Alfred Steelheart
Eastern slope of the Great Aster Mountains. Just outside the West Alkyone Woods.
It was a chilly January afternoon. In a remote corner, a large waterfall fetched the clear glacial waters from the mountain peaks to feed the rivers daily. Thankfully, this unnamed waterfall never freezes completely in the winter.
At this time, a young man walked out of the surrounding woods and approached the majestic waterfall. Skipping on the large stones in the waterfall basin, he jumped into the water screen. But, just as he was about to get wet, a translucent crystal screen formed on top of his head and kept the water out like an umbrella.
Surprisingly, there was a beautiful natural cave inside the waterfall. Hence, the young man didn’t hit a rock cliff and leisurely walked into the cavern. The spacious cave was decorated with beautiful wooden furniture transforming it into a cozy house.
But the cave was dark and unlit as if nobody was living there. “Did Milo go out?” he wondered.
Suddenly, the whole cavern lit up in bright colorful lights. Flower petals rained on him like a walk down the aisle.
“Happy three hundredth birthday, Alfred” a cheerful androgynous voice cried out from nowhere.
Alfred smiled briskly and looked around the cavern. The wall on the opposite side was decorated with ribbons forming a large 300. “Has it been so long…”, he wondered out loud.
After a momentary nostalgia, he looked at the shelf near the fireplace. A white cat was silently sitting there. “Your hiding skills have improved, Milo.”
“Of course. I have been going at it for some…”, suddenly Milo flustered, “Who? Whose skills have improved? I am just a lazy cat”. She refused vehemently.
Alfred gave an amused smile. Removing his knee-high leather boots, he walked to the fireplace and stoked the fire. “Then how do you explain all these efforts for the surprise, lazy cat?”
“It’s your three hundredth birthday! You have been in this world for three hundred years now! This accounts for a celebration. This lazy cat can do at least this much for her master.” Milo said with a beaming face and smiling eyes.
As the fire started to warm the cozy cavern, both of them curled up on the rocking chair.
Pouring himself a glass of red wine, Alfred lovingly stroked Milo’s fur. “Thank you, Milo.”
“But, you aren’t cleaning up the mess, are you?” He said, teasing her again.
“I am a lazy cat. Lazy cats don’t work.” Milo answered with closed eyes.
Alfred gave another amused smile. “But, from where did you learn of surprise parties?” Alfred asked again with some thought. After all, surprise birthday parties have not appeared on this Earth yet.
Yes, Alfred is originally not from this world. In the memories of his past life, he lived on another Earth where science and technology were the foundation of civilization; quite different from the magical and fantasy-esque civilization of the present world.
Milo suddenly opened her eyes and started speaking with great enthusiasm as if expecting the question. “Have you heard? Surprise parties are the latest trend in the beautiful land of Elysion. Decorating and setting up colorful light spells have even become a new profession. People sing and dance, admire art and sculpture, and appreciate life in general…”
Alfred sighed with a wisened face after listening to Milo’s fervent description. “Looks like this world has developed its own version of the Renaissance along with some modern elements…”
This fantasy-esque Earth has taken a similar course in history. Following the dark Second Era, it entered an age of prosperity, now called the Golden Age. Law and order were upheld by the rulers, and people, in general, lived fulfilling life.
But the Golden Age slowly fuzzled out with the disappearance of the last Legendary ranked Mages, the fear of whom kept the troublemakers at bay. After that, the world entered a grimdark medieval age. Strength was the law and the weak lived the lives of slaves. War and disasters were everywhere. Kingdoms and Empires rose and fell regularly. These barbaric times continued for more than a thousand years. Historians now call this the Warring Age.
The Warring Age culminated with a world war in which six out of the nine races participated. This devastating war continued for more than a hundred years. And, unfortunately, Alfred was reincarnated as the eighteenth prince of the Goldenwind Kingdom right at the start of the war.
Alfred was sent to the frontlines at the tender age of fifteen because of some royal court drama. After that, he roamed the battlefields as an army medic and experienced the whole Hundred Years War.
When the war finally ended and a peace treaty was signed between all the nine races, Alfred returned home with numerous traumas.
However, he had to again leave the comfort of the royal palace. His father, His Majesty the King, was severely injured when he participated in the war during its final phase. His imminent death spurred competition between all the princes for the throne.
