Prologue: Dante Black and the Grimoire of Beasts

Imperio Ferres imperial capital.

A boy of 8 years old, black hair tousled and very dirty, crimson red eyes, brown skin, slim body, dirty clothes, holes and rolled up sleeves, cloth shoes with holes. This young man's name was Dante Black walking while eating an apple in the slums. 

Dante, for as long as he has been rationally aware of himself, had been in an orphanage of the religion of the goddess of the sacred light. One of the most influential religions internationally for offering social services such as medical, purification of fields and above all the force of order and security the order of the sacred knights. 

Dante lived under this indoctrination until he was 5 years old, when he was almost defiled by one of his parents who wanted to take away all his sins by using his crotch in its darkest areas. Dante took a knife castrating him and in the process bleeding him to death. The pedophile father was going to damage the reputation of the church and the orphanage and in addition to hushing up the case they were going to silence Dante to avoid damaging their public image and for killing the father.

Dante escaped from the orphanage and was left on the streets of the slums of the capital. Dante was an intelligent and diligent child who learned to read, write, basic mathematics, and liked to learn from books before leaving the orphanage. 

Dante knowing that he had a rather attractive appearance facially, he filled himself with a lot of dirt to cover it up, he did different little jobs between promoting small stores in the markets, delivering products and gaining favor with some people in the market avoiding as much as possible theft. He certainly got blood on his hands when some pedophiles wanted to give him love in his darkest places, thieves tried to rob him and kidnappers who knows where to send him for money.

Dante had some knives in his clothes that he learned to throw as a hobby to hunt some rats, stray dogs and cats to feed himself in times of need and self-defense against adults who would look down and despise the threat that a child could pose to them as easy prey.

Dante's life has been primarily one of self-sufficiency and survival between jobs, avoiding dangers, sleeping in certain strategic safe spots, and above all a hobby he has maintained since the orphanage is reading, as he attended a slum library every day possible.

The slum library was staffed by an old woman in her 70's who collected abandoned books that people threw away in the best places in the city. Dante had been visiting the library for about 3 years without finding a single book, new or in perfect condition. However, his grandmother was always keeping new books and novels.

Dante applied to the hobby several hours a day, it was something that helped him not to think about his daily situation quite precarious, misfortunes he was going through, enjoying reading good novels that took him to a different reality or enjoy learning new things that would allow him to earn more money and allow him to survive.

Among his favorite books were all those related to divine energy and divine users known publicly as divine hunters.

The divine users or divine hunters were the 1/10,000 beings who awakened the sensitivity or awareness to the divine energy, an energy that is found in everything and everyone. That allows its users through training and development of its manipulation to become superior beings improving their physical capabilities, longevity, youth, scope of manipulation of the same.

Divine hunters were able to awaken divine abilities focused on attack, defense, support, speed or control that allowed them greater powers and combat skills against their opponents who are mostly divine beasts, divine monsters, demons or other hunters.

Divine hunters in the society were beings that if they had a lot of talent, skills, outstanding abilities in their profession as a fighter, they were able to attract the attention of the government and many private organizations facilitating them to obtain a lot of wealth, status, authority, fame or territories in exchange for their services. Gaining much admiration and the desire of many children to awaken such sensitivities and awareness of divine energy.

Dante like many children was one who desired to awaken his divine sensibilities to become a divine hunter, rather than for the benefits of wealth, status, authority, fame or territories by being a government dog or a tool of an organization. 

It was more for the sense of security, confidence, comfort that comes with the power to protect yourself regardless of the situation and should the case arise to protect your loved ones. After all, having a hard life as a street orphan, loneliness and many adult people he has encountered causing him problems. Dante hated to death the weakness, helplessness and misery that comes from being a weak person, that anyone can trample by being at the bottom of the food chain.

Dante, who lived his day to day life, received looks of disgust, repudiation, pity, contempt, disdain from people who were even in the same situation as he was, being poor and miserable from the slums. Just because he was weaker and incapable of them, they came to see him as an inferior guy. Dante totally hated his situation and wanted very much to change his lifestyle.

He has been deliberately trying to become totally sensitized to the divine energy, he has been trying with hours of meditation, abstaining from food, burying himself alive to feel the energy of the earth, eating raw meat, plants, praying to gods, training his body. He has been searching for all possible methods at his age and reading any book that appeared in the library hoping to find feasible methods to awaken as a hunter without success.

Dante was arriving at the library and found the old lady called Maria, she was a short, slim 70 year old lady pushing a cart with books. Maria, like Dante, was an elderly lady from the slums of the capital, widowed and childless, working in a small poor library for a few coins to barely eat. Maria had known Dante for 5 years and felt a certain level of affection as if she had a grandchild, because she always saw him every day and felt complex because she could not take care of him.

