Sasha stood up unsteadily.His clothes — a light sand-colored tunic with golden edges — were soaked with dew, and the cold bit through to his bones. He tried to remember who this character was in the story he knew. The memory of the body he now inhabited gave him some fragments:
Sasha Everin. The second son of a noble house fallen into disgrace after the last war against the dark elves. A young man without remarkable skills and without a promising future. A character who, according to the novel he had read, only served as background: an "extra" who never got to see the true story.
He sighed.That rainy night in his former world had changed everything. Part of him wanted to scream in fear of the uncertainty. But another, deeper part, vibrated with excitement:He had a map of the future in his memory. He knew what events would shake the world and when.
He looked at his hands. For the first time, he felt the warmth of the latent energy flowing through his spiritual core.— "I'm not going to be just an extra," he murmured.
Determined, he walked through the trees toward the nearest town.It was Fariens, a modest village nestled among mountains that, in a few months, would suffer the first great disaster at the start of the story. An unknown beast would emerge from the forest and lay waste to everything in its path. That gave him time to train.
When he arrived at the village, everything looked just as he remembered: merchants setting up their stalls, soldiers patrolling the walls. A small child ran between the stands, an old man read a scroll in a corner, and the sound of the blacksmith hammering metal marked the rhythm of the place.
Sasha felt a strange mixture of nostalgia and vertigo.He headed to the house that, according to his new memories, belonged to him: a simple two-story dwelling on the outskirts of the village.There he lived alone, shunned by his own family who, unable to recognize his worth, had left him to his fate.
— "Alright," he said, closing the door behind him. "Then we start here."
The young man clenched his fists.He had to grow stronger fast.He needed to understand his spiritual core, earn money to pay an instructor, and above all, devise a plan to warn the important figures when the time came. Yet, first things first:
He sat on the floor, crossed his legs, and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath.He felt warmth in his lower abdomen and focused his attention there, letting his consciousness explore that core.It was like a small glowing sphere slowly turning, waiting to be fed.
— "Elemental energy," he said to himself, recalling the book's terminology. "The foundation of power in this world."
For a few minutes, he tried to channel his energy to flow through his body. At first, he only felt a slight current coming and going. But after focusing on his breathing and staying calm, he felt that current begin to respond to his will.
He smiled.It wouldn't be easy. But he wasn't alone either.His advantage was knowing what threats were coming and which opportunities to seize.
In his heart, a spark of determination shone brightly.
"This time... fate won't just drag me along," Sasha thought."This time, I will choose my story."