Alfred wisely decided to stay out of the chaos by escaping. For the next fifteen years, he toured the whole North, mainly so that his brothers don’t find him.
After the whole mess was over, he returned, only to find that he has been exiled by his eldest brother, the crown prince, who has become the new king after the death of his father.
As a reincarnator, Alfred has never been deeply attached to his new parents and siblings. Hence, he was not affected by this whole ordeal. After paying his due respects to his departed father, he left his home for good this time.
He was already a hundred and fifty by then, equivalent to more than the life of a human back from his previous world. The long eventful years had left him mentally scarred. Hence, he retreated to the mountains and wilderness to heal them.
Fortunately, he was not alone this time. He met Milo, a Nature Spirit, on one of his adventures, and formed a contract with her. One of the perks of living in a fantasy world!
“But what made you so interested in Elysion suddenly?” Alfred asked.
“Oh, that?” Milo tried to be casual about it. “I just heard the sisters talking about something related to increased activity of the Void Eaters, and something something, in Elysium.”
Milo continued, “It is certainly not me being interested in some crazy world-conquering or world-destroying scheme at all.”
Alfred gave the third amused smile of the day.
This was certainly a light-hearted evening talk. But Alfred quickly fell into deep thought because he understood the severity of the matter.
It all started when he met a certain old Mage who looked like real-life Gandalf. The Mage who called himself Old Sparrow also had a contracted Nature Spirit. He even insisted that his Nature Spirit brought him closer to Alfred who had Milo.
Well, Alfred had no means to challenge the old Mage’s ramblings. Hence, he just listened when the Mage taught him many things while living together for the next few days.
Overall, Old Sparrow’s words could be summarised in a few important points.
Nature Spirits are very rare in this world. And those who can form a contract with them are even rarer. It has been conjectured that only those who have no malice for the world can do so. Hence, these people have grouped together since ancient times and worked to protect the world.
Although Alfred was wincing after hearing such cheesy lines from an old man, he was astonished to find that there were many people who took this seriously. The present group of these people has formed a semi-secret guild called Lord’s Tea Party. They sell tea, or sometimes other herbs, in front of everybody, but fight bad guys, war-mongers, and most importantly, stop the Void Eaters and their followers.
Regardless of the details, Alfred was amused and interested. Hence, he immediately accepted to join the guild when Old Sparrow extended the invitation.
It was only later when Milo developed the ability to talk to other Nature Spirits, whom she calls Sisters, via the Ley Lines, that Alfred realized that the old Mage was speaking the truth. Milo now could even detect the presence of another Nature Spirit if it was close enough.
Another important matter that Old Sparrow explained was the Void Eaters. The are interstellar invaders and they have vast glutonous powers.
Towards the end of the dark Second Era, which was called the Heroic Age, the Void Eaters powers were acqiured by humans, who fought against the mighty heroes. In the end, although they were suppressed, they never faded away. It was also them who was behind most of the wars and disasters of the warring age. Alfred, who has lived during those harsh times, developed a hatred towards them.
Hence, he was quite concerned when he heard of them being active again.
“We have lived in the wilderness for quite a while now. It’s time we return back to civilization. My mental health has also almost recovered.” He said after some thought.
“Tsk tsk. I knew this would happen.” Milo gruntled.
Alfred continued. “We should go to Elysium. Based on your words, I can tell that Elysium is the emerging new superpower. Life should be exciting there.”
“Tsk tsk. This lazy cat won’t be able to sleep all day anymore.”
“The journey will be long. We should leave soon if we want to reach Elysion by early spring. Let me start packing.”
Alfred got up from the cozy rocking chair and started cleaning his cave dwelling. Swiftly after that, he started packing his belongings.
The whole natural cave house was divided into three sections - the living room, kitchen, and the Potions Lab. The first two were done quickly in a few hours. However, it was the Potions Lab that was going to take some effort.
Alfred had collected a large variety of herbs and other materials over the years, which he had meticulously jarred and labeled. His whole Potions Lab looked like the den of a crazy biologist and chemist.
After reincarnating in this fantasy-esque world, Alfred was mostly interested in its flora, fauna, and other strange materials. He studied them in detail whenever he got the chance. Later, when he retreated into the wilderness, he discovered that his vast knowledge and experience were most suitable for Potioneering. Hence, he spent the last hundred and fifty years learning the craft and mastering it.