In the slums of the imperial capital Dante was one of many street children who were abandoned by their parents and survived in the alleys by stealing, begging and falling prey to predators such as kidnappers, pedophiles or murderers with nasty hobbies. It was an area where security and law and order were generally scarce or non-existent allowing shady and nasty organizations to thrive.

Maria who always saw Dante every day in the library reading novels or informational books learning knowledge for his survival and future training was very pleased to see him. Dante was a very sweet, intelligent, mature boy for his age, although he was inexpressive and of few words, he was still cute. 

-Did you find a good book hunt, Grandma Maria?

-Good afternoon my boy, I had good luck in finding books in good condition.

- Would you like me to help you organize them? Maybe I'll find one I like.

-Sure, I'd love to, I bought some fruit and I'll pay you back with it.

-I'd love to.

Maria pats Dante's head gently, handing him the bag she bought for the boy. Dante helped her with her work by cleaning the library, arranging books, and sometimes he would tend to the library while she was reading. Maria would take care of Dante if she could, because he was a very sweet and cute little boy.

Dante was reading through the titles of the books, taking in those that did not interest him and putting aside those that caught his attention. Generally the books focused on children's education and training, certain novels of heroic adventures, martial arts or divine themes. It was not uncommon to find sexual books, sexual novels. Since most of the patrons of the library came to get their fill of morbidity or certain mothers wanting to teach their children basic knowledge.

Dante curiously among the arrangement of books notices one covered in thick leather. Curious he opens it finding a book with a black diamond cover and a beautiful crimson gem in the center of about 30cmx30cm quite beautiful and precious as a work of art turned into a book.

-How beautiful, it is unbelievable that it had been thrown away, what is it about? - 

Dante curiously tried to open the book and a black hole absorbed his consciousness in the darkness. In the infinite darkness that he could not even see himself. Dante saw how his surroundings began to fill with crimson patterns similar to scales of a 10m thick sepertine body that was circulating until it ended in the head of a dragon with horns on top of its head, sharp teeth, wavy beams watching Dante closely, literally breathing in his face.

Dante observes that jet black dragon, intense crimson eyes, sharp claws, sharp teeth, a total sense of a beast that would be emperor or god among beasts, absolute dominance of power just by existing at the top of the food chain. Instead of absolute terror and fear.

-Beautiful...you are extremely beautiful," said Dante smiling trying to reach the dragon with his smiling hands partially embracing his nose. The dragon with his tongue licking his face and tickling him.

-You are quite a playful boy," said Dante smiling and laughing enjoying the experience happily.

The dragon looked into Dante's eyes full of admiration, happiness and fearlessness, both crossed their gazes and the dragon glowed black with crimson sticking his forehead to Dante's forehead. Dante woke up in reality seeing on the 1st page an illustration of the dragon with some information about it.

-Dragon of infernal tribulations-

Dragon of infernal tribulations. Rank: Bronze. Class: Diamond. Stars: 10.

Element: Darkness/Ray/Death Level: 1 (Symbiotic)

Abilities: Elemental body. Shadow devourer. Dragon Roar. Shadow mastery.

Dante takes a deep breath and watches as they slowly record before the graph with Dante's personal data.

Name: Dante Black. Age: 8 years old. Sex: Male. Race: Human.

Element: Darkness/Ray/Death. Rank: Bronze. Fatigue: 0.0%. Impurities: 98%.

Vitality: 1. Divine: 1. Spirit: 1. Strength: 1.

Constitution: 1. Speed: 1. Agility: 1. Accuracy: 1. 

Divine ability. Type. Class.

Unlimited vision. Support. Diamond.

Devourer of shadows 0/1. Control. Diamond.

Divine arts. Type. Mastery.

Symbiotic divine equipment. Type. Class.

Grimoire of divine beasts. Support. Diamond.

Dante began to slowly analyze the strange graphs obviating name, age, sex and race, touching the areas of the graphs receiving data from them.

Element consists of elemental affinity where fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, light, dark, death, sacred, metal, ice, plant. The higher the affinities with the respective elements, the greater the control, manipulation and resistance to that element.

Fatigue is the physical or mental exhaustion that accumulates in the body.

Impurities are negative physical or energetic energies that affect the performance of the body.

Vitality consists of natural regeneration, resistance to poisons or status effects.

Divine consists of divine energy stored in the body. 

Spirit consists of the energy capable of managing divine energy. 

Strength is the capacity for physical power.

Endurance is the capacity of physical endurance.

Constitution is the physical toughness.

Speed is the speed of movement.

Agility is the speed of reflexes.

Precision is the capacity of physical or energetic control of the body. 

Perception is the potential of the senses and extra senses of the body.

