Hugo groaned as he sat up. He wobbled and then corrected himself. This new body would take some time to get used to. Eventually, he felt confident enough to stand up. He looked around to get his bearings.

He identified Cristian’s body, and just beyond that was his own. It was weird, looking at his own corpse. Twice over at this point. He glanced around the rest of the ritual circle to mentally center himself. Dead hopefuls, crying reise parents, scared kids. He was back on the top of shimmer mountain.

It was just after the heartbeat and Hugo was freshly soulmarked. Again. Soon enough he was going to have to run down the mountain to escape the horde of monsters that would be swarming the mountain top. Mana starvation would draw them towards the remaining sources of mana in the environment. Shimmer mountain, walled cities, and soulmarked people are now the only sources of mana around. Monsters would be looking to feed their cravings.

Running would be an interesting experience. Not only was he in a body not his own, it was an entirely alien one. He was in a nox body. Four arms would probably throw off his balance. At least he only had to learn to run with two legs. He ran a hand over his bald head. He was going to miss hair.

A sudden curiosity made him check his pants. Whew. Still a boy and everything looked normal down there. He was going to have to get used to a lot of new things, at least that wasn’t one of them. Speaking of new things, he pulled up his soul screen to check out his new name.

Xhosa Bandile [Domainless]

Strength 21

Dexterity 20

Resistance 8

Regeneration 9

Intelligence 12

Wisdom 11

Charisma 9

Perception 10

Rank 0

0/100 Points

Health 8/8

Mana 2/2

Skills:

Xhosa? How do you say Xhosa? At least he knew how to say Bandile, it was the name of a nox shopkeeper in Reval.

The thought of his hometown made him sad. Two lives. He had lived two lives that no one would remember. The friendships he had built, romances good and bad. His efforts to save the city of Reval were all wasted, and he had nothing to show for it except knowledge of the future. Admittedly that was a pretty good consolation prize.

He had to stop this. He had to stop the shimmer veins from exploding.

Not just for himself, but for the cities on the wheel. His perspective the last time around showed that at least three of the cities had an explosion of shimmer run through them after the heartbeat of the mountain. He was pretty sure it was all eight cities of the wheel that had been decimated. This was bigger than he ever imagined.

The last go around, he had focused on trying to save one city, not realizing the scope of the problem. Not only were all the cities in danger, the hedge mage threat was much larger than expected. He had thought there were a handful of hedge mages still alive, but he now knew that there were hundreds at least, with enough weapons to take out all of the sentinels.

Shaking his head, Hugo focused on the world around him again. He saw that idiot ritualist arguing with Florian’s parents again. Alexandru’s ritual was going to allow him to help save everyone’s lives. But at the same time, the ritualist’s reckless changes of a ritual he didn’t really understand meant that he was living in a strange body.

The man in question was trying to escape like he always did, but luckily Hugo knew a way to get his attention.

“Alexandru!” Hugo yelled out, “I have the same condition as Mia.”

The ritualist perked up at that and hurried over to where Hugo was standing and said, “Really? Are you sure?”

Hugo gave him a flat look and said, “Yes, I am sure. As sure as I am that you wear purple underwear.”

“Hey, hey. No need to say it that loud,” Alexandru said quietly and stepped closer. “I was just surprised because you are on a dim node of the ritual circle.”

Hugo looked down and said, “It used to be lit up. It went dim after I died and came back. This is my third time. And this isn’t my body.”

“Ah that makes more sense, I adjusted the ritual so it quits drawing power after activation. It must have used up some of the residual power bringing you back each time. Wait, this isn’t your body?”

The nox parents stepped closer. Hugo thought it was a bit rude until he remembered they were his parents now.

Alexandru gave Hugo a pointed look and said, “My time here is almost up. I will find you later.”

For the first time since this started, Hugo was actually able to see it. Alexandru’s magic activated and dissolved the man into a blue mist that sunk into the ground. Hugo knew from experience that meant he had just teleported to the base of the mountain.

Hugo glanced around the ritual circle. There were five circles still lit up. If he interpreted Alexandru’s mumblings correctly, that meant that he had five chances to get this right and save everyone. The pressure was on.

“My son, was the procedure successful?” the nox mother said.

It took him a moment to realize what she was asking, then he said, “Yes, I was soulmarked.”

“Excellent. Our family fortune is rising, and the curse will be lifted,” the father said and brought his hands together in front of him. The mother did the same.

For once, Hugo was glad for the etiquette lessons in history class. He knew that the gesture was one of respect, and he was expected to return it. He brought his hands together, at the last moment remembering he had four of them.

They smiled at him and turned to gather their things. Hugo’s own smile faltered. He was supposed to know all about this family curse, but he didn’t even know his parent’s names. He wondered if he should just tell them the truth. It might be better than him being caught out in a lie.

Then again, he didn’t know how these nox would react to the idea that their son was dead and the person inhabiting his body was on a mission to save the wheel. It would be a shock to the system, no matter their character.

He decided to pretend to be their son for now, so he could get to know them better. That way he could figure out the best way to break the news to them.

All too soon, it was time to leave. Hugo didn’t even have the time to grab Marion’s letter to his family before they left. It was frustrating, but he would just have to write a letter himself. At this point he had memorized their address, having seen the letter three times over. He could pretend to be a hunt leader and give Marion a heroic death.

