William knew that his fate would change. After all, he was the one who experienced all this. "My spirit was still in the mud phase… I still have a long way ahead of me," he put the crystal back on the desk before tapping on the surface with his fingers, lost in deep thoughts.
If anyone saw him at this moment he would never believe this kid was only eleven years old. Either his expression, the way he seated, the strange rhythmic knocking on the desk, or even the determined gaze that came from his eyes… Everything gave the impression of an experienced person in life, an adult and not a kid.
That was expected. After all, he returned in time but still held all his memories and most importantly his experience. He knew lots of knowledge, thanks to his master's teachings, thanks to his long and hard life after the fall of this world.
"I have a lot of things to do… But there is still one thing that still stands out even after returning in time," he slowly stood up and went towards the main drawer in the room before taking out the big backpack and putting it on his shoulders.
"Strength is the only and true thing that rules one's life and destiny," he said these words before closing the door behind him.
The world outside was darker than it appeared from his window. He knew this was a late hour at night. Yet that didn't stop him from walking through the empty road, heading towards the big forest up ahead.
This was the big southern monster forest, known as the Blessing Forest. The entire world had two main continents, with five narrow stretches of land linking between the two.
The academy was situated in the southern continent, under the rule of one of the most powerful kingdoms in the entire continent; the Novistic Kingdom.
One could say that this academy was one of the top five academies in the entire kingdom, making it one of the top hundred academies in the entire world.
It wasn't that great indeed, but it wasn't that bad either.
It went without saying how strong the disciples and masters here were. But in William's eyes, this academy and even other academies in this world were retarded in their teachings. They were all weak!
That wasn't their fault. He knew this was a deep plot done by the sworn enemies of humans; the monsters.
As someone who lived to witness and survive the destruction of this world, and went to places beyond the reach of others, he could frankly say the simplest of his knowledge was far beyond the understanding of people here.
Let's take the basic knowledge about spirit masters for example…
In this world, spirit master strength was discovered at the age of six years old using special methods. It wasn't much different than the age of the test in the outer world that William lived in. What differed here was the aspects of the test itself and how to interpret it.
People here only relied upon the innate spirit produced during the test and focused mainly on the value of spiritual power.
For example, a person who had the spirit of a mustached lion would be considered a strong spirit master. Others with far blessed spirits like the flying tiger holy spirit or the scaled snake dark spirit would be considered geniuses.
The same went for the value of the spirit power detected at the test. Values above twenty-five were considered acceptable as spirit masters. While values above a hundred would make the kid a genius.
For someone like William, whose spirit didn't have any distinctive shape and whose spirit power only measured twelve at the age of eleven years old, he was considered a failure. People here wouldn't even bother nourishing such kids, and so he was left to dust and serve other spirit masters for a living.
However, William knew better, much better than that. These starting points might be a good factor in determining future strength, but they weren't the only factors.
From the life he lived outside this world, he knew the true spirit master world had three keystones in assessing any spirit master potential, known as the spirit master's holy triad.
These were: Spirit power, spirit purity, and spirit training technique, or cultivation manual in other sayings. What mattered wasn't the starting point for any spirit master, but what the spirit master did after that point.
For example, the second holy triad cornerstone, spirit purity, was considered a life-changing concept in William's life. The spirit purity aspect was built over a concept that any human was a spirit master, having a spirit of his own with different impurities.
Cleansing these impurities would unlock the true potential of any human, turning a loser and a failure like William into a real powerhouse and true hegemony in the world of spirit masters.
Yet it was easier said than done! To cleanse one's spirit, one had to do many things on a regular basis, best to be as a daily routine. And the trickiest part was that he needed to link this with a good spirit training technique, plus raising his spirit power constantly.
It was all rounded effort, but William wasn't worried about doing that. After all he did such things when he exceeded the age of seventeen. In other words, even when it was considered impossible by the standards of the true spirit world outside, he still had done it.
And it was all thanks to his master.
So how could he doubt his ability to repeat what he previously did at the current age of eleven?
"I need to get the money first," he knew the biggest obstacle in his plan was money. He came from a poor family, so he had no one to depend on but himself.
To get money he needed to go to the forest and hunt down monsters. Normal monsters were strong enough to kill someone powerless like him.
But he wasn't out of options.
The Blessing Forest was one of the largest forests in the entire world. It spanned across the borders of many kingdoms, with over a dozen of academies sharing their activities inside this forest.
It would be logical for the academy to control the access to the forest, especially if it could turn someone like William into a rich and strong person. But the academy didn't restrict access to the forest at all, and it wasn't the sole academy in doing so.
After all, if weak people like porters, like William, decided to go inside the forest, then they should be responsible for their lives there.
The forest wasn't a nice place to spend time at. Death was drooling at each corner. One could lose his life easily. So what was the point in restricting access to the forest?
The only restriction would be for outsiders to go through the areas controlled by the academy. As William was part of the academy, he found the main route toward the forest easily and started walking further ahead.
Midway he took out his backpack and examined its contents. The bag only had three things, an iron sword that had rusted over parts of its edge, a bottle of water, and a small piece of ore that was used as a signal flare for help.
William's bag didn't contain anything else. After all, porters would deliver everything they salvaged to the disciples they were serving at the end of the day.
If William would describe his current equipment, he would say this was the worst gear he ever had in his life. Even if he considered this as the second worst situation in his life, he couldn't find any situation to come first.