Barely any sunlight shines through his window as Jalen finally makes his way to his new living space.

Looking around, his dorm is a simple design, yet much bigger than expected. It comes with a large room which houses a kitchen, living room, and a desk for studying. Attached is two more rooms, one a small bathroom, and another just a tiny room with his bed.

‘It almost feels bigger than my studio apartment back on earth.’

Landing on the couch, Jalen lets out one final exhausted sigh for the day.

‘Finally… Some respite from the craziness of everything.’

The past 7 hours have been nothing sort of torture for an anti-social person like Jalen. He has been thrust into a magical world, interrogated, studied from head to toe, and tortured by a sadistic woman.

‘Heh, at least I made it through it all. Now comes the actual fun parts.’

Now that he is an official citizen of the Herald Empire, moving around will be much easier. On top of that, Jalen found out that he has an extremely rare Curia.

‘To think I would end up with Anti Curia, the one OWKAMI talked about before this all happened…’

It seems whoever this OWKAMI person is, they are either very involved in what happened to Jalen, or they are even the person who brought him here.

‘But why me?’

…

‘You know what, I don’t have time to be asking questions like this, I need to get my bearing and make sure I can prepare within these next two months for the first event.’

If this world truly follows the game, then two months from now, an undead army shows up to the Herald Empire, led by a Lich. If left unchecked, the lich will sweep through the countryside and gather an army so large, the Herald Empire would fall within a month.

‘Luckily, he isn’t that strong personally and is easy to take care of if you catch him quick enough.’

Jalen always made sure to deal with the Lich as soon as possible and even killed him solo in the last campaign he lost. Unfortunately, then he was a swordsman with a strong body, but now that is not the case.

When seeing himself for the first time in a mirror while being studied for his Curia, Jalen realized he just was a younger version of himself. Mind you, he was 26 before he got brought here, but now he looks to be around 18 years old.

Looking at his skinny arms and anaemic body, Jalen cringes at the thought of even trying to wield a sword.

‘Luckily for me this time, Alchemy probably isn’t restricted behind an impassable wall. If that’s the case, I should be able to make some potions and bombs to be able to handle the Lich.’

The easiest way to defeat the Lich would be to make a bomb filled with Holy Curia, but that would be a challenge considering those were very expensive. You could buy them in the game, but one bomb cost around 2000 Star Coins. At the current moment, Jalen had found 10 Star Coins in a pocket by accident, and that’s all he has.

He had tried to open some sort of menu or inventory, but no words or motions activated anything of that sort.

‘Looks like life won’t be as convenient as it was in the game, but it could be much worse. I could’ve started not in Herald Academy, which would’ve made learning basic Alchemy extremely difficult and tedious.’

Jalen had managed to tell Camilla which classes he would like to get into, and the seductive Spy Master promised him that she would definitely get him into the Alchemy classes at a minimum.

‘Tomorrow we receive what classes we will be attending, on top of that, there will be a party in which all of the students can meet each other.’

Jalen can feel the headache already forming when he thinks about getting into the politics of Herald Academy. Fortunately, Jalen has dealt with all of the intricacies of the Herald Academy many times before.

‘All I need now is to look presentable, and get contacts with all of the characters that will be important for my growth.’

Jalen has a list of people he wants to get close with. Not for personal reasons, but for their Curias.

Many potions existed within the game, and there is even lore in game that says any Curia can be turned into a potion of some kind as long as you had enough creativity. You’d think that someone with the Curia of Air would not make a good potion, but you could break the potion under your feet and use it as a blast of wind for a jump. There were even potions of

The biggest problem is convincing them to let Jalen drain their Curia from their bodies.

That’s right, to be able to create potions, you must extract Curia from someone’s body, basically draining their blood. Jalen was planning the whole time that her was being studied on who to talk to, and how to convince them to give him their Curia.

‘I also need a way to draw their Curia, which we never got in The World of Darandia, so I guess that’s also something to worry about.’

As Jalen kept planning further and further, his eyes continued to get heavier, and soon the world around Jalen turned dark.

**** The Next Day ****

Jalen wakes up to the sound of pounding, a dry mouth, and a growling stomach. Jumping up at the incessant knocking, Jalen jogs over to see who is making a mess of his door.

As the door swings open, Jalen view is completely engrossed by a large man. Of course, this man is none other than Mr. Crandel.

