Waking Up At Unfamiliar Place

"I've found his soul... I'll bring it back now."

Arthur opened his eyes to find himself in a strange place, where he had never been before. He was sitting on an enormous bed with many decorations on the walls.

The pattern of the decorations wasn't something familiar to him, and neither were the paintings on the walls that had some weird writings on them.

"Oh boy, thank god you are awake, I thought… I thought you were gone, but I didn't give up hope that you would wake up," said a middle-aged man who ran to Arthur to hug him. 

The man had olive green eyes and frizzy strawberry blonde hair that Arthur could feel prickling into his sensitive skin. The man kept saying how relieved he was that Arthur finally awoke, but Arthur felt his throat drying up while his body went numb. 

Arthur was so confused but he didn't voice his confusion as he knew that he would have to play this smart as his mind assessed the current situation as usual, with calmness and logic.

The first thing to do was gather the facts of the situation, and the first fact he knew was his name and that his history was still the same. 

He was Arthur, a revolutionary cultivator who sought to improve the world to make sure that human life flourished. 

He then recalled the previous events, trying to find something that might help him understand his current situation and why he woke up in a place he has never been before. 

The last thing he remembered was the harsh ablaze lightning striking his head as heaven's punishment for his groundbreaking breakthrough. 

However, when he tried to recall the events with more focus and determination, a distant eerie soft voice whispered in his ears:

'Challenging heavens means death.'

He sat still in his place, frozen for a moment without knowing what to think. All the facts pointed straight towards one thing:

'Heavens killed me and I have been reincarnated, but as who?' The question swirled in Arthurs mind.

"Doctor Mond, can you check his health, please? I know I have asked you many things lately. However, I'm very grateful for saving my child, Willy. My clan, the Golden Lion clan, is forever indebted to you. Should you need anything, all you would have to do is ask and I would do everything in my power to help you. "

Suddenly, Arthur's body froze as a ruthless flood of memories appeared in his mind. Memories that didn't belong to him became fixated into his mind. 

The memories are awful as he remembers a young, lazy and worthless boy called Willy that belonged to a more valueless clan. 

While their title has a glorious name that should call for respect, the actuality of the situation is that they hold little value to the world and it wouldn't make a difference if the whole clan should disappear. 

This clan had no achievements at all, which made its position deteriorate from bad to worse with no signs of stopping its decline. A sunken ship, that was the best description of this clan. 

The last strike directed to the clan came from a rival weak clan nearby, as this clan sat its gaze upon the lands, the women, the children, and the worldly riches stored in the golden lion clan.

This was done by poisoning the young master of this clan, the useless youth named Willy. 

Arthur knew that Willy already died, and his soul transmigrated by unknown powers caused Arthur to be trapped in this body now. Unfortunately, Arthur's new identity would be Willy and he knew that there could be nothing done to rectify the situation.

  Arthur had to deal with this. The body  lacked anything related to cultivation or any traits of strength, Arthur gagged in repulsion, how could anyone be this weak and disgusting? 

The information didn't stop coming into his mind, and with time Arthur realized something terrible!

This world had nothing related to cultivation at all. This world depends on the power of the mages. The mage's power is classified as superhuman. In Arthur's point of view, those mages were like cultivators. 

However, the means to use their energy and to exert their powers differed greatly. 

Mages depended on hunting horrifying monsters and creating bonds between themselves with the souls of the dead monsters. These souls were called an inner demon seed. Mages could use these inner demon seeds to wield supernatural powers.

However, this came with one risk, the inner demon seed would grow and mature into a fruit, which would give birth to a true inner demon. Mages had to fight this inner demon and tame it. 

If they ever failed, they would lose themselves forever to the darkness of the demon. 

If they succeeded, the demons would become their power, but the risk would continue to exist as the demon could overtake the mage at any time that they became weak. 

Every time the mages grew stronger, the inner demon got the chance to repel again. This is because with the mage growing in power, mages might contain over one demon inside them, which would make the life of mages seeking strength more hard and impossible. 

Each mage had to be honest with himself, and he needed to cast away any greed for power he couldn't control, or else he would lose his sanity and turn into a mad living demon; a Malidem.

It wasn't a rare occasion to see excellent mages turn into Malidems. This made these lands very dangerous, and whoever had the chance to grow into a mage would face a dangerously uncertain future. 

It was a blessing and a curse for anyone to become a mage. As for Arthur, he knew that his current body had no power at all.

At the age of nine, all children in this world got tested for their affinity powers. It was a test conducted by special techniques and instruments measuring the child's affinity in using magic.

An academy that the lands of his clan belonged under its jurisdiction tested Willy. It was a well-known academy with great fame, power, and wealth.

The Dorgazire academy was one of the strongest academies in this world. However, to enter there you needed to score high, very high in the evaluation test. 

Willy scored zero, a big zero in that test. That meant he had no affinity at all. If he had a weak affinity, then he might have had a chance at a weaker academy. 

However, his affinity made his future hopeless while making the fate of his clan unclear and desperate as Willy is the weakest clan leader.