In the endless void, far away from the centre of the Universe a being watched the life-forms of the Universe. After many eons of just being a spectator, he desired to interact with those life-forms and explore the mysteries of Universe as a part of them, but alas no matter how much he tried he couldn’t create a body which resonated with his ancient soul.

He had been there even before the formation of Universe. Even he was unaware of how he came to be, but he has always been just there.

Realizing that he won’t be able to create a body he could occupy, he searched in the endless cosmos for a body which could for centuries but with no success. But then one day, he found the body he was looking for, a perfect anchor. This particular body minutely resonated with his soul and that was exactly what he was after. After locating this body, he was incredibly happy that he’ll be able to explore this Universe as a life-form and was excited about knowing how different it would be than observing it from up here.

This body belonged to a human, one of many intelligent species of the Universe. It belonged to a young boy by the name of Arthur and he lived in a planet called Xyrus. Without any further ado, he teleported to where Arthur was.

(Swift City, Xyrus)

Arthur was currently walking through the streets of Lower District in a depressed mood. His Spiritual Quotient was still at 65 and he wasn’t sure whether he’ll be able to cross the threshold of 100 in 3 months. His SQ hadn’t increased a single digit in the last month despite him trying his best and he was getting a feeling that it won’t in the nearby future.

It had always been his dream to get recruited into one of the elite academies at the age of 16 and gain glory for his family, but the elite academies only accepted students with a Spiritual Quotient, Physical Quotient and Intelligence Quotient of above 100 and only the best of geniuses could fulfil that criteria. Arthur was nowhere near the level of a genius with his 82 PQ, 91 IQ and 65 SQ. Infact, with Quotients like these, he could be only considered above average at max. The best part about elite academies was that there was no tuition fees to be paid as a student of an elite academy. Everything was sponsored by the academy itself and that was what Arthur was really after. If he failed to get recruited into an elite academy then his family could never afford to send him to a private academy.

Spiritual Quotient was the measurement of one’s ability to absorb Universal Energy, its absorption rate and their compatibility with it. Without a good SQ, a person cannot become a warrior. SQ could only be trained through meditation or valuable resources. Physical Quotient represents the toughness of your body, flexibility, your body’s compatibility with universal Energy, self-restoration rate, etc. Though it was not as important as SQ, a high enough PQ was mandatory for a warrior. PQ was the easiest to increase by physical exercise and training, but the rate slowed down after a certain limit like it happened with Arthur. Then came Intelligence Quotient. It measured you comprehension, reflexes, wisdom, etc. Basically it represented how smart you were and it was very important when a warrior learned any battle skills, since the higher your IQ, the easier it’ll be for you to learn any battle skill. Battle skills of higher levels could only be comprehended by warriors of very high IQ.

Suddenly Arthur heard a muffled cry coming from one of the alleys of the street he was walking in. Curious, he walked towards it to take a look and saw a horrifying scene. Three grown men were on the verge of raping a woman and there was a dead body of a middle-aged man lying nearby in a pool of blood. Arthur couldn’t control himself and gasped. This didn’t go unnoticed by those three people and they turned their heads towards him.

“What ae you watching bastard? Quickly scram or I’ll make you” shouted one of the three men and then ignored Arthur. In his eyes Arthur was just an ant who couldn’t do anything. He was a muscular man with a vertical scar across his face. The other two men were similar in physique and had evil and lustful expressions on their faces.

“He…lp……me….” A weak voice came from the woman whose face was bloody and her clothes were being torn off. Arthur really wanted to run away from this place but his heart wouldn’t allow him to simply ignore that woman’s pleas. His father had always taught him to be man of principles and helping anyone in need was one of his principles. Arthur gritted his teeth and approached those men.

“Let her go. I have already informed the cops.” Arthur screamed. He was lying since he didn’t have any gadget or AI on him to inform the police but decided to play this gamble.

“Hehehe….you think we are afraid of police little bastard? Hey Mark, this boy doesn’t seem to be afraid of death. Don’t you love toying with young people? Why don’t you go ahead and teach him a lesson?” The man with a scar said with a malicious grin.

The man named Mark stepped away from the woman and headed towards Arthur. Arthur’s legs were shaking but he gathered up his courage and got ready to fight. These thugs were obviously not warriors and if his opponent was only one guy, then he could hold his fort until someone else noticed them and informed the police. Even though this street was desolate for most of the times, that didn’t mean there were no people around right?

