…
“Mom, do you think I’ll have an inherited skill?” Peter asked once he finished his meal.
He had grown big enough to sit at the dining table with his parents. Sharing breakfast and dinner was the norm these days, a routine he enjoyed. No phones to distract them. No internet to take away the warmth of a family meal.
“Oh dear, you don’t have to be so anxious about it,” Mariah said with a reassuring smile. “Most people are born without skills. Even your father and I didn’t have any at first.”
“You can always gain them later. Your dad can teach you swordsmanship in the mornings if you’re interested.” She hesitantly added. She didn’t want to see her precious baby get hurt.
“I’d be happy to, Pete.” Joseph ruffled his hair. “Keep one thing in mind, what your status shows tomorrow morning won’t define your entire life.”
He leaned back in his chair, his expression thoughtful. “I know plenty of people who started with lower stats than me, with no skills at all, yet they worked hard and surpassed me. And I’ve also seen people born with great skills and potential… but they got lazy. They were left in the dust.”
Mariah took Peter’s small hand in hers, squeezing it gently.
“My sunshine,” she softly muttered, “no matter what your status screen says tomorrow, we won’t be disappointed. And neither should you. Sleep peacefully. We’ll have something special for breakfast before we visit the temple, okay?”
Peter nodded. With a final goodnight, he left for his room.
…
 
Peter wasn’t sure if he’d be able to sleep that night. It was comforting to know he had amazing parents, but all he could think about was whether his project would succeed.



Status...


Time Until First Awakening:
1:34:18


Skills:
IDE



He lay down on his bed, watching the timer tick down.
He wondered what he truly wanted from his life. If everything went as planned, he needed to start thinking about his future. Village life was peaceful, but it felt too small for him. He had bigger dreams.
How could he stay confined to one place when he lived in a world of magic and mystery?
He was certain his parents knew this, too. They had already accepted that, one day, he would leave to explore the world beyond their quiet village.
Mariah just wanted to cherish the time she still had with him before that happened. Peter truly felt blessed to have such understanding parents.
Before settling here, his parents had been adventurers. Mariah had shared a few stories with him, usually when he pestered her about them.
He smiled at the memory.
She used to tell him those stories as bedtime tales not too long ago. Imagine that, having parents whose past adventures rivalled the heroes of children's stories from his last life.
.
.
.



Status...


Time Until First Awakening:
3


Skills:
IDE



 
Peter stared at the countdown, his breath held and his body tense.
3... 2... 1...
The numbers vanished.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened. No blinding light, no earth-shattering revelation, only silence. Then, as if peeling away an invisible veil, his full status appeared before him.



Status...


Name:
Peter
Race:
Human


Class:
None
Age:
5


Title:
None




Health:
50 (Cons * 10)
Mana:
2780 (Spirit * 10)


Stats...


Constitution:
5
Spirit:
278


Strength:
4
Agility:
5


Luck:
8
Charisma:
15


Skills:
IDE (Unique), Mana Sense (Common) Lv.1



 
Peter exhaled deeply, a sense of relief washing over him. ‘Phew, no indication that I’m a reincarnated soul.’
That was his first relief. But then, his eyes locked onto a certain number.
Spirit: 278
He blinked. Stared again. His fingers clenched the blanket beneath him.
That was dangerously close to the fourth awakening threshold.
Even the village elder, the highest-level person Peter knew, had only undergone her second awakening. Most villagers would never reach level 100 in their lifetime. Experience gains slowed to a crawl as levels increased, and in a place like this, opportunities to grow stronger were almost non-existent.
A few weeks ago, Peter had subtly convinced Monica and David to reveal their stats to him. He hadn’t needed their numbers at the time, but now, as he stared at his screen, those figures resurfaced in his mind.
‘Time to compare.’



Status...


Name:
David
Race:
Human


Class:
None
Age:
7


Title:
None




Health:
60
Mana:
60


Stats...


Constitution:
6
Spirit:
6


Strength:
7
Agility:
8


Skills:







Status...


Name:
Monica
Race:
Human


Class:
Villager
Age:
10


Title:
None
Level:
3


Health:
90
Mana:
100


Stats...


