Everything felt like hell.

  My mind is blank except for pain.

  Where am I even?

  Who's screaming?

  Regret... It would not be enough to describe what I'm feeling at this exact moment.

  I don't think I can even think about regret right now, or anything for that matter. The pain is simply too much.

  People– and by that I mean scientists and electricians. – say that your muscles lock up when you touch an open wire, that you can't move because the electricity running through your body is tensing you up, effectively paralyzing you. Your nerves start to burn and your brain starts to go into overdrive.

  What I'm feeling is the same. Maybe. I'm not sure anymore.

  Heart attack. There's a risk of that happening isn't there?

  That would be so much better...

  God I wish I'm dead– at least then I won't feel this much pain. I really don't even care anymore just– anything– PLEASE-

  A sharp gasp, a powerful inhale. My chest expands, air inflating my lungs until they burn. My mind comes back to me and I am able to think again.

  "Where?.." How did I end up like this? What was the last thing that happened? "Ugh..."

  Standing up– or trying to. – made my nauseous head tip over the edge and the contents of my stomach burst forth, my mouth tasted acidic and my nose burned as my gut emptied itself.

  The aftertaste tasted like battery.

  "Buhh- Guhdd-" tears started to fall down my eyes when I realized that I became so weak that I can't even move my own damn legs! Weakness. This is weakness. I hiccuped, and that cleared my throat somewhat.

  "I'm going to die. Oh god–" My hands reached up to rub my eyes and hopefully stop the tears from falling. What even happened to get me into this situation?

  My own puke soon slid over me, the foamy liquid touching the bare skin of my knees. After sitting in the open air for so long, the liquid had turned cold. Wrong. I gagged and puked again, this time staining the floor to my left. That... Is going to flow into me again won't it?

  Heaving– and partially gagging from the smell of my own vomit. – I placed my hand on the drier parts of the floor and forced myself to stand up. The thought of being washed in my own puke gave me strength but I still wobbled, my hand supporting me in this weird half-crawling position before my limbs gave in and I fell forward.

  My body met the floor chest first.

  My ribs hurt from the impact but at least my legs won't get stained by my own regurgitated breakfast anymore.

  With one cheek pressing against the cold floor, I tried to figure out why I'm here. How did things end up like this? I gave myself a summary. A reminder.

  First off, I know I'm Rontress Owelline and have been living in the world of Firelight Chronicles for several years now and my goal is to prevent myself from becoming the Queen of Misery Swamp but then... What?

  I'm so confused. I'm not sure I even know what's going on anymore.

  Deep breaths. My mouth inhaled lungfuls of air so that I could clear my head, and when I finally got some semblance of sanity... Right. That's what happened.

  Wardcruncha told me that the ritual is meant to open my eyes to magic... Is that why there are so many colors now? It's like the world is suddenly tinted in blue, the change isn't so painful and jarring that I'll forever be affected by it but my new way of seeing the world will take a while to get used to. Is this permanent? God I hope not!

  Since I'm going to sit here and do nothing anyway, I might as well continue doing breathing exercises. How long did it take for my body to be able to move again? I'm not sure but it felt like an eternity to me.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Finally, I am able to stand up and the first thing I saw confirmed my earlier thoughts; I'm inside the mender's cottage. Again, I can't help but think that it is far too similar to the one in the game.

  And I'm guessing if this specific cottage is uncannily familiar then I'm guessing the others are as well. At first I thought that the devs were just being lazy when placing assets for the mender's cottages but I can't blame the game developers in this world so my best guess is that the swamp mender had some form of OCD.

  That or this specific placement works well when you're working with magical leylines.

  Sadly, I can neither confirm nor deny that at the moment, I'd love to learn more about leylines and how to use them though.

  And speaking of that, Wardcruncha wasn't lying when he said that I'll be able to see the leyline underneath the earth after going through a magical awakening.

  I got so mesmerized by the sight that I couldn't help but bend downwards to touch the floor. A trail of blue light ran through the stone surface, creating a beautiful fractal pattern with so many jagged lines that I can barely understand where one starts and the others end.

  Marble houses have some kind of pattern to them, and architects make sure that they always look appealing. In my previous life, my first job was related to real estate and selling houses but compared to the sight below my soles? Even floors from the most high end mansions I sold couldn't compete against the sheer artistry.

