*Click*
Ezra entered his room after leaving his mother's.
He knew it might take her some time to accept the situation, some might even say that he was manipulating her.
Ezra sincerely thought that this was the best way to protect her, by making her stronger, emotionally, mentally and physically, so she could stand on her own two feet.
After all, with his ambitions, he was bound to have enemies. He couldn't allow his mother to be a weakness to be used against him, and he already started formulating a plan.
But first…
'I need to systematically arrange my knowledge of the future while my memories are still intact' Ezra thought.
His past-life memories were practically intact since his body was cleansed of impurities.
This was initially why the emperor had told him to begin combat training, because normal people awake their mana by nineteen-twenty-five years of age.
Talented people, or gifted one's as some call them, awaken mana by age fourteen-seventeen.
While geniuses awaken theirs at ten-thirteen years old.
Yet, Ezra awakened his at only three years old. You can now imagine the shock of various powerful individuals, because it was something only theoretically possible till Ezra's arrival.
If not for the position of his father, being the emperor and all, he would have been kidnapped and experimented on by power-hungry people.
This is part of the reason why he has never been outside of the royal castle since age 1.
Most people, both nobles and commoners, didn't even know what he looked like. The three empresses had given his descriptions but his body cleansing had changed his hair and eye color.
'Come to think of it, father never asked about it'
Now that he thought about it, he was sure that the royal healer had been the one to inform, maybe not the emperor directly but the royal advisor, who then informed the emperor that his body had developed enough to use mana without even training.
'Well, that's happened' he thought, throwing such things to the back of his mind.
He took a pen and a blank book, and began recording all his past-life memories and knowledge of the future in a language not yet formed, so others who saw it wouldn't be able to understand it.
Major events, then minor events, then rumors or word of mouth in taverns and inns, to changes in weather and trivial details that may prove useful, down to the last detail.
—-------
After an unknown amount of time…
*Yawn*
He voluntarily yawned as he felt his eyelids become heavy, his tongue as dry as a desert.
He closed the book after making sure he was done, his bones snapping every time he moved.
He couldn't help but wonder how long he had been writing, because though he hadn't felt it before, his hand had gone numb from writing so much.
As he turned his head towards the window, a bright yellow light hit his eyes.
"Ahhh!" he screamed for a few seconds before rubbing his now red eyes as he saw the sun rise, an indication of a new day.
"No way!"
The magnitude of such discovery was enough to jolt his groggy brain.
He started writing a little before noon, and now the sun was rising.
No wonder he felt so sleepy, so tired.
He had been writing for almost twenty hours, an absurd amount of time for sure.
'Well, whatever. I'll just take a quick nap' he thought as he pulled his heavy body and slowly closed his eyes.
The book he wrote had been too immersive, it was his story after all, and he ended up writing for almost an entire day without knowing it.
—------------------
*Yawn*
A loud yawn was heard as two clenched fists rose from a bed, as Ezra woke up and looked outside, trying to estimate how long he had slept.
Thankfully, he hadn't slept too long considering the sun was still shining.
'Hmm, give or take two hours after noon' he thought as he moved to clean and dress up.
After which, he sat down in a lotus position.
A few minutes later, mana started converging on his surroundings, before it seeped into his skin.
"Haaaah" Ezra made a moan of relief.
"This feeling is addictive" he said as he refined the particles of mana in his body.
This was one of the secrets only known to Ezra.
It was a relique from his past-life to be precise.
A mana technique of Gold rank he found in a place while hiding from demons who had killed the rest of his comrades.
Along with it, he also found two swords.
He had destroyed the two swords at the brink of death in his past-life, but the mana technique seemed to have ingrained itself into his soul.
He found it out when he was six months away from turning two. He was very happy when he tried to use the mana technique to absorb mana to clean his meridians and it worked.
Since then, he started practicing it, absorbing only small wisps of mana, then a teardrop, till he was now able to absorb enough mana to fill half a bucket.
It allowed his body to contain mana wisps in only three and a half years.
