Lightning at 30%, thunder 20, nature 15%, metal 10%, space 10%, strength 5%. Darius had six attributes so he was worried about what to do but his Master had told him not to worry.

First of course was lightning then the other elements in that order. The old man's physical guidance and practising on his own was helping him understand the basics of it. It was like learning a craft from scratch.

After strength was filled Darius wasn't sure what to put. The seventh ball was greedy, its AI crying and begging Darius for more spiritual essence. The pull became so strong that it started sucking power out of one's body.

"Oh no! He doesn't have a seventh attribute over 5%! He will die-"

The old man was running away until a wave of energy arose from Darius. Blood, death, intensity. The old man turned around and saw a blood-red mist being absorbed by the star.

Jena had much less of an understanding as this wasn't her speciality, but she knew that they had avoided something bad.

Darius stood up, the helmet changed into sunglasses. Using the Ai, he used the membrane to represent his uniform on the outside. His old uniform had already been absorbed by the Helmet's membrane.

Darius was actually most stunned of all. It felt like his insides were being pulled out, his life teetering on the edge. Then, overwhelmed by the desire to live, he triggered In Indomitable. But he had no energy, or so he thought. Bloodlust and the desire to kill swelled while his vision went red. He saw every death he had ever seen over and over again. In some of the dreams, he would just randomly attack whoever was near him no matter the dream.

Just when he was starting to lose his grip on reality, and blue energy pulsed in his body. This blue pulse was like a breath of fresh air. Darius regained control and snapped out of it. It was like being woken up the moment one was about to sleep by cold water from a bucket.

Darius' body shivered until he stabilized.

'This is becoming too much.'

Within the span of a few months, his body had transformed so much he could barely recognize himself anymore. Darius tried to control the stars but there was a problem. The 7th ball, the one that absorbed the blood mist, couldn't be accessed. At all. There was a force field like energy blocking Darius from accessing it.

'Or maybe it's keeping it in? What the heck is that red stuff that came out of me? And the blue pulse…'

Darius was well aware that he was not like other people, that's the way he often isolated himself. Even as a child, Darius possessed tremendous strength. At first, he was normal, but from the time he was six, he was becoming inhuman.

When he was 10, he had already lost the ability to get tired from labour. He could hold his breath for an hour. He could take a beating and had an incredible EQ for a child, which gave rise to his situational awareness

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Darius' father, was a swordsman turned lumberjack. His mother seemed to know spiritual fire arts. Cheap ones that any beginner cultivator can use. As he grew up he also noticed something off. His parents were more like co-employees.

Darius doesn't remember a show of love between them at all. They acted like machines. Apparently, Darius' little sister had a talent for fire spiritual arts, so she would spend most of the day with her mother. There was a decent school, after all, they had some technology for communication and the internet, They were just on a very small scale.

Darius education was taken care of by his father while their mother doted on their daughter. Darius was jealous, but it was not his sisters' fault. At home in private, she would call him useless and a waste of time quite often.

It was almost as if Darius had done something to her. His sister, Amy always received a warm motherly gaze. But when their mother, Charlotte turned her eyes to Darius, they would be ice cold.

That's all he ever wanted, to be called a good boy or to be told that he was loved. His father said his actions showed his love while his mother didn't give a squat.

Darius had been to other families, they weren't as weird as his. There was love and warmth. But his parents, it wasn't just his mother.

Darius had no idea what his father's name was. Everyone just called him chief. Charlotte called him husband while the children called him dad. How is it possible to live with someone and not know their name? What was even weirder was that the whole village took it as being normal.

Darius would spend most of the day with his father. His father was actually quite the skilled swordsman, felling multiple trees with a stroke. But the duo would get home at 5 pm every day, with Darius dragging the trees behind him. He could easily drag 4 fully grown pine trees by the time he was 8. The woodwork was fast, so what took them so long?

Darius' lessons!

Aside from teaching him elementary knowledge, the father was also teaching him odd things. For example, when Darius turned seven his father taught him an odd way of breathing. Learning it was painful. But remembering Amy playing with hot embers like toys made him resolve himself.

'Maybe dad is teaching me some amazing stuff. Maybe we aren't just ordinary villagers!'

3 years later Darius had mastered the breathing method to the point that he could breathe that way if he wanted to 24/7. But his father strictly warned him never to show that breath to his mother.

His dad had taught a lot of odd things. But the most important was how to control his strength. Countless cups had been crushed in the past. Kids were even afraid of high fiving him because the last person to do that had their wrist dislocated.

He was also taught many exercises. And knowledge, like astronomy, psychology and martial arts. Darius was only taught three moves. A straight, an uppercut and a roundhouse kick. He had to practice only these exact moves to perfection. Darius' hopes rose once more, until the day the truth came out. He was ordered to fight his sister. Darius found it absurd but he was already out in seconds. It was then that he noticed something was off.

Amy was learning swordsmanship from their mother and she was incredibly skilled. Not only that, but she attacked him without hesitation at the order. That's when Darius suddenly had a thought.

'Am I just here to be her training dummy?'

Rumours of families sacrificing the happiness of their other children to increase the chances of producing a spirit knight were always buzzing around. Such children were called placeholders.

But placeholders came from huge rich families, not a tiny village family like his. So what was going on here? The next day was the day Darius decided to confront his parents at the dinner table. It was also the day, the village was attacked…