Ashwood Forest.
The layered canopy formed an impenetrable vault, shutting out the moonlight, so that every rustle of the wind and chirp of an insect sounded startlingly loud through the trees.
My head hurts...
Consciousness slowly drifted back, and his unfocused vision sharpened once more.
Where am I...?
Wang Dong looked around in a daze, and the scene before him resolved into focus.
A crackling campfire, a somewhat battered tent, and three companions sitting nearby, resting.
A textbook adventurer campsite.
But the real question was... how in the world had he ended up in a godforsaken place like this in the middle of the night?!
A jolt of panic seized his chest.
As his mind fully cleared, a massive flood of memories surged into his brain.
Only after quite a while did he completely grasp his current situation.
To put it simply, he had transmigrated.
He was no longer just an ordinary pedestrian from Blue Star. In a single turn of fate, he had become Zelier, a novice adventurer in another world.
"Uh... I..."
Zelier instinctively raised a hand to touch his cheek. The smooth, supple skin felt drastically different from his previous life.
Which made sense, considering this body was only sixteen years old—a genuine youth.
"Dazing off again, Zelier?"
A man beside the campfire dropped down next to him, slinging an arm boisterously over his shoulder.
Zelier scrambled through his memories.
The man was Gray, the swordsman of this adventurer party.
Though when compared to his swordsmanship, Gray was clearly far more accomplished in romance. With bright, shoulder-length blond hair and an easygoing, untamed grin perpetually on his face, he was a fellow who knew exactly how to charm women.
There was also a ranger in the party named Vallis, supposedly a half-elf.
Yet no matter how long Zelier stared, he could barely catch a subtle hint of a point at the tips of Vallis's ears; who knew how many generations removed that bloodline was.
Then came the party leader, Marcus.
A burly, tall powerhouse with a buzz cut, clad in a hardened leather vest that left a pair of thick, muscular arms bare. Holding a small buckler in his left hand and a war blade in his right, he gave off a reassuring sense of dependability.
And finally, himself.
Zelier, a sixteen-year-old rookie adventurer, green and unseasoned, whose class was...
Zelier's spirits lifted as he caught the two words that interested him most: Mage!
Yes, he was actually a mage.
Seeing Zelier remain silent for a long moment, Gray assumed he still hadn't adjusted to the wilderness, and gave his shoulder an encouraging squeeze.
"Relax, no need to be so wound up. Once this quest is over, I'll take you to the tavern in town to unwind. Might even help you turn from a boy into a man while we're at it."
"Tch... head full of nothing but filthy nonsense."
A scornful scoff came from across the campfire.
Vallis the ranger glared at him with disdain. "If you have that kind of time and coin, you'd be better off honing your strength."
Whether it was due to the thin sliver of elven blood in his veins or not, Vallis constantly wore a cold, keep-your-distance expression.
Zelier looked at him, and a snippet of classic Shanghainese slang popped into his head unbidden:
Damn short-lived races, you think us elves are someone you little punks can mess with?
"Vallis, do you elves just have zero interest in reproduction?" Gray wore a teasing smirk. "Though I hear your father was quite the romantic. I'd wager you've already got plenty of half-half-half-half-half-elf half-brothers running around, haven't you?"
Vallis's face darkened to an ashen slate.
He despised philanderers just as much as he despised his own father.
"All right, save your breath, both of you."
A deep, resonant voice cut through their bickering as Marcus stepped forward to play peacemaker.
"We've been prowling the outskirts of Ashwood Forest for five days, and our supplies are running low. It's time to head back. Zelier, you take the first watch. Gray, you take the second. We move out first thing in the morning."
The night gradually grew quiet, a dense dusting of stars climbing high into the sky.
After sorting through the original host's memories, Zelier had pieced together a preliminary understanding of this world's magic system.
Every mage possessed a source seed within the sea of consciousness in their mind, from which magical power was born.
To cast a spell, one had to guide this mana along a spell structure to complete a full circuit.
A spell structure was much like a circuit diagram.
