An Unborn Hero

In a richly decorated bedroom, with flowing fabrics draped down the walls and thick piled carpet from edge to edge, a pair of mages were engaged in heinous criminal activity.

It was an unfortunate fact that the kingdom of Flinel had—after an incident involving a group of mages sneaking some research past the ethics committee that should never have been permitted—outlawed the creation of life. A bit of a knee-jerk reaction to the incident, and the mages in question had ended up eaten by their own creation anyway, but the real problem was that the language of the law was so general that a strict reading encompassed not only the intended abuses of magecraft, but also another far more vital activity, and hence most of the population broke it at some point in their lives. Most people broke it multiple times. Thankfully, the city guards were a reasonable bunch, and only enforced the law against people who they found particularly irksome.

In any case, the mages continued their technically illegal but highly enjoyable activity far into the night. As they did so, deep inside the female, a pair of gametes that might one day become our protagonist were busy getting to know each other really well. That was a fact of which the protagonist herself was blissfully unaware as she brooded.

"It's all well and good deciding I'm going to get some skills, but how? Skill shop, open! Store? System? Anyone? That damn lying goddess said this would be easy! Well, at least I've got an occupation, even if it isn't the one I wanted."

Focusing on the 'hero' text of her status, a new blue box popped up.

Hero (Legendary)
The destined one. You will save the world from the forces arrayed against it or die trying, and as you fall, so too will the world. This occupation may learn any skill. Skills related to combat and magic gain a 100% experience bonus. Allied forces will find you implicitly trustworthy. Demons will instinctively recognise you as a threat. You have a 50% damage bonus against demons.

While the hero had been a little upset about her occupation being picked for her, the description cheered her back up; since a [Hero] could apparently learn any skill, she'd just need to find a set that best suited a magical girl. Dancing, some type of magic with flashy visual effects, and something to handle the transformation sequence. Some sort of temporal magic to freeze the rest of the world, perhaps? It would be a pity if the demons didn't get to see her transforming, but she didn't trust anyone outside of an anime to be stupid enough to sit back and watch quietly, rather than attacking her in the middle of it.

She also spent a minute wondering how far 'implicitly trustworthy' went, but decided more information was needed. It could be anything from a gut feeling to mild hypnosis to outright mind control, but something at the lower end seemed more likely. There was no point being a lone magical girl, so maybe that effect of the occupation would be useful for assembling a team.

Really, the team should be chosen by a cute and tiny alien of some sort, but the goddess kinda counted as picking the hero, and if the hero picked some others, she could use the excuse that it was the goddess's choice by proxy.

"Okay. I want to be a magical girl and strike fear into the demons while wearing a cute dress and a smile on my face, all while chanting some cheesy lines about love and friendship and all that, so obviously I need the magic skills the hero description talks about. But I can't move. If my age is negative nine months, I must practically be a single cell. So how am I having this conversation with myself? Then again, I was talking to that goddess without any problems, and I didn't have a body then, either. It must be a soul thing. So, what skills can I get with just a soul and no body? I could see perfectly well when talking to the goddess, too, so why can't I do that now? Being, heh, indoors doesn't help, I suppose, but some sort of sensory skill must be possible."

The hero spent some time trying to remember the feeling of opening her eyes while a ghost, trying to replicate it now that she was bound to a zygote. It wasn't easy, but she had nothing better to do. She also had no pesky biology getting in the way, with the lack of a brain precluding the need for sleep, and the lack of real eyes removing that particular distraction from her attempts at using more esoteric senses, and so, after a few hours of effort...

ding
Through unwavering effort, you have unlocked the [Soul's Eye] skill.
Achievement unlocked: [Early Bloomer I].

The hero would have jumped for joy had she owned any legs; she'd received not only her first skill, but an achievement too!

Soul's Eye (Uncommon)
Why rely on soft and squishy flesh when you can utilise your very soul to perceive the world around you? Flesh is limited in scope and vulnerable to damage. Admittedly, your soul can be damaged too, but if someone breaks your soul, blindness will be the least of your worries. This skill acts as the base for many esoteric sensory sub-skills and is a must-have for many professions. Levelling increases acuity and range.

Early Bloomer I (Uncommon)
You have unlocked a skill of uncommon or better rarity prior to the age of 6 years. Keep up the pace and you will achieve great things. Grants a 50% experience bonus to all skills until you reach the age of 12 years.

"Another experience bonus. Presumably experience is required to level skills. Do the bonuses stack additively or multiplicatively? I'm either getting two and a half or three times experience for magic skills right now, but I'm not sure if [Soul's Eye] counts as magical and I don't have anything to compare it to anyway, so I'm not going to be able to work it out myself. Either way, stacking as many boosts as possible seems like a sensible idea. The name of [Early Bloomer I] implies an [Early Bloomer II]. Do I get that by getting a higher rarity skill, or by getting more skills? Doesn't matter; I fully intend to do both. Also, sub-skills are apparently a thing... Presumably that means things like sensing mana or other souls. That should be my next goal. The goddess said that my parents were mages, which means I'm currently floating around inside a mage. That's got to be good for sensing mana, right? Wait, is mana even a thing that exists? The goddess told me there was magic, but not how it works. My status doesn't have a mana line on it, but it doesn't have health either, so that doesn't mean anything. Well, nothing for it but to try."

