In a place that's being filled and surrounded by heavenly clouds, there's a scene where a human elder fighting against a being akin to God. Befitting of his age, there's a lot strand of white hair among his long messy brown hair.

He, Takazaki Ryu are currently facing a life and death situation. It's where a tick of time mistake could lead to fatal things and ended his life.

The battle has already occurred more than 3 hours, but both sides still don't have any trace of a wound on them. 

However, Ryu's intuition knew that his opponent didn't even use a quarter of her power yet.

"Fuck this! She's too damn strong!"

"What's wrong? Are you tired already!? Prove me your worth!"

"Who do you think you are!? Battle magic, Critical Helix!"

Pivoting his foot, Ryu poured his mana to the twin blade before spinning and swinging madly toward his nemesis.

"I'm tired seeing that magic already, Creation Magic, Absolute Barrier!"

A chant followed by a finger cross, that's what it only takes for her to instantly create an invisible and unpenetrable sphere around her, nullifying the incoming attack completely.

"Now it's my turn, Creation Magic, Typhoon."

With a wave of her hand, a powerful tornado capable of destroying everything on its path suddenly manifested before her.

"Shit! You keep using natural disasters as your weapon, face me head-on if you dare, bitch!"

When Ryu provocation entered her mind, this person instead chuckled in her place.

"Block my attack first before you talk. Also, it would be a boring win if I engage in close combat, so I prefer fighting in this way. It's more amusing."

Ryu keeps blocking the upcoming disasters attack. Sometimes, he made his own moves too if he had the chance, although it's simply got tackled again by her. 

"Damn it, how long you planned to delay this fight, Ellaine!?" Ryu swears loudly after blocked the last lava rush with his swords.

"You're right, It's time for me to end this fight."

"What!?" Ryu unconsciously flinched when he stares into her face. The once used to be playful expression drastically turned into a pool of colds emotion. The atmosphere around her appears to freeze solely because of her gaze.

"Creation Magic, Tyrant Strength."

"Creation Magic, Cosmos Agility."

"Creation Magic, Pharaoh Wisdom."

Ellaine keeps casting a buff on herself, there seems to be no end in her chanting.

Realizing that the situation would become more unfavorable if he let this to exceed further, Ryu decided to charge his way towards her.

"Die, Ellaine! Battle Magic, Ares Brutality!"

Releasing his signature technique, Ryu swings his twin swords violently. Each slash that he made creates a wind force coming from the blade edges. The wind's capable of slicing everything that comes in contact with it as it travels miles away.

Noticed the signature moves, Ellaine just smiled before raising out her arm.

"Sadly, you're too late, Creation Magic..." Pausing her chant, Ellaine soon pulls her arm down powerfully, "GAIA FORCE!" Suddenly a massive gravity has fallen over Ryu, forced him to halt his movements. And in an instant, Ellaine appeared before him, stabbed him right into his chest.

"Ugghhh! W-What was that!?"

"I'm merely using my signature moves since you used yours. It's over, Takazaki Ryu."

"D-damn you! Ellaine." Ryu instinctively knitted his brows together because of the pain that he felt.

"The moment I succeed stabbing my sword unto you, the winner has already been decided. This favorite weapon of mine sucks all of the blood my opponent has, so one direct hit is more than enough to kill an individual."

"I curse you in hell! Forever!" Ryu was only capable of muttering those words with his current condition. Seeing Ryu closing his eyes slowly on his verge of death, suddenly, Ellaine spoked other words.

"You're talented Ryu, you can reach to this tower by going solo, after all."

"I shall grant you another chance!"

"Creation Magic, Tempus Propago!"

Following that chant, a bright light slowly envelopes Ryu's whole body. And at the same time, Ellaine begins to walk back to her throne without even give a slight glance to Ryu that's presently opened his eyes wide.

"W-Wait, Wh-what did you cast on me!"

After another second, Ryu's body gradually faded away before entirely disappeared from the palace. Later, a faint sound can be heard coming from the throne.

"Takazaki Ryu, this time, don't commit the same mistake and bring your friends who had died to walk with you, and then, together..., we will eradicate that thing..."

***

At Helbram Soul School, the 3rd Division room. Over forty students can be seen sitting down in a chair listening to their female teacher as she's lecturing them about her knowledge regarding a Class Selection. The power called a Class is still mysterious up until now, a lot of the students are dumbfounded and still couldn't believe what their teacher had explained. Not too long after that, The school bell rings itself.

