"Open up Sammy, the flare hawk in flying to his nest," Sam's mother said sweetly.

His mother was a beautiful young woman in her early twenties with wavy blonde hair and ocean blue eyes.

Sam opened his mouth and allowed the spoon of mashed green food in before closing his mouth on it.

"Awww, such a good eater you are," his mother praised as she pulled the spoon from his mouth.

"It's strange. That slop look's disgusting, yet it doesn't taste half bad. Guess it's just the development of our taste buds as we grow," Sam thought to himself.

"Ready for more?" His mother asked, to which he happily opened his mouth.

"How about I try feeding him?" His father John asked nervously.

John was also in his twenties with jet black hair and dark brown eyes that almost appeared black. He had three visible scars on his head, one across the bridge of his nose and another across his left eye, and another on the right side of his neck.

"Alright, let's try it again," his wife replied sympathetically.

"All right, I guess it's time to try this out," Sam thought to himself as his parents switched seats. "He's not the same as that bastard, but I can't help but feel anxious around him even though he's done nothing to deserve that."

In his previous life Sam didn't have any memories of his mother, but the memories of his father were burned into his brain. The man was an alcoholic that acted like a king, and treated his son like a servant. He made demands of his son, and when he failed to meet them or they weren't to his standards he would beat him. Even if he did nothing wrong and his father was drunk while in a foul mood he would beat him. Once he was old enough to start working he was even expected to give up his paycheck to him. In the end joining the military was the easiest way out, though he often said he felt the desire to serve and protect humanity during the war, the truth was that he joined as a way to escape his Hell.

Now in a new life, he still couldn't shake the terrible memories of his past father. John had done nothing wrong, he had been calm and gentle. He appeared to be a proper father, but everytime he got close to his son he would act scared. Only in his mothers arms did he seem happy. It was as if he suffered from PTSD due to his previous father.

John lifted the spoon with a little food in it. "Open up Sam, daddy's going to feed you now."

Sam kept his eyes on him the entire time, slowly opening his mouth to allow the spoon. Slowly the spoon entered, and his mouth gently closed. John pulled the spoon back with a smile, after eight months he finally was able to feed his son.

"I did it!" John exclaimed excitedly.

"Kakaka," Sam coughed. His father's excitement caused him to gasp while his mouth was still full of food and he started to choke.

John's face paled as his wife quickly leapt into action and started patting Sam's back. Soon he stopped coughing and John looked completely depressed.

"Maybe it's best if I don't feed him."

Knock knock

The door opened and an old woman, who's hair had long since lost any color and was now nearly pure white walked in.

"Good morning," the woman greeted.

"Good morning Kathy," his mother greeted.

John just grunted depressingly.

"What's wrong with him?" Kathy asked.

"He tried to feed Sam again."

"Oh don't worry about that. My second child was the same way, wouldn't let my late husband even hold her without her screaming at the top of her lungs. Then as she grew up she became the biggest daddies girl you'd ever seen."

"Thanks for the pep talk," John said as he stood up, then bent down to be on eye level with Sam. "Your mom and I need to go to work now, so behave for Miss Kathy." He reached out to tousle Sam's hair, but he flinched before he could touch him. John pulled his hand back as he bit his lip. "We'll be back like usual."

His mother then kissed Sam's head and she and John walked outside to work.

Sam sighed as Kathy took a clean towel and whipped his face before setting him in a bassinet, and began cleaning up from breakfast.

"Alright, time to begin." To help organize his thoughts and keep himself sane, Sam started making a mental log of everything he had learned since being born in this world. "Based on the imperial calendar it's been about eight months since my...well death. It seems that one of those old religions got it right and we are reincarnated after we die... so no heaven it seems. I remember some of those younger troops would read stories about this kind of thing, really wish I had paid them attention now. What was it called? Isilka, Izeke, Isekai? Anyway, let's start from the beginning. My name is Sam, I have black hair like my father, and my mothers blue eyes. I hope women have self control in this world, because I have no doubt I'm going to be very good looking as I grow up. My fathers name is John and my mother is Sarah. After eight months of observation I've determined we don't have a last name. I've come to the conclusion that we are commoners, and only nobility gets a last name. My original suspicion that I was reincarnated into the Dark Ages has been proven false. Even though they seem less technologically advanced, they do have limited indoor plumbing, and devices for cooking and lighting. No central heating or cooling systems, however after last week's heat wave I finally have an answer to many questions. I witnessed my mother create an icy cold gust of wind just by waving her hand. I have seen ice in drinks before, but thought they had some kind of appliance for that, but I'm now suspecting that those were my mother's creations as well. My new found mobility has significantly improved my ability to gather information, so I expect to have more answers soon. However, my current theory about my mother's abilities is that this world possesses magic."

