It took me a good fifteen minutes to process everything.
"Damn… did I really transmigrate?"
'I am Den'
no I am both. I could feel it. I'm no longer Den, nor am I just Ash. I am both—a singular soul, born from two individuals.
I stared at the sun and estimated the time as I made my way back to the house.
This world… it's the textbook definition of the fantasy genre. I recognized it. I'd read about it in a webnovel.
"Did I really transmigrate into Pathway of the Hero?"
That story was impossibly cliché. A protagonist fighting hidden brotherhoods, otherworldly forces, rogue Pathwalkers…
I only stuck with it because of its power system. It was unique.
This world's system is known as The Absolute Path.
In the world of Terrarium, humans are born with their own unique Paths—spiritual reflections of their personality, goals, and life experiences. These Paths begin to form during childhood and fully manifest at the age of 15.
But this system has a major flaw:
The gap between the talented and the untalented is simply too massive.
Imagine this:
An ordinary person trains all their life—they might reach C or B rank.
But a talented person, training for just 20 years, reaches the same level.
Sometimes higher.
No matter how hard you work, talent rules this world.
And because of that, this world became a place of discrimination, inequality, and poverty.
It's a "the strong eat the weak" kind of world.
And Ash was one of the weak.
He wasn't talented. Just some disposable background character who never even appeared in the main story.
His Path of the Unyielding Step was trash. An endurance-based Path with no offense or versatility.
But Ash never gave up.
He never broke.
------
I reached the house. A broken-down structure Ash had repaired himself.
No one was there to greet me. Just like in my old world.
Ash was the second son of the Baron of this village. But thanks to his nonexistent talent, he was cast out.
Stripped of his surname. Stripped of everything.
And yet… he never gave up.
What a guy.
That night, I ate boiled potatoes like always and lay on the hard bed.
Now that our souls have merged completely, his wish has become my own.
The reason for his unbreakable will?
His mother.
Clara Rosewoods, the Baron's first wife.
After giving birth to Ash, her status was stripped due to Ash's "lack of talent."
Despite everything, she never showed her pain to Ash.
She was beautiful, graceful, and kind.
But eventually… she fell into a coma from the emotional burden.
Ash was blamed for all of it.
Labeled cursed. Cast out.
From that day on, he stopped being a Rosewoods.
He was just… Ash.
And that day, the old Ash swore:
He would make his mother proud.
---
The Next Day
I woke up earlier than usual—around 3:50 AM.
I gathered all the books in the house. There weren't many:
Two basic books on swordsmanship
One history book
One Bible
Just four books.
After two hours of study, I made a terrible discovery.
Okay, maybe not a discovery—but I underestimated something big.
My sword skills are garbage.
"Even a fucking child could beat me right now. Shit wtf am i gonna I do now?"
---