Chapter 1: Leaving Home
In the grand capital of the Osmok world, a teenager who had just turned 16 today was standing in front of a mirror. He had black hair, was lean and tall, slightly tanned, and had golden-colored eyes. Currently, he was wearing black pants and a white hoodie. Looking at his hand, he noticed that they were slightly shaking. Whether out of excitement or nervousness, even he himself wasn't sure.
"Today is the day." He whispered. After taking a deep breath to calm himself, he started packing. Grabbing a backpack, he started putting clothes, books, and a couple of weird trinkets inside it. Walking out of the house, he saw a middle-aged bald man wearing a suit waiting for him.
"Young master Damien," the man greeted while nodding his head. "we better hurry as your treasury pass only lasts one day." The man said with a sense of urgency.
"I know. I'm ready, so let's get moving." The teenager called Damien said with thinly veiled annoyance, knowing that the man's urgency wasn't borne of worry and more out of wanting to get rid of him. Nevertheless, he still walked towards the man and stood next to him. A second later they were already in a completely different location.
They went from being outside in a garden to being inside a large hallway. Its grandiose decorations and general vibe of the place just radiated the word 'Wealth'. Not bothering to thank the man who had just teleported him, he walked up to a guard standing in front of a gold door. He directly handed the guard a gold token.
After promptly inspecting it, the guard put it into a groove on the door. Shining with a brilliant light the door opened.
"Remember, only 8 items." The guard stated. "Anymore means you get nothing, and you get executed."
Damien just nodded excitedly, ignoring the threat while also ignoring the guard whisper 'Lucky Bastard' under his breath. Entering the room, he looked around. Everything was in a glass case with a plate beneath it describing the item. Ignoring most of it, he headed straight to the Origin grade embryo treasures section. Instead of looking at the treasures or reading the plates, he instead sat cross-legged at the center of the section.
Pushing his ability to the maximum, he looked at the aura of each item and scrutinized them. Dismissing one after another of treasures that many lesser families would go to war for, he finally found one that matched what he was looking for. It was a small miniature garden sculpture inside a glass case like the rest of the treasures. Reading the plate, it said.
Name: The Garden
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Growth/Embryonic
Effects: Any herbs or crystal/ore sources planted will receive the perfect nutrients and atmosphere. All growth is highly accelerated. Any degradable items placed in the garden with the intent of degrading them will instantly be transmuted into nutrients. The Garden will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Although it may not be what comes to the mind of people when they think of a max-tier evolvable treasure, it was exactly what Damien wanted and needed. Moving on, he chose a pair of gloves and a quill.
Name: Crafting Gloves
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Crafting/Embryonic
Effects: Protects hands from crafting materials. Gives much greater control over energy and allows the molding of any material easily. Gloves will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Name: Rune Quill
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Inscription/Embryonic
Effects: Greatly improves the inscription of runes. Allows inscription on any surface. Allows inscription without necessary materials. Quill will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
As you could see from the items Damien has chosen so far, he was not a direct combatant. He was a crafter. It was his passion, so he would follow it. After looking for a longer time, he found his last five items.
Name: Furnace Cauldron
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Crafting/Embryonic
Effects: Improves forging and alchemy greatly. Can nurture a flame if placed inside. Can refine items and corpses into their base forms. Can stop an occurring reaction or fusion at any time. Furnace Cauldron will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Name: Territory Core
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Territory/Embryonic
Effects: Transmute all essence within range into the owner's affinity. Attracts large amounts of essence. All beasts born within range automatically become the owner's. Has an internal space that the owner can access regardless of distance. Boost the owner and suppress enemies when in range. Core and territory will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Name: Flames
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Element/Embryonic
Effects: Under perfect control of the owner. Purifies and refines whatever the owner wants. Can affect anything. Flames will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Name: Fairy Bee Queen Egg
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Beast Companion/Embryonic
Effects: Will form a Fairy beehive where the queen and all her subjects will follow the owner. Queen and subjects can care for herbs, natural treasures, and beasts. Queen and her subjects will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Name: Sage's Book
Grade: Origin
Rank: 1
Type: Knowledge/Embryonic
Effects: The book will be stored at the center of the user's mind. Will give perfect recall of information. It boosts comprehension and can form and store Auspicious air. If information stored in the book is flawed, the book will automatically correct the mistakes. The Book will take on the properties of the owner after enough time.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
After gathering all the things he would need on his journey, he walked towards the door to leave the treasury. He had placed all the items he had chosen inside the Territory Core's space. After leaving the place he once more stood in front of the man who had teleported him here in the first place.
"Take me to my father," Damian said with a serious tone. Not know that his father had been in a fold of space watching him this entire time.
"Young Master Damian, your father is a very busy man. Surely he wouldn't have the time for a simple goodbye." The man said with a straight face, as though what he just said wasn't total bullshit.