Arthur was really regretting jumping out like a madman when he could have first informed someone else around of what was happening and tried getting some help. But that woman’s plea had somehow affected his mind and he was afraid that by the time he came back she would have already been dead or raped. But this was not the time for regret or anything else as the guy named Mark had raised his hands to punch Arthur.

Arthur ducked and tried punching Mark’s face but his height was not appropriate and Mark easily blocked him. He couldn’t evade his next attack and was kicked squarely on his chest. Arthur flew a few metres away and landed with a thud. Though these thugs were not warriors, they were strong alright.

Arthur was feeling tremendous pain in his chest and knew he had broken several bones but he remained still and acted as if he had fainted. Mark laughed eerily and walked near the seemingly fainted body of the kid to start his art. Mark loved to cut open the bodies of young prey, especially woman and collect their hearts. He had collected dozens of hearts already and he never got bored of it.

Just as he was going to turn over Arthur’s body with his legs, Arthur moved and punched Mark’s balls with all his strength. A *crunch* sound like that of an egg breaking was heard and Mark let out a blood-curling scream. The other two men were startled and angrily dashed towards Arthur’s direction leaving the half-naked woman alone. After making that move Arthur felt incredibly weak and blood was flowing from his mouth due to his internal injuries. He tried to resist those two men but eventually the scar faced man managed to pierce a knife in Arthur’s chest. Arthur’s vision blurred and he fell down with a thud. He was well aware that he was going to die today and recalled the face of his younger sister and parents. He felt pain knowing that once he died they’ll be devastated and there will be no one to support them. His dad’s health was not good for the past couple of months and he had taken temporary leave from his job. The family was running solely from the money Arthur and his sister Amanda earned from their part-time jobs.

But there was nothing he could do now and only wait for his death. “Atleast I died for a noble cause” Arthur thought as he took his last breath. Those 3 men were clearly angry and irritated that they lost so much time because of this boy, especially Mark who was still feeling the pain of having his balls crushed. His brains were going to burst just thinking about the fact that from now on he was done for as a man. Just as he was planning to cut open Arthur’s heart, a mysterious ripple appeared just above the body of Arthur. A grey coloured gas flew out of the ripple and took the shape of something resembling humanoid.

“*Sigh* I was just a step late, otherwise I could have saved this boy. I was originally planning to erase his memories and let him live a lavish life in another body but who would have thought he would die just before I got here. Well, I guess I could directly use his body then” A mysterious voice neither masculine nor feminine originated from the grey gas.

“Ohh, so you three were the one who killed him? For spoiling my plans you deserve death.” The same voice stated and before the three men could produce a single sound their body turned to ash in an instant.

The grey gas then seeped into the body of Arthur’s corpse. A new soul anchored itself to Arthur’s body and Arthur’s eyes snapped open. All the memories and experiences of the previous Arthur got absorbed by the being and his eyes showed emotions.

“So this is what feels like to be a human. I can feel anger, love, guilt, sadness and a myriad of other emotions. This is quite a new experience I must say. Alright, from today onwards I am Arthur. Since I have taken over his body, I’ll live my life as he dreamed and love his family like my own, even though it might take me some time to get accustomed to these new emotions” Arthur murmured and sat up.

He noticed the wounds on his body and a large gash on his chest. Suddenly a grey fog emerged from these wounds and they were healed in an instant. All his internal injuries were gone as well. Arthur’s clothes were already torn but he didn’t care about it and walked towards the woman who was lying unconscious half-naked. The original Arthur had lost his life saving her and Arthur decided to help her as well. He touched the woman’s forehead and a grey gas emerged from his hand. It covered the woman’s entire body and all her wounds healed instantly. As soon as the gas disappeared, the woman’s eyelid moved and she opened her eyes. She was a blonde woman probably in her twenties and the middle-aged man whose corpse was lying nearby must be her husband. Her eyes landed on Arthur’s face but before she could say anything Arthur tapped her forehead and she fainted again.

Arthur didn’t wanted to deal with any drama so he simply left the unconscious woman in that alley and walked out. After walking quite a distance away, he noticed a few police cars and an ambulance speeding to the direction where he came from and relaxed knowing the woman was safe. Someone must have found her body after he left and called the police.

