Returning back to the first few pages of the book, Valyr began to read through it once more, taking his time to commit every word written on the pages into memory. However, even though he already had an idea of what to expect from the book, that still did not stop the young man from making a few weird expressions after coming across a few passages.
At the beginning of the book, it laid out how the founder of the Zeihardt clan, who only went by the name Otto back then, was one of the first few people to revolt against the five ruling races and invoke a sense of courage into other people. Unfortunately, with how powerless the humans were during the Age of Darkness, there was only so much Otto could do, with his actions incurring him pain at most.
Yet, all of that changed once the system had awakened in everyone, giving all of the people, as well as Otto, a newfound sense of hope that they would truly be able to revolt against the ruling races and fight for their freedom. Feeling like the world was telling him that it was his time to shine, he immediately started to rally the humans in secret, concocting a plan that took a year before it came into fruition.
Of course, as he had read through a book on Veldanyr's history earlier, Valyr knew that this plan was a success, though he did find it interesting that the man named Otto was the one who started it all. 'Then again, the World Quest did mention about how the founder of the Zeihardt clan was the one who allowed the human race to be free.'
With that thought in mind, he soon wondered as to where Otto had gained the surname Zeihardt from, only for him to obtain his answer through the next pages, which tackled the first successful uprising of the human race against the five ruling races.
'With a great amount of sacrifice, Otto and the others were able to claim a piece of land for themselves through their own strength, establishing the first ever territory owned by the humans on Zaveigest.' Reading the passage in his mind, Valyr shifted his gaze onto the next sentence, his eyes slightly widening. 'As the leader of the entire operation, Otto suggested that every human free from the clutches of the five ruling races should have a surname to differentiate themselves.'
'Unsurprisingly, all of them agreed.'
'And with that, Otto had chosen the name Zeihardt, allowing the Zeihardt clan to be born.'
With Zeihardt as his surname, Otto and the others quickly expanded their offensive, allowing more and more humans to escape from the clutches of the five ruling races and expand their territory even further. At some point, the man had even fallen in love, which in turn birthed the second generation of the Zeihardt clan.
Slowly but surely, the presence of the Zeihardt clan gradually grew more and more prominent among the humans, with their surprisingly high level of strength being the thing that made them stand out from the rest. Naturally, with Otto being the leader of the Zeihardt clan, this unique quirk instilled a bit of fear into the humans and gave them the thought that he needed to be kept in check.
Though, with their fight for territory and freedom still continuing, the other humans knew better not to kill what they considered as the greatest asset humanity had during that age.
Of course, that did not stop others from attempting whenever an opportunity arose.
By the time the first system update had passed, introducing the concept of classes to every human on the continent, everyone's strengths had been reset to Level 1, including Otto Zeihardt. With that, some of the people around him gained the courage to try and kill him, only to end up failing miserably as the man still had more strength than them.
At first, the other humans looked at the sight in fear, wondering what was fueling the abnormal strength Otto had. Fortunately, with the passing of time, these people eventually obtained their answer.
Blood.
It was the man's blood.
They did not know which part of the man's blood caused the man's abnormal strength. However, they were incredibly certain that the blood was where Otto gained his strength in the first place, having the ability to fight for hours without tiring and having a higher regeneration rate compared to his peers.
The reason as to how the others got to this conclusion was through inspecting the future generations of the Zeihardt clan. From the first to fifth generation of the clan, all of the members of the clan showed a semblance of the abnormal strength Otto could wield in the battlefield.
However, from the sixth generation onwards, the number who showed just that grew less and less, with only the prestige the founder had accrued during the Age of Uprising being the only thing separating the members of the Zeihardt clan from the other humans.
In fact, by the time the seventh or eighth generation had arrived, almost everyone in the Zeihardt clan began to worship the founder of the clan in hopes of obtaining even traces of the strength he used to have in the battlefield. Though all of these prayers were left unanswered by the founder as he was busy helping the human race's territory expand even further, the world had given these members of the Zeihardt clan a response.
On one fateful day, a member of the Zeihardt clan from the younger generation had been born with the same abnormal strength as Otto had.
It did not take long for this news to spread through the entire clan, with everyone coming up with multiple names to refer to this special person. Of course, there were also those who yearned to be that person themselves, their minds thinking that killing them for their blood would be the right thing to do.
"And thus, from that moment onwards, the Zeihardt clan referred to these people as Heralds, beings who could tap into the abnormal strength the founder of the Zeihardt clan had shown to the world up until his departure from the world of Veldanyr." Muttering out the passage he was reading, a bitter smile gradually crept up on his face as he continued. "The appearance of a Herald would be marked with multiple major events happening during their birth, with only a total of six Heralds from the Zeihardt clan being found so far."
"The latest Herald of the clan is a young man named Valyr Zeihardt, son of Augustine and Emilia Zeihardt from the Zeihardt Royal Clan."
"As of the publishing of this book, his whereabouts are said to be unknown."
