Elijah...no, Elias sat on his bed trying to rearrange his thoughts.
Or rather, the memories uploaded in his brain.
If only he had gotten the memories of what he already knew about Elias, then maybe he'd still be convinced that this was a dream.
But no.
The first chapter of [The First Technomancer] only covered Elias's daily life, nothing about his past which the memories provided.
Elias Ardent had been hailed as a genius since young, he was what you'd consider a child born with a golden spoon in his mouth.
Born in the Ardent family, a lineage known for producing the best knights of Aeldia, second only to the greatest mage family.
But unlike most of his siblings, Elias was completely uninterested in the way of the sword, which would have been considered a disgrace to the Ardent family name,
If he wasn't intellectually gifted.
Like most in Aeldia, he had no affinity for magic, but what he lacked in mana or brawns, he made up for in brains.
This has been very obvious from a young age.
From the moment he could speak properly, Elias had been asking questions that made even his tutors confused.
Why certain metals bent while others shattered, why siege engines failed under specific loads, why armor design favored tradition over efficiency.
Questions that most adults dismissed as childish curiosity, but which Elias pursued with an unsettling, almost maniacal, persistence.
By ten, he had redesigned a pulley system used in the family estate's workshops, reducing the effort needed by nearly half.
By twelve, the estate's quartermaster had quietly started consulting him before approving large equipment orders.
That was when the Ardent family realized that while Elias might never swing a sword like his brothers, he was still very much a weapon.
Just of a different kind.
Instead of being sent to knight or mage academies, Elias was enrolled in the Royal Institute of Engineering, an institution that existed more out of necessity than prestige.
Since magic wasn't exactly common, engineers are the life blood of Aeldia. Engineers which Elias thought were very backward.
Although they hadn't had the chance to hear such 'praise' from the young genius only because his mother threatened to never speak to him again if he said his thoughts out loud.
But that didn't change the fact that he still thought they were very primitive.
By the time he reached fifteen, Elias was already designing mechanisms that older, supposedly experienced engineers could barely understand.
He didn't care about prestige, titles, or recognition, what mattered to him was improvement, understanding, and the challenge of solving problems that others deemed unsolvable.
At this point he had graduated as one of Aeldia's greatest engineer, a title achieved by only a few, but Elias still thought it was an insult.
He was THE greatest mind of Aeldia, not 'one of'...
Yeah, his higher Intellect came an inflated ego to match, but it wasn't like he couldn't back it up.
Though, after his academy days, everything just became bland.. boring even.
Elias lost all interest in creating anything or even trying to correct the mistakes of those geezers for a while.
That is, until both adventurers from the Ardent family and the greatest mage family returned with quite an oddity.
The Ethirum heart.
It was found in a dungeon which was believed to be the remains of an ancient civilization.
Elias wasn't interested, at first, until he realized that no one could figure out what it was, and his curiosity was piqued.
That curiosity soon became an obsession as he was allowed, by the Royal family, to be the lead engineer.
And from the memories Elijah received, Elias had been going to the lab every single day, even when he was supposed to be on break.
"But what happened to him," Elijah muttered, from the hundreds of transmigration books he had read, something almost always happened to the previous owner of the body, before a new soul took over.
And as far as he could tell Elias was completely fine, so there was no reason to assume he had died.
"No, more importantly," He said, his hand still on his chin, "what happened to me?"
He knew he was fine, maybe a bit sleep deprived but other than that, he was completely fine.
So how had his soul left his original body?
Did some god or something just yoink his soul from Earth? If that was the case, why? Why was he in Elias's body?
Besides, wasn't the norm to meet the god responsible for his transmigration who'll grant him cheats?
Speaking of which,
"System?" Elijah called out, hoping he at least had a golden finger.
"...."
There was no response, so he called out once more, "system?"
Again, no response.
Which meant one thing, he had no golden finger.
"Just great," he muttered before laying on his back and looking up at the high ceiling, "no meta knowledge and absolutely no cheat, I guess I should just sit back and accept Elias's death when the heart explodes...."
"Like hell I would," he sat up again, "first thing's first, let's find out how far we are from the start of the main canon."
By start of main canon, he meant his, or rather, Elias's death which was the first chapter of the novel.
"Then, we'll figure out a way to avoid it," he added, "and at least, live a life of luxury away from the novel's main events, whatever they are."
He got off the bed, about to start scanning the room for any clue of what year he currently was in, when he was interrupted by a knock.
"Young master," a familiar voice called out from the other end, "may I come in?"
From the memories, Elijah recognized the voice as one belonging to their family's retainer and he immediately panicked.
If there was one person that knew Elias the most, it was the family retainer, so what if he immediately recognizes that he wasn't Elias?
"Damn it."