[*OP: ]

The written test of the great academy of Idyllia and the 25 questions— A challenge for every person wanting to study in this great institution.

Questions with no certain right answer. A test that focuses solely on the holistic assessment of the individuals. And to answer these questions, all individuals would have to use everything they possessed, everything they had learned in their journeys until that certain point, and also what they possessed innately from the start.

There were questions related to magic, the world they lived in, the ideologies and philosophies, science, and different cultural aspects of various parts of the world, as well as all of these different kinds of knowledges.

These questions had been and would remain the same in the future however, the <Voice of the World> presented the questions to everyone in different sequences and ways after assessing what questions connected to them the most.

And it followed the predetermined road to lead the examinees.

It started by posing the questions to test their ignorance, then it led them with the questions that made them see their own limitations and the chains binding them.

It pushed them to that extreme mental border where they would either realize the mistakes they already made or the boundaries that they had given themselves, leading them on the path of knowledge and liberating them from the illusions of the world itself.

Or at least, that's what the true aim of these 25 questions was.

Few managed to realize the world they lived in was nothing more than a grain of sand in this vast ocean, widening their horizons, increasing the strengths of their mental bodies, and ultimately becoming an important element of the grand Worldline.

But…

They passed the test as long as the voice of the world confirmed they had at least subconsciously grasped their illusionary mental limitations. And then the grading happened according to their knowledge of the world and the Worldline.

And then the voice of the world graded those answers the same way the Worldline graded the creatures, artifacts, and materials— with the <F> to <SSS> rankings.

Then, the answers were recorded in the open database of the academy's personal system that everyone was connected to so that others could see it if they wanted, which mostly included teachers, schoolers, and professional analysts.

The students… well, excluding the rare few like El, who would want to read the other's answers? Definitely not many. Certainly not the main character of their game world, the returnee who had seen and known all about the world he had come back from.

He was an existence who had seen all that was to see there, all there was to see in that world, and lived a long enough life to be one of the sovereign powers of that world.

He had been through enough hardships in that journey of his, he had experienced most of the happiness and sorrows of that world, and during that journey of his, he also found out the truth that these 25 questions wanted everyone to realize.

'The world was a far bigger place than everyone knew about.'

Just like this new world he had been thrown into, there were countless other worlds.

Their world was just a small place, the actual place where far stronger people than him lived, a place these higher beings watched them from, existed somewhere else entirely.

And, only the truly strong or special people resided there.

'An unrestrainable strength plus the necessary authorities. If one has them, they can go to those higher plains of existences.'

He figured out the way to reach those higher plains, and also the fact why even after being someone with transcendental powers, he couldn't be on par with the so-called 'gods'.

They were the reason he had to go through everything in this unknown world so he wanted nothing more than to knock on their doors and shout-

"Surprise mother fuckers! And then I behead those fucking shitty sons of bitches~. Hahaha!"

In that martial arts world, he was a nobody with nothing.

He first had to survive the deadly fucking forest he was thrown into, then he had to live in that fucking prison because he offended some big shot young master, after that, to take his revenge on him, he joined a martial arts sect where those bitches humiliated him and cast him out.

To take revenge on them all, he wandered that same deadly forest that no one dared to step into, killed the monsters there for years, endured the dense suffocating Mana in the atmosphere, and gathered strength for years.

He swung a wooden twig thousands of times since he didn't have a sword, then he carved out a sword from a tree with his bare hands and swung it thousands of times more, and then one day, he suddenly got connected with the Worldline system and, started his journey in that world in true meaning.

He gained new strength at that moment. Strength of the stats and skills, something that was very new to him, something he had only heard about in his previous world, but since he now had that… things became easier.

He killed the creatures of the forest, gained strength, gained levels, and created skills with his experience.

He killed, killed, and killed, and after defeating the guardian of that forest, when there was nothing else to kill there, he knew he was ready for the revenge that had always been burning in his heart.

He went back and first massacred the entire dynasty that fucking young master belonged to, then he fought with that martial arts sect, only to be defeated by the rare few people like him, rare few that also had the strength of the system.

He damaged them a little, but he realized even after all that he had done, he was still not strong enough.

He was thrown back again, and now, he didn't have a forest to go to anymore.

So he wandered the world, learned about it, learned about how it was so different from the place he had known until that point.

He trained most of the time during his travels, met people, comrades that only accompanied him for a little time, love that he was never meant to find, something that was destroyed even before he could hold it himself.

He was on a quest to gain strength. Stats, skills, and levels were the easiest path to that strength.

So to gain that, he started gathering more information on this system, this world, and ultimately, what were those messages telling him he had received 'Oz' from someone.

He learned, prepared again, went back, fought, killed, killed, killed, killed, killed, and only breathed a sigh of relief when he was the last one standing in an endless pool of red blood.

