The Forest 1

"that old man..." Sora gritted his teeth while looking around, he was in the middle of a forest, with no human life to be seen anywhere.

{host this isn't too bad, this is your chance to kill monsters and level up.} the time said making Sora node slightly. he had to use this place to the best of his capability, but he had to be careful. if he levels up, he finds it hard to control the sudden strength.

when he countered and kicked Yoshi in the stomach, the silver-haired woman, he didn't mean to use so much power, but she wasn't a normal human and survived. that kick was aimed perfectly, if she wasn't so strong she would have been a cripple.

{also, there are other ways you can level up. for example, you can gain XP from learning new things. in war, one needs many skills, tracking is one of such skills needed. sharp senses are needed, although for now, your sharp instincts are acting like spider senses, allowing you to sense danger and guess what could be causing it. but the more senses you have to fall back upon, the better.} the system said as Sora walked through the forest, looking around him while being on guard.

the system was never this talkative, but since it didn't need to be in rest mode, it was going to do Sora to turn him into the embodiment of war as quickly as he could.

{some normal humans can smell sound, see smell, and so on. this is called Synesthesia. but you should have heard of blind people with the ability to eco locations, and so on. what I'm saying isn't for you to master one sense, I want you to learn to master every sense before mixing and fusing them, forming a 6th sense.} the system said shocking Sora

{with this, you would have a complete view of the world around you. A perfect 360 degree, every vibration, down to a person's heartbeat, or even their eyes blinking, would help you see the world.} The system said to which Sora's heart skipped a beat at the possibility this could bring.

{War was knowledgable, he reached the absolute pinnacle of martial arts, and he knew every form of martial arts that was and would. this even went for weapons and none-weapons, but you don't have this you will not get this even after I'm gone." the system said making Sora frown slightly

{War concluded that to win against our enemy, another him was not needed. instead, he laid everything clean, and let you choose how you would be war. because of this, you would not become a perfect copy of War, instead, he gave you the chance to be better. so instead of waiting for the system to give you the rewards for leveling up, let's make sure everything I give you would be pretty much useless.} the system said, to which Sora closed his eyes for a moment in deep thought about all of this.

'indeed, walking down the path to become a copy would just be heading down the same path. but how will I be better than War? I'm aiming in the dark towards a target I don't even know exists. I don't even know much about war or his limits,' Sora asked softly,

{thats where I come in. Although I'm not war and have all his knowledge, I have enough to know just the way he chose you... Let's for a moment go back to the beginning of existence, as things came to be, concepts were born. but some concepts could only be born if lifeforms came to be, such concepts being love, hate, pleasure, and so on. So where do you think War stood in this?} the system asked

'War was of course born with lifeforms that went to war with each other.' Sora thought but to his shock, the system said he was wrong.

{no, War is one of the reasons existence came to be. through the battle between order and chaos, Order won and existence came to be. before existences anything, there was only chaos, but through chaos comes Order, and the cycle continues. War is one of the oldest concepts, no he transcends the concept of time. born from Chaos and Order, you can see why Chaos took up the role of the elder brother to keep the peace amongst the other concepts, who knows how many times he watched them die and return.} the system said leaving Sora stunned,

this information was of course huge, this pretty much meant that everything would die one day, swallowed by Chaos, and would be reformed once more completely new.

'so, why did he pick me?' Sora asked softly,

{thats simple, with an infinite number of lives coming and leaving. existences would birth a lifeform like you sooner or later. a lifeform that becomes one with War. although this part is foggy, your existences called out to war the same way war called out to you.} the system said making Sora depressed as he didn't like the answer.

