2025-06-24 17:10:31The system had changed him. He moved faster. Thought clearer. Even the smells of the forest—sap, soil, rot—were sharper. Yet he still hadn’t unlocked the martial path. His body didn’t feel strong. Not in the way sword-wielders were. He’d never held a real blade, never once swung at anything larger than a bush. So why did his blood itch every time he thought of battle?
Today, he was determined to find out.
Kael stood in the center of the glade, sunlight dappled through thin clouds. The pendant rested warm on his chest. He took a breath.
“System,” he whispered. “Open Martial Path.”
[System Response: Martial Path – Locked]
Physical Aptitude: 1.9 / 2.0
Unlock Progress: 95%Suggestion: Begin Combat Trial to stimulate physical threshold
A combat trial? Against what?
His eyes darted around. Trees, wind, birdsong. Nothing threatening.
[Simulation Available: Flame Construct]
Risk: Mild Burn | Control Mode: Beginner
Begin Trial? [Y/N]His breath caught. Fire?
“…Yes.”
The glade shimmered.
A heat rose from the grass, distorting the air before him. Then it appeared: a figure—man-shaped, featureless—made entirely of licking, restrained flame. It carried no sword. Its hands burned brighter, fingers tipped in embered claws.
Kael backed up. The pendant pulsed once.
[Beginner Trial Initiated – Objective: Land 3 Successful Blows]
He grabbed the wooden staff he had carved last winter—more walking stick than weapon—and stepped forward.
The Flame Construct struck first. Fast.
Kael barely ducked, the heat searing over his cheek. He rolled to the side and swung the staff, catching the flame square in the torso. It passed through like smoke.
[Invalid Strike – No Force]
He gritted his teeth.
“Again.”
He watched. Counted. 1… 2…
Then he moved.
This time he drove the staff hard into the construct’s left arm. The fire flared, and the creature recoiled.
[Strike Registered – 1/3]
Kael grinned—right before a flaming palm slammed into his shoulder.
He stumbled, arm tingling with a dull burn. The staff slipped.
But he didn’t stop.
He charged again, raw instinct guiding him. The second blow came faster, more focused, angled to sweep the leg. Another flare.
[Strike Registered – 2/3]
The construct snarled silently, flames intensifying. It spun and lashed out.
Kael ducked under it, exhaled, and slammed the staff straight into its core.
[Strike Registered – 3/3]
[Trial Complete]Martial Path: UNLOCKEDTrait Gained: Combat Instinct (Passive)
Skill Unlocked: Flowstep – Allows bursts of speed and reflexive footwork Warning: Body fatigue likely. Rest recommended.Kael dropped to his knees, panting. His shirt was scorched at the shoulder, and sweat dripped into his eyes.
But he was smiling.
He lay on the grass for minutes, just breathing. The construct had faded like smoke. The warmth of victory was better than fire. Even the ache in his limbs felt... earned.
A twig snapped behind him.
Kael sat up instantly, heart thudding. He hadn’t heard anyone approach.
From the tree line stepped a woman, her cloak fluttering around lean shoulders. She moved like drifting smoke, silent and measured. A long, wrapped weapon hung across her back. Her eyes—green and sharp—locked onto him with unnerving stillness.
“Not bad,” she said. “For a boy with no sword.”
Kael stood. “Who are you?”
She didn’t answer right away. Her gaze lingered on the pendant around his neck.
“That sigil... Where did you get it?”
Kael’s fingers touched the pendant reflexively. “It was left to me. In a box. By my parents.”
Her jaw tightened ever so slightly.
“Do you know who they were?”
He hesitated. “Not really. I only know their names. No one ever talked about them.”
The woman stepped closer. “Your father trained under the Order of the Crimson Path. He was a dual-discipline warrior—healer and swordsman. He vanished after the Battle of Hollowreach.”
Kael stared at her, throat dry. “How do you know that?”
“Because I was there.”
She unwrapped the blade on her back. It was long, straight-edged, and older than anything he’d seen. Along its hilt ran the same sigils etched into his pendant.
“I fought beside your father once. And I buried him after that battle. Or thought I did.”
Kael staggered.
“You—he’s dead?”
She lowered the blade.
“I don’t know anymore. But that pendant was made only for one thing—to bind the System Sigil to bloodlines that carry it. No one has seen a functional one in sixteen years.”
Kael’s chest tightened. “Why are you here?”
She studied him. “Because three nights ago, I felt the system awaken. Like a beacon in a storm. It shook the mana threads across this region. If I felt it, others will too. Some won’t be as friendly.”
He swallowed. “Friendly?”
She smiled faintly. “That depends. My name is Seris Vel.”
Kael blinked. “You’re a Bladewarden. You shouldn’t even be out here without a retinue.”
Seris laughed softly. “I stopped following their rules a long time ago.”
They sat by the tree line as the sun dipped lower. Seris watched him wrap his injured shoulder with the last of his bandages.
“You favor your left hand,” she observed.
“I’m right-handed.”
“No. You’re left by instinct. Your right is hesitant. Likely taught to mimic.”
Kael looked down. “I was always told not to train with weapons. Ilna said it wasn’t safe.”
“Then she either loved you dearly or feared what you could become.”
Silence stretched between them.
Finally, Kael asked, “Can you teach me?”
Seris stared into the distance.
“You have no discipline. No foundation. Just luck and stubbornness. That’s not enough.”
He opened his mouth to protest, but she raised a hand.
“But you have the Sigil. And blood that answers its call. That... might be enough.”
She stood.
“Tomorrow. Same place. Bring something better than a stick.”
That night, Kael couldn’t sleep.
The pendant glowed faintly on his chest. The system stirred as he turned it over in his fingers.
[System Alert: Cross-Path Evolution Unlocked]
Martial / Medical Synergy Trait Available
Name: Vital Edge Description: Blades may be used to heal or harm. Skills infused with regenerative properties in battle.New Subtree Detected: Crimson Path – Legacy Class (Unclaimed)
Do you wish to pursue the Crimson Path?
Kael stared at the question.
In that moment, he could hear Seris’s voice. “Luck and stubbornness… might be enough.”
He pressed his palm to the interface.
[Y]
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Chapter 11: Thorns of the Forgotten
They moved under the veil of morning mist, where trees grew tall and thin like grasping hands, and the roads turned to stone riddled with roots.Kael said little as they walked. His body ached from travel, but it was the ache of truths, not just muscles—the kind that crept into your bones and refused to let go.Thorne walked ahead, muttering lines from a weathered scroll. Seris took up the rear, blade wrapped in its weather cloth but never far from reach. The pendant at Kael’s chest had been quiet since Drenn’s Hollow, but its silence didn’t bring peace. If anything, it felt like the breath before a scream.[System Update: Codex Entry Unlocked — “Echo-Born: The Wyrm Keys”]The message had arrived that morning, glowing faintly in his vision as they crossed into the last pass before the Vanguard ruins.Kael read it again now.Codex Entry: Echo-BornIn rare cases, a child born from two powerful, opposing bloodlines may inherit both strengths—and both curses. Such children are called Echo
Chapter 10: Blood-names and Bonds
The wind tasted of ash.Kael stood at the edge of the pass between the Rift’s spiral and the first outer settlement: a small fortress-town called Drenn’s Hollow, built atop old battlegrounds from the first Wyrmbound incursion. Cracked obelisks rose like broken teeth, each carved with sigils so faded even the System took several seconds to translate them.Thorne walked ahead, murmuring. “This place was once a boundary ward. When the Rift first opened, the Spiral Guard held the line here until they were overrun.”Seris surveyed the narrow paths between stone ruins and brush. “Then we tread on ghosts.”Kael’s pendant buzzed faintly. It always did when he neared old sealzones. But this time, something in the pull felt... personal.[System Alert: Bloodline Reaction Detected — External Source Nearby]He froze.“Thorne.”The old mage turned. “What is it?”Kael pointed at his chest. “Someone here has my blood. Or something twisted from it.”Before Thorne could respond, a voice called from beh
Chapter 9: Whispering Rib
The chamber pulsed like a wounded heart.Kael knelt before the ribcage—blackened, cracked, yet unmistakably alive. The crystal coffin barely contained the thing within: a single massive bone, spiraled like a serpent’s fang, etched with runes so ancient the air around them shimmered.[System Alert: Unknown Entity—Wyrmbound Class Detected]Initiating mental defense layer...Warning: Psyche Intrusion Level 2 / Consciousness Drift Risk: 42%Kael's breath caught. “It’s... it’s inside my head.”“Don’t let it anchor,” Thorne warned sharply. “It’ll speak in you. Through you. It doesn’t knock—it leaks.”The voice came not as words, but as feeling: cold rain on a sunless day. Memories not his own surged in flashes.Golden eyes watching a burning sky.Hands—his hands?—gripping a bloody throne of bone.A woman’s voice screaming his name, not as Kael, but something older: “Ardyn... Ardyn, come back!”Kael clutched his chest. “It knows me.”Seris moved closer, sword trembling. “No—it knows him. The
Chapter 8: The Wyrmbound Dreams
The Rift pulsed beneath their feet.As Kael stepped into its threshold, the air changed. It thickened with memories not his own, buzzing with old magic and aching silence. The ground sloped downward in spirals—each layer of stone and ash revealing carvings, sigils, and half-sunken relics from an age the world had buried.Seris walked at his right, blade drawn, though the wind here seemed to devour all sound. Thorne hovered slightly behind, one hand on his staff, his other tracing runes mid-air to ward off distortions.“We’re crossing into a dream of the past,” Thorne warned. “The Rift doesn’t just show memories. It replays them. Don’t trust what you see. And don’t wander off the spiral.”Kael nodded, but he already felt the tug—a soft current pulling his thoughts backward.[System Alert: Entered Rift Zone - Inner Boundary]Temporal Drift: Severe Reality Layering Detected: Multi-threaded time signature Warning: Memory Integration Risk 74%The path coiled deeper, torchlight from Thorne’
Chapter 7: The Rift Breathes
They called it the Veilroad—a forgotten stretch of cracked earth and moss-covered stones that wound through the northern forests, leading toward the jagged cliffs where the Rift slept.The deeper they traveled, the quieter the world became. Birds grew scarce. Even the wind moved differently—curling in half-circles, as if trying to reverse its own direction. The trees leaned unnaturally inward, their trunks bending as if bowing toward something buried.Kael rode in silence on the back of the Windfold, eyes scanning the horizon. Thorne walked beside him, murmuring runes under his breath, while Seris moved ahead like a shadow with eyes.The pendant around Kael’s neck had not stopped humming since sunrise.[System Alert: Mana Density Exceeding Safe Threshold]Abnormal spiritual interference detected.Caution: Temporal anomalies likely within next 12 miles.Kael showed Thorne the message.The old mage’s eyes narrowed. “We’re too close to turn back.”“Define ‘temporal anomalies,’” Kael mutt
Chapter 6: Echoes of the Rift
The wound whispered.Kael sat beneath the dying orange sky, his fingers lightly brushing the healing gash on his left bicep. It wasn’t deep—Seris had already dressed it—but something strange clung to it. Not pain. Not fatigue.Memory.He had seen it last night—flashes not his own. A gaunt face screaming in a collapsing temple. A hand reaching toward flame. A broken pendant falling into dark waters.And then it was gone.[New Trait Active: Wound Reading]Description: Allows the host to intuit biological trauma—and in rare cases, absorb psychic remnants left in muscle or nerve tissue.Note: Echoes may present as fragmented visions. Trait is unstable in early stages.Kael shook his head. “That doesn’t help much.”“What doesn’t?” Seris asked from across the glade. She was oiling her blade with the same care others gave to prayer.Kael hesitated. “When I got hit last night… after I used Pulse Cut… something showed me a memory. But not mine.”Seris lowered her cloth. “Whose was it?”“I don’
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