The sun rose high as Seth's mud-stained face crawled out from beneath his carriage. Simply, he was an absolute dumbass.

He took food and water to last him the journey, but did he think, Mmm maybe I should take a tent. No! He didn't, so he had to suffer the cold hard ground full of insects and other annoying bugs.

Seth might have `accidentally` set fire to a field of corn when he was trying to set fire to them but thanks to some skills stopping it from spreading too quickly, he managed to put it out.

The journey had been long and now he only had to last one more sleep, so he crawled under the carriage and used his poor snake as a heater.

`It's the last time, last time, only one more. Just fall asleep...`

"Zzzz, zzzz"

`Breath, in and... out`

"Zzz, zzz"

`In, and.. out`

"Zzz, p"

"IT BIT ME!"

Seth woke his snake in his frenzy to find the annoyance and before he got out his makeshift flame thrower he saw his snake eat the bug. Sometimes Seth hated the snake, he ruined the carriage too many times to even count but it was times like these when he loved the snake.
He eventually fell asleep after chasing after another bee and after 4 hours of sleep, the sun rose, and Seth gave up on getting any more sleep.

He would just sleep when he got there. Truly a Mastermind level plan.

Getting back on his horse Seth had to feed him before he got moving and before long they were back on the road. Seth's hair had taken a turn for the worst as his dagger had to act as his shaver and whilst that was fine, it was cutting his far harder hair.

So he ended up with a light beard and long hair that made him look like a caveman. Obviously an incredibly attractive caveman.

Whilst Seth was in fantasy land he got out of his daydream to notice a pack of jaguars eyeing up his horse. That couldn't happen so Seth had to fight these beasts. He looked closer at them to see if anywhere highly ranked, but it seemed the main level was rank 2.

That was easy enough as Seth himself was a rank 3 with the teachings of a rank 4 so with a bit of fitness he would easily get the job done.

One thing he could quite happily say he had gained on his journey was great practice with fighting beasts.

Lesson number 1 was to let them come to you but don't be a coward. Running off was the final step in getting yourself killed and this was the guide to life.

Lesson number 2 was to slice for the weak points and not let them surround you. Not that you could run but so you could make space after a round of fighting.

Leeson number 3 was to keep a calm head while fighting and once they retreat from your slice wound just rinse and repeat until the beast was dead.

Now packs were a bit harder as rounds were usually longer with you fighting many at once, Just keep your distance and deal some damage here and there and you'll be fine.

Seth was enacting his lessons for none to see and maybe he was mad, but he liked to think describing what he learned allowed for greater comprehension towards your own techniques.

Seth even had a bonus hint, get a snake, particularly the mythical kind, as they make great fighting comrades Bonus hint; Use the killed animals as food, you save money, and your snake becomes less of a nuisance.

Seth actually thought about writing a guide, but he decided against it.

Anyway, once Seth and Ouro had gotten some food they both set back out towards their destination. Ouro was now far larger and had ranked up thrice. Beasts ranked up by eating larger and higher ranked beasts, so this period had been like a growth spurt for him because of this he was now a whopping 5 metres long.

Seth would like to say he was surprised but it was to be expected of his mythical companion. A smile followed as Seth rose on horseback until it was wiped off by a whack on the shoulder from the tail of a snake he knew.

"What did do to deserve that?!"

Sometimes Seth felt as though his friend just enjoyed hitting him sometimes.

This weird friendship had been fostered over the 2-month long journey and whilst the view stayed the same Seth had to admit that the sheer amount of wheat he had seen was just unfathomable.

Screw a sea of yellow it was an Atlantic Ocean of the stuff. Never had Seth seen such wide fields of wheat even back on an industrial Earth.

Farmer was the third most common class, but it was also the most likely to be passed down. Very rarely was someone with farmer parents not given the class farmer and so whilst they were part of the same country the difference between city dwellers and farmers was massive.

They prayed to different gods, and they lived completely different lives. The God of Harvest was a key figure that these people prayed to and farmers in general were the most religious demographic.

Seth had spoken to a few on his journey and whilst they were kind to him in passing if he even dared to touch their crop he might as well have punched them. Protective was the word that Seth used as it was incredibly accurate and maybe a bit to the extreme.

It wasn't like Seth fell in love with a Farmer 's daughter so he was fine as he just peacefully said hello, maybe bought a few things or sold a few corpses of beasts he had killed off and like that Seth left.

These people were everywhere on the continent, and they were what fed the cities that Seth was living in. The base of pavement, pizza, was made here and Seth had to admit he was lucky these people worked so hard.

They didn't demand luxury and were people who were forgotten when people got the chance to eat. Seth had a nice reminder and was humbled a bit.

These people's greed was to a bare minimum, but Seth was large enough to dream of being a God.

