“Where were you?”

A joyful and warm voice asked the white-robed person coming from a space crack.

“I prevented the worst from happening. There was a new soul in the cycle of reincarnation… And it had an abnormal amount of divine power…”

The white-robed person answered with a cold voice.

“Isn’t it good? It might be a possible suitor for you, right?”

“It would have been the case if there was only that… The soul had the imprint of the fallen.”

“… What did you do then?”

The joyfulness disappeared the other person heard the white clothed one’s words, only deep hatred could be felt.

“I took it all. All its divine power. I left nothing, it should be glad that I didn’t obliterate him on the spot.”

“You should have. Where is it?”

“Don’t. If you do this, Mother will punish you this time. And I won’t be able to help you.”

“I don’t want to destroy it. Just curse it, nothing much.”

“Oh, then I don’t mind. If you go to the cycle site, you just have to look for a soul without divine power, shouldn’t be too hard.”

The white-clothed person looked at his sibling disappearing in a space crack, a wicked smile planted on his face.

She didn’t know how a mortal soul could bear the mark of her fallen brother, and it was complete luck that she had been able to see him. She wasn’t supposed to pass by the cycle site now since she had been there recently looking for a potential soul who could be her chosen, but her instinct told her that she would find something interesting. And she did, but not in the way she wanted.

A soul able to hold this much power couldn’t be found anywhere. Unless it was created for this sole reason. However, if that were to be the truth, then it would mean that her father finally decided to partake in their business.

Black lines appeared on her forehead. Her whole body trembled with fear and excitement.

If he acts, I’ll have some clues on how to find a way to reach Ascension! And I will finally be able to make it happen! But… Facing father, this is not going to be easy… However, since I made the vassal powerless, I wonder what he’ll do next.

After pondering for a while, the white-clothed woman shook her head helplessly and left in a space crack, a faint smile on her face and determination in her eyes.

//

30 years later

“You’re doing great madam! It’s nearly done! One last effort!”

A brown-robed woman tried to encourage the lady lying in the bed. The baby was nearly out. And after few more push from the future mother, cries could be heard in the room. The father who has been waiting outside entered the room, anxiousness could be felt all over his body.

His wife was giving birth for her first time, and for many women, this could also be her last. When he saw the weak looking woman giving him a faint smile filled with joy on the bed, the fear in his heart greatly diminished.

After bathing the newborn baby, the nurse brought it to its father. The couple had a son. Holding the baby, the father couldn’t help but let out a small sigh of relief. He wouldn’t reject the baby if it was a girl, but, they were commoners, and he couldn’t let his daughter take over his job.

As a hunter, there were many things which he found not suitable for girls. Though there were some in his profession, they lost most of their ‘girly’ nature in the process.

He shuddered just thinking about a possible daughter of his ending up like this.

“How should we name him dear?”

The man faced his wife and put their son in her arms. She lightly stroke the baby hair and rubbed his chin. She was so happy and tired at the same time that her body felt a bit funny. She closed her eyes for a while, thinking of something, then opened them again and looked at her husband.

“I think… We should name him Luc… What do you think?”

“Luc… Yeah, I like that name.”

Then the mother looked at her son with a loving gaze and gently touched his nose.

“From today onward, your name will be Luc Asfer, little thing.”

After enjoying the presence of her baby for a while she handed him over to the nurse and went to sleep. The last hours had put a strain on her body that she couldn’t ignore anymore.

The father left the room and was called by a nurse to go to the office of the head nurse.

His body became stiff. There was something wrong. Unless something important happened, the head nurse would rarely ask for a private talk with one of the parent.

Wearing a gloomy expression, the father followed the nurse to the head nurse’s office.

“Excuse me. Mr. Asfer is here.”

“Oh, let him enter.”

Afterward, the Luc’s father entered the office. The head nurse offered him a seat and something to drink as a courtesy.

“I won’t beat around the bush Mr. Asfer, your wife condition is very strange and quite problematic. Her insides have been thoroughly perturbed by the delivery. She will probably suffer from multiple periods of extreme pain from now on but she will be able to live. I can only recommend you to get some pain reducing potions… Of course, it goes without saying that she can’t give birth from now on… If she were to fall pregnant again, it will be necessary to terminate the pregnancy. She has 95% chance of dying if she were to give birth to another child.”

Each of those words sounded like a death sentence for Luc’s father. His wife was in such a predicament. He knew that he wasn’t called for anything good, but he didn’t expect this.

She has already suffered so much and you’re telling me that this is only the beginning?!

“Is there any way for her to recover? There’s got to be something we can do for her right?!”

The head nurse looked straight at his eyes, before shutting her eyes and leaning on her seat.

“Only a grade 3 healing magic can help her. At the very least. Even her mana and divine power are chaotic in her body. Her mana will stabilize with time, but I have high doubt for her divine power.”

Luc’s father body trembled.

Grade 3 healing magic. This wasn’t something he could afford even if he were to work for a lifetime. And the most important problem was to manage to find someone to heal his wife. Someone who could do execute grade 3 healing spell couldn’t roam free in this world. He would have a high standing in his church and someone like him couldn’t even think of talking to this kind of person, let alone ask them for help.

