Fifteen years after his birth.
Hello everyone, I am fifteen years old and my name is Miguel Kunrat. I was named Miguel after the Archangel Michael. I thought I had been born into a family of priests. However, it later turned out that I was in a family of demons. And I became very curious to find out why. I was told that a hundred years ago, heaven and hell, mainly hell, tried to create warriors with the strength of their enemies. They succeeded, but not as they had hoped. The warriors turned out to be strong, resilient and talented, but they died very quickly. Either because they were stupid or because they were used as cannon fodder. To control such warriors, seals of obedience were needed. And it turned out that the power of angels is incompatible with the power of demons. As if that wasn't obvious from the start. Well, anyway, fifty years later, these warriors rebelled and split into two factions. And now we live on Earth and don't bother anyone, and no one bothers us. So we've come to the climax — the reason for my name. It's all because of my body: when I grow up, I may be able to use light magic, but because I have the body of a demon, with all the advantages that come with it, I won't be able to have the wings of demons or angels. That's why all our relatives decided that maybe after me there would be children who could live normally, without being damaged by the power of the two races.
In honour of my relocation, I was given a starter set of summoning cards. The cards were divided into levels: common, rare, unique, mythical, legendary, and divine.
Regular cards are like soldiers: they know very little and are mainly used for combat. In rare cases, they can be used for healing, but there are very few of these. They cannot speak and only carry out the simplest orders.
Rare cards. At first, they are the same as common cards. However, they can learn and improve their skills. They make good servants and craftsmen, as they can become masters in a particular field.
Unique cards are the same as rare cards, with one exception. They remember their past life or lives. There can only be one such card, because every person is unique. They can be in completely different fields: from butlers to magicians. They make good teachers and masters in their fields.
Mythical cards. These cards can mainly be monsters or people who were sincerely considered monsters during their lifetime. As the name suggests, they can only be found on the battlefield. Most of them can only fight alone, as they may kill their allies in the heat of battle.
Legendary cards. Creatures with this level were heroes or personalities remembered for centuries during their lifetime. They can be of different types, just like unique cards, with one exception: in life, they were either craftsmen or great masters; if they were warriors, they were great commanders.
Divine cards, as I understand from the description, are people. No, rather creatures that are equal in power to gods, and they also have a small peculiarity. Even if you have this card, if they consider you unworthy, they will not listen to you, and some may even kill you. Such lovely creatures.
In the starter set, I was given thirty-six cards: twenty common, five rare, five unique, five mythical, and one legendary card. Of the regular cards, I was given ten steel-clad warriors with one-handed swords and shields; six archers in light leather armour with beautiful bows, their appearance somewhat resembling elves; and four healers. Healers could not use magic, but the medicine they produced could heal almost any wound. From their stories, I learned that without magic, their wise men could easily reattach arms and legs, and everything would work.
I was very lucky with the rare cards: they were blank. The peculiarity of such cards is, first, that they can only be rare; secondly, the owner chooses which direction to study: you take a card, drain your Mana with thoughts of a profession, and a creature with an aptitude for that profession appears, and you teach it everything it needs to know.
From the five unique cards, I got one Alchemist, one Hand-to-Hand Combat Master, one Sword Master, and two Master Craftsmen in Forging and Enchanting.
From the mythical cards, I got one man with a big two-handed sword, two Panthers — they turned out to be brother and sister — one fish-like man, and one angel.
The legendary card was the embodiment of the world. Yes, of course, the world, but not its essence. He had the ability, as you may have guessed, of psionics, and he will also be my teacher in this field.
After this description, you probably think that I am fifteen years old and can go conquer the expanses of this planet, but I will disappoint you: all cards have levels. The first hundred levels for ordinary and rare cards are the ceiling of their development. But for unique, mythical, and legendary cards, the hundredth level is the return of all their skills during their lifetime. For divine cards, it is one-tenth of their power in life. After the hundredth level, the second half of the levels is spent accumulating skills and abilities in this life, albeit in the form of cards.
