Have you ever wondered who was the unluckiest person?

That person is undoubtedly me. Why? You might ask, well...

I went to sleep, and then I woke up in the body of the second-place unluckiest person. He had died from falling off a cliff while running away from "monsters".

And in third place, was the blond kid who was on the verge of tears next to me.

"Are you really okay..." He held onto my sleeve, tears welling from his eyes.

I was currently lying down on the ground in a forest somewhere, wearing strange clothes that resembled the kids. My back hurts, my head hurts, and my entire body hurts.

I stared up at the sky, not knowing what to do.

It is quite scenic by the way, and the air was fresh.

"...I am really fine." It was strange, but I could understand the language he was speaking without a problem, and I could speak it perfectly too.

"B-but, you lost your memory!" The kid was overwhelmed by guilt, and even despite my reassurance, he was still worried.

The kid, whose name was Theodore, was by all means the weakest-looking person I had seen in a long time. With frail arms, sunken blue eyes and skin that didn't seem to have seen the light of day in a long time, it seemed like he should be more worried about his own safety than mine.

"You should worry about getting out of here first, those monsters might come back." I dusted my strange clothes and sat up.

My entire body was sore from falling off the cliff, but it was the strange throbbing pain in my lower back that was the bigger issue. It had been a while since I had gotten injured.

Not only that, one of the reasons why I instinctively knew this body wasn't mine almost instantly, was the fact that it did not have a single drop of mana inside.

"My, my brother, he said he would come to save me! Before the territory war opened, he suddenly grabbed me and told me to hide somewhere, and that h-he would come."

"Who knows when your brother will come." I was quite pessimistic about the situation, even if the pain was bearable, it was hard to survive in a huge forest like this.

Much less about the monsters, the basic inhabitants of a place like this could easily swat the current me to death with one paw.

After getting used to the pain, I slowly stood up. Sitting here in the open wasn't a great idea, it would be better to rest somewhere in a shelter.

The kid stood up next to me as well. He seemed to be in his late teens, with a lanky body that was slightly taller than the height of this body. He was holding on to my sleeve, it seemed like he wanted to come along.

"Can you fight?"

"N-No..." The kid looked pretty embarrassed, "I don't have any talent...b-but, I have a knife...!"

Well, I did not expect much anyways, but it didn't hurt to bring him along for now.

We started walking, albeit carefully and made our way around the forest. It was eerily empty, I couldn't even hear a single bird.

"Are there no animals here?"

"I-I guess not?"

How helpful.

Thankfully, we quickly found a den that was dug out beneath a few trees. It was hard to tell what had created this shelter, but it was definitely a large carnivore that hadn't been back for a while.

"D-do you think it's safe here?"

"It was probably a natal den." Judging by the lack of carcasses in here, it was probably used during a mating season and abandoned. There were skeletal remains of a few herbivores, but nothing else.

I slumped against the call of the cave. This body was seriously weak, and ignoring the injury, I was exhausted just by even walking.

"Are, are you really okay?" His eyes met mine, filled with worry as he glanced at the blood that had dripped from my back to the ground.

I closed my eyes and sat with my legs crossed, "Be quiet."

I was the strongest magician in Agrius.

By following the same method I had created later in my life, I started to pull the mana in the air into this body. It permeated my pores and covered my organs, slowly coalescing with my flesh.

As I expected, I could really feel pain now.

My teeth unwittingly gnashed together, I could taste blood in my mouth as I focused on moving the mana through my veins. Rather than channelling it towards my heart creating a mana core, I carefully mixed it into my blood.

Sensing the mood, the kid had settled down as well. Unlike me, he wasn't too gravely injured. We had fallen from a relatively short cliff, and the brunt of the impact was reduced with the amount of foliage that had broken his fall.

What about this body? Well, it got hit by a rock on the ground in the spine.

Ignoring the pain, I started reconstructing this body to handle mana more effectively, pushing mana into every inch of my frame.

After a few hours, I opened my eyes. This amount of groundwork was barely enough, but I could at least use a bit of magic now.

Not only that, my eyes could now see the mana in the air, lighting up the once-dark den and the kid next to me. He was currently fiddling with a small rectangle-shaped item, the weak light that shone from the front part of it illuminating his face.

?

This kid...?

"Why did you lie?"

"Huh?" he was shocked, his eyes jolting open to look at me.

Far from not having talent, this kid had an impressive container. His body was almost made for magic, I could see the mana flowing in and out of his body effortlessly. If I had this body, I wouldn't even need to reconstruct anything.

"W-what do you mean lie?"

...Was he unaware of his own talent?

"How will your brother come to save you?" I changed the topic. Even if he had a body like that, it was not as if I was going to do anything troublesome.

For now, it would be easier if his brother could come and save us both.

"Th-this..." He showed me the item in his hands. It was made out of a strange material, and it was filled with colourful images and black text.

"What's this?"

"My phone...?"

"What's a phone?"

"?!"

***

After a quick explanation, I understood the situation. A phone was something that was used for instant communication, and he could use it to contact his brother.

But that was only if they were in the same space.

