There are three things I taught my son.

Firstly, in order to live, you must think.

Thinking is a strange thing. It reassures you that you are alive. Kids nowadays can connect with each other through the internet, this may be a good thing for them but personally, I feel that it is bad. Why? Although the kids are exposed to more new ideas, their sense of self gets washed away as a result.

Everything they see on the internet influences them and changes them but the internet shows the exact same thing to all the children! This causes them to all slowly accept the opinions on the internet as their own and lose their own sense of individuality.

The internet doesn’t do that you say? It does is what I say.

What forms our personality? Is it predetermined from birth? No. It is the situations around them, the environment that shapes a person’s personality. What happens when all the children develop in an environment which is 70% the same? Mindless drones are born.

Seeing the look of understanding on my son’s face, I was satisfied, knowing that my child who i owed much had accepted my teachings.

At that time, I still didn’t know. I didn’t know that I would become the last to join the demon lords in the ring of 72 demon lords.

I also didnt know that my son would eventually become the greatest obstacle for Emperor Tian Tu.

I didn’t know anything.

I still don’t regret anything though.

Edward Suncrest Pov

It was the year 2017, and it was the year where I turned thirty-five.

It was also the year where everything changed.

6am in the morning. Most people would be waking up at this ungodly hour to go to their day jobs. Not me though, my work is different from others. I’m a private detective’s assistant, not that I was particularly good at investigating. To put it bluntly, I was hired muscle.

That’s why I continued sleeping, since sleep was important.

Well I tried to sleep at the very least, it wasn’t easy to fall asleep when your body moves while not under your control.

Slowly, like a zombie, my body positioned itself such that I was sitting upright.

Suddenly with a ridiculously cheerful Ding! A couple of words appeared in the air in front of my face.

[System initializing…]

[System online]

[Welcome, Edward Suncrest. Earth has been recently accepted by the System, and thus you too have been accepted by the system.]

The words spoke of some ‘System’, and talked about me being accepted by it.

[The System was created by the joined efforts of the Rank 1 Demon Lord Baal, The High God, Emperor Tian Tu, The Netherworld king and High Devil Abaddon. It is an impartial system which simply keeps track of the user’s abilities.]

Demon lord? High God? Netherworld? The System was spewing words that were straight out of a fantasy web novel.

[Essentially, the system does not help you to gain strength, it simply highlights some paths you may take to get stronger, while recording down your abilities and displays it in numerical form. An example will be given to you right now.]

With that, a large screen appeared in front of me.

[Edward Suncrest]

Rank 1

Gender: Male

Vitality: 12

Strength: 13

Mana: 10

Mind Power: 16 (17)

Attack: N/A Defence: N/A

Skills: Unwavering Will Lvl 1

Are those… stats? The one you see in games? Oh, I see, this is one of those situations huh. The world will descend into chaos as everyone scrambles to get stronger? This kind of situation actually happened during my lifetime!

[The numbers in front of you represent the abilities of your current body. A skill may have been awakened in you based on your capabilities prior to the system coming into contact with you. Not every person can gain a skill. Please touch the skill, it will give you a basic explanation of your skill.]

Immediately, the restraining force on Edward’s body was released, allowing him to move freely. Quickly he cracked his neck, and touched the words representing his only skill.

With another cheerful Ding! Sound, another box popped up in front of him.

[Skill: Unwavering Will Lvl 1. Due to your will to not be influenced by others and determination to live longer, Unwavering Will was awakened. Unwavering Will causes your Mind power stat to undergo a multiplier of 1.1x. This number will rise as skill level rises. Additional effects would be revealed as skill level rises.]

Hmm, seems like a passive ability.

So, what now? Will monsters start popping out of nowhere? Will ancient cultivator civilizations start appearing out of nowhere? Will we be put in a desperate situation where most of humanity is wiped out? After that, a hero will rise and challenge the undefeatable demon king? Or was it demon lord, as stated by the system? Then what would the Gods do? Grant blessings maybe?

On another note, why are my attack and defence stats labelled not applicable?