Every spell had its own unique design, and mana had to trace the predetermined path with pinpoint precision for the casting to succeed.
At present, the only spell Zelier knew was Fireball.
He exhaled slowly, closing his eyes to focus his mind.
Mana flowed like water from his sea of consciousness, completing its circuit within his mind.
Immediately after, a tiny wisp of flame popped into existence at the tip of his finger.
"So magic... really exists."
Zelier stared at the flame, murmuring under his breath in fascination.
For a native of Blue Star, the sight was nothing short of breathtaking.
This wasn't a street magician's sleight of hand; this was genuine, hands-empty "magic" conjuring fire from nothing.
Still, with Zelier's current ability, this was as far as he could go.
You couldn't expect a sixteen-year-old boy of humble origins, whose magical knowledge came entirely from self-study, to know any more than that.
The original host possessed neither the exceptional talent that would have great mages competing to take him as an apprentice, nor a fortune to hire a professional magical tutor.
With both parents dead, he had thought it over and realized his only path was to join the Adventurers' Association, take on commissions to earn some coin, and figure out his future from there.
Their current quest wasn't complicated: hunt the wild wolves in Ashwood Forest to quell the beast menace.
It sounded dangerous, but wild wolves were not even monsters, and the other three party members were reasonably experienced. So far, nothing had gone awry.
Next, Zelier focused his concentration slightly, and an illusory interface visible only to him slowly took shape.
Zelier: Lv 1 (99/100)
Leveling up grants 4 attribute points.
Basic Attributes: 1 point per increase.
Strength: 65
The top choice for physical warriors; directly enhances physical power.
Want to punch through an iron plate bare-handed? Strength is your answer!
Weakly correlated with Constitution: 6 points of Strength grant 1 point of Constitution.
Agility: 60
Inextricably tied to coordination and speed; allows maximum control over your own body.
Aspiring assassins can't afford to be clumsy—no one hires an assassin who can't even scale a wall—and it lets you run away that much faster when a mission fails.
Correlated with Strength: 4 points of Agility grant 1 point of Strength.
Constitution: 68
A frontline fighter's best friend, representing physical resilience and endurance.
In short, the higher your Constitution, the heavier the beatings you can take.
Correlated with Strength: 4 points of Constitution grant 1 point of Strength.
Spirit: 67
A mage's lifeblood; increases the mana capacity of your sea of consciousness, allowing you to sling more fireballs.
It also refines the quality of mana produced by your source seed, enhancing the potency of every bit of magic.
Intelligence: 66
Don't misunderstand: intelligence isn't IQ. A fool will still be a fool.
However, raising Intelligence sharpens your comprehension—warriors grasp combat techniques faster, and mages can decipher more intricate spell structures.
As for the frontline... the frontline just needs to charge in and take a beating. No intelligence required.
Strongly correlated with Charisma: 4 points of Intelligence grant 1 point of Charisma (smart people are always more likable).
Advanced Attributes: 2 points per increase.
Perception: 30
Expands detection range. Once Perception reaches a certain threshold, you can even spot enemy weaknesses in combat—an indispensable skill for assassins in the killing-and-looting business.
Naturally, that's the ideal scenario.
At the very least, putting points into this slightly increases your chances of surviving an ambush while asleep.
Charisma: 45
Oho, a true jack-of-all-trades attribute.
While it won't help you much in battle, it offers a world of perks in daily life.
For instance, getting the girl downstairs to bring you little treats, or catching the eye of a wealthy lady from the imperial capital on your travels, setting you up for a worry-free life as a kept man (an essential investment for slice-of-life players).
Ultimate Attributes: 4 points per increase.
Luck: 41
If you don't invest in me, you'll choke on your next sip of water.
Just kidding. Luck is a profoundly mystical thing, tied to every matter of probability.
In a sense, as long as you're lucky enough, 99 Luck is no different from 1 Luck.
If you truly believe you're the chosen child of destiny, you'd better spend your points somewhere else.