"Okay, that's all for now. We will continue this thing tomorrow."

Taking her things, the female teacher leaves the room hurriedly, it seems she still has another matter to attend to.

"Hey, do you understand the lecture?" The teaching material could actually be considered hard for 13-14 old kids to understand, so there's a lot of them that's busy discussing with each other, trying to grasp a better understanding regarding the topic.

During this commotion, there's a student who abruptly breathes a heavy pant, it felt like he was just being woken up from his nightmare.

"What's the meaning of this!?"

The boy, Ryu, was dumbfounded by an event that was happened before him as he keeps blinking with his oval eyes.

"Isn't this the 3rd Division of Helbram Soul School? Am I dreaming right now?"

Using his hands, Ryu inspects all parts of his body...

He couldn't feel the three identical scars that are supposed to pass on his right eye, more so for the wrinkles in his forehead. Instead, what he noticed was his long brown hair being styled nicely without any hint of aging in there.

His arm, the previously filled with proof of his hardships, is now clean and smooth, like an unscathed jade.

And, when he grabbed his stomach, the bread that's already ripped into 6 parts is reverted back into a fresh one with a little extra fat in it.

Confused, Ryu began to uses whatever things that crossed his mind to wake up from the supposed-to-be-a-dream. To his surprise, he only felt pain from those things.

"It's not a dream? Doesn't that mean I'm being reborn?"

He's puzzled by the fact that he's being reborn, what's more, it's not at a different world nor at a different century, but its the turning back of his time.

"Doesn't this mean my life got a reset!?" Putting his hands on its chin, Ryu begins to ponder what could trigger this phenomenon. He still has memories of his past life. Even right now, he still remembers the pain of getting stabbed by Ellaine.

"That's right! Ellaine! Just before I died, she cast something on me."

"Surely, that must be the reason. But... Why did she do that?"

Thinking about Ellaine motives for giving him a second chance. Ryu suddenly remembers his friends and family that died in the Dungeon or killed by a monster that escaped the Dungeon, and the most important is his beloved one, Ayano.

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As he thought this, his eyes couldn't hold back his tears as it flowed down to his cheeks. For a dozen years, he had lived without emotions because all of his irreplaceable people are killed by the Dungeon monsters. The only reason he wants to live before was to go to the top of the Babel to take down Ellaine, the one who's responsible for creating a Dungeon.

At that moment, a boy with straight short dark hair and a tall body around 6.2-feet in height was coming from his back and hit him right in the head.

'Tak,' the sound of a book being slammed into a hard object clearly echoed through his mind.

"Who the hell is it!?"

In an instant, Ryu twisted his body to the back and saw one of his friends is grinning and laughing while looking at him.

"Is there something wrong, dude? It's rare to see you cry. Are you being rejected by someone?"

"Narukami! You're still alive!" Ryu instantly rose up from his seat and grabs the shoulders of his best friends, which makes the other party furrowed his brows in confusion.

"Dude, are you right in your mind?"

Hearing the question makes Ryu realizes that he's indeed transported back into his past. "I'll go back to my residence!"

"Seriously, what happened, Ryu? Your attitude today is so confusing."

"Nothing, I'm just want to think about something in my place."

Ryu was filled with joy. But, for now, he couldn't let his emotion take over him. He needs to find out what happened to his body right now. Does his previous stats still intact? If not, he wants to think about how to level up faster and quickly upgrade his tier. That way, he can protect all of his friends and Ayano easier.

"I see. Dude, I know you're heart is depressed right now, but don't take it to deep, okay?" Because Ryu didn't answer his question regarding the confession, Narukami seems to be convinced that the cause of the attitude change was because of the broken heart.

"Ah... I see, thanks for the advice."

Ryu suddenly remembers that Ayano is actually someone from a royal family in a city where he lives right now. The reason that he could get married to Ayano was that an accident had occurred. The Dungeon monsters in Forest City have escaped and slaughtered the people in the Forest City, including her fiance and family.

The only survivor of that incident is only a few people. It's about 500 from 25000 people in Forest City. That's including Ryu and Ayano itself.

'If I want to protect this city, I must think about how to get Ayano's heart too. She can't be replaced in my heart after all.'

'For a hundred years, I keep blaming myself for Ayano's death. Now I can't let that happen again. I must get stronger than anyone in this city, in this country, and in this world, and I will defeat Ellaine.'

