{Somewhere Unknown}
...
I took a deep breath... cold air rushed through to fill my lungs, jolting me awake. The contrast was so different than what I was used to. The sensation seemed alien. It was cold, a lot colder than I was used to. Unless someone had left the Air Conditioner on full blast, it didn't make sense.
Muffled sounds entered my ears, and unfamiliar voices forced me to wake up to catalog my surroundings. My eyes felt heavy, and my vision was blurry as I opened them. I could see a blurry fog of white with black shadows covering my entire vision. As different sensations returned to me, I quickly realized that I was lying down. The ground or whatever I was sleeping on was wobbling lightly.
My head slammed onto the hardwood after a sudden vicious jolt, and I lifted my head protectively and looked around. The fog was quite dense, but I could see some foliage. The fauna reminded me of Pine trees that I had seen on most mountains, but I couldn't be 100% sure. As I shifted my hands to feel the rough texture of the wooden floor beneath me, my elbows scrapped against old wood. Putting a little pressure on the newly acquired support, I bent forward and looked around me.
I was not alone on the cart. Along with me, seven more teens were huddled around in different groups. Their distribution was uneven. Four of them were whispering among themselves. Two girls who looked quite similar to one another were leaning against each other, while a teenage boy who seemed vaguely familiar was sitting in front of me.
I ignored them for now as I shifted slightly to rest my back against the cart's edge. My continued movement finally caught everyone's attention as the bearded guy sitting opposite me finally spoke.
"Hey Em, are you finally awake?" The bearded boy spoke. He was buff and looked a little dirty and scuffed.
"Yeah, I'm okay... Alex," I spoke after pausing at the sudden jolt of pain.
'That was weird. How did I know his name was Alex, what the fuck is going on.' I thought as I massaged my head. A headache accompanied the sudden knowledge of the boy's name. When I looked up at Alex in front of me, he seemed to be mirroring my look as he looked at me with his brows furrowed.
"Of course you are okay. You just went to sleep, for Tasia's sake. Speaking of which, what did you eat yesterday? You slept like a log all night. It's already close to noon now." Alex spoke. He pointed at the sun, which was almost directly above my head.
Even though the name meant nothing to him, just hearing the word Tasia, the same thing happened. Another name and explanation sprung forth from nowhere, followed by a piercing headache.
'Tasia - The Goddess worshipped by the Local Temple...'
I tried very hard not to react and freak the fuck out, but everything about this dream felt too real to be true. The pain that I was feeling made it clear that something weird was going on. I grabbed onto the railing of the cart and slowly stood up. When I looked forward, I could see a man who was covered in a black cloak sitting on a horse. A singular horse was driving the cart forward, which just seemed absurd and made it all the more possible that this could be a dream.
But the sensations I was feeling refuted that claim. Even now, the sounds I was hearing were authentic. The cold air I was breathing felt clear, my hair, which was definitely longer than I normally liked, was swaying with the wind, and the cart wobbled slightly as it dragged on the beaten path. Finally, it was the pain. I wasn't used to being in this situation, but just from the headache that felt like a migraine, I could tell that I wasn't dreaming.
While these were concrete evidence that I was not dreaming, a couple of them pointed in a different direction. The horse, on his lonesome, was dragging along a cart that had at least 8 people on it, 9 if you count the rider. In addition, the speed at which they were traveling was absurd as well. I could estimate that we were going at around 15-20kmph, which just didn't feel right.
And quite possibly, the weirdest of them all was the stick that the cloaked man was holding. A glowing white light emitted from a crystal embedded at the end of the stick? Wand? Staff?
"Dude, what are you doing?" Alex asked once again. I looked back at him and shook my head. I tried to calm down and sat back down. Whatever was happening to me, how I went from going to sleep after a late-night gaming session to waking up in a bizarre fantasy setting, was a bit beyond me.
'At the very least, there is no language barrier, Alex. Was he a friend? Was he speaking English? I think so. I could only conclude the communication matter after reading some script,' I thought. I looked at Alex, who was now staring at me, likely waiting for a reply.
"Yeah, I'm feeling a little off. I'll just rest a little more before we arrive at... the academy." I stumbled at the end of my sentence. I wanted to say the destination, but the words tumbled out of my mouth, and another rush of deja vu hit me again. The situation annoyed me a little bit as the strange familiarity with this unfamiliar world was very uncomfortable. I buried my head as the pain once again returned, which was quickly becoming annoying.
'I don't have any memories of this academy or even the goddess that the local temple worships, but how in the world do I remember stuff that I have never encountered? Why am I suddenly traveling through a cart that looked like it belonged to the Middle Ages and to an academy that I know nothing about?'
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From the brief sense of confusion that followed my questions, broken pieces of memories kept emerging to me as flashbacks. I closed my eyes while keeping my head buried since I already had an excuse and focused on the new 'memories' that I suddenly had somewhere buried in the back of my mind.