  Who was the swamp mender? She's a mage, obviously. That much is obvious, but then she goes and does stuff like this and you can't help but be impressed by her skill.

  What would the [Mender's Set] look like to me? Those clothes are inherently magical and incredibly powerful, it's why I wanted them– because of their power.

  But I also want to see how they look now that I can literally perceive magic and that just makes me want to know more about the original owner. Goddamnit. It sucks that the mender is long dead.

  "You look... Unhappy." Wardcruncha said when he saw me get out. "Are you okay? I know it can be a bit jarring."

  "I'm fine, I just had vomit stain my knees." Is it fair that I'm blaming Wardcruncha for that? It doesn't feel right. "Don't worry, I'm okay. I can see that the world is uhm... Blue."

  The old man laughed, "is that so?" He seemed impressed, why? "How is it? I know that the process can be painful."

  "... Really?" Painful doesn't cut it, I'm just glad that I forgot about the experience almost immediately after waking up. "... Walking was hard for a bit, and I also threw up my breakfast because my body became weak but I'm fine now, I'm ready to cook even. How long was I out?"

  Now that's what I'm curious about, because how much time did I spend in that state? It felt like it lasted forever but I know that's just an over exaggeration.

  "Don't worry about being late, Ghorise can wait and your health is far more important. Are you sure you're okay?" Now Wardcruncha is looking like he's doubting me. Heavily at that. "You can rest for a day, it's fine."

  "I'm serious." Why is he so worried? Is the ritual supposed to be draining? "I can leave for Ghorise, you'll be there anyway so can't you just watch over me then?"

  "Walk left and right." Guess he's not gonna let me do whatever I want this time around. Groaning– and I made sure he knows I don't like this. – I did as he said and he made me repeat it several times. "That's... You're okay? Truly?"

  "Yeah?" What was he so worried about? Wait... If Wardcruncha is worried doesn't that mean that what's happening to me is actually pretty weird?

  Now that I think about it... What can cause me to end up like this? And what I mean is how I'm fine even after a– supposedly. – dangerous ritual?

  The first thing that comes to mind is my [Intermediate Mental Resistance] helping me in some way so is that how I staved off the harsher effects of the ritual? Maybe. That's my best and only guess.

  "Guess we can skip the recovery phase and get you the sub class then."

  My eyes lit up and I nodded excitedly. "Let's do it!"

  Wardcruncha nodded and then proceeded to tell me the incantation for the spell [Water Ball], it is a relatively safe spell for beginners to use and doesn't do damage so I became disappointed that he thinks I'm not good enough for more dangerous spells but then his next explanation turned all of that frustration into exhilaration.

  "[Water Ball] might be a simple spell, but remember that you're casting it as a [Rune Mage]." Wardcruncha calmly said. "Thanks to the added incantation, you can actually make it synergize with magical items."

  "Really?"

  "Yes really." The old man confirmed. "For example, if you have a wand that turns water into ice and cast [Water Ball], instead of manifesting a ball of liquid you'd instead create a solid ice block."

  "That..." Seriously?! "That's so cool!" No pun intended. Maybe. Okay, pun intended. "I can't wait to make my own wand!"

  "Normally I'd say that you're still a long way before you do but I'm done underestimating you Rontress." He chuckled. "Go make it if you want."

  "Yep!" Nodding, I pumped my fist then turned to a nearby tree. "I'm gonna cast water ball now."

  "Do it."

  I raised my hand, called forth my magic and let it gather inside my throat and then uttered the incantation– "[Water Ball]!"

  Just like the name of the spell suggests, a ball of water formed over my head. It's around the size of a basketball, its surface constantly ebbing like the water is restless.

  After throwing the spell, I opened my system and saw a new sub class sitting amongst the other three I already have:

  *Awakened Rune Mage

  *+15 Magic

  *+5 Dexterity

  *Fluent Pricorian

  *Knowledgeable with Pricor Technology

  *Pricorian Written Language Literacy

  *Runic Engraving

  ... Okay? First off, this is an amazing class, seriously. An extra 20 stats from it means that it is pretty high grade but more than that... What the hell is up with the boosts? Why are they so... Wordy?