New start

Inside the silent cave, Eric is having a hard time breathing. He is constantly shaking from fear and excitement. He likes a person who is standing to end his life but a new path of hope appears in front of him. In his whole life, he is trying so hard to impress other and to get other approval but he always gets fail to understand what he wants for himself.

After hearing Max now he questions himself. Why did he need the approval of others and why did he get affected by the judgment of others when they do not even know him? He now wants o live. He wants to live for himself.

He now understands that if he lives for himself then only will he find true happiness. He makes a new goal for himself. His first goal to start a new life is to become powerful. He will do everything to increase his power and live a life without the care of others.

Suddenly breaking the silence, a black screen with white letters appears in front of him.

***

UNIVERSAL MESSAGE

Name: Eric Rustom

Power status: Mortal (regress)

Legacy: Max legacy (??rank)

War participation: regional level (Apprentice Soldier)- 1, --, --, -

Note: Due to the Warrior regressing to the mortal level, you must regain your power before the 2nd regional war.

Plenty: If you fail to regain Apprentice soldier level before the 2nd regional mortal war from today, you will be rejected to become a Warrior for your whole life.

Time left for the next war – 2 years 10 months.

Total time left- 5 years 10 months.

***

The screen remains in front of him for 1 min. Eric's mind still pauses on the scene in Max's eyes. Those words that Max said seem to contain magic that gives him hope to live.

In Eric's mind, the scene where Max talks about the top of the world with his devil-like creepy simile is played in the loop.

After like 30 min Eric's eyes regain their focus and deep in his dark blue eye you can see the spark to do something, to live and hope for an exciting future.

Shakily sitting on the log Eric mumbles to himself.

"How does it feel when I reach the top of the world? Will the feeling be much different? What does he mean by the joy of life? Will I be able to find my path? Will I still be able to become Monarch?"

Many of the questions come to Eric's mind. He wants to find the answer to those questions.

A fire of curiosity consumes Eric. It burned all his hopelessness and depression. He talks to himself.

"Why I want someone with me. I get whatever I want. I will live however I want. Others do not matter. From today onward I will strive to reach the throne of Monarch. hahaha"

Shouting the resolves himself. Eric's mouth forms a wide crazy smile as he continues

"Max, thank you to show me the path I will complete your wish and show the world the terror of my path to the world. hahahahahahahah"

Eric laughs crazily, and he tries to mimic Max. Eric's crazy laughter scares the hell out of the animal near the cave. As Eric stabilizes, he gets up and starts moving toward the side bank of the river. Although his body is still weak, he is somehow able to drag himself out of the river.

Getting out Eric starts to examine his body for injuries.

He is 5.10 feet tall with a thin body. His body has many small cuts on it. Due to spending much time in the water, his skin got swell. Physically his condition is bad but not worse.

Eric has black hair with deep blue eyes. His face with few cut marks. He looks decent. After finding no big injury he sighs in relief. He is only weak from not consuming anything for so many days. He removes his wet clothes from his body and sits naked on dry ground near the wall of the cave.

Eric starts thinking about the legacy. He knows about legacy from his experience. He knows that warriors of the past leave their legacy in hope that their path will not be forgotten by future generations. From his knowledge, he knew that legacy helps a person to make them strong.

He has the information but he never has gotten his hand on a legacy. As he tries to figure out how to use it same blue spirit once again appears in front of him.

Spirit reverts to its previous faceless blue form. A mechanical emotionless voice enters directly into his brain.

<Hello, master, I am the spirit whose job is to teach you about all that is present in the legacy. You can ask me any question you have before we start>

Eric stares at the spirit and introduces himself.

"I am Eric Rustom and you can call me Eric. I do have many questions but first, what do I call you "

<I do not have any name you can call me anything you want>

"OK so I will call you Lee from now on do you like it"

Spirit man responds in a mechanical emotionless voice.

<Master, I have no emotion so I do not know but From now on I will be Lee.>

"OK Lee first of all can you tell me how powerful Max was and do tell me about legacy in general"

<For the first answer master, you do not have permission to get information. Legacies are the knowledge and experience of past warriors from the same or different eras who fought in the war. Most of the Legacy have different arts and scrolls related to the path of the legacy maker. They also have basic and common path arts and scrolls. These all things can be used by a legacy holder to follow the same path as the legacy maker. >

"Ok so do these people are still alive and what do you mean by permission and how to get it"

<Most of them died. As for permission, these are restrictions based on your strength, as your strength increases you will get permission to unlock more Locked knowledge.>

"Locked knowledge?"

< The knowledge which is beyond your level will be locked. Whenever you increase your power level knowledge regarding that level will be unlocked. This restriction is done by the universal system.>

"Lee, tell me about the path thing that Max mentioned in the message. Also about Vile path which he is talking about."

<Master, the path is about the ideology on which your arts and scrolls are based. Each warrior has his unique path. We can categorize them based on their similarity but no 2 warriors will have the exact same path. The path is based on your utility and experience. As you know everyone has a different experience even if they are doing the same thing. You can say that path represents the journey of a warrior.

Now the Vile path is the name of the master Max path. This path is based on extreme choice. This path is based on brute strength rather than techniques. That is all you need to know to know master. >

"Hmm, OK that's it for now."

<Master now I will tell you briefly about the basic knowledge you can get at the current level about war.>

"Go on "

<Master, we live in Altasia. Altasia is a huge vast plane where no one knows its true size. On this vast plane, there live many different species. There are many mysterious and dangerous places out there. From the time when the first world war started many new and different species were also born. Some of them artificially and a few naturally.

There is a system that monitors the whole Altasia. It is known as the 'UNIVERSAL system'. Every living organism that accepts mana into its body will have a black screen that let them enter the war.

Now a person living on Altasia has 2 choices in which they can live. First, as a simple mortal who lives without system interference. In this case, they will not able to absorb mana into their body to become strong. Their life will be simple but at mercy of the strong.

Second is a WARRIOR path who fights in the war organized by the system on different levels. Warriors are the people who can absorb mana to form a mana core inside their bodies.

These people gain power through forming a mana core but they need to join the war. The system organizes wars for the selection of the Monarch.

For a Warrior, everything revolves around the war, the better they perform in the war more they get the reward that helps them increase their strength. Each person when they choose to become a warrior must participate in the war, there is no coming back. They become part of a society where the strong rule and the weak are crushed.>

Saying that Lee pauses to let Eric process the information.