Seth laughed, alone on horseback with only a snake to call a friend he laughed. He smiled, he grinned, he maybe even teared up. This was living and he loved it far more than most so he could only greed to have it forever.

His journey had been incredibly annoying, and Seth's face contorted as he remembered all the times he had to shovel the snow out of the way. Thanks to farmers' skills, which were also incredibly likely to be passed down, snow was much less of an issue for a farmer and allowed some to farm all year round whatever was selling for the most.

Seth was happy that he could seasonal food all year round and the farmers were happy to make some extra money, it was a win-win.

As Seth was looking extremely mad, with his face contorting into weird facial expressions he finally saw his destination.

For reference, Darter's surrounding walls were around a single story tall and the wall around the Lord's manor was around 2 stories tall. Here the walls were easily 5 to 6 stories tall and then some and adding to that sheer scale was the width of the blocks.

It was like Titans had made the wall and from Seth's vantage point he could see the dirt roads cutting across the sea of yellow into the gates of his capital.

Seth felt small looking at the wall, like a lead in a gale he felt small, insignificant. These walls were almost as famous as the city itself as they were proof of God's strength.

They were made by the God of Defence and the God of Earth in a strange collaboration to get more believers. At the time these walls sprouted up for the top 10,000 cities and were apparently made in just days.

It was one of the defining events of God's alliance with humans when they first started to help the humans fight against the Beasts. For humans, these walls were a clear show of power and Seth liked to think it was a double message. We can protect you, but we can equally trap you.

Seth's thoughts were heretical, but they were backed by the death count of the walls rising. It was not like the gods cleared the area first so many died from being carried up and then falling off as the walls were rising, not to mention the damage the earthquake from such a mass of earth moving caused.

Seth did not know why the Gods protected humans, as they clearly did not love them as much as the priest of the churches spouted but for now it did not matter.

He was a single man, in low levels 30s, on a horse about to enter the big city.

Babylon was populated by around 20 million people and the walls did a great job of protecting the people inside. It gave those an unparalleled sense of security, and the thriving economy brought ambitious migrants from the entire country.

You can see this popularity by the queue to enter. As Seth got closer to the road leading in he noticed thousands of people and caravans queuing to enter.

Rich merchants, poor travellers and farmers selling crops were all here to get inside and Seth had just joined them.

The length of the queue gave him the idea that it was going to be hours before he got anywhere so Seth climbed back into his carriage and looked around. Ouro was curled up on some boxes, which he had made his home, and Seth had to push past him to open one.
Seth was looking for a particular book he had stolen: a black one, in particular.

Shuffling through the boxes Seth caught his arm on the wood a bit too roughly so he gained himself an added splinter for his troubles.

The splinter didn't hurt as much as he remembered when he was a child. He tried to find it for a moment but since it didn't hurt he eventually gave up on it.

Back in the box, he found the book he was looking for and Seth smiled like a true madman. The hidden gain he picked up when his associates were guarding him, a book Seth could swear was worth more than anything he had ever stolen before.

"A soul cultivation technique" Seth felt a bit stiff saying it out loud, but it really was that good. Such a technique was easily above the value of nearly all skills, and it paved the way into the higher levels. You not only needed experience, but you also needed technique to reach the proper big-boy leagues.

And this was Seth's ticket there.

The book cover had a black background with a man doing the lotus pose. Circular rows of flowers were around the man, and it seemed the technique had a focus on tranquillity and peace.

Seth was not averse to these ideals, after all, he had Serene Mind which did seem almost perfect for the technique and as Seth had been reading these 2 months it seemed the technique fit him rather well.

Since he hadn't gone through his second evolution he couldn't actually practice it, but he did put time and effort into properly comprehending the science of the technique.

As much as science and magic were two opposing forces they did have a lot of parallels. Things like for every force there is an equal and opposite reaction, which also fits the magic system of this world. But the magic was like the English language is to the language world, it's full of exceptions.

Skills were the embodiment of these exceptions as they gave the user power for essentially free. Metal power was the main withdrawal of them but all that needed to fix was a bit of extra sleep.

Well, Seth liked to think he wasn't a nerd and maybe his friend Dion would be able to answer all his queries. Thinking of Seth wondered how he was doing? He had seen Arabia in Darter so maybe he would see Dion in Babylon.

Seth doubted it, Dion was younger than he was, so it took around 6 months or so for him to even awaken. Yet alone come to Babylon.

For now, Seth went back to his horse and moved up to catch up to the queue. Seth expected there to be people pushing in the queue, but it was remarkably orderly.

Seth warmed up to humanity for a second before looking at the wall and noticing the cannons looking down at them. That answered his question more than enough.(50+ Chapters Ahead)