Seeing the depressed look of the man in front of her, the head nurse let out a sigh.

This matter wasn’t easy for her too. The reason she strived that hard in her life to obtain this position, was to help people in need with her magic. But, in this situation, she was completely helpless.

“I think it’s better if you get some sleep. It’s late and worrying about this won’t help you. You have another mouth to feed, now is not the time to fall in depression.”

At those words, Luc’s father gave her a somewhat wry smile. After asking some questions about where he could find the best and cheapest pain reducing potion, he left the head nurse’s office and went outside to take a bath of fresh air.

The chilly air penetrated his clothes and cooled down his body. His mind started to become clearer and his breathing slower.

There really is no fairness in this world…

A tear flowed down his cheek. With this tear, everything he had hoped for disappeared, and nothing but the cruel reality remained.

1 years after.

“How was the hunt today honey?”

“Not good.”

Luc’s father, whose name is Gale, hunted low-level animals for their skin and meat in order to trade what they had in surplus for some money. But since a year, each time he went out to hunt, he could barely detect anything and all his traps were still intact.

“This is really incomprehensible. The other hunters don’t seem to face the same problem, it’s like I’m really the unlucky one here.”

“It’s going to be fine. In the worst case, I can just offer my help to clean some clothes and earn some bronze coins.”

“No! You… I mean, your body just stabilized a bit recently. I don’t want you to face any more trouble. You can already hardly sleep at night with the potions, I won’t let you work in that condition. Final word.”

“Honey… You know… I feel a lot better recently, maybe it’ll be fine to not buy any more potions than this. Our saving won’t last more than two years at this rate. And Luc will be 3 years old at that time. We can’t let him face any trouble while he is still so young.”

Gale looked at his lovely wife Miranda, her long and silky black hair and bright blue eyes made her look enchanting. However, her pale face and skinny body showed that her body was not in its best condition. Each night her body will tremble unconditionally due to her mana and divine power wreaking havoc in her body and would cry out of pain. The pain reducing potion couldn’t even let her sleep, they also needed to use sleeping pills normally used on beasts to calm her down. However, recently the rate of those painful moments reduced greatly and only happened once every two days and the pain reducing potions were enough to calm her down. They consulted the head nurse again at that time and she told them that Miranda’s mana finally stabilized but she shouldn’t use it too much just in case it could go wrong again.

“Please… Miranda, listen to me. I’ll figure something out by the end of next year. I promise.”

She looked at him, deep concern in her eyes, before opening her arms and gently hugging him.

“I’ll trust you… But… I am afraid for Luc…”

“I know. Speaking of him, where is he?”

She pointed at the small bed at the corner of the living room where a small black haired boy could be seen, sleeping on sucking on his thumb.

“He is so cute.”

Miranda's voice was like a warm breeze to Gale’s heart. A smile grew on his face with his wife between his arm and his son sleeping soundly on his bed.

Their family wasn’t poor but wasn’t well off too. Their wooden house was close to the forest due to Gale’s job and only had three rooms. Their bedroom, the kitchen and the living room. They thought about making it bigger but Gale didn’t see any problem with Luc sleeping in the living room as long as he can sleep a whole night without waking them up. However, those days came faster than expected. After only a few months, he could already pass the night without crying. This clearly helped them a lot, since Miranda couldn’t move too much due to her injuries, Gale had to take care of him day and night in addition to his job before that.

“How can he not be cute? Isn’t he your son? He is as lovely as his mother.”

“I guess, and he isn’t mischievous like his father.”

“What are you implying? I was a very calm kid when I was young.”

“That’s not what your mother told me…”

Giving him a faint smile, she arranged his messy hair and gave him a light kiss on his lips.

“She told me that you were very bad. And, I also heard about a young boy trying to impress his big sister by showing her his 3 years old body.”

“What the… Did she tell you about that? I… It wasn’t my fault! Celie was mocking me at that time, saying that I didn’t have any muscle unlike father and… I tried to show her that they were slowly forming… Ahem anyway, this is in the past and I was a stupid kid, I didn’t know what I was doing.”

Gale diverted his eyes from Miranda’s amused face.

She is clearly enjoying this.

She started to laugh at her husband shyness before coughing violently.

Seeing his wife cough again, Gale hugged more tightly. His heart was sour from this helpless situation she was facing.

When she calmed down, her face wore a pained expression while she was looking at Luc.

“Dear… I wonder if Luc will be alright without any sibling… I mean I can’t imagine how my childhood would have been without my brothers and sisters…”

“We can’t. What good will a sibling do for him if he loses his mother in the process?”

Hanging her head down and biting her lips, Miranda’s body began to tremble a little. Something hot coming out of her eyes fell on Gale’s hand. The latter embraced her even tighter, trying to help her uphold the pain in her heart.

