Prologue 2, Reality
BA-THUMP.
BA-THUMP.
BA-THUMP.
BA-THUMP.
An unknown amount of time later Alexander returns to consciousness and immediately regrets it.
He grimaces and reluctantly admits to himself, ‘It wasn’t a dream.’
Alexander rushes to shift his focus away from his physical state— ‘ignore it’—and instead focuses on the fact that he is somehow cognisant enough to think.
‘How? If this situation is real, I shouldn't be conscious; my physical state doesn't seem to impact my thoughts at all. Some people don’t even consider a fetus to be alive! I shouldn’t be capable of even simple thoughts, let alone complex ones.'
Alexander adopts a considering frown; a lifetime of schooling had provided him with a wealth of cognitive tests that could help him confirm what sort of benchmarks he was hitting. But without his schooling records, they would hardly be conclusive.
‘The situation is bizarre enough as is, it can’t really hurt to try.’
With an instinctual thought, he tries to access his cyberware and feels nothing. Blinking in shock, Alexander concentrates harder on what was once the ever-present space at the back of his mind, but as entire seconds pass with no response forthcoming, he finds himself reluctantly admitting that for the first time in nearly two decades he no longer has any cyberware.
‘Right… of course I don’t have my cyberware anymore; I died and became a fetus.’
Alexander takes an extra moment to centre himself. The absence of cyberware more than anything else will change everything; the ever-present convenience of cyberware had long become an instinctive part of him.
'This change will complicate things, but at least it supports the idea that this experience is real. If this were VR, then I’d still be able to access my cyberware; even super-administrator lockouts are forbidden from hiding cyberware connections.’
Instead of using his absent cyberware to conduct significant cognitive tests, Alexander reluctantly forces himself to recall the earliest days of his life, before he had any cyberware, specifically back to his time in nursery.
‘Back to the basics, then. How did it go? Five random words and count down from three minutes?’
Alexander frowned; every cognitive test he could think of required external tools to do properly. This exercise, he reluctantly admits, will be both messy and less than helpful, as he struggles to see how generating random words in a short time frame will contribute to his cognitive assessment.
Nonetheless, he needs to have some idea of his current cognitive capability.
‘Apple, York, Park, Space, India.’ he thinks to himself, choosing a set of random words.
BA-THUMP.
‘180’
BA-THUMP.
‘179’
BA-THUMP.
‘178’
BA-THUMP.
BA-THUMP.
BA-THUMP.
BA-THUMP.
‘0.’
‘Apple, York, Park, Space, India… Is my memory really working without issue? Is being a fetus not impairing my thoughts at all? That can’t be right; it makes no sense!’
With the most basic of tests out of the way, Alexander takes a moment to consider his path forward. He could test himself further, maybe even just make his own tests to see how far he could push himself, but his first instinct is that his thoughts don’t seem to be impaired in the slightest.
‘My current physical state isn’t impacting my thoughts at all, or at least not to a recognisable degree. That isn’t possible; I shouldn’t even be coherent right now.’
BA-THUMP.
Thinking back, Alexander is not sure how long he remains stuck in a mental loop of doubts and aborted cognitive tests, but eventually he focuses his attention on the oddity that could explain things, on the light of his flickering vision.
‘The energy. The energy is clearly abnormal, and my return to consciousness coincided with the moment it started to fill me. Thinking back, it was a matter of moments between waking up and the energy starting to flood into me… Was it the moment my soul entered this body?’
He turns his attention to his hands, or more specifically the light that seems to now fill them. Alexander can only guess what he is observing – is it some form of heat or a life sense?
Physically he looks human enough, but then again, humans don’t see rivers of light or maintain adult level cognition in the womb.
He sends a glare at his hand as if enough directed focus might give him answers, and shockingly, the world provides one.
Object:
Human hand
Mana Density:
Extreme
Mana Quality:
Extreme
Mana Quantity:
Extreme
Mana Alignment:
Neutral
Alexander feels his glare turn into incredulous deadpan.
‘Really?’
BA-THUMP.
For a moment, Alexander remembers that he cannot feel his cyberware and that there are locks, both software and hardware, that block any attempts to hide that connection. But then he remembers his last memory before waking here, that he was bleeding out in a dark room.
Perhaps he had been taken by a shady corporation to one of their black facilities to be experimented on? There are plenty of rumours like that floating around the web.
Although he heavily suspects that established keywords won’t work, Alexander is firm in the knowledge that he won’t know for sure until he tries, so he begins to list the command words that everyone with cyberware is mandated to learn.
‘[Logout], [Console], [Command Override], [Alt F4] …’
It takes Alexander a full minute to list even the most obscure hard-coded command he can think of. Years of deep-diving into cyberware code leaving him particularly knowledgeable about that subject. However, as he had expected, none of the standard keywords elicited any response. The locks restricting him were either far more thorough than corporations usually go for, or the situation was indeed real.
