On the Brink of Death

"Damn! Damn! DAMN!!" Victor was on his last leg, and his hand pressed hard against a deep, dark wound on his stomach. His clothes were drenched in blood as he used his magic to try to control the bleeding. 

The sun was on the horizon, bathing him in its ominous orange glow as he limped through an eerie forest filled with a chorus of strange noises. His body bore the marks of a recent betrayal inflicted by the very fellow acolytes he once called friends. The pain was intense and unrelenting.

Just for a broken artifact, they betrayed him. He couldn't believe that they unleashed a forbidden spell to try to get rid of him for good and take the artifact for themselves. However, thanks to a defensive magic tool given to him by his family, he had managed to escape, albeit gravely injured. Granted, it was an artifact that held unimaginable value that even Nexus Temporal Magi would covet, but he hadn't expected his friends to turn on him like this. How naïve his thought was.

"Mark my words!" Victor growled, his voice laced with determination and an unyielding resolve. "If I manage to get out of this wretched place, I swear upon my very being that vengeance will be mine!" Gritting his teeth, he summoned every last ounce of strength, pushing his body to its absolute limits.

Fueled by his determination, Victor navigated the sinister forest, its dense foliage whispering ominous secrets. Shadows danced between gnarled trees, concealing lurking creatures and hidden perils. Every step he took sent a searing pain through his wounded body, but the will to survive burned bright within him.

As a third-stage Initiate Attunement acolyte, he had a better-than-average constitution, but he was reaching his limit. The vast expanse of the Thornwood Forest made it increasingly difficult to discern the path to the exit, and the poison in his system from the spell was causing his consciousness to flicker in and out, leaving him disoriented and unable to distinguish left from right.

But then, just when he thought he couldn't go on, a clearing materialized before his eyes, a respite from the oppressive darkness of the forest. An old building stood within the heart of this eerie woodland, captivating his attention.

"A-An academy?" Victor's weary eyes widened as he took in the sight before him. Another person might've confused the old building for something else, but he was an acolyte. Simply looking at magical traces here allowed him to deduce what that building was… This didn't erase the strange, out-of-place feeling, however. 

"Why's there a Magus academy here, of all places? No… it looks like it has been abandoned… and there's only one building." The structure, strangely well-preserved, held an aura of mystery and intrigue. It seemed to beckon to him, promising shelter and, perhaps, answers to his troubles.

Right now, he had no choice but to check out the building and maybe look for an antidote. Or else, he would just die here… Gathering his last bit of strength, he moved forward, determined to survive this ordeal.

As he drew closer, the details of the structure became clearer. Constructed out of marble, the walls looked majestic. The crystal-clear windows reflecting moonlight made no indication of it ever been abandoned at all. It stood like a beacon of hope against the storm of his darkest hour.

Victor didn't know clearly what happened after he ventured into the building. He just walked and walked and walked, his steps guided solely by his instinct to press forward. It wasn't until he saw a peculiar sight that he stopped. A floating cuboid structure, encircled by intricate ring-like magic patterns, stood atop a pedestal. Its presence broke through the fog in his mind, offering a momentary clarity.

"What is this—? Cough! Uhk!" The poison finally took its toll, dirty blood dripping from the edge of Victor's mouth. At last, his body fell flat to the ground, his hand touching the edge of the pedestal…

As his consciousness waned, a brilliant light became the final fleeting image etched into Victor's memory.

***

"I didn't die?" was what Victor uttered as soon as he came to his senses. "It wasn't a dream?" He looked at the structure in front of him, perplexed.

He then clambered to his feet, noticing that his body didn't hurt in the slightest. Bleeding wounds all over his body, especially his stomach, had gone without a trace; even the poison coursing through his body was gone. Stranger still, his blood-stained and perforated robe and clothes looked as good as new.

"Aaagh!!" Suddenly, an intense headache assaulted him, and he clutched his head as he rolled on the ground in pain. Foreign memories flooded his brain like a torrent of water bursting from a dam. From childhood to adulthood, the memories were so clear and vivid, as though they were his own.

When the pain subsided, Victor stared at the ceiling and said, "I… I am… Simon Anderson. And I… come from Earth… Right. That was my name… my origin." The words carried a mixture of confusion and a newfound understanding of the realization that hit him.

