'My head… why does it hurt so much'
Ryder woke up to feel blinding pain in his head, again. The headache hit him quite hard, making him unable to stand up properly. Leaning on the hallway wall, he tried to stand up only to be met with another huge headache.
This time, out of nowhere, newfound memories came crashing onto his mind like a tsunami, memories meant to be hidden.
'What are these…repressed memories?'
In one scene, Ryder recalled the body's former owner getting his magic aptitude tested using a crystal ball during his coming of age ceremony. At that time, he was fourteen years old and part of a group of young children of nobles who all had their magic aptitude tested. The levels of aptitude range from red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet with red considered near talentless whereas violet is regarded as a once in a generation talent.
However, when the young, excited Ryder went to get his aptitude tested, the magic crystal showed no color. Nothing. Not even a hint of red was seen, showing that he had no mana. This had only occurred three times in history, so it was no surprise that the audience was shocked and gossiped about his feat. With his fellow peers laughing and sneering at him, the devastated Ryder returned home that day with a furious father and received a whole lot of beating.
From that day on, the poor boy was ostracized by the entire Bloodsworthe family, with even the lowest of maids and guards paying little to no respect to him. Everywhere he went, he was greeted with disdainful eyes that did not seem to welcome him.
'No wonder why he had no presence' Ryder thought, it must be hard to have no talent in such a powerful family.
The scene then shifted to him getting assaulted by two of his older brothers, in which he recognized one of them to be the person who choked and insulted him before.
However, he was only standing there with his arms crossed, staring uninterestedly at Ryder.
The one attacking Ryder was the other older brother of his, who was inflicting pain upon him every second.
Ryder was curled up on the ground with his arms shielded in front of him, crying out in pain every time he endured a kick. Next to him on the ground was a book, which, based on the cover image of fire, he assumed was about magic.
"These grimoires are way too valuable to be given to the likes of you." One of the brothers, or more specifically, the one who was kicking him, sneered and then grabbed the book.
"Let's go, Kyle, don't waste any more time on this magicless bastard."
The two brothers then set off leaving Ryder on the ground, writhing in agony. His condition worsened as nobody in the castle bothered to help.
'Magicless, why did I have to be magicless?' Ryder thought as his consciousness slowly faded away.
Back in the present, Ryder was lost in thought after going through his repressed memories. He noticed that his headache had already subsided so he stood up and dusted the dirt of his clothes.
'So, there's magic in this world huh'
That was Ryder's first thought after his mind cleared. However, instead of being excited, he was feeling grave as his current body was magicless according to his memories.
"What am I going to do…" Ryder muttered under his breath as he slowly walked forward, not knowing where the direction would lead him. He was worried, not only was the source of power unavailable to him, but he also had no allies in this world as well. From his memories, Ryder was typically a loner who kept to himself in his room, doing the absolute bare minimum.
Even his siblings seemed to be hostile towards him.
"Young master, what are you doing here?"
A sudden voice behind him made Ryder turn around abruptly, only to see his maid standing there with her usual monotone expression. He then ran up to her with a relieved expression.
"Thank god you're here, can you lead me to the library?"
The maid, hearing Ryder's question, couldn't help but ask one in return: "Why does young master want to visit the library all of a sudden?"
"Nothing, I just want to confirm some thoughts."
Although the maid appeared harmless and did not seem dangerous, it was too early for Ryder to start trusting someone. Based on his memories, the maid never bothered to connect with him.
"....Okay, please follow me."
After a moment of silence, the maid led Ryder down the long, gloomy hallway until they reached a spiral staircase that seemed camouflaged within the walls. Any normal passerby would have missed it unless they were familiar with where its location was at. From there, Ryder followed the maid down the spiral staircase until they reached a floor that contained lots of grand, individual rooms.
Everywhere Ryder looked, huge doors loomed over him like it was about to engulf him. What struck him odd, however, was the lack of people present. There was not a single soul present besides the occasional presence of guards frantically running around.
"Ahem, excuse me, but what's your name?" Trying to start some small talk, Ryder tried to talk to his maid to settle his nerves.
"...you can call me Layla, young master," the maid, or Layla, responded with a hint of hesitation as if she was weirded out that Ryder now wanted to know her name.