The current territory war was something that was happening between two worlds, and the reason for the territory war happening was currently unknown. At the beginning of the war, multiple rifts would open between small areas in both worlds, making them impassable, and the people and monsters within those areas would be able to move through those rifts.

There can be multiple ways to end a territory war. Two of the known ways would either be to kill the target objectives of each "territory" or for one side to gather enough points. To get points, all you had to do was to kill the monsters on the other side.

We were unlucky and got caught up in one of the rifts that had opened in his world and fell into the enemy's territory instead.

And that was the biggest problem.

Phones could be used to communicate with each other, but that was only if it was within the same world. The previous owner of this body had a phone as well, but it was broken, with the screen smashed into bits within my pocket.

I found out the name of this body as well, it was Ciel.

"So what you are saying is, there is no way for your brother to find us now since he is not even in the same world?"

"Yes..." The teen hesitated, "But he will definitely come! U-unlike me, he's a really really strong player...!"

I leaned back against the wall of the den.

Simply put, I had no faith in this kid or his brother.

But that wasn't the point.

I am now in this situation, in a new body, caught up in a ridiculous situation. Everything was foreign, from the senses this body had to the world I was in.

Why was I here?

I had just gotten my revenge, and I was just wondering what I was going to do with my life.

But...the curse should be gone now.

Should I live a different life now? I could live like a real human now.

Suddenly, I faintly heard some muffled shuffling from the exit of the den. From the sound of it, there was more than a single individual headed towards us, unless they had a lot more than two legs. The footsteps abruptly stopped and were quickly followed by some strange, suppressed garbling noises that didn't seem to be human.

It seemed like they had found the tracks we had made on our way here. If they were being so careful, it was unlikely that they had any goodwill.

I turned towards the kid that was seated in front of me, and as if he could feel my gaze, his eyes met mine.

I raised my finger to my lips and pointed towards the exit.

His eyes widened in shock, and I could see his hands trembling as they held onto his phone. He wasn't an idiot thankfully and could guess that there were probably enemies outside.

His fingers fiddled with his phone before he quickly put it in my face, I could see that he had written something.

[I can go distract the monsters, you're injured, you should hide.]

...was this kid serious?

As if to prove his words, he struggled to get up with his trembling limbs as he took out a knife that was sheathed at his thigh. It would be touching, but it was more likely that he would get himself killed for nothing.

With a sigh, I reached over and pushed him back down by his shoulder, "Stay here, if it gets dangerous, run away."

There was a limit to how strong I could become with just a few hours, but it didn't mean I would go down that easily without a fight. If those things were really powerful, they wouldn't have been that easy to detect.

A faint white light shone in my hands, illuminating the cave as I headed out.

"Magician...?" I could hear his voice mumble softly from behind me.

The moment I walked out, I could see why the kid called them monsters. They didn't look like anything I had ever seen before. Rather than that, it was something that didn't seem alive.

Those monsters were black masses of an unknown substance, reeking of death that would scare away even a black magician in my past life.

Noticing my presence, the two monsters let out a guttural cry as they pounced towards me, brandishing their weapons.

They were relatively similar to humans in build, bipedal and within the range of an average human's height. They had two arms as well, one of them was holding what seemed to be a rake, while the other was a rusty sword.

More importantly, they had shoddy armour on them as if they were humans. The style of their armour was something I was more familiar with, and it covered their body relatively well.

The disgust that I had felt was almost instinctual as I created a charge of electricity in the air around them. As they moved towards me, I pushed the electricity I had gathered towards them.

I didn't know if their vitals were similar to humans as well, or if they had any, but it was not as though I had a better idea.

My magic wasn't strong enough right now, so this was the most I could do.

In an instant, a jarring sound that resembled a scream rang through the forest as the two of them stumbled. The monster holding onto the spear fell to the ground, its body trembling as my magic coursed through its body.

The other didn't falter for too long, taking only a few seconds to regain its composure before charging back towards me.

Of course, I wasn't just waiting to get stabbed.

I gathered a lot more mana from the air, gathering it into the tip of my index finger.

Lighting charge.

I aimed my magic at its right arm. The sword-bearing monster had armour on, but its poor quality meant that I could at least pierce it.

Thankfully, it didn't seem as strong as it was repulsive, and my magic shot and dug itself into "flesh" with ease.

It screamed again, it was now visibly panicking as it stumbled backwards. My lighting magic had penetrated its shoulder, forcing it to drop its weapon as its muscles spasmed.

Thankfully, it seemed like these monsters were somewhat similar to a "living" being.

Not giving it a chance to escape, I quickly conjured a sharp ice needle in my hand and ran towards the monster. It was repulsive, but I ignored the disgusting taste in my mouth as I stabbed at what seemed to be its neck.

And then it died, falling to the ground as its nails dug into my arms, pulling me onto the ground with it.

My arm hurts.

This body really was weak.

Just with three spells and a quick sprint, I was spent.

"Watch out!"

Huh?

I looked up, the monster holding the rake had gotten up, its hands trembling as it ran towards me.

The thought of dying did go through my mind earlier, so I guess I couldn't complain.

But I didn't like going down without a fight.