"Look, I don't know which one of my siblings or relatives you work for and honestly, I don't care. I'm already leaving and that should be enough to remove the sticks that have been up their asses for as long as I've known them, so unless you want me to call this whole thing off. You will take me to my father. Otherwise, you'll have to explain to your masters why you were the one who made the greatest threat in their eyes in the heir wars, me, stay." Damian said with a sharp tone, one that carried an oddly intimidating sort of majesty. Which scared the man for a second until he remembered that he was a Rank 6 tier 5 expert while Damien was still Rank 0. He was too surprised by something to get embarrassed.
'He's not talking as though he has lost or given up. He is going to a lower level world, at a maximum of low tier from what we could gather. I would say that it's just baseless pride but he's too smart for that. I should probably report this later.' The man thought a bit more about it but couldn't come up with anything. Ultimately deciding to leave the matter to the higher-ups. Although he had thought about the topic a lot, not even a second had passed since Damian had said it because of how fast the minds of Rank 6 experts worked.
"I don't know what you are talking about. I am simply worried about you wasting the Lord's valuable time. Nevertheless, if you are insistent on meeting him I only request that you make it quick." He said, continuing the act. He teleported Damian to his father's residence in the next moment.
Once outside his father's house, he immediately rushed inside. The gates automatically opened for him as he came near. Once inside, he went straight to his father's study. Going through the halls with great familiarity he quickly arrived finding his father, who had gone at super sonic speeds to arrive at the study before him and to appear as though he had always been there, inside.
His father was Zackary Sapentia, the current clan leader, and the living legend called The Star-Lord. His father looked like a middle-aged bodybuilder, with some streaks of gray in his black hair, and brown eyes. He was wearing what seemed to be a simple white robe but only the higher-ups knew how high-grade it truly was.
"Why did it have to be this way." His father said with a bit of regret and sadness. "Is it wrong for a man to care for his child?" He sighed seeming to age a few years with those words.
Hearing those words, Damien's mind recalled all that happened since he was young. His mother had died giving birth to him, so it had always been just him and his father. Although his father had many wives and children, they were all results of political marriages from when he was younger. Yet his mother was the only one his father married for love, which was why everyone else considered him a major threat when the Heir Wars eventually started. Being doted on by his father for his entire life didn't help their worries.
Any major clan worth its salt decided its next Clan Leader by Heir War. The geniuses of the younger generation would compete against each other in talent, strength, and by building their own factions. Considering they are all from the same clan and many of them were children of his father resulting in them having an even starting point. So, you can imagine their panic when they noticed how favored Damian was. He had even inherited a mutated evolved form of his mother's aura eyes. This worried them because Aura Eyes are already ranked 10 on the special eye list.
Back to the story, their worries only intensified as Damian was revealed to be a genius with an eidetic memory. Eventually, he became 10 years old and was due to be tested. Only once someone was at least 10 years old could their souls and bodies be developed enough to have their ability and affinities tested, then at age 16 could they start going to the next rank. When his ability was tested, it was revealed to be an aura sense and manipulation ability. Although it was the clan's first time hearing of an aura manipulation ability, they weren't too surprised because they have seen aura concealment abilities before and just considered this a variation of them.
But when they tested his affinities and realized that he only had one never seen before affinity. The way to test affinities was by placing your hand on a type of testing stone designed for this purpose. It would display them via colored light with color showing the affinity and the light intensity showing how high of an affinity you had in it. So, when the stone displayed a single sovereign level affinity in a never seen before goldish-orange color element. It's safe to say that they were VERY surprised.
That surprise was due to two things. First, is the fact that he had a never seen before affinity. One could simply say that it was extremely rare and they simply hadn't heard of it, but they were a family that has existed for far too long for that to be the case. Not only that but the Sapentia family was known for their libraries and wide array of knowledge. Secondly, was his level of affinity. He had a sovereign grade affinity which meant that he was a sovereign of this element. A Sovereign of an element had the highest possible affinity in the element they were assigned to and they had special abilities related to the element that no one else has. It has to be remembered that not just any element can have a sovereign. They have to at least be at the same level of light and darkness or higher. In fact, his father was a Star Sovereign.
After considering his ability, eyes, and some ancient texts they concluded that he was an Aura Sovereign. What that entailed? They had no idea. They didn't even know if there was Aura Essence in existence for him to cultivate with, to begin with. So because of all that matters regarding were handled with a lot of air.
The thing that calmed them was that Damian didn't seem to be impressive. He spent most of his time studying and doing research. Things continued like that for a few years. Until when he turned 14 he announced that he would leave for another world at the age of 16. This had not only given many forces a relief, but it also relieved his father from a lot of pressure he was facing from the rest of the clan.