‘Still not a VR, then. That is not really a surprise; I’m pretty sure that things like going through birth for either party are forbidden twice over anyway.’
If his lungs weren’t currently filled with liquid, Alexander would sigh, and so he instead focused again on his hand to replicate his recent feat.
Object:
Human hand
Mana Density:
Extreme
Mana Quality:
Extreme
Mana Quantity:
Extreme
Mana Alignment:
Neutral
‘Well, there is surprisingly a lot to unpack here… but still Mana? Is it too much to assume that the vocabulary in use is known to me? I can clearly understand the language, so does that mean the context should be correct too? If that is the case, then is this menu talking about the energy of magic? And what is this interface? Going by tropes, would this be the ever reliable [Observe] skill?’
Alexander allows the incredulity to flow through him for a few more moments before reluctantly admitting to himself.
‘I suppose it’s as viable an explanation as any. I should probably assume that what I’m seeing is true, if only to avoid another endless doubt loop.’
He grits his gums as he thinks about what he’s reading and tries to break things down.
BA-THUMP.
‘Where do I even start? I can view an augmented reality like interface, and there are apparently several headings for different… qualities? Aspects? Mana aspects? … There are several categories for density: quality, quantity and alignment.’
After a few moments of consideration, Alexander reflects further on the matter, noting that having a neutral mana alignment is straightforward. 'Clearly, I am not yet a fire aligned fire mage. However, while I can take pleasure in having extreme levels of density, quality, and quantity, I have to know what that signifies.’
He frowns and tries to consider his situation in the classical isekai manner.
‘My hands cannot have extreme mana aspects in comparison to a dragon…’
Alexander attempts to snort derisively at that thought.
‘Isekai… No, ignore it. If we go by accepted norms, then we might as well get the greatest cliches out of the way.’
Alexander takes a moment to gather his memories of the long dives into every fantasy LitRPG he has ever read.
‘[Skills], [Status], [Stats], [Menu]…’
He finds himself frowning in disappointment when nothing appears. That would have been too easy, but if Alexander is being honest with himself, he is not particularly surprised that none of the typical keywords worked. It was nonetheless disappointing.
‘Nothing, just like with the VR commands. So, whatever I’m seeing here doesn’t follow the usual isekai norms, then. Who’d have thought it? Anime has lied to me.’ He smirks sardonically. ‘Is there a skill similar to [Observe] that functions independently of any cliché system skills, and if so, what makes it work? Is it simply a matter of focus?’
He glances at the wall that he now firmly believes is his new mother's womb and, for a moment, considers whether he should try to observe it. What sort of information could he gain from that?
Certainly, it might give him some better context on what he can learn from himself, but he ultimately thinks better of it.
Alexander didn’t feel anything when he had observed himself, but then again, why would he? Presumably he is interacting with his mana in some way to get that information, and observing someone else might therefore be detectable. Perhaps he would have to send and receive a packet of mana; somewhat like radar or sonar detection, an intrusion like that could probably be noticeable.
A newborn baby instinctively using their mana to observe things – that might be dismissible, but a fetus still in the womb? Alexander believes that such an action is just asking for trouble…
‘But what if a magic fetus is more conscious than a mundane one? In that case, some level of magic activity would be expected.’ Alexander considers briefly, ‘No, it’s still not worth the risk; I’d prefer to risk being thought of as a dull and inactive baby than an outright abnormal one.’
With that troubling temptation out of the way, he switches his focus again.
‘If I can’t get anything out of this system like interface, then let’s consider mana. Clearly the light that filled me is mana, and if we consider that I felt an emptiness being filled, then what? My soul, which had previously been lacking in mana, had upon being in its presence acted like a man dying of thirst in a desert.'
‘Or was it my body being filled, and what I am mistaking as my soul is more like a magic reservoir, potentially independent of my soul? Would there even be a difference between the two? I suppose it would depend on how exactly mana works.’
Alexander continues to reflect on the situation and eventually reaches a tentative conclusion.
‘The rational explanation would be that what I am feeling is essentially my soul and that a magic reservoir that is interconnected with the soul exists but is technically separate; that difference in a world of magic should be largely academic.’
‘I felt like something that had always been empty was being filled; if we assume that it was my soul, or at least soul adjacent then I should presume that I can trust the feeling linked to it. This vessel is not my original body, so the soul being filled with mana makes more sense. A common enough trope is that the soul is the seat of consciousness and the container for magic; it would follow that my mana began to imbue my flesh afterwards. This theory explains the presence of mana in my body now.’