“Mr. Kaiser. Here is your schedule for the next 6 months. Please do not be late for any of your courses.”

“I will not Mr. Crandel.”

Jalen goes to shut the door, but a large foot prevents the door from fully closing.

“Mr. Kaiser. I also did not see you for breakfast or dinner. Please make sure to take better care of yourself.”

Though Mr. Crandel seems like a difficult man to work with that has a conscious of steel, he actually has a soft spot for students. In the game, he is even known to sacrifice himself to save a player if they were from the Herald Academy.

“Thank you Mr. Crandel. I appreciate your concern. I simply was exhausted after conversating with Camilla and accidentally fell asleep.”

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

A deafening silence fell between the two as Mr. Crandel kept his foot in the door.

“Finally, I would like to apologize for questioning your citizenship within the Herald Empire. It was improper of me to immediately assume you are a foreigner and not think that your Curia could break the Curia Testing Orb. That will be all, have a good day Mr. Kaiser.”

Mr. Crandel removes his foot from the door before quickly walking away. Jalen is stunned at the sudden apology but chuckles when thinking about how accurate the NPC in-game was compared to this version of Mr. Crandel.

Jalen proceeds to the bathroom where he finds a sink. He winces when he thinks about how the water of Herald Academy is just the blood of some of the citizens of the town. Thankfully, the way that the blood is acquired is actually in a wholesome way.

Essentially, poorer people in the area with Water Curia can donate some of their blood for coin. It is completely consensual and actually helps some of the poorer population get some money to help feed their families.

You discover this in a side quest in which the water supply of the Herald Academy is poisoned and you have to figure out who did it.

‘Hopefully I can catch the perpetrator before they kill any students.’

Jalen washes his face, trying to get rid of any leftover exhaustion before heading to change into his Herald Academy uniform.

The green outfit has a massive star embroidered onto the chest, helping show off every student's allegiance to their school. Jalen came into this world with extremely basic clothes made out of burlap and leather, so these professionally made clothes help his skin not feel as itchy.

Jalen makes his way around the academy like he is a second-year student, knowing every turn and where every classroom is.

‘I guess having played most of my campaigns here definitely has its benefits.’

There are many different starting scenarios, but Jalen spent most of his time at the Herald Academy so he could have a familiar beginning to make it as far as possible in the later stages of the game. Constantly starting somewhere new with new quests and new enemies was always a dangerous endeavor that Jalen would’ve rather avoided.

Jalen spends the rest of the free part of the day getting himself some food, while also acquainting himself with the new world. Though he played the video game nonstop, nothing compares to actually living in it.

The library is where Jalen spends most of his time. Not all of the books were available to be read in the game, and the lore had some wholes when it came to the past within the World of Darandia.

Gathering a lot of history books, Jalen sits down and begins to read. The book he starts with is about the beginning of the world.

Essentially, two different initial races rose to prominence within this universe. The first being Curians, and the second being Devourers. Essentially Curians were angels and Devourers were demons. Devourers nearly killed all of the Curians until a new, more primitive race came into play.

These were the first humans. They fought with an indomitable will and their growth was vast and rapid. Curians, seeing that they would most likely be eaten if they didn’t get some help gave the humans their powers.

This led to humans being bestowed Curia also known as the attribute that flows through everyone’s blood.

With this, the early-stage humans managed to fight back against the Devourers.

After finishing that book, Jalen goes to read the next one until he is interrupted by someone sitting across from him.

A man with a large frame, muscular body and a cocky smile looks Jalen in the eye as he sits down. His dark skin, sharp jaw, and muscular arms make the man look much older than 18 even though Jalen knows you must be 18 to enter the academy. No older, no younger.

“You’re Kaiser right?”

Jalen tries to recall if anyone like him existed in the game, but nothing comes to mind. Then again, Jalen has seen a lot of people that didn’t exist in the game walking around. Yet for some reason, this person feels familiar.

“I am, and you are?”

“My name is Frederick, but recently a lot of people have been calling me Khan.”

Jalen’s eyes go wide as he finally is able to remember who is sitting across from him. One of the players who helped Jalen get the furthest he has ever been, Khan the Blacksmith.

“Wait, you got brought here too?!” Jalen says with a surprised yell.

“Shhhhhh!”

Khan signals for Jalen to keep his voice day, considering neither of them wished to explain that they are from another world.

