"It hurts..."
That was the first thing he felt when he woke!
His whole body felt as though it was falling apart, waves of agony coursing through every inch of him!
He forced his eyes open and took a look at his surroundings.
He was in an unfamiliar little wooden cabin. A warm fire burned in the fireplace opposite him, and garish wallpaper covered the walls...
"I'm not dead?" He struggled to sit up and murmured, "Where am I?"
His last memories surfaced one by one: the car that couldn't brake on the snowy road, his body crushed beneath it as it ran over him... With injuries that severe, even if he had survived, surely he should have been in a hospital?
The little cabin before him had a distinctly medieval feel. It bore no resemblance whatsoever to a hospital.
"Karin, you're awake?" A concerned voice came from outside, followed by a figure rushing into the cabin.
His mind instantly descended into chaos as countless unfamiliar memories flooded in!
A slender figure, golden hair, handsome features, and a pair of pointed ears at the temples... Karin studied the humanoid who had rushed in, then glanced at his own reflection in the mirror.
"An elf?" He couldn't help thinking of a race that existed only in novels, films, and games.
"Karin, how are you feeling?" The elf opposite him walked over and asked with concern.
Karin covered his face with both hands and said, a little panicked, "Please give me a moment... My head's a bit of a mess right now..."
Could this be... transmigration?
The memories in his mind slowly began to sort themselves out. His name was Karin Sunfury, and he had been born in Sunsail Anchorage in Quel'Thalas. He was a very young peripheral member of the Sunfury family!
Quel'Thalas from World of Warcraft?
So I'm a blood elf now?
No, a high elf... A glance at the pale blue eyes in the mirror confirmed it.
"Thank you, Oliver!" Karin turned back and gave the elf opposite him a grateful look. In his hazy memories, Oliver had helped him a great deal over the past few days while he was injured.
Oliver Sunfury was also a peripheral member of the Sunfury family. In terms of kinship, he could even be considered Karin's older cousin... Both were perfectly ordinary mage apprentices, working toward becoming true elven mages.
"It was nothing. Happy to help!" Oliver smiled faintly, but his expression changed a moment later. "Those people really were brutal, though. Thank goodness for the Sunwell's protection... You know, Karin, when I saw how badly you'd been beaten three days ago, I thought you wouldn't make it!"
"Beaten?" Karington's expression changed as well. Had someone inflicted all these injuries on him?
"Yes!" Oliver spread his hands helplessly. "But Karin, I really don't know what got into you. You actually used the Midsummer Festival bonfire celebration to confess your feelings to Miss Vereesa. That was just..."
"Midsummer Festival? Bonfire celebration? Confess my feelings?" Karin felt his head begin to ache again. It seemed the original owner of this body had no desire to revisit those memories.
"Who is Miss Vereesa? She's the most delicate rose of the Windrunner family. Her mother and both her older sisters are among Quel'Thalas's finest rangers!" Oliver said with a touch of self-mockery:
"Unless she were blind, why would she ever take an interest in half-baked mage apprentices like us... The Midsummer Festival bonfire celebration is meant for male and female elves to court each other, sure, but you, Karin, confessed so bluntly and crudely in front of all those people. Miss Vereesa showed considerable restraint by only slapping you..."
As Oliver described what had happened, the painful memories in Karin's mind gradually grew clearer.
It was a thoroughly clichéd story. A quiet, taciturn mage apprentice had fallen for a radiant young ranger, and that hopelessly mismatched love should have stayed quietly buried in his heart! But after a certain "close friend" egged him on, he had worked up the courage to confess to her during the Midsummer Festival bonfire celebration...
The ending hadn't been as perfect as a fairy tale. The young ranger had scornfully rejected the mage apprentice's advances, and her many furious suitors had used the cover of night to beat the poor apprentice black and blue!
"Why is it just like those novels? Transmigrate to Quel'Thalas, and you always end up tangled up with the Windrunner women!" Karin muttered helplessly... And his luck clearly wasn't nearly as good as that of all those fictional "protagonists" who were the Windrunners' "childhood sweethearts"!
"Karin, what are you talking about?" Oliver asked in confusion beside him.
"N-nothing!"