Arthur recalled the location of his home. It was located in the eastern side of the Lower District. His parents could only afford an old house with 2 bedrooms, but it was enough for the family. His father worked as a labourer in the local mine while his mother was a housewife and took care of them. It was quite an amazing feat that in the course of a few years they had managed to save enough money to send Arthur to a good school, though that left them with no savings. The original Arthur wanted to enter an elite academy and become a strong warrior in order to support his family and bring them glory.

Arthur finally reached his home and stood in front of its doors. He was a bit conflicted since he was not the original Arthur but the feelings he had for them was same as the original one. He was feeling a bit bad about fooling his family members but the truth about Arthur’s death may be too much for them to handle and Arthur did not wanted the family of the original Arthur to suffer. Arthur wanted to explore this Universe as an inhabitant of this Universe, but his pride as an ancient ruler won’t allow him to be anything other than best in whatever he does. So Arthur had decided to first explore this planet itself first and then he’ll venture into the outer space. 

Arthur knocked on the door and a middle-aged woman with a few wrinkles opened the door. Arthur’s mother was a blonde woman with olive skin and golden eyes. She was not a beauty but had a gentle and pure aura around her which added to her charm. Theoretically speaking his mother was not old at all and in a planet were average life-span was around 150 years, a 35 old year woman was considered quite young. But his mother hadn’t been eating any nutritious supplements for the last few years and whenever they could afford some, it was passed to him and Amanda which resulted in her body losing its young glow.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Arthur you are ba…..” before she finished her sentence her eyes landed on Arthur’s torn shirt and the blood stains on it. Her face paled and she hurriedly pulled Arthur inside “What happened to you?” she asked in a worried tone as she started inspecting his body to check for any injuries. After making sure he was not injured she sighed in relief.

“Relax Mom, I am fine. I just met a few thugs on my way who were bullying a lady and taught them a lesson. Don’t worry, I am completely ohk” Arthur replied. Although Arthur personally didn’t know her, he felt warmth in his heart whenever he looked at her. “This must be love, which Arthur felt for his mother” Arthur thought as he was hugged by his mother.

“Don’t do anything dangerous like that ever again. What if those thugs would have been stronger than you? If something happens to you I’ll….”

“Sshh, I am fine ain’t I? I’ll be more careful next time. I need a bath, so I am going in” Arthur said as he dashed inside laughing. Mom shook her head and followed him in. According to his memories this was not the first time Arthur came home covered in blood. In his school, the rich kids loved to beat up the weaker ones and Arthur was one of their favourite targets. There were various occasions when he was beaten till he was bleeding. His parents could do nothing since those rich kids had quite deep backgrounds. That was probably why his mother was not very shocked when she saw his state.

Amanda and his father were sitting in the living room. His father was a man of principles. He had deep blue hair and black eyes with a French-cut beard. He was a bit muscular thanks to his job and after knowing what happened to him, he praised him to not abandon the lady. But he also reprimanded him, saying he should have asked for help from a few people nearby instead of jumping out alone like an idiot.

Amanda was a year younger than him and had a cheerful personality. She had blonde hair like mother and father’s black eyes and was quite a beauty for her age. She was actually happy knowing I beat those thugs and gave me a thumbs up. After taking a bath and eating dinner, Arthur went to his room and laid down on his bed. He and Amanda had to share a room and she was on her bed reading a book. Amanda was a really talented girl with a SQ of 87 and IQ of 98. But unfortunately she had a pitiful PQ of only 34 which made it impossible for her to become a warrior. It wasn’t possible to raise PQ to high levels only through sheer training and for Amanda to increase her PQ to satisfactory levels, she would need to consume a few potions which were incredibly expensive. That was one of another reasons why the original Arthur wanted to be a strong warrior. He wanted to earn enough money so he could buy those potions for his sister.

Arthur closed his eyes and started skimming through all the information he had received from his memory. The planet Xyrus was one of the vassal planets of the Blackmoon Empire and was only a tier-5 planet. The planets were ranked according to many criteria like the monster-level of the planet, the type of resources found on it, the strength of warriors originating from, mortality rate of warriors, etc. A tier-5 planet was the lowest grade a planet could receive and thus the resources provided by the Blackmoon Empire to Xyrus were not plenty. The whole planet was under the control of a unified wold government with a few nobles from Blackmoon Empire as its leaders. The Hall of Glory, the number one warrior institute of Xyrus was also a branch institution of the original Hall of Glory located in the capital of Blackmoon Empire, established to train the cream of crop warriors in Xyrus and give them a chance to be an elite warrior of the Empire.

