Chapter 2: Time skips
Three years had passed since my reincarnation into the world of Ben 10, and let me tell you, it's been quite the ride. Let's rewind a bit and catch you up on what's been going down in my little corner of the universe.
So, after the mind-blowing revelation that I was somehow inhabiting the body of Ben Tennyson, I gotta admit, I was buzzing with excitement. I mean, who wouldn't be? But all that excitement must've worn me out because I knocked out cold shortly after. When I woke up, I seemed to be in a new place—presumably the house of my now parents.
Now, let's talk about the glamorous side of babyhood: breastfeeding, peeing, and pooping without a shred of control. Yeah, it wasn't exactly the highlight of my day. But hey, gotta do what you gotta do, right? So after about two months of adjusting to this new, erm, lifestyle, I came to terms with it. I mean, milk's gotta come from somewhere and I guess all natural is what's best for my developing body.
Fast forward through the next three years, and you'll find me trying to sense my dormant mana. See, I know I'm 1/4 part Anodite, thanks to my knowledge of the original series, and I also remember Ben 10,000 could use mana in a possible future. So, naturally, I wanted in on that action. Problem was, I kept nodding off every time I tried to meditate. Talk about frustrating.
But hey, persistence pays off, my friends. Three years of trial and error later, and I finally cracked the meditation thing. Got a notification from my learning status: [Ding! Meditation Lv1 acquired]. Now, you might be wondering why it took me so goddamn long to get this skill. Well, it turns out falling asleep mid-meditation doesn't exactly cut it. Now that I can actually stay awake and focus, I'm ready to dive headfirst into the world of mana.
Oh, and speaking of family, my cousins are just the cutest little things and energetic to boot. It's usually me, Gwen, and Lucy (the slush puppy) tearing up the joint. Lucy's a bit of a mystery, though—I've only seen her a couple of times, and I reckon her folks are keeping her alien heritage under wraps until she can control her powers. And then there's Sunny, who's basically Gwen's doppelganger. Only met her once, but she left quite the impression.
And last but not least, my big moment: talking. Yep, after about eight months or so, my vocal cords decided to pull themselves together, and I started spouting out words like "mama" and "dada." You should've seen the look on my parents' faces—they were convinced I was a baby genius. Still, it was pretty hilarious to watch them bragging to the whole fam about their prodigy baby.
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Now, let me tell you, things got really interesting after those three years flew by. I mean, I finally nailed down my meditation game, but finding that elusive mana? That was a whole other ball game.
See, by the time I hit five years old and my meditation skill hit Lv5, it was like a whole new stage of skill. I could concentrate like nobody's business, but let me tell you, reaching that level was no walk in the park. It took some serious time and dedication.
But then, one fateful night, as I was chilling out with my usual meditation routine (because let's be real, it's way better than counting sheep), it happened. I felt—or maybe perceived—a shift, a spark, something different. And just like that: [Mana Sense Lv1 Acquired]. Talk about a game-changer.
With my newfound skill, I could sense the energy swirling around inside me like never before. It was like tapping into a whole new dimension of existence. But here's the kicker: I had no clue what to do with it. Like, sure, I could sense it, kinda see it, but manipulating it? That was a whole different story.
So, while I was busy grappling with my newfound mana powers—or lack thereof—I spent most of my days just hanging around the house, exploring every nook and cranny. You see, my parents weren't too keen on letting a five-year-old loose in the big bad world all by himself. Can't blame 'em, really.
But hey, who needs the great outdoors when you've got cousins to hang out with? Me, Gwen, and Lucy were pretty much joined at the hip. Sunny would pop in every now and then, but she was living the high life with her rich parents, so she wasn't around as much.
Now, let me tell you about a little something I like to call cousin bonding time. One time, they tried to rope me into being their horse for a game, but nah, that wasn't happening. Instead, I offered up my skills as a hairdresser extraordinaire. And let me tell you, once they saw what I could do with a comb and some hair ties, I became their go-to guy.
[Ding! Hairdressing Lv3, Head Pats/Scratch Lv4 acquired.] Yeah, you heard that right. I even got skills in giving head pats and scratches. And let me tell you, my cousins were all about it. There's nothing quite like seeing three little rugrats melt into a puddle of pure bliss under your fingers.
And then there's Lucy. Poor girl in her case she literally melted into a puddle in my hands. Her parents' faces when they saw this were horrified and when Lucy had reformed she had tears in her eyes, she must have thought i thought of her as a monster but i didnt i was cool with it. All though it After all, family's family, right? She got a bit clingy after I found out, but hey, I'm not one to judge. Although it was surreal as it kinda set in stone in my mind that there are actually aliens here and that this was my new reality.
