The light at the end of the tunnel | Season 1

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Jude POV:

Darkness. I was surrounded by nothing but darkness. 'Where am I?' my thoughts surfaced as my brain went into overtime. The last thing I remember is cutting down Asmodeus and then hearing Cordelia's screams. Oh no, Cordelia! 

My heartbeat skyrocketed as I fell into a frenzy. Where is she, where is Cordelia? I tried to calm myself down. I can't panic now. I looked at my surroundings, only to see darkness. Suddenly, I saw light. Light at the end of the seemingly endless tunnel. 

After what seemed an eternity, the light embraced me. "Congratulations Mr and Ms Leywin, you have twin sons" I heard an elderly man speak. Son? 

I turned my head to see a young man with an angular jawline and rough features which screamed strictly. He had brown hair and eyes and looked at me with a moronic grin and teary eyes. My first impression of him shattered when he said, "Come on little Jude, this is your father, say 'Dada'!" I saw the doctor roll his eyes and I would have done that too if I could.  Does he really expect a newborn to be able to speak? 

I saw a small pale hand smack the man, who is presumably my father, behind his head, deservedly as I would say. "The two aren't crying doctor!" I heard a sweet female voice leak out from above me. "Hmm, well there are some babies like that, anyway just remember to take it easy Ms Leywin and contact me if any issues arise!" 

I put down my hands only to see a beautiful young woman with bright brown hair which contrasted well against her pale skin. Is she my mom? She seemed to have this motherly feel to her. I looked around the room to only see some torches and a straw mat. So primitive. 

I turned to my left only to be shocked to see another baby! Is he my twin brother? Now that I think about it, my mother did say the two of them!' I looked at my new brother. He had auburn hair and bright azure eyes. What did I look like? Well, seems like I'll only find out later. He would definitely grow up to be a lady catcher in the future! 

Being a baby was very hard.  Two simple words describe it perfectly, no control! I could barely wave my limbs around. I slowly realized the reason why babies grab fingers when you place them in their palms, it's just a reflex! Life as a baby was just pain.

The currency in this new world seemed pretty straightforward from the exchanges my mother had with the merchants.

Copper was the lowest form of currency, then silver, followed by gold. While I had yet to see anything costing as much as a gold coin, normal families seemed to be able to live off of a couple of copper coins a day just fine.

100 Copper = 1 Silver

100 Silver = 1 Gold

Every day involved honing my new body, mastering the motor functions residing deep within me. That comfortable regimen soon changed.

I was a mortal noble who transcended and became a God. I was considered to be the strongest not only in my world but even in Hell and Heaven. I defeated the mad Archangel and the Overlords of Hell. I was finally able to save Pleadias from destruction after hundreds of tries and suffering through many ordeals. Yet, this one moment still filled my chest up with pride.

I can crawl baby!

'Till now, Arthur and I had to make do with the stories mother would tell me while trying to make me fall asleep. I grumbled out noises of complaint when she stopped too early. My father would sometimes sit me on his lap while idly talking to me about his old days, which gave me some hints as to what kind of world this was and what it was filled with.

Reynolds Leywin, a former adventurer,  had quite a lot of experience in this field. He was a part of several parties that went on expeditions to search for treasure and fulfil missions they acquired from the Adventurer Guild. He eventually settled down when he met my mother at the Kingdom's border in a city called Valden. He proudly told me how my mother fell head over heels for him at first sight when he visited the town's Adventurer Guildhall that she had been working at that time, but I suspected it was the exact opposite from how my mother slapped him across the back of the head and told him to stop telling me lies.

My name was Jude Leywin, my first name being the same as in my last life. I almost couldn't believe what I saw in the metal sheet they used as a mirror in the washroom. I looked the same as in my previous life! I had bright emerald eyes which shone like gems, my jet black hair contrasted well against my white skin; making me look exactly like I did in my previous life where I was considered to be the most handsome person ever.

After weeks of attempting to crawl, yet only achieving an uncoordinated scuffle in place, Arthur I finally succeeded; even managing to sneak into the family's library/study room while my mother was hanging the laundry out to dry. Mother rued the day we started to become mobile, sighing, "I swear, you're going to become as hard to manage as your father."

______________________________________________

I closed the encyclopedia and situated myself more comfortably on the ground... basically I just laid on my belly because crawling and sitting upright was so damn tiring.

Pondering over what I had just read, this world seemed pretty underdeveloped. From what I could infer, there didn't seem to be much technological advancement. The only source of transportation appeared to be horse-driven carriages, that varied in size for overland use, and ships with sails for rivers.

Weapons were freely allowed and not really regulated unless you were visiting the royal family or people that held authority. This makes it seem similar to my old world where strength was almost absolute. 

A similarity that both this world and my previous world shared was the system of monarchy. The continent of Dicathen had Kingdoms, each ruled by a king and his royal family. 

After scanning through the encyclopedia, there didn't seem to be much information on other continents besides the one we were currently in. I found this a bit odd since there were ships that carried goods and passengers across the continent by the river. I just assumed that maybe the technology on ships haven't been developed enough to sail across oceans. There really wasn't a need for technology in Pleiades as it was merely a giant continent without any oceans.

One thing that was going to be hard to get used to was the whole premise of magic in this world. Now magic did exist in my old world, however, it wasn't the only energy that could be used. Knights used something called Chivalry, while druids used the energy of nature. Magic was merely a tool to be used amongst many. 

For a swordsman, the training involved strengthening muscles and sword technique. Sword technique was something like magic as it seemed to be extremely powerful, and was also something which I used.

The Mages here would use the surrounding mana and draw it into their bodies, ultimately condensing it in their mana core. Mana and other energies did exist in the atmosphere in my old life, however, a mana core was never formed. 

The reason? It would be too restricting. While having a mana core can be somewhat helpful for a beginner, it simply restricts the powerful mages' abilities. 

On Pleiades, while practice was incredibly important, talent mattered the most. I was able to go from being an extremely sick young adult to the most powerful man in the world in under 2 years. The talent would start to blossom around the age of 15, causing huge jumps in power. 

I was a special case since I started training after I got cured at age 17 due to special circumstances. 

This got me thinking though. Why would our ancestors create a mana core which would restrict stronger mages and make it harder to get stronger? They must have realized the issue and should have tried to solve it! My answers remained unsolved for now.




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