Josh

Josh slowly twirled a strand of noodles around his fork and put it into his mouth. To be honest, even though he had been in this world for sixteen years, he

still preferred the feeling of using chopsticks back then.

Yes, Josh had transmigrated to a place called the Muya Continent. It was a very magical world, but to Josh, it was not all that strange. At the very least, after reading so many novels in his previous life, he found that everything in this world was not quite as unusual as it should have been.

The Muya Continent was enormous. At least, countless geographers and bards had yet to find where the continent truly ended. There were five great empires on the Muya Continent, as well as a Super Alliance, each formed by different races.

In the far north of the continent was the Golden Empire, founded by the orcs. Its rulers were the orcs' golden-blooded families. In Josh's eyes, though, they were nothing more than lions and tigers. Their ranks seemed to be determined by combat strength. As for the Cat people that had looked so adorable in his previous life, they seemed to occupy the very bottom of society, practically slaves.

In any case, Josh felt that it was an utterly barbaric nation, where whoever had the bigger fist was king. However, ever since the previous Lion King became a god, the country had remained in constant civil strife. Assassinations never ceased, and conflicts between tribes never stopped.

To the west was the empire where Josh lived. Josh's full name was Josh Augustus, an incredibly badass name. Of course, what was even more badass was that his father was the ruler of this empire, whose full name was the Augustus Empire.

Using their surname as the name of the empire made the situation obvious. His father, Black Augustus, was the current Augustus IV. Josh had been fortunate enough to transmigrate into the body of a prince, but that was not much use when he still had three older brothers above him.

As for the other countries, there was the Dwarf Empire in the south and the Elf Empire in the east. In the center of the continent was the Super Alliance, an alliance composed of all kinds of races and various duchies. It could also be called the center of continental trade, but Josh had no interest in the place. He already had plenty of headaches to deal with.

Looking at the noodles on the table, Josh sighed. Sixteen years ago, he had pulled an all-nighter at an internet café playing League of Legends. In a life-or-death Master-tier match, he had picked Malzahar, while someone else picked Kassadin, and the two had a Void Mage showdown. The match had been going smoothly, but just as they were about to destroy the enemy base, the internet café lost power!

Josh had been furious, but there was nothing he could do. He cursed as he left the internet café, but after staying up all night, he was not in the best state of mind. While he was still wondering how that match would have turned out, a dump truck came around the corner. He never noticed it, and then...

Josh could not help shuddering. Being run over by a dump truck was not a pleasant memory. He had passed out immediately. When he woke again, he discovered that he had become a baby—a newborn baby, at that. That cliché had left the bewildered Josh passing out once more.

After waking up, Josh realized that things had already come to this, so he could only helplessly accept reality. He was neither a genius nor an idiot. He was merely an ordinary person. However, with his wealth of knowledge and considerable social experience, Josh quickly became the center of attention among all the princes. He learned everything quickly, practically like a genius.

But good times did not last. When he underwent testing at the age of six, devastating news arrived. He seemed completely incapable of cultivating the Augustus family's Battle Qi. No matter how he trained, he could not become stronger—he had the distinct impression of a scrawny Western pretty boy. He had always been slender and could never become a warrior!

Augustus IV was deeply disappointed, and so was Josh. He had never imagined that he would turn out to be trash! Since Battle Qi was impossible, he switched to studying magic. Augustus found several magic teachers for Josh, and every one of them had gladly accepted the invitation at first, because Josh's spiritual power far surpassed that of ordinary people. Yet almost every magic teacher resigned in less than a month.

Because, to Josh's great embarrassment, he simply could not gather Magic elements! It was not that Josh was useless at magic. It could be said that his magical talent was simply too great. He had spent only one month constructing a spiritual bridge and condensing a tremendous amount of mana within his body through meditation. Yet no one knew what attribute his mana belonged to!

On the Muya Continent, mana was generally divided into the common Fire element, Water element, Earth element, and Wind element. Of course, there were also the special Light and Dark elements, as well as the Lightning element. Yet the mana in Josh's body belonged to none of them! Silver Mana flowed through his body, looking both powerful and terrifying. However, this mana of unknown attribute could not cast even a single elemental spell, leaving Josh able to use only a few non-elemental tricks.