The two memories had collided and finally fused into one. Victor ultimately remembered his past life — a graduate from an average university who had just joined an IT company. Who would have thought that an excessive intake of caffeine and an overdose of spreadsheets could catapult him into a whole new dimension? Sigh… the same fate almost befalls me here…

In any case, he had lived in a world of Magi called Seraphia as Victor from the Magus family of Asteriscus for eighteen whole years… So, the identity of Simon Anderson was of little concern to him. But still, how come he remembered his past life? More importantly, why was he still alive after what he had gone through?

The answers to these two questions were answered by the two lines of text that suddenly appeared in front of him. 

[Magus Academy System integration successful.]

[You have been registered as the headmaster of this academy. Since it has no name at the moment, you are free to give it a name.]

"Whoa! What is this, a hologram?" The sudden notification took Victor aback, but he remained inwardly calm and stood up. After all, he had regained his past life memory, so there was nothing strange about this development.

"Congratulations, Master! You have been chosen as the headmaster of this academy. I'm happy to give you every assistance I can!" Like a bolt from the blue, a high-pitched voice appeared from behind him. 

"Wh-Who's speaking?!" Victor stumbled backward this time. He turned on his heels in haste and couldn't help but have his jaws drop.

"It is I, a cute ol' me!" The floating creature who pridefully hit her chest was a fairy. A mythical being said to have disappeared tens of millennia ago. "Surprised to see a fairy?"

The fairy stood petite, just a tad smaller than a Barbie doll, with flowing hair split evenly between striking black and luminous white. Her delicate, doll-like face radiated beauty, with porcelain-white skin that accentuated her enchanting features, which were covered by a pretty dress in a color similar to her hair. Her eyes captivated all who beheld them, adorned with brilliant golden pupils that mysteriously gleamed. Furthermore, the pair of beautiful, pristine butterfly wings on her back fluttered erratically.

Despite her appearance, Victor was sure of one thing: This fairy knew the answers he was seeking.

"A bit. More importantly, who are you…? Why do I remember my past life, and why am I alive? Not that I'm complaining."

"So impatient, are you?" The fairy giggled, her melodic voice tinkling through the air. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Lizbeth, an assistant to the headmaster of this academy. I shall guide you in your endeavor to make this academy the greatest there is in the whole universe! Oh, and I will also elucidate every facet of the Magus Academy System to its very core."

With a mischievous glimmer in her golden eyes, Lizbeth continued, "But first, I will commemorate this moment with a speech… …Together, we shall weave a legacy that will shine across—"

"I see…" Finding that there was no end to the speech, Victor interjected, "Is there no way to refuse?" Usually, people in Victor's previous world would undoubtedly accept such an offer, thinking that it was a "cheat." However, as someone who was reincarnated into this world, he knew better than them.

As if being rinsed by a bucket of icy-cold water, Lizbeth snapped. "Whaaat?! Of course not! How long do you think I've been waiting for this moment?!"

"Calm down… I mean, after all, I'm only at the third-stage Initiate Attunement…" Even the academy he studied at — the Arcane Radiance College — had Elemental Adept Magi as the lowest level of professors. 

To put it into perspective, there would be no one stupid enough to join an academy with an Initiate Attunement acolyte as the headmaster. Never mind recruiting geniuses, even the most desperate candidates would be repulsed by the idea of joining. 

"Look, the moment you are registered as the headmaster of this academy, your life is intrinsically tied to its existence. Should the academy fall, your own demise shall follow. Consider this: Why do you think you still draw breath despite enduring severe poisoning and sustaining grievous wounds?"

"Seriously?!" Victor's heart sank… Wouldn't it be scary if some high-ranking Magi battled around this place and inadvertently razed it to the ground?

"I'm dead serious." She smiled at him. A smile that said a thousand words and was more menacing than everything Victor ever saw. Scary…

But after thinking for a long time, this wasn't a totally bad thing. It was a System cheat, after all; there was no way for it to be useless. All he had to do was man up and face the challenges coming his way so that he could one day claim what was his.

Finding that this was the only way forward, Victor asked to confirm one thing, "But how am I supposed to gather acolytes for this academy?" Well, he couldn't just recruit some random peasants, could he?

As if waiting for that question, Lizbeth's mouth turned into a condescending arc, and she answered, "Hmm-hmm! Simple! You can summon 'players' into this world."