As the golden light around him faded, Raze found himself within a knee-deep clear pond, brimming with nature's energy.
The air around him felt clean and his vision felt clearer.
A gentle energy seemed to caress his body for a few moments as if trying to scan him and only after a few seconds did it vanish as though confirming he was one of its own.
A status window appeared before him almost immediately.
[Name: ?????]
[Core: Unawakened]
[Physique: Zenith Physique.]
[Skills : ????]
This was the manifestation of the world's will, and every world had one. Raze had a status window back in the Skyfall Dynasty as well but it didn't have question marks as his name or skills because he had grown in that world and it knew everything about him.
But for this world, he was still unknown… and it would evaluate him as he grew.
"I guess this worked out as they planned."
He had always been a little skeptical about his so-called Zenith Physique but now… it had worked exactly as they said it would.
It was a physique loved by the world and mana. From what he had studied, this physique made any world accept him, allowing him to use mana easily and with mastery, unlike others.
Raze could see his face reflected in the calm pond. His blonde hair and icy blue eyes which reminded him of his mother were still the same.
In his childhood, he had hated her and he had hated his own face because it reminded him of her but gradually, he learned to live with it… and now, even as it was covered in splatters of blood from one of the very few who had cared for him, all he felt was a hollow ache.
"May you rest in peace, Sebastian."
He stood there calmly for a few moments as if offering his friend one final goodbye, before he finally moved.
He walked out of the pond as lush greenery greeted his eyes. He was in the middle of a forest that seemed to have no end.
"Couldn't they have sent me near some city or something?"
He muttered, checking his body to see if the supplies he carried were still with him. The plain steel sword was still strapped to his waist and a few pouches containing dried food and water were still there as well.
He could only bring these things as the world did not allow any magical artifacts from outside, including storage rings.
"Tsk. Which direction should I take now?"
He closed his eyes for a moment, memories surfacing of the time the Duchess had left him alone in a forest of beasts. She hadn't given him any instructions except, "Get out of the forest."
Back then, he had wandered for months before finally finding his way out but he didn't have that much time now.
He had to enroll in the academy entrance exam and complete his mission so he could finally be free from his shackles. After all, the Duchess had promised him that.
He didn't even consider running away or betraying the Skyfall Dynasty. There was simply nowhere to hide when most of the cosmos was ruled by them and he couldn't remain in this world either, one that was destined to be destroyed.
Just then, his senses picked up the sound of bushes rustling. He immediately drew his sword, holding it in front of him in one precise motion.
A little girl, barely ten years old, jumped out of the bushes. Her black hair was tangled and wild, strands sticking to her face. One brown eye shimmered with unshed tears as she stared forward, trembling with a basket filled with what Raze could only assume were herbs clutched tightly in her hands.
She wore a small, tattered cultivation robe, its once-white fabric now dulled by dust and leaves.
Raze didn't lower his guard.
The girl froze for a moment upon seeing him, before suddenly running toward him, screaming something in a foreign language.
"Aeluna noemi!!!"
He couldn't understand her words but when a wolf leapt out of the bushes right after her, everything became clear.
She was asking for help.
The wolf seemed to be ordinary beasts without mana but then again, Raze himself was no different. The Duchess had never allowed him to form a mana core, believing the world would not permit him to enter while carrying foreign mana.
The girl hid behind him as if he would protect her.
"Aeluna noemi!!! Lolocata."
She kept saying something but Raze didn't spare her even a glance. His eyes were locked onto the wolf in front of him.
Even unawakened, his body and swordsmanship had been refined to the absolute peak his physical limits allowed.
He caught the tiniest twitch of muscle in the wolf's body, the faintest signal before it lunged.
Raze pulled his sword sideways, holding its edge toward the wolf. The moment it jumped, aiming to snap his head in half, he twisted his body and drove the blade straight into the side of the wolf's skull without mercy.
The wolf whimpered for a brief moment… then went still.
A small status window appeared before him.
[Swordsmanship (A-Rank) added to the list of skills]
The world had recognized his pure swordsmanship ability as A-Rank but he didn't care. In his previous world, this was only C-Rank as the ranking depends on the strongest swordsmen that existed in that world.
He swung his sword once through the air, flicking away the blood before sliding it back into its sheath. When he turned around, the girl was staring at him, her eyes sparkling like they were filled with stars.
He didn't know what to say but the girl seemed to have far too many things she wanted to say. She excitedly scanned him from head to toe, her eyes shining.
"Oowge looka, boague."
He still couldn't understand the language of this world and somehow, as if realizing that, she slowed her words and began to use simple gestures, as though that would make it clearer.
"Oowge… looka… boague."
But before he could say anything of his own, a presence appeared right behind him without any notice. Raze felt a cold blade resting against his neck.
He slowly turned, only to see a woman with long, flowing black hair, dressed in a black suit, staring at him with cold brown eyes.
An awakened—?
Before he could even process it, she struck. Darkness swallowed his vision and his body collapsed as he fell unconscious.