As I let my head fantasise, another pop up appeared.

[Earth had previously been inspected, only to be judged unable to accept the System’s influence yet. Unfortunately, some of the inspectors didn’t return to their home world, choosing instead to remain on earth.]

[This resulted in them creating civilizations of powerful beings. After this was discovered, the situation was explained to the civilizations. They requested to be sealed in time, causing them to not age. Now that earth has been accepted, they will now be unsealed]

Hold up. Ancient civilizations? That was unexpected and also totally unnecessary. I thought it would have been better to eliminate them? Oh well it doesn’t concern me anyway-

‘RUUMMBBLLLEEE’

It was then that I realized that it did in fact concern me.

Through my windows, I could see an enormous beam of light shot up right in the middle of the ocean, which instantly made the seas seem insignificant. Strangely, the beam of seven coloured light didn’t appear to be evaporate the water around it.

Soon, an island of similar proportions to the seven coloured beam rose out of the water. Tsunami’s were created from its rising.

The only thing I could think of was ‘that’s going to kill off most of the people living near the coast.

Yet again, the cheerful Ding! Resounded, and multiple notifications popped up in front of me.

[Island city, Atlantis has risen]

[Giants of the forest have risen]

[City of knights Camelot has come out of concealment]

[Citadel of Golden Immortals has been re-established]

[The Order of Wizards have come into being]

[Ancient Dragons are awakening]

[Northern Coven of witches…]

[The Corpse association…]

[Vampires…]

[…]

Seeing that Atlantis alone (at least I assumed what was in front of me was Atlantis) had caused such a huge commotion, I decided to browse the internet for videos of the others and I was not disappointed.

Watching a video of the one I was most interested in, the Continent of golden immortals, I was yet again given another shock.

An enormous continent hovered in the sky above Beijing, glorious golden splendour radiating from it. On the continent itself, numerous forests, cities and lakes existed. Moreover, numerous people dressed in ancient Chinese Daoist robes flew about, seeming to be inspecting the integrity of the chains linking the floating continent to the ground.

Scrolling down, other videos showed numerous giants clawing their way out of the earth, an ancient city of knights and even more. A camera that zoomed in extremely closely showed several figures sitting around a round table in the castle of Camelot. The internet was abuzz with discussion about whether they were Arthur and his knights.

There were wizard towers that rose up high into the skies, looking as if they could support the world. Numerous people in varying robes bustled around them, chanting in ancient languages.

Glorious, beautiful and mysterious scenes like these played out across the world.

In one video, a newscaster said that the earth was suddenly bigger than before and that new areas were appearing on it. Another newscaster from another channel countered and said that the land that appeared on earth likely didn’t appear magically out of nowhere, they were there originally. We just couldn’t detect them. All in all, it was total mayhem.

As I looked at the resurgence of humanity’s ancient heritages, the only though that came to my mind was ‘fantasy lovers everywhere must be rejoicing’.

It was then that the System interrupted my reverie with another notification.

[All the people on earth have been given a one-month newcomer protection period. All beings cannot be attacked at all for the next month or until they manage to sense and control the surrounding natural energy/mana/spiritual qi/origin force.]

[All beings are born with different affinities for different kinds of energy. Some can use mana while others can wield spiritual qi. Generally, Knights, wizards and witches use mana. Beings like Dragons, Giants and phoenixes use natural energy. Cultivators and martial artists use spiritual qi]

Hmm so humans can use spiritual qi and mana, while beasts use natural energy. Then who were the ones that used origin force?

Seeing that the System didn’t speak about origin force, that path to power likely didn’t exist on earth, or at least not yet.

The System began speaking once more, saying something which made me tilt my head in confusion.

[Warp gate opened. Travel between earth and other worlds allowed for only Rank three beings and above.]

Other worlds. This phrase resounded throughout my head, making me absent minded.

The fact that there were other worlds didn’t surprise me. The universe was full of infinite possibilities and another world with sentient beings wsnt very surprising in the grand scheme of things. What surprised me was that it was possible for us to travel to these other worlds, albeit only Rank three people can, whatever that means.