Say, growing up Sora was going down a path he would be considered a gangster, sure Sora had done many dirty things in his past life and took the life of many, but he turned his life around when he found the woman he loved. He finished school, went to college, got a good-paying job, and was on his way to living the perfect life. in the bad market, he managed to not just buy a house, but a whole mansion. they were going to live the life...

but to think all that time he was on the streets beating up people, that time he crippled people, and so on... it was all because of who he was. it was a bit depressing to think about it, but now that this came to his knowledge, he realized that there was a part of him he had been rejecting.

taking a deep breath, Sora cleared his mind and forced on the system training. the best way to train your eyesight was to focus, getting used to seeing quickly moving objects was one way, it would help your brain see and process the information it sees quicker,

another way was to train by looking far away, starting at your limits, and slowly training your eyes to see further and further. To see in the dark, slowly lower the light while allowing your eyes to adapt to the point you can see with the lights low.

this sounded simple, but this was something that could take years for others to learn. luckily with Sora {Sharp Instincts}, his intelligence would gain a 5 times increase, with the added side-off effect of his senses becoming sharpened.

So, if Sora trained hard for this month and used the monsters within this forest to train, he could reach a point where he mastered one sense, or even higher if he manage to level up to increase his stats.

Sora went on and began looking for a place to set up camp. he never went camping before, but he knew a thing or two about survival. the first thing he needed was to build his camp near water, at the same time he couldn't just build it in the sight of magical animals which could see him

so, the first thing was to find clean water. but Sora didn't get far before his instincts began ringing danger bells in his head, Sora jumped to the side, just in time to dodge the head of a snake that fell from the trees.

Sora felt a chill run up his spine seeing such a large snake, it was big enough to swallow someone as small as him whole. although he couldn't see its whole body, just the head alone was enough to allow Sora to guess its size, and he was sure it could stretch out to be as big as a bus, or bigger.

the snake looked at Sora with its sharp eyes, Sora's instincts kicked in once more when he locked eyes with the snake, Sora quickly avoided every contact when he felt this, and at the same time he felt his mind feel light for a moment, but he shook it off and jumped towards the snake.

'a mind base ability? looking at its eyes is bad... but how can I read its movement without seeing its eyes, it's not a human where I can read its other body parts.' Sora thought while jumping over the snake's head which had shot forward to bite him.

Sora landed heavily on the snake's back, leading the snake to angrily shoot its bad back towards him. but Sora shot into the sky, grabbing into a tree branch, and shooting himself up. he quickly noticed the rest of the snake's body, he followed it until he found the snake's body.

kicking the tree branch, Sora shot himself forward, while at the same time, the snake's head shot up the tree and shot after him. Sora quickly caught the snake's tail, before he fell off the tree, using the tail like a tree vien, Sora swung around the tree, and once his legs touched the tree, he began to pull with on the snake's tail.

Sora wasn't the type who liked to use overwhelming strength to defeat a target, but he couldn't find many ways to deal with a snake without a weapon. Sora didn't need to attack the snake to know its scales were sharp, and he couldn't break through it,

So, he came out with this plan. but swinging on the snake, hopefully, its body weight was enough to bring part of its body down with him, luckily this worked. and now, he had to bring the whole snake down...

'wait, this isn't a normal snake. if I think about it, it's a snake that hunts from the tree, so should it be wrapped around something? if so, I with the strength of a normal man, trying to move something so heavy thats wrapped around something?' Sora without a second thought let go of the tail and shot backward, the snake tail quickly disappeared, and from the trees, Sora saw the snake looking at him with killing intent.

'I can't blind it, it uses its tongue... but I might be able to hit its brain if I attack through its nose. a trick move, but due to my small size, it could be done.' Sora thought while looking around for a stick, or something he could use

'This is a rick, I don't even know the layout of a snake organ. hopefully, the brain is next to the way like most animals,' Sora thought before shooting towards a stick that was on the ground, form the looks of it, Sora knew it could have been broken off the tree thanks to him swinging on the snake.

Sora grabbed the stick, before rolling to the side as the snake headshot past him. Sora quickly shot up, landing on the snake nake, and shooting towards its eye. the snake of course sensed Sora on its back and was enraged, it shot up into the tree tops, hoping to knock Sora off with the help of a tree branch.

