"I am the deep shadow. Do not look for me, fools. Such a deed is beyond you. Only the greats can hope to see me."Nick's head rang painfully. The cold stone floor grounded him somewhat, but the pressure didn't abate for a few long minutes. "Leave him be. Some classes can take a toll on the body, especially when the child's lineage doesn't have magic users," The voice was familiar in a way Nick couldn't put his finger on. He was sure he knew the man, and yet he was equally certain he had never even heard the language being spoken. It sounded nothing like any other human tongue he was familiar with, but it didn't have the distinctive echo of what faes or daemons were said to have. "He'll still be here after we are done with the others. The bishop gave us enough resources to awaken all of Floria's children, and so we shall." The second time he heard it, Nick was able to associate the voice with a balding, thin man who wore a white and gold cape. He was still pretty sure he had never met anyone who looked like that, but the image was present in his mind. Forcing his eyes open and wincing at the light coming from the side, Nick took stock of his situation. A large, arched room made of white and grey stone, an altar with several crystals emitting enough power to be almost visible to the naked eye. That can't be right. That sort of thing would send the underworld into a frenzy. Fuck, have I been kidnapped by another cult? I hope it's not an eldritch one. Those are always so nasty. They never have any idea of what they are doing. There were at least twenty other people in the chamber. Two adults making the rounds and casting something and the rest were all kids like him. While technology had come leaps and bounds lately, Nick doubted it'd be able to fake a levitation/glowing lights combo well enough to escape his senses, so this was either him tripping balls or… Wait, what? I'm not a kid. I haven't been a kid for a decade, at least. But then again, Mom always makes fun of me for being shorter than Devon, even though he's two years older… What? I don't know any Devon! Of course I do, my brother Devon. Now even more confused than before, Nick closed his eyes again and tried to make sense of his thoughts. I might really have been kidnapped by an eldritch cult. This kind of brain-scrambling can only happen when they or the fae are involved, and there hasn't been a single confirmed sighting of the latter for a century. But now that the pounding in his head was subsiding and he could finally unclench his tight grip over his mind, a new sensation made itself known just at the edges of his consciousness. It was a matter of turning his attention that way that the cause was revealed. Even with his eyes closed, a bright blue display appeared in his mind's eye, as clear as if he was looking at it directly. This time, he didn't have the chance to be confused because the answer bubbled up without bidding. It was a status screen, the kind of thing that he should have expected to see after the awakening ceremony. My name is Nicholas Crowley, and I am twelve years old. I am the second son of Captain Crowley of Floria, a village on the frontier of the Illumia Kingdom. The year is 394 After Unification, and I've just received my Class. Knowledge that had been hiding in his brain as he tried to make sense of everything flooded in. And for all that Nick wasn't an expert in soul magic, even he could immediately tell that something had happened to his. Nicholas Crowley of Floria and Nicholas Crowley of Salem had somehow become the same person. The last memories of his previous life were still blurry, and Nick knew it would take some meditation—or better yet, some Dreamwine—to bring them out. Still, he could remotely remember realizing a Samhain ritual was going wrong and something with too many eyes smiling at him as reality fractured… A presence loomed over him, and Nick was forced to return to the real world. "Is everything alright, young Crowley? I know these things can be exhausting, but I haven't seen a reaction like yours before. What class did you get?" It was the bald man from before, whom he now recognized as Vicar Alexander, the leading priest of the local congregation. "I think I'm fine. It was just a lot of mana all at once." Nick replied, deliberately not mentioning his class' name. "Ah, yes. Mage, ay? I suspected, with all the mana you released. We get one or two of those every few years, even here in the boonies. It's the wild mana, I say. That much energy floating around is bound to have consequences, no matter what they think in the hinterland about breeding." Nick smiled, allowing the misunderstanding to continue. He still hadn't finished cataloging every memory, but something told him that Occultist was not an ordinary class, just like it hadn't been a common type of caster even among the underworld in his last life. Not that the community was particularly big, but there definitely were more alchemists and body enhancers than occultists. Few people wanted to risk delving so deep. Once all the children had acclimated to the awakening, the doors to the chamber opened, and a stream of people entered. Automatically, Nick's eyes scanned the crowd, looking for his family. A tall woman wearing a light lilac sundress was at the forefront of the crowd, and from how the other parents moved to let her pass unimpeded, she was obviously well respected. Nick recognized her as his mother, and something inside him unclenched at the sight. His younger self had been worried sick he would get a useless class. While he hadn't found the time to explore his status in full, he knew from his previous experience that anything regarding the occult could be very useful indeed. He hadn't had a helpful system to guide him, but Nick knew he could do much, especially if this world was as full of mana as he could remember. Any other thought was put aside as a force of nature swept him in her