He had been wounded, he had almost died, but he took his revenge, and won his last battle.

'Only to find an empty, aimless path before me.'

He finished everything he wanted, so there was nothing to do for him actually.

He had gained enough strength that few powers could harm him.

Things he had experienced in the past weren't going to happen anymore.

He could now go back and have any kind of life he wanted. He could do anything he wanted. He could have anything he wished for and anything few in the world could have. Or… he could continue his duty as the one walking on the path of the sword until his last moments.

He had one last goal left but what could he even do about the beings that were like the omnipotent and omniscient gods watching over everything from the faraway sky?

'Nothing actually.'

He only had two choices, and, he chose both.

He walked the path of the sword, trained, and gained strength, and while doing so, he followed that singular wish of finding out about the beings that had played with his life countless times with those forced 'challenges' and 'requests'.

If he had to choose between strength and freedom of choice, he would choose both of them, or if he can, neither of them.

Following your so-called duty in all situations was just foolish while thinking too deeply about what the uncertain consequences of some actions would be was also not right.

"Sometimes, you have to follow your duty over the theoretical consequences of the actions while sometimes, one has to let go of their personal feeling and point of view and do what we would do as the followers of our accepted duties.

We can just choose to do nothing too, but that would mean keep standing on the starting point and not moving at all, ultimately being all alone forever."

He did what he had to do to gain knowledge and strength, he did what he wished in between, he walked his path while not being subjected to it, he followed his well thought out choices while not neglecting his duty to train, become stronger, and do what he was supposed to do.

That was his choice, that was his actions, that was his devotion to his own beliefs that he followed until the point he was enlightened with a fraction of the ultimate knowledge.

He got to know the way he could exert his ultimate revenge, he got to know what the world was, how it worked, how he could get stronger, how he could move forward and break the wall that had restricted him all this time, and ultimately, how he could fulfill that last wish of killing the bastards that had laughed at him on every turn of his misery.

He knew that when he had transcended the mortal limits, only leaving him with the simple task of gathering authorities.

"But then, just like how that sudden space-time ripple took me there, another one appeared again, and took me back to this fucked up place."

He was back to the land that birthed him, to the land that was different from where he had gained all his strengths, in a world that was situated in an entirely different part of the Worldline.

So.... according to the [[( Law )]], the powers he had earned in that foreign land were all sealed off, and he was left with the shitty and stupid task of recovering that lost strength by unfolding the restrictions placed on him.

He started from the bottom again, only managing to unseal the first layers of those restrictions recently, but there were still five more levels of restrictions left before he could reach the point he'd been to before coming back here.

"But since this is practically a new start, I can use this chance to do the thing I had never been interested in in that world."

Authorities. The Worldline and World gave them to the beings that perform something unique and astonishing.

He had six at the moment, and he knew something would happen when he gathered at least ten of them.

"And according to Amy, this academy will be the best place to get those authorities."

The headmaster… he had seen him, and he could tell he was no human, no god, no demon, or no angel. He was nothing like that.

"Something even greater…"

He could tell the headmaster was above even this very world, let alone the small existences of the lesser higher plains.

He knew just after seeing him, what he wanted could come true only after getting into this place.

'Yes.'

[Answer has been recorded.]

============

[Q: How would you defeat a <SSS> ranked (Level-540) dragon? Write a detailed description and elaborate on your answer.]

============

"What a funny question. They mentioned neither the kind nor the type of that dragon and just posed that half-assed question. Why do they love playing with minds so much?"

An endless grass field with pretty blue grass, a single red moon shining down at the vast grassland, ultimately generating a strange purple hue.

He sat on his knees, holding a traditional teacup in his hand, his long red hair waving with the gentle winds, his platinum eyes glowing red under the moonlight, and his sharp smirk painting a white line on this fine portrait.

"One strong enough attack of the sword," He mumbled while looking at the green system screen before him, "That is more than enough to kill any living being."

There was no need to write more than that so he pressed the submission button and the following question appeared before him.

[Answer has been recorded.]

============

[Q: What is magic? Describe Mana.]

============

"Finally. A worthy question."

-Sip.

He took the last sip from his teacup, carefully put it down, and cracked his fingers. And then, he took out the fine sword from his sheath and stabbed it into the ground.

"Magic is a materialization of one's earnest imagination…"

Ragasage or Ras as they called him, people called him <Red demon of black sword> in that world, but here, he would be known as something else… and it would all start from this point.

"That should be enough as an introductory sentence."

He was a pure swordsman but knowledge of magic was no unknown topic to him. And since he had to describe what Mana was, as a swordsman, how else would he do it if not by the sword as its core?

-Click.

"Mana is the foundation of this reality, or more accurately, its strings that vibrate perpetually are."

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