Capitalizing on this his father also added that because Damian was leaving alone and wouldn't rely on the clan's resources he could choose 8 treasures from the treasury. Caught up in their joy they agreed, not noticing the wordplay Damian's father had done.
Usually, when someone is given access to the treasury, they have restrictions like only choosing at a certain grade and below or only being able to choose one origin grade treasure. Damien took full advantage of this to not only get origin-grade treasures but embryonic ones.
Origin grade was the highest grade for anything, but embryonic meant that the treasure grew with the owner and slowly became more suited towards the owner. Almost every legendary alchemy cauldron had once been a weak embryonic cauldron but gradually grew with the owner to become what it is now and they weren't even origin grade. So you can imagine how valuable these types of treasures were.
Removing his mind from the memories of the past, he focused once more on saying goodbye to his father.
"I can't apologize enough for the troubles that I've brought you my entire life so all I can do is thank you," Damien said with all seriousness. He planned to say more but he was interrupted when his father pulled him into a bear hug.
"You’re speaking as though this is the last time we're seeing each other. You better come back to visit and if you die out there I will find you and I will whoop your ass." His father said with all seriousness. Instead of commenting on the clear logic gap in his father's statement, Damien just nodded. They spent the next few minutes just sitting and drinking tea in silence.
It was finally time for Damien to leave. Before he could fully leave, his father handed him two things. The first was an emerald crystal which was known as a information gem, a type of dream element gem that can store large amounts of information. He could easily tell from its aura that it was the most valuable kind which could hold entire libraries of information. The second was a one-time-use storage gem. They could hold items and creatures for an indefinite amount of time. Time wouldn't pass inside the crystal so everything is pulled out in the same state it was in when stored. The downside of it is that after releasing everything inside the gem crumbles to dust.
"Here you go." His father said while handing him the objects. "I took the liberty to store a copy of the entirety of our central library's contents. I also put all of your experimentation stuff inside the storage gem. Remember, it is one-time use so make sure the area you're in is where you plan to settle down." Not giving Damian a chance to respond, his father pushed him out of the room. After waiting a second, Damian's father followed his son to watch him leave.
Having said goodbye to his father, Damien walked up to the man who teleported and just nodded. The man teleported them with glee. In the next second, they were inside a large room filled with a lot of people. Most of them were going into and out of portals that were on the wall. Instead of going into one of the portals most people were using, he walked toward a portal that absolutely no one was using.
"I want to go to planet 4-5-10(Planet Codes=Current Power Ceiling- Size- Estimated Resource level) at these coordinates," Damien said to the man handling the portal before giving him a slip of paper with the coordinates on it. The man looked at the paper, preparing to put in the coordinates but stopped when he realized something.
"Umm, Young Master. Are you sure these coordinates are correct? That planetary code would take you to a planet that hasn't joined the cosmos yet. If I teleport you there, the planet will interfere with the teleportation since you're not a native of it. Which will result in your death."
"I know and so does my father, so just do your job and stop asking questions. I have my ways of dealing with the interference. And to ease your mind, even if I die you will not be held accountable." Despite all that Damian said the man (BTW if you're wondering why I keep referring to most people as man or guy, it's because Damian never bothered learning their names) operating the portal still hesitated. He took a look at the guy who has been teleporting Damian around.
Only after receiving a nod of confirmation, did he put in the coordinates and open the portal. Damian walked up to the portal and just stood in front of it for a second. The others thought he was standing because he was reluctant to leave until they felt his aura change subtly.
"Wait! Young Master Damien! I don't think you should go!" He was reaching out to grab Damian to forcefully pull him back as he was saying this. He had finally realized what was wrong. The reason that most forces inside the clan were relieved that he was going to a lower world for two reasons. First, was the lack of resources. It was clear to anyone that higher-grade worlds had better resources. Even the simple concentration of essence in the air would be incomparable.
Second, was world suppression. Each world had its own will, so as a result when outsiders managed to enter the world it would treat them as diseases. It would suppress their strength, slow their cultivation, grant them bad luck, lower the talents of all the descendants they have for a couple of generations, and make all of its inhabitants have an instinctive feeling of disgust and hate towards outsiders. These changes subside greatly once a planet joins the cosmos.
All of this led to the glee of many people, as it essentially meant that his future was over. Now what the man realized when he felt the subtle change in Damian's aura was that they had forgotten two very basic pieces of information. That worlds distinguished between its inhabitants and outsiders through their auras. And who better to trick a planet than the Aura Sovereign?
Sadly for the man, before he could grab Damian, he was suppressed under an aura of a much higher grade. It belonged to Damian's father. What kind of father would he be if he didn't make sure his son arrived safely? Sparing one last look at his father before he left, Damian stepped through the portal.