Chapter 1

When I opened my eyes, I was underwater. I could see the ship I was on above me, broken into pieces.

My vision was fading, I didn't know if it was because I was sinking deeper and deeper, or because I was running out of air.

But there was one thing I am sure of.

This time, I'm really going to die.

------

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing in a .... I don't know, a cave? I couldn't see anything other than the stone walls and the strange engravings carved on them.

"Is this some kind of temple?"

If so, how did I get here? Didn't I drown? No, didn't I die?

"Yes, and you are already dead."

My hair stood on end.

I knew the voice was coming from behind me, yet I was too scared to turn around.

"Ah... sorry, sir. Are you the grim reaper? Am I in hell?"

And what did he mean by me dying?

"Both are wrong. Turn around, boy. Don't be afraid."

Ah, well... What's wrong with that? I might as well be dead. Taking a deep breath to relieve my fear, I turned around, slowly.

And the sight that greeted me wasn't as scary as I thought, my panicked body slowly began to calm down.

"You're just a statue."

"Indeed."

The statue(?) replied. The strange talking statue looked like a man wearing a robe.

His appearance was quite creepy, but I couldn't see the face behind the statue, for some reason, the statue's face looked damaged.

Honestly, he looked like a picture of a grim reaper I'd seen in a book.

"So who are you? And where am I?"

"We don't have much time, I can't answer your questions."

Why not? Is it because I'm about to be sent to hell? I hope not. While I was thinking those ridiculous thoughts, the statue kept talking.

"My name is Berenhard Conrad. I am... Well, it's hard to say, I was just a fragment of the past I guess, so it doesn't really matter who i am, and this is my power."

Suddenly, in front of the statue appeared a white light, or rather, a white flame.

"This flame is called the flame of creation, it can create things, and like any other fire, it can also devour things and turn them into power."

He said all that like some kind of saint, but I shook my head.

"I don't get it, mate."

I was really confused, couldn't he explain it better? Or maybe it's just me being stupid?

"I'll give it to you."

"Alright, I'm really confused right now."

Now he's suddenly giving it to me? What the hell is this? Have I been kidnapped by some kind of cult?

"Now go."

"Hey, wait a minute!!! What do you mean "Now go." I have absolutely no idea what you just said!! Can you explain it more clearly?"

The statue ignored my words and I could feel everything going dark.

"Just remember one thing, boy. Use the fire as you please, don't let anyone tell you what to do."

My vision began to blur and my self-consciousness slowly began to fade.

"You're the worst explainer I've ever met!"

That was the last thing I remembered before my consciousness disappeared, again.

-----

This time, I opened my eyes on a beach. Soaking wet and sticky from the salt water, the discomfort instantly made me realize that this time, I'm absolutely sure I'm not dreaming.

And that means I'm still alive.

I didn't know why or how, but it didn't matter, I'm going to do what I always did, survive.

So I started to grasp my situation.

Apparently, I was stranded on an island. And it seemed to be quite large, considering I could see a small mountain quite far from the shore where I was stranded.

Or maybe that mountain was big but I was too far away? I don't know.

I originally planned to stay a little longer on the beach to look around, but the sun was so hot and I was so thirsty that I had no choice but to go into the forest to find water.

The problem was, I didn't know what was in the forest. So I just sat at the edge of the forest hoping that a ship would pass by.

But my thirst had reached its limit, if I kept waiting, I would reach a point where I couldn't move anymore because of thirst.

Expecting help was not my style, so I decided to go into the forest to look for water.

I stood up as I straightened my clothes that were starting to dry out.

"Well, time to go."

Then, I walked deeper into the forest.

Even though I walked into the forest, I still avoided walking deeper into the center of the island.

That's because the deeper I walked into the island, the greater the risk of encountering monsters.

So I just walked on the edge of the forest.

While walking in search of water, I was also hoping to find a human population or something on this island.

