"That's...you'll have to, I know it's hard but you want to be strong don't you?"

'Sure do. But not at the expense of my own sanity. I'm sure there are much better ways to get stronger, I'll figure it out.' He snapped, still breathing rather heavily.

Dying over again was mentally straining, he wondered whether the people he tortured felt this kind of pain too.

He shook his head. They couldn't have. This thing, this energy was torturing his very soul. The only thing he was able to inflict pain on was their flesh nothing more.

Which he thought was mild and tame compared to what it was doing to his mind and soul.

"Master, the world you're going to isn't going to think twice about swallowing you whole. Strengthening these things will be your biggest asset while you haven't awakened. Please bear with it."

He could feel the sincerity in the system's words. Of course it hadn't slipped his mind that it was only so good to him because he was some sort of a guinea pig. Deep down in his heart, he knew the system was right, he was being stubborn.

Levi stilled his heart, he wanted to be strong.

Strong people made the rules while weak followed them, he'd been a follower in his past life. In this one, he wanted more than anything to be in the leading role.

The strings of fate already gave him a headstart by making him a god, well half-god but it was something nonetheless.

So with that resolve, he kept going back to the centre of Gi and he kept dying in the most painful and gruesome way possible. He gritted his teeth and accepted that unless he did this, he won't last long after his hibernation period was over.

Son of a god or not, he would be just five years old. He imagined the world they placed him in, Ancieru, wasn't exactly the babysitter he was hoping for.

The more death took him, the more his mind grew sound and calm. He wasn't so scared anymore, his thought process was improving so was his memory.

'Great. I don't need to remember things from my past life, now I won't forget them?'

"You should probably know, the 3 sacred disciplines 'Mind, Body and Soul' also have levels which are called gates and within those gates various stages. While balance is everything between these three things that make up who you are, you'll only ever make use of one to manipulate Gi."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Levi wouldn't have heard the system if he wasn't already a little bit used to the dying. He could feel something shifting within him, he guessed it was him getting stronger every time he died.

He'd died about twenty times before noticing any real changes. The power it was giving him brought him a little fear.

'What do you mean?'

"There are many races in this world. With each race, Gi interacts differently from race to race—"

'I think you've already told me this...' He thought before he could stop it. 'Sorry, my mind is swirling way too fast.'

"Only gods can utilise all three — the 3 omnis — omniscience, omnipotence and Omnipresence. But you're half so you will inherit only one discipline from your worldly race — demons. You use your mind, some their souls, some their bodies."

'You're not very good at explaining.'

"You'll see."

'The gates, tell me about them.' He was in his mind but he was out of breath all the same.

"The first one is Novi with three stages, second is Mortal with five stages, third is Primordial with seven stages, the fourth is Void with nine stages and the final one is Omni with an infinite number of stages."

'And which gate am I?'

"Right. Foundation, the gate before the first one. You're essentially level zero."

Levi regretted asking, level zero? Not even level one. That was a blow below the belt. It would've discouraged anyone else but not him, this made him chuck up dying the same as getting a papercut or a nosebleed.

He sucked it up and started acting like the man he knew he was. He did less complaining and more focusing. His muscles occasionally tingled, he had migraines for days and his soul was ripped more than he could count.

"Master, its been sixty days and you've been at it nonstop. This is surely dangerous for you."

'Which gate of body, mind and soul strengthening am I in now?' He asked eagerly.

"Master, it's going to take a long time and a lot of training before—"

'Tsk. Genius my ass. Leave me be.'

The dying was now painless, it was the most fulfilling achievement. But thanks to that, he didn't feel like he was going any further with the gates, he was stuck at the bottleneck of foundation.

He wanted to reach Novi before waking up, but he didn't imagine it would be this difficult. He started to think he'd be stuck on foundation forever.

"I hadn't realised you've reached your bottleneck Master. But you can't breakthrough without a special fruit, it's very common but in dangerous places. The higher you go in levels, the more the fruit needed will be rare."

Levi scoffed. He didn't believe for a second that the system didn't know he'd reached the bottleneck. He had to remind himself that this was an experiment, he was an experiment.

Tending to his Hub, it had short very green grass. The result of spending time within Gi had progressed it immensely. He was really proud of it.

Now that dying wasn't painful and wasn't progressing his strength, he decided to walk around the world he created.

He never thought he'd see his old body with muscles, though he was still rather short for his liking.

'It feels like something will jump at me here.' He said looking around anxiously.

"Nothing will pounce at you here, nothing here exists if you didn't put it here."