Someone once told me you have to take the good with the bad and it’s true. Growing up in a castle sounds nice but it wasn’t so great for me. I was born to a noble family as the firstborn son to the viscount. This put certain expectations on me even from birth. Expectations I couldn’t meet.
In many people's eyes I was born cursed because I was born with an infernal affinity. I brought shame onto the house before I had even opened my eyes. The prince could not claim me as his heir, not with the stigma against necromancer from the last war but he loved my mother dearly and she wouldn’t not allow me to be taken from her so he agreed to raise me on the condition that the next child without an infernal affinity would become his heir
While not happy she accepted the deal and thus began my life. I did not see much of my father, not that I cared too. I was having so much fun with me everyday with my mother. She was the light of my world. She and I would watch the animals in the woods and would tell all about them. I guess you could say I got my interest in animals and beasts from her. She taught me to appreciate the beauty of nature and life. She was great in every way. Kind and sweet to everyone. She didn’t care about cultivation ranks or wealth . She just saw the good in people. I couldn’t imagine how my life could get better but then at round age 8 everything changed.
Mother became very ill. I didn’t know it back then but mom also had an infernal affinity but she refused to kill to grow stronger and so she was just a baseline human dying of age. As a child with no knowledge of cultivation, I had no real clue what was going on. I was scared, confused and angry. Finally my grandfather took me aside and told me things were going to change from here on out. He told me he was going to help make me strong so I could protect and take care of myself. I didn’t understand why I needed to do this but much later it became apparent.
The next day grandfather had me meet him at the stable. I could see his horses were laden down with a couple waterskins and I asked him if this would be a long journey which would explain the water. He looked at me with pity in his eyes and replied some of it is for the journey but that we were going on a special hunting trip. That confused me as I was still too weak to even fire a bow but I didn’t question him just loaded up. The journey took a couple of days and seemingly wasn't. I know now that might not have been true, being my grandpa the kings was an A ranked lightning mage. So could have easily taken down most threats before I was even aware. The whole time he told me about the different flora and their various effects. which I recorded in the journal I had gotten to study animals, maybe even beasts. I had tales of beasts but not yet seen one. Overall it was nice and reminded me of my mom.
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Eventually after a few days of riding we arrived at his cabin. A stone villa made by earth mages with standing contingent of royal guards. We took out stuff inside. Grandpa put down his stuff and plopped down into his chair sighing. He looked at me and motioned to the other chair. I sat down afraid of what might come next. He looked at me and asked” do you know that you have an infernal affinity”? “I do but I have no idea what this means” I responded thinking of all the time I was bullied for being born this way. He looked thoughtful before replying “ it is one of the six affinities from which people can cultivate.
He sighed at my blank expression upon hearing the word cultivate. “ Cultivation is complicated and a little hard to explain.” “Essentially it takes the energy of the universe to make yourself stronger” He paused as I raised my hand to ask if that was why he was so strong and didn’t look any older than my own father. He nodded . “ I used to cultivate from lightning because if I hadn't then I would have gotten corruption which would be very bad for me. It would have stopped me from becoming a mage or maybe even killed me if i had tried despite the corruption. “ He took a breath , obviously for dramatic effect.” Earth air wind and fire are pretty self explanatory. You cultivate near them to get the purest essence.” Infernal is different though. Infernal cultivators from the energy release when a living creature dies’ he paused seeing the look of horror on my face. “ I know this is the last thing you wanted to hear, I know you are kind hearted just like your mother but I need you to do this as a royal you will always be a target. So you need to be able to defend yourself.” He said as his face hardened with resolve as he pulled the water skins off the horse and told me to start drinking until I felt like I would puke. I did as he said while following him into the villa. Laying in the center of the floor was a tied up goat. I was pretty certain I knew where this was headed but I was sure when he turned and pressed a stone to my head.
Just like that I knew all I needed to know about cultivation and not just that but how to cultivate infernal essence. I felt sickened as some of the memories settled in becoming like my own and started to cry. I couldn’t handle the fact that my life would be endless death. But I remember my mother's last words before I left was to do what grandpa had said. So despite wanting to run as far and as fast i could i stayed put. Next he pulled out a beast core and handed it to me and said swallow it. I looked at him and the gem multiplied and replied isn’t that gonna hurt when it comes back out?'' He looked confused for a moment before laughing hysterically .”No No it is not pleasant but not in that fashion. Basically you swallow this and it sucks up all your corrupted essence at which I make you vomit and then you begin cultivation properly he said while pointing at the goat. I looked at the core in my hand. It was beautiful . I thought back to my mother’s words and swallowed it hoping I was making the right choice