So yeah, life's pretty wild when you're five years old and hanging out with aliens and whatnot. But hey, I wouldn't have it any other way.
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So, after the whole Lucy alien revelation blew over, life pretty much went back to normal. Well, as normal as life can be when your parents are convinced you're the next big thing in the world of hairdressing. Yeah, you heard me right.
Ever since my little hairdressing stint with the cousins, my parents have been on my case about becoming a professional hairdresser when I grow up. I mean, can you blame 'em? Even my aunts were lining up to get their locks styled by yours truly. By the end of the day, I swear I was the favourite child of the family. Gwen and Lucy tried to protest that the adults couldn't have me, but hey, when the adults are impressed, resistance is futile.
But enough about hairdressing adventures. When the cousins weren't around, I spent my days diving into whatever reading material I could get my hands on. Yeah, I know, I could already read, but hear me out. Ever since I levelled up with that sweet [Reading Lv2] skill, it's like I've unlocked a whole new level of speed reading. I'm talking about Usain Bolt-level reading speed, people. Okay, maybe not that fast, but you get the idea.
Now, the family computer was off-limits most of the time, 'cause who knows what mischief a kid could get up to, right? But my parents do sometimes put cartoons on but let's be real here, they are absolutely crap, I'm talking more crap than today's cartoon network which is saying something. Like, seriously bad. So I didn't waste too much time on 'em.
Instead, I filled my days with outdoor play, light exercise (gotta keep this five-year-old bod in top shape), and, of course, meditation. Gotta keep those mana juices flowing, am I right? And speaking of mana, one day, after what felt like forever of trying to interact with the stuff swirling around inside me, I finally cracked it.
Picture this: me, sitting cross-legged on my bed, concentrating like nobody's business, and then swoosh I made the mana move. It was like waving my hand at smoke or trying to blow it but it finally moved. And let me tell you, when that notification popped up—"[Ding! Mana Manipulation Lv1 acquired]"—I went full-on celebration mode. Fist-pumping, bed-jumping, the works.
And then, after all that excitement, I crashed hard into dreamland. But let me tell you, when I woke up the next morning, I was raring to go. Time to put that mana manipulation to the test, baby.
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So, after discovering I could manipulate mana by imagining blowing smoke, things got pretty interesting. From that day on, I made it my mission to interact with my mana in a more active way. After a bit of trial and error, I figured it was time to put my newfound skill to the test.
Now, I may not have had any experience using mana before, but I've read my fair share of manga and light novels. So, armed with my imagination and a bunch of cool ideas, I got to work.
First up, I started by moving my mana all over my body. It was like playing with invisible smoke, but way cooler. With each movement, I could feel my mana manipulation skill levelling up. Eventually, I got it up to Lv2.
Next, I decided to see if I could use my mana to boost my strength. So I concentrated on channelling my mana into my arms, and lo and behold, I could suddenly lift heavier things. Okay, so maybe I wasn't Hulk-level strong, but for a six-year-old, I was lifting weights like a champ.
Of course, using mana I could sense it getting depleted little by little, so I had to meditate and I decided to observe how it regenerated. It was slow at first, but as I watched, I noticed something interesting. My mana was getting purer and slightly more abundant each time it regenerated. I also realised that the ambient mana was turning into my own from the air in my lungs when I breathed.
That got me thinking about mana breathing. I mean, if I could interact with mana using my imagination, why not try using my breath too? It took a good three months of intense concentration, but eventually, I nailed it. "[Ding! Mana Breathing Lv1 Acquired]." I was pumped because now I could actively interact with mana while breathing and boost my capacity for it.
But I wasn't done yet. Inspired by Naruto's natural energy techniques, I decided to try pushing and pulling mana. Using the mana breathing technique, I pushed out purified mana and sucked in normal mana from outside to purify it. Each time I would be able to grab just a little more mana than before and slowly my reserves started to expand, I could feel my skills levelling up, and I even got a passive skill called "[Ding! Mana Regeneration Lv1 Acquired]." Super helpful.
By the time I hit eight years old, I figured it was time for the next step. I started compressing my mana to make it denser and moved it from my abdomen to my heart area. You see where I'm going with this? I was trying to create a mana heart, pumping mana around my body through my veins to passively strengthen myself.
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As I progressed in my journey of utilising mana, I realised the importance of levelling up my skills. So, I focused on levelling up my Mana Sense, Mana Manipulation, Mana Breathing, and Mana Regeneration skills, pushing them all to at least Level 5. I figured there might be a significant improvement once I reached this milestone.
After reaching Level 5 in all my mana-related skills, I decided to wait for the weekend to experiment further. I had no idea if my next endeavour would work as I hoped, so I wanted to have enough time to recover if things went awry.
