Author's notes: A bit of an info dump for this chapter, you can skip the lengthy explanations of certain concepts if you want to, it won't affect your enjoyment of the story much. The only stats important are: Strength, Agility, Vitality and Magic Power. Spiritual Force and Soul Force can functionally be ignored.
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Leylin opened his eyes, not recognising the unfamiliar ceiling nor the sensation of the unfamiliar bed he slept on.
How long has it been since he fell asleep to recover the damage his soul took to reach this world?
[Beep! It has been 6 years, 2 months, 13 days, 4 hours, 17 minutes and 35 seconds since host soul went into hibernation.] The A.I. Chip's cold, mechanical voice reported.
6 years… That was longer than expected but far shorter than the worst outcome calculated.
Leylin sat up in the bed, assessing his surroundings. It was a decently large bedroom, lavishly decorated with oak and rosewood furniture, silver and gold coated frames and trinkets.
He looked out the nearest window. It was still dark, with only the slightest orange and pink hue in the horizon indicating either sunset or dawn.
"Status report."
[Beep! It has been 6 years, 2 months and 13 days since Host soul entered this world. During the first 9 months, Host was developing as a fetus within the womb of this body's mother. As damage to the Host soul has yet to recover at birth, Host awakening was delayed following previous instruction given to awaken the Host only after sufficient recovery.]
[As Host soul was recovering, passive subroutines were kept running to monitor Host health and in case of any emergencies, to awaken Host soul prematurely.]
[While Host soul slept, the soul of the native embryo was allowed to retain independence, allowing no external suspicions of the parasitic nature of Host soul draining the native soul of nutrients for recovery.]
[Host soul has since consumed the native soul entirely for nourishment, and is now the sole owner of the native body.]
[Host body is currently healthy with no illnesses or disease.]
[Would you like me to display Host's current stats?]
"Later. More importantly, there are massive gaps in my memories. Did something go wrong with the recovery of my soul?"
This was something Leylin had gradually realised while listening to the A.I. Chip's status report. He tried to recall the resources he had available to him - the skills, techniques and experiences he could rely on in this new world.
Only to perceive large holes in his memories. He knew he was a split soul from the Original, Leylin Farlier. He knew of the A.I. Chip's bond with his soul and its incredible calculation and computational abilities.
Everything else was fragmented, bits and pieces of a larger whole like Swiss cheese with far less actual cheese.
[Beep! Warning: Due to damage to the soul from spatial storms and astral travel, approximately 83% of your memories have been permanently lost.]
Leylin felt his blood chill. 83% of his memories were gone? It was a statistical improbability he even retained enough to roughly know the nature and purpose of his existence.
This split soul was created for the purpose of an experiment. A prototype before the Original completes the Alternate World Reincarnation Rank 7 spell model, whose sole purpose was for data gathering so that the Original could further refine the rank 7 spell that would be used on the World of Gods.
The Original probably hadn't even thought it possible for the split soul to have lasted as long as it did, and even having travelled as far as it did.
Before the split soul entered this world, the A.I. Chip had reported having suffered through at least 12 spatial storms of cataclysmic scale, pulled through at least 3 wormholes, and even slipped through an alternate dimension once or twice.
See, massive spatial interference messed with the A.I. Chip's data recording. 12 spatial storms and 3 wormholes were the ones it had managed to detect and record while the frail split soul was flung around like a leaf in a hurricane amidst the astral plane. For all Leylin knew, it could have been as many as 100 spatial storms and 30 wormholes that the split soul had gone through before arriving on this world.
And naturally, the soul force connection to the Original was long gone by now.
As for how the split soul managed to survive all that? Leylin had no idea. A single spatial storm normally held enough chaotic energy and radiation to absolutely tear even a whole soul apart, let alone a split soul.
Somehow, call it coincidence or providence, the split soul landed on this world and had been reborn with a new body.
Leylin had taken only a few seconds to absorb the massive load the A.I. Chip had dumped on him before collecting himself.
"Are the memories of the native soul intact?"
[Beep! Yes. Would you like to begin memory integration?]
"Proceed."
[Beep!]
A single beep of acknowledgment was all he got before Leylin felt five years of memories from the native soul enter into his own mind.
Leylin closed his eyes and let his mind absorb and process the new memories. Five years of memories were injected into his brain as though from a syringe. If not for his powerful soul, his brain would have felt like it was splitting from the sudden influx of data.
There wasn't a concern that integrating the memory of the 5 years of life from the native Luke Notos Greyrat to his own would affect his personality or decision making in any way. The Original was, after all, had lived for centuries. Despite having lost approximately 83% of its memories, it still far overwhelmed the scant few years of memories from the native Luke.
Additionally, the soul of the native had already been completely consumed for nourishment by now. There wasn't a sliver of it left anywhere in this world.
Ten or so seconds later, he let out a breath he had unknowingly held and looked out the window with a conflicted gaze.
"My name is Luke Notos Greyrat. Son of the next Lord of House Notos Greyrat. I live in a city called Auster, the capital of the Milbots Region that belongs to the Asura Kingdom on the Central Continent."
Though the continent he was on was called the Central Continent, it was decidedly not the Central Continent of the Magus World he was familiar with. It seemed unimaginative names naming conventions existed regardless of worlds.
"My grandfather, Amarant, is the current Lord. He only has an okay relationship with my father despite him being an only child- no, not an only child. My uncle, the rightful heir, ran away from home and left the position of the next Lord Notos to my father."
"My mother is Selena Greyrat nee Redbat. Daughter of the heir of house Redbat. A middle-class noble family with strong ties to the Greyrat Notos branch."
Leylin's eyebrow raised upon remembering another tidbit about his mother. Due to pregnancy complications with her second child, that is Leylin's younger sibling, she had a miscarriage and lost the fetus. Moreover, she has also lost the ability to carry another one for the foreseeable future.
Furthermore, his grandmother's physique had always been frail. Every healer his grandfather consulted warned that unless a King-rank healer was around, grandmother having another baby would be fatal for mother and child.
Which meant Leylin was the second but also last in line for the Notos Lordship, after his own father of course. Because there was simply no one else of Notos descent that was not a runaway that had been stricken off the family tree.
What was shocking for Leylin to learn was the age of his father. Their birth years were only 10 years apart, which meant that Pilemon had only been 9 years old when Leylin was conceived!
Was this the norm and the usual standard of this world? How bizarre…
Family tree aside, Leylin cast his attention on the information the A.I. Chip had picked up during the 6 years his soul had been slumbering about the world he had landed in.
This world was rather similar to the Magus World he had come from, as much as he could remember from his fragmented memory anyway.
Unlike the world of science and technology the Original had reincarnated from, this 'Six-Sided World' as the A.I. Chip had called it, this was one of swords and magic like the Magus World.
While the Magus World had a much heavier emphasis on magic and Magi, in this world, swordsmen reigned supreme or so it seemed.
The native Luke had learned during his beginner swordsmanship classes that there were three schools of swordsmanship that were primarily practised by the inhabitants of this continent.
The pinnacle of the three styles were titled Sword God - of the Sword God Style; Water God - of the Water God Style; and North God - of the North God style. Again, unimaginative naming conventions were pervasive regardless of birthplace, it seemed.
Based upon the books and fairy tales the native Leylin had read, as well as bits and pieces of conversations and dialogues the A.I. Chip had picked up, there was a ranking of the seven most powerful individuals in the world.
The Seven Great Powers.
The Sword God and North God took up two out of seven of these ranks. None of them were titled 'Magic God' or something similar.
The other positions consisted of the mysterious Death God, the even more mysterious Fighting God, the mysterious-er Dragon God, and the biggest mystery of them all, the Technique God.
Naturally, Leylin only had information that the native Luke had managed to gather with his limited means and lack of natural curiosity to go by. It was entirely possible that the top 3 ranks were all filled by spellcasters, and they only called themselves the Fighting God or Technique God for fun.
Leylin doubted it but he had been wrong about things like this before… right? He couldn't remember.
The Demon God was the only legendary spellcaster the native Luke had heard of. He was apparently the deposed leader of the Demon Race that had fought a long war against the Human Race.
According to the story books the native Leylin had read, there were three such inter-species wars. The First Great Human-Demon War, The Second Great Human-Demon War and the latest Laplace War took place 500 years ago, while the First Great War took place 7000 years ago.
It was interesting to Leylin that such a medieval society managed to maintain historical records for over 7000 years and yet never progressed beyond the iron age technologically. Perhaps it was the convenience of magic that retarded the development of science and technology.
Indeed, the magic of this world, unlike the Magus World, was rather common. Any commoner with enough talent and opportunity could learn to wield the elements at their whims. Unlike the Magus World where Mag hoarded magical knowledge and its resources with the zeal and ferocity of mongrel dogs fighting over scraps.
