Kel stared blankly at the rune-covered ceiling.

  It looked… vaguely familiar.

  Kel clearly remembered being at home, playing his favorite MMO. He had almost reached the final boss. Only a couple of the boss’s minions remained. For some reason, he couldn’t get past them. Kel tried again and again, completely losing track of time. And then–he woke up here.

  Maybe I fell asleep. Maybe this is a dream?

  [CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR!!!]

  The message appeared right in front of his eyes, as if he were wearing a VR headset. Kel blinked, but the text didn’t disappear. Instead, another line appeared beneath it.

  [CRITICAL SYSTEM ERROR!!! INITIATING TROUBLE SHOOTING]

  Kel’s body went numb. His vision darkened. He almost lost consciousness when another message appeared.

  [PARAMETERS CONFIRMED. ACCESS GRANTED]

  No. This is definitely not a dream, Kel thought, struggling to catch his breath. It feels way too real.

  He raised his hand–and froze. Fading green light wrapped around it. The same light pulsed faintly within the runes carved into the ceiling.

  Startled, he sat up abruptly.

  Sitting on the cold stone floor, Kel finally took in the room around him. His heart dropped.

  He knew this place.

  It was the Hall of Shadows–the chamber where the dark archmage conducted his experiments.

  “That’s impossible,” Kel whispered in panic.

  He couldn’t have been pulled into the game. Right?

  And worst of all, he had a very good idea whose body he was in.

  Only one person was allowed to enter the Hall of Shadows.

  Its master.

  On unsteady legs, Kel approached the mirror standing against the wall. The dark archmage had used it for magical surveillance. Fortunately, the mirror was positioned to the side, so Kel couldn’t see his reflection as he walked. That bought him a few precious seconds of hope.

  He took a deep breath and stepped to the side.

  “Pure madness,” Kel thought.

  The great dark archmage stared back at him from the mirror.

  Or rather–the archmage’s new body.

  When the castle had been stormed, the archmage had transferred his consciousness into another body, escaping his enemies that way.

  Kel groaned through clenched teeth. He had known the situation was bad–but he’d hoped not this bad. If only he’d been transferred a day earlier, before the castle was surrounded…

  The castle walls shuddered. The floor rippled beneath his feet, and Kel barely managed to stay upright. Artifacts crashed down from the tables.

  He knew exactly what was happening.

  At that very moment, the armies of the Alliance were surrounding the renegade archmage’s castle. The magical barriers had fallen, and the hero party was heading inside for the final battle.

  This had always been his favorite part of the game.

  Kel was the commander of the hero squads–the chosen one who had received the blessing of the Moon Maiden herself to oppose the renegade. The strongest mage. The strongest warrior. The darling of the masses.

  Kel loved his character.

  Unfortunately, Kel himself had been given the body of the man hated by the entire continent.

  Although… when you think about it…

  The thought struck him suddenly. He looked at the mirror again.

  The dark archmage had always been paranoid and prepared for anything. He had created a spell that transferred a person’s consciousness into a new body and anchored it there permanently. Only the highest-level mages could possess another body at all, and even then only for a few minutes. For him, there were no such limits.

  When Aigon’s heroic party stormed the castle, they had fought a specially crafted golem instead. The archmage’s power was so overwhelming that no one noticed the substitution. The transformed renegade slipped away unnoticed, went into hiding, and ten years later summoned the Gray Calamity–plunging the entire continent into chaos.

  But now…

  Now, this body hadn’t done anything yet.

  No one knew he was the cursed archmage.

  This is my chance, Kel decided.

  He would run. Hide. And only then decide what to do next.

  Of course, he wasn’t going to summon the Gray Calamity. Not now. Not ever. He hadn’t done anything yet – and he wasn’t going to. Maybe he would have to avoid the archmage’s remaining followers, but that was a problem for later.

  First, I need to get out of the castle alive.

  As he stood there thinking, the glow finally faded. The runes covering the ceiling and the floor turned into nothing more than painted symbols. The light around his body vanished as well.

  “ I need to change clothes.”, Kel decided.

  Right now, he was wearing a black robe embroidered with golden patterns – directly over bare skin.

  Kel had obsessively read every note and book in the game, so he recognized the material immediately. The robe was made of Argaian fabric. Thanks to its magical properties, it enhanced mana circulation. An absurdly expensive material, used only in the most complex rituals. Apparently, the ritual had been difficult even for the dark archmage.

  This was insane.

  Transferring not just consciousness, but all accumulated power and the magical core itself into another body.

  Kel froze.

  “What if…” he whispered to himself. “What if I can control mana too?”

