Nth Life - Chapter 1

After the teacher left the room, the students began to buzz as they discussed their lives and recent events. All except one. The young man that had been staring out of the window continued to do so. He wasn’t much to look at. Average height, average looks, dark blonde hair, and blue eyes. Aside from that, he was so skinny he almost looked anemic yet he was healthy. The only thing that made him slightly more than a thin average-looking young man was his slightly above-average intelligence. He was no genius but he still maintained good grades in class.

His name was Ezekiel Rose, though he preferred to go by Zeke.

Like many, he hoped to one day awaken a powerful special ability and become a Magus. However, the odds were completely against him. Becoming a Magus required a lot of luck. Even two hundred years after the incidents that introduced mana into the world, only ten percent of the worldwide population awoke. Even fewer awoke truly powerful abilities. Being realistic, he would be happy to awaken a mediocre ability that he could raise into something powerful.

It wouldn’t be the first time something like that happened. About seventy years ago a woman awoke but her ability was undeniably weak when it manifested. Initially, she could simply conjure a flame from the tip of her finger. Hardly as strong as the flame from a lighter. Yet, after years of work her ability grew to the point that her hands became stronger than military flamethrowers. She gained her strength by diving into dungeons, risking her life, and killing monsters. All Magus could increase the power of their ability by killing monsters. Just… you had to have an ability worth growing first.

He wished he could awaken a nice ability but he didn’t have all of his hopes on it. There was nothing wrong with living a normal life and having a normal job. Just like his parents who worked middle-class jobs and provided a loving home for him to live in.

He was pulled out of his thoughts as a young woman in her mid-twenties opened the door to the classroom and walked inside while speaking, “Good morning students. Today we’re going to discuss the different philosophies of various cultures and their thoughts on the concept of reincarnation.”

That caught Zeke’s attention. He always found the concept of reincarnation fascinating. He even read many different stories where people would die and be reincarnated in new worlds, even fictional ones. The genre wasn’t as popular as it used to be nearly two hundred years ago when it exploded onto the scene. Still, there were a few new ones each year. And although he enjoyed them, he didn’t actually believe in it.

“Reincarnation is not a concept unique to any one culture. Even the concept itself varies from one culture to the next. For example, in Hinduism, the soul of a person reincarnates based on the concept of karma. If you do good things in your life you reincarnate into something better. On the other hand, if you live a bad life you can reincarnate into less. Perhaps a bug, a tree, or even a blade of grass. Depending on your choices you could even reincarnate into a divine being that rules a part of nature.”

Zeke listened intently as the teacher gave her lesson. He figured that he had lived a neutral life. He’d done neither anything good nor anything evil. He continued to listen as she continued to speak.

“In Chinese mythology, the Goddess of forgetfulness Meng Po is responsible for a part of the reincarnation process. Interestingly, she serves souls a soup that wipes their memories so they can reincarnate into their next life without the burden of their memories. Whatever the culture the loss of memory seems to usually play a part. Though, many people throughout history, and even to this day, say they can remember their past lives. Though there is no conclusive proof of past lives or reincarnation.”

Zeke listened as his teacher started to talk about another deity, one that would lock the memories of a soul away and only unlock them when the soul had completed its journey and was ready to enter heaven. Zeke found that concept particularly interesting. Imagine if it were true! All that knowledge, all those memories of countless lives all sitting within the soul waiting to be unleashed. If only it were possible.

He smiled and closed his eyes. He’d always had an active imagination. It was something he liked to explore. Today, just because he felt like it, he imagined a large ancient-looking wooden door in his mind. Behind that door were all of the memories of his past lives. Not really, but it made him smile to imagine that they were. But, he needed to open that door somehow, right? Every locked door needed a key and in his mind, he could make that key.

He imagined an ancient-looking key made of gold with swirls that formed the image of a skull. An ancient golden skeleton key. The mythical kind of key that could open any locked door, even the metaphorical one in his mind. He almost wanted to giggle at how ridiculous he was being but it entertained him, so he continued. The golden key moved toward the lock of the door. It gently slipped into the lock with no effort and slowly turned. There was a loud click as the lock was disengaged.

Zeke’s smile grew as the door inside of his mind slowly opened up. As the door cracked open, a white light began to flood out of it. He just watched as his imagination ran wild. Within a few short moments, the door opened and a bright white light flooded his mind. It was beautiful… until it wasn’t. One moment he was seeing a bright white light, the next he was in utter darkness.

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Unknown to Zeke, the loud click he heard in his mind was heard by everyone in his classroom. As the loud click resounded, everyone froze and began to look around cautiously. In a classroom filled with fifteen to sixteen-year-old students, anything out of the ordinary needed to be approached with extreme caution. Any one of them could awaken at any moment. Moments later an alarm began to blare as a student no one paid much attention to collapsed to the ground.

Hearing the alarm coming from Zeke’s wrist, everyone in the classroom immediately stood up and quickly got out of the room in an orderly and practiced fashion. The alarm came from a monitoring device that every person between the age of fourteen and nineteen wore at all times. An early warning device that would let everyone nearby know that someone was about to awaken and become a Magus.

Even as Zeke flopped on the floor like a fish on dry land and had a seizure, no one, not even the teacher, went in his direction to help him. It might seem cold and cruel to let a young man lay on the floor and seize up but it was necessary to preserve their lives. He could burst into flames and burn someone that tried to help him. His sweat could turn into highly corrosive acid and melt anyone who touched him. Random telekinetic waves could burst from his body and crush anything, or anyone, around him. The moment of awakening was the most dangerous moment to be anywhere near a Magus.

No one could be blamed for preserving their own life.