2026-05-20 05:30:41Knox woke up alone in the common dorm with his wrist still aching from Tremor Palm. His palm felt numb, his fingers were slow to close, and his legs were still sore from the recent fights and mission. He checked his condition.
[Recovery Status] Mana: 34/55 Physical Strain: Lower Body Fatigue — Mild Right Wrist Backlash — Active Mana Channels — Slightly Irritated Recommendation: Avoid repeated skill activation. Ignis was still sleeping close to him, his legs twitching once like he was trying to use Burst Step in his sleep. Knox did not wake him. He understood they were both tired and that challenging anyone today would be stupid. He decided today was for rest, food, and recovery. Ignis woke up minutes later, hungry. Knox pulled out a beast feed pellet from his pouch and handed it to him. Ignis sniffed it suspiciously and made a disgusted face through the bond. “The rabbit tasted better,” Ignis complained. Knox was annoyed because the feed cost him silver. “Then make your own money and buy yourself better food.” Ignis lifted his head proudly. “I made you who you are right now.” Knox felt betrayed. “Low blow.” Ignis stared at him for a moment, and Knox felt irritation pour in through the bond. “Pervert,” Ignis muttered. Knox went still. “Where did you learn that?” Ignis blinked. “From you.” Knox had no response to that. After Ignis finished eating, Knox prepared to leave the dorm. His wrist still ached, his mana had not fully recovered, and Ignis was still tired, but staying inside all day would only make him think too much. He only wanted to eat, recover mana, avoid challenges, and let Ignis rest. Knox left the dorm with Ignis on his shoulder. But to his dismay, the academy students immediately started staring. The whispers were not the real problem. The staring was. Everywhere Knox passed, people looked at Ignis first, then him. Some were looking amused for some reason, some curious, and some were cautious now because of what happened with Venn. Knox kept walking, but the attention irritated him. Marcus Varen stepped into his path with his Stonejaw Wolf beside him. “Well, well,” Marcus said. “The fallen Aston still walks around like he matters.” Knox looked at him. “Morales.” Marcus smirked. “Changing the name does not change the blood.” Knox stared at him properly now as he assessed him in his mind. Marcus Varen. Stonejaw Wolf. Class B suitability result. Strong bite output. Decent command control. That made Marcus worse in Knox’s eyes because his beast was never the problem. His arrogance was. Then Marcus mocked Ignis again. “But who knows, maybe your gecko will evolve into a slightly bigger gecko.” Knox stopped walking. He was sore, tired, low on patience, and done being the academy’s entertainment. Knox did not shout. He instead looked Marcus in the eye. “I understand what this is really about,” Knox said calmly. Marcus tilted his head. “Do you?” “You cannot touch Noah,” Knox said. “So you bark at me instead.” The courtyard quieted. The insult landed because Marcus stiffened. “If your problem is with House Aston, go challenge the darn heir,” Knox said, gritting his teeth. Marcus had no answer. Knox nodded. “That is what I thought.” Knox had done his research after Marcus kept baiting him. Marcus Varen was not just another loud student with too much pride. He came from House Varen, a family that had spent years standing under House Aston’s shadow. They were not poor, and they were not powerless, but they were never important enough to stand beside the real noble houses. That was the kind of thing that bred resentment. Marcus had enough backing to look down on common students, but not enough status to challenge the people above him. His Stonejaw Wolf was decent too. But then there was Noah. Noah Aston had an Elite-rank Frost Wyvern, Duke Magnus’s favor, and the kind of attention Marcus could never force people to give him. Marcus could hate Noah all he wanted, but he could not touch him. Not directly, without risking humiliation. So he turned to Knox instead. A fallen Aston. Disowned, mocked and alone. At first, Knox thought Marcus only wanted an easy target, but now he knows why, or at least suspected why. Marcus did not just hate Knox because he looked weak. He hated Knox because even as a failure, Knox still mattered. The students were still staring, and Knox finally lost patience. “Are all of you really that jobless? Is there a secret class teaching you how to stare at me all day?” The courtyard went quiet. Knox started pointing. He pointed at a boy with a mushroom-looking summon. “Why is no one staring at him?” The boy went red. Knox pointed at another student with a stone-feather chicken-like beast. “Or her beast.” Then Knox pointed at a thin girl near the back with a slug-like summon. “You should focus on her instead. What the hell is with you all!?” A few students tried to hold it in. Someone snorted. Then another and soon enough the courtyard finally broke into laughter. Knox should have felt satisfied, but when the girl lowered her head, guilt pressed against his chest. He had meant to hit the crowd. Not someone who already looked like she had been mocked too many times. Before the laughter fully died down, a serious voice cut through the courtyard. “Do you think this is funny?” Knox turned and saw a broad-shouldered student near the edge of the crowd. His uniform was clean but worn at the cuffs, like he had been using the same set for too long. His face was calm, but his eyes were hard. The student spoke. “Some of us have ridiculous summons and still fight every day to keep our place.” He looked briefly at the girl with the slug-like summon, then turned back to Knox. “Do not turn all of us into your joke just because the academy made you one.” For once, Knox had no quick reply. The student left. Only after he was gone did someone whisper, “Rellan Voss. Rank 452.” After the courtyard incident, Knox finally got away. He ate, drank water, let Ignis rest, and avoided using any big movement skill. His mana slowly improved, but his wrist was still strained. Later, he checked his condition again. Mana: 42/55 Right Wrist Backlash: Active Condition: Improving Slowly Knox then pulled up the new skill window. Skill: Tremor Palm — Incomplete Current Proficiency: 1% Effect: Sends a weak internal vibration through direct palm contact. Current Use: Can briefly disturb balance, breathing rhythm, or mana flow. Limitations: • Requires physical contact • High mana cost • Weak against armor or thick hides • Backlash damages Knox’s wrist and forearm if used carelessly Knox studied the description carefully. The skill was not a killing move. It was not even a proper attack yet. It was an opening-maker. If he landed it at the right moment, he could disturb an opponent for one breath. One breath was enough to dodge, counter, or make Ignis strike. Knox lightly placed his palm against a wooden table and tried to feel the vibration pattern without releasing it fully. The moment he tried to push mana into his wrist, pain shot up his forearm. The system warned him. [Warning] Right Wrist Backlash Detected. Repeated activation may worsen mana-channel irritation. Knox immediately stopped. He was not stupid. He understood Tremor Palm could help him climb, but if he forced it now, he might damage the same hand he needed to fight. Knox closed his eyes briefly and decided he would not issue an offensive challenge today. He needed his body to recover properly first. But Rellan’s words remained in his head. If Knox climbed, someone else fell. That would not stop him, but it made him understand the ranking board differently. Knox looked at the ranking board from a distance. Academy Rank: 487 He still needed Top 300. But now he understood he was not the only weak student under pressure.
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Chapter 80 — The Last Breath Before The Quake
The Vorul moved before the last word left him.WHUMP. It crossed the marsh in a single low rush, so fast the mud barely kicked up under it, and Knox's body dropped its own weight and threw itself sideways before his mind had caught up with any of it.[Weight Sync Activated.] [Mana: 121/200 → 116/200.]He twisted. Too slow. The claws that had been aimed at his throat missed it by a finger, then raked down across his shoulder and over his upper ribs, and his academy coat opened in four lines. The blood was running warm under the cloth before the pain even reached him.Knox stumbled back. His eyes were still catching up to where the thing had been, not where it was. It had crossed ten feet of marsh and opened him up and he'd never once seen it clearly. His breath came late and ragged, and that scared him worse than the speed had.The Vorul watched him figure it out."You are quick," it said. It sounded almost pleased. "Quicker than the little ones should be. But you cannot read my move
Chapter 79 — The Flare Above The Marsh
