Max Level, Age Ten
I logged into the game the way I always did.
A click of the mouse. That was my last memory. My vision went dark, and consciousness slipped away.
"......"
I opened my eyes.
A vast blue sky filled my entire field of view. Warm sunlight poured down, and a fresh breeze drifted past. A drowsy, pleasant haze settled over me, and I let my eyes slip shut again.
...Huh?
My eyes snapped open.
Where am I?!
I bolted upright. This wasn't my room. Grass stretched away in every direction.
As I turned my head, something swayed at the edge of my vision. Hair. I reached out, caught it, and drew it in front of my eyes. It shimmered a radiant silver, drinking in the sunlight.
Pretty...
I found myself kneading it between my fingers. Soft as silk.
Wait.
I froze, startled, and stopped. I wasn't bald, but I hadn't grown my hair out this long, either.
What's going on?
I stood up. My eye level felt strangely low — as if I'd shrunk overnight. I looked down at myself.
I was wearing a bizarre outfit. Wide sleeves, embroidered all over, like something a medieval wizard would wear.
"......"
It wasn't unfamiliar. I'd seen it a hundred times. It was the exact robe my game character always wore.
I held both hands out in front of me. White, slender fingers. These were definitely not the hands of an adult man.
Even I couldn't miss it at this point.
I shouted at the empty air.
"Status Window!"
Ah. It actually appeared. A Status Window.
I rubbed my eyes and looked again. It was my character's information, all right. Name: Shirin. Race: Elf. Exactly the settings I'd chosen myself.
But the gender was... off.
Female...?
What was this, some kind of adult game? The way it was written felt less like a person and more like livestock. The word choice was a little much.
Age: ten. I hadn't set an age in the game. I had made her small and cute when I designed the character, though. A bit of authenticity, I suppose.
Class: Mage. Level: MAX.
Max Level. I'd been the first player on the server to hit the cap — the product of grinding through night after sleepless night.
Which meant... had I died? Had I keeled over from something like a heart attack after pushing myself too hard at the game? And then possessed my own character?
...I'm not exactly broken up about it.
My real life had been that of an orphan and a loser anyway. I had no desire to go back.
This was better. Not just better — this was amazing! I was a MAX Level Mage, after all. I could live however I wanted. Eat delicious food. Take as many naps as I pleased.
I lifted my head.
A dense forest stretched from the edge of the meadow, and beyond it, snow-capped mountains rose into the sky. Add in that wide-open blue, and anyone could tell this was a fantasy world. My heart started to pound.
All right. Time to check this body properly.
I needed to verify that I really had become Shirin. I started to bring a hand to my chest, then stopped... That wouldn't tell me much. This was a ten-year-old's body.
I touched my ears instead.
They're pointed!
Definitely elf ears. And they were so pleasantly soft it actually felt nice. I ended up standing there, thoroughly soothed, without even meaning to.
Next up: magic. In the game, I'd used it in skill form. But the Status Window just now hadn't listed any skills.
"In that case."
I stretched a hand forward.
"Fireball!"
Fireball
A fireball whooshed out and slammed into a boulder sitting in the meadow.
BOOM!
The rock blackened and shattered to pieces.
"Whoa..."
Had I just done that? I was seeing it with my own eyes and still couldn't believe it. While I was at it, I decided to try a higher-level spell.
"Fly."
Fly
My feet lifted lightly off the ground. My body floated up, up into the sky.
"Ooooh!"
I leaned my torso forward. I glided ahead, smooth as silk. This time I picked up the speed.
WHOOSH!
Wind slapped against my ears. The meadow below streaked past. It was a little scary. The speed was making me queasy, too. I dropped back down to the grass in a hurry.
Yeah, flying was not for me.
That said, magic seemed to take shape exactly as I willed it. I tried creating water in my palm, just to test. A blob of water formed with a plump little sound, sloshing in my hand. I tried shaping it into a rabbit.
"......"
What I got was a rabbit that looked like a squashed potato. A sorry excuse for a sculpture. Dexterity, apparently, had nothing to do with level.
I froze the rabbit.
CRACK.
It turned into an ice statue in an instant.
Definitely not a skill-based system.
Picture it, pour in your will, and the magic happens. Much more convenient than using skills.
I melted the ice rabbit and scattered it on the ground. The once-transparent ice turned to water and seeped away between the blades of grass.
"All right. That's enough confirmation."
I clenched my fist.
"Time to set out on an adventure!"
