I have lived in this world for seven years now, though my knowledge is limited for that amount of time. I was born to a declining merchant family of some island nation. Due to the fact that I was an adult in the mind of a baby, my parents thought me to be a fussy, willful, and, more notably, useless infant. I do not know if it was from desperation or thinking I was more trouble than I was worth (perhaps a mix of both), I was donated to the church, gaining my family, or former family, a slight bit of favor.

My new name is simply Nicolas, last names are forbidden within the church. I have a short and thin frame on account of poor nutrition and my stats. My hair is of a chestnut color and the purple irises of my eyes have a thin ring of a lighter purple. I thought this to be a unique attribute of myself however found myself disappointed by the fact that seems to be a trait that is widely shared by humans of this world, eyes of odd colors with one or two rings of lighter color. Due to the relative neglect of myself by my handlers, my hair has grown to my shoulders (though I do not mind the length).

I was transported to a holy order to be raised into a loyal servant of the church. This holy order is stationed in the stormy Hlokk Sea, with ever changing currents due to the unstable mana that darts around in the depths. A holy order was placed in this uninviting place as the sea is what separates the Petbian Theocracy, which the order serves, and the "traitorous and heretical" Valent Empire. Both states are locked in endless conflict, with neither taking supremacy.

Both these states are led by heroes. Upon them slaying your run-of-the-mill demon lord some centuries ago, they broke into his ever vast treasury. There they found potions of immortality and gained just that upon their consumption along with the companions of the individual heroes. They seem to have had a falling out. The continent of Ozymand, the primary landmass of Luvitov (wrapping around the world), was split in four spheres of influence: the sword hero to the west, the archer hero to the south, the healer hero to the east, and the mage hero to the north. The sword and healer hero took their spheres of influence a step forward by forming them into nation-states, the Valent Empire and Petbian Theocracy. As the relationship between these two heroes is the worst between the heroes, they naturally came to blows. As they were of equal match to each other on their own, they brought their new subjects into their grudge. This conflict has dragged on to this day, with the bloody stalemate never ending.

There are multitudes of races, including but not limited to: traditional tolken races, generic anime races like beastmen, bugmen, and aquatic races. Although they are not equal in proportion on the island. For example, there are plenty of elves while dwarves are in short supply. There are only one or two belonging to aquatic races despite being on an island.

The Petbian Theocracy are worshipers of the goddess Zemyna, the earth mother. The most notable of their tenets are their disgust of undead and reincarnators (seeing them as haunted corpses) which made me sweat a bit at first. However, my rock-bottom stats and lack of any sort of innate skills or talents has cleared me of any sort of suspicion, which is the comforting albeit a bit depressing silver lining of my mistake back then.

The church seems to have a strong ethos of letting the children they adopt choose their own fate in a sense. Those who end up lack luster end up as one in the masses of cannon fodder known as the crusader army. They perform the brunt of military operations and their lives are extremely cheap in the eyes of higher-ups. To be a crusader is to be given two choices: to die under mounds of undead or torn apart by the magic of the Valentians. Those who are deemed better than most will have their lives be protected, or at least have their worth be considered. Those acknowledged will be assigned to the occupation they best fit, or loosely fit in the case of shortage of that particular job.

With this in mind, I have pursued the profession of "inquisitor." They act as secret police, spies, and inspectors all rolled into one for the church. To fulfill this duty, they are given unprecedented independence, only adhering to the inquisition's administration and the pope himself, the healer hero. Plus, they are paid handsomely. Other occupations have to deal with complex hierarchies and are under eternal surveillance, making the inquisition very much appealing by comparison. inquisitors must be of sound body and mind as well as able to put on a mask with an undying loyalty to the church. Since the acolytes (what we adopted are called) are raised to hide nothing, the ability to put on a face is a rare one. Thus, there is a demand for them.

At the age of seven, we are allowed to roam the island and hunt monsters to raise our levels though the monsters are not defenseless. To let children face monsters that could kill them seems negligent, but the church justifies it citing the law of nature and survival of the fittest. That if they cannot face these monsters, then they should act as stepping stones for stronger life.

Moving to more the fundamentals of the world, stats are split between six categories. The first three are strength, dexterity, and toughness. The last three are stamina, agility, and a particularly special stat, mana capacity. All of them can be trained through physical means like exercise or meditation (albeit a slow method) or allocating points to them upon level-up. Mana capacity is the exception to this. It cannot be artificially increased and is usually an inherited stat from your parents. The average stats for someone just born is around ten in all categories and those around my age have stats around thirty in each except for their mana capacity.

Skills are not an exact science. It is not fully understood how they work, just that certain actions can lead to gaining and then leveling up a skill. Mages and scholars alike commit their lives trying in vain to get a concrete basis for how skills decide to do processes like evolving or combining.

My current status read as follows:

Personal info -

Name: Nicolas

Level: 1

Race: Human

Occupation: Child servant

Stats -

Strength: 1

Dexterity: 4

Toughness: 1

Stamina: 2

Agility: 1

Mana: 1

Skills -

Cleaning (lvl 6) - Farming (lvl 2)

Titles -

Unlucky - Clumsy

I managed to raise my dexterity and stamina by getting some skills though cleaning and farm work on the island (you do not know how much I suffered in this). The titles were there from the start when it was first checked when I was a baby. It seems someone had quite a laugh at my misfortune.

Even if I am disadvantaged, I will not give up. My dream is to live how I want to despite how much this world frowns upon that. I will escape from this dreadful island. I will explore this world. I will live unchained.