Meanwhile, the ‘sleeping’ Luc was wide awake. He was simply in the most comfortable position for him while having his eyes closed. Since he was born, he could understand each and every word his parents and those around them spoke and the meaning behind them. He knew that his mother was suffering greatly since his birth and often found his father being depressed about it. But, something was bothering him. Each time he saw them in pain or in joy, he just couldn’t understand. He wanted to ask them some questions, but something prevented him from doing so.

What are they feeling? My father said that his heart was hurting him each time mother suffered at night, and mother said that I was the light which soothed her world, but I just don’t get it. I have never felt any of those things.

5 years after, Luc was 6 years old.

6 years old was a very important age in Magnolia. At 6 years old, children will go to the nearby church and will get analyzed by a priest with the power of divination. This power could identify a person’s blessing and his rank. Depending on someone’s blessing, his growth when he will start to level up will be different and the rank of his blessing qualified the speed of his growth. Starting from Low-rank type of blessing to Chosen rank.

A level 60 Low rank with a blessing from the god of Control could be said to be equivalent as a lv. 30 middle-rank blessing. And a level 60 Middle-rank blessing can be compared to a level 20 High-rank blessing. However, a Chosen was different. The fact that only one Chosen could exist for each god made them considered as divine beings. Their growth was abnormal. However, a Chosen can only have one blessing while others could have multiple blessing with a maximum of three, though they were rare. 2 blessings couldn’t have the same rank within the same soul. Things worked that way in order for the blessed one to know which god was the more favorable to him.

Furthermore, starting 6 years old, someone could finally have access to his status page and will notification from the System. The System was said to be created by the father of all the gods. It was something which was outside of the gods’ range of power. No one could interfere with it unless its power could surpass its creator. However, since the creator was absolute, the System was also absolute.

Luc followed his two parents to the caravan which will head toward the closest town with a church and a priest capable of divination, Velis. Since the journey would last for few hours and they weren’t the only one who needed to go there, their village head organized a day for everyone who needed to go to Velis for a divination.

There were already some people waiting inside the caravan.

Inside, there were mainly mothers and their child. Fathers would usually stay behind since they had to take care of the fields or guard the village. However, Gale had to accompany them. His wife’s condition was one reason. It would be unwise to let her travel alone in that state, and leaving her home alone wasn’t an option either for him.

Since three years ago, their situation started to worsen. Gale had to do some extra job in order gain enough money for his family since he had a hard time catching any preys recently. His body grew older quickly and he already started to see some white hair among his light brown hair at 27 years old. This made Miranda extremely worried for him. She was afraid that he’d die from overextending himself and offered again to work a little to cover some funds. However, her condition hadn’t improved at all so Gale was adamant in his first decision.

However, this was the least of their problems. The real problem was Luc. When he was able to speak and walk at around 2 years old, they tried to make him play with other children in the village, but it didn’t work out well. Since Luc was born, they noticed that his facial expression would never change, in any situation. They never saw him cry or laugh happily like other children. When he came back with a bloody forehead at home his expression was the same, those big eyes looking at you and wondering what happened.

Once Luc helped a little girl to get some fruits in the forest, despite being forbidden from entering it. At the evening of the same day, when Miranda asked Luc how was his day, he just told her everything. That a girl asked for his help, and he just did. Miranda lectured him for a whole hour about that, thinking that Luc tried to get the little girl’s favor. The next day she wanted to fetch Luc at their playing ground and have a talk with the little girl’s mother at the same time, however when she arrived, she only saw him being left in a corner, beaten up. She nearly broke down on the spot and asked the parent of each child an explication. However, the mother of the little girl came at her and angrily said that Luc tried to poison her daughter. To this Miranda coldly snorted and only said that if she hadn’t asked her son to look for some fruit for her in the forest she would have been fine, after that she left leaving a fuming mother on her spot.

After this incident, a rumor like Luc would be a cursed child started to spread in the village. At first, it didn’t really matter as it was only a rumor. However, as time passed, people started to notice that the boy was different. He was emotionless. Happiness, pain, joy, sadness, or any other emotion couldn’t be expressed by the boy. This got amplified by the fact that their family was in a dire situation due to Gale suddenly being unable to hunt as much as before and Miranda’s sickness. By the time he turned 4 years old, their entire family was ostracized. Some would still trade with Gale but would make it hard for him by buying everything he sold cheap and selling what they owned. However, some of Gale’s friends were still friendly to them and would often help him when he was in need.

But, things escalated last year when someone threw a stone at Miranda. Gale nearly shot the man to death when he heard about it, and the village needed to interfere otherwise someone really might had ended up dead. Since then, Miranda and Luc would stay home or not far from it and Gale would accompany them each time they wanted to go out for a little excursion. However, Gale was feeling uneasy in his heart. Their child is really emotionless.

Miranda told him that whatever he is, he would still be their child and she couldn’t understand why he will worry about it, the fact that he was different didn’t mean that it was his fault. Gale could only accept her words, not because he was forced, but imagining that his son was the cause he had a hard time hunting was a ridiculous idea for him. Miranda’s sickness might be related to his condition but in any case, it couldn’t be his fault.

