[ Day 7 ]

I pulled back my bow and watched the arrow sore straight into the belly of the Armored Tanuki. Edward was acting as forward with his developing swordsmanship. His magical gauntlet from Father was a handicap to his progress in my opinion. I myself had chosen to use an ordinary bow. It was one of the few ways to possibly be closer to a weaker status when fighting. Adrien was acting in the middle position. He was very found of the magical whip he was given and had spent most of the day just going wild.

[ I don’t think there’s anymore alive. ]

I walked out from the tree and towards my brothers. Adrien had a look of ecstasy on his face, while, Edward seemed tired.

[ Then we can finally go home. ]

I bent down and picked up one of the raccoon corpses.

[ There’s more to life then eating you know. ]

He shook his head and sighed.

[ That is very reason you are so miserable, Ai. ]

Edward stepped inbetween us.

[ Guys. Let’s hug it out. ]

We both turned to him at the same time to shout,

[ Shut up, Ed. ]

I turned back to look at Adrien.

[ You still don’t get it do you? Why we have to do this? ]

Adrien crossed his arms, sighing.

[ I’ve heard you say it before. We have to train and be strong. But come on. You always smake us play these games without using anything. It’s no fun. It makes no sense. ]

[ Adrien, that’s not true. Ai always has a reason. ]

[ You are too soft! There is no real reason other than she thinks she would lose. ]

[ Adrien, you can’t say that out loud. ]

I felt something inside of me snap. My feet walking on their own to Adrien. There was no need to take off my glasses for an immature child like him. His eyes slowly glossing over.

[ Punch yourself in the face. ]

Adrien smiled and punched himself in the face. I turned to Edward who was backing up.

[ Cut your arm with your sword. ]

Edward’s eyes also glazed over and he cut his arm. I snapped my fingers and the two snapped out of it.

[ I banned the use of powers so we all could get stronger. You can’t build a foundation with them.]

A smirk appearing on my face.

[ Besides, I would win too easily if they were allowed. ]

Adrien’s face turned bright red. Considering the fact he was naturally a pale green it was sort of funny to look at.

[ I’m telling dad! ]

We watched him run off back towards the base. Edward just looked at me for a moment before running after him.

[ Good, he needs to get that cut healed anyways. ]

I picked up my bow and headed deeper into the forest. It wasn’t like I expected them to understand. They weren’t reincarnators like I was. Where I had come from even in a world without magic human abilities and access to technology was far greater. That was even putting aside the fact that I was an ESPER with a pretty useful ability: Data Mind. It sounds odd, but it was a rare ability that came down to a person being able to process, analyze and transmit data as close to perfection as possible. Of course, even if I saw a technique once and could instantly copy it that wasn’t the same as mastering it. Many things had to be beaten into your body to achieve the sliver of a soul that existed outside of the data. In fact, I had met once another person who had my ability that was working for an enemy nation. It was this distinction that lead to his death. My brother’s reminded me a lot of the idiot.

[ Idiots… ]

I left the relatively tame area to head deeper into the forest. Besides wanting to crush my father I was, to be honest, quite bored. I was used to being gifted and having government mandated challenges to entertain me. Now, because of the asshole, I was even gifted in this life. Because of my mother, I had looks that would have had even the past me angry. My hair was a beautiful silver, my eyes a startling blue and silver, my skin a pale white that seemed to shine like an opal when the sun hit it and a hint at unfair proportions in the future.

[ Asshole.]

And then there was everything else I blamed on father. Like father, I was blessed by a Great God. The one who blessed me was the Great God of Nature and Souls. It seems my skin color was a display of its favor. One of the older goblins said that it was also due to the Great God that I was born a variant species, Vampire Noble Variant. It seems for some reason I also inherited the blessing from the God of the Netherworld from Mom and the blessing of the God of Death. It seems the combination of such things had slightly warped my inherent Esper ability to something else. Souls themselves became data. It’s one of the reasons I wore my glasses. The amount of data I Was able to process, analyze and transmit had increased.

Just from being alive these seven days I had analyzed and processed the data of multiple foreign skills. As they didn’t seem to conflict with my constitution or level I was able to then incorporate the data into my code.

[ The Armored Tanuki gave me both { Endurance } and { Shell Defense }. ]

The later ended up giving me the data to morph a part of my outer layer to fit the necessity of the skill.

[ Then there was the Blade Rabbit who gave me { Bone Blade Generation }, the Black Wolf which gave me { Steel Skin }, the Bats from the cave who had { Echolocation }, Hind Bears, Horn Rabbits, Kobolds, Night Vipers, Rhinoceros Beetle, Spiders, Lizardmen, Slimes and Triple Horn Horses that were eaten quite frequently. ]

When their soul remained a few seconds after death information could still be recorded. There was also the odd case of the powder from the White Stag which resulted in the ability { Beloved Child of $%^&*&^%$ } and { Protection of the #$%^ Beast }. All of it made ‘learning’ things too easy. It was essentially a trap.

[ Those idiots don’t see it. ]

Objectively, my brothers were not as unusual as I was. However, they still had traps of their own. Edward was only a Saint Lord Mixed Blood. He almost looked exactly like his human mom, but had pale blue orbs on the back of each of his hands. His species wasn’t one that was meant to be a front line fighter. The only thing that was his saving grace was the odd fact he had received blessings from the God of Judgement and the Demigod of Swords.

[ Although, when you think about how squishy he is… ]

Adrien was an even bigger hopeless case. The idiot was born as a Mandrake Rare Species Variant. Apparently, his mother was excited because a Mandrake hasn’t been seen in years. It was essentially the male version of a Dorian. Meaning Adrien was always going to be a veracious glutton and idiot. He was blessed by the Demigod of Deep Green and the Demigod of Dancing.

[ A complete idiot. ]

Well, it was not like any of this mattered much. I had already made my decision. By the time I killed enough hind bears to satisfy me and drag them (and all the other Armored Tanuki left behind) to base I found a set of frustrated family members waiting for me. Mother had her arm crossed.

[ Ai. ]

One look at father’s smile and I disappeared.

Did I mention the handy trick I picked up from a certain Kobold Ninja?

The Gifted Child – Jill Soubule