MTL - The Only Favourite Ugly Husband - ~ 109. Business reopens

Anton is a great-grandfather. He is living quite a happy life, despite his advanced age and declining health… until a group of cultivator bandits moves into the area. The nearby guardians of the area, the Order of Ninety-Nine Stars, are unable to track them down as they continue to ravage nearby towns. During one desperate winter Anton is out on a hunt when his family- his entire village- is killed or taken as slaves by the bandits. He lacks the strength to fight them, and he wasn’t even present for their arrival to die with his loved ones. At the pit of his despair, he wonders if he ever had any chance to change things. What could he even do? He cannot even pull his best bow, and his eyesight is failing. If he had been a cultivator… perhaps there might have been a chance, but he was decades- perhaps even most of his life- too late.Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge (2022)Notes on cultivation levels:There are five general stages of cultivation, though the fifth is extremely rare. Each cultivation style might have their own name for the stages.1. Body Tempering2. Spirit Building/ occasionally System Creation (Ninety-Nine Stars)3. Constellation Formation (Ninety-Nine Stars)4. Life Transformation/Galaxy Construction (Ninety-Nine Stars)5. Ascension

This is a prequel to the anime movie To Aru Majutsu no Kinsho Mokuroku – Endymion no Kiseki.

Just before the completion of the Academy City space elevator “Endymion”, the main characters Kamijou Touma and Index encounter a level 0 girl named Arisa. The Magicians are after Arisa, and they attack Academy City. A female leader named Shattoaura leads a unit from Academy City against the attack. Kamijou and Index learn from Stiyl that Arisa is key to a brewing war between the sides of Magic and Science. When science and magic cross paths, the story begins with Endymion as its stage!

It was a time where demons roamed the earth and chaos reigned. The story took place in Luoyang, the legendary capital of the times. During the night, one could find people holding on to their food with dear lives as they faced off against stray dogs, people with weapons in hand vowing to fight against Fate to their very last breath. There was bloodshed everywhere as some died meaningless deaths, while the strong tyrannized the weak and the truth was frequently hidden. Some of the citizens had completely lost their mind, while some died on their travels. Most importantly, the words of a certain youth caused much panic in the human world. It was a time of little warmth as nights in the capital were frequently accompanied by gusts of wind and rain, and it would be covered with snow during winter. Such were the days…

- Description from Novelupdates

MC: Whoa there, hang on a sec! Don't say anything yet, let me first trick this stupid goddess into giving me more abilities!Some time later (and some psychological abuse)…Aqua: Okay, you win! Pick your skills! And fast!MC: Alright, check this out! I'm snagging〚World Traveling〛and〚Analyze and Copy〛! Sweet deal, right? Hahaha, I'm gonna be unstoppable!