THWACK.Knox's knife caught nothing but air.He spun toward the sound, braced for Rellan's hammer catching the arm, the shell guard holding the line.Rellan was still standing.That was the first thing Knox saw, and for half a breath he was confused because Rellan was on his feet, upright, facing the Vorul the way he'd been a moment ago. Knox face suddenly changed.The shield guard that should have been between them hung open in two broken halves in the mud. The Gravelshell Tortoise lay sprawled beside it, legs still twitching. And Rellan was standing because the Vorul's arm was holding him up, buried to the wrist in his chest.He stood still swaying slightly."No—no, no, no—" Marcus screamed it and kept screaming it, going backward through the mud on his hands, not even trying to stand, the word breaking apart high and raw until he ran out of air, dragged in another breath, and started over.The Vorul pulled its arm free.SCHLUCK. It came out slick and dark to the elbow, a rope of
Chapter 78 — The One-Spike
Cold.That was the first thing, before the shock even caught up. A cold that came off the mist and settled into the back of Knox's throat, wrong for the marsh, wrong for the hour. He was staring at Calder's head in the mud, at the man who'd been threatening him with the board a breath ago, and the air over the whole path had changed. The insects had stopped. The water had stopped moving. Even the reeds held still, like the marsh itself had decided to stop drawing attention to itself.The fear came down on all of them at once.It wasn't the fear of a beast. Knox had felt that already today, the boar, the rats, the clean animal jolt of something wanting to eat you. This was under that. Deeper and colder and uglier, the kind that started in the body before the mind caught up, every part of him quietly certain that whatever stood in the mist was not supposed to be here and that being near it was already a mistake.Calder's body folded down into the water behind him.Orven made a small,
Chapter 77 — Still Growling
The marsh went dead quiet after the splash.Nobody wanted to be the first to move. The mist sat low over the black water, the scratched route stone glowed weak behind them, and the rats lay open in the mud where they’d been cut, cores already gone.Then Ignis growled.It came up out of his chest low and locked, smoke slipping between his teeth, his claws spreading wide and pushing furrows into the mud.Knox felt the bond pull tight, and he knew the sound was wrong before he could say why. He’d heard Ignis angry. He’d heard him smug and hungry and insulted and territorial. He had never once heard him sound like this.“We should stop,” Knox said, breaking the silence. “Reassess the route.”Calder sniffed. “We’re barely past the outer line. Stronger beasts don’t wander this close to the forward camp, and whatever’s splashing around out there is well inside Grade-C tolerance.” He let it sit. “The point of a field assessment is to meet beasts, Morales. Not to flinch every time the water m
Chapter 76 — First Blood in Greyfen
The camp noise died behind them one step at a time.By the third route stone Knox couldn't hear the dock chains anymore, just wet leaves dripping, insects, something calling far off in the trees, and the slow suck of boots pulling out of marsh mud. The Eastern Marsh Line ran along a string of dull blue route stones half-sunk in the ground, and the mist sat thick enough that each one looked farther off than the last until you were almost on top of it.Calder walked at the back."Let's be clear before we're in it," he said. "This isn't an escort which means that I am not here to pull you out of trouble.”He paused. “I watch, I write things down, and if something's actually about to kill one of you, I'll step in then and not before. Otherwise you handle it." He started placing them without slowing down. "Marcus takes front. Rellan, you're middle. Kessa, you've got supply and the core log. Orven, eyes on the markers. Morales—" a beat, "—rear-left."Knox's jaw set. He pulled his pack up
Chapter 75 — Eastern Marsh Line
The howl rolled out of the treeline and kept rolling, low and long, and the mist over the camp shivered with it. The ward crystals on the corner poles buzzed, a thin rising hum, then went quiet again.The students stopped unloading. Heads came up all down the line, eyes wide, and even Knox felt something cold walk up the back of his neck before he could tell it not to.Calder laughed, short and dry. "That's Greyfen saying good morning. You'll hear worse before dark. Keep moving."Bram drifted in at Knox's shoulder. "Marsh Stalker. That's what made that. Big one, by the throat on it." He said it casually.Knox gave him a flat look."What? You think I just talk?" Bram looked genuinely wounded. "My brother's a senior. He sat me down and grilled me on every ugly thing in this zone before I left. I'm the only provisional here who actually knows what's trying to eat him." He sniffed. "You're welcome, in advance."Knox blinked. Somewhere under the noise of the last week he'd never once stopp
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