MY LEVEL SYSTEM, WHO IS THE WEAK ONE NOW?

005

“Two silver crowns, Madam. That is the highest price I can offer you.”

Theo stopped outside the half-open door of the small merchant’s shop when he heard his mother’s voice.

“I understand that it is old, but the workmanship is excellent, and it belonged to my husband,” Mara replied. “Surely you can offer a little more.”

“The metal is ordinary, the design is outdated, and I have no guarantee that anyone will want to buy it. Two silver crowns are already generous.”

Theo leaned against the wall, frowning as he listened.

He had returned from the academy earlier than expected because his injured hand had begun throbbing again, and he had intended to stop at the market to buy a little food before going home. He had never imagined finding his mother bargaining over something that belonged to his missing father.

“I cannot accept two crowns,” Mara said after a brief silence. “The academy requires payment by the end of the week, and I still need money for food and medicine.”

“The academy’s problem is not my concern.”

“I am not asking you to solve my problems, Sir. I am asking you to offer a fair price.”

The merchant sighed impatiently.

“Then take your possession elsewhere, Madam. I have other customers to attend to.”

Theo pushed the door open before his mother could answer.

“Mother, what are you doing here?”

Mara turned sharply, and the moment she saw him, she instinctively closed her fingers around the small object resting on the counter.

“Theo! I thought you would still be at the academy.”

“I finished early.” His gaze moved from her face to the merchant, then settled on the object she was trying to conceal. “What are you selling?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Then why are you here?”

Mara hesitated, and that hesitation told him more than any explanation could have.

Theo approached the counter and looked down.

The object was a silver pendant shaped like a narrow crescent, with a small blue stone set into its center. Although the silver had darkened with age, the pendant was still beautiful, and Theo remembered seeing it among his father’s belongings when he was a child.

His mother had once told him that his father wore it whenever he travelled.

“You’re selling Father’s pendant?” he asked.

Mara lowered her eyes.

“I was only asking what it might be worth.”

“Why?”

The merchant cleared his throat.

“If you have finished your family discussion, Madam, I would appreciate it if you decided whether you intend to sell the item. I cannot keep my shop open all day.”

Theo turned toward him.

“She said two silver crowns are not enough, so perhaps you should stop trying to take advantage of her.”

The merchant’s eyebrows rose.

“Watch your tone, boy. You are standing in my shop.”

“And you are trying to buy a man’s treasured possession for less than it is worth.”

“Young man, I suggest you take your mother home before you embarrass yourself further. I have dealt with hundreds of customers, and I know the value of what I purchase.”

Theo opened his mouth to respond, but Mara caught his wrist.

“Enough, Theo. We are leaving.”

She retrieved the pendant, thanked the merchant without looking at him, and led Theo out of the shop.

Neither of them spoke until they had crossed the market and reached the quieter street leading toward their home.

Then Theo gently freed his wrist.

“How long have you been doing this?”

Mara stopped walking.

“Doing what?”

“Selling your belongings to pay my academy fees.”

Her silence made his stomach tighten.

“Mother, answer me.”

Mara looked at him with tired eyes.

“I have managed.”

“That isn’t what I asked.”

She drew a slow breath before continuing down the street.

“Some of those things were never particularly useful, and we cannot afford to keep possessions simply because they remind us of the past.”

“Then why did you refuse to sell Father’s pendant?”

“Because it was one of the few things I had left that belonged to him.”

Theo stared at her, and guilt settled heavily in his chest.

He had spent years complaining about his inability to cultivate, cursing the academy for humiliating him, and promising himself that one day he would become strong enough to silence everyone who laughed at him.

Meanwhile, his mother had been quietly sacrificing the little she possessed to keep that dream alive.

He thought of the fees she struggled to pay, the worn clothes she continued wearing, and the meals she sometimes claimed she had already eaten whenever there was not enough food for both of them.

Suddenly, the academy felt less like an opportunity and more like a debt he could never repay.

“Mother, I don’t want you to sell anything else.”