"So Layla, why is it that there are barely any inhabitants in this castle?" Ryder asked while scanning his surroundings. The further they walked, the lesser the amount of guards were seen, which only added to the eerie atmosphere.
"Also, you can drop the young master title, I can't get used to it." As someone from the 21st century, Ryder can't get used to someone calling him "young master", nevertheless from a girl, which is the gender he doesn't have much experience with.
"It's part of my duties, young master, I won't be able to do that." Layla's voice was stern as if she won't accept any arguments.
"Currently, only the young master and the other young misses are left in the castle, as everyone else with fighting abilities is out to fight against Tamsa."
"Tamsa…?" Ryder looked at Layla in confusion.
"They are a human organization who sided with the demons, their purpose in attacking the Bloodesworthe family is to steal the grimoires," Layla answered each question as if Ryder knew nothing about the world at all.
'Interesting, so there are corrupt humans in the world as well. But why was my trashy older brother here when he should be outside fighting?'
"Layla, do you know why I am magicless?"
Even though Ryder knew that there was a low possibility Layla knew the answer, it was worth a try.
"Sorry young master, but I do not know," Layla responded with a curt statement.
After walking for a while, the duo reached a room with the biggest doors yet, which Ryder estimated to be at least 6 meters tall. Layla glanced at Ryder, who wore a gobsmacked expression, and then pushed the door open.
Inside the library seemed like an entirely different setting, with chandeliers being plentiful and large bookshelves placed in a neatly ordered fashion. Ryder couldn't contain his excitement and rushed inside with Layla following closely behind him.
There wasn't a receptionist, which Ryder attributed to the rough time the castle was in currently, so he didn't make a big deal out of it and directly hopped to the bookshelves. In his past life, one of the main ways he gained his immense knowledge was through reading: especially literature reviews, which stored a vast amount of information.
First, Ryder wanted to gain more information about the world he lived in and then look for ways to get stronger even without magic. Layla, on the other hand, after watching her young master take out a book about Krynn, grew disinterested and stood to the side.
"You can go now, Layla, thanks for your help." Ryder didn't want to bother Layla any longer, as he already reached his goal. Layal bowed and left.
After reading for a while, he was able to digest most of the content within the book thanks to his experience as a skillful reader. Based on the information in the book, Krynn was a planet much bigger than the Earth, at the very least 10 times bigger.
But after reading for a while longer, Ryder realized that there were also quite a bit of similarities between Krynn and Earth. One important similarity that was crucial towards his future was that the elements that were composed of Krynn were almost identical to Earth.
That meant he could utilize his previous life's knowledge to the fullest due to the familiar resources.
Krynn was split into 24 continents, with 7 continents already taken over by the Raksas, or demons. The only reason why the Raksas haven't conquered the rest of Krynn was due to the existence of mages, who were able to utilize magic to defend humanity.
The stages of the mages were just like what Ryder expected, as it was similar to those in the RPG games back on Earth. The first stage was beginner, then came apprentice, followed by adept, expert, master, archmage, high archmage, and finally, grand archmage. Each stage came with its prerequisites, but Ryder wasn't interested in all that since he couldn't use magic in the first place.
However, another kind of power caught his interest, and it was about the existence of guards. While not as destructive as a mage, guards can pull off superhuman strength that allows them to hold back the Raksas while the mages chant their spells. This deadly combination is what allows humanity to exist till today.
While not having as many stages as the mages, guards come in the levels of trainee, novice, knight, sentinel, keeper, and grand keeper. Ryder was interested to know whether a grand keeper was comparable to a grand archmage, but it was hard to tell without seeing them in action.
Ryder's current train of thought was to become a guard, but he didn't know how hard it was to become one just yet. Picking up a book about guards, it was said to train one's body until it was made of steel to become a trainee, but he didn't know whether it was meant literally or figuratively.
After familiarizing himself with Krynn and its content, Ryder was now excited to research the current state of technology.
He didn't have high hopes due to the historical castle he lived in, but it was better to see for himself first.
Looking through the bookshelves for anything related to technology or even biology, Ryder was surprised to find that the research on genes was especially advanced. However, before he could dig deeper into the subject, a cold voice was heard behind him.
"What are you doing here."