Limbo.
That was the perfect word to describe what I am currently feeling.
I am not alive but neither dead.
It's like a fish that had its head cut off and has 5 more seconds of conscience until lights out.
A deep ocean...
I currently seem to be underwater and no sign of life can be felt from around me.
There is light above though.
My body tries to reach for the light but some sort of force is pushing me deeper down.
I guess death feels...calming...
I close my eyes and resume my sleep.
...
A wave hits my face as I seem to awake yet again in some sort of foreign environment.
A feeling of epiphany hits me as the way I see the world started to change.
...
Coming to consciousness again is quite refreshing.
Looking around myself I seem to be on a beach.
Sand greeted my hands as soon as I tried to search for something.
I died.
Or at least that part of me did.
In that world, my soul has been extinguished.
Luckily for me, I sent bits of my soul everywhere in the universe.
And after my main body died the other bits started to gain sentience.
They are still part of me, and I can control them just like my hands or feet so I won't worry about that.
Looking around made me realize that this clone landed on a habitable planet somewhere in a different galaxy, maybe even a different universe.
That portal was extremely inefficient and quite impractical.
My power was reset and I came back to zero, it seems.
Closing my eyes and studying my soul got me to realize just how pristine it once was, with no corruption nor residues from other people whose souls I ate and absorbed.
From the looks of it, this situation might be a hidden boon.
If I manage to survive long enough, that is.
...
1 week passed and I found a cave where I could meditate in peace.
In the area where I woke up, there seems to be edible plants and a small spring for water.
In this area it rains quite often so I made a rain catcher with some leaves and plant fiber that I used as rope.
I had to eat for a bit since it will take quite a while before I achieve level 10 again.
I haven't found any living being yet so absorbing souls was quite hard right now.
Even though I have no one around that doesn't mean that I am going to die here or something of the sort.
I am quite talented myself and judging by my progress pace...
Well.
For an average practitioner, it takes 10 years to advance to level 10.
That is if he were to practice nonstop for 10 years.
Fortunately, I am quite free so I can afford to stay and meditate for a long while.
...
2 years passed and I managed to achieve level 2.
This pace is quite slow compared to my past but it's progress nonetheless.
After absorbing so many souls my own became corrupted and I started to lose rationality.
From what I can remember there were some signs of degradation of overall cognition and I even had schizophrenic tendencies.
From now on I can only be more careful and patiently purify each soul I absorb, unless I wish to have my consciousness overridden by an amalgamation of thoughts.
...
4 years passed and another level was achieved.
With a level 6 strength and physique, I am able to go without food for longer.
I had been going out regularly and started noticing some more variety in the life forms.
Some sort of lizards started appearing and even some ants can be seen on the ground.
After a short stroll, I went back to the cave and continued with my work.
...
4 years passed and I finally achieved level 10
A milestone that calls for celebration.
I went out and caught a bunch of small lizards and cooked them whole.
It took 2 hours to purify the souls of all the impurities and egos that were left behind.
A small upgrade in my vision was well received.
I also got the ability to grow some scales but it was useless.
...
10 years passed and I was halfway towards level 20.
The world outside hasn't changed much so I got back to work.
...
40 years passed and now I arrived at level 30.
I got a bit curious about the planet I was on so I took a flight to see what surrounded me in terms of landmasses.
Looking from above at the lands made me realize that this world was very young and still in its infancy.
However...
After 1 hour of flight, I arrived in space and looked at the planet.
It had a globe shape and had no firmament surrounding it so that was a relief.
...
40 years passed and I achieved level 40 with great success.
A meteorite had hit very close to my location and I ignored that since I was too focused on advancing.
But now that I was free for a bit I decided to inspect the remains.
From above the ocean, one could see that something was indeed under the water in this location so I immediately plunged in to take a look.
...
After 4 hours I got out and with a disappointed expression, I went back to the cave.
-Just a falling rock, huh?
...
350 years passed and I got to level 90.
I stood up and spread my energy around the whole continent I was in.
Looking around I noticed a bunch of new animals.
Mammals, reptiles, and even apes walked the grounds.
I began flying around the globe to see if anything happened, but besides some meteorites that crashed in the last 350 years, nothing happened.
I picked some metal that was brought from space and molded it into the shape of a sword.
The size of it showed that it fitted Giants more than a normal human.
I left the 50-meter sword stabbed in the ground as I left this place and found a random underwater cave.
There were basically no humans on this planet and only animals with low intelligence roamed it.
I did not know how much evolution was going to take but I was only focused on becoming stronger.
As long as I was able to build myself a spaceship to travel the universe then other things did not matter.
...
1080 years passed and I achieved level 180.
A strange aura woke me up.
It came from below me.
It was deep underground and I got curious.
...
Like a drill head, I pierced the ground until I found a huge expanse.