There's a trace of sadness appeared in Ryu's face as he clenched his fist tightly.

***

In Morizaki Residence, Ryu is wondering about the state of his body, what will happen with his previous Class and stats?

In the previous timeline, He was one of an individual who succeeded in reaching the 4th tier Class the so-called God Tier Class, which is extremely rare. There's only eight recorded 4th tier person in history with six of them already becoming a speck of dust at that time. He's the first one to get an Ares, the God of War Class.

In the world, there's 6 basic Class or 1st Tier Class, and they're Veteran, Archer, Mage Disciple, Brute, Apprentice Druid, and Cleric.

There's actually one more hidden Class the world has to offer, and that's a Thief. There are only 1 in 100 million people who can unlock the Class of a Thief because there's a special requirement that must be done to become a Thief.

Each Class can be divided into two again in the 3rd tier. But even reaching to 2nd tier is considered to be more than challenging.

It took about six months or more for people to be able to raise their level. But, there's a lot of deciding factor that can help a person growth to become faster, like natural talents, consuming pills, or doing continuous training.

"Regarding the world, we have a massive sized tower called Dungeon scattered all around the place. There's a lot of mysterious things that can be found inside the Dungeon. But, the ancient civilization had a hunch that it was definitely a good one, so they decided to found a city with the Dungeon as its core," Ryu recited the saying that he once read from the history books.

"Good my ass! That Dungeon itself will become a disaster to humanity ten years later from now!"

He really wants to punch the greedy ancestor's face that's decided to build a city in such a mysterious environment only because of a hunch. Before long, Ryu let a sigh to escape from his mouth.

"I need to be faster in my training regiment. At this age, if my progress was also reset, I'm probably still a Novice Class with a level 3 stats. Level 10 is needed to advance to the 1st tier. The most basic Class."

Closing its eyes, Ryu began to ponder about his plan to achieve that requirement quickly. But, in the middle of his thinking, he abruptly opened up his eyes as he got sudden enlightenment.

"Wait! If I advance a tier, my level will become one again but not with my stats. In my previous life, The 4th tier Class is limited to level 100 only, and I can't seem to leveled-up higher than that. It takes me 120 years to advance to that stage. But, what happens if I try to raise my novice Class to level 100?"

"But... How much time will be consumed if I do that?"

This one is indeed a hard choice for him if he hurriedly advances to 4th tier, the stats that he could get in the Novice, 1st tier, 2nd tier, and 3rd tier would go to waste. But, if he wanted to stay and became a super novice, he couldn't imagine how many age it would take to finally claim the 4th tier, the God Class.

"Although it's not a bad idea, It's not efficient considering that I want to get stronger as fast as possible. Let's just advance to 1st tier ASAP!"

"For now, let's check my current status."

Closing his eyes, Ryu began to think about a pattern. It slowly arranged to resemble some kind of magic circle with an orange color. After a while, a small fire was ignited from Ryu's hand.

"I see. It's transparent, with a moderate size."

Dismissing the flame, Ryu continued; "That's mean my guess was right, My stats also drained to zero, and I'm around level three novice or so right now."

He couldn't say that he was satisfied with the result. He had hoped that he at least a level five Novice because by reaching that level, it's easier for him to train in the Forest City dungeon.

After deliberating for a moment, Ryu stands up, getting ready to leave his room.

"Let's train my body first."

"This time... I'll not let them die again!"

But, before coming out from his residence, Ryu decided to plan his daily training regiment first. Although he's rushed, it doesn't mean he could train blindly, it would just yield to an unsatisfactory result.

To get the best result from the training, Ryu must be consistent with his training routine, and also, the order of the train must be sorted out first.

"Hmm, with my current condition. My ideal training, for now, should be running, push-up, sit-up, and jogging for the finale."

Ryu took out his notes and wrote his schedule. "Oh yeah, I'll also insert swordplay before proceeding to jogs."

"Wait... Should I change my Classes?"

"Maybe this time I should take a Thief Class. The God of War Class that evolved from Veteran Class seem to couldn't fare that well against Ellaine."

"An Assassin might be the best type to strike her up."

After considering for a while, Ryu decided to cross out the swordplay and wrote a dagger training instead. "It's around 5 P.M right now."