When the weekend arrived, I retreated to my room to concentrate. With years of practice, using mana has become easier for me. First, I expelled all the mana from my body, mainly through my pores, thanks to reaching Level 5 in Mana Breathing, which allowed me to breathe through my pores as well. After collecting a significant amount of mana, I emptied my reserves and began collecting it in my heart area, controlling its movement with Mana Manipulation.
I compressed the mana, squeezing it until it formed into a drop shape. I was surprised at the result—this condensed form of mana took up much less space. Before proceeding further, I carefully dropped the mana drop into the centre of my heart. The sensation was excruciating, as if my heart was being seared with a hot iron. I had to bite down on a towel to stifle my screams.
Surprisingly, amidst the pain, I gained a new skill: [Ding! Pain Resistance Lv1 Acquired]. The agony gradually subsided over the course of an hour or two, during which my Pain Resistance skill levelled up twice. Once the pain had diminished, I cautiously checked my heart and mana, finding success. My Mana Heart had formed, along with a new skill called Mana Generation. [Ding! Mana Heart Lv1, Mana Generation Lv1 Acquired]
With this accomplishment, I focused on my mana breathing, observing as the space where I stored my mana automatically compressed it into a liquid form. However, filling up my expanded reserves was taking much longer than anticipated. Despite the delay, I estimated that my mana reserves had increased exponentially, making me passively stronger like let's say if i had a space of 10 metres before now after the expansion it was like it was timesed by 10 so now i had 100 metres of space and at the same time i could compress it to be smaller which would be another 10x which is a lot, and from what i can feel and sense that drop of mana once coming into contact with my blood from my heart it turned into an ethereal crystal not physically but i could feel that it was solid and with that it made a whole plane of existence just for mana to be stored in my heart similar to a dantian just for mana and in the heart instead.
In the following days, I discovered that I could now fashion solid structures with my mana. While they were relatively simple, like creating platforms to walk on air, it was undeniably exhilarating. However, I needed to figure out how to use less mana for these constructs. With my abundance of mana, I was confident that over time, I would refine my skills and become more proficient. It was really exciting as since i didn't know any spells from here now that i had an abundance of mana i could make solid shapes it was amazing.
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Besides the whole mana heart thing that i managed to do there has been other things still going on such as school, haaaa school, going back to school wasn't that fun, i mean like i've done it before and with my learning ability it was a piece of cake (I won't be showing to many mundane skills when i talk about things like this, such as he got an english skill because his body didn't know english before and now he does ect, like i would show some skills for subjects like electro engineering which has a buck of other stuff incorporated ect.) like i know my parents said its to make friends but im sorry but like i have my cousins although for the past three years its been less frequent visits probably due to work school and growing up, like gwen, i'm pretty sure she has been avoiding me and i think i know why and it is partially my fault, and i'm pretty sure it's because her parents are comparing her with me and i have told them to stop as it wasn't doing gwen any good, like i mean she didn't blame me but yeah. And Lucy was the same as always. Anyways back to Gwen she seems to be just as smart in this life as she was perceived in my old one. Anyway, back to making friends, well that didn't really happen and honestly I was fine with that as you see in my mind. I haven't aged past 19 so when I reach 19 years or close to it then I would be fine again.
Now you see Gwen and I share a birthday and honestly it is pretty fun but you see on our 9th birthday I realised something and that she was starting to get influenced by her surroundings such as her friends saying ew guys are icky or that being too close to your cousin is weird ect. Like Lucy didn't care but it seems Gwen started to care but I honestly wasn't mad at her, she was after all only a child. So I just treated her the same and I could see she actually really appreciated it. I think she thought that I would start to hate her or something. So i just gave her, her favourite way of head pats when her friends had gone home and that was when i threaded my hands through the side of her head and began to scratch, and she really loved it but soon we heard our parents laughing and she blushed before pushing me away and running. Well damn that was cute.
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Today was the day, the start of summer of my 10 Year in this world, the day i would hopefully get the Omnitrix although I've got some suspicion on something about this version on ben 10 but i would have to see the Omnitrix to see if i were right. But for now I think I have everything I would need, including a supply of food for Gwen and I and some for Grandpa if he wants. But for now "Status"
[Name: Ben Tennyson
Race: Human
Age: 10
Soul Tier 2
Skills: Soul Protection Lv1, Void Manipulation Lv1, Meditation Lv6, Hairdressing Lv4, Head Pats/Scratch Lv5, Mana Sense Lv6, Mana Manipulation Lv7, Mana Breathing Lv7, Mana Regeneration Lv6, Pain Resistance Lv3, Mana Heart Lv2, Mana Generation Lv3, Cooking Lv4, Reading Lv5, Electro Engineering Lv3, Biology Lv4, Maths Lv6, Science Lv2 ]
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone