NOVEL FROG Chapter 1: On the Brink of Death
“Damn! Damn! DAMN!!” Victor pressed his hand against a deep, dark wound on his stomach. Blood soaked through his acolyte robe and the clothes underneath as he used his infused mana to try to stem the bleeding. “Fuck, are those bastards on my tail?” He cast a sidelong glance all around.
The forest loomed over him with the moon casting ominous shadows through the trees and across the narrow pathway he limped along. A cold wind whispered through the leaves, but the eerie surroundings were not what bothered him most. It was the betrayal — the fact that this poison-infected wound was inflicted by fellow acolytes he once called friends.
Victor took a deep breath, wincing at the pain. Memories of the attack flashed through his mind. He had been at his peak of anticipation, holding the broken artifact that would open the pocket dimension. Then without warning, a forbidden spell shattered the defensive magic tool his family gave him, tearing into his flesh and infecting him with poison.
The shock of the betrayal had frozen him in place more so than the damage to his body. How naïve he’d been. Granted, the artifact held unimaginable value that even Nexus Temporal Magi would covet, but he’d never expect his friends to turn on him.
His face twisted into a grimace as he stared fiercely into the forest. “Mark my words!” Victor growled, his voice laced with determination and an unyielding resolve. “Once I escape this wretched place, I swear I will take revenge!” Gritting his teeth, he summoned every last ounce of strength, pushing his body to its absolute limits as he continued to flee.
As a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte, he had an above-average constitution, but it wouldn’t be enough to keep going. The vastness of the Thornwood Forest made it increasingly difficult to discern the path to the exit, and the poison was causing his consciousness to flicker in and out, leaving him disoriented and unable to distinguish left from right.
But then, a clearing materialized before his eyes, a respite from the oppressive darkness of the forest. An old building stood within the heart of this eerie woodland, captivating his attention.
A-An academy?
Victor’s weary eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. Another person might have confused the old building for something else, but he was an acolyte. He recognized the magical traces left behind and easily deduced what this was.
“Why’s there a Magus academy here, of all places? No… it looks like it has been abandoned, and there’s only one building.”
He noted that the structure seemed rather well preserved, despite the overgrowth and untended surroundings that suggested it hadn’t been used in many years. Right now, this was his last hope. Maybe some supplies were left behind that he could use to concoct an antidote. If not, he’d die here. It was no ordinary poison that infected him and without a cure, he would be dead by this time tomorrow at most.
Gathering his last bit of strength, he pressed forward, and as he drew closer, the details of the structure became clearer. The walls were constructed of marble, and the crystal-clear windows reflecting moonlight made him question if it were truly abandoned at all.
Victor’s vision blurred as he stumbled through the main entrance, his body moving on autopilot. His legs carried him forward without thought, driven by a subconscious need to explore deeper into the building. The hallways seemed to stretch endlessly, the dim lighting casting long shadows as his footsteps echoed. His mind was foggy, as though wrapped in a dream, unable to focus on any one detail around him.
Then, something broke through the haze.
He stopped abruptly, his gaze locking onto a strange structure ahead. A floating cuboid hovered above a pedestal, surrounded by glowing, intricate ring-like patterns of magic. The rings spun slowly, radiating a faint hum that seemed to clear the fog from his mind, sharpening his thoughts for the first time since entering. The sight of it was mesmerizing, and Victor couldn’t shake the feeling that this was what he had been unconsciously drawn to all along.
“What is this—?” Victor coughed, his breath catching as the poison finally took its toll. Dirty blood dripped from his mouth as his body fell, his hand touching the edge of the pedestal.
Is this it for me…?
As his consciousness waned, a brilliant light became the final fleeting image of his memory.
***
Victor’s eyes fluttered open, revealing a ceiling of dark bricks above him.
“I didn’t die?” he murmured as clarity gradually returned. “It… wasn’t a dream?” Perplexed, his gaze set on a pedestal-like structure in front of him.
He clambered to his feet, surprised to find his body didn’t hurt in the slightest. The wounds that had ravaged his body, especially the gash in his stomach, were gone without a trace. Even the poison seemed to have been cured. Stranger still, his blood-stained robe and clothes looked as good as new without a drop of blood or a thread out of place.
Suddenly, an intense pain exploded in his head, forcing him to clutch his skull as he recoiled on the ground. “Aaagh!!” Foreign memories flooded his brain like a torrent of water bursting from a dam. From childhood to adulthood — every moment came to him with such clarity it was as if they were his own and he had lived another life.
When the pain subsided, Victor stared blankly at the ceiling. He blinked and took a deep breath, sobbing ever so slightly from his aching head. “Who am I? Am I Simon or Victor…? Why do I have memories of a place called… Earth…?” His mind was a mess. The feeling was similar to the hypnopompic state, where one would hallucinate and perceive themselves as two or more individuals.