{Unlimited vision is an ability that allows you to see more than you can see you can not see as long as you have the divine fuel and spiritual energy to support it. Passively improved his agility, accuracy and perception stats +100%. The active consequences of it is that an abuse can cause headaches, fainting and even blindness in the worst cases.

{Shadow Devourer} It is an ability that allows him to devour the divine and spiritual energy of the target creating a shadow that allows him to use the enemy's divine abilities. Passively improved his abilities of absorption, assimilation, control of divine energy +100%. The active consequences of the ability is that if it devours more than it can handle the user can explode into pieces and obtain large amounts of impurities. 

Divine beast grimoires are a symbiotic equipment made by the highest elite dwarven races that allows to seal divine beasts with a mark of domination for taming and training. These grimoires only allow to generate blades capable of storing monsters every 10 of the user's spirit. As if that were not enough, these have an immortal beast and protector of the grimoire of beasts that will always protect the user who will always have a level similar to the user. If the user dies the book will disappear with the user.

-Ok... I awakened my divine powers. 

Dante took a few deep breaths thinking to save the book that could call the greed of the people. This book becomes a ray of light penetrating Dante's chest. Dante was stunned and thought about taking it out and it reappeared in front of him floating, he thought about putting it away and it naturally entered his body. Looking at the first page, curious, he thought of bringing the dragon.

-...Ok-

The book lit up releasing a small snake about 30cm long and 5cm thick, which on closer inspection was the dragon. The dragon entered Dante's body like a bolt of lightning straight to his chest. Dante touched his chest and unconsciously used {Limitless Vision} observing the dragon coiled in his sleeping soul and getting information.

This is a strange dragon or mutant. Born as a shadow serpent of death and darkness element with a very aggressive and berserker personality due to its natural elements it needs to draw large amounts of death and darkness energy to nourish itself and survive having to actively hunt monsters. 

As it eats monsters and gets bigger and stronger the amount of resources needed increases. This snake at one point reached a level where there were no monsters to satisfy it and it was dying. It tried to devour the energy of the rays to undergo a divine transformation receiving divine punishment from the heavens the "Divine Tribulations".

The serpents that came from their ancestors the dragons that are highly powerful, intelligent beasts with low numbers of pure blooded members and with a great capacity to reproduce with other races that inherit their blood creating variations through time. It is said that snakes can become dragons by awakening their ancient lineages through a divine transformation receiving divine punishments from the heavens "Divine Tribulations" with the risk of dying and not being able to reincarnate in the process.

The serpent was already going to die anyway and defied the divine transformation by receiving the "Divine Tribulations" barely surviving by becoming an infernal divine tribulations dragon that lives roaming the heavens devouring the divine energy of the "Divine Tribulations" and any high powered divine beast at its best.

-...You really are quite an impressive guy...

-Groo-

The story of the dragon in the grimoire, it was destroyed by a force of 10,000 warriors who sacrificed themselves to kill it over 10,000 years ago. They used the divine core containing the soul and divine energy of the dragon to form the grimoire with specialized dwarves to create beast grimoires. 

The dragon devoured all its users becoming a cursed book that passed through many brave devoured before being stored as a cursed book that was stolen and mobilized by different hands that died trying to be master. 

It was in the warehouse of a nobleman of the empire receiving dust for years, a maid cleaning books threw it in the trash with others, until it was found by the lady of the library that only took it accidentally without checking it when taking several books at once in the cart, before reaching the hands accepting it by pure whim to be tired of living prisoner.

-To think that I could die so easily and miserably because of my curiosity. 

He was limited his own level due to being an immortal grimoire beast that will die when Dante dies. It was a dragon with great destructive power but it wasn't one for long term combat. His body has a strange condition of being a spiritual and elemental creature that will die if it runs out of divine energy. In this sense, it remained in a state of rest in the body absorbing divine energy from the environment. If he dies he will return to the grimoire until he regains his divine energy to summon it respectively.

Dante after calming down mentally recovering his composure, verified that he was not being watched and returned directly to arrange books, taking some to read while eating bananas until the store was closed. Dante said goodbye to Grandma Maria who went on her way and Dante arrived on the roof of the library where he has a makeshift house of recycled wood, cardboard inside with a bed of used sports mattresses, bottles of water, some supplies and a small table, plates and cutlery, outside some drums with water that he uses for drinking and bathing.

Dante cleaned off all the dirt with the buckets and looked like a young man with brown skin, quite attractive facially, his body was slim and had all the muscles of his body perfectly marked. Since Dante trained several hours every day his body to gain strength, flexibility and speed to fight or run away from the evil people he encountered every day. Dante lay down with a change of clothes smiling.

-I have become a hunter.