"Karin, look at me!" Oliver suddenly stared straight into his eyes. "With your personality, why would you suddenly make such a bold confession? Did someone put you up to it?"
At Oliver's words, a shadow suddenly passed through Karin's eyes.
That was right. Karin Sunfury was universally considered the most withdrawn, most timid elf in the entire Apprentice Horde. He even stammered when speaking in front of a crowd. A few days ago, nobody could have imagined him daring to do something like this!
The shadow vanished in an instant. Karin smiled and said, "It was nothing. I just had a sudden lapse in judgment..."
"Well, Karin, you'll have to look out for yourself!" Oliver shook his head helplessly. "I left food on the table outside. You've been unconscious for days, so take a moment to recover, then get something to eat... I'll head back now..."
Watching Oliver leave, Karin couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief!
Fortunately, he hadn't given himself away during their conversation. If Oliver realized that the person inside this body was no longer the old Karin Sunfury, but a soul from another world, things would get ugly!
"And what about you?" Once he had calmed down, Karin slowly murmured to himself, "What are you?"
Ever since waking up, he had felt that something was wrong. There seemed to be something inside his mind... More frighteningly, it appeared to possess a consciousness of its own.
He simply hadn't been able to address it with Oliver around.
"Oh, esteemed twenty-seventh master, you've finally noticed my existence!" A shrill voice sounded in his mind. "The All-Knowing Eye is delighted to be at your service!"
"The All-Knowing Eye? What the hell is that?" Karin frowned.
"Please allow me to introduce myself. The All-Knowing Eye is a legendary magical construct from Feyrun. My creator, and also my first master, was Kassas, an archmage of Netheril! In the year 3520 of the era, he created the All-Knowing Eye using the brain matter of a golden dragon and stored his lifetime of knowledge within me!"
"Kassas! You mean the only mage in the world of Feyrun who ever killed a god?" Karin asked quietly.
"Bingo! To think Lord Kassas's fame has spread far and wide even in other worlds!" the All-Knowing Eye said proudly. "Of course, after Lord Kassas ultimately failed in his use of the Twelfth Ring spell 'Kassas's Avatar,' he tragically perished, and the All-Knowing Eye was left amid the ruins of Netheril..."
"A young second-ring novice mage named Sanris Eclair, the All-Knowing Eye's second master, found me in the ruins. With my help, he reached the ninth ring within thirty years... But he was defeated by another ninth-ring mage in a magical duel. Naturally, that mage became the All-Knowing Eye's third master..."
"Stop, hold it..." Karin shouted. "I don't want to hear your glorious history. I just want to know why you're in my head!"
"Oh, that? Please allow me to explain!" The All-Knowing Eye paused, then continued, "The All-Knowing Eye's twenty-sixth master was a Ninth Ring mage skilled in teleportation spells. In exchange for a fresh unicorn corpse, he purchased ownership of the All-Knowing Eye from another mage, my twenty-fifth master..."
"Stop..."
"All right, my apologies. I'll get there shortly... However, the All-Knowing Eye's twenty-sixth master had an extremely low luck stat. Shortly after acquiring me, he suffered an accident while casting a teleportation spell and inadvertently teleported himself into the Abyss (known in the terminology of your plane as the Twisting Nether). Naturally, the Eye of Truth was also left adrift in the Twisting Nether!"
"As a Legendary Magical Creation, the All-Knowing Eye possesses some ability to resist being devoured by the Twisting Nether, though that resistance would not have lasted much longer! Then, three days ago, I happened to discover your soul drifting through the Twisting Nether. Driven by a Legendary Magical Creation's basic desire to survive, the All-Knowing Eye attached myself without hesitation to you, my host and twenty-seventh master!" the shrill voice said courteously:
"Theoretically speaking, your soul was extremely weak at the time. My calculations indicated a 99.99997% chance that it would be completely devoured by the Twisting Nether within one minute. However, 5.24 seconds after the All-Knowing Eye attached myself to you, your soul's power suddenly surged. You simultaneously broke free of the Twisting Nether's restraints and returned to the material plane... My apologies, but the All-Knowing Eye cannot explain this phenomenon using my existing magical knowledge!"
"The above constitutes the All-Knowing Eye's complete history before attaching myself to you!"