The strong lives and devours the weak

Hence you travel for the power you seek.

What lies beyond the strength is for you to explore

And your own self has to open the door.

What lies beyond is not what you imagine

Be warned and be gone for it's more of a burden.

However your life is what you make it to be

So move forward if you want to see

What lies beyond the power

And comprehend until the final hour.

The result of the journey is the journey itself

For knowledge isn't limited to a book from a shelf.

Experience the world before you come to the end

Only then you'll understand that you shall send

A message to those who attempt

The impossible task of which they are not exempt.

However, never stray from the righteous

And no, you need not to be pious

Only be good along the way

With your deeds and the things you say

Because those who do bad things are sick

They can just go and suck my...

Stop! Okay, that's enough. It's strange. It went downhill so fast. For someone as superior as me to be this bad at something... Well, anyway, since it seems as though one of the original objectives has been achieved, which was to get your attention, then I suppose we can continue.

I don't mean to boast but to tell you directly, I am now the currently most powerful being in the universe. The person with the highest position attainable. The entity most feared and respected of all.

A god.

Or rather, THE God.

You think I'm lying, don't you? It's in your imagination to believe me or not. However, I at least want you to believe my story.

This story is a story of how a boy gained strength. The story of a man who fell short to his promises. The story of a human being who laughed, loved, lost, and cursed his humanity. The story of how this arrogant speaker came to be where he is today. The story of how I became a GOD.

For you to understand me, we must start way back from where I also started. You must understand who I was. There have been uncertainties in my life until now. But the most important thing that we must be perfectly clear about is that I was human. No matter how much I had wished for the contrary, I was certainly, painfully HUMAN.

Now you must be wondering how it is important. But considering my neighbor was a three-headed snake with the body of an avian while my boss at work was a gigantic blue slime then the need to know of my physique obviously comes up a notch. The old me was weak. I lived in an eccentric world where it seemed as though everybody around me was way stronger. There was envy inside me. I envied those who had the power and thus I yearned to reach for something greater. And little did I know I was already carving my own path.

Perhaps, my journey started at the womb of my mother, where my body and mind had formed. Maybe it was when I was growing up in the orphanage, slowly being refined to become a fine young man. However, let's not bore ourselves with the details. Instead, I would like you to imagine a male human being at the age of eighteen working at a restaurant as a means of living, surrounded by creatures of varying appearances. If you succeeded, then congratulations, for you have imagined me in the past.

I worked the whole day everyday, except for Sundays, to save money for my future. At night, I went to the orphanage to sleep, for it was the only place I could have called 'home'. I don't know my parents. And it was the reason why I had to strive for myself all the time. Anyway, this was my routine since I turned fifteen.

The day before the start of spring at my eighteenth year in this world, however, was different.

"Oi lad, Fiel, why ye still be washin' those dishes?! Isn't t' enrollment today? I already have permission from t' boss. So get yer butt out o' here. Or else I'll get scolded if ye arrive there late."

A rough voice came from behind. Its owner was a six-and-a-half-foot tall creature that resembled a boar with black fur. This grumpy-looking fellow was called Edgar. He was the manager of 'Bulls and Beef', the restaurant I was working on. Though he had high privilege over the place, the owner, Mr. B Slime, still held the final authority. People who were not used to Edgar's quirky speech patterns thought he had a bad personality, but actually he was one of the nicest guys ever met. In fact, both him and Mr. B had taken care of me. They allowed me to work in their place, even when I was still awfully inexperienced. I was indebted to them, and still am until now.

"Oh, Sir Edgar, good morning! Please, don't worry about me. The enrollment doesn't start until afternoon so I have plenty of time left."

I responded politely.

"Izz 'at so? Wait. Why ye call me ser? I ain't no ser. How many times have I told ye already?" He replied seemingly a bit irritated. "BAH! Never mind. Just get out o' here. Go walk outside or sumthin'. Play with a cat or fuck a whore, I don't care. Boss told me yer gettin' a break. So ye goin' t' have a break, understand?"

"Well, if you insist sir. Then maybe I shall leave early."

I picked up my things and left the place, but not before a - "I TOLD YE, I AIN'T A SER!" - came with full volume at me as I walked away.

The enrollment would start at 1 PM and seeing that it was still ten in the morning, I still had plenty of time. I decided to head to my friend's place. Now, don't you misunderstand me. When I say his place I don't mean his house. I was talking about a place nearby the eastern park, under a tree, amidst an area overridden with grass. It was his place because more often than not, when he's alone, he'd be there sleeping or reading a book. The shade was perfect for relaxing, and this friend of mine didn't do anything but relax. I wouldn't call him lazy, just that his parents provided for him, and there was no real reason for him to do other things. I'd do the same if I were him, to be honest. He was the same age as me and we would be attending the same school if we pass the interviews later today.

