Joy was born to high expectations. The Durand's had never produced an heir that wasn't extremely powerful, and with the war in the in Astexia going poorly, powerful soldiers were sorely needed. At first, everything seemed fine. At birth, a person would be checked at a System Terminal, and it would determine what power they were born with. Standard procedure, and Joy's parents were over the moon with the power she received. Minor Copy sounded versatile, the 'minor' in the name didn't concern them one bit, either. Most children were born with a weak version of the power they would later grow into, so what was there to worry about?

When in started to get concerning was on her eleventh birthday. By now most kid's powers would be at class 4, up from class 5, but hers hadn't budged an inch. Still, her parents had faith that her skill was just a late bloomer. Just last year, a kid's power had classed up at 14, so with that in mind, they gave her until 15 to class up. She didn't.

Growing up had been tough, no one outright said anything to her face, who would insult the heir of the Durand's to their face, after all? But behind her back, people talked. She was thought of as useless, a waste of space, a particularly bold child called her a future Scorned. The child that said that was never seen again, the Durand's were not a family you messed with. Joy, of course, could hear it all. She endured, assured that her blood would surpass them all soon enough, she had inherited her families noble pride in a big way, and had the utmost faith that she would pull through. Still, though, feelings of jealousy festered.

Her fifteenth birthday was a somber occasion. Her younger siblings had all already classed up with powerful abilities, and faith that she would make it was rock bottom. They waited until the clock struck 1:34pm, the time she was born, before facing reality. At this point, no one was surprised. Quite frankly, Joy was shocked that they waited this long. She could see the looks of derision from them every time she got up for school, and her siblings and peers were no better. She was just thankful that noble pride held out this long, because she could see what was going to happen from here, and it wasn't a pretty picture.

A week passed by in silence. Joy would have almost preferred that they yell and scream and proclaim their hatred, because the silent looks of disappointment and disgust were far worse. Eventually, they spoke to her.

"You have proven to be worthless to society, and you have disgraced this house with your presence. From here on, you have two options. Remain a member of this house, and fall to your own blade, or be disowned and sent to the Undercity."

"Father, please!"

"You have two days to decide, and if you make the... distasteful choice to live, you will no longer have the right to call me father. Uselessness I can tolerate, but a coward too? Unforgivable. Make the right choice."

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Joy woke to a throbbing headache. She had just finished 'celebrating' her fifth anniversary of coming to the shithole known as the Undercity last night, and it had taken a toll on her body. As usual, she spent it alone. Walking to work, she was largely ignored. People eyed her when they thought she wasn't looking, but that was about it. As if being of noble birth hadn't been enough trouble already, it marked her with violet hair and eyes. No one with a lick of sense would be caught dead getting involved with her. That made employment... difficult, but she had managed to find an antique tech shop to work at, and it paid pretty well. Pretty well for an Undercity job that is, it would be considered far below minimum wage on the surface, but as long as Scorned stayed out of the way, they were largely ignored by the surface dwellers.

Scorned... she still couldn't believe that she was marked as one now. Put on the same level as the animals that lived down here. The majority of them didn't even have a power, and ignoring how that was even possible, which the surface dwellers already did, that put them at a level so far below her that she was offended to even be compared. Then again, maybe they weren't so different. With a skill as terrible as hers, she may as well have been a low-born.

The pride that had gotten her through her days on the surface was a constant detriment down in the Undercity. Not a day went by that she didn't think about how much better she was than these people, but slowly, over the course of years, her pride had slowly begun to be eroded. She hated it. She couldn't ignore the fact that these things actually had it better than her! Sure, they may be low-born trash, but they didn't have anything to live up to, they didn't have greatness in their blood! And at least they had families that cared about them! What did she have? Nothing.

Maybe... maybe they weren't garbage masquerading as humans. Maybe she was. It was thoughts like these that had plagued her since she was plunged into this pit of despair and sorrow. This city sucked the life out of people, it made them doubt that they were human at all, after all, did humans live like this? You couldn't go half a block without seeing gang signs marking territory, and if you went for more than fifteen feet without walking into a bootleg distillery, she was pretty sure you got a prize. Not to mention the constant violence from said gangs. Of course, before arriving she had heard the rumors, but she thought that it couldn't possibly be that bad, they didn't even have magic. As it turns out, yes, it could be that bad.

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Cybernetic enhancements were cheap and easy to acquire, humanity had put a lot of effort into them before the System saved them from magic, apparently. After they were granted abilities, though, cybernetics research was rapidly defunded, and using them at all was considered taboo. No one cared down here, obviously.

"Joy, get over here!" Her boss shouted.

God, one of these things, was her superior. Maybe she should have fallen on her sword.

"I don't have all day! Finally! Take this damn trash out, it's been rotting here for weeks. I swear, if you didn't have constant supervision, this place would've fallen into ruin the day you got here!" He continued to grumble about high-blood laziness until joy finally got away with the trash. She was half convinced that the old bastard had hired her just to keep people from coming to his store, the way the man hated talking to anyone but himself.

*Smack*

A noise brought her out of her thoughts.

"So, low-born, you thought you could breathe the same air as me? You think that you deserve my precious oxygen? I think this peasant deserves to be punished, don't you, Bertram?" He said with a cruel lilt. He was enjoying every second of toying with the man.

"Of course, sir." He said without inflection.

"Wait, please! I-"

*Smack*

"Someone forgot their place again, didn't they? What right do you have to command your betters? Bertram, hold him down." He said in a sing-song voice.

Seeing this, Joy felt rage. Not at the violence directed at a random bystander, but at the sheer waste of time and effort. This man presumably had an extremely useful power, and this is what he's doing with it? Not being productive? Not proving himself better through action, but this? How was this fair? Why did the System see it fit to gift this, this, this buffoon a strong power but not her!

She thought back to every time she had been snubbed, someone getting an opportunity she deserved, that she had the right to, just because of an unlucky draw of fate. Maybe, if she were less blinded by pride and arrogance, she could see how being born without a power at all was comparable, but instead, she felt something snap.

A strange feeling enveloped her, and she could feel an urge to take from the man in front of her. All she had to do was pull. She didn't bother to think about what had happened, she just acted.

New Power! Spirit Vision, Profession/Magic, Class 4, progress to Class 3: 592/32,000

Allows the user to interface with System windows, allows the user to see mana and experience, gives mana and spirit vision.

Drawbacks: Migraine - Intense headaches with overuse. Low Skill - Barring evolution, the growth potential for this skill is limited.

Before she realized it, she had a new power. Wait, it let her see system windows? Then didn't that mean she could see her own skil-

Congratulation's, Your Power, Minor Copy, has evolved into Envy, Mythical Alignment: Demonic | Class: Null | progress to next Class Level: Null

Description: Allows the user to steal powers from those they envy, allows user to enhance said skills with experience, allows user to steal experience from those they deem lesser. Drawbacks: Ego - feelings of arrogance and superiority increase slightly with each use. Psychopathy - Decrease empathy and increase violent tendencies slightly with each use. +4 more drawbacks, would you like to wait until you are out of imminent danger to view Y/N