Chương 3: The Worst First Experience

"Maybe I should have just stayed dead," Hale sighed heavily. The kid sitting nearby snorted.

"Exactly. A terrible person like you deserved to—""Ryan!" Maddie's voice boomed as she abruptly stood up. Ryan shut his mouth sullenly, keeping his eyes glued to the floor. Hale rested his only remaining arm across his forehead, lying flat as he pondered his tragic excuse for a new life. He knew his life had never been smooth sailing. His mother ran out on him when he was seven, and his violently alcoholic father passed away during his senior year of high school.

To put himself through college, he had to juggle three part-time jobs at once. Despite the hardships, he had always believed that if he just worked hard enough, a better future would come. And now here he was, one-armed and facially scarred, stranded in a completely foreign world with the absolute worst system imaginable. Why did this system choose him anyway? If it was a redemption system, shouldn't it be meant for a criminal? All he did was try to save a drowning girl.

Speaking of which, he wondered what happened to that girl. Did she transmigrate like him? If she did, he hoped she landed in a better situation, or at the very least, had all her limbs intact. Over the next few days, Hale's body gradually regained its strength, though he still occasionally forgot that his right arm was gone. He was starting to get sick of being bedridden, so he began getting up to stretch his muscles and explore his surroundings.

The mansion seemed to be stranded in the middle of a fog-shrouded forest. The trees growing here weren't the usual green; instead, they were a bleak, dreary gray. Even with Maddie, the dragon-maid, shadowing his every step, Hale didn't dare venture too far from the estate. He was terrified they wouldn't find their way back. There was another thing he noticed: there wasn't a single mirror in the entire mansion. He wanted to see his new face, but he couldn't find a single reflective surface.

Had this world not invented mirrors yet? Impossible. After just three days, Hale had basically explored everything there was to see. He sank back into boredom, slumping onto the couch and staring at the gray sky through the window. He had asked Maddie a few times if she could teach him how to use magic. Staring at a long list of badass-sounding spells without being able to cast them was pure torture. But every single time, Maddie simply replied that she didn't know how human magic worked.

Dragonborn possessed an innate ability to control and resist fire, and things that came naturally were incredibly hard to teach. Hale could read and understand the local script, but the knowledge inside the books in the mansion was far too bizarre and cryptic. He considered himself an avid learner, yet reading these books made him feel like an elementary schooler forced to tackle a specialized philosophy textbook. Is isekai really supposed to be this boring? Maddie seemed to have gone out for supplies again.

She had refused to let Hale tag along, citing his unstable health. Hale rolled off the couch, deciding to track down Ryan. The kid was a bit prickly and foul-mouthed, but Hale found pushing the brat's buttons rather entertaining. Ryan's room was located all the way up on the fourth floor, in an attic that looked pretty... gloomy. The only window was blocked by thick curtains, leaving just a lone desk lamp casting a faint glow.

Inside the room, books, papers, and pens were scattered across the floor in a massive circle, with Ryan sitting dead center. When the door swung open, the kid jumped like a cat that had its tail stepped on, letting out a sharp yelp. In his hands was something that looked like... a frozen flower? Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"W-why did you just barge into my room?!"

"... Sorry about that, I didn't realize it wasn't locked," Hale said, eyeing the small block of ice in the boy's hands.

"Is that... magic?" The moment the words left his mouth, the ice coating the flower shattered and vanished into thin air. Ryan shoved him backward out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them as if he were guarding a state secret.

"What the hell did you come up here for anyway?" Hale ignored the question and countered with his own.

"You know how to use magic?" Ryan shot him a cold look.

"You're the one who taught me."

"Really? Then could you teach me now?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Did you seriously forget this too? You need both hands to cast magic." Ouch. That stung. He had barely managed to accept his disability, only for reality to slap him with another truth: he couldn't use magic. The number one thing people looked forward to when transmigrating.