Apparently, it was reading time when I arrived. As I approached the tree, I could see the figure of a person with light-brown hair concentrating on a hand-held book. His physique was more or less the same with me, albeit a littler taller.

"Yo, Eden whatcha reading?"

This friend called Eden was also human, as the description suggested. However, there was a fundamental difference between us. For simplicity's sake, our origins were not the same, hence we were both human but of different kinds. It was established that his kind had innate talent to magic, while ours did not. Furthermore, theirs had the advanced knowledge of magic passed down from their ancestors. To make it short, he was a human who was proficient with magic. I, on the other hand, came from those who had technological advantages. But since they could learn to use our innovations easier than we could learn their magic, it was an unspoken consensus that they were a higher being than us. Though I hated to admit that.

"Nothing special. This is the Basic Theory of the Molecular Level of Magic by Kotenham," Eden replied without looking up.

I raised an eyebrow at his response. It was a relatively easy topic, and for Eden who had been reading books for a decade, this was peanuts.

'Why is he reading that?'

"I know what you're thinking. I'm just reviewing stuff. The seniors from school said to me yesterday that depending on the flow of the interview, they might ask technical questions. I doubt it though. Still, it never hurts to be prepared."

"Dude, they literally accept everyone. The admissions are only for show and you know it."

At this point, he looked up at me. I could tell he was mildly annoyed.

"Yeah. But I still want to read this anyway because I want to. More important than that, you're early. I thought your shift ends at twelve."

"I was released early today."

Shrugging off and seemingly uninterested about my comment, he continued reading as if nothing happened. Electing to not disturb my friend further, I chose to pick up a book from the stack near him, and read one myself. I plopped myself besides him. Time passed just like that. After a while, we ate the packed lunch prepared beforehand while chatting. Before we knew it, the time reached 1 PM, and we headed to school for our schools admission.

Ardent School of Knowledge and Application. It was the only educational institution in the entire Ardent City. All sorts of students enroll in this school - from poor to rich, human to intelligent beasts, knowledgeable or not, they all gathered here for different purposes. The only limitation was the age, and of course the money. Money being a limiting factor was obvious and understandable, however the age was probably unusual to those not in the know. They only allow eighteen years old students and above to enroll. In fact, the restriction would've been much higher if not for the consideration of the humans' lifespan which was the shortest of all the intelligent beings.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

The theory behind the age restriction was that the older you are, the more developed your brain becomes, hence also your ability to learn. The school had limited resources, especially the manpower, thus they wanted the students to have higher cognitive power to lessen the need to teach things over and over again. They also hoped that by the time someone reached this age, they would have accumulated enough knowledge to at least learn the basics of the world. Nevertheless, it didn't stop some students from repeating classes, or from enrolling with almost perfect ignorance anyway.

Currently, I was at a spacious but simple grey building. It wasn't that big, actually the building was of the smaller ones. What made it spacious was that there was nothing inside except for a long table, three chairs from one side, and one at a distance from the opposite side. The three chairs were all occupied by grown individuals. The one on the left was a higher owl, a being with the same appearance as an owl except bigger and more intelligent with the ability to communicate. At the seat on the right, there was a creature that looked like a human, if you ignored the horn sprouting from his head and his blood-red skin that is. It was probably a demon spawn . Their general appearance was as described. However, meeting one was rare since there existed only a few of them. Lastly, the one who sat at the middle was a dark-skinned, long-eared individual. A dark elf. Normally you would feel a regal air around them, but for some reason this one had no aura of the sort. The word 'eccentric' would immediately pop to mind upon seeing him.

The one seated from a distance opposite them was me. It was the time.for my interview. Now, I knew that they accept everyone in this school, therefore my objective this time was to leave an impression. I have heard from graduates that sometimes they give promising students discounts. And I was not one to miss the opportunity.

'I should start from the get-go.'

"Greetings human, I am the principal of this school. My name is Rabbel, and as you can see I belong to a race called dark elf. The ones beside me are my advisors. In my right, is Mrs. Hillieu, a higher owl, and on my left is Mr. Mendra, a demon spawn"

'Even his name is eccentric. And the owl is female?'

The dark elf grinned from ear to ear. I was more than convinced already that he was different so I ignored it. He introduced his companions as advisors but it looked like they were not planning to speak soon. Actually, the owl looked sleepy. While the demon spawn glared at me, since he had that expression from the start, I only chucked it as his usual expression and decided to not be bothered by it.

"What's your name?" Rabbel inquired.

"Zerefiel, son of myself."