Moreover, his unique constitution was the most suitable for this line of work.
Alfred didn’t receive any almighty system or a super grandpa-in-a-ring when he reincarnated in this world. In fact, he was even born without the ability to practice Spirit Tempering and become a Spell Mage.
But God was not so heartless as it seemed, for Alfred was born with a single, extraordinary gift — an inexhaustible life force.
His body simply could not be depleted. Wounds closed before they could bleed. Fatigue melted away as fast as it settled. Poisons that should have killed him were broken down and expelled within moments. On the battlefield, fellow soldiers watched in disbelief as Alfred walked out of carnage that left everyone else dead or dying. They called him cursed; he called himself lucky.
Over the decades, Alfred came to understand the true nature of his gift. His vitality was not merely robust — it was, for all practical purposes, infinite. His body regenerated life energy the way a spring feeds a river: endlessly, effortlessly, without any source he could identify. Whether it was called HP, life force, or vitality — Alfred had a bottomless well of it.
That alone would have made him remarkable. What made him dangerous was what he discovered during the Hundred Years War.
In the chaos of a siege, trapped behind enemy lines without supplies, Alfred had stumbled upon a half-burned tome in the ruins of a Mage’s tower. Most of the pages were ash, but the few that survived described a forbidden spell — Vita Fons, the Life Spring. It was a technique that converted the caster’s life force directly into Mana.
The spell was classified as forbidden for an obvious reason: it killed whoever used it. A Mage who converted their HP into MP was burning their own lifespan, their own flesh and blood, to fuel their magic. Use it once, and you age a decade. Use it twice, and your organs fail. The tome itself bore a warning scrawled in the margin by its previous owner: “One casting. That is all any mortal body can bear.”
Alfred used it seventeen times that night to keep his field hospital standing against a wave of monsters. He walked out at dawn without so much as a grey hair.
The realization hit him slowly, the way all world-changing truths do. A forbidden spell that kills its user… paired with a body that cannot die. The cost was infinite, and so was his ability to pay it.
From that day, Alfred effectively had access to limitless Mana.
However, he was no fool. He understood immediately that this combination was something that must never be revealed. A man with infinite life force was a curiosity. A man with infinite Mana was a threat to every kingdom, empire, and power structure on the continent. History was littered with the corpses of people who were feared for less.
So Alfred played the role of a moderately talented field medic who happened to be hard to kill. He rationed his use of Vita Fons carefully, only converting enough HP to MP to pass as a middling Mage when the situation demanded it. The rest of the time, he relied on conventional medicine, herbal knowledge, and the vast scientific understanding carried over from his previous life.
It was only after retreating to the wilderness that Alfred allowed himself to truly explore what he could do.
With infinite Mana at his disposal, Potioneering became an entirely different craft. The most advanced potions required the brewer to infuse enormous quantities of Mana into the ingredients during preparation — a bottleneck that limited even the most talented Potioneers. Alfred had no such limitation. He could attempt recipes that others could only theorize about, sustain reactions that would drain a Master Mage dry, and grow rare magical herbs to maturity in days by channeling raw life energy into the soil.
His ability also proved uniquely suited to cultivating ingredients. By directing his overflowing vitality into seeds and saplings, Alfred could accelerate growth to an absurd degree. A century-old Moonveil Orchid? He could grow one from a cutting in a week. Where other Potioneers begged, bartered, or killed for rare ingredients, Alfred simply grew them in his cave garden.
Between the limitless Mana for brewing and the limitless vitality for cultivation, Alfred’s Potions Lab became something that would make a Royal Alchemist weep with envy.
But this power was not without its own kind of cost. Using Vita Fons extensively still produced a deep mental exhaustion — as if the mind needed time to catch up with what the body was doing. After prolonged conversion, Alfred’s thoughts would grow sluggish and his concentration would fray, even as his body remained perfectly vital. The flesh was willing, endlessly so, but the mind had its own limits.
It was already morning by the time Alfred had finished disassembling and packing his whole Potions Lab.
His inexhaustible vitality had kept his body fresh through the night’s labor — not a sore muscle, not a stiff joint. But his mind was a different story. The hours of careful work, cataloguing and wrapping each jar, had left a familiar fog behind his eyes. So he laid down for an hour to let his thoughts settle.
By the time the sun came out, which is pretty late up this in the north, Alfred and Milo were ready to start their journey to Elysion.