Magic didn't exist in his previous life, but they did have internal energy. That was of course a blanket term to explain it. Around the twenty fourth century humans started appearing that had learned to cultivate and use internal energy. The terms of course were different based on the cultivation method used. Kai, Aura, Qi, Chi, Mana, chakra, they were essentially all the same, it was just the method of cultivation that affected people's bodies differently. In his previous life Sam followed the Qi method, which caused one's senses to be drastically increased. The empire spent over a decade researching internal energy in an effort to find a superior method of cultivation that allowed all of the benefits of all methods, but they could never find a perfect method. In the end they made information readily available of each method, and recommended methods for military members based on their career field.

"As for my parents, they work in a field called adventurers. From what I've gathered, this world is filled with both magic beasts and monsters. I have yet to learn the difference between the two, but that's only a matter of time. Worst case I'll learn after I've mastered communication."

There was some clattering from the kitchen. Sam sat up to look and saw Kathy was starting to dry dishes.

"Kathy is my...well I guess she'd be my nanny. Apparently she was the one who delivered me, and has since helped teach my mother different things about raising a child. Looks like information like that isn't as readily available as it was in my previous life. Anyway, my mother returned to work two months ago after I started eating more solid foods then breast feeding." Sam shuddered. "I'm so thankful I lack certain hormones otherwise that would have been even more uncomfortable. Anyways, back to Kathy, as long as she stays as busy as she usually is at this point I have about ten minutes before she notices anything has happened. Time to begin Operation BookWorm."

Sam took one last glance at Kathy as she put away some more dishes. He then threw his blanket and a stuffed animal over the edge of his bassinet. Grabbing ahold of the edge he pulled himself up and then climbed over, landing atop the blanket.

"Good thing this diaper provides extra padding, otherwise I may have had trouble enduring that," Sam thought, then started crawling to his parent's bedroom.

Thankfully the door was open so getting in was easy, but then came the hard part, getting on top of her dresser. Sam began pulling out drawers one after another as he climbed into them. After a few minutes he was finally on the top, and laid on his back breathing heavily.

"I really need to get in shape. This was way too hard, but the reward is worth it. I should have five more minutes before I risk getting caught."

He then rolled back to his stomach and made his way to several books. He had learned long ago that, even though the written language was different, he could read it.

"Let's see, children's stories, a book with a lock? Probably a diary or something else of the sort. Ahh, here it is, Magic for Beginners." Sam carefully laid the book down and opened the cover. "Hmm? A signed copy? Who's Gabrielle? Weird, must be a second hand copy. Oh well, time to gain some understanding."

Shortly after reincarnating, Sam tried to reestablish his core, but saw something he didn't expect. There were two different energies within his body. As much as he wished to get started, he decided he needed to exercise patience to prevent a potential problem later.

"Ok, here we go. Unlike aura which gathers to form a core right below the rib cage, mana gathers in the form of a circle or ring around the heart. Hmm, so then one of those energies is aura and the other is mana. Is it possible to have both? And which is which? Though the color that aura takes tends to differ from person to person, mana always has been seen to show itself as green. Ask and you shall receive. So I've got blue and green energy. That means green around my heart and blue at my solar plexus, easy."

He then took a meditative position and began sorting the energies into their respective areas.

"Oh my goodness!" Kathy exclaimed as she rushed into the bedroom. "How in the world did you get here?" She questioned as she picked him up. "I swear, my kids didn't start doing this kind of stuff till after they started walking." She then took notice of the book on the floor, and picked it up. "Oh I get it. Did you want me to read to you?"

"Sure, but how about that book I had open?"

Of course all she heard was just a baby babbling, and not his actual request.

"Alright I'll read to you, and we won't tell your parents about this just yet. One time is a fluke, twice is a habit," she said as she walked to the rocking chair to read to him.

——————————————————————-

Sam sat beside his house meditating, forming his first mana circle and aura core. Kathy was on another side of the house doing the laundry. It has been three years since Sam started this long and arguest journey, and he was now nearly at the point where his efforts were about to bear fruit. Both his circle and core were nearly complete.

"Through my readings it looks like a person doesn't have enough mana inside their body to form a circle until ten years old at the earliest, and it only takes a day to form. I'm a little annoyed that it took me three years, but seeing as I didn't have enough mana in my body it kind of makes sense. The area isn't exactly mana rich so absorbing ambient mana takes a while too. And since my parents don't have any books about aura I have no idea how long this is supposed to take, or if I'm even doing this right. All I know is where my core is supposed to be. Are there just no books about aura? Or did my parents not expect me to be able to use aura?"

Sam continued moving mana particles one by one towards his heart, while also maintaining the ring shape until he needed just one last particle. Carefully he moved it into place until finally...his eyes widened as he hunched over and coughed up blood.

