This world was constructed on a foundation of profound unfairness. Some people were simply born more blessed than other people.
In this world, humans possessed an internal organ called a mana circle, and this organ allowed them to perform feats that were beyond the normal understanding of physics. It allowed them to become hunters.
The House of Lurius was a famous family that produced extremely talented hunters. For many generations, their bloodline was known for its powerful mana circles, a pure lineage without a single failure. In the entire, long history of the Lurius family, not one person was born without a mana circle.
However, Luthra was born.
He was the anomaly, the single defect in a history of perfection. He had ten older sisters and six older brothers, and every single one of them was a hunter of some renown.
When Luthra became sixteen years old, he was brought to the family's main hall for the final time. It was the day of his last mana circle aptitude test. He stood in front of the family's head mage, an old man who was hired for this specific purpose. The ceremonial crystal, a tool for measuring mana, was prepared.
His father, Alric Lurius, the head of the family, watched from a high-backed chair. He had a stern posture.
Luthra's sixteen siblings were also present, standing in a line along the wall. They were all looking at him.
The head mage took the crystal and spoke a sentence.
"Please remain still. I will now begin the final assessment."
The mage placed the smooth, transparent crystal on Luthra's chest. For a moment, there was only silence in the large hall. Everyone watched the crystal. A normal person's mana circle would cause the crystal to glow, with the brightness indicating its power.
Luthra's crystal did not glow. It remained as it was, a clear and inert stone.
The mage held the crystal on his chest for a full minute before he removed it. He turned to face Alric Lurius and bowed his head slightly.
"There is no reaction. There is no mistake this time. The boy possesses no mana circle."
Whispering started among his siblings immediately.
"It's true, then. A complete defective."
"Tch. How embarrassing for our house."
"He's trash. He was always trash."
Luthra kept his eyes on the floor. 'Ah, so it's really true. I really am empty.'
He clenched his fists at his sides, but his face did not change. It was not a surprise. He had been tested many times before, and the result was always the same. He just had a small hope that today would be different.
His oldest brother, a man known for his fire-type powers, stepped forward.
"Father. This is an unacceptable disgrace. We have tolerated his presence for sixteen years, but now the truth is confirmed. The House of Lurius cannot have a dud in its direct line."
Alric Lurius raised a single hand, and the whispering stopped. He looked at Luthra, but his eyes were like he was looking at an object, not a person.
"Luthra. Come to my study."
He followed his father out of the main hall, walking several paces behind him. He could feel the stares of his brothers and sisters on his back. None of them looked sad. Most looked annoyed, and a few seemed pleased.
He did not look back at them, there was no point.
His father's study was a simple room with a large wooden desk and shelves full of books about monster ecology and mana theory. Alric sat down behind the desk, not bothering to tell Luthra to sit.
"The report from the mage is absolute. You are without a mana circle."
Luthra nodded his head. There was nothing to say.
"The name of Lurius is built upon the foundation of power and talent. It is our legacy and our pride. You do not possess the qualifications to carry this name."
'I know. It's my fault for being born this way.' He looked at his father's hands, which were resting on the desk. They were the hands of a powerful hunter, covered in old scars.
"As of this moment, you are disowned from the House of Lurius. You are no longer my son."
The words were plain. They were not delivered with anger, but with a flat finality, like a business transaction.
"You will pack a single bag with your personal belongings. You will be given a small amount of money to survive for a month. After that, you are on your own. You are forbidden from ever using the Lurius name or speaking of your connection to this family. If you do, there will be consequences. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Father."
"Do not call me that again. Now, leave my sight."
He bowed low, turned around, and walked out of the study, closing the door quietly behind him. He did not feel anger at his father, or at the world. He only felt a deep sense of self-blame.
'It's because I am weak. It is only natural that I am thrown away. Useless things are always discarded.'
He went to his room, which was the smallest one in the vast Lurius estate. It was a simple room, almost like a servant's quarters. He had one small bag, and he put his few sets of plain clothes into it. He had no treasures, no keepsakes from his family.
He was never given any.
When he opened his door to leave, his oldest brother was standing there, leaning against the opposite wall with his arms crossed.
"Hey, trash. I see you're finally taking yourself out."
Luthra did not respond. He just started walking down the hallway.
He pushed off the wall and fell into step beside him.