Arthur was a student of Snowcloud Academy, the only school in their city and he was in his last year of high school. His final exams were next week after which he was done with his education. Snowcloud Academy only taught the students a few basic knowledge about being a warrior and majority of it dealt with cosmic science, mathematics, Universal language, Physical Training, etc. Combat training there was also on the most basic level and they didn’t have any kind of battle skills to learn. Generally majority of people after graduation from high school didn’t chose to become warriors since becoming one needed either talent or money. Those who had neither could only choose to follow another path.

The real path to become a warrior started after someone joins a warrior academy where students are solely trained to become warriors. There were 6 elite warrior academies and many private warrior academies in Xyrus. The private ones were not as good as the elite ones and were established by people of Xyrus, whereas elite academies were all part of Hall of Glory and were entirely on a different level.

The path towards being a warrior started with Body Enhancement stage which had 9 stages and Arthur was currently in the 4th stage of Body Enhancement. It basically involved absorbing universal energy from the surroundings to one’s body through meditation and strengthening the body. The rate at which someone absorbs universal energy greatly depended on their SQ and their meditation technique. Arthur’s SQ was pretty average and his meditation technique was also the most common one which was taught in his school. The richer people had a huge advantage since they could afford the expensive high grade meditation techniques and let their kids advance much faster.

The strongest person in Arthur’s batch was in 8th stage of Body Enhancement Stage and majority of people were in 5-7th stage. Arthur was clearly among the weaker members of his batch.

Once someone crosses the Body Enhancement stage, only then could one be truly recognised as a warrior. The warriors were ranked from Yellow

Arthur was excited to know how these lower life-forms lived such an adventurous lives full of danger. Arthur just wanted to experience the life of a human so he had decided to go one step at a time to fully enjoy his journey to power. If he uses his powers and instantly becomes the strongest, then there would be no fun. Though even without using his powers, it was a fact that he was unkillable.

“Heh, but that does not mean I am not allowed to cheat right?” Arthur chuckled. Even though he could not use his full powers, he could improve his SQ, PQ & IQ easily. He could only use 1/10th of his true power safely as of now and that was enough. He was not after annihilating any opposition he might face with his powers and wanted to experience being a human and act like one. But if some unfortunate soul interfered in his path and becomes a nuisance, he won’t mind sending them to oblivion with a flick of his fingers. 

Arthur opened his eyes and found Amanda was already asleep. He quietly got up and made his way towards the roof of his house. Arriving there, he was mesmerized by the scene of two moons hanging on the night sky full of twinkling stars. The larger one was blue in colour while the other one was pink in colour. He watched it for quite some time before he sat down and closed his eyes.

SQ was basically the size of a special organ behind glabella of humans where our universal energy was stored. The bigger it’s size, the better your absorption rate and compatibility with universal energy. Its growth stopped once one crosses the Body Enhancement stage. Arthur actually didn’t need to upgrade his SQ since he could naturally control universal energy and absorb it as he pleased but to enter an elite academy he needed to do so. He was also very interested in learning those battle skills and combat techniques.

With his internal sense, Arthur located his special organ and found it to be only half the size of pea. Suddenly a grey coloured fog covered this organ and it started expanding. After becoming double of its original size it stopped and the grey fog vanished. By now Arthur’s SQ should be double of what it was i.e. 130. If others warriors found out that a Body Enhancement Realm student could use internal sense which was only possible for Blue-ranked warriors, they’ll probably die from shock. He didn’t increase it any further otherwise people may suspect something suspicious if he becomes too OP so suddenly. Last time his SQ was officially checked was 9 months back and it was not impossible to improve that much in 9 months, though such progress was rarely seen. Next was PQ, which was quite simple to improve. A grey fog suddenly enveloped Arthur’s body and his muscles & bones were infused with great power. They were rapidly strengthening and after 20 seconds, Arthur stopped. His PQ had tripled means it was now 246. PQ exceeding 200 was not uncommon among geniuses so it was fine. Arthur had also added a few more tweaks to his skin which made it tougher, harder to pierce and healthier looking. As for IQ, there was no need to do anything since it was calculated using written exams and quiz. Arthur could remember anything with a glance and one week time was more than enough for him to memorize all his books and even more.

