My name is Aldwin Everett.
I turned twenty-six just a few months ago, and if I am being honest, out of all my lives, this one is probably the most normal.
That thought came to me as my vision spun and fractured, the moment my gift truly activated. The world did not fade away gently. It twisted, stretched, and collapsed inward as if my mind had been pulled through a narrow tunnel. I felt weightless, disoriented, and painfully aware that something fundamental had shifted inside me.
Instinct took over.
A vast space unfolded before my awareness, one that did not exist physically but felt more real than the apartment I had been standing in moments before. Countless spheres drifted through the void, each one glowing with a different hue. Some were dim. Others pulsed violently. A few were so dark that even looking at them made my chest tighten with unease.
I knew, without being told, that those were my past lives.
And I knew that choosing wrong could break me.
The world spun harder. Pressure built behind my eyes. I felt time slipping, as though hesitation itself carried consequences. Panic clawed at the edges of my thoughts, but beneath it was something steadier. A sense of direction. A pull toward something familiar.
Then I saw it.
A blue glow, calm and steady amid the chaos.
It reminded me of a gemstone. A sapphire, polished smooth by time rather than force. It was not the brightest sphere, nor the largest, but it felt stable. Safe.
I reached for it.
The moment my fingers touched the surface, the void shattered.
"Congratulations on becoming a First-rate Wizard, Mulligan!"
The voice rang with pride, echoing through a grand stone hall filled with murmurs and applause. My vision snapped into focus, and suddenly I was standing somewhere else entirely. Tall pillars rose toward a vaulted ceiling etched with runes. Arcane lights hovered in the air, illuminating banners marked with sigils I somehow recognized.
"It took you a few decades, but we knew you had it in you!"
Hands clapped against my shoulders. Faces turned toward me, smiling, approving, relieved. I felt taller. Stronger. Younger, yet older at the same time. Power thrummed beneath my skin, responsive and familiar.
This was not a dream.
This was a memory.
Mulligan was my name here.
The visions came in waves.
I saw years of study spent poring over spell tomes with worn covers and cracked spines. I felt the frustration of failed incantations, the sting of ridicule from peers who had been born with greater talent. I remembered being told, again and again, that my affinity was too weak, that my mana flow was inefficient, that I would never reach true mastery.
And yet, Mulligan had persisted.
He lacked the natural gifts others flaunted, but what he had instead was patience. Obsession. A love for magic that went beyond power or prestige.
Especially water magic.
Despite only possessing a Minor Affinity for the element, Mulligan gravitated toward it with unwavering devotion. Where others pursued flame for its destruction or lightning for its speed, he studied the slow, relentless force of water.
I felt his awe as he watched rivers carve valleys over centuries. His fascination with tides that obeyed unseen rhythms. His respect for rain that nourished life just as easily as it drowned it.
"You know, father," Mulligan said in one memory, his voice younger. "I never really understood why you loved spells related to water so much. Everyone else worships fire or frost or storms."
The memory shifted.
A small shrine stood before us, humble and weathered. A flickering illusion of a tiny water sprite hovered above it, her form barely stable, her presence gentle rather than overwhelming.
"But I think I get it now," Mulligan continued. "Out of all the elemental deities and gods, she was the only one who acknowledged you. Not the grand ones. Not the powerful ones."
His father smiled, weary but content.
"That is why I chose to celebrate her," he said. "Not frost magic. Not the full power of the tides. Just water as it is. Adaptable. Enduring."
Those words stayed with Mulligan for the rest of his life.
They stayed with me, too.
When my eyes opened again, I was back in my apartment.
Or rather, my body was.
My mind felt… expanded.
Mana flooded my senses, foreign yet familiar. It wrapped around my limbs like an invisible current, responsive to intent rather than muscle. I could feel it in the walls, in the air, in myself. The world was saturated with it now, thickened by the presence of nearby rifts.
And monsters.
I felt them before I saw them. Twisted presences moving through the building below, their mana signatures jagged and hostile. Claws scraped against concrete. Something roared, close enough that the vibration traveled up through the floor.
Fear surged.
Then another presence stirred within me.
Calm. Focused. Experienced.
"This entire building is teeming with monsters from the rifts," a voice said from within my mind. It was not intrusive. Not domineering. Just confident. "I can take you to a much safer area if you let me out for a bit."
Mulligan.
The spellcaster.
My instincts screamed to resist. To cling to control. This was my body. My life.
But another thought followed quickly after.
He knows what he is doing.
I swallowed and let go.
Control shifted smoothly, like slipping into water rather than falling. I remained aware, present but no longer at the forefront. Mulligan moved my body with practiced efficiency, grabbing a backpack and slinging it over one shoulder.
He opened the door.
The hallway beyond was chaos. A warped creature lunged from the stairwell, its body a mess of chitin and muscle. Mulligan raised a hand without hesitation.
Mana surged.
A sphere of compressed water formed instantly, dense and spinning. With a flick of his wrist, he released it.
The impact was devastating.
The creature was slammed against the wall, bones crushing under pressure that mimicked the depths of the ocean. It did not get back up.
A translucent notification flickered at the edge of my vision.
[Contribution Points +12]
Mulligan did not react.
He moved.
We descended stairwells, slipping past monsters when possible, eliminating them when necessary. Water shaped itself into blades, bindings, and crushing waves. Every spell was efficient, controlled, and precise.
Another monster fell.
[Contribution Points +9]
Another.
[Contribution Points +15]
By the time we reached the ground floor, my fear had dulled, replaced by awe.
This was what experience looked like.
Outside, Mulligan guided us away from the city, following instinct and mana flow rather than roads. We slipped through alleys, then into overgrown outskirts, and finally into the woods beyond the city limits.
The air felt different there.
Quieter.
Safer.
Mulligan slowed, releasing control gently.
The mana receded, leaving me standing among trees that swayed softly in the wind.
"That should do for now," he said, his presence fading back into the depths of my mind. "You survived your first embodiment. Not bad."
My legs trembled.
I sank to my knees, breath ragged, heart pounding.
Another notification appeared.
[Past Life Embodiment Successful]
[Permanent Skill Acquired]