Transmigrated into another world with the strongest core

Chapter 8: Nothing out of the ordinary

Lucas' eyes opened back and he saw Roderick right ahead of him calling him, but this time, he wasn't on the floor or having pain after returning. “Has my body adapted that fast?” he thought to himself.

“Lucas, why are you just standing there?” Rodrick asked “common let's start going”.

“Sorry”Lucas apologized “I just had a slight headache” he said while smiling.

“You sure have not been feeling well lately, you should take your training lightly. I know you want to surpass Elara and become the next paragon, but don't destroy your body.”Roderick said with a worried expression.

“Thanks for the advice Rodrick,” Lucas replied while holding Rodrick's shoulder “You are a good friend infact all of you are. I'll do my best to make you all stop worrying about me.”

They both laughed. “That was weird dude,”Rodrick said while laughing.

“I know” Lucas replied while also laughing “I didn't think about how it sounded different in my head”

Then they both stopped laughing but the mood was now different they both felt at ease.

“You know I actually thought you were an imposter” Rodrick said while walking and his two hands interlocked at the back of his head.

“Imposter?” Lucas asked.

“Yes, I thought someone else was using your body which is why you've been behaving weird but now I'm sure it's really you” He replied

“What do you mean no one can take over the great Lucas body” Lucas said with a smile.

Rodrick laughed, “I heard the great Lucas had to get help from Elara to defeat a tier 2 grimling” he said while laughing.

“Common dude, I was obviously exhausted and couldn't use my Aether again” Lucas replied while trying to hold his laughter.

“But I thought the Great Lucas couldn't get exhausted, isn't he the strongest person in the whole academy.” Rodric said while laughing and Lucas was also laughing.

A tall building was emerging from afar, for some reason Lucas could recognize this as his dorm building. “I guess we're already here,” Rodric said.

“Yes, but why didn't Gerald come with us? Does he have something important he's doing now?” Lucas asked

“Yes, in fact I also do. We are currently working on something. We wanted to tell you today but you aren't in any shape to join us so you'll see later.” Roderick replied with a sly look on his face.

“You need to see how suspicious you look now” Lucas said with a smirk “ you sure y'all aren't doing something that can land you in trouble again”.

“Who knows, just don't worry about it now I'll be heading back. You can go to the dorm room and we will soon be back.” Rodric said while running off.

He sure is a lively dude, Lucas thought to himself, he's also talented and smart, he was able to suspect I wasn't the right Lucas and even the method of take over, if not for the original Lucas memories I would have smoked. Lucas said to himself while opening the door to his room.

Lucas stepped into the dorm room and closed the door behind him, the soft click echoing louder than it should have.

The room was familiar in a way that unsettled him. The bed by the window, neatly made. The desk cluttered with practice notes, mana diagrams, and a half-finished Aether formula he did not remember writing yet somehow understood. A faint trace of Aether lingered in the air, tuned precisely to his Core, as if the room itself recognized him without question.

He exhaled slowly.

“So even this place accepts me,” he murmured.

Lucas sat on the edge of the bed, resting his elbows on his knees. His heartbeat was steady. Too steady. Ever since he returned from that frozen moment, from that voice that knew his name, his body felt… settled. As if something inside him had clicked into place.

Has my body really adapted this fast? Or was it already meant to?

Roderick’s words replayed in his mind.

I thought someone else was using your body.

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

Roderick had been close. Too close. If not for the fragments of memory left behind, the habits, the instincts, the way Lucas moved and spoke, he might have noticed sooner. The realization was unsettling, not because Roderick suspected him, but because Lucas himself no longer knew where the line truly was.

He stood and walked to the desk, picking up one of the papers. His handwriting. Lucas’s handwriting. Yet when he traced the lines with his fingers, another presence stirred faintly in his chest, quiet but aware.

The other Lucas.

Not gone. Just absent.

“I wonder,” Lucas said softly, “what you were really capable of.”

The woman’s voice echoed faintly in his memory, calm and impossibly distant.

You are here because he could not remain.

Lucas clenched the paper in his hand. So the original Lucas had not simply died. His power, whatever it was, had reached too far, bent the rules too much. Enough for a Paragon to intervene. Enough to tear a soul loose and replace it with another that could endure what he could not.

And Owen had been chosen.

Not because he was special.

But because he was empty enough to survive the weight.

Lucas leaned back against the desk and stared at the ceiling. The academy wards hummed faintly above him, steady and oblivious. Outside, students passed, laughing, arguing, living their lives without knowing how thin the boundary truly was.

Roderick had laughed it off. Trusted him again.

That trust settled heavier than any Aether pressure.

“I’ll keep the mask,” Lucas said quietly. “At least until I know what I’m supposed to become.”

His Core pulsed once in response. Not unstable. Not strained.

Accepting.

Somewhere beyond the academy, beyond sight and spell, something watched.

And this time, Lucas knew it was not alone.