  In this world, most magic was governed by words and signs.

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  If you named something – you could create it.

  The archmage’s favorite spell had been Terror Flare.

  He would create a tiny spark – one that, in a single moment, could expand to the size of a medium city. Everything inside it – houses, trees, objects – turned to ash. Everything except people and other sentient beings. Their bodies remained.

  No one knew what they saw in their final moments.

  But the faces of the dead were always frozen in expressions of endless terror.

  Kel thoughtfully extended his hand forward. Of course, he wasn’t insane. He wasn’t going to try anything that dangerous. He would start with something simple – a basic fireball.

  “Terror Flare,” Kel said.

  His fingers folded into the proper sign easily, as if they had done it thousands of times before.

  A tiny spark ignited above his palm. It pulsed slowly, growing larger. Now it was about the size of a tennis ball. Kel felt mana flowing through his body, feeding the sphere.

  Another pulse – and a dark-violet orb the size of a soccer ball hovered above his hand.

  “That’s enough,” Kel ordered, interrupting the spell. The last thing he needed was for the Flare to fill the entire room.

  He looked around, deciding what to test the mini Terror Flare on. His attention settled on several multicolored vials standing on one of the tables. Kel carefully guided the sphere toward them.

  “Go.”

  The sphere absorbed the vials, brightened – shifting from dark violet to lilac – and then vanished. Nothing remained of the small bottles. Not even ash.

  Total annihilation.

  [AUTHORIZATION SUCCESSFUL]

  The screen appeared before his eyes again. The message was replaced by new lines.

  User Data

  Name: ____

  Class: Mage

  Level: 3021 (Unrivaled+)

  Strength: 1700

  Agility: 1554

  Intelligence: 2173

  “How did you manage to get yourself into all this crap with that level of Intelligence?” Kel asked the archmage who no longer existed. “You had power, wealth, influence. Wasn’t that enough? Why did you become a renegade?”

  Unfortunately, Kel would never get an answer to that question. The story scattered hints here and there, but the real answers were held by the boss Kel had never managed to reach.

  “Focus,” Kel told himself. “It doesn’t matter why he fell. It doesn’t matter why, with that much power, he chose to run. He’s gone. You’re here. And your job is to survive.”

  Still, he really wanted to know how the real archmage had escaped.

  Of course, any mage above the mid tiers could create portals. But the greatest minds of the continent had gathered around the castle specifically to prevent the archmage from slipping away. The barrier they erected made teleportation impossible within the castle grounds.

  There was, however, another option.

  Blue flame ignited above Kel’s palm. With all of the archmage’s power at his disposal, he could simply break through the besieging forces.

  Kel shook his head and forced the flame to fade. Even if he was no longer the leader of the heroes, beyond the castle walls were people he had spent a long time with. People he had fought alongside, shared victories and losses with. The thought of harming them weighed heavily on him.

  That was it.

  Even if he wasn’t Aigon anymore, the memories of Aigon’s actions remained with him – just like the memories of what the other participants of the siege would do next. He knew who would go where and what each of them would be busy with in the near future.

  Kel could simply plot a route and slip away unnoticed.

  But he had to hurry. If he had calculated the timing correctly since the shields had fallen, the battle with the golem was nearing its final phase.

  His own calmness unsettled him. Shouldn’t he be panicking right now, refusing to believe what was happening? Shouldn’t these spells feel foreign to him?

  For a moment, he froze and listened to his own sensations.

  Was it the magic?

  He felt warmth within himself – the magical core that allowed stored mana to be shaped into spells. The sensation was surprisingly pleasant.

  That’s it.

  It was incredible he hadn’t realized it sooner. He was used to being the hero Aigon and hadn’t immediately noticed what was wrong.

  Because of the archmage’s source of power, his mana should have left a dark, easily recognizable trace. That alone would have destroyed any escape plan. Despite his high Strength and Agility, Kel wasn’t sure they would be enough to survive in this new world. And using magic tainted with dark traces would expose him instantly.

  But after casting the spell, Kel felt nothing.

  No dark residue. No strange energy.

  The core remained clean and untainted.

  Just to be safe, he summoned the flame again.

  Nothing suspicious.

  That was more unbelievable than any spell, because it violated every magical law of this world. The archmage had eliminated his one true weakness – and in doing so, had made Kel’s life significantly easier.

  Kel glanced at the robe again. There was no way he could leave wearing that. The archmage would have definitely accounted for details like this.

  And indeed, before long he found a standard adventurer’s outfit. Slightly worn, made from low-quality fabric. Something an adventurer of a lower rank might wear.

