Chương 2: A Second Life

Leo hated being helpless. He had spent decades mastering his body. He had once been capable of crossing a battlefield faster than most people could blink. He could hear a sword being drawn behind him. He could feel Internal Energy moving through the smallest channels of his body. Now… He couldn't even turn himself over. He lay inside a wooden cradle, staring at the ceiling. This is humiliating. A faint noise escaped his mouth.

"Ah." His mother immediately appeared.

"There you are." She leaned over the cradle with a tired smile. Leo stared at her. He had already learned something important. She was his mother. Her name was Elena. His father was Marcus. They were not wealthy. They owned a small house near the edge of a rural town and made their living through ordinary work. There were no servants. No guards. No expensive furniture. No noble crest hanging above the entrance. They were ordinary people. And Leo was their first child.

At least, that was what he had gathered during his first weeks. He had spent most of that time observing. Listening. Remembering. Learning. The language of this world had initially sounded strange. But his mind adapted quickly. After several months, he could understand almost everything spoken around him. He discovered that the world had a name. Eldoria. A vast continent—or perhaps a vast world; he still lacked enough information to know which. There were kingdoms. Cities. Guilds. Mages. Monsters.

And something called Mana. That word caught his attention. He had first heard it when his father returned home one evening. Marcus placed a bundle of firewood beside the door.

"How was the southern road?" Elena asked.

"Terrible." Marcus sighed.

"There was a mana storm yesterday." Elena frowned.

"Again?"

"Yes." Leo opened his eyes. Mana storm? His parents continued talking. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Apparently, mana existed naturally throughout the world. Some regions contained more of it than others. Too much concentrated mana could cause strange phenomena. Sometimes storms. Sometimes monster mutations. Sometimes magical disasters. Leo listened carefully. He said nothing. He couldn't. He was still a baby.

But internally, his mind was already working. Mana. He had heard the word many times now. Everyone treated it as something natural. Almost like air. That was interesting. Very interesting. Because Leo could feel nothing. At least… Not at first. He spent months trying. Every night, once his parents were asleep, he would close his eyes. He would slow his breathing. He would attempt the first step of his old cultivation method. Gather. Circulate. Refine. Nothing. No Internal Energy appeared. He tried again. Nothing.

Again. Nothing. His body was simply too young. His meridians were undeveloped. His muscles were weak. His bones were still growing. Even if he remembered every cultivation technique he had ever learned, knowledge could not change the limitations of his new body. For the first time since his rebirth, Leo encountered something he couldn't overcome through willpower alone. His own body. So he waited. And observed. When Leo was six months old, something strange happened.

He was sitting in his mother's arms while she prepared food. A small blue flame appeared above her palm. Leo froze. His eyes widened. The flame danced gently above her hand. Elena smiled.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Leo stared. Magic. There was no doubt. The flame wasn't firewood. There was no oil. No hidden mechanism. It simply floated above her hand. Leo watched carefully. The flame moved with her fingers. When she closed her hand, it disappeared. His mind immediately began analyzing it. Energy is being drawn from somewhere. No. He watched more closely. Not somewhere. From her. His eyes narrowed. He could not see the energy itself. But he could feel something. A faint pressure. Something surrounding her.

Something that wasn't Internal Energy. Something foreign. Mana. Elena laughed softly.

"You like it?" Leo continued staring. She moved her finger. The flame appeared again. His tiny hand reached toward it.

"Careful!" She immediately pulled him away. Leo blinked. Elena smiled.

"Hot." Leo stared at the flame. Interesting. Very interesting. That night, Leo began experimenting again. He waited until his parents were asleep. He closed his eyes. He slowed his breathing. Then he stopped trying to cultivate Internal Energy. Instead… He tried to feel the energy that surrounded the world. At first— Nothing. Only darkness. Then… Something. A tiny sensation. Like countless invisible particles drifting through the air. Leo's breathing stopped. There. He focused. The sensation disappeared.

He tried again. Nothing. Again. Nothing. He frowned. His concentration weakened. His body was tired. Eventually, he fell asleep. But the next night… He tried again. And the night after that. And the night after that. For months. He didn't force it. He simply observed. He remembered the first lesson of martial cultivation. Patience. A child who tried to run before learning to stand would only fall. So Leo waited. He was one year old when he finally felt it clearly. Mana. It surrounded him. It flowed through the air.

It existed inside plants. Inside animals. Inside the ground. Perhaps even inside the human body. Leo sat on the floor of his home while his parents spoke nearby. He closed his eyes. Breathed slowly. And felt the world. His expression changed. So this is Mana. He didn't attempt to control it. Not yet. That would be foolish. First, he needed to understand it. He spent several minutes simply sensing it. The sensation was completely different from Internal Energy. Internal Energy had always felt warm. Dense.

Controlled. It was something cultivated from within. Mana was different. It was everywhere. Wild. Vast. Untamed. Internal Energy is cultivated. Mana is ambient. Leo opened his eyes. A small smile appeared. That distinction alone was enough to excite him. Because if Mana existed everywhere… Then the amount of energy available in this world could potentially be enormous. But there was a problem. He didn't know how people here cultivated it. He needed information.

And information was difficult to obtain when you were one year old. Leo sighed internally. I need to learn how magic works. He looked toward his father. Marcus was repairing a wooden chair. A thought occurred to Leo. He's a mage. Not a powerful one. But he could use magic. Which meant… His parents could teach him. Eventually. Leo's second year passed quietly. He learned to walk. Then run. Then speak. His first word was not "mother." It wasn't "father." It wasn't even "magic." It was:"Mana." The room went silent.

Elena stared at him. Marcus slowly lowered the cup in his hand.

"…What did he say?" Elena blinked.

"I think he said Mana." Marcus stared at his son. Then laughed.

"He's going to be a mage." Leo stared at them. That's not exactly what I meant. But he couldn't explain. So he smiled. For the first time since his reincarnation, Leo felt something unfamiliar. Something warm. He didn't hate this life. Not yet. Two years later, Leo stood outside his house. He was three years old. His silver-white hair moved gently with the wind. He looked toward the distant hills. Beyond them lay a world he had never known. A world of magic. A world of monsters. A world where dragons existed.

A world where his former martial path was nothing more than something that existed inside his memories. Leo slowly clenched his tiny fist. His body was still weak. His Internal Energy was almost nonexistent. His magical knowledge was nearly zero. But his mind remained that of the Heavenly Demon. He smiled. Not the smile of Park Suho. Not the smile of a conqueror. Something quieter. Something new.

"If this world has its own path…" He whispered.

"…then I'll learn it." He looked down at his hand. A tiny pulse of Internal Energy moved through his body. Barely noticeable. But real. Leo's eyes narrowed. His cultivation had finally begun. And he had no idea yet… how much this tiny step would change his second life. End of Chapter 2.