But Sora seeing he was about to be slammed into a tree branch smiled, he waited for the last moment before grabbing the tree branch and shooting himself up. at the same time, the snake feeling Sora was no longer on it turned, but the moment it looked back, a tree branch stabbed into its eyeball. Sora let out a roar, as he drove the thing deeper into the snake's eye before he was knocked back by the snake wiggling in pain,

Sora wanted to twist himself to land on the tree branch, but he wasn't quick enough, his back slammed hard into the tree branch before he fell to the ground.

'luckily that tree branch broke my fall.' Sora thought while picking himself up the ground, and rubbing his back which was in slight pain. he looked up and frowned seeing that the snake was still alive, he planned for this thing to be his dinner, he also wanted to use its scales as a weapon.

But Sora wasn't into torturing others... unless that enraged him to such a point that he just want to see them regret ever messing with him. sending a massage, or something like that, was not torture in Sora's eyes. On the other hand, this snake seemed as if it had to suffer a bit more before it could die.

"Sorry, but I'm too weak to give you a quick death," Sora said calmly while picking up another tree branch, before shooting up to tree. the snake was chaotic, slamming itself all over the place due to the pain, but Sora timed his movement just right, when the snake's hand shot from another tree and shot towards the side, Sora shot up.

landing on the snake, Sora forced the head to the side, by landing heavily on it, and just as the snake's head was about to hit the tree, Sora placed the tree branch in between them and the trees, and thanks to his actions of turning the snake head, the snake ended up driving the tree branch deep into its eye, and into its brain.

Sora was knocked off the snake's head, and his back slammed hard into the tree before he went through many tree branches before he hit the ground. Sora lay there on the ground, looking at the tree tops where the snake lay, willing from time to time, but it soon stopped moving and died

{nice work host, kill 4 more snakes of the same strength, and you would level up.} the system said, to which Sora sighed helplessly. all that and he still needed to kill 4 more similar-level snakes

{that reminds me, eating stuff that is rich with energy could give you XP as well. You should eat stuff with poison so you can build resistance towards such stuff. the higher your resistance towards poison, the higher your resistance towards other stuff shall be, and in return the higher your stats.} the system said to which Sora sighed while getting off the ground

"the kid took down an E-rank monster all on his known, and without any magical energy to call upon." the 10 mages looked at the scene of Sora going before the snake. Sora pulled out the sticks within the snake's eyes, before patting its nose for a moment, and then going on to remove its scales.

"as you can see, a 5-year-old doing things never seen before... reward all of this, I want it to be passed down for eras to some. This kid shall be the hero, that is sure of," Merlin said with bright eyes while looking at Sora. with his power to read minds, he could tell how Sora's mind worked during battle, which only made his desire to make Sora the hero grow.

Sora cursing him meant nothing to him, this was the future of mankind, so what if he was not willing, he would throw him into the demon realm and have him fight willingly or unwillingly when the time comes.

"That was the first time he killed right? From the moment he saw the snake, his reactions were normal... no it was not normal. if I was his age, I would have not only felt chills running up my spine at the sight of a huge snake, instead I would have felt fear. then again, I'm looking at him as if he is from a city. he is from the slums, so maybe this is normal." the mage with the sword said softly,

"This was his first kill, other than bugs, Sora is a person who avoids killing unless he has to, another reason why I think he should be the hero. a person who knows the value of life, and a person who would rather avoid trouble unless it's for a good reason. I want him to become my student." Merlin said with a huge smile, which made everyone look at each other for a moment.

they rather this didn't happen, Merlin was already a freak. going back to when he was a kid, it was said he was walking and talking by the age of one and was already learning magic. by the time he was 1 year and 6 months old, he had awakened his magic and was bringing food back home to his parents from a hunt.

in a way, Merlin was more freakish than Sora. but Merlin didn't grow up in the slums, he was a commoner who grew up to reach his heights. but not even Merlin was capable of doing some of the stuff Sora was doing without magic.

one also had to look at the fact that Sora was hungry, the slums didn't have that much food, and the food they had wasn't healthy. so if Sora's diet could improve, along with him growing up in a better environment, his strength may show itself even more