Unfortunately, the native Luke had, oddly enough, next to no interest in the magical arts and sought to learn swordsmanship over bending the elements. Another piece of evidence that spoke to the supposed supremacy of swordsmanship over magic in this realm.
As a result, Leylin lacked the knowledge and data necessary to give a proper judgement of the state of magic in this world.
"Display current stats." Leylin ordered.
[Beep! Baseline of current stats derived from the average untrained human adult in this world.]
[Luke Notos Greyrat (Split Soul)]
Strength: 0.1
Agility: 0.2
Vitality: 0.3
Spiritual force: 136.8
Soul Force: 13.6
Magic Power: 10.5
[Status: Healthy]
Hm. It wasn't surprising that his Soul Force was leaps and bounds ahead of his other stats. The split soul was formed as a fragment of the Original's powerful and potent soul at the pinnacle of a Breaking Dawn Monarch. Even a fragment of such a soul would be hundreds or thousands of times stronger and more powerful than an untrained commoner.
Despite the grievous damage the split soul had taken during its travel, or more accurately it being pulled and dragged around through the Astral Plane, it was still many times more potent than a regular human being.
What was more surprising was his untrained Magic Power being ten times more than the average untrained adult in this world. Perhaps it was just good genetics? The genetic material from two nobles would undoubtedly be of a higher quality than peasants if there was no inbreeding involved.
In the Magus World, at the lower ranks, it was Spiritual Force rather than Magic Power that was the primary measure of a Magus' strength. Spiritual Force is the manifestation of willpower, it is the mental ability a magus uses to formulate spell models in their minds. The more Spiritual Force a magus has, the more complex the spell models could be crafted.
Whereas Magic Power is the direct amount of magical energy contained in one's body. It is the fuel for spellcraft, energy used in exchange for generating fire, ice, lightning, and such.
Simply put, Magic Power is the fuel for spells, while Spiritual Force is the will that guides it.
The cultivation of Soul Force began only at Rank 4 for Morning Star Magi. It measured the strength of one's soul. Although the Split Soul had a stronger Soul than the untrained commoners of this world, without being at Rank 4, it was a resource he could not make use of.
Having processed his memories, the general knowledge accessible for a 5 year old and an attentive A.I., as well as his current body's stats, Leylin stood facing out the window in deep contemplation.
In truth, Leylin felt a little lost. What was he supposed to do now? The original intent of the split soul experiment was exactly that - an experiment.
The Original had no further plans for the split soul outside of gathering data. And no one, not even the A.I. Chip with its incredible calculations and simulations could have predicted the outcome of their experiment.
The Original's whole schtick was a quest for eternity. Even as a mere Rank 6 Breaking Dawn Monarch, the Original based near every moment of his life in pursuit of even the slightest possibility of achieving the mythical level of Rank 9. All for the sake of grasping eternity.
So what then was the purpose of the split soul?
Waiting for the Original to go through the titanic effort to reach this world just for the sake of retrieving this split soul would be an exercise in futility.
The split soul knew himself best. And the Original, having already judged the loss of a split soul worthwhile in return for experimental data, would not even spare a thought for his split soul even if he somehow knew the split soul had survived.
Chasing after the same dream as the Original just seemed so droll knowing there was another him out there with the same goal. With a starting point so crushingly far from the progress the Original has already made, it was impossible for the split soul to catch up before the Original already succeeded.
And once the Original did, and for some reason judged the existence of the split soul and a copy of the A.I. Chip that had contributed so heavily to his success as a possible threat?
Leylin let out a soft sigh.
Perhaps high-minded rhetoric could wait until he had grasped a more reliable method of self-preservation other than 'I'm a cute 5 year old boy, pwease don't hurt me!'.
The native Luke had chosen the sword over magic. With the body of a toddler, swordsmanship, while remaining a viable alternative to gaining strength, would not be sufficiently efficient enough for his purposes of getting some control over his own life and death.
Besides, Leylin knew personally the sheer depths and breadths of the possibilities of magic, gaping holes in his memories aside. He needed to learn more about the magic system in this world, at the very least enough to make an objective judgement over its practicality other than the native Luke's initial impression of 'Swords are just cooler!'.
As the distant horizon outside his glass window gradually brightened more and more with the rising of the sun, Leylin- or more accurately, Luke Notos Greyrat knew what he needed to do.