Looking into the clock wall, Ryu starts to calculate inside his thoughts,

"The first schedule is running, I should've done that for 2 hours to get an ideal gain. Then, after that, I'll do a sit-up and push-up, each done for half an hour."

"For a rest, maybe half an hour is enough, I'll do the dagger training for two and a half hours later."

"And for the finale, I should go jogging for an hour."

"In total, it's eight hours of training. So it would be done around 1 A.M."

"Good enough, I still have time to rest for tomorrow's school."

Double-checking if his routine course is correct, he then goes out of his residence to execute the things he wrote on the paper.

"Huff, this feels so nostalgic."

Running around, Ryu unintentionally savoring the lively scene of the city at night. It still feels unreal for him to see this kind of thing again.  "Seriously, what's the motive of her doing this to me..." At the moment he got distracted by that event again, he suddenly got tripped on a nearby rock, caused him to kiss the ground roughly. "Urghh!"

Didn't instantly get up from his position, Ryu instead begins to close his eyes.

"Ah... This wakes me up... Even if I figured it out, there's nothing I could do with my current strength. I really should focus on my training."

Standing again, Ryu starts to stabilize his breathing and mind. His arrayed thoughts were also beginning to becoming clearer, thus making him able to focus on his training. Thanks to this, 2 hours just fly by a nick of time as he already arrived back in his residence.

"What the fuck!? I didn't notice that I'm drenched in sweats like this." Falling out from the focused state, Ryu finally conscious of how tired his body was.

"But, this is not the right time to take a break."

"I must do the sit-up and push-up first."

Before long, he forced himself to enter the state again, continuing his practice for an hour under the big tree. After finishing this exercise, he finally has a chance to take a breather.

He leans toward the big tree, totally depleted of stamina. He's even having a hard time moving his muscle. Especially in the arm and legs part because he just completes the sit-up and push-up sets before.

"Hah, I never thought it would be this exhausting."

"It makes me remember that at this age, I'm really a mischievous boy, and my lifestyle was also far from what being called healthy."

"That tragedy turns my mindset upside down. Never again, I want to experience that kind of thing."

Reminiscing about his tragic past, Ryu just shakes his head off, trying to disregard it. "Let's rest for a bit..."

Ryu closes up his eyes, concentrating on recharging his energy again for the next schedule that he must do. After 30 minutes have passed, Ryu's slowly rises from his position. "Next is dagger training, I guess."

The dagger training was the most essential practice, he needs to adapt himself with wielding a dagger. "But I don't have a dagger with me..."

Pondering what he should do to get the training done, Ryu's sight suddenly falls on the small tree branch that was dropped from the tree.

"Lucky! I can use that guy." Grabbing the branch, Ryu starts tilting it to the left and right. "Hmm, this is a bit longer than the standard dagger."

"I should grind it first with a stone."

"But, it takes too much strength and time for that."

After thinking for a while, he suddenly puts a fist into his palm.

"Ah! Let's just get the kitchen knife from my room."

Throwing the tree branch away, Ryu hurriedly walked back to his room. When he arrived, Ryu takes the kitchen knife from one of the corners of his place, "To save time, let's just practices here, although it's a bit cramped, there's still a space to make a move."

In his room, Ryu began to practice his movements. It's repeated between slashing and piercing, he also tried to hold the knife by reversed-gripping edge out.

"It totally gives a different vibe compared to the sword."

Ryu gave off a sigh when he noticed how clumsy his movement was.

"But, the idea of an assassin using a sword also seems ridiculous to me..."

"Alright, I'm gonna stick on the dagger until the ends!" Enhancing his determination, once more, Ryu diligently practices with his knife.

He needs to train his weapon proficiency from zero again. But actually, Ryu didn't hate this kind of thing at all. On the opposite, he loves to learn new things. That's why the 150 minutes that just passed feels like a minute to him. "Two and a half hours just flew like that..."

Was he too absorbed with his training?

"Maybe I should set my schedule on dagger training longer..."

"But, this is the best training regiment for now, so it can't be helped."

Canceling his intention out, Ryu placed the kitchen knife back to where it supposed to go.

"Well, I guess it's time for the closing."

After that, Ryu going out of his room and commenced to jogs around his residence for an hour. When he got back, he instantly throws himself into his bed, taking a rest without caring about the reeking smell that comes off from his body.

"I'll make you regret giving me a second chance, Ellaine."

After mumbling that, he instantly drowns himself in his bed.