Shane awoke to the sound of a bell tolling in the distance. His head throbbed as if struck by a hammer. He blinked, trying to clear his vision, and found himself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling high, arched, and made of dark stone. Runes etched along the edges glowed faintly with a blue light.
"Where am I?" He sat up, the sheets pooling around his waist, the room was small but opulent by most standards. A mahogany desk stood against one wall, cluttered with strange instruments brass orbs, vials of shimmering liquids, and half-unrolled scrolls covered in intricate diagrams. Shelves lined with books towered over him, and a large window revealed a view of three moons hanging in a violet-tinged sky.
He looked down at his hands, it was pale, slender, and unscarred; they didn't feel like his own, but also didn't. It was a strange feeling. He touched his face, his fingers tracing high cheekbones and smooth skin. "This definitely isn't me."
A chime echoed in his mind, sharp and mechanical. Before him, a translucent screen flickered to life:
> [SYSTEM CALIBRATION COMPLETE. WELCOME, HOST.]
> NAME: SHANE ROTHMAEK
> LEVEL: 1 [MORTAL]
> TITLE: 4TH PRINCE OF THE ROTHMAEK KINGDOM
> STATUS: MEMORY CORRUPTION DETECTED
> LOCATION: LARZANO INSTITUTE OF MAGIC AND SWORD, DORM ROOM 7
Shane stared at the screen "Prince? Institute?" The words meant nothing to him, he tried to grasp at fragments of memory, all he could manage to gather was a ritual book, *HOW TO CONNECT SOULS*, and then.... A splitting headache.
He fell on his knees, holding his head. It took him a few minutes to recover and stand, his body protesting with unfamiliar weakness. He stumbled toward the desk, drawn to the scrolls. One diagram depicted a complex mechanical wing, annotated in a flowing script. Another showed a runic sequence for "mana compression." The handwriting was his own—or rather, the body's original owner's.
"So I'm a prince. And I'm here... to study? So it's safe to say this would be a school or something like that?" Shane said, he began looking through each scroll
A knock at the door broke Shane's attention. He relaxed his body, scattered his hair "Enter."
The door opened, revealing a young man with blue fur, pointed ears, and a tail that swished nervously behind him. He wore the same grey-and-silver uniform Shane now noticed hung in his own wardrobe. "Prince Shane? You're awake." The beastkin bowed slightly. "Headmaster Orin requests your presence. Immediately."
Shane's mind raced. 'He called me 'Prince.' So it's true, I'm not just hallucinating' he thought. He still had to get information out from this beast-kin before him. To Shane, this was his first time seeing such a creature. He was fascinated, but he still kept his cool. "Oh, the Headmaster, and what's this about again?" He asked.
The beastkin hesitated. "It's about last night, Your Highness. The... incident in the Arcane Nexus." He lowered his voice. "You triggered a spatial anomaly, which in turn might have released dark creatures onto the academy grounds. Some claim you were trying to flee the academy."
'Flee? Why would I have wanted to flee a school so badly to cause something like that?' Shane's eyes darted to the System screen, still hovering in his vision. 'I need to find out more about my location?' "What's your name?"
"Elroy, Your Highness. Are you alright, your Highness? It seems you are feeling under the weather. I would suggest you take a rest," He gestured to the door. " But we shouldn't keep the Headmaster waiting."
---
The Headmaster's Sanctum
Elroy led Shane through corridors thrumming with energy. Students in vibrant robes whispered as they passed. Shane caught snippets: "...weakest prince..." "...heard he blew up the Nexus..." "...father disowned him, they say..." He paid close attention to each and every one's expression when they said to him, and what he noticed was disgust and contempt.
Headmaster Orin's office was a cavern of knowledge. The man himself, human, late fifties, with a scar cutting through his left eye—sat behind a desk carved from obsidian. "Prince Shane." His voice was gravelly. "Sit."
Shane obeyed. Orin steepled his fingers. "Your little experiment last night damaged Leyline Conduit Seven, and as you should have known, you also released some dark creatures into the institute grounds. Repairs and payment for issuing a quest for other students to help clean up your mess will cost fifty thousand gold marks." He pushed a parchment and a black card with his name written on it across the desk. "Your royal account has been charged."
Shane glanced at the sum and the card Astronomical. "I... don't remember hiring anyone for any quest?"
"Convenient." Orin's gaze sharpened. "But the institute decided that it would be best if you directly pay for the damage this time around and given your history of 'dream-inspired' recklessness. Last month, it was you trying to pick a fight with the Lonais siblings, now this, you don't seem to want to leave trouble alone." He leaned forward. "Your mother warned me you were a liability. I ignored her. That ends today.
