Dago and Transmigration

At noon, the blazing sun hung high overhead, and pure white sunlight scorched the boundless Emerald Forest.

It was enormous, like a breathing god nurturing all things.

Zooming in, beside a small lake in some corner of the Emerald Forest, a young man lying beneath a large tree like a corpse suddenly sat bolt upright. Damn it, he had risen from the dead.

He looked seventeen or eighteen, with black hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and a thin build.

Beside him lay a glass vial containing a trace of pale purple liquid.

Suddenly, he braced himself against the ground with both hands and sprawled over the grass, dry-heaving violently.

Only after a long while did he recover, rolling onto his back in the grass.

"...Anyway... I think... I transmigrated."

He muttered in a halting voice. It was not Chinese, yet it was a language he could understand and speak.

Then he viciously slapped himself twice across the face. The fiery sting told him that this was not a dream.

He was tense and terrified now. He had even thought about calling 110 to ask the cops for help.

In his previous life, he had merely been an ordinary office drone. He neither smoked nor drank heavily. He only vaguely remembered the final memory that had flashed through his mind... the Universiade.

Anyway, he had transmigrated.

There was an extra lifetime of memories in his mind, along with these robes, this face... Even this body was no longer his original one!

He let out a mournful sigh. It was not some deep-seated grief, merely the resentment of a frustrated man.

Every world mercilessly crushed every ordinary individual. Heaven and earth were indifferent, treating all things like stray dogs!

What could he do if he refused to accept the fate of being an extra? Jump into the lake now and gamble on whether he could transmigrate back?

He told himself not to be stupid and to calmly accept this life.

Dago Heka. That was the former owner's name, and it would soon become his name as well. It was the mark of his life continuing anew.

Enduring the intense pain in his head, he accepted the former owner's fragmented, chaotic memories.

After a long time, he controlled his trembling body and sat up again. Picking up the glass vial from the ground, he stared fixedly at the liquid inside.

Some black matter still bobbed up and down in the remaining pale purple liquid.

This was the culprit behind the former owner's sudden death: a shoddy Mental Potion mixed with some unknown substance.

Oh, right. This was a world with supernatural power, and quite a potent one at that, greatly influencing the course of the world.

Dago Heka had been born into a farming family in a remote town under the jurisdiction of the Wizard Alliance. His family had been ordinary farmers for generations.

At sixteen, he had been discovered to possess "Low-Grade Wizard Talent" during a wizard census and had been sent by the local lord to the distant Ainak Wizard Academy to learn how to become a wizard.

Ainak Wizard Academy was located atop a modest mountain in the Emerald Forest. It was one of the countless minor members of the Wizard Alliance, and its sphere of influence within the alliance was pitifully small.

But to ordinary people, the academy was still an insurmountable mountain.

The entire academy mountain lay beneath a massive runic protective barrier, peaceful and tranquil. It was a place that little wizard apprentices like Dago dreamed of climbing.

At the foot of the mountain stood Aina Town, built around Ainak Wizard Academy and serving as an important supply point for the academy.

The town was managed and protected by wizards in their leisure time, so order was relatively stable.

Dago was one of the academy's countless entry-level apprentice wizards, existing at the very bottom of the wizard ecosystem.

According to the former owner's memories, apprentice wizards were divided into three levels, each marked by different milestones.

The main task of a Tier-One Apprentice Wizard was to cultivate the Meditation Method and sense the existence of spiritual power.

They were the lowest rung of the entire wizard ecosystem. At the academy, Tier-One Apprentice Wizards were not even qualified to live on the mountain.

More importantly, a Level-Two Apprentice had to sense spiritual power and advance to the Second-Level Apprentice Wizard stage before turning eighteen.

Dago was already seventeen and a half this year, and he had been stuck as a Tier-One Apprentice Wizard for a full year and a half.

That was enough to show just how low-grade his Low-Grade Wizard Talent truly was!

Sometimes, he had even suspected that he had been scammed by some capital scheme, wasting so much money and time only to end up with a slightly more flexible mind.

So, during the final half year, he had frantically swallowed enormous amounts of medicine. He did not want to return to an ordinary life.

For someone who had lived in darkness and seen the light, who would want to go back into the dark?

Over the past half year, he had spent most of his savings until he was completely drained. In the end, he had been reduced to using only inferior potions to practice the Meditation Method.

As the saying went, if you walked by the river often enough, your shoes were bound to get wet.

In his memories, he had come to the large tree by the little lake as usual today. After closing his eyes and drinking this potion containing black matter, he had begun sitting in meditation.

Yet unexpectedly, that black matter had appeared in his Mental Space. Like cancer cells, it had rapidly multiplied and spread through the former owner's Mental Space.

Until it had transformed into a pitch-black abyssal sea and swallowed the former owner's soul consciousness within the Mental Space.

"What the hell is this? What kind of world is this? You just drop dead over nothing?"

After reviewing the memories from before the former owner's soul had been annihilated, cold sweat poured down Dago's body. This world was far too dangerous!

It took him a long time to soothe his wounded little heart with countless motivational sayings from his previous life before he gradually calmed down.

In the end, he decided to first avenge the former owner. No, that person was now his enemy too: the black-hearted merchant in town who had killed the former owner.

Otherwise, many other First-Level Wizard Apprentices like him would fall for the same trick and die without ever knowing why.

He slowly walked toward the shallow shore by the lake, casually taking off his two deerskin boots and tossing them onto the grass beside him.

