Before the cataclysm that changed the world and brought forward demons, rifts, and other worlders, the Seymour family was one of the most influential families there was.
They were deep in the oil business and made a fortune, but as soon as mana crystals were discovered, that all became obsolete.
Their business fell, and they were forced to pay off investors. Coupled with that, all the fraudulent activities they were involved with came to light.
In the end, the family went bankrupt. They were seen as a disgrace, and their legacy was forever destroyed.
And to add to their misery, they could not afford the expensive treatment their son needed in order to survive.
They even sold their adopted daughter Sophia the moment she awakened with a special skill. Even then, the money they got wasn't enough to save their son.
They originally adopted Sophia to be the caretaker of their son Damien, and since they were the same age, they hoped they could bond together.
Sophia was originally an orphan whose parents were killed by demons. Since then, she has lived through many horrors. She was later sold to an organization notorious for producing powerful assassins. After their brutal training, she was left emotionless.
She was then sent as an assassin to the hero academy. Her mission was to kill the demons who infiltrated the school but as all these stories go, she eventually fell for the protagonist.
If I was Damien, then it meant that I was destined to die from the same illness he succumbed to.
Or so I thought before I remembered the message I received from the system.
It said my body was adapting to the illness so that I could survive. I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I realized this.
"If you're wondering where your parents are, they rushed out to find the doctor when they saw you wouldn't wake up. But I knew you were just faking it to make them worried."
Hmm? She was more cold hearted than I remember but I hardly paid her words any mind and instead looked around the room I was in.
The room was dimly lit with a few candles flickering there about. It didn't look like the luxurious mansion the Seymour family once owned. It seemed hard times had already befallen the family.
Damien's death was all that would be needed for them to crumble.
"My baby!" Suddenly, the door to the room crashed open.
A tall blonde woman who was wearing a dress that looked as if it was torn to accommodate more running dashed into the room.
Her frantic eyes landed on me. Her modest chest rose and fell with every breath she took.
Without wasting another second, she fell to her knees beside me. She stroked my hair tenderly, and her eyes softened.
"Damien, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," I responded, greeting her with a smile even though I've never seen this woman in my life.
"Damien!"
Suddenly, another figure stepped into the room. It was a tall chubby man dressed in a worn-out suit.
He had pitch-black hair and a mustache above his lip.
This man was Jonathan Seymour. A man that despised heroes with a burning passion.
His hate drove him to do many despicable things in the game. After his son died and his wife committed suicide, he fell down a dark path and blamed it all on heroes.
His hate led him to form a contract with a powerful demon that fed on despair.
But just like the others, he was talked down by the MC. The MC inspired him to turn a new leaf.
It infuriated me.
The way I see it is that if there is a hero that can inspire people with his words, then you would need a villain of equal or greater strength.
Someone who couldn't be swayed by words and instead could easily break others.
If the hero draws out the good in a person, then the villain must be there to draw out all the ugly and nasty things they would like to keep hidden.
I aimed to be that.
But for that to happen, I'll need to get into the hero academy. The best hero academy there was in the world, Apex Academy, where only the top 5% get in.
Based on everything I had seen so far, I would guess that I was at least 12 years old, meaning I had 4 years to get my body up to the level of strength where I could enter such a prestigious academy.
I bet the other demons were also thinking the same. They had 4 years to prepare.
But I had the advantage over them since I already knew who they were.
Just then, a gray-haired man stepped into the room. Given his attire, I assumed he must've been the doctor.
He immediately set down his tools and came to have a look at me.
My father ushered my crying mother away while Sophia watched from the side with a blank expression.
The doctor checked me thoroughly, then turned towards my parents.
"It must've been caused by his awakening. His weak body just can't handle it."
Awakening!
How did they know?!
Wait, could it be that the previous Damien also had an awakening?
This made things interesting…
A small idea was beginning to develop in my mind.
In the game, the demons also took over the body of persons who had died or were close to death. Some of these persons were also awakened when the demons took over their bodies.
But none of the demons inherited the awakened power of the person they took over. They only had the demonic skill given to them by the demon king.
But there may be a way where I could inherit the first Damien's awakened skill, giving me another skill besides my demonic skill, Absolute Adaptation.
The doctor prescribed rest, saying there was nothing he could do before he left.
I bided my time and waited patiently until everyone was gone. Everyone except my mother who was curled up beside me since she was too worried to leave me by myself.
Theoretically, all I needed to do to get Damien's awakened skill was combine three of the functions of my demonic skill: analyze, mimic, and skill adaptation.
The first thing I did was use my adaptation skill to analyze Damien's skill that was still buried in my DNA.
Next was the mimic function. The system said I could mimic anything that was inside my body, so that's what I did. I mimicked the exact nature of whatever skill Damien awakened, copying it to the tea. I think the main function of this skill was so I could mimic some of the traits of the monsters I ate but that doesn't mean I couldn't use it differently.
Then I used skill adaptation to create a new skill just like I did with the heat resistance skill. To be honest, I had no clue if what I was doing would work. I just thought about what the adaptation skill allowed me to do, then pieced it all together.
Having a special skill like all the other awakeners in this world would put me above the demons who only had a demonic skill. At the very least, it would make me less suspicious. Plus even if it was a trash skill, two skills are better than one.
[Special Skill Created: Transmutation]