ALL NOVEL Chapter 3: Listening with curiousity
"If you listen carefully enough to anything, it will talk to you."
George Washington Carver
When was the last time you listened to someone? Listened, without thinking about what you were going to say in reply? Or waiting for your turn to talk?
Unfortunately, that is all I can do at the moment.
What’s worse is that I can’t even understand what they are saying. I’m literally listening to her heart and to her guts, as well as mine. But literally and figuratively I’m still in the dark. The only one I can actually understand, listen to and talk to is myself.
I’m continuing to count, continuing to listen and those are the only things that I can do at the moment. This morning, I thought I could hear my mother’s voice.
I’m not sure at what point the cochlear develops in the womb but words and sounds seem to be becoming clearer. I guess maybe I’ve been feeling her heartbeat more than hearing it but now I can hear my mother’s voice and she is singing.
Singing to me maybe.
Does she even know that I’m here? Will she have noticed? How long does it take for a baby to be aware? And long does it take a woman to be aware of a baby? I mean premature babies can survive, but from what age can they survive, and at what point does consciousness begin?
Maybe it is simply because my listening skill has levelled that I can hear her. Sound being fairly muffled in here, easily half as loud as it would be outside. However as my skill has levelled it seems to be easier and easier to hear her voice rather than the gurgle of guts and the thump of her heartbeat.
Also, interestingly enough, my endurance, strength and dexterity all gained 1 stat overnight.
I’m growing and my stats seem to be growing with me.
I wonder when they will stop or if they ever do. Will adding in my free points support or stunt my growth? There are just so many things I don’t know so best to leave it to nature for now. Anyway, back to the singing or humming, not a hundred percent sure which it is, what with my ears under water and still under development.
That said, I think it sounds beautiful.
Even if it still doesn’t make sense.
It is quite clearly not English, French or Spanish. It doesn’t sound like a Slavic language but I was never very good at those. It’s not German, Japanese, Korean or Chinese but is pleasant and enjoyable to listen to.
Hopefully I will get another skill from listening in. Maybe a musical appreciation skill. I’m not quite sure what skill I would get and my listening skill needed to be done for at least an hour before I got that. Plus, she isn’t singing for two hours at a time, maybe I could give a kick whenever she stops. But I suppose if it adds up over time maybe in a week or two I will be able to level it up. Besides I think I am still too small for a kick to be felt right now.
As for what we are up to today. Well, I know it must be daytime as she is up and moving around a lot so obviously it’s daytime that or she sleepwalks. Anyway, she’s up and about, physically moving and yes I think I’m upside down again right now. I know you need to be upside down later on in time to be born so maybe I’ll just stay this way round.
Not that I’m being particularly successful at turning around and I don’t know whether I am to be born soon or later. I still have a fair amount of space and without too much pressure on me, or rather all around me, it will probably be later rather than sooner.
Right, back to this meditation school of mine. There is literally nothing else to do in here and if monks and lightnovel characters can get the meditation skill then I can to get it too. Without being able to concentrate on my breath I’m going to focus on a heartbeat. Mine is too quick to relax to as it feels like I’m sprinting all the time at the speed it is going. Paying attention to my mother’s which is slower and louder seems to be the way to go. 3,600 seconds later, with a fair few detours into dreams, I still don’t have it. Maybe it doesn't exist in this world. But then again it could always be me.
Why though? Could it be a lack of being able to focus on the breathing? It is difficult to stop thinking about what life will be like but I’m going to persevere. I’ll try again tomorrow or actually . . . maybe later tonight.
One of the things that makes it hard to try and get is the fact that I’m moving or being moved around so much and the fact that I’m upside down half the time. I’ll try again tonight, when she stops moving. Hopefully I will be lying down rather than being upside down and I’ll see if I can’t get it then.
Today’s highlights are that I have time sense up to level 3 and listening up to level 2!
Then I finally got my meditation skill!
It took most of last night before she started getting up again and moving around but I now have meditation level one and that’s enough to put me up to an overall level three. I think I’ve been aware on and off for a week now although time sense which now seems to run consistently says it has only been three days since I got a system.
I simply have to keep grinding the skills that I have, counting the seconds, listening to my mother and meditating the nights away.
The best result from today though is that my health has shot up to 30 when I got a point in vitality and my mana shot up to 20 when I gained a point in magic. Stamina has made it to 17 as I gained a point in strength and dexterity. Not quite sure how the physical stats impact one another. The stats for Mind and Senses continue to grow the most perhaps through leveling related skills.
Level: 3
Experience: 0/800 Age: 3 days
Health: 30/30 Stamina: 17/17 Mana: 20/20
Vitality: 3
Endurance: 1
Strength: 1
Dexterity: 1
Senses: 3
Mind: 48
Clarity: 2
Magic: 2
Free Points: 30
Skills: Time sense (LV 3) Listening (LV 2) Meditation (LV 1)
What would you do if you had all the time in the world but nothing to do?