arms, "There he is. My little boy. I'm so proud of you!" Dangling in his mother's arms, Nick could only smile warmly, enjoying the closeness he never had in his past life. "A Mage is a fine class, Lady Elena. He'll need some further education to become a proper one once he's a bit older, but for now, he'll be able to learn with the rest of the children at our lessons," Vicar Alexander came around to say, earning a nod from Nick's mother. "A Mage, huh? Can't say I know who you get it from, but I've fought alongside enough to be able to help you start training." Ah, that's right. She's a retired adventurer. She must have met a lot of mages in her life… I would like to think I know enough by myself, having been a caster for over a decade, but this world is so different that an introduction might be helpful. Just to see if the basic principles are the same. The post-ceremony celebrations were relatively limited compared to what he had been told happened in a proper city, as life on the frontier was never plentiful enough for them to afford to splurge without a good reason. However, the newly awakened children were still made to walk around the village in a parade as the other citizens clapped and cheered their accomplishment. In Floria, accessing one's system meant they could finally begin their apprenticeship—depending on the class they had gotten. Of course, surprises weren't common, and most children inherited the class of one of their parents. Having lived his old life as a recluse, especially after his grandfather and teacher of the arcane had died just after he turned nineteen, Nick enjoyed the attention more than he thought he would. It was another example of him not being the same person he had been in the other world. That Nick would have shied away from leading the parade of children, but the current one didn't mind. Instead, he happily walked alongside his mother as they headed to the town hall, where his father would be. Floria was aptly named. The furthest village on the western edges of the Illumia Kingdom, where plant life and green covered everything. Sitting at the border of the Green Ocean, a massive forested area that ran along the entire border and much further beyond, Floria served as a starting point for any expedition in the unknown and little more besides. People farmed some of the land that had been cleared, and an economy had been built around monster parts that adventurers sold here because they weren't worth the effort of lugging around until an actual city like Alluria, as it was three days of carriage travel away. Finally, they reached the central plaza, where the market was held once a month and where the rest of the town's citizens were currently gathered, cheering for their arrival. Creeper vines of various colors had been carefully removed from their chosen trees and placed around the square as if garlands, and Nick's father, the town's Captain, waited for them with a wide smile. Another hug, this time much more gentle and conscious of the image they were portraying followed, and the young part of Nick's consciousness couldn't help but beam proudly. "So, what is it?" His father, Eugene, whispered curiously. "Mage," Elena answered first, once again saving Nick from having to lie. He hadn't really intended to, but the instincts of a life spent avoiding notice of the mundane world and any other practitioner made it challenging to be open, even though he felt all the affection an eleven-year-old boy should have toward his parents. "I knew it! You were never gonna be a Knight!" A younger voice interrupted, and Nick turned to see his older brother, Devon, rush toward him, pointing a finger dramatically. "Too wimpy!" Such a taunt would have usually been enough to set Nick off, sending the two tumbling to the ground as they wrestled. Though he didn't have any intention of doing that here, his mother grabbed him in a vice grip. She sported a broad smile, but whispered harshly, "Don't you dare. I bought you those clothes specifically for this day. If you get them dirty, I'll make you train three times as hard." A shiver ran down Nick's spine. While Elena was a perfectly loving mother most of the time, her past as an adventurer ensured she put her children through their paces, wanting to leave them capable enough to handle any path they would be assigned. It showed in his higher-than-average stats, though his strength was still lagging behind. Devon quieted, knowing better than to call his mother's wrath upon himself. The festivity continued, and the family made sure to do the rounds, greeting all the movers and shakers of their little frontier town as much as any could be considered such. "Are you gonna get a class change? I heard they can do those if you pay enough," Devon eventually asked. Nick immediately shook his head. He didn't know much about the system's underlying mechanism or how it would affect his abilities, but he was an Occultist at heart. And even if he didn't want to be one, he remembered his mother explaining that arranging a class change was prohibitively expensive. They were only done in the direst of cases. "But then you won't be able to learn from mom or dad." That was the issue, wasn't it? Young Nick was terrified of being in a class that was incompatible with his family's. It would mean learning only the basics from the temple and then leaving for a city where he'd get an apprenticeship or remain stagnant all his life while trying to develop independently. It was a rational fear for an eleven-year-old kid to have. The new Nick could barely keep a grin from forming. He had spent his entire previous life scraping by, experimenting with reagents and rituals of all kinds to squeeze just a little more magic out of a world that had left it behind. Being in a place where everyone, from the most humble Farmer to the greatest Paladin, lived and breathed mana made him giddy with excitement. Oh, I'm going to have so much fun.