The System interrupted me yet again with another flurry of pop ups.

[Originally, the beginner period would have lasted until earth develops a fully functioning civilization which can use the power of energy, however since there are numerous civilizations like that already, the protection period has been shortened. On the other hand, these existing civilizations are obliged to protect you, so long as you can give them some form of benefit.]

[It is recommended that you join a place where you can begin your journey on the path to power]

[You can call out your status screen by saying ‘Status’ and you can gain more information by checking out the help guidebook in your status]

[The Gods wish you the best of luck.]

With that, the System announcements stopped. It was good timing too, since I was starting to get very irritated by the constant string of cheerful Ding!’s.

Sighing, I went down to the kitchen to brew myself some coffee. Coffee has always helped me think more clearly, and on a morning like this? Coffee was even more important.

The aroma of coffee beans swirled around in the kitchen as I made my coffee. Pouring it into my favourite mug, I plopped my ass down on the couch and took a long deep sip.

It burned my tongue but it was still worth it. Coffee was coffee after all.

Sitting there, I sighed and began contemplating.

Right now, the first question I had to resolve was whether I would try to join one of these organizations.

Which honestly pretty easy to answer. After all, hadn’t I tld myself all those years ago? Rather than using the cowardly path of hiding in order to preserve my pitiful life, I would bravely face all challenges head on.

Now having decided to join an organization, I faced the second question.

Which organization to join?

Well three main paths were in front of me. Knight, wizard or witch. There were likely other paths to power that involved mana but they weren’t mentioned too in detail by the system, so I can assume the three major paths were these.

Now Witch is definitely out, since if you trust the legends, witches were female.

So, the question remains, Wizard or Knight?

Since I had the skill: Unwavering will, my Mindpower would be a good point to develop. Add that to the fact that the guidebook stated that an average well trained adult’s status would be all 10, it seems that my mindpower was monstrously high for a beginner. If I went over to the wizards I would be well received, right?

Thinking of this, I decided to reference the web novels I had read before.

If the main character of a novel had my status had my starting point, he would probably say something like. “Hmph since I have good qualities to be a wizard, I should be a wizard. But then, some mysterious ring would appear in front of them with the soul of some high rank wizard. Then it would tell him that it would give him all he needed to be a wizard, causing the main character to become a knight and a wizard as well.

Afterwards, he will go through numerous tribulations which may or may not include the high rank wizard soul sacrificing itself to save the main character! And then, the main character would become awe inspiringly overpowered!

Then, he would build a harem, annoy people, kill those arrogant young masters and finally stand at the top of the universe, being so powerful all because he cultivated both body and mana!

Thinking of this, I spat on the floor.

‘As if I could be like that! I only want to live!’

I didn’t need to be some ridiculously op main character, in the first place, I don’t even have enough plot armour to withstand the power of the main character tribulations!

Thus, I decided to be a simple Wizard.

Having decided upon my course of action, I began packing my bags, carrying only the essentials, which consisted of several sets of strong clothes, a bag of coffee beans, a high-quality water sack used by those crossing the desert, my toothbrush, brass knuckles, and a revolver.

I gave my boss a resignation letter, and bought a plane ticket to Iowa, which was where one of many wizard towers had popped up. The reason I chose this one was simple.

They had already set up a recruitment stand, to allow people to join them. They said something about people of this generation having more magical talent. This added on to the fact that their Wizard tower and manpower was among the highest spotted in the wizard towers that popped up, made my choice easy.

Now the only question was whether they would accept me. Well if they didn’t, I could go to one of the more medium sized towers I guess.

Looking at my cosy apartment, I smiled and bade it farewell. It had housed me for the larger part of my life, and it was finally time for me to move on. Making a last minute choice, I took my coffee machine (which was quite compact) and stuffed it in my duffel bag. It would definitely come in handy.

I hailed a cab to the airport and got onto my flight.

It wasn’t really a fitting rise for me, a future demon lord.

This was the start of my rise, made by a mere split-second decision.

But it was sure as hell the best decision of my life.