Thus, with the rumor about Luc being a cursed child, making him travel with his mom alone was something Gale couldn’t agree to. However, they were given a horse as many families refused to travel with them inside the caravan. Gale didn’t see any problems with it, he was more concerned about what type of blessing his son would receive. He hoped that he would receive Desolation’s blessing, which would help him. Since he planned to teach him how to use a bow and hunt after this trip, if he had the same blessing as him, he could endure the same training he did. Though, if he had Control’s blessing like his mother, it wouldn’t be too bad for a hunter too. He would just need to adapt his training with his growth.

The journey to Velis went with less trouble than everyone thought. The town was close to the village but a bandit attack wasn’t something which couldn’t happen. And since there were few men with the traveling group, if some bandit found them, this many women and children could sell well as slaves in other countries which allowed human slaves like Baflor or Walpure. These two empires viewed human as livestock, Walpure in particular. Being mainly inhabited by vampires, they had a thing for human’s blood. Thus, it wasn’t uncommon for bandits to appear on well-known traveling road and plunder everything they could from travelers be it their belongings or their freedom.

The caravan arrived at Velis by the sunset. Since this type of thing wasn’t uncommon, they passed the security after filling the normal procedures and were provided with a place to stay for the night. They were supposed to leave after finishing their business with the church, and if they desired to stay for a longer period they needed to pay a fee. For that many people, the fee would be way over what they could afford.

After parking everything to a designed place by the guards, their group was lead to a simple accommodation. However, when they got there, Luc’s family was forced to find another lodging. The reason was the same.

“We won’t live under the same roof as this cursed child! Throw him out and we can discuss that!”

One of the women said in a fierce tone. And many nodded their head in approval. Gale gritted his teeth while Miranda was covering Luc’s ears. The latter was still facing the disgusted gaze of the crowd of women and children with his usually calm face.

The woman who spoke was the little girl’s mother. She clearly knew that Gale and Miranda wouldn’t abandon their child no matter what, so, she was clearly intending for the whole family to leave.

The guard overseeing this frowned. This wasn’t something he was used to seeing, but he couldn’t let a village internal strife disturb the peace of the town. Thus, he interfered and allowed Luc’s family to be in another lodging as long as they could pay up.

Gale’s face became devoid of emotions. He wanted to kill those bastards. His family was in a bad shape financially and he couldn’t afford to waste any money, and now, because of their beliefs, he had to pay something he shouldn’t have to.

In the end, he did pay and went to another lodging under the laughing gaze of many. Luc was witnessing this scene with his usual calm heart, though he knew that something was amiss, he couldn’t pinpoint what. That night, he finally decided to talk about it with his parents.

“Mother, father, why can’t I feel any emotion? Why can’t I feel anything even when you say that I hurt myself?”

His father just shook his head and patted him.

“We don’t know. But it doesn’t matter. Having a calm heart like you isn’t too bad either. You just need to be careful and not get yourself in trouble because you don’t feel anything. Especially when you’re bleeding. You need to treat your wounds quickly, you understand?”

“Hum. Yes.”

That night, Luc decided that he wouldn’t think about it anymore and just do what he was told by his parents.

But, his father told him that he should make his mother happy, but with these people always making her cry when they called him a cursed child… He wondered how he could make her happy.

Early in the morning of the next day, their group went directly to the church since they needed to get back to the village as soon as possible. For once, this was a lucky day for them since there wasn’t any need to queue for a divination.

Luc followed a priest to the altar, where he will receive his divination.

The priest started to chant something which Luc couldn’t understand. Some light particles of different colors started to appear around him. There were twelve different colors and ten particles of each color. They gently hovered around his body before slowly closing the distance and started to rub his skin. All of them suddenly penetrated his body, and for the first time since he stopped crying, Luc suffered.

Seeing this, the priest’s face became stiff. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

However, only a few seconds had passed before all the light particles which had entered Luc body were expulsed, without any exception. This could only mean one thing. He didn’t have any blessing.

Luc had fallen on the ground his eyes close and his consciousness elsewhere.

He was floating in a pitch-black place, and a black robed man sitting cross-legged was in front of him. Different types lights were flowing around him

Seeing him, Luc became perplexed.

“Who…Who are you? Where am I?”

The black robed man opened his eyes slowly, before giving Luc a cold smile.

“It’s too soon for us to meet, boy. Look forward to our next encounter.”

The man waved his hand and Luc’s consciousness blanked.

The next moment he opened his eyes. However, what awaited him was his body being embraced by his crying mother and the sorrowful gaze of his father. Unsure of what was happening to him, Luc wanted to ask a question, but a blue screen appeared in front of him.

Name Luc Asfer Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, The Bearer Of Sin, The One Rejected By The Divine Class Villager lv.1 Bloodline Human (100%) Blessing(s) None Mana 30/30 Divine Power 0/0 Intelligence 11 Luck -10 000 Widsom 8 Magic None Endurance 12 Aptitude None Agility 10 Strength 9 Dexterity 5 Charisma 6 The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck -10 000 in Luck, those around you will encounter misfortunes The Bearer Of Sin The host will become emotionless and won’t be able to feel anything most of the times The One Rejected By The Divine Your body can’t hold any divine power and can’t receive any blessings

Seeing all of this, Luc frowned.