Mara glanced at him.

“Theo—”

“I mean it. I can leave the academy and find work. I can help at a merchant’s shop, carry goods at the market, or do anything else that pays enough for us to live comfortably.”

“And what happens after that?”

“We survive.”

“Is that all you want for yourself?”

Theo frowned.

“I want you to stop struggling because of me.”

Mara’s expression softened, but she shook her head.

“You are not the reason I struggle, Theo. You are the reason I continue.”

He looked away, unable to bear the certainty in her voice.

“I have spent three years at that academy, and I still cannot perform the simplest martial technique. The instructors treat me like a burden, the students use me for their amusement, and now you’re selling the last things Father left behind because I cannot achieve anything.”

His voice grew rougher as the words escaped him.

“What exactly am I supposed to do with that?”

Mara stepped closer and placed her hands on his shoulders.

“You are supposed to keep living.”

Theo stared at her.

“You think I enjoy watching you suffer?” she continued. “You think I do not know what those students say about you? I have seen the bruises you try to hide, and I have watched you struggle to smile whenever you return home after another humiliating day.”

Her fingers tightened slightly.

“But I will not allow the cruelty of other people to decide what your future should be.”

“Mother, I don’t even know if I can become strong.”

“Neither did your father, once.”

Theo went still.

Mara rarely spoke about his father, and whenever she did, her words were usually brief and carefully chosen.

“What do you mean?”

She looked toward the distant rooftops, as though searching for something in the evening sky.

“Your father was not always the man you remember from the few stories I have told you. He faced difficulties that I could never fully understand, and there were times when even he wondered whether he would ever achieve what he wanted.”

“What did he want?”

“To prove that a person’s worth could never be measured by the strength they were born with.”

Theo searched her face for an explanation.

“Was he weak?”

Mara smiled faintly.

“No. But he knew what it meant to be judged by people who believed they understood his limits.”

She paused before continuing.

“He once told me that strength was not a gift reserved for a fortunate few. It was a responsibility, and the way a person used it mattered more than the circumstances that had given it to them.”

Theo absorbed her words, but they only created more questions.

“If he believed that, why did he disappear?”

The faint smile vanished from Mara’s face.

For a moment, she looked as though she might finally tell him something she had kept hidden for years.

Instead, she lowered her hands.

“There are things about your father that I cannot explain to you yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because I do not have all the answers myself.”

Theo’s frustration returned.

“You always say that.”

“And I know it is not enough.” Mara reached for his hand, careful to avoid the bandage around his palm. “But I need you to trust me when I tell you that your father’s disappearance was not as simple as you believe.”

He searched her eyes, hoping to find some clue that would help him understand what she meant.

She offered none.

After a moment, she squeezed his uninjured hand.

“Please, Theo. Do not abandon your future because other people have decided that you are worthless.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat.

“What if they’re right?”

Mara’s expression hardened with a determination he had rarely seen.

“Then prove them wrong.”

The answer was simple, but it struck him harder than any of Cassian’s insults.

She did not promise that he would become a powerful martial artist. She did not claim that his broken veins would suddenly heal or that the academy would begin treating him fairly.

She simply refused to accept that his current circumstances had to determine the rest of his life.

Theo lowered his head.

“I promise you, Mother, that one day you will never have to beg anyone for anything again. I will earn enough money to buy you a proper house, and you will never have to sell another thing that belongs to Father.”

Mara smiled, although tears glistened in her eyes.

“You do not have to repay me for loving you.”

“Perhaps not,” Theo replied, “but I will still do it.”

She pulled him into an embrace, and for the first time since the assessment, Theo allowed himself to rest against someone without pretending that he was fine.

He did not know how he would fulfil his promise.

He had no martial talent, no wealthy family, and no powerful ally willing to help him.

But he had made a decision.

He would not give up on his future, and he would not allow the people who had humiliated him to decide how his story ended.

That evening, Theo sat at the small wooden table in their home while Mara prepared dinner.

