~~** Interlude | Glace **~~

No matter how many times I jump worlds, I never seem to get used to it. Although I admit this is the first time I’d been aware of myself while gestating in a womb instead of immediately after being delivered. Barring my initial existence, that is.

There were a few things about this time that were bothersome right off the bat, the first being that I am constantly aware of my mother’s emotional state. I know that she’s deeply in love with my father, or at least the asshole who she keeps letting knock on the entrance to my private suite!  

Hey!  Keep it down out there!  

The second is that I discovered I had the ability to communicate with her a little bit. I believed I understood the reason for being able to, at least. This body contained a ridiculous amount of Mana. If I hadn’t gained an intuition for sensing mana after my third world hop, I might have actually died of boredom while waiting to be born. I also believed it was due to my father constantly injecting mana, as well as that other stuff that makes me glad I have a placental barrier to keep it out, that I was somehow awakened long before I should have been.

My mother seemed to be some kind of magician, though her control and understanding of mana was at a very basic level. My mother also held the thought that showing my father she could use mana would make him love her more. With that being the case, I thought I’d go ahead and be a good child, doing my part by quietly helping my mother grow and synchronize her mana together with her body. It was easy enough to do, and it’s not like I had anything else to do while gestating.

I had no idea what kind of existence I’d be this time around, only that I was fully organic, and until I was born, I would be bereft of my System.

Judging from the pattern of mana activations my mother used, I felt it was safe to conclude that the magic system of this world must be combustive, using active invocations to create causality effects intended to defy the natural laws of physics. Which meant I was likely being born into some medieval hellscape. Did they burn witches as heretical entities here, or were they revered and heralded instead?

At any rate, I was just hoping for one thing. Please give me a decent name once I’m born.

I’d love to have my original name, Grace. It could be so exhaustive growing up with an unnecessarily stupid sounding name. Serendipity, Caerwylan, Moragriph, Nekses Five… yeah, it’d be nice to just be called Grace again. There's just something simple and charming about it. Almost… pure.

I also realized my body was maturing quickly. Which meant I either wasn’t a human, or somehow I was in a place with significant bio-tech capabilities. Was it a magi-tech society? I didn’t get the feeling it was, because hasting births didn’t usually involve allowing a male partner to introduce potentially unsanitized detritus into a vaginal cavity.

It remained a curiosity until I felt nature take its course, at which point an overwhelming desire to escape overtook my higher functioning mind. It must be some kind of genetic call of nature. I’d like to say that having to claw my way out of a hooch is something I would prefer to never experience again. I had no idea what kind of barbaric birthing practices this world has, but landing on my head is not my idea of a good time. Also, my umbilical cord is stuck to my former home which is still inside of my… mother.

Hm. Green skin, clawed fingers, mostly naked, pointed ears…

From the look of things, mama is a goblin, I believe.

Having existed in darkness since coming to, I now looked at my hands and realized that the same must apply to me. I’m also a goblin.

Looking around, I saw three other people in the room. One appeared to be some kind of goblin midwife with a nasty looking scar across her chest. The other goblin seemed like she was on her way to being a crone, and the third was a really handsome looking human. He also seemed to be happy to see me, so, was this guy my father?

Usually humans and goblins do not establish friendships, let alone marital relations, so what was the deal here?

I tried giving my umbilical cord a tug, but I hadn’t enough strength to budge it. I decided to see if the human was willing to help, since he looked the strongest. I pointed at the cord and hoped he’d figure it out.

Hey, uh, handsome papa! Can you help me out here?

Oh, is he going to? Ah! It’s out! Good job, papa! My hero!

Now go take care of mama, she’s staring at you. Be a man!  Tell her she did a good job or something!

…wait. What are you doing? Why are you picking me up?

Uh… papa… why are you putting my placenta on mama’s chest? You’re supposed to sever it and tie up my umbilical cord. How unsanitary! Let’s push this thing off of her chest. Are you all barbarians or something?

Ugh. I’m not strong enough to roll it off. And her triangular tits are getting in the way so I can’t really move it anywhere. Being weak is such baloney!  I want a stat reroll!

Wait. Mama? What’s that look in your eyes about?

Papa..., why are you moving my placenta towards mama’s mouth?

Oh, oh no. No no no!  Please tell me she isn’t about to do what I think she’s about to do.

Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

Ew, I just watched my mother eat my placenta!

Thankfully I couldn’t feel it through my umbilical cord, but that just ain’t right!

I give up. At least one of her tits isn’t covered in blood. I decided to bite the bullet and decide immediately if nursing from her would be tolerable, or if I should just end it and hop along to the next world.