Why do I have all of this?

This was all Luc could think of, he couldn’t feel any grievance or any regret. He was just surprised at most by his status. Now he knew why his father had a hard time in his job since he was born, why his mother fell sick when he was born, why they called him a cursed child.

He lifted his head and patted the head of his crying mother.

“Mom, do you see the blue screen?”

His mom shook her head while sobbing, notifications from the system and the status page were only visible for the one concerned by it. She didn’t know why her son didn’t receive any blessing. This never happened before. And, even though this world wasn’t in the chaos it was before, power still meant many things. And if her son didn’t have any blessing he was fated to be bullied and under anyone in the world.

After Luc fell in a coma after the divination, they took him and rushed back to their lodging. The reason was simple, the priest chased them away saying that their son didn’t have any blessing and was thus rejected from the world. Their family was to leave as soon as possible and to never get close to this town ever again.

Gale and Miranda were afraid for their son. This matter couldn’t be kept hidden. So, soon after Luc regained consciousness, they left Velis at full speed for their home. They couldn’t stay here. If a fanatic were to hear about this, he would come for Luc’s life in the next moment and one would be able to save him.

When they returned to the village, the village head was surprised to see them arriving so soon. Gale didn’t give them too much explanation and just said that since they were the first one to finish, they had returned earlier. The village head was quite skeptical but didn’t look into it too much. Until he noticed that Gale and his family were selling everything they owned and buying many expenditures for traveling.

“GALE! What are you doing?!”

The village head couldn’t keep ignoring this matter. Though he knew about the rumor, he didn’t care much as long as they stayed. The reason was simple: their village was near a forest infested with monsters, low-leveled indeed, but still a potential threat. Each man in the village could fight somehow but those who could really defend the village were the hunters and the warriors present with the help of the nurses who knew some healing spells. If not for this, they would have moved out a long time ago.

“Since we’re not welcomed here, we’ll just leave. I can’t thank you enough for what you have done for my wife and me, but, this place isn’t for our son.”

This was partially the reason. His true motive was that as soon as the other came back with the news that his son didn’t possess any blessing, he would be happy if they didn’t go straight for the kill.

“Gale. You know that this is only a rumor. Though your son is a bit special, nothing serious will be done to him. If you want, I can warn those women to keep their mouth shut.”

Gale shook his head, his decision was final. He couldn’t stay even if he wanted to.

Seeing this, the village head sighed.

I should have acted sooner. Now we’re losing a valuable hunter.

Since their family didn’t have much, Gale managed to sell everything they wouldn’t need and bought enough resources for a week. They decided to take two horses, one for the resources with Gale and one for Miranda and Luc. After bidding their farewell to the village, they left and traveled along the forest.

4 years after, Luc was ten years old.

His family installed itself near the border of the Helun forest. The Helun forest surface was enormous, belonging to one of the three great green mazes of the world. This was also the same forest which bordered his former home. Now, they were in the middle of nowhere hundreds of kilometers away from the village.

During those 4 years, Luc was trained as a hunter by his father. He learned how to create a bow from scratch, he learned how to distinguish the differences between a horned wild fox and an ordinary wild fox. He learned how to follow a monster’s trail without losing himself in the forest. His father was greatly surprised. Although Luc was lacking in stats due to his lack of blessing, he wasn’t any worse than some people with his level equal to his and even higher. He quickly found out that since he wasn’t swayed by his emotions his mind was more reactive and keen to what was around him. He didn’t let anything pass which made him able to use each of his abilities to its fullest. This was a good news to him.

Luc quickly got the hang of a bow and started to accompany his father to hunt despite the protests of his mother. The only reason was because his father told him that to make his mother happy he needed to be strong enough to live well. Thus, he followed his father in order to gain more experience from hunting monsters.

The system attributed experience when someone was training, killing or sometimes reflecting. For those who focused only on magic and on how it worked, could level up by gaining more insight into their research. Though the killing and training methods were faster, they weren’t fit for some.

In those 4 years, Luc managed to level and increase its stats and gain new skills as well. However, the lack of divine abilities limited his abilities greatly. He could now take on close combat 2 horned wild fox which levels were around 15 to 17. He also managed to unlock the perception status which was essential for a hunter.

System Your craftsmanship improved greatly. Dexterity +1

System: Your craftsmanship improved greatly. Dexterity +1

Nodding his head, Luc checked his status page.

