2nd day of the month of the sun of year 3543. The day that gave birth to the man who would carry Humanity to the victory of the war that signaled the start of the period historians named "Humanity's darkest age". That man's name was Marduk Griffith, the hero also known as "the Apathetic Battlemaniac".
2nd day of the month of the sun, 3548.
An enormous pristine white crystal stands in the middle of the central plaza of the dukedom of Licht. A small child with purple shaded black hair and light grey empty eyes, walks steadily towards the monumental crystal, then he stretches his hand and touches it. The surface of the colossal crystal suddenly changed as a number and a sentence appeared:
Mana pool: 2500
Magic talent: scrap talent
Everyone's faces became grim except the child's.The grimmest were those of his family, and Marduk felt their stares hitting the back of his head, he calmly turned around to face those stares and saw a bottomless pity filling the eyes of everyone. This sight left the child unfazed, indeed he felt nothing towards those pitiful eyes. The only emotion he felt was anger, since he knew, from the moment he touched that crystal, what was coming his way. Then his shoulder was grabbed by a big coarse hand and after a couple of seconds he was no longer in that big and crowded plaza, but in a cozy office with a desk covered in papers and other utility. He immediately recognized the new surroundings, how could he not, it was his father's home office. His father was no other than Axel Van Licht, one of the four dukes of Delia's Kingdom.
"You will leave this town tomorrow at dawn." A proud voice resounded in the small room "We, as a proud family of magicians, cannot allow a crap talent like you to shame our name!" Axel van Licht was a thirty-year-old blond man with deep blue eyes, a square build and a straight nose. All in all he was a very handsome man, one could guess who his son had inherited his good looks from.
The empty eyes of the small child remained unfazed, and his face remained calm and flat. "Yes father, but you better know that one day you will beg me to return and I will not." Marduk left the flabbergasted man on his own. Axel was a proud noble man and scoffed at the statement, taking it as the gibberish of a child. Little did he know that this day would become his biggest regret.
The next day a carriage pulled by a couple of hippogriffs left Klent, the central city of the dukedom, heading East to the countryside, towards a little fortified village, called Mint.
Looking out of the carriage window, Marduk saw an old man in his fifties with long blue-black hair, an unkempt beard and deep blue eyes waving in his direction. The old man left a familiar feeling in Marduk's heart. The carriage landed and the old man greeted the child.
"Hi little man, my name is Kayden van Licht, and I am your grandfather." The old man said "As from today you'll live with me in the town of Mint." Bowing, Marduk said in a monotone voice "It's a pleasure to meet you, my name is Marduk, please take care of me!"
Marduk followed Kayden to his home where his new life would begin.
Two weeks later.
Young Marduk was starting to get used to the small town on the eastern border, where Dalia bordered the Dwarf Continent. During the initial tour of the town, his grandfather introduced him to the other elders, amongst whom, Dorran.
Dorran was a dwarf who had left his continent a few years before. His body was exceedingly muscular for that of such a small man. Dorran was the master blacksmith, he spent most of his time by his forge holding an enormous heavy looking hammer. The dwarf was 1,46 meters (4'9) tall with long crimson hair and beard and deep green eyes. Marduk was deeply impressed by the passion he showed while forging, and because the dwarf was as awkward as him when dealing with emotions and strangers.
The one who created more problems for Marduk was his grandfather, Kayden. The old man had an extrovert and extravagant personality, as a matter of fact, the first thing he said to his grandson as soon as they entered his home, was "I don't care about your magical talent, nor about your apathetic nature, all I care about is that you are my grandson and this will never change!" and he even added with an outcry: "I do not approve of Axel's decision!"
That was a really nice thing to say. However, Marduk was the son of Axel's concubine, who died giving birth, and this, combined with his strange behavior, made all the people in Klent treat him in a distant and unaffectionate manner. As a consequence, Marduk wasn't at all used to being treated with affection.
Even if everybody else couldn't explain his behavior, Marduk had found an answer to that when he was four years old. Marduk was what you call a prodigy or a genius and even at such an early age he was several years ahead of his peers. Indeed, on the day of his fourth birthday a strange semi-transparent blue screen appeared before him, the screen said:
"Congratulations! You have unlocked the Unique Skill: Deity's eyes."
Skill Description:
'The eyes of a Deity can see everyone and everything.'
This skill allows you to see and feel anything that happens around you in a 10 meters radius. It also gives you access to information regarding everything you can see.
Proficiency level: 0 (0,00%)
Skill rank: Deity
(this skill can't evolve or be merged since its rank is the highest achievable to date)
He had always felt that something was holding back his emotions, and he immediately used the new skill on himself. His light gray eyes glowed with a yellow light as he read the new information panel.
Marduk van Licht
Occupation: none (sealed)
Title: Battlemaniac Race: ??????
HP: 150 MP: 2500
Strength: 3 Stamina: 6
Dexterity: 15 (5×3) Intelligence: 20 (8×2,5)
Agility: 8 Defense: 7
Nature: Apathetic
Talents:
Martial Art: Deity rank talent (DEX ×3,00) can easily learn any rank of martial art technique;
Bend Magic: Scrap rank talent (unable to use this branch of magic);
Fusion Magic: Super high rank talent (INT ×2,50) can easily learn any rank of fusion magic skill under or at high rank;
Passive Skills:
Taunt: Proficiency level 0 (0,00%) rank: Medium rank (final stage)
Boost the possibility of provoking someone by 30%;
BigBrain: Proficiency level 0 (0,00%) rank: High rank (middle stage)
This skill boosts your analyzing ability by 100% and mana points by 50% while in battle;
Active Skills:
NONE;
Unique Skills:
Deity's eyes: Proficiency level 0 (2,50%);
Martial Techniques:
NONE;
Marduk focused his yellow beaming eyes on his title and nature to see the descriptions. As he read the description of his title his upper lip twitched before taking the form of a delicate smile, it was the first time he smiled and he did it without realizing.
Title: Battlemaniac
'Your fighting spirit is over 10000.'
Your stats are boosted by 50% while fighting an enemy stronger than yourself, but you will be unable to obtain any kind of occupation. In exchange your mind will be much more sharp in learning and creating skills. As the number of nearly death battles you complete grows, you'll be able to learn some skills related to this Title.
Skills obtained until now: Taunt, BigBrain.
Nature: Apathetic
'Ah, okay.'
Your mind will remain calm and sharp in nearly every kind of situation, but your emotions will rarely come to the surface. This means that for your emotions to show, they must be much stronger than those of normal people.
After that revelation Marduk didn't sit still, but started training his body mostly by running and other basic muscular training and as a result his stats started growing a bit. But the most incredible thing was that after only half a year of training he created two new martial techniques! That was such a happy moment that his face showed a full 33-teeth smile, luckily he was alone at the time because when he realized his expression he instantly felt shy. Now his stats were more than double those he had before.
HP: 500 MP:2500
STR:13 STA: 28
DEX:45 (15×3) INT: 30 (12×2,5)
AGI:17 DEF: 9
Martial Techniques:
One million beatings: Proficiency level 5 (37,1%), Rank: Medium (middle stage)
'Just do it'
Every time you receive damage or suffer from some type of wound your flesh, your bones and your muscles will become sturdier and stronger. And your Pain resistance will rise.
At this stage your body is as hard as rock and soon will become as hard as steel.
Effects:
50% boost in defense and stamina and 30% in pain resistance;
Feline's step: Proficiency level 3 (63,8%), Rank: Low (final stage)
While using this footwork technique your agility is boosted by 30% and the sound of your step will be lowered by 15%;
Those were the results of his training and he was very satisfied with them. He used his weekly allowance of one golden coin to restock frequently the health potion that refilled his HP whenever he used the 'One million beatings'. The problem was that in the countryside any kind of potion was much harder to find and therefore much more expensive than in Klent. So much so that he was forced to stop using the ability in order to save his emergency stock of health potions.
His abilities were now on par with a magic beast on the initial stage of the low Rank. What he now lacked was a master and a weapon. For that purpose he would see Dorran frequently to try and learn as much as possible in order to forge his own weapon and thus maximize his efficiency in battle.
The third week had almost ended, and Marduk hadn't slept comfortably since his arrival at Mint so he decided to try something different: Meditating.
After an hour he was about to fall in a deep slumber when suddenly:
Ping!
"Congratulations! A new technique has been created"