A ten-year-old's clear, ringing voice carried across the meadow. If anyone had overheard that, they would've kicked their blanket in secondhand embarrassment. What a childish line.
...Feeling a little sheepish, I pushed through the grass and started walking.
I seemed to have picked the wrong direction.
I'd wandered into the forest without thinking, and no matter how far I walked, it never ended. I considered flying my way out, then decided to keep walking a little longer.
It was absolutely not because flying scared me. Walking through the forest just felt nice, that's all. Sounds like an excuse? You're imagining things.
That was when I heard it.
"Aaaaaah!"
A scream. A young girl's voice. I ran toward the sound without a second's hesitation.
Acceleration!
Acceleration
The magic made my body light. I cut through the forest in a blur and reached the source in no time.
A girl was crumpled in a forest clearing. Around her stood a pack of creatures with green skin and long, pointed noses. I recognized them instantly. Goblins. Dozens of them.
"Help... please, help me..."
The girl was deathly pale, trembling from head to toe. The goblins had her surrounded, snickering as they closed in.
I should help her. I stretched out a hand without hesitation.
"Water Ball!"
Water Ball
A basketball-sized sphere of water shot forward. I'd held back on the power, more or less.
THWACK!
The goblin that took the hit went flying.
"Water Ball. Water Ball. Water Ball."
I kept launching them. Plop, plop, plop. Water spheres fired off one after another.
Ghk! Kek! Gack!
The goblins went flying one by one, screaming, and crumpled as they slammed into trees and rocks. The whole thing was over in an instant. I walked over to the girl.
"H-hhnn..."
She looked up at me, her face a mess of tears. Round eyes, chubby cheeks. A cute kid.
"You okay?"
I smiled and held out my hand. She grabbed it, still shaking.
"Up we go."
I helped her to her feet and patted the dirt off her clothes. She stared at me like I was some kind of marvel. At my ears, specifically.
"An... elf?"
"Ah, yeah. I'm an elf."
I scratched my cheek, a little embarrassed. She stared at me a moment longer, dazed, then suddenly dropped her head in a deep bow.
"Th-thank you for saving me!"
"Don't mention it. More importantly — are you hurt?"
"N-no. I'm okay, luckily."
"Where's your home?"
"I live in a village nearby. Plon Village."
Plon Village. The name didn't exist anywhere in my memories as a max-level player. Some tiny rural hamlet tucked away in a corner of the map, maybe?
"Want me to take you there?"
The girl beamed at the question.
"Y-yes! I'd be really grateful if you did."
She picked up a basket that had fallen on the ground. It was full of what looked like roots and herbs. Easy enough to guess. She'd come into the forest to gather medicinal herbs and had the rotten luck of running into a goblin pack.
"Let's go, then."
I was about to turn around when—
"Kieeek."
The goblins had gotten back up somehow, and they were closing in again. The girl grabbed my sleeve in terror.
I looked them over at my leisure.
Guess those Water Balls were a little too weak.
I'd held the power down so they wouldn't die, and they'd just shaken it off and gotten back up. Time to teach them a proper lesson.
"Kieeek!"
The goblins shrieked. Something along the lines of, You hit us? We won't forgive you!
"Water Wave."
Water Wave
The ground trembled beneath my feet, and a massive wave surged up, crashing forward with ferocious force.
"Kieeeek!"
The goblins were swept away screaming. This time, it was a proper exit.
Whoooosh.
The roar of water faded, and the forest gradually returned to silence. It was even clean, as if someone had given the place a good rinse.
A droplet clinging to a green leaf went tap and fell. Sunlight filtered through the trees, and a tiny rainbow bloomed in the spray.
To produce a phenomenon like that with nothing but a gesture... Magic really was something else.
Feeling refreshed, I turned toward the girl. She was staring at me with glittering eyes. Pure admiration. I got embarrassed for no reason and glanced away.
"S-shall we go?"
"Yeah!"
She nodded hard.
We started walking through the sun-drenched forest, and introductions came naturally as we went.
"My name's Mina. What's yours?"
"I'm Shirin."
"How old are you, Shirin?"
"Hmm. I'm ten."
I gave her the age written on the Status Window. My actual age was that of a proper adult, of course, but I looked every bit the little kid.
Mina let out a little puff of laughter. The corners of her eyes curved softly as she looked at me. How to put it — that wasn't the admiring look from a moment ago. This one was fond. Pleased.
Mina cleared her throat with a little ahem, then shrugged her shoulders.
"Ten, huh. I'm twelve."
"......"