Name Luc Asfer Title(s) The One Who Has Been Cursed By Luck, The Bearer Of Sin, The One Rejected By The Divine Class Villager lv.1; Hunter lv.20 (41%) Bloodline Human (100%) Blessing(s) None Mana 50/50 Divine Power 0/0 Intelligence 17+1 Luck -10 000 Widsom 13 Magic Stealth (Grade 9: 12%), Aiming shot (Grade 9: 26%), Magic arrow (Grade 9: 78%), Exploding shot (Grade 10: 56%) Endurance 22+2 Aptitude Trained body lv.2 (+2 in strength, endurance and agility), Acute vision lv.1 (+1 dexterity +1 perception), flexible body lv.3 (+3 agility and +2 dexterity), Enemy detection lv.4 (+1 intelligence +2 perception) Agility 18+5 Strength 21+2 Dexterity 22+3 Perception 11+3 Charisma 6 Stealth Grade 9 The user can clad his body in mana to reduce his presence in the surroundings. Will last as long as the user has enough mana to maintain the spell. Aiming shot Grade 9 By injecting mana in his arrows, the user can make them compensate his lack of accuracy against moving targets. Magic arrow Grade 9

Arrow completely made out of mana. Its density is still weak, though.

Exploding shot Grade 10 The user can gather mana at the tip of his arrows so they can have a decent destructive power.

His stats greatly improved. He could be considered weak for a lv.20 hunter but he only unlocked this one class. To unlock a class, you needed to either have someone pass it to you or meet the System’s conditions to unlock it.

When Gale passed his hunter class to his son, he unlocked the perception stats which was very important for all hunters. This stat improved their awareness and vision.

His magic was still low grade since he only started to use it, and without any blessings, upgrading his skill took a longer time. Taking three years to reach grade 9 in aiming shot could be considered way too long. In three years, a blessed person could attain grade 8 without much difficulty as long as he trained regularly. This meant that Luc should forget about being above grade 7 in his life.

Grade 1 was considered the pinnacle for a spell, mana or divine power dependent alike, while grade 10 was considered the beginner stage of a spell. The higher the grade of a spell, the more powerful and efficient it was. However, those with low-grade blessings could barely go above grade 5 in their life. Reaching grade 3 was basically impossible. To upgrade a spell, it was the complete opposite with leveling up. Understand the essence of the spell was more efficient than using it repetitively without understanding it. Furthermore, when one understood the essence of a spell, he would also gain some experience in the according class.

{Stealth} was a spell his father taught him, while {Magic Arrow} was acquired when he got the hunter class, {Aiming Shot} when he got lv.10 with [Hunter] and {Exploding Shot} when he got lv.20.

Today, Luc was in their courtyard gazing at the horizon, thinking about what he should do in the future. His mother’s condition was still the same. And that was not for the best since they couldn’t have access to pain reducing potions like before. Though Miranda still had a smile plastered on her face, Luc knew she was suffering every day. Gale’s condition wasn’t any better. In order to not depend on anyone, he needed to make sure that their new house was safe from any danger. He slept very little at night and passed most of the time making sure that the traps he set around it hadn’t been triggered. He would also stay up all night as long as he heard any strange sound in the surrounding.

He closed his eyes and let a warm breeze caress his cheeks and fluster his hair. His back facing the burning sun and the ground vibrating under him.

Vibrations?

Luc opened his eyes and saw black and white figures on white horses on the other side of the plain, coming toward their positions. Luc got up and went directly to his father and told him what he saw.

Gale’s face paled. From what his son told him, what he saw was the inquisition from the church of Order. Escaping wasn’t an option.

Gale didn’t even think twice, he took Miranda and Luc in the forest and gave Luc his bow and arrows with a bag of provisions.

“Luc, you need to listen to me. Don’t come back here and flee the far from here. You need to keep your mother safe. With your ability, you can manage in this forest and protect your mother, you understand?”

“Gale! What are you saying?!”

Miranda’s voice was trembling, she knew that the inquisition was coming, but she thought that they would flee together.

“If they find this place and there is no one inside, they would look for a chase. There are clear clues that this place was inhabited recently. However, If I stay behind and tell them that both of you are dead, they might not look for you. But you guys need to stay far away from this place!”

Gale’s voice was low but determined. What he said made sense but he omitted something that Miranda knew.

“They will still kill you!”

Gale closed his eyes and hugged his wife. He couldn’t do anything. Fleeing together wasn’t an option. Staying meant their death. And abandoning Luc was out of the question.

Seeing both his parents trembling in fear from those visitors. Luc couldn’t feel any shred of tension hearing Gale’s words, neither could he feel any sadness or pain from his father’s desire to sacrifice himself. However, he didn’t want things to end up that way.

His mother won’t be happy if his father dies. However, from what father said, they are stronger than us and more numerous.

“Father. Since they seem to be here for me, you could flee with mother. As long as they kill me they won’t look for…”

“LUC! “

His father’s voice was loud and powerful. His gaze strict and his black eyes locked on Luc’s face.

“Are you going to disobey me?!”

“No but…”

“I said you will run away with your mother. Take her now. I made her sleep forcefully with some sleeping pills. Remember. Don’t look back and never come back. If your mother wakes up and tells you to go back, don’t listen to her. She won’t be happy if she comes back. Did I make myself clear?!”

Luc nodded. It was the first time his father spoke with this much force. He didn’t why but he could guess that he had made his decision. He looked at his sleeping mother in his father’s arms and took in a princess carry and headed directly towards the forest. With his current stats, he could carry his mother and run at full speed for at least half an hour without being tired. By then, they should be far enough to relax a bit.

