Pain.
That was the first thing Ryan felt. It wasn't the searing heat of the laboratory explosion that had vaporized his body on Earth. It was a dull, throbbing ache in the back of his skull, accompanied by a biting cold that seemed to freeze the marrow in his bones.
"Wake up, you useless waste of noble blood."
The voice was rough, dripping with contempt.
Ryan's eyes snapped open. He wasn't in his lab. He wasn't surrounded by the hum of servers or the smell of ozone and soldering iron.
He was in a wooden box, a carriage. A rattling, drafty carriage that smelled of horse manure and old sweat. Through the cracks in the wooden floorboards, he could see snow rushing past.
Where am I?
He tried to sit up, but his body felt heavy, weak. Unfamiliar.
Suddenly, a flood of memories that didn't belong to him assaulted his brain.
Dante Von Valtoria. Third son of the Valtoria Dukedom. Born with a Mana Core so small it was effectively useless. In a world where magic defined worth, he was worse than a peasant. He was a stain on a proud lineage.
Ridiculed. Spat on. And finally, exiled.
I died, Ryan realized with the cold logic of an engineer. The reactor overloaded. It killed me. And now... I am Dante? Is this Earth? Is this where people go when they die?
He looked down at his hands. They were pale, thin, and shaking. Not the hands of a man who built railguns. These were the hands of a victim.
He clenched his fist, testing the neural response time. He inhaled deeply... Nitrogen, oxygen, the sharp bite of cold. The gravity pulling at his internal organs felt like the standard 9.8 m/s² he was used to.
The laws of physics still apply, he realized, his gaze shifting to the crude iron bolts rusting in the corner of the cabin. Friction, tension, thermodynamics... it's all here.
He felt the rough vibrations of the wheels against the snow. No suspension. Animal propulsion.
If I'm in a wooden box pulled by beasts, he concluded with a grimace, then I haven't just traveled space. I've landed in a place where technology might as well not exist, discarded in favor of playing god with mana.
"We're stopping here, Lord Dante," the rough voice called out from the driver's seat.
The carriage lurched to a halt. The door was kicked open, letting in a blast of freezing wind. A burly guard in leather armor stood there, sneering.
"Why have we stopped?" Dante asked, his voice rasping. "The map says the outpost is still ten miles north."
"For us, the journey ends here," the guard said, spitting on the snow. " The Duke paid us to escort you to the Borderlands. He didn't say we had to babysit you all the way to the castle. Besides..."
The guard grinned, revealing yellow teeth. "This is Wolf territory. We aren't risking our necks for a Mana-less cripple."
Before Dante could respond, the guard drew a knife and slashed the harness connecting the horses to the carriage.
"Good luck, trash. Try not to scream too loud when they find you."
With a crack of the reins, the guards rode off, their laughter echoing in the snowy silence.
Dante sat alone in the freezing carriage. He didn't panic. Panic was inefficient. He took a breath, analyzing his situation.
Temperature: -10 degrees Celsius. Survival time without shelter: 3 hours. Weaponry: None. Physical condition: Malnourished.
"Pathetic," he muttered, stepping out into the snow. "This society is primitive and barbaric."
Grrrrr...
A low, vibrating growl came from the tree line.
Dante froze. Two glowing yellow eyes emerged from the white mist. Then two more.
A Frost Wolf. It was the size of a small cow, its fur matted with ice, blue saliva dripping from its jaws. It radiated a pressure that made the air feel heavy.
Dante's new heart hammered against his ribs, but his mind remained icy. On Earth, he had stared down generals and warlords. He wouldn't cower before a dog.
The wolf lunged.
It moved faster than any natural animal, a blur of white death.
Dante couldn't dodge. His body was too slow. He watched the jaws open, rows of razor-sharp teeth aiming for his throat.
So this is it, he thought. I die twice in one day.
As the teeth inches from his face, the world turned grey.
Time didn't stop, but it slowed to a crawl. The snowflake falling in front of his eye hung suspended in mid-air.
A red, translucent screen flickered into existence before his retina.
[Boot Sequence Initiated...][Host Vital Signs: Critical.][Soul Resonance: 100%.][Welcome, User. The Titan Forge is Online.]
Dante blinked. A HUD?
[Threat Detected: Low-Tier Frost Wolf.][Analyzing Structure...]
Red lines suddenly overlaid the wolf's frozen body. The system was highlighting muscles, bones, and arteries.
[Weakness Identified: The cervical spine is fractured from a previous injury. 30 Newtons of force applied at a 45-degree angle will sever the spinal cord.]
A targeting reticle appeared in Dante's vision, locking onto a specific spot on the wolf's neck.
Dante didn't hesitate. He didn't question the miracle. He used it.
He couldn't move his whole body fast enough, but he had a rusted iron nail in his pocket—something he'd picked up from the carriage floor.
As time snapped back to normal speed, Dante didn't try to run. He stepped into the lunge.
The wolf's jaws snapped shut on his shoulder, tearing through his coat and biting into flesh. Pain exploded in his arm, but Dante ignored it.
"Got you," he whispered.
With surgical precision, he drove the rusted nail into the glowing red point on the wolf's neck.
Crunch.
It wasn't a loud noise, just a sickening pop of cartilage.
The wolf went instantly rigid. The light in its yellow eyes vanished. It collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, its massive weight pinning Dante to the snow.
[Target Eliminated.][Experience Gained.][Harvesting Mana Core...]
A warm current flowed from the dead beast into Dante's chest, dulling the pain in his shoulder.
Dante shoved the heavy carcass off him and stood up, breathing hard. Steam rose from his bloody shoulder. He looked down at the dead monster, then at the red screen floating in his vision.
He adjusted his collar, his eyes cold.
"Magic," he scoffed, kicking the wolf's corpse. "Biological inefficiency. I can fix that."
[Objective Updated: Survive the Night.][Recommendation: Construct Shelter. Blueprint 'Franklin Stove' Available.]
Dante looked at the broken carriage, then at the endless forest of timber around him. A cruel smile touched his lips.
"Time to start the Industrial Revolution"