  Smart. That kind of appearance wouldn’t draw unnecessary attention.

  It was also fortunate that the archmage had chosen this particular body for the transfer: a man in his early twenties, with dark hair and gray-green eyes. No horns. No scales – nothing like the monstrous features he had grown after becoming a renegade.

  The new body was reasonably attractive and reasonably well-built. Its physical condition was definitely better than Kel’s had been in his previous life.

  “Perfect. Just perfect,” Kel muttered after changing.

  Only a few details remained.

  He stepped toward the mirror.

  “Show me what’s happening in the castle,” he commanded.

  Kel’s reflection vanished. The mirror now displayed the castle’s inner courtyard. The battle there was already over, and healers were tending to the wounded.

  The image shifted to the castle corridors. The archmage’s minions were still fighting there.

  Scene after scene flickered past, until Kel finally saw something familiar.

  In the castle’s main hall, a hero wielding a sword radiant with magic was fighting the dark archmage.

  Or rather – his golem.

  “That was supposed to be me.” Kel felt a faint bitterness rise in his chest. “I was supposed to drink with old Norm after the victory, proudly accept rewards from the kings, and live basking in glory.”

  He exhaled slowly.

  At least now they would all live.

  Kel had no intention of ever dealing with the Gray Calamity. Which meant his companions would go on to live long, happy lives instead of dying on battlefields against endless enemies.

  “And now you’re far stronger than Aigon,” a quiet inner voice whispered.

  Aigon’s level had been 2500.

  Kel’s, if the user data was to be believed, was–

  Wait. How did he even bring that up?

  “Interface,” he said.

  Nothing happened.

  “Screen.”

  Still nothing. The last thing he needed was for the system to require Horror Flash every time he wanted to check his stats.

  “Log in,” Kel said, without much hope.

  The long-awaited text appeared before his eyes.

  Yes. There it was:

  [Level: 3201]

  A very, very solid difference.

  Kel scanned the lines again. It all strongly resembled a stripped-down game interface. He decided to experiment.

  Calling up the shop didn’t work.

  “Inventory.”

  The entire screen instantly filled with icons. Kel immediately noticed items he recognized well – including something he’d used countless times before, like Healing Potion.

  Perfect.

  At least he wouldn’t be running away empty-handed. One less thing to worry about.

  “That’s it. No more delays.”

  The mirror confirmed his memories. Everyone was exactly where they were supposed to be. There wouldn’t be a better chance to escape.

  “Maybe I should grab something else?” Kel asked himself.

  The room was crammed with items for which the continent’s mages would have gladly torn each other’s throats out.

  Yet after the archmage’s death, no one ever managed to enter his hall. And soon after, the castle itself was wiped from the face of the earth.

  Kel picked the robe up from the floor. The small chest on the table in front of him looked tempting as well.

  He took the chest in his hands and imagined slipping it into his inventory. The chest dissolved into the air. The robe followed it a moment later.

  “Enough,” Kel stopped himself again. What if these things gave him away? Greed had never led anyone to a good ending – not in his world, and not in this one.

  He just wanted to find a safe place and live quietly.

  But first – escape.

  Kel stepped out of the hall. The doors slammed shut behind him with a loud echo.

  Now the most important thing was not to catch anyone’s eye.

  From the hall, turn left. Go around the group still fighting. Reach the side staircase. Take it down to the first floor, then head for the kitchen. Near it was the servants’ black entrance, leading into the courtyard.

  There, Kel would blend in with the crowd of other adventurers. Entire hordes of them had attached themselves to the Alliance army. Everyone was chasing glory and riches.

  When Kel was halfway down the staircase, the castle was shaken by a terrifying impact.

  Streams of mana flooded the air. Everything around him trembled. The flight of stairs he was on collapsed. Stone, debris, and shattered masonry crashed downward from the height of the sixth floor. Kel himself drifted down easily and smoothly.

  Levitation really was a wonderful thing.

  Unfortunately, fragments of stone still managed to graze his cheek, leaving a long scratch behind. He’d need to pay more attention to personal defenses later.

  Kel tried to shake dust from his hair and clothes, but it was useless.

  “Doesn’t matter right now.”

  The explosion meant the archmage was dead – which meant he needed to hurry. Soon the castle would be swarming with the guards of the Alliance’s rulers.

  “They don’t even let you mourn your own death,” the snide inner voice chimed in again.

  Apparently, severe stress wasn’t doing Kel’s personality any favors.

  Only a few meters remained before the black entrance when Kel heard a sharp shout.

  “Stop immediately!”

  “Damn it. Caught after all,” he thought bitterly.