Watching the retreating back of his son carrying his wife, Gale had a wry smile on his face.

He took a deep breath of cold air and went out in the courtyard looking toward the arriving cavalry. His eyes determined, he was waiting for his death.

The inquisition arrived at their destination ten minutes after Luc had left with his mother and found a man sitting cross-legged in his courtyard his eyes closed, clearly waiting for them.

“Are you Gale Asfer?”

One of the inquisitors asked.

“Yes. May I ask why the inquisition of the church of Order traveled all this way to visit me? I remember only having a low-grade blessing of Desolation, nothing worthy of being in your line of sight.”

“We’re still here for you. And your son and wife. Your son is said to be without a blessing. Our Archbishops declared that he was a heretic, an outcast that no gods wanted alive. Then, he and his family needed to be eliminated.”

“Since when could the Archbishops of Order speak for every god? Is this known by all the churches?”

“A mere commoner has no right to doubt an Archbishop.”

One of the inquisitors waved his hand and a gust of wind hit Gale in his chest and send him flying for few meters before he fell on the ground spitting out blood.

“Where are they? If you tell us, we can give you all a quick death.”

“They’re already dead. You’re too late.”

Gale had trouble speaking since blood was accumulating in his mouth.

However, he looked like a beaten man after he lost what was the most precious to him.

“Lying won’t work. Sadly, I have a skill which can help detect lies from truths. So, tell us where they are, now.”

These words made Gale dumbfounded. He couldn’t be sure if the inquisitor’s words were true, but he already knew that they were doubting his words, and wouldn’t believe him no matter what he said.

Gale spat out another mouthful of blood before his body trembled. There was corroding magic in his body. His organs were weakening at an alarming rate.

Feeling the state of his body, Gale finally felt what it meant to be at death door.

Then his shoulders started to tremble. He was laughing, laughing at his pitiful self.

“Go fuck yourselves!”

Crash.

Gale’s body was smashed violently against the ground and he died on the spot.

The inquisitor who was leading the expedition frowned and looked toward a woman who was standing next to him.

“Brenda. Why did you kill him? We still haven’t finished interrogating him.”

“Hump. I don’t care. His rotten commoner’s mouth dared to insult us. He needed to die.”

The woman’s voice was cold and distant like she was stating the absolute truth.

“And we don’t need him. It’s easy to guess where they went.”

She turned her head towards the forest while speaking.

“If they had fled in any other direction than the forest, then it would have been impossible for us to not notice it. Do what you guys want, I’m going first.”

After that, she vanished from her spot.

The leader and the other inquisitors sighed. This woman was unruly and didn’t know about the word ‘respect’ if it wasn’t related to her. They decided to meticulously search around and inside the house for any kind of magic device where they could have hidden before burning everything to the ground.

Noticing smoke coming from where they came from, Luc frowned. This couldn’t be any good news for them, so he decided to quicken his pace. However, before he could take another step, his body was thrown into a trunk by a violent gust of wind.

“There you are, heretics.”

His mother still in his arm, Luc looked toward the source of that voice with blood coming out of his mouth.

A woman clad in a white armor with long blonde hair and vermillion eyes was leisurely walking toward them. Her face features were hidden by a white mask and only had sockets for her eyes and mouth.

“Are you from the inquisition?”

“Yes. We’re here for you, the Blessing less.”

“Why?”

“There is no need to tell you.”

Casting his eyes down, Luc saw that his mother’s body was getting more active than before. She was about to wake up.

“If I follow you, can my mother leave?”

“This isn’t for you to decide.”

“Where is my father?”

“You’re asking way too much question for a little boy. Don’t worry, you will have all the pleasure to ask all the questions you want to your father after I’m done with you.”

She clapped her hand and a magic circle appeared in front of her. From there, multiple small dark green figures emerged. Though Luc never saw them before he knew what they were. They were the most vicious and infamous monster in Magnolia. Goblins.

“You see, these insight creatures are sadly contracted monsters that I was forced to take. And if I want them to evolve into something more powerful I need something to meet some condition. And it appears that one of them can be done right now.”

Suddenly, his mother’s body left Luc’s grip and flew over the woman.

“And that is to rape a living human. Don’t mind if I take your mother for some time.”

Luc looked at her with his same usual calm gaze.

“Rape? Will my mother be happy if I let her with you? She won’t die right?”

These words shocked the woman.

This kid doesn’t even know about that? And how can he be so calm? Is my pressure doing nothing on him?

At that moment, a light laugh was heard. She was laughing.

“Yes, kid. I will let you watch your mother become happy and I promise that you won’t see her dying too.”

After that, she snapped her fingers and the goblins threw themselves on Miranda’s body starting to tear her clothes and scratching her skin in the process.

Miranda woke up from the sudden surge of pain and looked at those goblins trying to assault her body.

She wanted to scream but noticed that no sound came out from her mouth. Only after that did she notice her son leaning on a tree, blood dripping from his mouth watching her with his usual face and a woman wearing the inquisition’s armor next to him, grinning.

Only then did she understand.

She started to cry. She was going to be raped in front of her own son by some goblins, and she couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t stop him from watching.

Seeing tears coming from his mother’s eyes, Luc frowned.

“My mother is crying. She isn’t happy at all. You lied to me.”

“Yes.”

After that, Luc’s vision blackened.

He recovered after an unknown amount of time.

When he opened his eyes, he could only see the bloody mess his mother’s corpse had become. She covered in strange fluid mixed with her blood. She had wounds all over her body. And next to her was his father remains. His skull wasn’t even complete. He could recognize his hair and eyes but his mouth and the back of his head was lacking. Many limbs too.

Luc watched this, his eyes wide open. His emotionless face didn’t even show any kind of emotions. He just frowned. Because he didn’t understand what happened.

“See this. This is your fault little boy. If you hadn’t been born, your parents would still be alive.”

The woman appeared next to Luc and patted his shoulder.

Luc wanted to turn his head but noticed that his body was bound in this position and that he couldn’t look away or move a single muscle.

“I see… But you lied to me. Twice. So, how can I know that you’re not lying to me again?”

The woman was dumbstruck.

“Because this is the truth. You didn’t deserve any blessing, so anything related to you is unnecessary in our world.”

“No.”

Luc's voice was devoid of doubt.

“My parents didn’t die because of me. My father said that it was the gods’ fault to not have blessed me.”

Though Luc couldn’t turn his head, he could feel the anger emanating from the woman.

“Good, good, good. You really are a heretic. Now, kid, I’ll let you enjoy your last moments with your parents before you meet them again in the afterlife. Since this is a purge, you will be burnt to death with everything related to you.”

Luc couldn’t even respond before his body and his parents’ corpse started to burn. Although he could see his flesh being burned, he couldn’t feel an ounce of pain. But he knew that he was going to die. He quietly watched the scene displaying in front of him, before being plunged into an abyss of darkness again.

//

This time, when Luc opened his eyes again, he was in that place again. The black robed man was standing in front of him with a light smile on his face.

“So, how was your life?”

“I don’t know. Did I die?”

“Yes.”

“I see. Then shouldn’t I leave for the afterlife now?”

“Nope. You will be destroyed right here.”

Luc frowned. This was the third time already. The woman lied to him three times in a row.

“Well, you see. I enshrined myself in your soul to escape some unwanted attention. Oh! I should present myself. I am a god. God of Sin. The one responsible for your lack of emotions.”

The black-robed man's word didn't surprise Luc. He had already guessed that his condition might be related to that man. He just didn't have any evidence and couldn't confirm it in any way.

“Ah. I see. So it was you.”

“Yeah. You see, we gods become more powerful with time and have no way of gaining more power besides waiting for it to grow. At least, that was what we thought. 10 years ago, I wanted to try something. Since my power comes from living beings’ emotions, I tried to see if I will have a faster growth when I absorb it directly from one. And you see, you’re quite the soft-hearted person. If I wasn’t here, I am afraid you’d have drowned in your own tears. However, this was quite a good experience. Since your feelings were so easy to stimulate, not only did I manage to confirm my experience I even managed to have more profit than what I thought.”

“So you succeeded... My father always told me to help those in needs, but because of you, they suffered... So I don't know if it can be considered as a good thing.”

The black robed laughed at Luc’s words.

“You really look like a doll you know? Order took all your divine power and Luck cursed you and caused your family to suffer unnecessary hardships and I prevented you from loving your own parents or feeling anything toward them, you just depended on them, you followed them and obeyed their orders. You could only try to not disappoint their efforts with you. I wonder how your mother felt when she was raped in front of her son while he didn’t care about it, thinking that she would be ‘happy’? You really made me laugh. Well, too bad you died that fast, I couldn't harvest more. Anyway, since I enshrined myself in your soul when I’ll leave your soul will shatter and nothing will be left. So, this is farewell, boy.”

When Sin finished speaking, his body started to radiate before it disappeared, leaving nothing but darkness in front of Luc.

This time, Luc really died.

//

"Oh. Sin you're back. Where were you?"

A white-robed woman asked the black-robed man who just entered the room.

"I just took a stroll."

The black-robed grinned before he released his aura.

"This... How did you become this powerful in such amount of time? How is this possible?"

"I need to thank you for that. Though I still could get more power if you hadn't asked your servants to hunt down that kid."

"You... possessed a human? What's more the one I prevented from having a blessing? Are you rebelling?"

The white robe's voice became cold and killing intent was clearly visible in her eyes. The man in black just shook his head and put his hand in the air.

"I wouldn't dare! I was just conducting an experiment. Though it was somewhat successful, the soul of the boy was destroyed in the process. And it's not something I can do again anyway."

The woman's eyes constricted, before turning her head to the side, ignoring the man and pondering about her matters.

Hum, now that the soul is destroyed, I wonder what my father will do next... And even if it's not destroyed, it can't reincarnate. At least, I will know if it does, and I can just deliver another message to my followers to hunt it down again.

Thinking that far, a smirk formed on her face.

And the man who still hadn't left the place shivered when he saw her smile.