Constitution:
9
Spirit:
10


Strength:
7
Agility:
7


Dexterity:
3




Skills:
Running(Common) Lv.4



 Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
They didn’t have Luck or Charisma unlocked. That told him something important.
He already knew that some stats required specific conditions to unlock. His dad had Perception, but he didn’t, so far. It meant he had somehow met the requirements for Luck and Charisma, while Monica and David hadn’t.
That was worth looking into later.
When he asked Monica about her class, she repeated what her mother had told her:
"At the age of 10, everyone in the kingdom who doesn’t have a class yet is granted one by the king."
At first, that sounded odd. If the Villager class existed, shouldn’t there be a King class too? So, he dug deeper into the System Library.
Sure enough, classes like Queen, King, Sovereign, and Emperor existed, but they were just placeholders with no actual skills.
The real answer was hidden in the Title Library.
Some powerful Titles granted placeholder Classes as supplements to the main class. More importantly, some Titles granted special abilities and extra free stat points per level-up.
For example, the King Title let its holder appoint nobles and generals. It also ensured that people in the kingdom who didn’t have a primary class were automatically assigned Commoner or Villager.
Interesting stuff, surely, but right now, he had more important things to focus on. He needed to gain his first skill. Third, to be exact.
Not just any skill. One that he had personally modified from the System Library. He had successfully written a blueprint for the skill, using his IDE. A Class, one would call it in programming terms.
But the problem was that up until now, he had only tested it inside the IDE.
He didn’t make too many modifications at this early stage. Just enough to ensure it functioned as intended without any runtime errors.
Safe to say, he just copied and pasted it from the skill library. Sadly, once compiled, there would be no tool to fix any mistakes. It had to work well as even a minor glitch could be life-threatening.Where did he find such courage, Peter wondered. He had tested it extensively in the IDE testing environments, running simulations with all the mock resources available.
This was the moment of truth. Taking a deep breath, he mentally clicked on the Compile option.
67% of his mana vanished instantly. A sharp headache flared up. He clenched his jaw, forcing himself to endure it.
Was this his Luck stat kicking in? Maybe. If he had any less mana, he wouldn’t have been able to compile the skill at all.
Born with plenty of advantages, he was truly fortunate. Memories of his past life, A broken skill that gave him unlimited potential, and the ability to train his mana daily by exhausting it just before sleep, which kept increasing his max mana pool.
Once a Status was unlocked, growing stats like this wouldn’t be so easy or fast anymore. For now, he just waited for the compilation to finish.
Plenty had tried, either willingly or unwillingly, to increase their stats before turning five, but only tasted failure. It was incredibly dangerous.
Physical stats could be trained to a degree, but spiritual growth required proper care. A child's body wasn’t ready to channel mana, and their skills remained locked. Only the use of external methods could artificially drain mana from their souls.
Few could do this safely. Maybe the rich and powerful nobles had the means, but for others? It was a gamble with death. Many children died trying. Some suffered irreversible soul damage before they could even awaken their status.
People told them as horror stories in the village. He first learned about this from his mother during one of their late-night story sessions.
She had once caught a glimpse of a noble’s child from afar, a scion of a powerful family, trained since infancy.
Curious, he had asked her question after question. And as always, she had been patient enough to tell him everything she knew.
‘Maybe she told him all this so he wouldn’t try something reckless on his own.’
She worried about him a lot. As if a normal child would even have the means to drain their mana using external methods.
While he was lost in thought, the skill compilation was finally completed. A new executable file appeared.
To better understand how the System worked, he had been piecing together its mechanics. He thought of it like a Cloud Server. The entire System was like a vast, primary space storing all skills, classes and titles.
Everyone had a mini local system, which interacted with the Cloud System Server when they met certain conditions, granting them skills, classes, and even new Titles.
Each local system had a unique address, like an ID string, used for identification. He had already discovered his address by running a custom application that fetched it from his status screen.
Now, what he needed to do next fell into DevOps territory. Overly complicated and boring stuff that could be skipped. Completing the steps, Peter deployed the skill.
The newly made skill travelled from his IDE to the Cloud System, getting checked by it to fulfil its requirements before it sent the skill to his local system.



Status...


You have unlocked a new skill: Status Camouflage(Rare)



 
He took a deep breath of relief. No errors. No rollback. He checked the skill description.



Status Camouflage


Description:

An imitation of a skill created by Peter to imitate a false status screen to hide his real status screen from any skill or artifact.Creating a false status screen cost 500 mana. Editing the fake Status screen charges 500 mana.Keeping the fake screen active cost 10 mana per hour.



Rank:
Rare



 
It worked exactly as the description stated. No unexpected errors. No hidden drawbacks.
Mana, one of the fundamental building blocks of this world, was a fascinating thing. It was more than just a source of energy. The System seemed to use it as a communication pathway, similar to how the internet functioned in his past life.
As for the deeper mechanics behind it… he didn’t know. Not yet.



Status...


You have unlocked 2 new Titles: Skill Creator, Trailblazer: Skills




‘Okay, I did not expect that.’
The sudden notification from the system left him momentarily stunned. Once he came to his senses, he opened the descriptions of both titles to learn more about them.



Skill Creator


A Title awarded to a person who created a new skill. +5 Charisma






Trailblazer: Skills


A Title awarded to a person who developed a new way to create Skills. +15 Charisma, +10 Luck



 
A surprise, but much appreciated.
These stats would come in handy when it came to unlocking higher-grade class options.
It was late at night, and fatigue was setting in. Deciding not to push any further, he quickly set up his fake Status Screen and settled in for a peaceful sleep.



Status...


Name:
Peter
Race:
Human


Class:
None
Age:
5


Title:
None




Health:
50
Mana:
280


Stats...


Constitution:
5
Spirit:
28


Strength:
4
Agility:
5


Luck:
3




Skills:
Mana Sense (Common) Lv.1



 
‘Done.’
He smirked, satisfied with himself.
‘Maybe I should reward myself in the morning with some cookies.’
A yawn escaped as he pulled the black blanket over himself. Adjusting the soft cushion for better comfort, he closed his eyes.
Sleep came easily.