Gasp!!!

A deep breath was heard under the clear sky. It was already sunrise, with its morning radiance warming up the cold forest, waking up its sleepy denizen's one creature at a time. Its white light shone over the canopies of trees, barely able to shed its radiance onto a lonely body that seemed to be covered in blood and leaves under the forest floor.

He struggled to open his eyes, feeling the strange twangs of pains coursing through his body, distracting him, making him feel weak and impossible to form a coherent thought. Then the few last memories flashed in his mind which made him panic as he raised himself up, shielding his eyes immediately almost as if he was expecting something else was about to fall on him.

And to be fair, something had fallen on him which made it the last thing he could remember. He had just gone out to a grocery store, talking to his then serious boyfriend and just generally having a good laugh when he crossed a street under a construction site. Maybe he was too distracted to actually tell where he was or he didn't get to see the warning signs but the next thing he knew he heard a sharp clanging sound and looking at where the noise came from, the metal rod used in propping up large structures fell down on him in a whoosh. He didn't even get to scream before he woke up, in a desolate forest in the middle of nowhere.

"Where am I?" he asked himself after he collected his bearings. He looked around and all he could see were the threatening shadows that made the tall trees in the morning somehow seem more sinister than usual. The place he laid was in a small clearing covered by countless branches with barely any light seeping through. Searching around he immediately found a blood coated book along with a slender white staff placed eerily beside him and if he tried to focus he could see a dusty road passing by through the forest more than a few meters away.

Suddenly he hissed as he held his head in pain. A huge boatload of information and memories jumped into his brain almost unbidden, forcefully imprinting inside his mind in such a painful process that by the time the whole process was done, he was left lying on his back, drenched, ruining his already dirty robes with a matte of grass, blood and sweat.

"Lukas," he muttered to himself. In short he never would have guessed that after the accident, instead of the afterlife he had heard of countless time in the past, he was somehow reattached to a new body and given a new life in a brand new world. In his previous life, he finally had a good thing going on for him. He was making a decent living being an avid gamer and a streamer, following his passions and still had a lot of dreams to conquer. To boot he even found a potential partner he could spend his whole life with but that was all taken away by that freaking metal rod .

Now he was attached to a body of a youngster named Lukas, (who happened to posses the same name as his) except he was a son of a falling noble family, the House of Raydore. When he was discovered to be possess the magical talent, as he awakened with a Magical Element of Light; something which should have been the greatest gift turned into a constant curse for him. Profoundly weak, he was helpless branded as a lesser talented sibling despite being older than his younger sister who happened to be monstrously talented even compared to some known prodigies.

In fact he was so powerless that even on his 2nd qualifying quest to become a certified Adventurer, he could barely protect himself after he was abandoned by his team in such an insidious way that even he had a moment of pity coursing through his heart. But when he realized that that it was such betrayal that led to the previous host's death, his heart went cold and he warily shook his head. It was an undeniable fact that he has obtained a new lease on life on the expense of someone's else death.

Leaning on the tree for support, Lukas slowly raised himself up. His whole body felt so fragile almost like it would break in pieces. He stared at the new dawn and for the first time since he has arrived in this new world of Magic anger rose inside him. It had taken him blood and tears to build the life he finally wanted back at the earth. A decent job online with a very good reputation and he was dating an honest man whom he could be partners with for life. If it wasn't for what happened to him he would have been home by now, cooked dinner for two and most probably spent a pleasant evening without a worry in the world.

"Dammit!" his hand smashed into the tree, slightly scorching it as his light elemental light flared under his intense emotions. He stared at his hand as his heart was rent in pieces. In almost all the stories he had ever read, heard or seen, most people who reincarnated were ecstatic to find a world where magic was real as it meant endless possibilities. They would be able to fly in the air, manipulate the elements with their will or even control objects with their minds. But for him, what he had lost far outweighed what he had found. His family, lover and his friends were all in his old world, which made him feel vulnerable and unsafe in this new place he found himself in.

Shaking his head, he looked around at the awakening forest before he decided to take a direction he felt familiar with. After mentally referencing his memories, Lukas realized that he was still in the outskirts of the Evergreen Forest and so he should probably hurry up when he still able to get out of the forest alive.

Limping and half running he crossed the trees and bushes in a half a beat using the white staff as a support all until he reached the road. Feeling grateful that he had found the runic staff near him, he had the mind to also take that book which was now clutched on his free hand as well. When he finally broke through the shadowed canopy, he took a second to look back at the trees that adorned the forest behind him and sighed. Of course he had 'seen' that horrifying death his previous host went through and though he had many questions on the lines of if the previous host died by being mauled by the wolves, then why was his current body seemingly fine and healed? Why he was borne onto this specific body in this new world? better yet why him?. He had no answer to the thousand questions in his mind but he more than felt like all of it might be some cosmic joke. That perhaps there was some kind of being above the skies who effortlessly pulled him along for a ride. Or maybe, just maybe there might be a reason for everything that had happened until now. But one thing for certain was that he had to survive long enough to get answers to all his questions or risk dying a grievous death.