The shock in the training grounds was so thick you could carve it with a knife. Duke Valerius Luxmore remained frozen, his eyes locked on the severed remains of the black iron dummy. It wasn't just the strength; it was the precision. A six-year-old had just executed a strike that even some senior knights struggled to master.
"Arain..." The Duke finally spoke, his voice lower than before. "Where did you learn that movement? There is no record of you ever touching a sword in the library."
Arain wiped a stray droplet of sweat from his forehead. His tiny body felt heavy, the muscles screaming in protest. This mortal shell was far weaker than he anticipated. 'Tsk. This pathetic body can barely handle 1% of my original technique,' he thought bitterly.
Aloud, he simply shrugged. "I watched the guards. It didn't look that difficult."
A blatant lie. But what could they do? Accuse a child of being a reincarnated Demon King?
"Enough!" A sharp, arrogant voice cut through the air.
Arain looked up to the balcony. His second brother, Hector, was leaning over the railing, his face twisted in a mixture of jealousy and mockery. Hector was twelve, a "prodigy" who had already awakened his mana.
"It was a fluke, Father!" Hector shouted. "The dummy must have been weathered or cracked. There is no way a 'Mana-less' trash like him could cut black iron. He doesn't have a single drop of energy in his veins!"
Duke Valerius looked back at Arain, his suspicion returning. "Hector is right about one thing. Strength without mana has a limit. Arain, come here."
The Duke pulled out a crystalline orb—an Awakening Stone. "If that strike was real, your veins should show some reaction. Place your hand on it."
Arain hesitated. In his past life, his mana was a deep, corrosive purple—the Abyssal Breath. If that showed up now, they wouldn't call him a prodigy; they would execution him on the spot as a cursed entity.
'System,' Arain whispered in his mind. 'Can you mask my energy?'
[System: Analyzing Host's Mana Core...]
[Warning: Abyssal Mana is highly volatile. Current physical vessel cannot contain it.]
[Solution: Deploying 'Void Veil'. The stone will show zero mana, but the Host can secretly store energy in the 'Hidden Veins'.]
Arain smirked internally. He placed his hand on the cold surface of the stone.
The courtyard went silent. Hector leaned forward, a cruel grin on his face. The Duke held his breath.
One second. Five seconds. Ten seconds.
The stone remained dark. Not a single spark. Not a glimmer of light.
"Ha! I knew it!" Hector burst into laughter, joined by the guards' hushed giggles. "Total trash! He's just a freak with a bit of physical strength. A circus act!"
The Duke's face fell, disappointment washing over him like a cold wave. He sighed, turning away. "Take him back to his room. It seems I got my hopes up for nothing. A Luxmore without mana is no Luxmore at all."
Arain was led away by a silent maid, but he didn't look sad. As he walked, he looked down at his palm. Underneath the skin, almost invisible to the human eye, thin black veins were pulsing like a heartbeat.
[System: Void Veil Successful.]
[Alert: You have successfully absorbed the 'Disappointment' of a Great House.]
[Reward: 100 Soul Points. Skill Unlocked: 'Shadow Extraction'.]
'Let them laugh,' Arain thought as he entered his small, dilapidated room at the edge of the estate. 'In the world of the Abyss, mana isn't something you are born with. It's something you steal.'
He sat cross-legged on the floor. It was time to begin the 'Abyssal Cultivation'. Tonight, the "Mana-less" failure would become the only person in this world to command the shadows themselves.
Suddenly, the door creaked open. It was Leonard, his eldest brother—the one who would eventually kill him in his past life.
"Arain," Leonard said, his eyes cold and calculating. "Father might be fooled, but I saw how you gripped that sword. Tell me the truth... or I'll find it out myself."
Arain looked up, his red eyes glowing faintly in the dark. The predator was no longer hiding. "And how exactly do you plan to do that, brother?"