[Name: Dante Ackerman]
[Realm: None]
[Bloodline: Broken Mana Circuits]
[Talents: Foresight(EX), Scheming Mind(S), Two-Faced(C), Business Sense(D)]
[Luck: Doomed]
[Villain Value: None]
[System Slots: 2/2]
[Bound Targets: None]
[Techniques: None]
[Inventory: None]
[Villain Store: Open]
Looking at his terrible stats, lines formed across Dante's forehead, and three things grabbed his attention right away.
'Doomed Luck? That's probably because I'm a villain, right?' he thought, and it actually made some sense. 'And as for the talents… Scheming Mind, Two-Faced, and Foresight are probably mine, while Business Sense must have come from the original Dante, but…'
He stopped as his eyes landed on his bloodline.
"What the fuck is this?" Dante muttered. "Why can't I remember Dante having this bloodline? First of all, can you even call this a bloodline?"
"There was nothing about this in the novel."
He was genuinely stunned.
Having read enough novels in his life, he knew exactly what "Broken Mana Circuits" meant.
It meant he couldn't get stronger no matter what he did.
"System, show me the bloodline description," he said, wanting to make sure his gut feeling was right.
[Broken Mana Circuits: Mana Circuits are completely severed, leaving mana with nowhere to flow. No matter how much mana is absorbed, it just leaks out like water through cracks. The path of mana cultivation becomes a joke.]
[A bloodline so legendary that the only thing breaking through is the disappointment.]
Dante's eyebrows twitched as he read the description. "…Just as I thought."
He stared at the screen for a long time before muttering, "Great. So I'm stuck in a fantasy world, but my body is basically telling me to go fuck myself."
Honestly, Dante wasn't all that worried.
He wanted to complain about this cliché setup he had seen in a thousand other novels, but since the system said he could buy anything with villain points, there had to be something in the store that could fix his condition.
The real problem was something else entirely.
Even with Foresight(EX), which was basically full knowledge of the entire novel, he had never once seen anything about Dante Ackerman having a physique like this.
'No… that can't be right. I should have read something about it,' he thought, forcing himself to concentrate and dig through his memories.
He went over everything again and again, but he still couldn't find a single mention of it anywhere.
"Wait," Dante muttered, narrowing his eyes. "Could it be that the author actually planned this… but just forgot about it?"
The more he considered it, the more believable it sounded.
Authors forgetting their own details was basically a tradition at this point.
Besides, Dante's role in the story was simple.
He was just the protagonist's loyal dog, someone who helped Ryan deal with his enemies, stood by helplessly while Emma was stolen from him, and then died a pathetic death.
'Now that I think about it, most of the story took place in the normal world,' he thought as things slowly started clicking together. 'The awakeners and mana cultivation stuff only became important later on.'
'And Dante died before that part of the story even began… so it never got revealed.'
Then his eyes suddenly lit up.
'Actually… someone does know.'
A grin gradually spread across his face.
'Master…'
Back when he was reading the novel, one thing that always bugged him was how Dante even ended up becoming Natasha Raven's student in the first place.
He was nothing compared to her other students. Every single one of them was outstanding in some way, and even the heroines who weren't awakeners turned out to have terrifying talent later on.
But now, he finally got it.
'My master must have taken me in because she felt sorry for me,' he thought.
'Because both of us had similar… conditions?' His train of thought paused as a brilliant idea suddenly popped into his head.
The reason his master ended up as a cripple was because of Ryan's father, Victor Kingsley.
He was a fucking bastard, and that was putting it nicely.
Back when Natasha Raven was rising through the world of awakeners, known as a beautiful woman with terrifying talent, she caught the attention of Victor.
Not only was she stunning and gifted, she was also the successor of Eden's Gate, one of the Awakeners' organizations.
To someone like Victor, that was the ultimate prize.
So he went after her.
Victor was confident because he was the leader of the Kingsley Family, the family of dragons.
He tried every trick in the book, and when none of the normal approaches got him what he wanted… He forced her into marriage by threatening her until she had no way out.
Ryan Raven was the product of that hateful union.
Natasha fought back with everything she had, but in the end, all she could do was endure. She kept her head low, buried her hatred deep, and quietly started building up her strength in the shadows.
And when the moment finally came, she declared war on the Kingsley Family.
In the end, she killed Victor.
But it cost her dearly.
The battle left her body severely damaged, and to win, she had been forced to burn through her own powers completely.
Her mana circuits collapsed entirely. Her realm still existed in name, but inside her body, the path of mana cultivation had been destroyed beyond repair.
"Damn it, just thinking about it makes my blood boil!"
Dante couldn't help getting angry. "Even after knowing all of this, that selfish piece of shit still wanted her to stay loyal to his monster of a father!"
To make sure Natasha stayed alone for the rest of her life, when he helped treat her condition, he even lied to her that she had to follow the ruthless path and cut off all of her emotions.
"That fucking asshole…!" Dante clenched his jaw. "He just wanted her to be some emotionless machine who manages his harem."
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that choosing to become a villain was the right call.
At the same time, he couldn't help but feel for his master.
After all, the two of them shared the same fate of being somebody's pawn.
Realizing he was getting too emotional, Dante took a deep breath. Then he let out a small smile and said, "I was already planning to give the first system to my master. This just makes it final."
"Even though my Broken Mana Circuits is worse than her condition, with ten times the rewards, I should be able to fix this body of mine," he muttered, running through the possibilities in his head.
He stood up straight.
"System, let's do this."
As he got to his feet, he raised a hand to block the sunlight flooding in through the tall window.
[Ding! Do you want to release a system to Natasha Raven?]
"Yes."