Epic Failure

The first rays of dawn shined upon the world, in one remote area Astar was sleeping soundly near a Strange stream.

a voice kept buzzing in his head, he slowly started to wake up.

His expression was ugly beyond imagination, it was obvious he was having a terrible nightmare, suddenly he murmured "No, No, No! just go away", his clenched his hand and continued "this sound is killing me, help".

A tear began falling from his eyes, the mental pressure must have been incredible in his dream.

He Dreamt of a black room, inside that room only he existed and a white radio, he couldn't reach the radio no matter what, the radio kept repeating a sentence he had heard oh too much already as if it were broken.

That wasn't all, every time he heard the sentence a strange feeling appeared near his abdomen, it felt like someone just punched him there, at first he could endure but it stretched on and on, after countless times he couldn't bear it anymore and nearly descended into madness.

He suddenly woke up and instantly yelled without thinking much "NO, NOOOO."

As soon as he realized what he had said, gears clicked in his mind, ' SYSTEM?! What system? wait a moment, MY CHEAT ' eyes widened, he panicked, intense sadness and regret appeared in his eyes, he opened his mouth to say something else but he didn't have the time.

[The merging process rejected.]

[Searching for a new host.]

The same construct that had brought him here appeared in front of him, it suddenly shrank down and sped off into the distance like a shooting star.

Heart pounding with regret, he shouted with all the might he could muster "COME BACK, MY CHEAT AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH", a strange matter was that he was speaking English again not the language of this world which he had gotten used to.

Tears well up in his eyes and they began to fall, he felt light-headed and almost collapsed.

He stayed like that for half an hour cursing himself and everything in sight, eventually, he realized that even though he had Epicly Failed, there was no use crying over spilled milk.

He started to calm down, he swore to himself in his heart to never speak without thinking, Standing up, he focused on his current situation.

He instantly noticed that He couldn't feel the vitality in the air which used to feel like a fresh breeze ever-present, it had vanished.

He was beginning to descend into sadness again but managed to control his emotions and calmed down, "This will be my last failure, I swear to myself, to find my way back, I can't afford another mistake."

He sat down, his figure seemed sad and lonely under the tree with no other living being in sight.

'I recall as I was falling unconscious the system said that I don't have a spiritual root, that can only mean I can't cultivate', ' the strange feeling I felt from the surrounding before was probably what people with spirit roots feel, that was spiritual qi ', despite knowing this he didn't feel despair, He was totally different than before.

because he knew that emotions would only harm him in his current situation, he shut them down as much as he could and inspected everything from a 3rd person point of view.

' I have read many cultivation stories, amongst them, the main character either had heaven-defying luck or a cheat, I don't have any of those, but I don't need any actually and since I lost my cheat and luck is uncertain, I can only take matters into my own hands.'

he said to the world around him but it sounded more like a promise to himself "Watch as I conquer this world with nothing but my intellect and knowledge, today I may have nothing but tomorrow I will have everything."

eyes shining with determination he took out the compass, he had lost his way back to the village long ago, it pointed to the north-west.

He began walking according to the compass, some times it would change directions, Astar followed them without hesitation.

5 hours later, he had left the forest 2 hours ago, the scenery began to change, the grass turned into a lighter shade of green, he would encounter giant trees with golden leaves and black trunks, they shimmered with a breathtaking radiance when the light of the sun fell on them.

the strangest thing was, he would occasionally encounter massive beasts, some the size of hills, some strangely shaped, some were very fast, he didn't recognize a single one of them but no matter what they didn't come close to him.

once he began walking toward a giant reptilian monster to see what happens out of curiosity and to his shock the monster looked at the compass in his hands and backed away.

of course, he had concluded that it was because of the compass that the monsters avoided him, he just wanted to make sure.

he noticed a small gem on the back of the compass flickering with a mysterious light whenever he got close to the monsters, the light grew dimmer and dimmer. he had long since noticed it and moved as fast possible towards the direction the compass pointed at.

after 1 hour, the number of monsters grew less and less, eventually, he could see the city wall in the distance.

the moment he reached the city wall, the compass began to fade away, Astar was not willing to lose this treasure, he walked towards the opposite direction and the compass returned to normal, he realized that if the compass didn't enter the city, it would remain.

He found a suitable spot and buried it there, satisfied, he went to the city wall, he found the gate, he could see many people wanted to enter the city so there was a line.

He silently went at the back of the line and waited, his turn came, he was not unfamiliar with the proceedings and paid a silver coin he had acquired in the village to enter the city.

The city was ancient-looking, the people lived exactly like the old times on earth, the only differences were the clothing and cosmetic appearance of buildings, streets, shops and such, he could even see people flying about in the sky once in a while, each one of them that could fly gave a terrifying fluctuation of power, it made his heart tremble.

the differences between cultivators and mortals were obvious, the cultivators had long hair, luxurious robes, and unique temperaments, the mortals, on the other hand, wore simple robes, and appeared poorer, it was clear as day that the powerful enjoyed riches and mortals lived poor lives.

He could sense that the cultivators would look at him with clear disdain in their eyes, he didn't take offense, he knew that he looked like a lost villager in the city, even mortals would look at him with contempt.

Astar had a plan by coming into the city, he needed to learn writing in this language, and then he would consider ways to get a spirit root, before everything else he had to make sure he knew everything he could about this world.

he asked some people around and found his destination, the scholars guild, he had heard that the scholars guild was the center of knowledge and books.

the scholars gathered there hoping to learn and teach what they knew, exchange information, and sell books, there were many cultivators amongst scholars who liked to come and choose apprentices there but the most important job of the Scholars guild was to research and study alchemy, magical plants, etc.

he looked at the entrance of the said guild and smiled, 'this is where my legend begins, hopefully, that is.'