...
Emilios Charis was a young boy. He had turned 18 two moons and 12 nights ago, and the world the young boy lived in was definitely magical in nature. The new memories that were flooding my consciousness described, in short, the tale of a young boy as he grew up, how he learned to read and write High Solovok, which was apparently the language everyone communicated in this kingdom, even Alex.
The Kingdom of Solovok was neither too big nor too small. A royal family of High elves ruled it, and the Kingdom flourished because of trades and the surprisingly high quality of Mages that they had.
Aside from the growing pains and Emilios struggles with puberty, what stuck with me was the liberal use of magic that I had seen in these memories. Emilios had grown up in one of the closest towns, which served as a trading hub to the capital where they were headed now. Sotiris was a big town, and Emilios's father, being a blacksmith, had allowed him the opportunity to see magic and mana up close.
Swords, Spears, Bows, and Crossbows. Emilios had grown up watching plenty of adventurers buy weapons from their family's shop before going on an adventure. The longing to see the world and understand how everything worked consumed Emilios, and when he was given the choice to become a Mage on his 18th Birthday, he took it without a doubt.
Like another world of fantasy, the world was governed by a system, a panel that only you could see that could facilitate the systematic growth of both an individual and a faction. The last memory that I experienced was the feeling of Emilios selecting his first class and then waving goodbye to his family as he started on this new Journey.
...
I jolted awake from my trance once again. The headache that had been disturbing me earlier was gone, and as I looked up, another strange thing had popped up in front of me. The window that was obstructing my vision this time was different from the memories that I had seen. The simplest difference that I could see was the color of the window itself.
From the new memories of the boy named Emilios, the status window that the boy had stared at, day in and day out, had been blue, and that one hovering in front of me was pink. The words and script on it were definitely English, and my eyes took in the clearly automated message it was projecting. I discreetly looked at Alex, but he definitely didn't see the hovering block of text, as he was focused on one of the two girls who were huddled together.
Lecherous thoughts were pushed aside as I ignored the generous cleavage that was visible through the blond's blouse, and I focused on the text that kept on stimulating protocols like a computer program.
...
[Protocol #DAV12312 Deployed... Match Failed... Conditions Rejected]
[Protocol #DAV12313 Deployed... Match Failed... Conditions Rejected]
[Protocol #DAV12314 Deployed... Match Succesful... Conditions Met]
[Protocol #DAV12314: Transmigration to a Higher seed started... Searching suitable Host... Match Succesful... Conditions Met... Beginning transmigration]
[Transmigration Succesful... Checking Integrity of Protocol #T213... Integrity Compromised]
[Memory Module Damaged... Extracting Broken Memories... Memory Extraction Succesful]
[Memory Transfer Initiated...]
[Rejection Detected... Re-attempting in 3..2..1]
[Rejection Detected... Re-attempting in 3..2..1]
[Rejection Detected... Re-attempting in 3..2..1]
[Memory Transfer accepted...]
[Memory Transfer complete]
[Checking #WS772 Integrity... Integrity Compromised...]
[Running Background Checks...]
[Background Checks Completed...]
[Patching in #WS772... Simple Patch Failed... Rerouting Patch #WS773... Patch Accepted]
...
As soon as I read the last line, my vision glitched. It was barely a moment, but for a second, everything blacked out. Before the panic could even begin to set in, my vision returned, and I looked back at the pink screen for answers.
...
[Patch Succesful... Basic Functionality Integrity Check Complete...]
[Protocol #DAV12314 Completed]
...
With that final message, the window disappeared. With no explanation whatsoever, I was left wondering what was happening. Still, before I could think about the implications of a window screen being responsible for me being here and the fact that the word transmigration was being thrown around. My gaze quickly locked onto the pink floating window above the two girls' heads.
...
[Avra Karolos Lv - 1]
[Basic Fire Mage]
[3]
...
[Tatiana Karolos Lv - 1]
[Basic Water Mage]
[5]
...
'So their names, levels, and class are now visible to me, but according to the memories, something like this shouldn't be possible without a high-level identification skill. But still, what is that number that has no correlation with anything else.' I thought when my eyes met Tatiana, she immediately looked away, and I complied with her awkward behavior. While I had a couple of girlfriends before all this bullshit, I never really ever was a ladies man.
'What the fuck is wrong with me? Even besides attractive girls, there is so much wrong with what is happening. I somehow got transmigrated into a fantasy world, according to the memories that I have been gifted by a superpower system, which possibly now has infected me. There were dragons and demons that resided in this plant along with Elves and Dwarves...' My thoughts were interrupted as someone shouted, and everyone began moving.
I followed the pointed fingers and paused as a massive city that towered over the horizon came into view from the foggy forest.
...
'...'