I got their attention. Mrs. Hillieu propped up straight, and it was impossible to miss the glint of curiosity from Mr. Mendra's eyes. Mr. Rabbel was already laughing.

"What an interesting fellow," Rabbel replied while wiping tears of laughter from his eyes.

The trio was surprised because my response was a very 'official' one. Naturally, those at the top of an educational institution should have knowledge about these formalities. However, forget about me, even those nobles with high status would rarely even bother learning about it.

It was normally the case to just state your first name. Thankfully, I learned from a book that the most appropriate way was to state your first name first, followed by the last name if you have one, and then the name of your parents. The phrase 'son of myself' indicated that I have no knowledge of my actual parents. Rarely anybody knew these, hence the instructors' surprise.

I succeeded in getting a positive initial impression.

"Race?"

"Human." I replied curtly as I wondered about the question. It was obvious what I was. Not to mention, he already called me human earlier. My thought process was cut however as the questions followed.

It seemed to me that the inquiries were random. Some questions were about my personality, some were about basic knowledge, and some were theoretical. Some were philosophical that took me a while to answer. He even asked me: "What is sex for you?". To which I answered: "Something that has nothing to do with me".

This back and forth lasted for a while. And as we were nearing the end of the interview...

"What's your reason for wanting to enroll in this school?"

"I want to broaden my knowledge and acquire new skills."

"Well obviously, but what for?"

I clenched my fist. This was the question I've been waiting for. The question that my existence was hinged upon. And thus I replied,

"To become the next God"

"Hoot~ Do you know what you're saying boy?"

As expected they reacted heavily. Well, except for Mr. Mendra. The dark elf principal laughed once again while Mrs. Owl had finally spoken up.

"Oh he's serious Hillieu, I can tell," the principal reacted.

"Boy, please tell us this world's history."

"The focus?"

"Well, its creation, since we're talking about godhood"

"Alright." I muttered under my breath. "Exactly 5290 years and 90 days ago, also known as zeroth year and first day of the new earth calendar, 'The Earth' was created..."

Before The Earth that we lived in was formed, there were multiple earths scattered across different time lines. The different earths also had different occupants and different situations. One earth had humans in them whom excelled in science and technology. Another earth also had humans, but with lesser intelligence. The next earth had magic in it along with magical creatures. There was another who only had strong beasts still only at the stage of 'eat or be eaten' survival. These earths were numerous and vastly different. However, there was one similarity. Wars. All of them had fighting. All of them had destruction. And God noticed all of these from where he stood, and he was displeased.

One day, God had enough of the violence. He forcefully merged all of the time lines. Hence, a world where reality and things that were previously believed to be only fantasies, myths, and legends, and things that were never thought to exist, were all forced in one planet - The Earth.

At the day of merging God declared,

"I have had enough of being a God. If you want to fight then fight, for this is your chance. I will pass the title of God to the worthy. So fight for my seat! Until then there will be no God to guide you, so go live on your own. From today onwards, I declare you abandoned!"

This event was recorded later as "The Great Convergence" or to put it simply, "The World's Creation".

"... and that's how the world that we know came to be."

I finished up the brief summary of the history.

"Hmmm, continue. It doesn't end there, does it?"

However, it looked like the principal was dissatisfied.

"Yes. It was chaotic after the time line convergence. Monsters, beasts, demons, humans, unintelligent life forms - all forced to live together. Needless to say, without the ability to communicate with one another yet, confusion ensued, but then came the violence soon afterwards. The strong remained. But the weak could not do anything. It looked like the world would not last. The fighting was never-ending."

"But then came The Five Heroes. They all desired to be nameless, however their collective title still remained until this day. The Five Heroes stopped the fighting. They united the different creatures, and created cities as we know one by one. Ardent city is one of them. After several centuries, there was finally peace."

"However, there was a problem, right?"

I nodded affirmatively.

"After all that happened the position of God still remained empty"

There was silence for a while. It was a contemplative silence. Even Mr. Rabbel had a relatively serious look on his face. He gathered his thoughts and spoke.

"Tell me this, Zerefiel. The Five Heroes achieved something so huge that I doubt anybody in the next hundred millennia could match it. There were even five of them and yet not one has been bestowed the power of God. Why do you think so?"

"It's the position of God we're talking about," I replied. "You think since there are five, God is bound to be one of them. However, it's precisely because there are five that they couldn't do it..."

I smiled with confidence.

"...because there can only be one."

At this, all of them smiled in return. Even Mr. Mendra, who had a previously rock solid expression had a hint of it in his face. As for the principal, Mr. Rabbel, his amusement was even clearer.

"Allow me to welcome you in advance, Mr. Zerefiel. It looks like we'll often be seeing each other from now on."