Chapter 2

At that time, I was still a bit naïve and was also arrogant over my progress, which taught me a good lesson.

The darkness of this world showed its ugly face when I finally left the academy. On that journey back to the dukedom, I was ambushed by a group of 20 sixth rank experts who destroyed my entourage.

It was my first real life crisis. I was overwhelmed by their numbers and techniques and couldn't fight them properly. I barely managed to survive with a grievous wound to the right shoulder even with my magical AI.

I actually had to jump down a cliff and fall unconscious in a river to survive, such a cliché.

I remember waking up with a pounding headache and a mangled right shoulder on a riverbank in a dense forest. I was fortunate enough to have stored survival and herbology knowledge in my AI, which I began to call Alfred.

Alfred was pretty useful for casting spell, since unlike other wizards who had to remember the spell matrix to cast it, I only had to the spell to be and Alfred will form the spell matrix in my head, allowing me to cast it near-instaneously. The only thing I couldn't still reduce from the casting time was in the process of creating mana.

It took me a few months using my sword, spells and herbs to survive against the magical beast and to fully recover in a cave in the mountain.

In the following years, every day was a trial by fire where I battled strong magical beasts, increasing my battle experience and refining my techniques. I went directly through one with the sword, and sword Qi to reach sword energy.

When I finally went out of that endless mountain range, I was already at the Eight rank in both Qi and mana, which allowed me to fly, an experience I would never forget, even more so for that boulder I got in the face…

At that time I went back to the dukedom to meet my parents and alleviate their worries. In the meanwhile, because of my 'death', they had another child, which was good for me since I actually wanted to go explore this world.

It took me exactly 10 years of flying around, battling strong warriors and crafty wizards, destroying some young masters clans, doing some research and tasting different foods to travel around the world and reach dual Ninth rank while comprehending sword force.

By then I was known around the world and I decided to go into seclusion to better comprehend my experiences.

After nearly one year of being in a cross-legged position without moving, I couldn't hold it anymore and just lied down comfortably, miraculously achieving the state of 'one with the world'. I really felt like I was trolled by the world at that time.

Anyway, after reaching that state of being, mana became extremely easy to produce since now I could somewhat control the world energy, which reduced my spell casting time even more. Naturally, since I had better control over the world energy, I tried to fuse it with my Qi, which went surprisingly well and created a Qi far purer and more potent than before. I called it True Qi. (AN: Yes, I know, I'm original haha)

Knowing that I couldn't advance more on this planet, I decided to learn from the past 9th Rankers and explore the universe.

From the records, they ascended using their bodies, which I can do, but is impractical energy-wise and speed-wise, even if we have a lot more times than others.

Yes, one of the benefits of an increase in rank is longevity, which for the 9th rank becomes a lifespan of around 5000 years. Not bad in my book.

Using the connections I made in my travels around the world, I gathered the best craftsmen and artificers to teach me their arts, blacksmithing and Rune making, which I mastered in around 7 years with a lot of effort and a few millions of gold coins. On a side-note, I'm glad I robbed those destroyed clans safes.

Back on track, I'm sure even Elon Musk would've been jealous of my little baby. I used a whole year to finish it. The design is made to be aerodynamic while the alloy I used was custom-made by selecting the strongest and finest metal on the planet. Finally, Runes are layering the whole inner walls to increase defence as well as speed and are using world energy as fuel.

I didn't take long for my goodbyes and directly left the atmosphere. I still remember the first time I was in space, it's a once in a lifetime experience and an eye-opener at how small we really are.

Life in the shuttle wasn't that boring since I always had a beautiful view of outer space. It actually became really interesting when I met my first 'space monster' as I call them. The first that I saw was a huge squid-like thing that slowly floated In space. It didn't seem to be hostile and just went on its way, While I was like a kid in a zoo and decided to follow it.

Until at some point I saw it's 'mother' and the rest of the 'squid squad' which were thousands of kilometres long. It was the first time I realized my shuttle could make such a fast U-turn.

On a more serious note, it made me realize that I was still weak and that I had to explore a new avenue to become stronger. My greatest clue was fusing my Qi and spiritual energy to form a higher levelled energy. But every time I tried, they seemed to be like fire and water, as if something was missing.

around 30 years later, I found a really strange planet, world energy seemed to gather around it. I was shocked when I went closer because a huge, flower-like tree that would put a skyscraper to shame seemed to be the only thing alive on it.

As I landed on the planet and went out of my shuttle, my sword came out of my space ring as a white-haired, white-eyed human (?) wearing white robe floated down in front of me.

I still remember the beautiful words that he said that shocked me at that time:

"Ningen! Omae wa mo shindeiru!"