"27.42 seconds--not good."
I, Gaias, muttered in disappointment.

The thing lying in front of me is the body of a dragon said to be the world's strongest that had destroyed three countries, the 『Great Dragon of Deicide』.
Its smashed figure with burnt holes is nearly 20 meter big, still too big even after losing its original shape.

And 27.42 seconds are the time needed for me to beat it.

--Slow.
From what I've heard, in a far-off domain that's even farther than the sky, called 『Space』, it seems there are multiple monsters far stronger than this guy.

And they're not just twice or thrice as strong. It's said that their life, and defensive power are hundreds times stronger, thousands times if we're talking about their attack power. Literally different leagues. Wasting 27 seconds for this level of monster means that I can't possibly compete with them.
And even if I continue to train forever, I can't ever reach the space monsters.

There are two big reasons for that. One of those is the 『Crest』 I have.
『Crest』 is something that every person has when they're born, it's the most important factor to determinate the magic disposition of a person, it's classified into four crests in accordance to its function.

Among those, the 『First Crest』 that I have is the weakest of them all.
How is it the weakest you ask, its growth room is really small. The 『First Crest』 is the strongest until you're around eight year old, but the difference between the crest power becomes more obvious as you grow older, and once you've become an adult, the lead the other crests have is awfully clear.

If you ask just how bad it is, one of the terms for entering the prestigious and even all the main magic schools is 『Not First Crest』. First Crest is turned away at the door. You can't even apply for the test.

Nevertheless, right now I'm called the world's strongest magician. There were occasions when I was called 『Sage』 or 『War God』 too.
I've reached this point despite having the First Crest. I thought I would continue to grow endlessly.
Even if I hit the extreme limit of magic power, I thought there would still ways to cope with it.

However, the reality is cruel.
I certainly found several ways to procure battle prowess that surpass the me right now.
However, every one of them is applicable to all 『But』 the first crest.

The Crest that I have already has no room for growth at all.
It took me 200 years before I realized that my growth had stopped.

After that I started to research about 『the way to change crest you're born with』.
This research is extremely easy compared to magic combat.

Since there's no need to predict the enemy or think of tactics to deal with situations.
Thus, this research was the shortest research I had done so far.

『Changing the crest of a human is impossible.』

It only took me two days and two hours to arrive at this conclusion.
During that short time, I proved that I had no room for growth anymore.

And during that time, I challenged the monster I subjugated today to see if something would happen while half giving up.
I unsealed a monster that had been sealed for 300 years on purpose and fought it.
Nothing happened. I did defeat it, but as I couldn't grasp any clue of growth, it was nothing more than a fruitless labor.

--However, it's still too early for me to give up.
A human's crest is set the moment they're born, changing it afterward is impossible.
This is a proven fact.
Then I should just be born again.

I already completed the magic for that purpose a long time ago.
It's an incomplete magic art that only let one carries their memories intact to the next life, they can't choose which crest they'd be born with, but it's enough as long as I have my memories.

I can just train again to gain power in the next life, and even if I'm born with First Crest again, I can just use the art again.
It only took me less than two second to solidify that decision.

Using a rudimentary magic, I scatter letters, 『I'm going to reincarnate. Please don't look for me.』 to the few acquaintances I have, and then I immediately activate the magic to reincarnate.
Without any hesitation I yield myself to the magic that snatches my life.
I pray that my next crest will be any crest but the First Crest.

....By the way, the other reason why I couldn't become stronger was because I didn't have a friend who fought with me, so I didn't know how to fight in a group.
In other words, I was a loner.