Shane Rothmaek, you have been ordered to go through the trial of Elemental Crucible as early as tomorrow"
Shane swallowed. "What trial?"
"The one every first-year must face," Orin said coldly. "Tomorrow, you'll enter the Elemental Crucible. Survive, and you remain. Fail..." He sat back in his seat. "Let's just say the Rothmaek line has three other princes."
.
---
The Dorm Room
Back in his room, Shane slumped against the door. 'Disinherited and probably going to get expelled' were his thoughts, plus he had no memories of where he was or anything that might help him, then he remembered the transparent screen.
He focused on the System.
>> INVENTORY. A gift box appeared. Inside, he touched the gift box and it appeared physically on Shane's hand, "Wow," he exclaimed. He slowly opened the box, and inside were three items: a ring, a weirdly shaped rock, and a white card. Information about the three items appeared on the screen.
- Ring of Grace (Rare): +5 to all stats, negates fatal damage once a day.
- Dream Realm Key (???)
- ITEM CARD (One-time use)
Looking at the info, only the ring had clear information, but even when the screen first appeared, he didn't notice anything like stats.
[>> Stats
>Strength = 0.5
>Agility = 0.7
>Stamina = 0.5
>Intelligence = 1]
"Hummm," those were Shane's first reaction to his stats summing up. Still, he had no idea what the norm was in this world, but from the look of things, it would definitely not be comparable to regular people,
Depending on what the scale ratio was, a normal human would be around 2.0 or 3.0 in strength, but he had even lower than normal, which was alarming; he needed to build his strength and stats.
His first pick was the card, examining the card, Shane noticed some markings glowing faintly across the card. After staring for about a minute, he tore the card, and five new items materialized: a sword, a gauntlet, a shiny staff, a cross dripping with golden water, and an earring.
[Info]
>> Flaming Sword
Grade: [Rare]
Effects:
+4 Strength
Grants Heat Resistance Lv. 4
>> Gauntlet of Chaos
Grade: [Rare]
Effects:
+6 Strength
+3 Stamina
5% Critical Hit Chance
>> Mage Staff
Grade: [Rare]
Effects:
+7 Intelligence
Increases spell potency by 2%
>> Holy Cross
Grade: [Holy]
Effects:
Increases holy magic potency by 10%
>> Earring
Grade: [???]
Effects:
+10 to all stats
Requirement: 1.5 Intelligence]
Shane sat with crossed legs in his new bed, going through the item info again, and among those items, only the earrings had a requirement attached to them, and he didn't even have enough stats in intelligence to use the item.
His mind went back to the ring he saw in the box. It was said to be able to add 5 points to all stats. He reached for the ring and wore it. He was quite disappointed when nothing happened. Then, he picked the earring.
Shane closed his eyes as he forcefully pierced his own ear with the earrings, and suddenly, strength surged in his limbs. He felt alive; it wasn't just metaphorically. He could feel his bone density change.
[SYSTEM STATUS]
>> Name = Shane Rothmaek
>> Level = 2 [Mortal]
>>Mystic Energy = 10* (new resource)
[Attribute ]
>> Strength = 2.2
>>Agility = 2.4
>> Stamina = 2.2
>> Intelligence = 2.9]
"Wowww.." Shane exclaimed while trying to find his seat "That was intriguing I felt everything, how could I have felt my own cells changing, what sort of world am I in" he
A knock followed by the door Opening, Shane immediately covered the remaining rock thingy with his bedsheet.
Elroy entered. "Your Highness! ." He set down a tray of food. "I brought dinner. You'll need strength for the trial. I did some asking around from the second years, and I heard some not-so-great things about the trial. Firstly other first-year students are allowed to take the trials"
Shane eyed the bland stew as he continued to eat, he also listened to what Elroy was telling him till it seemed Elroy was out of things to say then he looked up at Elroy and asked "Elroy, manage I am someone else and I asked you to describe Shane Rothmaek to me, how would you describe him, you are free to speak your mind"
Elroy's tail twitched, he hesitated, but Shane's continuous nagging made him open up. Shane Rothmaek, at an early age, was seen as a visionary. He designed things that this world had never seen before, although what he always designed looked possible to build, every time it resulted in an explosion.
You once said you could see machines and magics that don't exist in this world, after your illness, your mental health degraded, to the point you began to believe you were seeing other worlds and as you put it "Technology" Some still call you a visionary, but most people believed you had gone mad.
"So that's the summary of it, I was a genius who went mad and claimed he could see other worlds?" Shane asked again.
Elroy sighed before adding " And you always seem to seek trouble wherever it's hiding, and with your recent problem with the Lonais siblings, you have been in hot water around the institute grounds and you don't have any talent whatsoever which also makes others look down on you" Elroy added the last part in a lower voice.