“Yes, and my transition seems to have gone better than yours. To encounter Camilla this early, you must either be a psychopath or super unlucky.”

“Tell me about it. How did you know it was me though?”

Khan laughs at this and rolls his eyes.

“Someone who looks anti-social and anaemic named ‘Kaiser’ who also didn’t know what was going on, who else could that be other than you?”

Jalen narrows his eyes at this and flips off Khan, which prompts another laugh from Khan in response.

“So you were there at the Curia Test?”

“Yep, saw it all with my own eyes. I figured you would be dead, but I found you here doing what I was gonna do.”

“Huh, interesting to hear you are trying to read the history of this world considering before you cared about nothing other than making weapons and gathering materials.”

Khan was the type of player that most would call a ‘grinder’. He spent most of his time mining materials and creating different kinds of weapons to sell. To Jalen, this seemed like an exceptionally boring time, but someone had to do it. Khan created some of the best weapons that Jalen had ever seen, resulting in them making it to Xironia for the first time ever.

“Yeah, well that was before they put my ass into the game, but now seeing that you’re still around, I can just have you do it.”

Jalen rolls his eyes at this comment and continues to read the books he selected. Khan and Jalen make a little small talk while Jalen reads, but for the most part, Khan lets Jalen do whatever.

Khan is smart enough to know the importance of information, and in fact, gets his own books to read. This includes things like different kinds of alloys, blacksmithing guides, and even long detailed reports about each weapon.

Though he was one of the best players to ever be a blacksmith, that doesn’t mean Khan could actually pull it off immediately. Just like Alchemy, Blacksmithing was much more advanced in reality than compared to a video game.

The two continue reading for the next four hours before they finally stop to take a break.

Jalen stretches his arms and can feel all of his bones cracking from sitting for so long. Khan on the other hand is in much worse shape. His eyes are bloodshot and his body is stiff like a statue. Jalen sees this and is immediately filled with panic.

“Hey, are you okay?!”

Khan’s eyes immediately shoot onto Jalen and his face is covered with exhaustion.

“Ye-yeah… I’m just not used to reading for so long, but I refuse to let you beat me in something.”

Jalen laughs at this remark.

“So you sat there and forced yourself to read? How long did you do that for?”

“I don’t know, two hours maybe.”

“My god, take a break. There is no reason to push yourself so hard to not look inferior.”

“Tell that to my Curia. I have Unbreakable Will Curia.”

“Yeah, some Curia considering on how you look.

“My body might break down, but my Will will never falter.

Jalen chuckles as Khan looks at him with a dead serious gaze.

“Right, you sound like a main character straight out of a video game.”

“I’m not straight out of a video game, I’m in one, and I will continue to embrace it.’

Jalen pauses for a moment, then realizes that Khan is kinda right in this case.

“Fair enough, but now it is time for the worst part of the day. The meet and great.”

Khan rolls his eyes at this and shakes his head.

“I’m definitely not going to that, and if I’m not then there is no way in hell you are.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, you literally avoided conversation like the plague when we played. I thought you were a bot for the entire first week.”

“Yeah, well I don’t have much of a choice. I need to find a way to obtain everyone’s Curia.”

Khan raises an eyebrow in curiosity.

“Why? Do you have a Curia that absorbs other Curias?”

“No. I want to be an Alchemist.”

“I thought you couldn’t do that in the game?”

“Just like you implied earlier, we are in the game and now there seems to be no restrictions to what we can do.”

Khan thinks about it before shrugging his shoulders.

“Go ahead and do what you want. I’m not interested in dealing with these kids’ dramas. Have fun.”

Khan gets up and goes to walk away, but stops before he gets too far.

“Also, let’s keep what we know about each other a secret. We don’t know who else is like us and what they will do. My room is D11 if you ever need me.”

“Mine is B9, and you’re right, there could be some PKers running around, so I’ll be cautious.”

A PKer is better known as a Player Killer, and they simply joined the game to hunt down other players for fun.

Jalen shivers at the thought of encountering one at this moment considering how weak he is. There is nothing that tells him who exactly is a player, and though Khan is a good person, Jalen wished that even Khan didn’t realize who he is.

‘At least I have a trustworthy friend in this whole ordeal. Maybe he might even be able to become an outstanding Blacksmith. For now, I need to focus on getting my hands on some Curias.’