1 A New Life

Link woke up with a groggy head, he found himself lying on a hardwood floor, he sat up and looked around in a daze, he felt something wet on his hand, lifting it up and looking at it, he found it was covered in a thick red liquid, a dense metallic smell wafted into his nose. His eyes widened as his stomach started doing flips.

A painful headache came and he let out a small whimper in pain. Dense memories swarmed his head, 19 years worth. His name was Link Blackheart, a small nobleman who fled from his home after it was attacked by monsters. He came to the capital city of the Azure empire, and using the last of his savings he opened a tea shop.

The sad thing was in the past two days, no one visited his shop, whether the shop was in a poor position, or lack of interest from customers, no one came. The worst thing was, that on the third day, he fell down the stairs and smashed his head open like a watermelon. This also gave the opportunity for the new Link to come in and occupy the house.

He was a major scholar in the 21st century, a master of the four major arts of Literature, Painting, Sculpting, and Music. He was hailed as a genius at a young age, but died at the age of 29 from being killed by a crazy fan. He shivered, remembering the last moments of his previous life and being rushed to the hospital, his consciousness slowly losing.

He was in a daze about what to do, he got a second chance, but the world is so different, he slowly combed through the memories of Link Blackheart, and found some key information about this world, there is transcendent power in this world, divided into three general categories of Body, Soul, and Energy.

The Blackheart family is a descendant of a mage family, which is in the energy category, though he was the third child of the family, and his talents were low, he only had the most basic meditation practice. Link slowly learned everything about this meditation practice, it was created 300 years ago, during an age of great knowledge, hundred schools of thought clashed and combined.

This basic meditation practice was created during that time, it had no shining parts, but it had no weak parts. Most meditation practices used today all evolved from this practice as a core. This doesn't make it crazy strong or anything, it just shows the fundamentals. It was not just a simple thing.

It contained countless theories and knowledge bases, it was the size of a textbook. He looked over his predecessor's memory, and found that if it were not for forced rote memorization, he would not even learn it. Link was speechless, though happy. Though he did not get an awesome meditation, he knew the risks of them, getting stuck in the cage of knowledge.

The ancients gave endless knowledge, though you have to learn from them, but not follow them blindly. The greatest folly is thinking that because it is older that it is more precious. In his previous life, he faced countless prejudice because he was 'too young'. He went through many times fighting against other masters to prove himself.

He wanted to try practicing the basic meditation until the metallic smell brought him back to reality. He walked back upstairs, very carefully. He went into his bedroom, the bedroom reminded him somewhat of the 20s kind of style. He walked into the bathroom. A full mirror, a sink, toilet, and a bathtub with a showerhead.

He sighed in relief, at least the world he is in has running water. He saw himself in the mirror, there were severe blood stains all over his body. He hurriedly checked his head, besides for it being soaked in blood, he saw no wounds, and finally let out a sigh of relief. He left, picking out a set of clothes for himself.

He then stripped in the bathroom, setting aside the clothes for disposal. He turned on the shower, waiting for it to get hot. He spent some time scrubbing himself endlessly, checking the shower every once in a while for blood. He spent nearly an hour cleaning up. He finally stood in front of the mirror to appraise himself.

Quite tall, estimated around 190 centimeters. He had sharp green eyes, bright golden hair like the sun, sharp eyebrows, defined cheekbones, and a solid jaw. If it were not for the haggard look and the slightly thin look, he would be a very handsome man. He looked over the memory of his predecessor to understand his hobbies, and found himself to be an otaku.

He rarely left the house and liked to read fantasy novels. He was very anti-social. If it were not for his father's constant pushing, he would have turned into a complete dead house. Link took a breath, he would start exercising and eating better. Though he felt exhausted at the moment. He was about to go to bed, then he remembered the pool of blood downstairs.

He sighed, then went downstairs and spent an hour cleaning up. When he laid on his bed, he did not last moments before he passed out.

That night he had a nightmare of his alarm clock ringing endlessly.

Ding. Ding. Ding.