2025-09-14 15:27:12The wilderness was merciless.
Arin stumbled through a tangle of thorn-bushes. His breath ragged and his ribs ached from another close encounter. His clothes were torn and streaked with blood. The moon hung cold above him. Silver light poured over a land teeming with beasts.
Every direction was like death itself
Yet, the system would not let him stop.
“Ding! Survival Quest Update.
Objective: Endure wilderness trial, Shelter, food, water secured within 24 hours.
Time Remaining: 2 hours, 17 minutes.
Penalty: –10 years lifespan.”
Arin’s pulse hammered. He had secured water from a muddy stream, but food and shelter? He had seen nothing. His stomach clawed at itself in hunger.
If he failed and if the timer struck zero, he would lose years of his life in an instant.
He staggered onward. Growls echoed in the distance. Every rustle of leaves whispered in the darkness.
“Is this how they expect me to die?” he muttered, clutching his mother’s cloth at his wrist.
The night deepened, getting colder by the hour. His body shook and his vision blurred.
“Ding! Passive Quest Triggered.
Objective: Endure cold until dawn without fire.
Reward: Frost Resistance +1.
Penalty: –3 years lifespan.”
He bit back a curse. ‘Fire?’ He had no flint and no tinder. The system was merciless. If he failed, it would take away his life span piece by piece.
But it was also the only reason he was still alive.
A yellow rustle gleamed in the dark.
Arin turned just as a spirit-beast leapt from the undergrowth. It was a wolf with its fur lined with frost and fangs like shards of ice.
“Ding! Combat Trial Initiated.
Objective: Survive encounter with Ice Wolf.
Reward: Minor Meridian Repair Fragment.
Penalty: –5 years lifespan.”
The beast moved.
Arin ducked. He rolled through the leaves with his fists trembling. He clenched them letting out the dragon Vein Fist he had practiced until his bones screamed. The system pulsed in his vision.
“Now!” His fist lashed out.
The wolf’s jaw cracked sideways. It howled, staggering back. Arin staggered too, gasping. His body screamed in pain. But he stood gallantly.
The system chimed coldly.
“Quest Complete.
Reward: Minor Meridian Repair Fragment Acquired.”
The glow pulsed faintly in his chest. But he had no strength left. His knees buckled.
He collapsed near a frozen ravine. The bitter wind gnawed at him. Darkness pressed in.
The wolves closed in. A pack this time around. Their breath misted and their growls rumbled. Arin’s arms hung limp at his sides. He could barely raise his head.
When suddenly, a flurry of snow and a glint of light fill up the atmosphere.
“Frost Petal Bloom.”
The air cracked with frost. Shards of ice burst from the ground, spearing through two wolves instantly. The rest yelped, retreating into the dark.
Arin blinked with surprise wondering who owned that power.
A girl stood above him. She was pale with hair flowing like snow in moonlight. Her eyes were as cold as glaciers. She wore traveling leathers and white fur lining her cloak. Her palm shimmered with a frost qi.
She looked down at him with disdain. “Pathetic. You’ll die out here if you keep stumbling like this.”
Arin coughed. His body was trembling. “Then… Why save me?”
Her gaze lingered on him, sharp and curious. “Because you didn’t beg for it. Most people like you beg.”
She pulled him to his feet with surprising strength.
“I am Lyra Frostwind,” she said curtly. “And you?”
“Arin,” he rasped. “Arin Darkveil.”
Her brow twitched. Recognition flickered in her eyes. “The crippled boy cast out by his clan?”
His jaw tightened. The title cut deeper than any wound. “That’s what they call me.” He replied coldly.
Lyra studied him for a long moment. Her expression was unreadable. Then she turned away. “You won’t last a week out here at this pace and If you slow me down, I’ll leave you.”
Arin narrowed his eyes. “And yet you haven’t left me now.”
Her lips curved faintly. Not a smile, it was more like amusement. “Consider this a test.”
As they walked, the system chimed again.
“Ding! Co-op Quest Generated.
Objective: Form a temporary alliance with Lyra Frostwind.
Reward: Double Experience Bonus for Co-op Battles.
Penalty: –7 years lifespan if alliance fails prematurely.”
Arin almost stumbled. ‘An alliance quest? The system had never offered that before. Did it… recognize her?’ He thought in his head.
Lyra glanced at him sharply, as if she had noticed the faint glow in his eyes when the system window appeared. “What is that light?”