There was a question of whether or not it even mattered. Chances were that he wasn’t going to succeed at saving the city this time around. What did it matter that he didn’t send the letter this time around, as long as he sent the letter next time? He thought about it as they went along. Regardless of whether or not he stopped the shimmer explosions, the families of these dead boys deserved to know their son’s fate. If he could lessen the suffering of others, he would.

Besides, if he had the chance to save all the cities on the wheel, he would take it, even if it trapped him in a nox body.

Running wasn’t as hard as he had expected. His limbs didn’t move as he expected, but he had two things working for him. First off, his body was light, way lighter than expected. Moving was easier because he just had more time to react than he was used to with his heavier human bodies.

Secondly, he had strength and dexterity to spare. Whatever was going on with the ritual was obviously having an effect on his starting stats. He checked them again.

Xhosa Bandile [Domainless]

Strength 21

Dexterity 20

Resilience 8

Regeneration 9

Intelligence 12

Wisdom 11

Charisma 9

Perception 10

Rank 0

0/100 Points

Health 8/8

Mana 2/2

Skills:

His wisdom was at eleven again, dexterity at twenty, and now strength was at twenty one. Something was going on. Last time around, he had assumed that Cristian’s body was simply more dexterous than most. Now he was sure that wasn’t the case. It seemed clear to him that every time he came back in time, his stats were boosted. Yet another unexpected outcome of Alexandru’s ritual.

As he ran along, Hugo decided to give Alexandru a break next time he saw him. The ritualist may be an idiot, but there were certain advantages to his weird ritual.

The next time they slowed down to deal with a horde of velociraptors, Hugo edged towards the side of the formation. When he was sure that his parents couldn’t see him, he attempted a mana dart.

It instantly formed and shot out, striking a monster. The skill gain notification popped up, and Hugo stared at it amazed. It was so easy. Last time, he had plenty of experience creating mana darts, but it still took him a few tries to succeed. This time was different. It was like he only had to direct the mana, not pull it along. Instead of forging the mana channels, it seemed like they were already there. Was this what it was like for all nox? They said that the system was made for the nox, but this was ridiculously easy.

When they arrived at the grove of trees that was really camouflaged giant spiders, Hugo decided to take a more active roll in the ensuing attack. He waited until the mountain guide leader and alchemist were arguing and he jumped in.

“If you don’t hit all of the monsters at once, people are going to die. Are you having your best person take care of it?” Hugo said.

He could tell they wanted to tell the upstart kid to shut up, but the fact that he was a nox stopped them. That plus the fact that his parents were standing behind him silently watching the exchange.

The alchemist said, “Yes, we were just discussing that. I am handing over my very expensive slowing potion, and our dear leader is going to throw it and not waste a drop.” She gave him a sickly sweet smile at the end.

The mountain guide in the blue vest took the potion bottle with a small bit of trepidation. He seemed very aware of the high stakes and the fact that everyone was watching him. He threw the potion at the grove of trees. As it arched through the air, a heavy breeze knocked it off course.

Before Hugo could say anything, the guide gestured and a curved barrier appeared, in just the right spot to redirect the potion.

It shattered at the feet of the spiders pretending to be trees. A cloud billowed out, freezing all of them. The mountain guides quickly rushed forward and killed the slowed monsters. Hugo breathed out a great sigh of relief.

Finally. This was the first time he had been able to pass them without someone getting injured. He glanced back to his parents and they nodded at him. Apparently they were giving him credit for the mountain guides killing the monsters. Well, he was involved with changing who threw the potion, so he would take it. He nodded back.

That night in the shelter was thankfully uneventful. Florian’s mom had a habit of freaking out at the person who got soulmarked, but she abstained this time. Hugo wasn’t sure if it was because of their short conversation at the ritual circle, or because he was a nox.

The deference people were showing him was nice. It was also kind of frustrating. Nox weren’t any better than humans or riese, so he almost wanted to just tell everyone to treat him normally. For now, he just deferred to his parents and ignored strangers.

The next day, after they reached the base of the mountain, Hugo hung back a bit. He didn’t know which of the two trains they were taking.

His parents looked at him strangely and walked ahead, turning towards the southbound train. That was good, that meant they lived in the river coalition or Paarl, cities that he at least knew about.

His parents boarded the front traincar but Hugo paused at the doorway. He had forgotten to tell them about the train jacking. Last time had produced the best results, so he decided to go with that option. He jogged up to the mountain guide in the red vest.

“Excuse me, sir. I have reason to believe that the fox gang is sending a stolen airship to attack the southbound train,” Hugo said.

The man looked at him strangely and sighed. He yelled out, “Feynman! Get your brother and take the southbound train. It sounds like it will need some extra protection.”

“Really? I would miss out on the monster surge here,” Feynman yelled back from where he was protecting the passengers entering the train.

“You two can bring along your little toy,” the red vested guide said.

“Yes sir!” Feynman gleefully said and ran off.

Hugo smiled. He didn’t blame Feynman for being excited. His runic artillery was a masterful creation, he couldn’t wait to see it in action again.

Walking onto the traincar gave Hugo a brief moment of panic. There were four sets of nox families on the train. He didn’t recognize which ones were his parents. After that brief initial panic, he quickly found them. They were the only ones without a young nox sitting with them, and he did remember their faces as he walked closer.

He sat down with a smile, glad that he had remembered the brothers and their runic creation. It would have been quite stressful to come up with an alternate plan to save the train.

“Xhosa, my son. Please answer me honestly,” the nox mother said, “What is going on? You have barely spoken with us for the last few days. You have been talking with strange humans. You seem like a wholly different person.”