Placing my palm onto the ground, I activated my magic again. This time, I really pulled out every last bit of mana I stored in my body. I could feel a sticky, viscious liquid drip from my nose.

Stone spikes rose from the ground, covering the monster's path towards me.

But before it could unknowingly step on it, Theodore jumped out with the knife in his hands. He pushed the monster with his entire body weight, knocking it down as he bit down on his lips and stabbed it with all his might.

I guess it was gross, but you didn't have to stab it so many times, you know?

"T-thankfully, they're weak...!" The kid proclaimed, looking up at me with his bloodied face, "Are y-you okay?"

He looked quite creepy.

After leaving the kid to bury the corpses, I went ahead and cleared the nearby tracks we had left behind as much as I could. According to the kid, there were monsters of varying strengths and behaviours, and depending on the worlds that were connected through the territory wars, the types of monsters could change.

Luckily, the monsters in this war were not too strong, or at least the ones we met.

Dragging my tired body back into the den, I was greeted with the smell of food.

"You're back?" The kid beamed.

"Where did you get all this?" The depressing den was cleaned up, with the skeletons of the dead animals moved to the side, the kid had even started a small fire for warmth.

"Huh? The points shop? I-I also bought bandages for your injuries..." The kid held out the bandages in his hands, "I-I got a few points from killing that monster, b-but it wasn't enough to buy a potion and supplies..."

That's right, I forgot about the points.

But what was a point shop?

"How did you buy it?"

"If you think of the point shop, it should appear?" He looked confused again.

Point shop...?

...

"Nothing happened."

The kid's mouth opened even wider, his eyes looking at me with complete disbelief, "What about status window?"

Status window.

...

Was this kid messing with me?

Seeing the expression on my face, the kid dropped the items in his hand, "I- I've never heard of someone who couldn't access the system..."

...What is a system...?

I sat down next to the kid, "Never mind."

I couldn't be bothered to figure out everything right now.

Taking the bandages in his hands, I slowly wrapped my wounds. There were a few cuts and bruises from falling off the cliff, but I left them alone to heal themselves. More important wounds like the gash on my back and the cuts that the monster had left on my arm were bandaged somewhat acceptably.

After sorting out my wounds, I looked at the food that the kid had conjured out of nowhere.

It was contained in a strange red material at the bottom, and the top was a transparent material that was already removed.

It tasted nice.

The water the kid took out was also in a strange container, similar to the material of the lid on the food's packaging. It was light, somewhat malleable, and waterproof. How convenient, was it an artefact?

The water was ok.

Throughout this entire meal, the kid was quiet as well, his hands still slightly trembling.

"...Have you ever tried learning magic?"

I didn't want to get involved in something troublesome, but it seemed like the best choice for now.

"M-Magic?" The kid looked up, "Something like that...It's not something that I can just learn..."

"I'll teach you." One extra pair of hands was better than none, "Close your eyes."

Channelling the slightest amount of mana from my own body, I pushed it into his through his back.

"This might hurt a bit."

"Hu- ARgH!"

I didn't want to get involved with this kid beyond what was necessary, but since it came to this, it was better to set up a fail-safe.

After a while, the kid figured it out pretty quickly and started gathering his own mana. Leaving him alone, I continued restructuring my own body.

It was pretty late into the night when I was done, and seeing how nothing appeared again, this area was somewhat safe.

I could tell this kid was talented, but it was a bit scary seeing him pull large amounts of mana into his body as if it was nothing. I didn't expect him to be such a greedy bastard.

With a sigh, I turned to the exit of the den and set up a trap. It was a thin layer of dirt held together with magic that would crumble from the weight of a small child. If anyone were to step on it, they would immediately fall into a pit of spikes.

I also created a thin layer of dirt over the entrance. From the outside, it should just look like a pile of unassuming dirt.

It should ward off most things, and if it was strong enough to escape it, it wouldn't be something we would be able to defeat anyways.

It was a tiring day, I didn't want to lift a finger anymore, much less think. I'll teach the kid some spells tomorrow.

I laid down on the ground, closing my eyes.

Just as I was about to drift off, a yelp was heard next to me, "M-My brother responded!"

...this brat.

"What?" I grumbled.

"He says he's here! He's coming towards us!"

I turned to the other side, "Wake me when he arrives."

***

It didn't take very long for him to wake me up, the sun was now creeping over the horizon as sunlight trickled into the den.

"M-My brother is here." Theodore's voice rang out within the den, "He's the one that saved me."

I looked up, they looked quite alike as brothers. Both of them had blond hair and blue eyes, but the weak gaze that the kid had was far from similar to this guy's. The man stood before me, his eyes were still slightly red from the touching reunion they had. He was wearing unfamiliar clothing as well, but compared to the clothes that we had, it was obviously made with material from beasts.

Compared to the monsters and Theodore, I could tell that this man was dangerous. Not only was he strong, I instinctively disliked him.

"Did you make that trap with magic outside?" His curt voice was quite annoying.

I sat up, brushing off the dirt that stuck to my body, "I did."

His eyes squinted at me, "We should have a chat."

In an instant, the sword that was sheathed at his waist was pointed at my neck.

"Who are you?"

I hope he fell into the pit.