I heard my papa and the almost-crone goblin talking while I was drinking from my mama's teat. Her breast milk was rich with mana, and the taste wasn’t all that bad. The older goblin was saying something to my papa, but I didn't understand the language being spoken yet, so I paid it no mind. I’m a fast learner though, so it shouldn’t take long before I do.

First things first, I needed to get their attention and get cleaned up. I tried speaking, but found my vocal chords didn’t seem to work yet. Hmm, maybe if I use some simple magic, it will make them realize not to leave a child resting on a chest covered in blood and cannibalistic gore.

I invoked my mana and lifted my finger like a gun, aiming for papa. I ended up missing and shot a harmless stream of water at the older goblin. She sputtered and yelled. Like, sorry, but I’m an infant. You can’t expect me to have perfect muscle control at my age, you know?

I got a handle on it while papa was laughing, and added a bit of coldness to the next one, and got him right in the face. Get it now, papa? I’m cold and covered in funkiness. Get me cleaned up already you slowpoke!

Papa was making a motion at me which I could only guess meant to do it again.

All parents are like that, I suppose. I bet he thought I was some kind of once in a generation genius. Well, if this gets me a better quality of life, let’s do as he wants.

I shot another squirt of water at him and then he was saying something to the others before he got my attention and invoked his own mana but didn’t combust it. It was the makings of a low level jet of fire. He pointed upwards and then let his mana formation collapse. Was he asking me to do it instead and aim at the ceiling?

Papa, you do realize you’re asking me to invoke a fire spell inside of what looks like a cave, don’t you? I’ll do it, but I sure hope we won’t suffocate due to a lack of oxygen.

I let loose a spray of fire at the ceiling and when that seemed to suffice, I went back to nursing again while papa and the old goblin chatted with each other for a long time. Eventually she left, and only the midwife goblin remained.

Then, I heard something that pissed me off.

“Glace.”

Glace? Glace!?

It’s GRACE! How can you possibly mess up the name Grace!?

Glace!?  Am I a sugar coated frosting or something!?

Ugh! I couldn’t even correct him because my voice wouldn’t come out! So, I got mad and fired off a huge chunk of ice at what looked like a dais next to my mother.

KLINKOOOM!

I stared right at him smugly afterwards and stated mentally, since I had no other option, that my name was Grace. He said something after, but I, sadly, know he couldn’t understand my frustration. Actually, using that much mana was kind of taxing on this little body. I went back to nursing to replenish the mana I just used up while papa talked with the midwife goblin.

She ended up leaving and papa wound up cleaning off both mine and mama’s body. I guess he’s a good guy, just a little bit slow to action. When he spoke again, I could finally make out something.

“Move… cave-hole…?”

Oh, do we have a residence? I gave papa the O.K. sign and he scooped mama and me up and carried us to a smallish room without a door at the far side of the cave we were in. Once he laid mama and I down onto a straw bed, he disappeared for a moment and came back with a blanket of some kind. Draping it over us, papa stayed with mama and me, and stroked my small body with a very pleased look on his face.

Well, at least it seems that my mother and father are in a loving relationship, even though it’s interspecies and I look more like my mother. I could have definitely ended up in a worse situation. With papa asleep snuggled up with mama, I was finally free to take stock of my current situation!

Hey, System! Open Status!

Hmm. So I’m a Female Bloodmaw Goblin, with a class of Star Shaman. I don’t quite get what the Circles and Stars are about, but I’m sure that will be clarified in time. My physical stats are on the lower end, but my mental abilities and talent potential are good, I think. I should get a baseline for what’s normal around here as soon as possible so I know where I stand.

I have a few decent skills. Telepathy is new, and so are Danger Sense and Precognition. I guess being in such a filthy environment makes having Disease Resistance a boon. Soul Memory and Language Syntax haven’t changed at all in the last couple world hops.

I am curious about the Runic Knowledge skill. Let’s investigate it.

Hmm. Rune Attenuations? Could this be an index of my Glyph Affinities? 3% across the board? Is that good or bad? What is the mana-to-energy conservation rate? System, why are you such a piece of antiquated junk!?

Man, being born really takes it out of you.

Letting out a yawn, I wrapped my mouth around my mama’s teat and let my body’s natural instinct take over. I’m sure I’ll have a clearer mind to figure things out in the morning. But damn, mama, you sure got lucky getting a pretty boy like papa to marry you. Let’s just hope he isn’t a bad guy and cheats on you. I know your personality already, and you’re the kind of woman who’d let a man walk all over you if he just snuggled up to you and whispered sweet things in your ear once in a while.

Let’s have a wholesome family life together, okay?

Nighty-night~