1 A New Beginning

I was enveloped by darkness. Not the typical dark of the night. No, this was total, all-encompassing darkness, and I was unable to see or hear anything.

'What's happening? Why is it so dark here?' I thought dazedly. My thoughts reached out into the emptiness that enveloped me.

The loud hum from before had been replaced by a deafening silence. I can't tell how long I was in this weird space, as I had no concept of time.

Suddenly, the darkness was dispelled by light, and I was momentarily blinded.

Through my blurred vision, I could make out the outlines of an unknown room and strange faces were leaning over me, speaking a language I didn't understand.

'What's happening?' I thought again as I tried to move my body, but for some reason, I was unable to.

Then I was lifted off the ground by someone's hands.

'How can they lift me so easily?' I thought briefly before I looked down and saw my own body for the first time. It took me a while to realize that I was looking at the body of a newborn.

'What the hell?'

'Did I... die?'

That was my last thought before I succumbed to the peaceful embrace of sleep...

The next few months passed in a blur. All I did was eat and sleep, as all babies do. Slowly, I came to accept the fact that I had been reborn.

As time passed, my memories started to slowly return to me, and I eventually remembered the events of that fateful day that changed everything.

My name was Michael Jansen, and I was a regular IT student at the university. I didn't have any big aspirations in life, so I spent most of my days playing PC games with friends and reading novels.

I was quite smart, so I was able to easily pass all my exams with good grades despite my laid-back approach.

However, this peaceful routine abruptly ended on that fateful day.

The day that I died...

***

I stepped off the train, bidding farewell to my pal, Mike, after one of our gaming nights.

With a heavy sigh, remembering the assignment I had to write for one of my classes, I walked from the train station back to my apartment.

The early morning air was crisp, carrying a hint of rain as if the heavens themselves were mourning my departure.

The streetlights cast long shadows across the asphalt road. Lost in my thoughts, I didn't notice the approaching headlights until they were almost upon me.

The blinding beam seared into my eyes, momentarily blinding me to the imminent danger hurtling towards me.

My heart leaped into my throat as I heard the honk of a horn and a scream clawing its way up my chest, but it was too late.

'This is it,' I thought briefly before the impact.

Time seemed to slow down as the truck materialized before me, a monstrous behemoth roaring with malicious intent.

The world around me turned into a blur of chaos and despair for a fleeting moment before darkness consumed me.

'Hit by a truck, what a stupid way to die,' were my final thoughts before I lost consciousness.

***

Although I couldn't understand the local language, I caught one word that my new mother repeated over and over: "Darian."

'That is probably my new name...'

I was bothered by the fact that I had memories from my previous life.

'How is that possible?' I often wondered as I lay in my crib but decided not to dwell on it since I couldn't explain it.

Another few months passed, and I started to explore the environment around me. I figured that I wasn't likely to be on Earth anymore.

'Unless I somehow returned a few hundred years in time,' I thought bitterly.

Both the clothing my family wore and the house itself looked like something out of medieval times.

However, the greatest shock for me so far came when the local priest came to our house.

From my observation, I gathered that this was some kind of ceremony to deliver blessings at the beginning of spring in order to have a good harvest.

The priest said a prayer, and at the end, he stretched out his arm, and his ring started glowing.

A soft yellow radiance slowly spread outward, encompassing the whole room, and I watched it in awe with my mouth open.

'I live in a fantasy world!' I thought as this was undoubtedly some sort of magic.

My love for gaming immediately kicked in, and I wondered what kinds of adventures I could have here and if I would be able to one day use magic too...

But that would, of course, have to wait a bit until I grew up and could walk on my own...

***

Today is my first birthday in this world, or at least that's what I think since my new mother gave me a wooden toy to play with and the priest came again to perform some kind of simple ceremony to bless me.

I started to understand some words of the local language and figured that I live in a small village at the edge of the "Wild Lands," although I still don't know what that means.

Our family, which includes, besides me and my new parents, three other siblings—two brothers and a sister—enjoys a little better life than the other villagers.

Since my father works as a blacksmith, we don't have to toil all day in the fields, but we are still very poor by the standards of this world.

***

Being a baby with the mind of an adult is a very boring existence...

One day, when I was bored out of my mind lying in bed all day, I thought, 'Since I have nothing better to do, I want to try if I could cast magic.'

Being a mage was always my favorite class in any game I played, but I don't know if it will be possible at all since I've never seen either my parents or siblings cast any magic.

Besides, there isn't any convenient character screen with skills like in the RPG games I used to play...

'Let's just try to imagine casting magic in my mind and see what happens...'

I then immediately started to conjure images of various types of spells I remembered from my favorite games, like "fireball" and "ice spear."

In my fervor, I completely forgot that I was inside a house and that casting such spells would be a very bad idea.

Fortunately, or rather, unfortunately, for me, nothing seems to be happening.

'Hmm, this doesn't seem to lead anywhere... How could I figure out if I can cast magic at all...?'

Meanwhile, my mother was throwing worried looks my way from the kitchen area as she saw me squirming in my bed.

However, I was too engrossed in my endeavor to pay it any attention. After a few hours of futile effort, I decided to change my approach and try meditating to see if I could feel any kind of magic at all.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening, but after a while, I noticed a faint warm feeling inside me that was different from anything I ever felt back on Earth.

When I focused my mind on it, it seemed to pulse a little bit.

'This is it!' I thought happily.

'But how would you cast spells with it?' That was still a complete mystery to me.

For the next few days, I was trying to concentrate on that weird feeling, and it seemed to move a little bit inside my body.

I then named this feeling "Mana," since I didn't have any better words for it.

While I was happy to make any kind of progress at all, it was also accompanied by severe headaches every time I focused on it for a while.

After about a week had passed, the headaches seemed to relent a little, and I could focus on feeling the mana a bit longer than before.

I then decided to try something different. While I was focusing on my mana, I tried to push it out of my body while imagining my toy lifting up from the ground.

Nothing happened at first, but after several attempts, when I heavily concentrated to the point of a headache, I felt my mana move and then expand outward.

I looked with wide eyes as my toy slowly lifted a few centimeters off the ground.

'I did it...! I can use magic!' I exclaimed inwardly in my mind.

But in the next moment, I felt all of my energy being rapidly drained out of me, and before I realized what was happening, I passed out...