The nameless hero relaxed, repeating the feeling of opening her metaphysical eye, but this time trying to see through it. She had no clue what she was supposed to be seeing, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Maybe it would hamper her from seeing anything specific, but conversely, without prejudice perhaps she would see things that others would not. Being told something is impossible generally discourages attempts to try, after all, but being told 'this is the list of things that can be sensed by this skill' without adding the proviso 'unless there are more we don't know about' could be just as bad.

Of course, it's still easier to attempt things you understand, and our reincarnated hero understood light very well. That was naturally the first place her imagination went, but fallopian tubes were not known for the quality of their interior lighting, so for now her efforts achieved nothing. The next attempt was mana, which she didn't understand, but knew there should be lots of it around. She strained her new skill, trying to detect that which was all around her.

ding
You have learnt to detect the presence of life, upgrading [Soul's Eye] with [Sense Vitality]. Level cap of [Soul's Eye] increased by 10.
For observing a new aspect of reality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 2.

"Oh. That wasn't mana, but I suppose I'll take it. Let's try again."

Doing her best to ignore her mother's vitality, which appeared as a simple uniform red glow all around her, the hero focused on the unknown once more, searching for anything else that surrounded her.

ding
You have learnt to detect the presence of souls, upgrading [Soul's Eye] with [Sense Soul]. Level cap of [Soul's Eye] increased by 10.
For observing a new aspect of reality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 3.

"And again, not mana. I suppose it makes sense that I'd be surrounded by my mother's soul in here, but it's mana I want!"

This time, the surroundings lit up in a silver-blue, but again, it was all homogenous. Once again, the new sensory input was ignored as the hero started looking once more.

ding
You have learnt to detect the presence of raw magic, upgrading [Soul's Eye] with [Sense Mana]. Level cap of [Soul's Eye] increased by 10.
For observing a new aspect of reality, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 4.

"Finally! That must have taken days!"

It had not, in fact, taken days. It had actually been less than one, but in defence of the hero, she didn't have access to a clock. Without the need for food or sleep and with no daylight cycle, she lacked any point of reference with which to measure time.

Alas, looking around revealed nothing more than a pale blue haze. Once again, there was nothing to see.

"Well, this is useless. Is it because my skill level is too low? Would I be able to see detail if it was higher? On the other hand—if I had hands—it's not like I have the best vantage point here. My new mother needs to install a window! Perhaps I can shift my vision elsewhere?"

Another couple of hours passed as the nameless hero did her best to shift the eye of her soul somewhere outside of herself, until, once more, her efforts were rewarded.

ding
Through unwavering effort, you have unlocked the [Astral Projection] skill.

Astral Projection (Uncommon)
On the sanity scale, detaching your soul from your body hovers somewhere between a crab taking a walk outside of its shell and a lemming diving from a cliff. Nevertheless, through rigorous training, you have learnt to do so. Now you'll never need to carry a mirror with you again. Levels increase the distance you can travel and the time you can spend outside before the link between soul and body degrades completely.

The metaphorical grin the hero had sprouted at being described as doing 'rigorous training' vanished in an instant as she stopped reading and immediately snapped back to her... body? Cell? Ball of cells? How fast did the things divide? In any case, the description of some sort of degrading link connecting her back to her cell-clump was enough for her to immediately cease her exploration.

"That damn goddess! Again! She said I wasn't going to kill myself with cursed skills, so what's this?! I was trying to move my eye, not my whole soul!"

Somewhere in heaven, a white-robed lady sneezed. This wasn't actually related to the hero's tirade at all, but was a simple coincidence. Funny how such unlikely events happened so often.

Back on the ground, the hero—deciding the skill was her best opportunity to look around despite the danger, and knowing she could last at least a little while thanks to her initial trip—detached once more. Moving felt like wading through mud, but she ploughed on regardless, until, with a metaphysical pop, she burst out from her mother, suddenly freed.

"Maybe it's harder to push my soul through hers? Or maybe it's harder to move through solid substances? No time to check; I need to have a quick look around and then get back."

Looking around with both [Sense Vitality] and [Sense Soul] revealed the same thing; a single blob. [Sense Mana] showed the same blob, but rather than black everywhere else, there was a dim haze.

ding
For viewing the world from another perspective, [Soul's Eye] advances to level 5.

The blob cleared up slightly, resolving into a thick worm shape.

"So the blurriness is due to my low level. I'll need to train it. For now, I should get back inside. I'm starting to feel weird."

The hero returned to her body, such as it was, waiting for the strange feeling to subside before once again popping back out to look around. Meanwhile, on the outside—where night had once again fallen—the hero's mother, Kellela Catter, was not, in fact, alone in her bed. Alas for the hero, the pair were too closely entwined for her low levelled skill to resolve them as separate people. And Kellela's partner was growing increasingly twitchy.

"Umm... Sorry, love, but would you mind closing your eyes?"

"Oh my. Are you awakening to something new, dear?"

"Not at all... It's just that for some reason, you keep triggering my [Detect Scrying] sub-skill. Sorry, but feeling as if I'm being watched all the time is really off-putting."

The hero, utterly unaware of what it was she was spying on, continued her training in blissful ignorance.

Unnamed Human
Age: -9 months
Occupation: Hero (L)
Skills:
- Soul's Eye (U) (5/40)
>> Sense Vitality (U)
>> Sense Soul (R)
>> Sense Mana (U)
- Astral Projection (U) (1/10)
Achievements:
- Early Bloomer I (U)