He had offered to help, but she insisted that he rest his injured hand, so he spent the time studying the academy’s training manual and searching for techniques that might work despite his damaged martial veins.

The results were as disappointing as ever.

Every exercise required a functioning energy network, and every alternative demanded resources he could not afford.

He closed the manual with a frustrated sigh.

His promise to his mother had given him a reason to keep fighting, but it had not provided a way forward.

For the first time, he understood that determination alone would not solve his problems.

He needed something more.

He needed an opportunity that the academy could not take away from him, a method of cultivation that did not depend on the veins everyone insisted were beyond repair, or a discovery that would allow him to stand on equal ground with the people who had spent years treating him as less than human.

Unfortunately, the world had never been generous with opportunities.

After dinner, Mara asked him to help clear the storage room because a leaking section of the roof needed to be repaired before the next rainfall.

Theo agreed and carried a small lantern into the narrow room at the back of the house.

The storage room was crowded with old furniture, broken household items, and boxes they had not opened in years. Dust covered the shelves, and the air smelled of damp wood.

Theo began moving the boxes away from the wall so that he could inspect the damaged roof.

As he shifted an old wooden chest, something scraped against the floor.

He stopped.

The chest was smaller than the others and had been pushed beneath a stack of folded cloth. He remembered seeing it when he was younger, although he could not recall what it contained.

He knelt and brushed the dust from its lid.

The lock had rusted, but the clasp gave way when he pressed it with the handle of a screwdriver.

Inside lay several faded pieces of clothing, a bundle of letters tied with a fraying cord, and a small metal object wrapped in dark fabric.

Theo lifted the bundle carefully and unfolded the fabric.

A fragment of black metal rested in his palm.

It was roughly the size of two joined fingers, with jagged edges and an engraved symbol that seemed to shift whenever the lantern light touched it.

Theo frowned.

He had never seen anything like it.

The metal felt unusually heavy, and its surface was so dark that it seemed to absorb the light around it. He turned it over, searching for a name or inscription, but the reverse side was completely smooth.

Then he noticed the symbol.

A narrow circle surrounded three intersecting lines, with a tiny mark at the center that resembled an eye.

For some reason, the sight of it stirred a strange feeling of familiarity.

Theo ran his thumb across the engraving.

The metal suddenly grew warm.

He jerked his hand back, but the fragment remained in his palm, growing warmer with every passing second.

“What in the world?”

A faint vibration travelled through his fingers.

Theo stared at the object as a thin golden line appeared within the engraved symbol, illuminating the intersecting marks for a brief instant.

Then the light vanished.

The metal became cold again, so abruptly that Theo wondered whether he had imagined the entire thing.

He examined his hand, expecting to find a burn, but his skin was completely unharmed.

He turned the fragment over several times, yet it remained lifeless.

From the kitchen, Mara called his name.

“Theo, have you finished clearing the room?”

He closed his fingers around the fragment.

“Almost, Mother!”

He hesitated before slipping the object into his pocket.

He would ask her about it later, once he had a chance to examine it properly.

For now, he returned to the storage chest and continued sorting through its contents, unaware that the black metal fragment had begun responding to the martial energy circulating weakly through his body.

Deep within its surface, something ancient stirred.

And far beyond the Azure Empire, in a place no ordinary human had seen for thousands of years, a sealed formation flickered to life.

A single golden rune illuminated the darkness.

Then another.

Then another.

Until a voice that had remained silent for countless generations whispered into the void.

“Legacy signature detected.”

A pause followed.

“Host compatibility confirmed.”

The formation pulsed once before falling silent again.

Back in the little storage room, Theo reached into his pocket and touched the fragment through the fabric.

It was cold.

Yet for a fleeting moment, he could have sworn that something beneath its surface had answered him.

He closed his hand around it and looked toward the doorway, where the warm light from the kitchen spilled across the floor.

He had promised his mother that he would change their lives.

He had no idea that the first step toward fulfilling that promise was already resting in his pocket.