"Why?" he pressed stubbornly, refusing to accept it. Ryan let out a sigh, but surprisingly, patiently explained it to him anyway.

"Your hands are where mages connect with the energy of the world. They are the gateways for energy, and they're also how you project that energy to manipulate external elements. You need both gates to precisely control and balance the flow of energy in and out." Hale's voice grew heavy.

"Maddie never told me about this." Ryan's tone suddenly carried a hint of guilt.

"Maddie... told me not to tell you. She was worried you'd be upset. But you were bound to find out sooner or later anyway." Hale sighed.

"Yeah, it is pretty depressing. But thanks for telling me anyway, kid." With that, he turned and walked away. Hale didn't go back to his room. Instead, he headed down to the fountain for a change of scenery. Sitting on a faded wooden bench, he stared down at his only remaining hand, pondering the new information he had just received. He still refused to accept that magic was entirely out of his reach. Ryan had said that hands were energy gateways, and that you needed both to precisely control and balance the flow.

But that didn't mean you couldn't manipulate energy at all with just one hand, right? Hale closed his eyes, attempting to feel this so-called world energy. If this body had been capable of magic before, it should instinctively know things that his current mind couldn't comprehend. Slowly but surely, he felt something simultaneously foreign yet familiar within himself. It was hard to put into words, but this presence was weaving through the microscopic gaps between his cells.

Hale sensed that if he wanted to, he could make it move like a current flowing through his entire body. He extended his left arm forward, trying to open the "gateway" Ryan had mentioned. That was when he began to perceive things outside his own body as well. Hale recalled the very first skill listed on his stats panel: Fireball. The air directly in front of his left hand suddenly ignited with light, and the temperature spiked noticeably. Hale was ecstatic. It's working!

He shut his eyes tighter, focusing on connecting the inner current with the outside world even more intensely. Create it. Feed it. A wave of blistering heat lashed against Hale's face, snapping him out of his deep concentration. Floating right in front of him was a fireball three times the size of a basketball.

"Hahaha, yes! I did it! This is actual magic..." Hale laughed out loud in sheer disbelief. For the first time since landing in this new world, he felt a genuine rush of excitement. However, the fireball in front of him just kept expanding. Hale started to feel a stinging heat on his skin—he didn't know if this was normal, but he figured he should stop before the flames actually burned his hand. The problem was, he had absolutely no idea how to turn it off.

The energy in his body continued to surge outward uncontrollably, and the fireball's diameter had easily surpassed a meter. He felt as if his entire body was about to spontaneously combust. He had to do something, or he was going to burn himself alive. Hale tried desperately to close the "gate" in his hand, but the fireball acted like a vacuum, relentlessly sucking the energy out in a non-stop torrent. He had no choice but to hurl the fireball away.

"Aaaaaaagh—" A massive explosion ripped through the air. The powerful shockwave blasted Hale backward, slamming him hard against a tree trunk. It took over a minute for Hale to regain consciousness. His ears were ringing violently from the blast, and he could barely open his eyes through the thick cloud of smoke and debris.

When he finally managed to crawl to his feet, he stared in absolute horror The mansion looked like it had just been hit by an airstrike: a massive hole was blown into the left wall and roof, bricks and debris were still crumbling down, and several objects inside were actively catching fire.

"Oh no... Ryan!" Ignoring his aching ribs, Hale sprinted back into the mansion. But after scrambling up just two flights of stairs, his body felt completely drained of energy, leaving him gasping for air. He dragged himself up one more floor, shouting as he went.

"Ryan? Ryan! Where are you?"

"Cough, cough, cough!" Ryan came walking down from the fourth floor, gripping the banister. He was hacking into his hand, his entire body covered in a thick layer of dust. Hale grabbed the boy by his shoulders, lowering his head as he panted heavily.

"Thank goodness... you're alright." Ryan frowned, wiping the soot from his face.

"What the hell just happened?" Hale managed to squeeze out, "Let's get out of here first. In case the place collapses."