Hidden high above the world, nestled in the dreaded Mountains of Desolation, was a town no map dared to mark. Shrouded in fog and fear, it remained untouched by the Three kingdoms not because it was forgotten, but because the monsters that roamed its cliffs were better left undisturbed.
In a village surrounded by powerful people, deep in the heart of nothingness, a grand celebration was taking place. For the first time, the town's leader was expecting a child. On the final day the day of the child's birth a festival was held. Everyone in the village gathered to witness the moment.
A scream tore through the night like a blade, silencing laughter and freezing the festival in place. Faces turned. The celebration died in an instant, and everyone who was close to that scream turned toward the tent the scream had come from. The village leader entered the tent. The woman, exhausted from the pain of childbirth, let out one final cry as she looked at the baby the doctor had just delivered from her. Slowly, she closed her eyes and fell into a peaceful sleep.
The village leader looked at his wife, then at the child. He gently took the baby into his arms. The doctor bowed his head as a sign of respect and asked,
"What would you like to name him?"
The village leader looked at the child and replied:
"From now on, his name shall be Alteus."
After that, the village chief handed Alteus back to the doctor and went to his wife's side.
When Alteus's subconscious mind fully awakened, he opened his eyes and saw the doctor standing over him. Realizing what was happening, he immediately began to fake cry.
The doctor noticed something strange about Alteus.
When Alteus suddenly stopped crying, the doctor looked into his eyes and began to feel uneasy. Something wasn't right.
Concerned, he went to speak with the village chief and asked:
"Chief, I believe your son may be suffering from a very dangerous illness. Would you allow me to examine him further?"
The village leader shrugged and replied:
"Fine, you can examine him but I don't care much about the result."
So the doctor took Alteus to the village's mage to examine him.
For a while, he carefully observed Alteus's complexion, eye color, behavior, and the marks in his body.
Then, he was suddenly shocked because the symptoms Alteus showed matched only one known terminal illness.
That illness was called Ankorias.
Ankorias caused a person to be born with blind eyes, and it severely limited their mana and stamina. In this world, people could normally raise their mana through training and overcoming challenges. But with Ankorias, one's maximum potential was five times lower than the average person's limit.
Even though Alteus wanted to speak, something was holding him back. This was because it was his fifth time being born into this world. He was tired of going through regression over and over again.
This time, he had made up his mind:
He would kill the one who cursed him no matter what.
But there was just one problem...
The one who cursed him was a God, and defeating Him would be the most difficult task of all.
The night had fallen. The stars were hidden behind thick clouds, and the celebration had faded into silence. The doctor stood outside the village leader's home, hesitating before knocking on the wooden door.
A few moments passed before the door creaked open. The chief, his eyes heavy with sleep, looked at the doctor and asked:
"What's the matter, doctor?"
The doctor replied with concern in his voice:
"Your son... he has a condition called Ankorias. This disease will make him blind and give him a weak body. It will severely limit his ability to grow stronger."
The village chief frowned slightly, then shrugged without much emotion:
"So what? He'll have to learn to survive and become strong anyway. If he can't, I'll exile him from the village and adopt another child to take his place as my heir. It's not like I care about blood ties like the royal families or the noble houses. In this world, only the fittest survive."
And with that, the chief closed the door and returned to sleep.
The doctor stood there in shock, looking down at the baby in his arms.
"Don't worry," he whispered. "He only said those things because he was tired... Don't take it to heart."
But Alteus, even as a baby, heard every word. And in his mind, a cold thought echoed:
"My family was never there for me in any of my five lives. Why would this one be any different?"
Nine years passed. And in that time, Alteus began his escape plan.
At just four months old, he learned how to speak. By nine months, he could walk. The village chief had been briefly impressed but that was a long time ago. Since then, Alteus had chosen to hide his talents. He knew that attention was dangerous.
In his second life, Alteus had made the mistake of openly displaying his abilities. As a result, the village chief began closely monitoring his every move a situation Alteus came to deeply regret. To keep his activities hidden from both the chief and his own family, he eventually discovered a hidden cave. Inside, the space felt cozy, almost like a medium sized room in a house, with rounded walls that gave it a peaceful atmosphere. Alteus began spending much of his time there, using the solitude to reflect, organize his thoughts, and plan his next steps in secret.
One day, an idea came to him:
What if he secretly started hiding money from his family?
That way, he could start preparing for his escape early.
In his third and fourth lives, he had escaped the village and knew what he would face. This time, he began planning early. Using memories from his past lives, he gathered everything he would need:
A sturdy sword, A wand, Mana stones, A blindfold, A cloak And light armor he could move in as a child.
Though his disease made him weaker than most, What he lacked in strength, he made up for in memories hard earned, bloody, and bitter. He remembered every death, every mistake. And knowledge, in this world, was sharper than any sword.
He spent his days secretly training in that same hidden cave a place no one in the village knew about. He carried in wood, scarecrows, a table, a chair and everything he needed to build his secret sanctuary. There, he trained eight hours every single day, sharpening both his body and mind he built up enough mana and stamina by the time he was ready.
Despite his blindness, he moved as naturally as a sighted person. He had lived 117 years in the same body before. Alteus had developed a unique trait: a sixth sense, born from his suffering and honed through years of regression. His memory was perfect. After all, if the world was cruel enough to curse him, why couldn't it at least grant him clarity?
Though he was blind, he moved as naturally as a sighted person. He had lived 117 years in the same body before. Sometimes, people refused to believe he was even blind. To convince them otherwise, Alteus often acted weak and helpless.
And yes he was weak...
But he lived in the Mountains of Desolation lands where even kingdoms feared to tread.
He was stronger than most knights. But his stamina and mana were far below even the average villager. So he trained both relentlessly to be at least decant.
In his third life, he had discovered a future where someone with Ankorias found a path to increase their mana. And in his fourth life, when he suffered near-death from exhaustion, he began to study stamina training even copying the secret techniques used by royal knights, noble houses, and mercenaries.
He combined all of their best parts, refining them into a method uniquely his own. He crafted a new technique, perfectly suited to his cursed body.
Now, at the age of two, Alteus was building strength in the shadows, beyond the eyes of the villagers and his uncaring father. In the darkness of the cave, he prepared for a future that only he could see. One where he would finally be free of the curse.
One where he would kill the god who cursed him.