He froze. “It’s nothing,” he said quickly.
Her gaze lingered, icy and probing, but she didn’t press. Instead, she drew her blade and frost qi moved along its edge. “If you want to survive, prove it. A beast’s lair lies near. Help me kill it or we will die trying.”
The lair was a cavern built with ice. Growls echoed from within it. A mid-tier beast, an Icefang Boar emerged. Its tusks glowed with frosted qi and steam billowed from its maw.
Arin’s chest tightened. He had never faced something this strong.
“Ding! Co-op Combat Quest Initiated.
Objective: Defeat the Icefang Boar with Lyra.
Reward: Major Meridian Repair Fragment, Combat Skill Enhancement.
Penalty: –12 years lifespan if failed.”
The beast charged almost immediately. The ground cracked.
Lyra’s frost qi surged, creating icy spikes that slowed the boar. “Strike its flank!” she commanded.
Arin’s fists trembled. He inhaled, letting the system’s words flash before his eyes. His body moved as ducked, pivoted and strike!
Dragon Vein Fist roared from his arm. His blow landed against the beast’s ribs, cracking its bone. The boar howled, thrashing wildly. Lyra seized the opening, frost blade slicing across its throat.
The beast collapsed, blood steaming against ice.
“Ding! Quest Complete.
Reward: Major Meridian Repair Fragment Acquired. Dragon Vein Fist — Proficiency +20%.”
Arin staggered back, gasping. His chest glow warmly as the fragment melded with his meridians.
He felt it, the chains within him loosening. Qi flowed smoother than ever before. His crippled meridians, long broken, were repairing piece by piece.
Lyra eyed him. And her curiosity deepened. “A cripple couldn’t have moved like that. Who exactly are you, Arin Darkveil?”
He wiped blood from his lip, meeting her gaze steadily. “Someone who refuses to die.”
Lyra wasn’t a friend but she wasn’t a mocker either. She fought beside him, trusted him for a moment, and didn’t sneer when he stood his ground. Instead the believed in him at every stance.
The warmth of victory burned brighter than the cold wilderness.
“Maybe…” he whispered, clutching his mother’s cloth, “maybe trust isn’t entirely lost.”
As they prepared to leave the beast’s lair, Lyra’s expression hardened.
“Be on guard,” she said quietly.
Arin frowned. “Why?”
Her eyes narrowed, scanning the treeline. “Stormfang hunters are in this region. I overheard them earlier. They’re asking about someone.”
She met his gaze, her tone hardened.
“A boy the heavens cursed. A fate-defying anomaly.” Arin’s blood ran cold after he heard.
The system chimed mercilessly.
“Ding! Warning: External Hostiles Approaching. New Threat Level Detected.”
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
THE TURNING OF VARYN
The Darkveil was no longer merely collapsing.It was turning against itself.What had begun as internal fractures—whispers, hesitation, disobedience—had now erupted into open bloodshed. District banners burned without orders. Sigil-wards misfired, devouring their own casters. Streets once held together by fear dissolved into chaos where belief had failed.And at the center of it all—Nyx and Sereth stood amid the ruin of their own calculations.The battle had grown violent beyond expectation.Not against Arin.Against themselves.Darkveil soldiers clashed in uncoordinated formations, some still loyal to the Conclave, others refusing to obey commands they no longer believed in. The air shimmered with broken invocations—spells half-formed, collapsing before completion, their backlash tearing into the minds of those who dared speak them.Nyx turned sharply toward Sereth, blood streaking his ceremonial armor, his composure finally cracking.“You caused this,” he snarled. “You are the reas
Arin's returned the spell of war Tor the Darkveil's
The tremors spreading through Darkveil were no longer subtle.They moved through the realm like a sickness with memory—through stone and sigil, through prayer halls and bloodlines. The ground no longer shook as it once had in ancient wars. Instead, it hesitated. Walls groaned before standing still. Fires flickered without wind. Even the gold-veined towers of the Inner Circle bent slightly inward, as if listening.The Darkveil had discovered a truth they could no longer outrun.They could not defeat Arin.The Inner Conclave assembled beneath the Black Canopy—a dome grown from crystallized SYSTEM residue and ancestral bone, suspended over a pit that descended into nothing visible. This was where decisions were once declared eternal.Tonight, it felt like a grave that had not yet closed.The elders stood in a broken circle. No one took the central dais.No one wanted to stand where authority had begun to rot.Whispers crawled along the edges of the chamber, collapsing into silence whenev
