Is this all you can amount to? Did I let you live just so you can grovel on the ground looking pathetic? Get up, boy, or I will bury you in this dirt with my own hands."
This is all I ever heard growing up from the man who was supposed to be my father. He never offered love or support; he never found the time to ask how I felt or what my dreams were. It was just brutal training, over and over, forcing me to live up to his impossible expectations.
I was not originally of this world. Back on Earth, I was never truly happy. Don't get me wrong—life offered a smile here and there—but I could never be who I wanted to be. I couldn't get what I wanted or eat what I craved. I used to curse the unfairness of the world, watching others born into privilege. I wished for the universe to give me something to help me walk through life, to make me the author of my own story. Looking back, I was naive. Everyone wishes to be something they are not; everyone has problems they want to escape.
In this life, I was born with everything. I had servants to prepare my meals and baths, and enough money to buy anything I desired. But my problem was this demon of a father—the man who made me kill when I was only seven years old. To understand, we need to recap the last seventeen years since I first arrived in this world.
My earliest memories are those of an infant, but we can skip those; I didn't understand the language and spent half the time sleeping. The real story started when I turned five. By then, I could already read, write, and speak fluently. I had learned that this world was called Ethoria. By my estimation, it is seven times larger than Earth, consisting of four continents: Fier, Ghover, Huener, and Quier. I am currently in the country of Zoen, located in Quier.
There are various races here—humans, elves, dwarves, and many more we will get into later. These races had formed factions and were at war for a long time. That's when it happened. Some scientists believe "Death Energy" corrupted the planet, producing something vile and dark. Others say it was a defense mechanism—like an immune system fighting a virus—and that the destruction of war forced the Earth to hit the reboot button. To me, it's mostly bullcrap, but I can tell you the corruption is real. It began when the dead started to rise, but what rose wasn't the people we knew; it was something ancient and wrong. The more they killed, the more their numbers and power grew, feeding on destruction. The races had no choice but to work together.
The power system here is simple. When you unlock your abilities, you get a system panel. It isn't sentient; it's just a tool to track progress. Originally, people didn't have them, but the elves created them because children often didn't understand their own powers or the flaws that came with them.
Ranks go from 1 to 9. Those who break past Rank 9 enter the higher tiers: Count, Venerable, Duke, King, and finally, Monarch. Abilities are classified from F to S-rank. Some lucky people are born with two, but there has never been a three. They can be inherited or mutated from parental traits. Abilities cannot be changed or stolen.
The age for awakening is five or six. If you don't awaken then, you don't awaken at all. There are no "late bloomers" or mysterious old men who give you powers for listening to their stories. You can still rank up without an ability, but it's much harder to defeat those who have them.
I awakened mine at age five. And before you ask—no, I didn't get a "golden finger." No cheat system, no knowledge of a novel I'd read. Just reality. However, I did awaken two S-rank abilities. Maybe God was making up for the lack of a cheat code.
The first is Chaos Monarch. At my current stage, it allows me to control all elements. It's not as overpowered as it sounds yet, but it has terrifying potential. The panel only calls it "S-rank" because that is the limit of its measurement; the ability is actually beyond its scope. My second is Undying Body. This allows my body to evolve through training or environmental stress. It makes my progress faster and more fruitful. I haven't tested it against the corruption yet, and I don't plan to.
I inherited these from my parents. Chaos Monarch likely came from my mother, who was an elf. My father told me she died giving birth to me—or as he put it, she was "the first life I took." The balls on that guy. Undying Body came from him.
I first met my father at age five after my awakening. The first words out of his mouth were: "At least you are not useless."
That was the start of my torture. When I was seven, he captured an assassin who tried to kill me. He handed me a sword and said, "It's either you or him. Kill him now, or I set him free to kill you."
I used to think killing was easy if you had the moral high ground. It isn't. When you stab someone and their warm blood splashes on you—when you see the light fade from their eyes—you start to wonder if they were just trying to survive, too. But the demon didn't give me time to think. He just said, "Go wash up for dinner."
In this life, there are no heroes or villains, only winners. Winners write the story. Mercy is a luxury for the strong; the weak cannot afford it.
For seventeen years, it has been like this. More training, more twisted lessons. I think about this now as I struggle to stand after he just beat the crap out of me. I will never give him the satisfaction of showing weakness.
"Good. Now go wash up and rest," he says, walking away. "The academy starts in two days. I expect you to perform well and not bring disgrace to the family name."
After he leaves, I lie back down to rest my sore muscles and open my panel.
Name: Lucien Moonstar
Age: 17
Race: Human-Elf
Rank: 4
Stats:
Agility: 44
Strength: 40
Intelligence: 43
Durability: 45
Mana: 57
Will: 70
Abilities:
S-rank: Chaos Monarch (Water, Fire, Air, Lightning)
S-rank: Undying Body
Techniques:Moon 12 Formation Blade, Seven Series Slash, Flash Step, Golden Shield.
I closed the panel and stood up to shower. Academy, huh? Interesting.