I finally collapsed onto the bed in my rented room, the wooden frame creaking under me as if it shared the exhaustion weighing on my body. The ceiling above was plain and cracked, nothing worth staring at, yet my eyes remained fixed on it. My mind refused to rest, replaying everything that had happened from the moment I was dragged into this world up until now.
Transmigration. Monsters. Blood. Pain. And victories—small, hard-earned, and costly victories.
I closed my eyes, letting the memories wash over me. The Duskhound's snarling jaws. The suffocating darkness of Eclipse Hollow. The traps that nearly skewered me. And finally—the voice that had bestowed me rewards beyond anything I had ever expected.
I still couldn't believe it.
Lightning attribute. Space attribute.
The words alone were enough to send a shiver of excitement crawling up my spine. Lightning—pure blue lightning, a force bestowed by the will of a god ages ago, something far stronger than the elemental scraps most hunters begged for. And space—the most elusive attribute of them all.
I chuckled under my breath, though the sound held a nervous edge.
"Space attribute… me, of all people. I guess the universe really does have a sense of humor."
My gaze drifted to the faint shimmer of the status panel lingering in the corner of my vision.
----------------------------------------------
Name: Arthur Dravenlock
Class: Magic Swordsman
Talent: Limitless
Attributes: Space , Lightning
...
Strength: 22 → 26
Speed: 21 → 25
Endurance: 20 → 26
Dexterity: 20 → 24
Perception: 21 → 24
Mana: 18 → 40
.....
Skills:
Passive: Perfect Poker
Active: Dash , Arc Discharge , Dimensional Veil
.....
Arts:
Basic Sword Style (Common)
Basic Non-Armed Combat (Common)
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The numbers had jumped, each stat climbing higher than before. My strength, speed, endurance—all surging. Even my mana, once pitifully low, had expanded. And yet, it still wasn't enough. Not for this world. Not for what I knew was coming.
As I was checking another thing caught my eye .
"My class has changed to magic swordsman."
Well it makes sense since now I can use magic.
In the past, society divided its warriors into two distinct paths: the knight and the mage. Knights trained their bodies, mastering weapons, armor, and martial discipline, while mages honed their minds, channeling mana into spells and rituals. For centuries, this separation was absolute. The logic was simple—trying to pursue both was seen as foolish. A mage who spent too much time wielding a sword would fall behind in the intricate studies of spellcraft. A knight who dabbled in magic lacked the time to build the unshakable physique needed to withstand battle. Those rare few who attempted both were looked down upon, dismissed as "half-baked," unable to stand on equal ground with true specialists.
But times changed.
As mana evolved within humanity's bloodlines, so too did the ways it could be wielded. Advances in magical theory, coupled with practical combat necessity, began to blur the lines between knight and mage. Facing monsters, demons, and otherworldly threats demanded versatility—raw strength alone was no longer enough, and relying solely on spells left one vulnerable in close combat. Slowly, a new path emerged: the spellblade, or the hybrid warrior who could seamlessly weave mana into their weapons and techniques.
These hybrids were no longer as rare as in the past. Though still fewer in number compared to pure mages or knights, their presence grew rapidly in the current era. They could channel lightning into their blades, reinforce their strikes with mana, or use spatial magic to enhance mobility. Where knights once mocked them and mages dismissed them, now even the strongest elites admitted that hybrid fighters often dictated the flow of battle.
What was once considered weakness had become a new form of strength.
I clenched my fists against the blanket. "I need to get stronger. Stronger than I've ever been. If I stay like this, I won't even make it past the second event, let alone the third."
Limitless talent or not, raw numbers alone wouldn't carry me. I needed skills, techniques, real mastery.
I rolled onto my side, sighing. Sweat clung to my skin, sticky and foul-smelling. No wonder the innkeeper had looked at me funny when I walked in.
"Ugh. I smell like I rolled through a monster's armpit," I muttered, grabbing the towel hanging on the chair.
The bathroom was small, a simple wooden stall with a mana-powered showerstone fixed to the wall. I twisted the rune etched into its surface, and cold water spilled down in a steady stream. The shock of it made me hiss, but the chill cleared my thoughts better than anything else.
As the water poured over me, rinsing away the blood and grime, my mind wandered again. This time, to the Academy.
Nexus Hunter Academy.