Alexander attempts to hum and reflects that it does raise some interesting points about Earth and its history. As far as Alexander is aware, magic doesn’t exist on Earth, unless, of course, there is some sort of masquerade situation going on. But could such a masquerade truly exist in the interconnected world that Earth has become?
Alexander reflects that magic is less likely to exist in Earth's modern era.
However, the apparent existence of his soul—something that science has not definitively confirmed—and the equally apparent lack of mana within it does suggest that mana is nearly non-existent on Earth.
‘Of course, that does raise the question of whether magic ever existed on Earth at some point. There are plenty of myths and legends surrounding the existence of magic and thus of mana. The fact that mana can apparently exist makes it seem like there might have been a point in Earth's history where there was some degree of magic in use… Do souls require mana to exist at all? If so, then some degree of mana should exist on Earth, unless my soul came into existence retroactively…'
Alexander grimaces at the horrible thought.
‘Let’s not think about it; that way lies madness.’
Alexander cannot help but feel regret. Here he is floating in an allegedly mana-rich womb, and there is apparently an entire facet of biology, of the natural world, that he is completely unfamiliar with. He had pursued an education in biology for nearly a decade, years of dedicated study in biology; he had even managed to get a scholarship to the world's foremost university for genetics!
How much of his education was wrong or mistaken considering the existence of mana? Was it a futile hope that the life he was going to be born into would already have the answers? Or would he get to discover the answers for himself? Alexander felt his mouth twist into a temporary but eager smile.
‘I can’t decide which option I prefer.’
Alexander takes a moment to consider his future; he had only just finished the final phase of bio-augmentation at his local gene clinic. Could it be possible to replicate the augmentations he’d been taking for granted for the last few years? He looked at his hands again, or more specifically the mana within them.
‘Would something like biomancy or fleshcrafting be possible with magic? It doesn’t really matter what the state of things in this world is, be it medieval or modern. In the unlikely event that this place is still Earth and I’ve been born to a secret society or it’s a different world entirely, being greater than a baseline human can only be a benefit. If I want to use magic on myself like that, what would I need to do?’
As he considers the matter further, Alexander is forced to admit to himself that as awesome as altering his biology sounds, it would no doubt be incredibly dangerous.
How would he go about rendering such a thing safe? Was that even possible to begin with? If only he still had his cyberware; he’d be able to scan and save his current state and perfectly reverse any changes made.
With a look of consideration on his face, Alexander notes.
‘Could magic be used for that? Could a magical record, rather than a digital one, represent my current physical state? Such an approach could certainly lead to magical healing, functioning as a biological reset rather than relying on traditional holy healing or any form of regeneration. How would I go about that?’
‘Thanks to modern schooling I am already familiar with the techniques necessary to enhance my memory retention; although they are heavily reliant on cyberware, the basics are entirely independent of enhancement.’
‘In fact, considering my mind appears to be unchanged, the basics should already be in place; I just need to shift things to no longer rely on my cyberware.' Alexander frowns in thought before an obscure memory strikes him. ‘Techniques like that did exist, didn’t they? It was mostly thanks to bio-purists who refused all cyberware. How did they go again?’ Alexander closes his eyes in thought, trying to remember the specifics of a subject he only vaguely knew of. ‘Is it just removing the cyberware component?’
Unable to remember the memory techniques necessary, Alexander instead focuses on what he might do in the future. ‘Could I create a truly literal simulated mind palace or perhaps multiple mind partitions? Cyberware allowed for both, so I have relevant experience. Can I use magic to replace cyberware?’
Alexander felt his thoughts spiralling; lacking cyberware was a heavy, almost crippling disadvantage. However, due to his previous life experiences, he understood what could be possible or useful; it was merely a question of the capabilities of magic and its limitations.
Just before he could truly loose himself in imagining what might be possible with magic or what magical schools, he might create wholesale, his situation abruptly changed.
The amniotic fluid that he had been submerged in began to rapidly flood away, and for the first time in his new life, Alexander could see light, real physical light that had started to peek into the chamber he was currently living in.
The truth that Alexander had been doing his best to ignore rushed back to him, and Alexander allowed himself to feel the horror at his situation.
Alexander automatically begins expelling the fluid in his lungs with rapid, almost violent coughs; instinctively, he feels his eyes turn towards an all too real light at the end of a far too literal tunnel.
BA-THUMP. BA-THUMP. BA-THUMP.
As the thundering heartbeat that he had grown used to ignoring begins to speed up, his own quickly rushes to exceed it. He allows dread to fill him, and tears quickly return to his eyes.
Alexander gives himself a final moment to have his last coherent thought for the next several traumatic hours.
'This is either going to be the most surreal nightmare anyone in all of human history could experience, or I have truly died and gone to hell.'