After driving away nearly ten mages, Augustus IV had completely given up on Josh, and his attention toward him steadily dwindled. Of course, he did not let his child suffer any hardship. Nothing that Josh should have received was withheld from him. At the very least, Josh had another fairly decent childhood.

Then, ten years later, after Josh celebrated his sixteenth birthday, Augustus IV decided to send him away from Caesarea, the Imperial Capital, to become a proper landowner somewhere else—no, a lord. Josh did not resist the arrangement. Ever since he had become seemingly useless, many people had looked down on him. Though he had not suffered much mistreatment, things had not been particularly pleasant either. So it made no difference where he went.

Thus, after his sixteenth birthday, Josh bid farewell to his father, Augustus IV, and his mother. Led by guards, he arrived at the place where he now lived—Constantinople. He had paused when he first heard the name, because it sounded remarkably similar to the name of a city in Turkey from his memories. It might have been due to the English translation, but the impression had remained deep.

Constantinople was not as miserable as Josh had imagined. At least, his father had not cheated him too badly. This place could only be considered extremely backward. Of course, backwardness meant poverty, and Josh knew that well. However, because of his status as a prince, the local nobles still treated him with great respect. At least, he lived reasonably well, though it could not compare to his life in the Imperial Capital.

"Am I really going to be useless for the rest of my life?" Josh sighed helplessly. Even the noodles before him, covered in fresh tomato sauce, tasted bland. In such a poor and backward place, tomato sauce was considered a luxury that only nobles could enjoy.

Having lost his appetite, Josh shook the bell on the table. A maid soon came up and cleared everything away. This was a rigidly hierarchical society, and servants had no rights at all. Josh was not used to such things. Even after sixteen years here, he still could not get used to having someone standing beside him while he ate. So whenever he dined alone, he dismissed all the servants, making himself more comfortable. At least then he would not feel uneasy with servants standing nearby, nor would anyone correct him for lacking noble manners.

Well, the second point was rather important.

Returning silently to his room, Josh habitually sat on the bed and began meditating. He could clearly feel the mana in his body boiling as all kinds of elemental magic entered his body, only to be kicked out immediately.

Yes, kicked out. It was as though the mana within his body simply did not welcome other magical elements. This gave Josh an enormous headache, but there was nothing he could do about it.

With a sigh, Josh raised one hand before his eyes. Soon, a sphere of Silver Mana appeared in his palm, strange and dazzling. Unfortunately, the sphere was completely useless. Josh had tried throwing it at targets before, but it vanished the moment it touched them. It was useless to the extreme, without even the slightest bit of destructive power.

"Am I going to become the disgrace of transmigrators?"

Josh collapsed onto the bed and wailed helplessly. This was simply too embarrassing. In his memories, there did not seem to be any transmigrator more unfortunate than him. Even the founder of the trash-to-legend genre, that guy whose Battle Qi had been absorbed for three years, turning him into a good-for-nothing before his engagement was publicly broken off, had eventually risen to greatness, had he not? Yet Josh seemed to have remained exactly the same for the past ten years, without changing at all.

"What the hell is going on? Even if someone's trying to mess with me, this is too much."

Josh complained weakly as he once more condensed his mana in his hand. He truly could not accept that he was really nothing but trash. His life was still relatively peaceful and comfortable, but after being steeped in web novels for so many years, he was unwilling to simply be written off like this. He had to try, at least.

"Could the disgrace of transmigrators really fall on my head?"

Mana continuously gathered, and the sphere in his hand grew larger and larger. Gradually, Josh felt as though he was nearing complete exhaustion, but he did not give up. He began trying to compress the sphere in his hand, compressing it without pause.

The sphere, originally nearly the size of a watermelon, gradually shrank, becoming smaller and smaller. Only when it reached the size of a baseball did Josh stop. He had no choice but to stop, because the mana in his body had been drained dry. At the same time, his head began to spin, as though telling him that his spiritual power had also run dry.

"Is this really as far as I can go?"

Josh looked at the ball of light in his hand and thought to himself. Soon, however, he decided to test its power. He barely adjusted his position, aimed the light ball at the desk beside him, and threw it. Unfortunately, he was already exhausted and could not keep his footing. With a thud, he fell to the floor.

"Damn it!"

Josh groaned as he lay facedown on the ground, watching helplessly as the ball of light exploded before his eyes. Then he lost consciousness once again.