Arthur then slowly willed the energy around him to enter his pores and circulate in his body. A huge amount of energy started entering his body like he was a black hole. Arthur’s control over energy was flawless and not even the best meditation technique in the Universe could beat his speed. After 15 minutes, he stopped and opened his eyes. Surprisingly he had advanced to the 7th stage of Body Enhancement in one shot. Since that was enough for the final exams, he did not proceed any further.

Satisfied with the results, Arthur stood up and quietly went back to his bed.

The next day Arthur woke up and looked into the mirror while brushing his teeth. Deep blue hair like his father, golden eyes like his mother, a fairly handsome face and average body build. His skin was looking much healthier ad his face had a glow to it now. During breakfast his family was shocked finding the changes in Arthur’s skin but Arthur just blamed it on what they called puberty. Though it was a very poor excuse, there was no other explanations so nobody questioned him any further. After breakfast he made his way towards the public library. There were a lot of books in his course and he couldn’t afford to buy one so his only option was to read them in the library. The original Arthur used to go there thrice a week regularly. Swift City that Arthur lived in was on the second largest continent of Xyrus called Panthia and was a minor city. The lower district where Arthur lived in could also be describe in another word – slum. Therefore, Arthur had to walk a long distance to reach the library, not that it mattered to him. Infact he was more than happy since he got to see human civilisation along the way for the first time. 

Arthur soon left the lower district and everything became much more advanced. The building were bigger and there were a lot of skyscrapers. The streets were clean and beautifully decorated shops could be found everywhere. There were a lot of modern and fancy looking cars moving along pitch black roads. Arthur even spotted a handful of flying cars in the sky. People walking on streets were dressed in modern & fancy clothes and there were a few people with a floating globe above their head.

‘So that’s a personnel AI” Arthur thought. Personnel AI’s were extremely expensive and came in variety of forms like floating orbs, wrist watches, in-brain transplantations, etc. It was specifically made for warriors to assist them when they ventured into the wild to hunt monsters/ Demonic beasts, since that was the biggest means of income for a warrior. This AI helped the warrior identify the monsters/demonic beasts when a warrior faced one and provided specific information about its strength and weaknesses to the warrior from its database. There were a lot of other functions like scan, GPS, Mission Assignment, etc. The processing power and amount of information recorded in an AI depended on its grade which varied from common

Finally, Arthur reached the public library. It was a huge dome shaped building. ‘Public Library’ was written in big golden words atop it. He entered the building and produced his library card at the entrance. After going in, Arthur greeted an old man who was the librarian of the 1st floor. He was a very good man and had often helped Arthur borrow books for extended amount of time without any fees. The 2nd floor of the library was only accessible to the rich since it contained VR pods. A lot of information was easier to understand in the 3D simulation of the VR pods but they were quite expensive and were normally used by the VIP card users in the Library. Even though this library was a public one, it didn’t seem to function like one.

Arthur quickly collected all the books he would need for his exams and started skimming through them one-by-one. By evening he was done with everything and went back home. For the next 6 days, Arthur repeated this cycle and read any books he deemed interesting in the library. Finally, the day of the final exams came and Arthur made his way towards his school in his uniform. It was a white coloured dress with some blue decorations and the insignia of the school on its front pocket.

His school was situated in the southern side of Swift City where all major institutes were situated. Soon he reached the school gates and went in. His classroom was filled with noises and nobody paid any attention to Arthur when he entered the class and sat down on his usual last bench near the window. Nobody, except one.

“Hey look who is here. Didn’t you get enough beating last time Arthur?” A blonde boy with a haughty look suddenly walked upto Arthur followed by 2 lackeys. He was Kurt, the boy who took Arthur as his favourite punching bag. He was also the son of City Lord of Swift City and one of the best students in his batch. He was in 7th stage of Body Enhancement Stage.

“I really wonder why he bothered showing up when he is gonna score the poorest score in our class. Instead of ruining our reputation, you should just go back and drink your mother’s mil…..” before he could speak any more, he found himself unable to utter any sounds. That’s because out of nowhere his throat had been grabbed by Arthur.