Rolling up the hem and sleeves of his robe, he stepped into the lake before him one step at a time.

The icy water covered his ankles and slowly wrapped around his calves.

Dago bent down, scooped up some water, and splashed it over his face. He immediately felt refreshed, and his whole body relaxed.

On the rippling surface of the water, the swaying reflection of a handsome young man appeared: black hair, sharp brows, blue eyes...

But those azure eyes were utterly lifeless. His skin was dull and sallow, his face slightly swollen, and two dark circles beneath his eyes were especially noticeable. He gave off the air of a hollow young master.

"What a waste of such a good face. If I had looked like this in my previous life and worked as a male escort, I'd have made a fortune long ago."

Dago said resentfully, but then he broke into a grin. It was all his now.

He kicked the water, scattering his reflection, then slowly turned and headed for the green grass along the shore.

After gathering his scattered belongings, he prepared to return to the "home" from the former owner's memories.

The former owner had originally rented a place in the town's civilian district. After pouring all his money into advancing, he had become so poor that he could no longer afford rent and had been forced to leave, ending up on the streets.

In the end, an old hunter named Roland had taken pity on him and given him a shelter in the forest outside town to live in.

Dago planned to stay at the shelter for now and strive to advance to a Second-Level Apprentice Wizard as soon as possible.

The former owner, who had never had much of a social life to begin with, had thus completely begun living alone in seclusion.

Following the route to the shelter from the former owner's memories, he wound through the quiet forest before finally arriving at a dirt slope covered in dead branches and rotting leaves. He stopped.

It was a small stone hut built against the hillside, concealed beneath dead branches.

This was the former owner's current home, and from now on, it was his home too.

Looking at the tightly shut wooden door, Dago felt a faint sense of security rise within him.

Dago fumbled out a brass key from his cloth bag and opened the wooden door, which was more symbolic than practical.

When he entered, the hut was stuffy and damp. A faint haze of smoke lingered in the air, and some insect-repelling grass was still smoldering in the stone-built fireplace.

Insect-repelling grass was common vegetation in wilderness forests and one of the most indispensable resources for survival in the wild.

The smoke produced by smoldering it could drive away most insects and beasts in the forest.

The hut was dimly lit. Its roof was made of thick tree trunks, and the entire space was small, only seven or eight square meters at most.

There were only a few basic necessities inside: a small wooden bed, a table, chairs and stools, a rice jar, a water vat...

That was basically all there was. It was extremely crude.

Dago went to the water vat, scooped up a ladle of water with a wooden dipper, sat on a stool, and gulped down several mouthfuls.

He did not dare drink the water from the small lake. In the wilderness, parasitic infections were the most dangerous thing.

On the wooden table was some leftover blackened hard bread from the former owner's meal.

Dago did not care about anything else. He grabbed the black bread and began wolfing it down.

This was no time to worry about manners. The black bread injected a trace of vitality into this withered body.

A faint, intermittent pain still came from deep within his mind, as though it wanted to tear his entire head apart.

The former owner's soul had been annihilated, while countless memory fragments had flooded into his mind.

His head was a complete mess because of it. He could only rub his temples, trying to drive some of the pain from his head.

"Runes," "Wizard Alliance," "Ainak Wizard Academy," "Bloodline Origins," "The Age of Change"... These chaotic memories darted wildly through his mind.

The most important thing now was sorting through the sudden flood of information in his head—adapting to his new identity, his family, and the layout of the town and forest.

As for Ainak Wizard Academy, sorry, the former owner had never truly even set foot through its gates.

For a Tier-One Apprentice Wizard like the former owner, with neither talent nor money, the academy considered even accepting him a waste of space.

The Meditation Method he practiced now was the common Universal Wizard Meditation Method bought in town, and even that had cost quite a bit of money.

What a complete sucker!

In Ainak Wizard Academy's eyes, these Tier-One Apprentice Wizards were like chives ready for harvest. Cut one batch, and another would grow.

They called it: the path lies beneath one's feet. Only apprentice wizards who independently cultivated spiritual power were worthy of entering the academy for further study.

To put it bluntly, the academy only accepted apprentice wizards with money or talent.

Second-Level Apprentice Wizards were the first threshold into the wizarding world.

They would receive registration and certification from the Wizard Alliance, allowing them to learn spells and pry open a corner of the wizarding world's gate.

The Wizard Alliance had a mandatory rule: anyone who failed to advance to a Second-Level Wizard Apprentice before eighteen would never again be registered or certified in their lifetime.

"So this was why you were willing to risk your life to become a Second-Level Wizard Apprentice within half a year."

Dago sighed sadly.

This was the deepest obsession left behind by the former owner in his mind: he had to embark on the wizard's path, and he had to advance to a Second-Level Wizard Apprentice within half a year.

"Fine, I promise you. I'll exhaust every possible means to reach Level Two within half a year!"

Dago silently recited in his heart.

Suddenly, he felt the pain in his head lessen considerably.

Dago's expression shifted. It seemed that some of the former owner's lingering resentment had dissipated.

"Looks like I really have no choice now. I'll have to make it work, even if I can't."

Dago's expression eased somewhat. After the emotional upheaval, combined with the dark, stifling hut, he suddenly felt exhausted.

He walked straight to the wooden bed. Too lazy even to take off his clothes, he collapsed onto it and fell into a deep sleep.