*Cough Cough Cough*

As I dragged himself out of a river, I coughed out the water that filled my lungs.

“What *cough* happened.” I painfully pulled myself to my feet as I tried to figure out where I was.

As I was slowly able to focus, I found that I was in the middle of a forest and it was nighttime. However, not a forest that I remembered.

“Shit. Where am I. *Cough cough* Where did *cough* where did Dosen go. That fucking bastard.”

I limped towards a large root and sat down.

 “Wait. I should be dead. Is this the afterlife?”

“Ugh.” I had a splitting headache as a name came into my mind.

“Faven? My name is Faven? No it should be Vereth.”

After several minutes I slowly began to understand the situation.

“So I was reborn in this body which belongs to a boy named Faven. However, I can only remember his name. Nothing else.”

I fell silent for a minute before I stood back up and walked towards the river I had just dragged myself from.

From the reflection of the river I saw a young boy with jet black hair and piercing black eyes.

“Damn. This pretty boy was better looking than I was. And I was considered to be one of the most handsome male in all of the mainland continents. Nevertheless, I do apologize for taking your body Faven. I’ll make sure to properly thank you when I see you in the afterlife. For now, I’ll be borrowing your body and name.”

After offering a small prayer for a safe passage for the old Faven’s soul to the underworld, I headed towards a bright light that he was able to see from above the trees.

As I walked along a path through the trees, I began searching through a small pouch I had found on myself.

“Oh? A spatial bag. The inside leads to another space where I can store things and freezes the time for whatever is inside. These fell out of fashion in my continent a couple hundred years ago. The infinite ring is a much popular choice now. Does the same thing, but you didn’t need to reach in to grab stuff. Just think and it appears.”

From the bag, I pulled out several books and some coins.

“Some silver and gold coins. It looks just like the main continents’ currency so it should go from bronze, silver, gold, crystal, and black crystal. One hundred bronze coins makes one silver, one hundred silver makes one gold, and so on. Simple enough.”

Then I turned to the books.

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“Book of Body Reinforcement Techniques, Book of Pill Making, Book of Magic Card Creation, Book of Rune Drawing, and Book of Cultivation? These are all basic books that we hand out in newly found continents. So I’m in a developing continent huh?”

Thinking for a moment, I climbed to the top of a tree, studied the sky for several minutes before finally climbing back down and continuing along the path.

“From the star formations in the sky, I’m guessing that I’m far south of Blue Dragon Continent, which is the southern most major continent, and pretty far south at that. I almost couldn’t recognize some of the star formations.”

Soon, I found myself in front of a huge gate with tall gray walls on either sides of the gate stretching towards the horizon.

I called out to one of the guard towers that stood on either side of the gate. Several seconds later, a man dressed in what seemed to be a guard uniform was standing by the window.

I shouted out, “Hi there! Do you think you could let me in?”

“Sorry but no can do!” The man shouted back. “Right now the gates are closed because the City Lord’s daughter has gone missing! The City Lord ordered that no one is to leave or enter the city until they find out where she is! Just in case it was a kidnapping you know?”

The man continued, “But if you need a place to stay for the night, you just need to follow this wall here and you’ll find a campsite where other people who are waiting for the gates to open are staying. Some city guards are guarding the site so it will be safer from the demonic beasts running around in the forest at night. Just let them know that you want me rest for the night and they should let you in.”

After thanking the guard, I followed the wall in the direction that the man had pointed out. Several minutes later, I saw a large camp and continued walking closer.

When I arrived, I saw that there were several thousand people with wagons and carriages spread out in the campsite. Around the edge of the campsite were the city guards.

I walked up to a bored looking guard who was leaning on his spear.

“Hello sir. Do you think I might be able to take shelter for the night in the campsite?

“Huh.” The man had not noticed me walking up, “Sure. Just make sure that you don’t bother anyone. Some the people here are wealthy merchants and adventurers and they’re not in the best mood right now.”

“Is it because they couldn’t get in the city?”

“Yeah. So you already heard?” The man asks.

“Mhmm. I heard that the City Lord’s daughter went missing and that they closed the gate in hopes that if it was a kidnapping, the kidnappers wouldn’t be able to get away.”

The guard nods, “Yeah. Everyone is going nuts trying to find the daughter right now. Apparently, she suddenly went missing in the morning. They say that she was in her private palace when the maids found out that they couldn’t find her.”

“They must really care about that girl if they’re going this far to try and find her.”

The guard gave Vereth a strange look, “Well yeah. Even if you forget the fact that she’s the city lord’s daughter, she is also a genius in her generation. She’s a rank seven mage at the age of fifteen and she even found out how to make the longevity pill that even the greatest pill masters couldn’t figure out how to make. I heard that it could stop you from aging for one hundred years!”

I thought to myself.

Rank seven mage at the age of fifteen? That’s really slow. The average time it takes to fully grow a mana core to become a magister should be ten years.

I turned back to the guard.

“May I ask something?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know when the books on mana was spread in this continent?”

The guard tilted his head, “You mean the Coming of the Magisters?”

I nodded.

“It should be exactly six hundred and three years ago. Hey kid. This is basic history. How do you not know this?”

“Sorry. I lost a lot of my memories when I was almost drowning a while ago.”

“Eh? You almost drowned? Well that explains why you’re still wet. You alright?”

“Yeah I am. Just a bit of a memory loss, but nothing too serious.”

“If you say so. You’re lucky you kept your life you know.”

“Yeah,” I nodded, “Well, I hope that they find her soon. I’ll be going in now. Keep up the good work sir.”

Vereth walked into the campsite, leaving the guard behind.