It took several minutes for him to sort through the fragments in his mind — another life as Simon Anderson, a graduate from an average university who had just joined an IT company. From Simon’s point of view, an excessive intake of caffeine and an overdose of spreadsheets had catapulted him into a whole new dimension. Victor smiled in irony that the same fate had almost befallen him there again.
But it was true. Simon had lived in a world of Magi called Seraphia as Victor from the Magus family of Asteriscus for eighteen whole years. The identity of Simon Anderson was not of much concern to him. But still, how come he only remembered his past life now? Was this really his past life memory or just someone else’s memory that was inserted into him? More importantly, why was he still alive after what he had gone through?
These three unanswerable questions were superseded by the two lines of text that suddenly appeared before his eyes.
[Magus Academy System integration successful.]
[You have been registered as the headmaster of this academy. Since it has no name at the moment, you are free to give it a name.]
“Whoa! What is this, a hologram?” The sudden notification took Victor aback, but he remained calm as he stood. After all, he had regained his past life’s memory, and all the novels he had read in the past made him feel that there was nothing strange about this development.
Like a bolt from the blue, a high-pitched voice came from behind him. “Congratulations, Master! You have been chosen as the headmaster of this academy. I’ll be happy to assist you in every way I can!”
“Huh? Who’s there?!” Victor stumbled backward, turned on his heels, and couldn’t help but have his jaw drop.
“It is I! Cute lil’ ol’ me!” The floating creature pridefully hit her chest. She was a fairy — a mythical being said to have disappeared tens of millennia ago. “Surprised to see a fairy?”
The fairy, petite and just a tad smaller than a Barbie doll, had flowing hair split evenly between striking black and luminous white. Her delicate, doll-like face radiated beauty, with porcelain-white skin, and captivating eyes with golden pupil’s that gleamed mysteriously. She wore a pretty dress that matched her white and black hair, and a pair of iridescent butterfly wings fluttered on her back erratically.
Despite her cute and mischievous appearance, Victor was sure of one thing: This fairy had the answers he was seeking.
“Of course! More importantly, who are you…? Why do I remember my past life, and why am I alive? Not that I’m complaining.” His thoughts raced. What did she mean by being chosen as the headmaster? What academy was she talking about?
“So impatient, aren't you?” The fairy giggled. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Lizbeth, an assistant to the headmaster of this academy. I shall guide you in your endeavor to make this academy the greatest there is in the whole universe! Oh, and I will also elucidate every facet of the Magus Academy System, down to its very core. But first, I will commemorate this moment with a speech…” With a mischievous glimmer in her golden eyes, she placed a hand over her heart and began to recite, “Together, we shall weave a legacy that will shine across the stars, echoing through the ages like a timeless melody. With every step, we—”
“I see…” Victor interjected, sensing the speech would never end. “Is there no way to refuse?” Most people from Victor’s previous world would accept such an offer without hesitation, thinking that it was a “cheat.” However, he knew better than them.
As if being rinsed by a bucket of icy-cold water, Lizbeth snapped. “Whaaat?! Of course not! How long do you think I’ve been waiting for this moment?!”
“Calm down… I mean, after all, I’m only at the third-stage Initiate Attunement.” Even the academy he studied at — the Arcane Radiance College — had Elemental Adept Magi as the lowest level of professors.
To put it into perspective, no one would be stupid enough to join an academy with an Initiate Attunement acolyte as the headmaster. Never mind recruiting geniuses, even the most desperate candidates would be repulsed by the idea of joining.
“Look, the moment you are registered as the headmaster of this academy, your life is intrinsically tied to its existence. Should the academy fall, your own demise shall follow. Consider this: Why do you think you still draw breath despite enduring severe poisoning and sustaining grievous wounds?”
“Seriously?!” Victor’s heart sank as he considered the implications. Anything could happen to this place! What if some kind of natural disaster hit this place? What if some high-ranking Magi battled around this place and inadvertently razed it to the ground?
“I’m dead serious.” She gave him a smile. A smile that said a thousand words and was far more menacing than anything Victor had ever seen. Scary…
But after thinking it over, Victor figured this wasn’t a totally bad thing. It was a System cheat, after all; there was no way it’d be useless. All he had to do was man up and face the challenges coming his way so that he could one day claim what was his — the broken artifact as well as the treasure that it led to.
Finding the silver lining to it, Victor asked one more thing. “But how am I supposed to gather acolytes for this academy?” Well, he couldn’t just recruit some random peasants, could he?
As if waiting for that question, Lizbeth’s mouth curled into a condescending arc, and she answered, “Hmm-hmm! Simple! You can summon ‘players’ into this world.”
****
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