Eric sat down on his 'bed' and started to think. What could have happened to him to be in this movie-like place?
The last thing he remembered before waking up in the tunnel was the light that suddenly appeared in the dark abyss and sucked him in.
Before that, the car crash.
'Not good... I can't think of anything that could result in me being here...', Eric massaged his temples as he sighed out of disappointment.
Without anything to do, he decided to explore this new 'house' he just got.
The single room the house consisted of, contained just a stone toilet and a stone bed. In the corner of the room, a metallic tool that looked very worn down and old. A pickaxe.
As he walked around the disappointing room of the hut, something on the floor caught his attention.
It wasn't anything too spectacular, but just a strange bump on the ground.
He leaned down and carefully surveyed the entire floor of the house.
'This looks... off...', Eric thought. He might have been the only person in the world to ever think something like that after witnessing an unsuspecting bump on the floor of a broken shack, but those were just the result of Eric's training and sensitivity to subtle irregularities which might cause problems in the F1 track.
Eric decided to investigate the bump further.
He took the pickaxe and started digging up the floor near the bump.
After a few swings, however, Eric felt extremely exhausted.
'What the hell...? Why am I already out of stamina?', Eric wondered.
Regardless, he kept on digging after having a rest every few swings and finally, he got a result.
A box was hidden beneath the bump.
He picked up the box and opened it.
Inside were two books. One bigger than the other. The hardcover page of one of the books had multiple concentric circles and spokes and had strange characters Eric had never seen before. The colour of the cover was matte-black and the patterns were golden.
The other, smaller book simply had the word 'Diary' written in English on its brown hardcover.
Eric put aside the green book and opened the diary.
He read through the pages of the diary as time passed.
'Harrison... Wyatt... It's the same last name as me but the first name is different. Is it the name of the owner of this house?', Eric wondered.
'Was he some sort of author? if he was, then he must have been quite good...', Eric mused.
He had never heard of him having any brothers or any relatives of the name 'Harrison Wyatt' so he assumed it to be a coincidence that the two of them shared the same last name.
The diary covered the life of Harrison Wyatt from the age of 10 to the age of 14.
But that's not as important as the content inside.
The contents of the diary were like something out of a fantasy movie. It talked about war and how Harrison lost his father, a mage, in the war.
The story looked extremely well-detailed and with no plot holes in sight.
It talked about the war of acquisition of the great mana vein mines between the Rupert Kingdom and the Holy Empire.
Harrison's father and he were part of the Rupert kingdom. After a long war, the Rupert kingdom was annihilated within a year and all of its citizens had become either slaves or refugees in other kingdoms.
This all happened when he was still 10 years old.
Harrison's father, Leonard Wyatt was a mage. He was caught by the Holy Empire and executed for being a heretic.
'Haha... Spell casting? This story is amazing...', Eric thought as he kept on reading the story.
After a few hours of reading, he got a general idea of how the story's magic system worked.
Basically-
A mage had 5 spells that he/she could cast. 1 main spell, 2 auxiliary spells and finally, 2 basic spells.
A spell could be used if the mage had the spell's {Spell Sigil} imprinted on his/her body. The spell sigil looked like some sort of tattoo with circles, complex patterns and strange, eldrich characters.
The main spell sigil had to be printed on the mage's back. The 2 auxiliary spell sigils could be printed on the mage's shoulders and finally, the 2 basic spells could be printed on the back of the mage's two hands.
Once a spell has been printed, or tattooed, it can't be erased. It is permanent. It can, however, be upgraded and made to work better.
A mage had to be careful tho. If a spell sigil is done incorrectly, it could kill the mage if activated.
After reading all of that, Eric's head began to hurt.
'Spells with tattoos? What the heck... the author must have been some kind of pervert or something... aren't most magicians female in fantasy stories? He must have liked women with tattoos or something...', Eric thought.
He continued reading-
Mages and Sorcerers are considered to be 'heretics' by the Holy Empire. The reason is that mages and sorcerers create new spell sigils, but are never sure if it will work or not. So, they need to 'test' out the spell sigil first on a test subject.
Mages would usually take death row inmates, ones that were sentenced to death by torture, and experiment upon them.
These experiments would last for months on end and would be brutal and excruciating.
The Holy Church saw this as barbarous cruelty and declared mages as 'Heretics'. To them, monsters who would torture other humans, even if criminal, for their own benefit, were not humans and therefore needed to be purged.
Harrison's father had never intended to have a child, and Harrison knew that he was an unwanted accident. Despite never going hungry or lacking the basic necessities, Harrison lived in constant fear of his father. The man's disapproving presence loomed over him, filling him with dread and anxiety. Every interaction with his father was fraught with tension, leaving Harrison feeling helpless and trapped.
Harrison would often hear screams and howls coming deep from his father's lab.
Harrison's father had even killed others right in front of him before.
Once, an unwitting visitor stumbled upon Harrison's father's secret lab. Without hesitation, Harrison's father swiftly put an end to the intrusion, leaving no room for mercy as he extinguished the trespasser's life on the spot.
This was merely one of many victims of his father.
Harrison, all too aware of his father's ruthless nature and the perpetual peril that shadowed him, found himself ensnared in a grim predicament. Despite the imminent danger, he remained compelled to submit and maintain a stifling silence at the cost of dire consequences.
'Damn... This kid had a rough childhood huh...'
But then, a thought came to Eric's mind.
'What if this isn't all a story? Everything that has happened up until now can only be described as supernatural... What if everything written in the diary isn't just a story and Harrison Wyatt actually existed?', Eric wondered.
It certainly wasn't impossible. It would explain the strange set of events that have happened with Eric ever since waking up in the tunnel.
'Come to think of it... My body does look malnourished... and my muscles are nowhere to be seen...'
Eric got up from the bed and pondered around in his room a bit before deciding to go near the toilet with water in it.
He gazed down the toilet and immediately jolted away.
Rubbing his eyes and slapping both of his cheeks lightly, Eric went to look again.
The result didn't change.
Eric Wyatt was no longer in the body of the F1 racer...
His new body was a lot younger, smaller and malnourished.
Especially the face.
It looked nothing like the original Eric.
Purple hair, Purple eyes and a fairly handsome face.
'What... is happening...?', the reality of the situation at hand finally dawned upon the ignorant Eric.