Forged in Magic: Secrets of Astraeloria

Ryusei was an unremarkable young man in his late teens. His unruly, dark hair and deep, thoughtful eyes concealed a world of curiosity. In the bustling city, he led a fairly ordinary life. By day, he had to study hard so that he could get into a good university. By night, he nurtured his dreams of one-day becoming a successful novelist. He's a story writer in web-novel. But his story is not very famous and he was frustrated. He always wanted to give up but there was always some hope in his heart and continued writing.

For the most part, his life was utterly uneventful. But that was about to change.

One night, Ryusei found himself transported to an eerie, otherworldly landscape. A pale, blue light washed over him, casting elongated shadows across a desolate landscape. Strange whispers seemed to emanate from the very air he breathed. It felt surreal and unnatural.

Once he saw countless dead bodies. Then he saw a big eye in the sky looking down the world as if he's looking down on everything in the world. Suddenly a light beam was shot from the eye and Ryusei saw a golden haired boy with a sword in his hand roared towards the eye in despair and shot towards the beam of light.

Ryusei saw this scene and he felt discomfort in his heart. It felt like he himself is in dispair and wanted to held him. But the scene changed in front of him and he was in the center of this strange landscape lay an ancient, leather-bound book. The pages were adorned with cryptic symbols that seemed to shift and writhe. Ryusei's heart pounded as he reached for the book. His fingers were trembling. He opened the book out of curiosity but something in his mind felt uneasy.

After opening the book he saw many things written in the book but couldn't understand anything. He struggled to decipher the symbols, a nagging feeling that he was missing something important gnawing at him. The urgency grew, and just as he thought he was on the verge of understanding, the dream shifted.

Night after night, the disturbing dreams persisted. Each one was more vivid and unsettling than the last. Ryusei became consumed by an insatiable need to decipher their meaning.

He stopped studying, neglected his friends, and distanced himself from his family. His apartment became cluttered with notes, drawings, and strange symbols as he attempted to decode the messages from his dreams. His once-joyful life crumbled around him, replaced by an all-encompassing obsession.

His emotions oscillated between confusion, fear, and determination. He felt like he was on the brink of a revelation, and nothing else mattered.

As days turned into weeks, Ryusei's erratic behavior became a cause for concern among his friends and family. They gathered one evening, sharing worried glances, and decided to confront him.

Inside his cluttered apartment, they expressed their concerns, pleading with him to seek help or, at the very least, take a break from the relentless pursuit of his dreams. Ryusei's response was defensive, almost hostile. He insisted that he was on the verge of uncovering something incredible, something that could change everything.

The confrontation ended in frustration, leaving Ryusei even more isolated.

Amidst the chaos of his obsession, Ryusei began to experience strange flashbacks from his childhood. Memories long forgotten, events buried deep in the recesses of his mind, resurfaced. These fragments of the past hinted at a connection between his current predicament and events from his early life.

Ryusei was puzzled but lacked the clarity to piece it all together. He could remember the events but everything was blurry, they felt real and the next moment they felt unreal.

So the depressed Ryusei was one day seen in the college library with a pile of books. He was known among his peers for his quiet demeanor and his passion for literature, often found lost in the worlds of classic novels.

On the sunny afternoon, as he sat alone in the college library, absorbed in a book, he heard a gentle, melodious laughter that caught his attention. He looked up, and there, across the aisle, stood a girl with a bright laughter on her face.

The girl was a vision of vibrancy, her laughter contagious. With her long, flowing hair and a smile that could light up even the dullest of days, she had an aura of warmth that drew people toward her like moths to a flame.

Their eyes met, and something unexplainable sparked between them. The girl with the outgoing spirit, approached Ryusei with a friendly greeting.

Sakura said Smilingly, "Hey, lost in a world of your own, huh?"

Ryusei replied blushingly, "Oh. Ah.... umm, No. But I guess you could say that."

The girl laughed amusingly. She introduced herself as Sakura. We started chatting and I came to know that she's a year senior to me.

Ryusei discovered that Sakura shared his love for literature, and they quickly found common ground discussing their favorite authors and novels. It felt as if they were two souls destined to meet in the world of books.

From that day forward, Ryusei and Sakura became inseparable on campus, sharing not only their passion for literature but also their dreams, fears, and aspirations. Their connection deepened, and college life took on a new and exciting meaning.

As weeks turned into months, the dreams started to fade. Their once-vivid details blurred in Ryusei's memory. He began to question the significance of it all, wondering if he had merely imagined the entire ordeal. He felt like it was just a dream why I had to make this much fuss over a dream just like those crazy scientists I have heard of.

Life gradually returned to a semblance of normalcy, but the lingering unease from the dreams remained, like a distant echo, a prelude to the inexplicable events yet to unfold.