Arin's identity revealed with reward
The dead zone breathed around them like a wounded thing.Static drifted in slow waves across the fractured architecture, light bending where it should not, shadows pooling where there was no source to cast them. Here, the SYSTEM’s sight faltered, its omnipresent awareness reduced to fragments and echoes. Time itself seemed reluctant to move forward, stretching moments thin, compressing others until memory blurred at the edges.“I am strongly behind you,” Lyra said again, her voice steady, grounding. She stepped closer, her presence a quiet defiance against the void pressing in. “You have been my courage in this journey. Without you, the strength… the war… none of it could be achieved so easily.”Arin stood still, eyes fixed on nothing and everything. When he spoke, it was softer than Lyra expected, but edged with something sharp beneath.“And as for the enemies—” He shook his head once, slowly. “They will cease to draw breath in the form they understand. I swear it.”Lyra did not flin
Kael and Varyn make war
The chamber fell quiet after Lyra’s words, the kind of quiet that followed a decision already made.Arin didn’t answer her immediately. He stood at the console, eyes fixed on the last fading afterimage of the SYSTEM’s warning. The glow dimmed, but the weight of it lingered—an echo pressing against his thoughts.“I will make sure everyone has a part in the consequences that comes with their decision,” he repeated, slower this time, as if carving the words into something permanent.Lyra straightened beside him. There was no hesitation in her stance now, no trace of the uncertainty that had followed Darkveil’s collapse. Whatever fear she carried, she wore it like armor.“You’re dealing with them one after the other,” she said. “And soon, they will really know that you have finally arrived.”Arin turned to her, his expression unreadable. “Arrival isn’t triumph,” he said. “It’s exposure.”Before Lyra could respond, the SYSTEM pulsed again—sharp, urgent.SYSTEM ALERT: MULTIPLE HOSTILE ALIGN
The man of thunder Arin striker
Lyra broke the silence first.She leaned against the doorway of the observation chamber, arms folded, the faint glow of dormant SYSTEM runes washing over her face. For the first time since Darkveil’s collapse, there was something like admiration in her eyes—unhidden, unguarded.“You did it,” she said quietly. “You turned an empire inside out without lifting a blade.”Arin didn’t look at her. He remained seated at the edge of the console, elbows resting on his knees, hands clasped as if holding something fragile that might break if he relaxed his grip.“I confused them,” he corrected. “That’s not the same thing.”Lyra smiled, just a little. “Confusion is powerful. You made them doubt the lie they’d been fed since birth. Kael ruled because he convinced them certainty was safety. You took that away.”Arin exhaled slowly. “And now they’re adrift. That’s dangerous.”She pushed off the doorway and crossed the room, boots echoing softly against the metal floor.“Dangerous for tyrants,” she s
The Exile of Kael
The obsidian dome did not quiet.It boiled.What Arin had seeded into the SYSTEM had grown teeth.Elders shouted over one another, their authority sigils flickering erratically—once-pristine marks of command now stuttering with corrupted confidence. Disciples recoiled as overlapping directives screamed in their minds, each contradicting the last. Ritual arrays cracked mid-formation, feeding back unstable logic that scorched the stone beneath their feet.And at the center of it all stood Kael.For the first time since he had crowned himself Darkveil’s unifier, he looked… small.“You dare accuse me?” Kael bellowed, his voice thunderous, strained. “After all I have carried? All I have preserved?”An elder stepped forward—Elder Veyron, once Kael’s loudest supporter. His eyes burned with something far more dangerous than fear.“You preserved yourself,” Veyron spat. “Every version of these plans names a different sacrifice. But in all of them, Kael… you survive.”A ripple of rage surged thr
You may also like
The Legendary Conglomerate
Lord MOH121.0K viewsRISE OF THE DISCARDED SON-IN-LAW
Sage Athalar74.9K viewsTHE SECRET HEIR AND HIS SECRET POWER
Wednesday Adaire167.3K viewsRise Of The Supreme General
Anakin Detour90.2K viewsRISE OF THE MORTE CONGLOMERATE HEIR
Carlos L. Ponce439 viewsHUMILIATED SON-IN-LAW, INVINCIBLE SYSTEM
Victoria C 3.6K viewsI Am Calvin Luthor: The God Of War
Samuel Kelvin231 viewsTHE BILLIONAIRE EMPIRE
Emmie 599 views