Anthony appeared in his seclusion room and looked at his clone, who simply slept, and he couldn't help but laugh.
He deactivated the skill and the clone disappeared, then he went straight and opened the seclusion door.
The guards at the door, guarding him, greeted, "Good afternoon, young master, how was your seclusion?" they asked.
"It was okay," he replied. With his All Seeing Eyes he could see more about the guards now than before; he could tell they were happy. Then he looked around and found the mana pattern of his parents, and then simply teleported to their door.
He knocked on the door and waited for a while, then the door opened on its own, and he entered.
"Anthony, you are back," his father said, smiling at his talented son, then frowned when he saw the mana rank of his son. Before he could say anything, his wife directly appeared in front of him and asked worriedly, "Anthony, what happened, your rank didn't improve, are you injured?" she was truly worried.
He smiled and replied, "I am fine, Mom. During my training I comprehended a magic skill that helps me conceal my rank, that's why you can't sense it." He immediately revealed a D+ rank aura and his parents sighed in relief.
"You really are my little monster, aren't you?" his father said. He replied, "I could have gone higher, but that would damage my foundation; also, I was practicing magic and sword, so I couldn't cultivate all the time." His father and mother were happy for their son's intelligence on balance.
But suddenly the atmosphere shifted.
"Since you have increased your rank, there are things you have to know as you will soon be sent out into the world," his father said with a stern face; his mother frowned too.
Then he started speaking, "I'm sure you already know the existence of demons and the monsters we fight daily, so I won't be speaking on it, but I will be talking about something else not in the library you read."
"Something else?" Anthony asked.
"The Forsaken Cult," his mother said.
Anthony didn't know what the Forsaken Cult was, so he just listened.
"They are people of a different race who have sided with the demons to help bring the world down. They have been around for 2 million years now; there were some cults before them, but we always managed to uproot them, but after you wipe them out, another group appears, they are just endless like the demons," his father said.
"They mainly do assassination, killing and stealing, and try to bring down powerhouses, killing growing and budding talents, trafficking, kidnapping, enslaving children, and adding them to their ranks," his mother said.
"Do you know why I'm telling you all this?" asked his father, who waited for his son's reply.
Anthony thought and said, "To be careful, never trust anyone, never drop my guard."
"Good! I'm happy to see my son understands. There is no mercy on the battlefield, Anthony; once you delay for a split second, you are dead, never pause your sword, never halt your magic, always push through."
"I once had a friend, well, a best friend at that, whom I trusted with my life. For 70 years we went through it all together, but we never bowed our heads; we came back alive and on top each time. But I was betrayed; it turns out that he was with the Forsaken Cult from the very beginning, and his job was to get close to me, build trust. The day he betrayed me, we both fought to death and died on the battlefield after I killed all his companions who came together to kill me. We all died that day."
Anthony's mind went blank; he thought, "Father died?" before he could speak.
His father continued, "But your grandmother saved me and brought me back to life. Father arrived on time and took my body to Mom, which she used a skill to bring me back to life. Father warned me, as I am here warning you, but I didn't listen and paid for it with my life."
"That's how the rumors of Mom possessing a skill that can bring back the dead began, but she denied it all. As time passed, people didn't believe it, but no one can truly answer."
"In essence, don't trust anyone who isn't bound by a mana contract that has no loophole or family; do not pay the price like me."
Anthony fell into deep thought; he already guessed that people would side with the demons.
It was natural, as there was no way demons would invade for 7 million years and people didn't follow them.
That was impossible, but he didn't expect his father's story.
His best friend spent 70 years on a mission; he couldn't even understand this concept of time, as in his previous life 70 years was already an excessively long time.
At the end, he only looked at his father and said with a bow, "I will not disappoint the patriarch."
This was the first time he referred to his father as the patriarch, and that was because this was a serious moment; he had to answer on the occasion.
His parents smiled and asked him about his training, which he answered with all questions answered, and they still stuffed resources like potions into his storage ring, which he always transferred to his inventory.
He went back to his room, calmed his mind, and started thinking about his next course of action.
He planned to take it easy, but it seemed the game was set to abysmal mode right from the beginning.
He knew that for the demons to survive 7 million years till now, they are more than just cockroaches. He sighed but looked determined.
Then he thought, "I am already A rank, I wonder if I can find who cursed me."
Then he sat down and activated his skill Omniscient, trying to see who cursed him.
His eyes moved and looked down at the world from a bird's-eye view, then he went straight for the information he wanted.
He saw a blurry existence in a coffin emitting a thick dark aura which seemed to surpass the SSS rank; he didn't know the rank, but it's surely above it.
He knew what that dark aura was, "Chaos", attributes of the demons and those who sold their soul to them for more power.
He tried to see it clearly, but his mana rank was still too low to use the authority to its full usage, then he deactivated the skill; he sighed, already expecting this.
Then it clicked in his mind to use the All Seeing Eyes.
He activated the All Seeing Eyes and gazed into the past, watching it from a third-person view, and saw it, the same person and coffin.
It was someone from the human race who was part of the Forsaken Cult; then the person's information entered his mind, and then he deactivated the skill.
It turns out the person who cursed him is suffering from the backlash and is in deep slumber; he sealed himself so it wouldn't affect him more.
But the question remains: why was he cursed? He can't just get cursed out of nowhere.
Then he activated the All Seeing Eyes again and looked further into the past, gazing back to when the man even had the idea to curse.
There he saw it all: it was the same man who sent his father's best friend to his father's side to gain trust.
After the mission failed and his father survived but the best friend died, the man wanted revenge.
It turns out he raised his father's best friend like a son; he didn't make him sell his soul, so his so-called son could still use mana like a normal person and gain his father's trust.
(This is practically how the Forsaken do it, not all of them sell their soul so they can still use normal mana and be able to infiltrate places openly.)
So he cursed him a week after his birth, after the man got news; then 10 years later, he received a backlash from the curse, his lifespan was rapidly declining, so he used another ancient rank artifact like the curse to seal himself away, to preserve his life.
Anthony was bamboozled; it turns out the man behind the scenes of his father's death was still alive all these while and no one knew.
Anthony's gaze turned cold,
'You better stay in that coffin and wait for me, I will be there to collect what's mine' he said in his mind, then he slept off.