Unfortunately, so far I've found absolutely no signs of human life on this island.

Well, to be honest it's not surprising, Bosias Archipelago is home to dozens of kingdoms and hundreds of thousands of islands.

And even with dozens of kingdoms, there are still many islands in the Bosias Archipelago that are empty.

It looks like I'm stranded on an uninhabited island.

That means I have to survive alone on this island, at least until help arrives.

But as I said earlier, expecting help is not my style. From now on, I'll focus on living alone on this island.

And firstly, I need to find water.

I was thirsty.

Fortunately, after walking quite a distance from the beach where I was stranded, I heard the sound of a river.

Without lingering too long, I immediately ran towards the source of the sound. After making sure the water was clear and drinkable (based on my beginner's observation), I drank it and quenched my thirst.

"Puah!!! Yeah, that hit the spot."

I felt very refreshed, perhaps because of thirst, I felt that the water from this river was the best water I've ever drink.

"The air in this place is also pleasantly cold, I feel like taking a nap. Hmm.... Maybe I'll lie down for a while."

Since it's still on the outskirts of the island, this place should still be pretty safe.

Or at least that's what I thought.

But suddenly, my hair stood up and my instincts told me there was something behind me.

Quickly, I looked back just as a large cat jumped at me.

I raised my hand to block its attack and jumped to the side to get away from it.

It worked, but the cat or rather monster also managed to bite my hand.

No, not just bite it, but he bit my hand off.

That's why I was able to get away from it so easily, it was because it had already severed my hand.

Keeping a safe distance, I kept watching the monster's movements as it chewed on my hand.

And that's when I realized something strange, I didn't feel anything.

My hand had just been cut off, but I didn't even feel the slightest tingle.

To make sure the hand in the monster's mouth wasn't an illusion, I looked at my arm.

Sure enough, my elbow all the way to my palm was gone. The blood was even still dripping from my arm.

Oh, no wait. The blood had just stopped.

"What the hell?"

Stranger things began to happen.

My wound started to burn, a white flame just appeared out of nowhere and burned my wound, but instead of hurting, bit by bit, my arm started to recover.

"I'm so confused."

Is this why I'm still alive?

So the dream where I was in the cave and talked to the statue wasn't actually a dream?

In that case, this fire that burned my hand was the flame of creation mentioned by that statue?

This doesn't make much sense, am I just dreaming again?

Oh well, whatever. Even if it's just a dream, at the very least, I now have power, something that someone with a "dead heart" like me couldn't have.

Although I'm not sure where this power came from, but I'll use it while I have it.

The question is, how?

I mean, I can heal myself quickly, but what good is that if I can't beat this damn big cat?

By the way, it's still chewing on my hand and keeping an eye on my movements.

If I recall, the statue mentioned that this flame could create and devour things.

Alright, now how should I do it.

I heard that when magus want to cast a magic, they imagine what magic they will use in their heads while chanting the spell.

I'll try that, but without the spell.

Raising my hand that was still intact as if I was holding a spear, I tried to imagine a spear in my head. To make it easier, I imagine a spear that I've seen a hundred times before, or even a thousand.

*Whoosh*

Like magic, with a spark, flames suddenly appeared on my raised arm and as the flames disappeared, a spear appeared.

I couldn't believe it.

I had just created a spear that I usually only saw on the wall of my family's mansion.

I'm pretty sure this spear is not an ordinary spear, but I don't really emember the name and the power.

"Oh well, whatever. Anyway, this power is crazier than I thought."

Before I could test whether the spear I created was actually real, the damn cat from earlier seemed to realize that something was wrong and tried to leap at me.

I tried to swing my spear to withstand the monster's charge, but my body was too weak, and the monster was also too fast for me.

"Blast!"

Although it was too late, I still managed to dodge with just a few scratches on my shoulder.

And just like before, the scratch marks burned and recovered instantly.

"Wow, amazing."

