Chapter 8

"Hey Captain something. Wait what?" Ace felt a weird tingling sensation throughout his body as he had instantly appeared in a strange area which seemed extremely far away from his squad's location. Looking around, he was now not in a forest area, but deep into what seemed to be a large cave that went on for an endless amount of kilometers. What was the strangest part of the landscape, was behind him, he saw a strange looking ghostly child hovering over him just watching with a blank expression. 

"Who the hell are you and why was I brought here?" Without hesitation, Ace quickly took out the sword he became fond of and pointed it towards the ghostly child-like figure. But the figure before him did not respond and only pointed off to the side to an extremely ancient but pristine looking sign that was filled with text. The text read 'He who is able to obtain my legacy, can do as he wishes in this world. An endless amount of power awaits those who have the ability to grasp it!' 

After reading this, Ace went from being furious to very confused as he looked towards the ghostly figure. "You may be a child, but my master for whatever reason felt that you had what it takes to try to become a disciple of his. You should feel grateful that such a young and talentless fool like yourself, has been able to receive this type of karmic luck!"

Suddenly the entire cave had begun to collapse around them and Ace was immediately fearful. However, this fear quickly subsided as he realized it was only an illusion while he and the ghostly figure found themselves in a golden palace type of estate. The walls were completely golden and only a strange looking portal type object emitting a dangerous feeling was present ahead of the both of them. "To make the trial ahead of you more fair, I will do as my master had commanded and will guide you forward. If it was up to me, you would already be crying for mercy before dying in there. Hmph!"

With a wave of its hand, the child-like ghostly figure was able to lift Ace up into the air like he was a small flame while the figure was an overbearing dominating expert that could crush even the heavens themselves. It was now very obvious how powerful this figure's so-called 'master' is or must have been. But to his surprise, a large amount of information had begun to fill his head and it seemed to have come from the depths of his soul itself.

It took a total of four days until Ace was finally able to wake up. His entire body was stiff from having passed out for so many days especially without any food or water to consume. What was different though was that his demeanor as a child was now completely gone as he took out some food and water from his storage ring and began consuming them without stopping for several minutes.

"So little one, what should I be calling you now? I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to continue forgetting your past life but at this point, it may be impossible to live life as the 'Ace' that you once did. Am I right or wrong?" The ghostly figure now had a smirk on its face. It was clearly toying with the individual in front of it but it seemed to enjoy this level of torment. One could only assume how long it had been since it had last even seen someone like the person in front of it!

"I owe a great debt to that Barrett and even now it seems to me that we were as close as any father and son could be. It may not be acceptable, but since I was known in my past life as Tim, I wish to be referred to as that to make things easier for myself. I must say, this body is much weaker than I thought it would be. Tell me, now that you know my name, what is yours and what is this about a legacy?"

Finding himself remembering everything thanks to the ghostly figure, Tim who was up until now named 'Ace' was quickly able to figure out what had happened up to this point but was also able to understand more about his current body's capabilities. He was not too impressed, other than the fact that the memories of 'Ace' who went through all of the techniques and weapons, was able to help Tim's own swordsmanship and skills increase dramatically. 

There was no such thing like cultivation in his past life except for the demons but he himself would have been considered as strong as a rank four warrior class in his past life. But now having access to even better weapons, armor, and even powerful techniques and training tools, there was just no telling how strong Tim could become given enough time to study and apply these things over the next few years, let alone decades!

"You will not be able to learn my true name until you pass at least the first six trials of my master's legacy. But before you begin the first trial, I would recommend training for some time. Do not worry, there is a waterfall and garden area in this little estate world. If you want to die here of old age, that is an option but you will be unable to leave until you pass your master's first trial."

The ghostly figure was seemingly rude, but to Tim this made complete sense. He was in a thirteen year old's body and he was lacking in every area that would make him have any level of value to anyone or anything. Sure, there was the 'potential' aspect, but everyone until proven that they did not, had potential in just about any area of life and training.

"Since that is the case, I will just begin catching up with my training in this body. I have no idea how you were able to help me relive my past life, but thank you. I do not think that kid 'Ace' would have been anywhere close to even trying to live through this so-called first trial and would have most likely have died of old age here." Tim was very respectful towards this ghostly figure because although rude, it was clearly trying to assist him. 

"Very well, I will come visit you in a few years. If you need me, just call out to me but after scanning your memories of your past life, I do not think that you will even do that. So before I go, I will just say that once you feel confident enough to try your chance at the first trial, just head through there and follow the instructions given. I would suggest waiting until you were at least trained as a rank two warrior and mage before even attempting it though."

And just like that, both Tim and the ghostly figure had begun going their separate ways. This was perfectly fine for TIm because he now had access to many training tools and his food and board were clearly fully taken care of. He felt bad for those he had to leave behind, but deep down he felt that as long as he overcame this current situation, he could always find a way to make up for it in the future. That was, if he could pass the first trial!

"Interesting, from my calculations, it should not take more than three years to reach the amount of power I had in my past life even with this child's body. Luckily, these simple technique scrolls fully explain to me how the mechanics of cultivating and using these techniques work. This is exciting!" Tim was in a wonderful mood because he understood that he would be able to be well equipped and could overtake his past self in the matter of only a few years. But, in a way given enough time currently, he could even find ways to completely outmatch his past self as well.