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Part One: Introduction

Everything is dark around you. Faint memories of your life float around in your mind, but it looks like you can't remember the details.

Let's recap, what happened to you? And more importantly who or what are you? Let us start with your gender. Can you recall being a female, a male, or was it a bit more complicated than that?

[ ] Female.

[ ] Male.

[ ] It's complicated.

You chose: [x] Male.

Good, now that that is out of the way, what about your name? Your name was... Vince Reese. During your short life you endured quite a lot of hardships. Your father wasn't around when you were growing up and your mother couldn't handle the pressure of raising a child on her own, thus she turned to drinking -becoming an alcoholic-. You started working at the age of 16 to provide for food and to pay the bills. When you turned into an adult, you left home and got a steady job. It all started looking a bit better for you, but what happened next? What went wrong?

You died.

For someone who died, you seem quite calm, talking to some kind of system. This isn't a game, you know. Or is it? You get the chance to reincarnate into another world. The chance to relive your life and turn it all around.

You are reduced to a baby of the race beastkin. You have a tail, two fluffy ears on top of your head and something what feels like fangs when you slide your tongue against your teeth. Later, you'll discover that you share a few features of a wolf. The strength and speed of your races are above average, but so is your whimsicality.

"Congratulations, it's a healthy boy," You hear the voice of an old man and your ears twitch. The cooing of two people follows soon after, you assume they are your parents. A warm blanket is put on you to keep you from being cold and you get snuggled into an embrace. You could get used to it, don't you think?

For the next ten years you are happy with your family. Oddly enough, your name didn't change in this world. Your parents, Anita Reese and Carlo Reese, are lovely people who try their hardest to provide you with whatever your heart would desire. Carlo Reese is a hunter and from the moment you turned three, he let you tag along with him. On your fourth birthday, you got a bow. Trying to help your father with hunting, you trained. At the moment you're almost as skilled as that snotty little brat that lives a few houses further who pays the highest ranked rangers to be his teachers. You're a hard worked, aren't you?

Aside from learning how to hunt and skin your prey, what else do you do in your free time?

[ ] Geography.

[ ] Healing.

[ ] Handicraft.

[ ] Potions.

[ ] Stealth.

[ ] Nothing. After all, what else could I need?

You chose: [x] Stealth

A sneaky hunter that can approach his prey without being noticed. You're bound to go far with that choice. Thanks to your devotion to your training, an old lady who's rumoured to be a witch took an interest in you. She teaches you magic to the best of her abilities, but you must promise her to not use it in a flashy manner. The woman explains that magic can be your trump card. It might be the deciding move in a battle later one.

During one of the times you go out hunting with your father, you bump into another group. It's one of your classmates, Cedric, and his father. The two older males decide to hunt together and tell Cedric and you to stay put and play. You're a bit disappointed that you can't tag along, but you figure your father might want to take this chance to hunt down a bigger prey. Even though you're told to 'play nice', the two of you ignore each other and Cedric turns his back towards you. He starts training some kind of martial arts. You assume that he's too focussed on his training and that it wouldn't hurt to try out a few minor spells you learnt. Soon enough, a small flame is dancing over the tips of your fingers.

"Is that magic?" A voice asks behind you. Due to the shock of being sneaked up on you jump up and the flame falls off your hand and onto the ground. The dry grass quickly catches fire. Cedric and you stare at it with wide eyes, "Can you put it out or are we in trouble?" He asks.

"Of course, I can put it out." You puff out your chest and lift your chin, silently praying that the next chant will succeed. You're still a beginner at magic after all. After trying out your newly learnt spell to summon water, you pour it over the fire. For once, you're fully concentrating. We wouldn't want any other accidents, would we?

"That's awesome. Can you do anything else?" Cedric looks at you with admiration. It seems like he won't tell anyone about you being able to use magic, but you make him promise it with a pinkie-promise just in case. It feels nice showing of your abilities to someone else and when your fathers return, you can proudly announce the two of you became friends.

From then on you put all your free time in training your hunting, stealth skill and your magic. Cedric even agrees to teach you some material arts. Your mother jokes about how you would be a perfect warrior who could work under the king or on the frontline, but when you ask her for more information, she seems frightened. Your father walks in on the conversation and angerly asks you to drop it. It looks suspicious, but your parents have never done anything to harm you before and you're grateful for them, so you decide to keep quiet about it, for now.

So, you're a talent when it comes to training, but what happened to school? You were enrolled in the nearby school and although it isn't much compared to the ones in the capital, your teacher is a former adventurer who's eager to share all her knowledge. Do you take advantage of that?

[ ] No, I don't want to take advantage of anyone, but I do listen to her when she wants to tell me something.

[ ] There's a reason why she's a former adventurer. I don't want to listen to a failure.

[ ] Of course, I do! Knowledge is power.

[ ] I wouldn't call it 'take advantage', but, yes, I want to hear everything she has to say. You never know when the information comes in handy.

You chose: [x] I wouldn't call it 'take advantage', but, yes, I want to hear everything she has to say. You never know when the information comes in handy.

Achievement unlocked: Information gatherer.

At school, you're an average student. Nothing to be proud of, but at least you're not an embarrassment. The memories of your previous life help you in the normal lessons like maths and the survival class. In one of your classes is a girl, Ella -a beastkin that resembles a cat-, you befriend her when you cook up a meal for her during one of the weeks you have to camp outdoors. She promises to pay you back one day.

The next year, you learn that you're getting a baby sister! When she's born, your parents seem to be giving her more attention. Feeling a little envious, no? Thanks to your parents being preoccupied, you can use the newly created free time to get even better. Because your stealth is so high, you manage to sneak out of the house. Ella joins you during many of your nightly outings and you even convince her that the old which isn't that bad. The both of you are now students of the woman even though Ella is still very clumsy with magic. It isn't rare that you go home with a few bruises that were created due to a miscalculation of your childhood friend.

One day you ask your father if you can go hunting alone. It's been a week since your 10th birthday, you should be able to hunt a bear on your own now. He agrees and that evening you bring home enough meet to cook up a feast fit for a king.

You've been quite the busy-body in the first decade of your new life. You gained a strong friendship with Ella and Cedric. You have a talent for magic and your martial arts is almost as good as Cedric's. You can go out hunting alone and your stealth allows you to get away unnoticed if you want to. You learnt a lot and are very knowledgeable about how the world works. It feels like you're really succeeding life this time!

Congratulations. You survived part one.