The name itself carried weight, the kind of weight only the strongest could shoulder. The game had painted it as the hub of humanity's rising power, a cradle for heroes and villains alike. But now, knowing I would be standing on its grounds not as a player, but as a living, breathing human… it felt different. Heavier.
And to understand why, you had to start from the beginning.
Five hundred years ago, the day the barriers fell. The day the dimensions collided. In the game it was called the Aetherfall, a name whispered with equal parts dread and awe. On that day, the skies tore open, rifts clawed across the horizon, and mana flooded into the world for the very first time.
Elyndria —that was the name of this planet, this world that I now called my prison. Before Aetherfall, Elyndria was a mundane place, a world with no magic, no monstrous threats beyond the ordinary beasts of the wild. Humanity thrived, ignorant and fragile.
But the Aetherfall changed everything. Elves, Orcs, demi-humans—invaders from other realms poured in, drawn by the scent of fresh mana. Humanity had no answer. We were cut down, enslaved, driven into corners of our own world.
If history had ended there, Elyndria would have been nothing more than another fallen world.
But humans are stubborn creatures. We adapt. We survive. And in that desperation, we awakened. Mana carved itself into our veins, rewriting our very genes. The weak fell, but those who endured grew strong. Weapons forged with mana, cities fortified with runes, alliances formed out of sheer necessity.
And then came the demons.
A century ago, their hordes descended like locusts, burning, devouring, destroying. They left nothing but ash in their wake. For once, the races of Elyndria—human, elf, orc, demi-human—had a common enemy. Even the ones who had once invaded us were forced to stand beside us.
It was then that the Aurelian Pact was formed, led by the legendary hero Seraphis. Under his banner, humanity rallied, forming what became known as the Seraphis Federation, its capital a sprawling fortress-city called Solara Prime.
And in the heart of Solara Prime stood the Nexus Hunter Academy.
In the midst of the human federation, Nexus Hunter Academy was one of the most prestigious Hunter academies in the human alliance.
It occupied quite a huge amount of land in the midst of the city, which would be enough to call a whole district.
It contained training facilities, artificial dungeons, infinite dungeons for resources, research institutes, and many others.
I turned off the showerstone with a twist, droplets of water still sliding down my skin. The bathroom was filled with mist, but my mind was far clearer than it had been when I stepped in.
I toweled myself off quickly, wrapping the cloth around my waist before stepping out. My room wasn't much, but it was mine for now—a small sanctuary. I dug into the drawer, pulling out a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Slipping them on, I caught sight of myself in the mirror.
For a long moment, I just stared.
Wet white silvery hair, pale skin, blue sapphire like eyes ,a body leaner and harder than the one I'd once had in my old world. My reflection stared back at me with eyes that seemed sharper, brighter, carrying a weight they hadn't before.
I smirked. "Not bad, Arthur. Pretty damn handsome, if I say so myself." I leaned closer to the mirror, flexing slightly. "If I don't find a girlfriend in this world, it's not my fault. Clearly, the universe is blind."
Laughing at my own nonsense, I finally collapsed back onto the bed, stretching out. The sheets were rough, but compared to the dungeon floor, they felt like heaven.
Tomorrow was Monday. Normally, that would've meant dragging myself out of bed, half-asleep, to trudge to school. Here, it meant… nothing. No classes tomorrow, or even Tuesday, according to the Academy schedule. A rare reprieve.
Yet, even with that free time ahead, a strange thought gnawed at me. I hadn't seen them yet. Not a single one of the main cast. In the game, by now, I should've crossed paths with at least one of the named characters—the so-called "protagonist party." But here? Nothing.
Well I wasn't in the academy for two days , so it's only natural that I didn't get the chance to encounter any of them.
The clock on the wall read nine. My eyelids were heavy, my body worn down from everything that had happened. My thoughts grew sluggish, dissolving into the haze of exhaustion.
As sleep crept closer, I whispered to myself, "I need to be ready. Stronger, faster, sharper. Because this world… it's not going to wait for me to catch up."
The last thing I heard was the faint hum of mana in the air, a sound I'd grown so used to I barely noticed it anymore. Then darkness claimed me, pulling me into dreams where lightning crackled across endless skies, and the fabric of space itself trembled at my touch.
Tomorrow would come. And with it, new challenges.
But for now, I slept.