"You should be grateful. You got to live in luxury for sixteen years, eating our family's food. A worthless parasite like you. Now you're going to the gutter where you belong. Don't ever let us see your face again."
Luthra continued walking toward the main gate. He passed servants who quickly looked away, pretending not to see him. He passed by the training grounds where his younger siblings were practicing their mana skills, their hands glowing with different colored energies. They stopped to watch him go, their expressions showing zero care.
He reached the giant iron gates of the estate. The guards, who had known him since he was a child, opened them without a word. Not even bothering to meet his eyes.
He stepped outside. The gate closed behind him with a heavy, final sound. He stood on the road for a moment, then looked back at the grand mansion one last time.
'This is for the best. I was just a stain here. Now, the stain is gone.'
He did not blame them. He did not blame the universe for his fate. It was a simple equation. He was born without value, so he was assigned a value of zero. It was his own fault for not having a mana circle. It was his own failure. He turned his back on the estate and started walking down the road, with no destination in mind.
---
Five years passed.
Luthra was now twenty-one years old. In those five years, he had never once felt sorry for himself. The self-blame he felt on the day he was disowned had not transformed into despair, but into a cold, logical resolve.
If the world decided his worth based on a mana circle he did not have, that was a rule he could not change. But he decided to build his own value using a different method. If he could not train his mana, he would train his body.
He would train it until it surpassed the limits of what was considered humanly possible. He would become so strong that the lack of a mana circle would become irrelevant.
His daily life became a simple, brutal routine.
He woke up at 4:30 AM every day.
First was the run, 100 miles, every day. Rain, snow, or heat, it did not matter.
Next was the bodyweight training. 50,000 push-ups. 50,000 sit-ups. 50,000 squats. He did not do them all at once, but in sets throughout the day, in between his work.
He worked multiple part-time jobs. Construction sites, moving companies, dishwasher at a cheap restaurant. Any job that required hard physical labor. The jobs paid little, but they were also a form of training.
He lived in a tiny, cramped apartment in the city's poorest district. It had one room, a small bathroom, and no kitchen. He ate cheap protein bars, boiled eggs, and chicken breast that he cooked on a small portable stove.
All of his money went to food and rent.
He sat on the floor of his small room, his legs crossed. For a moment, he attempted to concentrate, to feel for the mana circle that was not inside his body. It was a pointless exercise he had performed every day for five years.
'Still nothing. Obviously.'
There was no magical awakening. There was never going to be one.
In those five years, he had learned a great deal about the world he was now a part of. He learned about how real hunters were ranked and categorized.
The system was simple. Hunters were placed in ranks from F to SSSS. F was the absolute weakest, while SSSS-rankers were considered living legends, beings that could destroy entire nations. But within each of those lettered ranks, there were ten smaller levels. An F-1 hunter, for example, was far weaker than an F-3 hunter. The gap between an F-1 and an F-10 was immense.
'Even an F-1 hunter is a superhuman. What the hell am I?'
He clenched his fist. His knuckles were thick and covered in calluses.
'I'm just a normal guy.'
His cheap phone, lying on the floor, suddenly buzzed violently. A red alert flashed across its cracked screen. It was a city-wide emergency broadcast.
[EMERGENCY ALERT: UNEXPECTED GATE APPEARANCE IN THE OMAFO REGION!]
[GATE RANK IS UNCONFIRMED. ESTIMATED TO BE E-RANK OR HIGHER.]
[MONSTER OUTBREAK IMMINENT. ALL RESIDENTSMUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY.]
Luthra stared at the screen.
'Omafo? That's right here!'
A moment later, the sound began. A low, vibrating hum that seemed to come from everywhere at once, followed by the distant sound of screaming. The old building he lived in trembled slightly.
'An E-Rank gate… that's not a big deal for the city's main forces. But for a place like this? The response will be slow. They'll write this area off as a loss to contain the damage.'
He already knew the procedure. The Hunter Association would build a perimeter miles away from the gate. They would save the important areas first. The slums? They were expendable. Help would not arrive here for hours, if at all.
He stood up and walked to the corner of his room. Lying on the floor was a massive long chain.
'Going out there is suicide.'
He walked to his only window and looked down at the street. People were running in every direction, a panicked mob.
'They will all die at this rate.'
Then he saw them.
