Karl was lying down in his crib, closing and opening his eyes repeatedly since the last 10 minutes.
'Fuck! Why can't I sleep! Don't kids sleep easily!?'
Karl kept cursing in frustration for the next few minutes..
*Exhale*
'This won't do. It will take at least two years for me to be able to start speaking and a bit more before I can start walking. Till then I can not be laying down in the crib doing nothing. Anything that will help me pass time...'
Karl quickly thought of the most basic thing he could do.
'Language! I can learn the language! In the novel, the language was said to be... Arhius. Yeah, language arhius and the name of this world was Arhaven.
That will be the best time pass, whenever someone speaks to me, I need to remember the words, compare them with other time those words are used and a few other things to understand the meaning of the words.
It will be a slow process but still will be a nice way to pass time.... but what about other times...
I can only learn language when someone is talking to me but as I am right now, I might not be in the mood to talk, so what then?....'
Karl again started racking his brains trying to remember the novel and a very basic thing soon hit him.
'Ether! I can use this time to learn to sense and control ether which will put me ahead of everyone my age.
That is the first step for becoming stronger in this world. I should start with trying to sense it.'
James straightened his hands towards the ceiling, his eyes still closed as he started-
'Wait, What do I have to do?' Karl thought trying to remember the novel.
'It was said in the novel that many geniuses like Karl learned to sense ether by themselves so it won't be too difficult.
It was also that ether is present everywhere.
Then maybe I should try to feel ether through my skin, like air feels on my skin.'
As James focused on the air touching him, his face serene as if asleep, he could not feel a thing.
'Hmmm, not working. Am I missing something?' Just as James was thinking what to do next he remembered it.
'Lungs! It was said at the start of the novel that people learn to sense ether as it enters in their body as they breathe.'
James once again tried to feel something unknown and this time he did. He felt something… different.
'Bingo!' James exclaimed in his mind.
As James focused on that new feeling, he was able to sense it a bit better.
It felt like something was entering his body with every breath. It was not like smoking or vaping, it had no temperature. It was just there, that was all he could sense.
As he kept his focus on the slight amount of ether he could feel inside his lungs, trying to understand it better, time slipped by.
Karl suddenly felt like being held up which broke his concentration.
Karl opened his eyes and saw his mother who was looking at him with smile.
'Why at this time?' as Karl wondered and looked around the room, his eyes went towards the window, the sight shocking him.
'What the fuck! I have understood shit and its already morni-!'
Just as Karl was getting angry he felt all the power slip out of his body as laziness took hold of him making him fall asleep in his mother's embrace.
***
As Karl woke up, he saw the sun high up in the sky.
'I must have slept from morning till noon.' Karl thought looking around to see where he was.
He was now in a bed with his mother lying beside him, her palm on top of his his stomach, slowly patting it.
'So how much did I understand?' As Karl ransacked his brain to remember how much he had understood of ether, his mother feeling his movement, turned to look at him.
"H#&*@" she said as she patted Karl on the stomach.
'Those words must mean something like 'you are up?' or 'good morning'. Gotta keep paying attention to the language, but right now I want to focus on ether.'
Karl thought as he closed his eyes again and started feeling the energy he was now all too familiar with.
'I can not even completely sense all the ether inside my lungs, I think this is going to take some time and I am all up for it. Passing time is what I need.'
Karl once again started trying to sense ether better, ignoring his mother's chatter.
***
'One week has passed since I started trying to sense ether. I can sense all the ether around me but that is it.
I made a breathing method in which I inhaled and exhaled like a patient on ventilation.
Neither very innovative nor very cool but it did help, though only with sensing ether around my lungs.
I used it only for a day but even that worried mom and dad, making dad take me to another priest.'
Karl smiled wryly at the memory.
'Though it does not help as I try to sense ether outside my body.
To sense ether outside my body, I just need to... concentrate with all my mind.
It is very slow but is still doable, the only side effect is that it tires me out.
I get a strong headache when I do it for long so when I can't continue, I go to learning Arhius.
What feels better than my progress with ether is being able to understand what others are saying.
Ether practice also becomes boring unlike the process of understanding a language by myself.
Another thing I found out in the week is that my... intelligence, yeah intelligence seems to be higher.
If earlier, it would take me a day to complete a book, now I feel like I can complete the same book in a few hours.
It is most likely because I now have the brain of 'Karl'.
With my increased learning speed and such, I can learn a language by myself faster than I ever learned another language with the help of 'duallingo'.
So it feels awesome to use my enhanced intelligence.
One of the things I now know is that my mother's name is Ercia. I already knew my father's name from the novel, Kevin Hearth.
My granny's name is Martha. I am yet to know of this body's grandfather's name but I think I can live without knowing it. I have also not seen grandma and grandpa since the party so I guess that they have left.
I have also came to understand a lot of phrases. I now know whether one is wishing me good morning and good night or asking me how I am feeling. Just those basic lines but they are a start.
My general schedule is playing around with mom and the maids, trying to get new words out of them by doing some shenanigans.
The maid I am most friendly with is Helda. She is an old maid and is very talkative so I like spending time with her as I learn a lot of new words constantly.
And... yeah, just adapting to my new life very well.
My next plan is to understand Arhius better, at the level where I can understand each and every word the maids or my family speak, and also to learn to control ether, all by... the next two weeks.'