His body then went through the first cleansing three days ago, expunging accumulated waste and enlarging his meridians.
This substantially improved all his bodily functions.
As of now, it could be said that his body had reached the minimum required to start Knight training.
Which was most likely his father's conclusion, hence, the combat training.
'Which would start tomorrow, and I'm still sleeping' he thought, quickly resuming his focus as he thought about the coming calamity that would strike all Oranians unprepared.
'Since I was born ten years earlier than before, I have about…thirty-three years before it begins'
His eyes shone a dangerous light as he thought of the event that scholars later termed "The Great Calamity" or "Era of Disaster", or as some later said, "The Apocalypse".
This was, or was going to be, the biggest and the most tragic event of the century.
But from it, a whole new ecosystem will come into place.
As he thought about the dungeons and the horrible monsters that infested and invaded Orion, he couldn't help but shudder.
At the time, anything human below the Master rank would be killed like cannon fodder, unable to put up suitable defenses, and this was why…
'I have to grow stronger, far stronger than I was before'
He had to gain strength fast if he wanted to make the best use of his past experience and new life.
'At least, I need to reach the grandmaster stage'
He strengthened his resolve and in doing so, set a goal for himself.
Grandmaster rank wasn't easy to reach, but with his past experiences and knowledge of special ways to increase his strength, it was very much doable.
So, to even be able to change the outcome of the apocalypse and prevent billions of deaths, he needed the minimum of Grandmasters strength in thirty three years. Not because such strength would suffice, but because getting stronger in the apocalypse was relatively easy, especially when you had knowledge of the future.
But millions of humans still died, thousands of clans and guilds were destroyed, numerous kingdoms fell, as well as some empires.
New languages would arise, well they would be amalgamations of different languages, like the one he used to record his knowledge of future events.
All this before humans could mount a proper defense and begin to fight back.
It was truly a terrible time.
Yet, trying to save everyone was unrealistic, and well, he wasn't actually going to save everyone even if he could do so.
The betrayal that caused his death had shown him just how stupid, greedy and self-centered humans could be.
Some people deserved to die, and those sorts, he wouldn't waste an iota of energy to save them. Heck, he would even kill them if he had the chance.
He smiled ruefully as he thought like this. The past him would never think such thoughts, but…
'I guess betrayal can change any man'
He pushed the topics of thirty-three years in the future to the back of his mind as he thought about the present, and how to use it to prepare for the future.
'What is my biggest strength?' he asked himself inwardly, but the answer was easy.
'My knowledge of the future' he affirmed.
'So how can I use it in the best way?' he asked rhetorically.
'By making the best use of everything I know' he answered.
'But…how can I make use of everything I know, while not arousing the suspicion of others?' he thought.
He began to think of different solutions, but he couldn't get an answer.
Then, after thinking for over thirty minutes, he came to a conclusion.
'It's impossible'
It could not be done, there were just too many places to go and too many people to meet.
But he was only one person. He couldn't split himself into two or three now could he?
As he thought this, he couldn't help but facepalm at his own stupidity.
'Who said I have to do it myself?' he thought as a wide grin formed on his face.
He immediately picked up the book he recorded his memories in and flipped the pages to a part that contained different organizations.
His hand moved rapidly as he searched for one in particular.
While it was true that he could simply search his brain, that might cause him to miss some details, unlike the book, for it contained any and every amount of information that might prove useful.
And also, if he kept using his memories, what was the use of writing the book in the first place?
He kept scrolling through the pages, while his mouth kept muttering different names.
"Bloodhound Mercenaries, no, Flashing Sword Clan, no, Red Spawn"
When his hands reached here, he unknowingly stopped as anger flashed in his eyes, but quickly shook his head and continued searching.
"Blood Merchants, no, Water Glades, no, Gentle Bane Clan, no, Silencers Guild…Yes, this is it!"
Ezra shouted as he felt ecstatic at having found what he was looking for.
Nothing said you couldn't borrow someone else's ideas, especially when they might not yet have had those ideas.
