The Place Where Everything Begins

When he arrived home, Jeremy walked back inside. Then took a long shower and sat at the table while eating dinner and watching some TV programs alone.

'Now that I've thought about it. I'm always a loner. No matter in this life or previous life, I'm always alone.'

'Maybe, the reason is that I am the one who ditches all of those people away...'

*Sigh*

Jeremy sighed depressingly.

It wasn't because he didn't want to have any friends, but because he was too strong in his later years, and his aura was too domineering for other people to act too friendly towards him.

That's why other folks decided to respect and revere him instead of befriending him. Well, who would want to be disrespectful to a great sage of humanity?

'It seems like I will have to be alone again in this life...'

'Well, come to think about it, it might be a little bit different after all because I will change some of my approaches this time.' Jeremy thought to himself.

After facing the hardship of acting alone in his previous life, Jeremy decided to create an organization that its members would be serving as his extra eyes, ears, and limbs.

He thought that creating a powerful organization was necessary to alleviate some burdens and helped free some of his time to strengthen and power up himself faster than in his previous life.

Anyway, he would still act alone most of the time, for his fighting style was always like that. He couldn't manage to have any burdens or stupid teammates at his side.

Nevertheless, this time he would have an organization to back him up whenever he wanted. That alone could relieve many of his burdens.

'Alright, let's draw a detailed map of Ortus and wrote down some future plans, ideas, and missions that I have to do and face later on.'

After finishing that thought, Jeremy buried himself inside his own world with full concentrations to squeeze out his dormant memories from inside his brain.

...

When the time hit 7 p.m., the alarm sounds of his phone rang out, signifying that it was time to eat his fourth meal of the day. Then he stood up briefly from the study table inside his bedroom and went outside to eat the meal.

After finishing his supper meal, he went back inside the room to do his regular meditation that he had done countless times when he was on Ortus.

Meditation was one of the most critical factors that had caused him to reach the Sage realm in his previous life. It tremendously helped increase the amount and density of his mana in his mana pools. It also hugely improved the effectiveness and efficiency of his brain and mind directly.

In his previous life, the first time when he realized that he had great talents for magic was when he first did the meditation.

Back then, he had compared the results of his meditation with the various meditating technique-related books.

At that time, the results really astonished him to the point of his brain going absolutely blank because when using the same time frame to meditate compared to ordinary people. He could gather more mana than those folks around 30 times.

That didn't even count the benefits to his body and mind as of yet.

Any folk or even a toddler might also be able to tell that he was born to be a great mage... no... he was actually destined to be a great sage of magic.

Heck... he might even be the only one in quadrillions of people to have this magnitude of talents.

After all, he spent only a bit more than 20 eras (Around 114 years from Earth's standard) to become a great sage, and he was stuck at the peak level of sage before his 'almost' demise.

Who could tell what he would become in the following 20 eras if he wasn't dead before that anyway?

'Hmmm... maybe those aliens had rashly formed the alliance to fight with us because of me? Nah... never mind, this time I will crush them to the ground anyway.'

Jeremy thought to himself before doing the meditation.

Then he sat on his bed in a cross-legged position and closed his eyes lightly. He then began to erase his thoughts and emotions, then he set and built up his exclusive attention and unified his mind in less than 2 minutes.

It was a feat that even an Archmage found it hard to achieve, but a newcomer like Jeremy had done it in his first time by using a body that had never done meditation before.

Usually, meditation had a total of 4 milestones of which were divided into 10 stages.

Starting from the first milestone, 'the novice meditation' which included stages 1-3, the second was 'the skilled meditation', which included stages 4-6, the third was 'the transition' which included only stage 7, and lastly, the fourth milestone was 'the adept meditation' which included stage 8-10.

Actually, there were stages higher than the 10th stage of meditation, but that was a topic for later.

Currently, from the feat of entering stage 7 of meditation which was exclusive attention and unifying his mind directly within 2 minutes, it certainly proved that Jeremy was a really inborn prodigy of the era.

Every fiber and cell down into his own very being and soul were tailored made to become a mage. If a god really did exist in this world, they might envy him to death and decided to give him some heaven tribulations to curb their envy and anger.

Upon achieving the 3rd milestone successfully, Jeremy began establishing the last milestone that contained 3 stages: 'mental pliancy and pacifying the senses', 'mental and physical pliancy and calming the intensity', and lastly, 'tranquility and equanimity'.

He spent another 3 minutes before finally entering the 10th stage called 'tranquility and equanimity' successfully.

For a person to successfully enter this stage and maintain it for more than 1 hour meant that they had a qualification to become a mage and beyond, which was desired by most people on Ortus.

As a result of the harsh and challenging requirements of entering and maintaining meditation, the majority of people on Ortus were disqualified from becoming even a class 1 mage.

Not to mention that there were still many things, such as mana sensitivity, mind power, elemental affinity, imaginative mind, etc., that were needed for a mage to advance further in their truth-seeking routes.

That's why no matter where a mage went, he would receive the utmost respect and hospitality at the same level as a noble or an aristocrat of a country or a kingdom.

In fact, the opposite also happened. For example, if a mage went into the settlement of a barbarian tribe, the mage would receive the utmost hostility from the tribe. The mage might even be killed at first sight if they wandered aimlessly around the tribe's settlement.

That resulted from the various mass massacres that the barbarians had received from the mages of old times.

Right after Jeremy had entered the tranquility and equanimity stage of meditation, he tried to feel the ambient mana in the atmosphere around him...

But to no avail, he couldn't feel even the slightest bit of mana at all, even after 2 hours of maintaining the 10th stage of meditation.

Still, he never gave up.

He decided beforehand that he would do the meditation for around 4 hours daily, which was the optimum time to do meditation from his previous life until the tutorial started.

Even if he couldn't feel a single ounce of mana in this world, he would still do the meditation to get himself acquainted with the meditation.

Furthermore, doing meditation combined with special breathing techniques could also help his body and mind improve and enhance further.

At the same time, it could also lessen his exhaustion and clear his mind from chaotic, evil, and unnecessary thoughts.

Just like that, the 4 hours time frame went pass by quickly. Then Jeremy stopped his meditation automatically like he had set an alarming clock in advance.

This was one of the perks of successfully entering and maintaining stage 10 of meditation for more than 1 hour at once. It would unlock some of the dormant potentials of your brain.

After that, your body, brain, and mind would continuously get enhanced further and further up, leading you down the road of a true mage.

*Sigh*

'At this rate, it looks like I won't be able to become a mage before the tutorial starts.'

Jeremy thought dejectedly.

'Well, I will get many benefits from the meditation anyway. At least, I should be strong enough to topple the tutorial with my fists, knowledge, and the future events that are destined to happen.'

After finishing his thought, Jeremy took a look at the time on his phone and saw that it was already 2 a.m. So, it was time for him to hit the sack.

If later than this, he might not be able to wake up at 6 a.m. to do the morning exercise training programs planned by his trainers.

And to abandon his training programs? That was the last thing he would like to do. He had the responsibility called humanity weighing heavily on his shoulders. No matter what, he had to get stronger faster.

Not long after, he went to sleep soundlessly and dreamed sweetly, thinking about the bright future that was waiting for him and humanity.