had to fight in it right now. While he could still run under his domain skill, it would be more straining for him.

“Do you know what stat the skills modifier is based on?” Octavian asked. A gleam could be seen in his eye as he tried to help his son understand his new magic.

Examining the skill further, Kai could instinctively feel the nature of his gravity spells would be based on his intelligence stat.

“Yes, it’s based on my intelligence stat,” replied Kai.

“Typical, most mage-type spells are. What is your intelligence stat right now? It’s ok if you don’t want to share with me, I’m just curious.”

“10...” Kai answered honestly, he had yet to put any stats into his attributes.

“Alright stay with me, I know you want to use your magic more, but it’s important we figure this out, so you know what to put your stats into.”

Kai was aware of what his dad was trying to do. He was theory crafting, or that was the term his previous mother, the former video gamer had dubbed it. The idea was to get all the information available to plan your build accordingly. Kai remained silent, appreciating the help his father was giving him. His brother remained in the background, yawning exaggeratedly.

“My gravity seems like a double-bladed weapon. The skill increased my weight almost as much as it did yours,” Kai stated.

“Almost?”

Kai told him about his vanguard class bonus that reduced the effects of gravity magic by 10%.

“That is a good bonus to have, but you’re going to be under the burden of your own magic. You will need to be careful fighting people physically stronger than you because they might have the advantage even under your own gravity.”

“So, unless I’m fighting someone physically weaker than me, or gain additional skills to better myself fighting under gravity, I might end up at a disadvantage even when using my own magic...” Kai murmured while rubbing his forehead lost in thought.

“There is one more problem,” stated Octavian. “Using your gravity magic and increasing your weight is going to make you burn through your stamina as well.”

Kai let out a sigh. His mood had gone from exuberated to melancholy.

“Kai,” his father said, his tone had a hard edge to it. “Gravity magic has the potential to be a very powerful tool, but it can also be very dangerous as well. You need to understand that your own gravity magic has the potential of crushing you or even killing you. It is vitally important that your constitution and strength stat be high enough to allow you to withstand the burden of your own magic. But that still won’t be enough. You need to make it your own, your class, your gravity magic. Until it becomes natural for you, there will always be a risk.”