And, as you may have already understood, all my cards are first level, and in order to level them up, I need to let them work in their field. Well, now that we've figured out the cards, let's move on to psionics. At fifteen, I've only just made it to the first stage of psionics, which upsets me. Today is the day I want to tell my parents about my abilities, because it will be the first day I see them in person. No one knows that I was born to them. I honestly don't know why they're hiding this. So now I'm going to meet them in person, so to speak. Wish me luck.
When I got down to the first floor, I saw a group of people, most of them servants, and a few more who looked like guards, judging by their appearance: they were clad in armour, armed, and standing near a fairly young couple. At least, they looked to be over twenty-five. Approaching them, I greeted them modestly, they called me over, and the young girl hugged me, saying:
"Miguel, we are your parents. Now you can live with us. We will explain why later, but for now, let's walk and talk.
My father did not consider him to be a man. He did not say a word, but my mother, talking about how I had grown up and what a handsome man I would become, hugged me and led me into the living room. Sitting down on the sofa, my father spoke:
"When you were a child, we placed a magic seal on you, but now we will remove it.
I wanted to ask them how that was possible, since I could use magic. Seeing my look, my father stopped me with his hand and said:
"I know about your manipulations. However, this is not the magic we use, which is why the seal could not block your power. But first, let me introduce myself. My name is Belkor Kunrat, and this is your mother, Keiri Kunrat.
After introducing himself, he approached me, placed his hand on my head, and recited some kind of spell. Ten minutes later, he said that everything was fine now, walked away, and immediately after that, forty cards began to spin in front of me. And a voice spoke in my head.
"This is the second part of the starter set. Since your magic was blocked, this part was temporarily blocked, but now it is available to you. Due to your nature and abilities, your talents have been merged. As a result, you have gained the power of grey magic, healing and combat. There are forty cards in front of you, they can be of any level. Choose fifteen of them, trust your luck and intuition.
After that, the voice fell silent. I stood in front of forty closed cards. My father's question brought me out of my thoughts:
"Miguel, what is this?"
"Father, because my magic was blocked, I couldn't access it. Here are forty cards with spells of varying degrees of difficulty and purpose. I have to choose fifteen of them to become mine. I'll tell you about it later, but now I have to make my choice.
After these words, no one distracted me, and I calmly chose fifteen cards. Of these, I received five healing cards, seven medium and long-range attack cards, and three weapon skills.
After examining the cards, I began to tell my parents about the abilities I had received. I said that I remembered my past life, the characteristics of the card levels, and almost everything else. I had read many books about people who had been reincarnated or had similar experiences. I don't understand their logic, but as a former father, I can say with confidence that no matter how eccentric my children were, I would not drag them to the stake and burn them for killing my supposed son. After all, it is quite possible that the child simply remembered his past life because the spiritual world of that life was richer and became the dominant essence over the one that lived at that time.After I finished my story, my father sat silently for about two hours, while my mother sat down next to me, hugged me, and waited for the verdict.
"You know, son, you are very lucky to have such abilities: in the future, you will be able to stand up for yourself and your family. I was thinking of starting your training when you turned thirty. However, given this news, I will have to start your training when you turn fifteen. As I understand it, your cards are very weak, and the sooner you start training them, the faster they will become stronger. Your training will begin tomorrow, but for now... Summon five rare cards: two maids, one butler, one cook, and one bodyguard. I will give them to the masters of their craft, and soon they will be helping you.
After summoning these cards, I handed them over to my father. He left immediately, and I stayed with my mother, talking until late at night. Who would have thought that after living so long in my previous life, I would want to just sit with my mother and talk about nothing in particular?
The next day, I woke up early in the morning, ready for training. When I went downstairs, I found my parents having breakfast. They invited me to join them at the table. After the meal, my father called me into his study.
"Miguel, first I must explain the power of demons to you. Demons are divided into lower, middle, higher, lords and kings.
The lower demons are several dozen times stronger than ordinary humans. The middle demons are hundreds of times stronger, because they already know how to use magic. But they are easy to kill. They die just like humans.
The higher ones are a different matter. They can rightly be called demons. If a strong higher demon is stabbed in the heart, there is an 80% chance that it will be able to heal itself and continue destroying its enemies. Only those who inherit their powers can become higher demons, but there are exceptions among converted humans. Lords are demons who have become stronger than any higher demon, even if they are a thousand years older. They usually become rulers of parts of hell and govern them.