"It's ok, I read this is normal. It's just the body expelling impurities after the circle is formed," He reminded himself before sitting back up to examine his work. "Ah yes, a single circle, the first of many. Now time for...what the fuck!"

Sam began to panic as he saw his incomplete aura core was breaking up and being forced from his body.

"Like hell I'm losing this after all the hard work I put in!"

Through the power of his own will he pulled his core back together, and redirected other stray particles that were being forced out towards his core. This was of course no small task. If he lost focus on his core it would start to fall apart again, and the task of maintaining it didn't come without extreme pain. Tears poured from his eyes, blood from his nose, a pain so excruciating that he couldn't even cry out. Yet he endured. Thankfully the particles that he redirected were moving on their own, so all he had to do was set their course and catch them. But with each particle the pain grew and grew. He was having trouble breathing, but he held on, his core was almost complete.

As the last particle collided with his core it sent a surge of energy out. Sam felt as though he had been electrocuted and fell over as he clung to his consciousness. Thankfully the pain left quickly. He just laid there catching his breath for a minute before rolling to his back. When he was ready he went back to his meditative state to check on his core and circle. As he did so he felt another shock, this time rendering him unconscious. When he came to, he was still laying in the grass where he was before, with quite a bit of blood covering the grass.

"Fock, dat hurt," he said as he sat himself back up.

His mind was foggy as he just sat there for a moment before he remembered what was happening and returned to a meditative state, and sighed in relief.

"I did it," he thought to himself as he saw both a mana circle around his heart, and also an aura core in his abdomen. "From what I just saw, it looks like a normal person can't have both. It looks like without an established core they repel each other, but can I use them?"

First he focused on his circle and created a small ball of mana in his hand. He then looked at a tree about twenty feet away. The book he had been secretly reading was pretty informative, and even included a few basic generic spells.

"Let's try out my first spell."

He extended middle and index fingers as he turned his hand so his thumb was pointed up. He then gathered mana to the tip of his fingers. Using a combination of what he learned in his previous life and what he learned from the book, a small sphere of mana shot out and blew off half of a branch. His eyes lit up with excitement, he had just done something he never could in his previous life, he was able to use his energy as a projectile.

"So that's magic missile. Considering how thick that branch was, that definitely wasn't a small caliber shot. I can feel the drain of mana, I could probably do that one more time at most. Maybe I should work on making a smaller caliber shot as well."

He then focused on his aura core. He didn't have any instruction as to how to use aura, so he used his knowledge from his past life to move the aura for some basic body strengthening.

"I definitely feel stronger, but how much stronger have I really gotten?"

He looked around and saw the tree stump his father chopped wood at, with a few good sized pieces of wood beside it waiting to be cut. Starting with something simple he picked up a piece as big as him.

"Ok, not bad. This is a lot lighter." He then started lifting it up with just one hand easily. "Hmm, I wonder."

He then set the log down at an angle against the stump. Since his magic was already superior to what he could do in his past life, he decided to test his aura out in a similar way. In his previous life some people had trained their body's and energy to a point that they could cut wood, so he wanted to try that here. Focusing more aura to his right hand so that it glowed blue he raised his hand up, then brought it down in a chopping manner.

"Mpf!" He grunted in pain as he grabbed his hand and did his best to keep quiet. Yes he did cut a little into the log, it also hurt like hell.

"Damn it. I hope nothing is broken," he thought to himself, then remembered he had been bleeding earlier. He wiped his nose, there was still a little blood. He looked down at his shirt, there was a lot of blood. "Oh fuck," he mentally groaned. "What should I do?" He began to panic. He looked around and stopped at the tree he shot the branch down from earlier. "Bury the truth, or reveal I did something that even if it is possible, shouldn't have happened at my age?... This is going to hurt."

He then proceeded to climb the tree, getting as high as he could without using aura, then making sure to align himself with the broken branch. "I am not a masochist, I am not a masochist," he told himself before allowing himself to fall forward off the branch as he cried out.

He hit the ground with a thud, landing on his back. He broke several more branches on his way down, but thankfully no bones were broken. That was of course do to strengthening his body with aura to dull the pain and withstand the hits. He just laid there quietly for a minute as he let it sink in what he just did.

"SAM!" Kathy cried out as she ran towards him after hearing his cry. "Sam! Sam!" She called out in a panic as she arrived and fell to her knees beside him.

"Ouch," he said, revealing his bloody teeth.

"Oh goddess. Thank goodness you're still alive! Can you move?"

Shakily he raised his right hand.

"Good. Now where does it hurt?"

"Everywhere," he replied, sounding like he was struggling to talk.

"Believe it or not, but that's a good thing. Don't move, I'll get help," Kathy said then ran off.

"Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere."