As the young man with long hair, dark like the wings of a raven basked in blood, stood tall in front of the judge of the royal court of the Tetradon magistrate, the memories of the past seventeen years he lived in that world merged with the memories of Jackie Zinner.
His name was Viria Messedion, the son of the Messedion family ruling over the Seventeenth Imperial city of the Tetradon magistrate.
The world he was reborn in was the land of martial artists wielding spiritual artifacts conjured straight from their very souls. It lacked the technological advances of his previous world, but as the son of a wealthy family that should not be that much of a problem.
Viria's parents were not only the administrators of the important city, but they were also well-known martial artists with powerful spiritual artifacts.
Artifacts in themselves were separated into seven grades.
Trash grade – artifacts that were basically useless for cultivation. The unfortunate fools born with them could forget about ever reaching even high-low levels of cultivation and were better off doing fieldwork or trying their luck in literally arts.
Low grade – artifacts that could be proved to be useful if trained correctly under a splendid teacher. Although if a martial artist born with an artifact of that grade aimed to be anyone except a footsoldier or local bandit, they would have to be prepared to spend a fortune to reach low-middle levels of cultivation.
Middle grade – artifacts that let one train comfortably without the need to douse oneself with spiritual herbs or train under the absolute best teachers – with enough dedication, the lucky marital artist born with a soul artifact of that grade could aim to become a force to be reckoned with.
High grade – rare artifacts that guaranteed a high position in most of the double-digit cities in most magistrates. Easy to train and often blessed with mysterious abilities that could push the user to the top of the martial arts world.
Legend grade – it is said that if the family is blessed with a child that is born with the legend grade soul artifact, they will be immediately treated as royalty within their respective magistrate no matter their origin. When it comes to cultivation training, martial artists born with legend-grade artifacts can achieve in weeks what the ones born with middle and high-grade artifacts struggle to achieve in years. Trained martial artists with legend-grade soul artifacts often create their own cults and marital arts schools and are forces that not many dares to oppose.
Mythic grade – those are tricky artifacts that are rarer than the legend grade, but their usefulness varies – they are often extremely hard to train, some even requiring the funds that could buy entire cities to properly cultivate. But they do possess mystical powers that more often than not spit in the face of the natural order, breaking reality and shaping it according to the user's whims.
God grade – Every martial artist dreams about being born with it. If the news of a child born with a god-grade soul artifact spreads around, countless marital artists will swarm the place where it lives and fight for the right to take the child as their apprentice. Each consecutive general commander of the army was the god-gade soul artifact user, and the Spirit Empire remained undefeated for thousands of years because of that. The power that they grant is like their name – god-like. A martial artist with a god-grade soul artifact will break through the high-high level of cultivation and enter the Legend level without ever experiencing the heavenly tribulations.
Both of Viria's parents were born with high-grade artifacts.
But as for the Viria himself...
"..."
The reddish-black-haired young man lofted his hand slightly and focused.
With a faint glow, a small homemade-looking blade materialized in his palm...
[Prison shiv (tin) – trash grade soul artifact – it's easy to break but can be remade from any kind of trash in your possession.
Ability – none
???
???]
The small dialogue window with the item's description showed up in Viria's vision, causing him to feel as if he was getting punched in the gut, even though he knew about his soul artifact since the spiritual awakening ceremony when he was five years old.
Trash grade soul artifact.
Even though he was the son of important and powerful people this soul artifact was the reason for him being put on trial.
"Summoning your soul artifact in front of the royal court representative is strictly forbidden! Do not add to your crimes, criminal!"
*SLAM*
*WHAM*
The furious judge called and the guard standing by Viria punched him in the face without a moment of hesitation, sending the unexpecting young man flying.
"Ghh...!"
"!!!"
Although Viria was feeling as if his body was about to break from the power of the fit, his instincts and will didn't allow him to just take it.
To the shock of the spectators and witnesses, the young man with the black-haired tinted bloody red, scrambled onto all fours, changing the grip on his pathetic soul artifact, and launched himself at the guard who hit him.
Even without the memories of his past life being present in Viria's body in his early years, the young man never surrendered to his fate as the trash grade artifact user and trained diligently each day. He practiced every single marital art that didn't specifically involve relying on the power of his own artifact, and even though they were all mere low grades and he wasn't even able to master them in the first place because of the snail-paced of growth of his power, he wasn't just a random plebian.
"HMPH!"
The guard scoffed, and didn't even bother to summon his soul artifact, knowing full well that his armor would protect him from the feeble blade – instead, he merely swatted his hand at the charging young man...
"HUH...?!"
Only to get dodged splendidly!
Not only that – Viria seized the guard's extended arm and twisted it up, revealing the armor's weak spot right under the armpit.
That was exactly where the young man aimed his trash-grade artifact without any hesitation!