Once again, I was amazed. I mean, not only could this fire heal back my wounds, but I didn't even feel anything.

I was still annoyed though, this bastard had been hurting me since earlier, not to mention he'd also eaten my hand.

With an annoyed tone, I glanced at the monster and said.

"You might think you're lucky to find an easy prey like me, but not anymore, mate. I've had enough of being someone else's prey, I'm going to use you, as my first stepping stone."

I don't know if it understood what I said, but it looks like it did, because right after I spoke, the monster charged straight at me.

This time, I didn't dodge.

I imagined other things I've seen, I'm not sure if this will work or not, but considering that I can also create this spear, there's a possibility that this could also work.

After all, I wouldn't die even if I was wrong, so what's the harm in trying?

I decided to ignore the monster completely, and focus on remembering my memories.

They weren't good memories, since they had something to do with my old family, but I wanted to try.

"I can feel it."

My body suddenly felt hot rapidly, I felt my whole body burning and I could only see flames.

It was hot, but not a painful one.

When the flames disappeared from my sight, my vision was different. That meant my theory worked.

I had successfully created it, one of the heirlooms from my family.

The armor my ancestors wore to save the empire hundreds of years ago, The Skyward Armor.

I'm not sure what I look like now, but I feel really cool.

This dark black armor is said to be able to withstand a blast of fire from a dragon.

Obviously, that damn monster won't be able to hurt me anymore. But where was it? It should have hit me earlier.

I then looked up, and through the vision of my armor helmet, I could see the monster stopped in midair, with its mouth wide open.

I don't remember my family's heirloom armor having the power to stop time.

And just when I think that, I felt an air of presence behind me.

"Good, looks like you can use it properly."

Turning around to look at the source of the voice.

I saw a person whose body was covered by a black cloth.

I pointed my spear at him, perhaps because of the power of my armor, I could sense that this person was a dangerous person.

"Who are you?"

Wait, I didn't realize it before because I was surprised. But this person resembled the one in the statue I saw in my dream.

Also, his voice made me certain that it was him.

"Ah.... it's you, right? What are you doing here, uh..... Mr. Statue? Sorry, I forgot your name."

In a hoarse voice, he said.

"Confirming something."

Oh, couldn't he just say his purpose without speaking in a mysterious way?

"See you later."

Wait, what?

"Hey, hold on a second!!!"

Leaving that one word behind, he vanished.

"You've got to be kidding!? I have a lot of questions to-"

I suddenly felt something on my neck and I realized that time had returned to normal.

Ah, damn it. The monster was now biting the back of my neck.

Fortunately, with my armor. The monster's attack didn't leave any damage, my body didn't even move and only bent slightly despite receiving the monster's attack directly.

I grabbed the monster's head and slammed it into the ground before stabbing it with my spear.

"Well, that was easy."

I could feel my body getting stronger, I did heard that this armor increased the user's physical strength, but I didn't think my physical strength would increase to this extent, considering this was just a replica.

Or maybe, it's not really a replica?

The knowledge I have about this power is still too little, so I'm not sure.

Well, at least now I don't have to worry about food.

I don't know why, but I suddenly feel very hungry.

Maybe this is a side effect of my power? If so, it's not too bad.

Anyway, although I don't know if this monster can be eaten. Actually, no, I don't even know if this damn cat is a monster or just an ordinary beast.

Either way, I'm really hungry. I'll try to eat it.

I'm also going to make this place my main base, considering there's a water source here and the scenery is also quite beautiful.

This place is on a high ground as well, or should I say a cliff that is right by the sea, it allows me to see the entire beach where I was stranded earlier.

So yeah, making a base here doesn't seem too bad.

In any case, I don't have much choice, so far, this is the most comfortable and safest place I could find.

"Alright, this place will be my new home."

I'll create a knife with my flame, and start skinning the monster, then make a simple house out of the wood and leaves I can find.

"Yep, I think I can do that."

But first, how do I take off this armor?