Kings, or Archdemons as they were formerly known, are demons that have ceased to be demons. You see, they are not like demons, either physically or in any other way. When they cross this boundary, they completely acquire a new body with completely different abilities and a different psychology. If a demon used to enjoy cutting down his enemies, after the transition, it will seem like a waste of time or childishness to him. You could say that they mature and become very wise.
Now let's move on to your cards. My people have roughly determined the strength of the combat units. Ordinary cards at level 100 will have the strength of strong medium demons. However, if they are in first-class armour and remember their battles in bloody fights, they will be able to compete with inexperienced young higher demons.
I won't talk about the rare ones, as they are more suited to serving as servants or bodyguards. But if I had to say, bodyguards at the peak of their strength could kill any average or weak higher demon.
The unique ones, at the peak of their strength, will be able to compete with average higher beings, and since you said that they can grow even further, in the future they will be able to fight on equal terms with strong higher beings.
Mythical and legendary ones could well become competitors to the rulers. However, the mythical ones will only become so if you can teach them to control their desires. Naturally, relying on the fact that they can grow, in the future they will be as powerful as kings.
Divine beings, if we assume that the hundredth level is the level of any king, will be equal to the Biblical beings, Lucifer, the Dragon Emperors, and their ilk at the peak of their power.
And you, in the future, if you master all your abilities at their peak, will be able to compare yourself to the divine cards. I would like you to have a childhood, but with such abilities, you could be considered a threat to any faction on our planet. And no matter how powerful your cards are, if you die in battle against an enemy, know this: you will be killed very quickly. There are demons and other creatures that specialise in killing. No bodyguard has ever been able to save anyone from them. The only exceptions were when the targets themselves gave the killers a chance.
However, I can congratulate you: if you achieve all this, you will be able to do whatever you want and live as long as you want. But this is on condition that, when you reach this level, you do not quarrel with absolutely everyone.
"All right, Father, I'll try not to fall out with absolutely everyone. Aye-ay.
Father tapped him lightly on the head.
"I hope you're joking. You remember your past life, so why are you acting like a child?"
I put on a serious face and said:
"You know, Father, in my past life, I had too little time, I grew up too fast. I had to work hard to achieve anything. So now that I have eternity ahead of me, can I be a child for as long as possible?"
At the end, I smiled as sincerely as I could. Then my father gave me a big hug and said:
"Son, I know you don't know us very well, but as you said, we have time. We will always support your decision and help you. After all, if not us, then who else will listen to you and understand you? You can remain a child for as long as you want, but don't forget: if you have a family, you have to be responsible for it. So you can be a child your whole life, but promise me that when the time comes, you'll be serious.
"Yes, Father, I promise.
"Well, now about your training. Until you are fifty, you will train in manna control, fencing, various sciences of the world and factions, and you will also train your cards and your psionic gift. When you turn fifty, you will have a choice: to go on a journey of discovery around the world and gain experience, or to go to the academy — and these two options will last for a hundred and fifty years. When you come of age, you will undergo the trial of adulthood, like all young demons, and then you will be left to your own devices.
"All right, Father, I understand.
Thirty-five years later.
During these years, I have achieved a lot, or at least I thought so until yesterday. Yesterday, my father invited a powerful lower demon and let me fight him. I won, of course, but with difficulty, and I realised that I have a long way to go. I also managed to get sixty more creature cards and twenty-five spells. Most of them were common, rare, and a few unique ones. I also levelled up the ones I already had. The common and rare ones to level fifty, and the rest to levels ten and twenty-five. The higher the level, the harder it is to level them up. It also turned out that every card, except for the rare ones, had combat or crafting skills when it was alive. With every tenth level, one to five skills are unlocked. Oh, right, I almost forgot, I made it to the third stage of psionics. It took me ten years to reach the second stage and twenty-five to reach the third, and that was with the help of drugs and medications, but they no longer work for me, so unless I experience moments of enlightenment or find other stronger drugs in my lifetime, it will take me a very long time to reach the eleventh stage. Today, I will make a choice.
I approached my parents and told them that I was choosing to travel freely, then stepped into the portal and set off on my first adventure in this world.
***
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