Warmth embraced Marcus. Time passed, but it was so vague he could not grasp it. It was a strange sensation, similar to sleep, but the dream would never end. Marcus could not think but only maintain a sense of self in this state.

Suddenly, Marcus began to feel pain. The open space became cramped, and it hurt for a time. Then, everything changed. While the light grew brighter, the area became colder. Marcus was about to fall asleep again but suddenly felt the pain on his rear accompanied by a *smack*. In pain, he cried out as an instinct and couldn't stop.

"Hey, you. You're finally awake." A male voice suddenly sounded, triggering Marcus's PTSD.

Marcus finally settled down. He was in a highly surreal position. His body moved, independent of his will yet influenced by it. He could tell that his mind had changed to a simpler form, yet he had a sense of self unbecoming of a newborn. The thought that he thoroughly understood the language crossed his mind but was pushed back as a weak female voice suddenly spoke.

"Give him to me."

"Weren't you complaining about how you couldn't wait to get a mod to save your back? You have been carrying him for so long any-"

"Give. Me. My. Son."

"… Okay." The man replied after he noticed the change in tone.

The woman took Marcus in her arms as a tired yet sweet smile appeared on her face.

It was then that the midwife, an old Nord woman, finished casting magic on the woman. "Congratulations to the two of you." She said with a bright smile. "There were no problems, and I cast basic healing to ensure it. Still, I heard of tales of the Blessed, but think I would see it with my own eyes."

The man's face hardened for a moment. "Please, tell no one. We could be hunted down if it becomes well known."

The midwife's face turned serious. "Don't worry. I'm too old to gossip. Besides, I know how close you were with the old Jarl; rest his soul. Your secret is safe with me."

The man gave a courteous bow, and the midwife left the room.

Meanwhile, Marcus was internally crying. While his mentality felt more youthful, he felt disturbed about obtaining sustenance. However, he didn't have much choice in the matter as his body seemed to seek it automatically.

With love and affection, the woman gazed down at Marcus. "Do you have to name him that? Sounds more like a name from the Empire."

"I'm a man of my word." The man said with conviction.

The woman sighed slightly before she gently brushed the side of Marcus's face. "Welcome to the family, my lovely son, Marcus."

…

Roughly a week had passed since Marcus had been born, and he had begun to fall into a pattern. Yes, he had picked the ultra-easy start. Given that he would be utterly helpless for the first eight years of life, he felt it was a bit of a gamble. However, he believed it to be important when considering everything.

There was no need to make it too difficult for himself when picking the difficulty. After all, he only had one life. As such, only the ultra-easy and easy start appealed to him. The reason why he decided to gamble was time. Starting from when he was eight years old, he would have more than three times as much time as the easy start. While he would have Skill Levels with an easy start, he felt that time was far more important.

Compared to the game, the world was 20 times larger in scope, reflecting how time went faster in the game. This also affected city size, population, and the experience required to level up. By starting with ultra-easy, he ultimately gave himself the means to a stronger foundation. Time was even more of a factor when creating items such as blacksmithing or doing alchemy. These can be done nearly instantaneously in-game but would take far more time in this world. Luckily, the amount of experience required, along with the amount of time to create compared to on Earth, was drastically shortened. Additionally, the Leveling System was slightly different than in the game.

Regardless of the Skill Tree, they all had a max level on top of a level. The max level was the highest level Marcus could reach in a skill tree. The max level could be increased by expanding one's knowledge and practice. In contrast, the actual level increased with actions, similar to the difference between intelligence and wisdom, respectively. This was due to where skills came from. In myth, the stars in the sky were caused by divine entities that broke out from the mortal plane when they realized they had been tricked, trapped, and weakened by creating the mortal plane. As a result, the stars became a portal between the mortal and divine realms. One would learn the aspects of a skill tree and then communicate with that aspect of the divine realm. Then, actions would draw power from the divine to increase their level, a path to the divine. However, this process took a lot of time.

Finally, Marcus wanted to increase his time to help affect the narrative. Because this wasn't a game, Marcus now had the extraordinary ability to change many important things. However, this would not be an easy task, even with his knowledge. Many significant events, and even some smaller ones, were Fated to happen. Changing events would require a lot of effort, and that effort would not just come from himself. He could become involved with other organizations or even make his own and drastically change the course of events that would otherwise unfold.

Marcus was not naïve enough to think his actions would be enough. He wasn't even the protagonist; the Dragonborn, though he didn't set it up so he would have similar powers. Ultimately, he chose the ultra-easy start because it would give him more time to study and plan.

With this in mind, Marcus had already fallen into a training regimen. The first thing he would do in the morning was cast the unique healing spell he had asked from Todd. Unlike the majority of all other magic, this magic did not have a fixed cost. Instead, the cost depended on the severity of what needed to be fixed. What was fixed could be decided by the caster. In other words, if he did not have enough mana for a severe problem, he could still fix the minor one. Luckily, the knowledge of how to cast the spell, along with a few others, was imprinted directly in his mind, which allowed them to cast it even though he was only an infant. Of course, doing so in secret was difficult, but he often found a way.

The next thing he did was do as much of a workout as possible with his infantile body. Though he could occasionally cast his unique healing spell, he didn't want to overdo it. Finally, he spent most of his time in the system going over various information in the wiki. Thankfully, he could also take notes with the system. One of the primary things he focused on every day was to learn the language of dragons, which were the shouts the Dragonborn was known for. Unlike the Dragonborn or others who learned independently, Marcus had a unique advantage. The Dragonborn could instantly know a word by finding it on a word wall, then using a Dragon soul to understand it. It would be like learning a character from a different language and knowing the meaning. At the very least, Marcus could memorize the words for different shouts. However, he felt a strange gap between the word and understanding. It was a strange sensation because he should know what it meant, but something seemed to block him. However, this was not a problem as he had a long time to go. This training regimen also provided Marcus with some unique information.

It seemed that mana, health, and stamina regenerated similarly to the game, even with the time difference. However, there was degradation in the total amount and regeneration over time due to hunger, energy, etc. These would become important factors in the future, especially if Marcus had to fight superior enemies. Of course, if Marcus had to fight superior enemies, he wanted a playstyle best suited for that.

The race he had chosen to be born as a wood elf, and there were several reasons for this. The first was their longevity. The Elven races lived a little over 300 years, though the powerful ones could potentially live up to 1000. They also had a better resistance against poison and diseases, which was extremely important to ensuring that Marcus would live to an old age. Additionally, they had the unique ability to speak with animals. While the ability wasn't as blunt as the game, it could potentially become potent depending on how he could utilize it. Finally, the race was inherently gifted with archery, stealth, and alchemy. This meant that, by default, his max level for these skills would start high. Additionally, his parents would be capable of teaching him. Of course, this did not mean he would stifle learning other disciplines.

Eventually, five years passed.