Small, green-skinned creatures with crude wooden clubs were running through the streets. Killing people left and right, the whole scene was brutal.
'So, those are monsters, goblins.'
It was the first time in his twenty-one years of life he saw a real monster. He thought he should be scared. He was a person without a mana circle, a normal person. Normal people were supposed to run away from monsters.
'But… am I really normal?'
For five years, he had done 100-mile runs, 50,000 push-ups, 50,000 sit-ups, and 50,000 squats, every single day. He pushed his body far past what should be possible for a human. The result of that training was something he had never tested against a real enemy before.
'This is a perfect opportunity. An E-Rank gate. The weakest kind of monster.'
He felt a strange excitement, not fear. It was the feeling of an exam that he had been studying for, for a very long time.
'What's the point of all that training if I just run away and die in some other alley? It is better to test my strength here and now.'
He turned away from the window and walked to the corner of the room and picked up the heavy industrial chain. Each link was the size of his fist. He began to wrap it methodically around his right arm, from the shoulder down to his wrist, and he left about ten feet of length free at the end.
It was like he was putting on armor and a weapon at the same time.
He then ran out of his room, not bothering to lock the door. He ran down the rickety stairs of the apartment building and burst out onto the street.
A goblin saw him immediately and screeched, raising its club. It was about ten feet away. It was a simple creature, so it charged straight at him.
He watched it come straight at him. seriously? It's soo slow.'
He did not move from his spot. As the goblin swung its club down at his head, he just swung his right arm. The ten feet of loose chain flew out like a whip, and the end of the chain smashed into the goblin's head.
There was a wet crunching sound. The goblin's head completely imploded, and its body collapsed into a heap on the ground.
'Ah, it's weaker than I thought.'
Two more goblins noticed their companion's death and charged at him, one from the front and one from the side.
The one in front swung its club, and he ducked under the swing. At the same time, he swung the chain horizontally. The chain wrapped completely around the second goblin's waist. He pulled his arm back hard. The goblin flew off its feet and slammed into the first goblin, and both of them tumbled to the ground in a heap.
Before they could get up, he stomped down with his foot. His foot landed on the head of one goblin, and it crushed its skull. He then swung the chain downwards like a hammer, and the end of it caved in the chest of the second one.
'It seems this is going to be easy.'
More goblins were coming. A group of five this time. They were smarter and tried to surround him.
"Kiii!"
"Grek! Kill human!"
They spoke in a broken language.
He just smiled a little.
'This is more like it. Real training.'
He uncoiled more of the chain from his arm. He started swinging it in a wide circle around his body, and it created a large, dangerous zone. The goblins hesitated, not wanting to get close to the spinning metal.
One of them threw a rock. Luthra simply tilted his head, and the rock flew past his ear.
'Good idea.'
He stopped swinging the chain. He whipped it forward, and it wrapped around the ankle of the goblin that threw the rock. He yanked it, pulling the goblin off its feet and dragging it toward him through the dirt.
As the goblin slid towards him, he kicked it upwards into the air. While it was airborne, he swung his chain like a baseball bat and hit the flying goblin.
The goblin flew like a cannonball and smashed into two of the other goblins, and they were knocked over like bowling pins.
Only two were left standing now. They looked at him, then at each other, and then they turned around and started to run away.
'You are not getting away.'
He flicked his wrist. The chain shot out like a spear. The end of it went straight through the back of one running goblin and came out its chest. He pulled his arm back, and the chain came free as the goblin fell.
For the last one, he decided to do something different. He ran. He was much faster than the goblin, and he caught up to it in two steps. He grabbed the back of its head with his left hand, and did not stop running. He slammed its face into a nearby brick wall as he ran past it. The goblin's head left a green smear on the wall.
He stopped and looked around. The area immediately around him was clear. In the distance, there was still screaming, and he could see more of the small green monsters.
'Test was a success. My physical strength is definitely above peak human.'
But he knew this was only the beginning. These were just goblins, the weakest of the weak. The emergency alert said the gate was E-Rank or higher. That meant there could be something much worse than goblins.
'I should look for survivors. Getting them to safety is the logical next step.'
He re-wrapped the chain around his arm and started moving deeper into the chaotic streets. The feeling was not heroism, it was pragmatism. This was his neighborhood now. He did not want it to be completely destroyed.
It would be an inconvenience for him.