Realm X: Ascending Through The Arcane Tower

Chapter 2: The Might Of An infected

'No. I can't die like this. Never like this.'

Erwin didn't know where or how the strength came about, but like a sudden surge, he felt his muscles roaring back to life—not stronger, but... more aware.

His vision sharpened, but not like putting on glasses. Instead, he could see patterns in the air, showing invisible trails of movement that haven't happened.

It was like watching someone mime a fight in slow motion while his body moved at normal speed.

'What is this?' Erwin's mind raced even as his body launched from its sitting position. 'I'm not faster. I'm not stronger. So why—'

The infected turned, noticing its prey was moving again. However, Erwin's axe was already mid-swing.

'—why can I see what you're going to do before you do it?'

The blade bit into shadow-flesh. The infected's eyes widened—it had predicted Erwin would stay down. Erwin had predicted where its neck would be.

Two predictions. Only one was right.

Splash!

Blood painted Erwin's face instantly as his axe penetrated halfway into the infected's neck.

[Critical Hit!]

[Infected HP: 850/1200]

For a heartbeat, everything was still. The predatory infected froze on its track.

Then—

Rooooaaaaar!!!

That odd roaring noise erupted from the infected's throat... or what remained of it. The last sound anyone would expect from a former human.

Turning around with that same impossible speed it had always possessed, the infected launched a punch at Erwin. So fast that Erwin could barely see anything but a blur of a shadowy hand.

Swoosh!

Yet somehow, impossibly, Erwin dodged it.

He didn't know how he did it, couldn't explain the movement he used. His body had simply moved on its own, tilting his head sideways just like the infected had done to his first clumsy attempt to attack, dodging it almost mockingly.

The infected's eyes widened in what might have been surprise.

Pulling the axe from the infected's neck with a sickening squelch, Erwin didn't give the creature time to recover. He maneuvered through another swift punch from the infected, and then—

Slash!

[Critical Hit!]

[Infected Left Arm: SEVERED]

[Infected HP: 650/1200]

An entire shadowy arm could be seen spinning through the air, tumbling end over end before hitting the ground with a thud. The severed limb twitched once, twice, then lay still.

The infected froze again, as if its mind was still trying to process what was playing out before its eyes.

This human had been helpless just moments ago, sprawled on the ground coughing blood, just a step away from death. But now, all of a sudden, he was like a completely different person. No, not different; transformed.

How?

It was still obvious that Erwin was physically weaker and slower than this infected. The creature's supernatural enhancements should have made this fight laughably one-sided. By all rights, Erwin should be dead. However, he was winning.

How?

Turning around quickly with desperate fury, the infected threw its remaining fist at Erwin's head with enough force to shatter concrete.

Slash!

[Critical Hit!]

[Infected Right Arm: SEVERED]

[Infected HP: 450/1200]

The second arm joined its brother on the forest floor. The creature had no arms now. Not anymore.

It stood there as blood poured from both shoulder stumps and the gaping wound in its neck, pooling at its feet. Yet somehow, impossibly, it was still standing. Still conscious.

"Are you gonna try using your legs to fight now?" Erwin spoke, his voice cold and detached.

The infected took a step back.

Just one step, but it spoke volumes.

A creature that should have been mindless, driven only by the instinct to destroy, showed something it shouldn't be capable of feeling—fear.

It recognized, perhaps for the first time since it had turned into this nightmare, that it was prey and not predator.

That the natural order had been inverted, and the human before it was no longer human at all.

"I guess not, you resilient bastard," Erwin added as he stared at the blood rushing out from both severed arms and the slashed neck. "Blood loss isn't killing you, so I'll finish you off."

Just as Erwin stretched his axe behind his head to deliver the killing blow, the creature's legs gave out. It collapsed to the ground, face-first into the pool of its dark blood.

Probably dead.

But probably wasn't good enough. Not after what he'd become in these last few desperate minutes.

"This was the same thing you thought when I first collapsed to the ground, wasn't it?" Erwin spoke to the motionless form, his grip tightening on the axe handle. "That I was probably dead. That the fight was over. That you'd won."

His voice dropped to barely a whisper, but the words carried weight. "Well, you were wrong. I'm too stubborn to die."

Slash!

Erwin swung his axe regardless, the blade cutting through the infected's neck like butter, slicing the head clean off. It rolled a few feet away, stopping by the tree where Erwin had been thrashed moments ago, those empty eyes staring upward.

[FATAL HIT!]

[Infected HP: 0/1200]

[INFECTED DEFEATED]

"Unfortunately for you," Erwin said to the corpse, "I won't take any risks."

---

[QUEST COMPLETE: Survive Your First Infected]

[Calculating Rewards...]

[+100 EXP]

[Level Up!]

[Level 0 → Level 1]

[DIMENSIONAL ESSENCE SYSTEM - FULLY Unlocked]

[Status Window Now Available]

[New Ability Unlocked: Pattern Reading (Basic)]

[New Ability Unlocked: Essence Absorption]

---

Suddenly, the shadowy infected that hadn't shown any discernible features began to transform—or more appropriately, revert.

The shadow that had once covered its body slowly dispersed away from its skin like black fireflies, leaving behind the original owner of the body.

The real human. It was a simple-looking man, frail by default just like every other human in this era of starvation, appearing to be around his mid-twenties.

But something else was happening too.

The dispersing shadows weren't just fading away. They were being pulled—drawn toward Erwin like iron filings to a magnet.

[Essence Absorption Initiated]

[Absorbing Infected Essence...]

[+50 Essence Energy]

[Essence Energy: 50 → 100]

At that exact moment, Erwin felt a tight sensation in his chest.

Badum.

His heart beat so hard he felt a sharp pain, like someone had reached into his chest and squeezed. The axe slipped from his fingers, clattering to the ground beside the reverted corpse.

Badum.

It came again, this time louder than before. The force of it brought Erwin to his knees, his hands clutching at his chest as if he wanted to reach in and stop the beating.

That scary bloodlust that had filled his eyes vanished in this instant, replaced by confusion and fear—the normal emotions of a stubborn village boy who had just killed something that used to be human and didn't know what that made him.

"What... what's happening?" he gasped, each breath feeling like swallowing broken glass. "What is this floating screen in front of me."

[Essence Integration in Progress]

[Your body is adapting to absorbed Essence]

[This process may cause temporary discomfort]

Badum.

The third beat was the worst yet, and with it came a strange sensation—as if something inside him was being rewritten, restructured, evolved.

Right above the dead infected's body, the air began to distort. It started as barely visible ripples like heat waves but quickly intensified into something more... substantial.

A spark of light flickered on and then off, appearing and disappearing.

Then again. And again. Until the light stabilized into a continuous swirling vortex made of some sort of energy Erwin had never seen or heard of before.

Not even from the information he had about infected had something like this been mentioned.

The portal—because what else could it be but a portal—hung in the air a few feet off the ground, directly above the infected's corpse as if the creature's death had been some sort of key that opened it.

"What is... this?" Erwin managed to force out, his voice weak but was cut off by a sudden voice that didn't belong to him.

*"Erwin Veridian, you have been chosen by Realm X as a being of potential... Do you accept the invitation."*

Erwin's eyes widened, scanning the empty forest. No one. Just him, the corpse, and—

Chirp.

His head snapped sideways. Einstein. The sparrow's broken body twitched—not in pain, but in response.

The bird's eyes, normally black, flickered with the same energy as the portal. Just for a second. Then back to normal.

'Did I just...' Erwin blinked. 'No. I'm seeing things.'

*"You have forty-five seconds left, do you accept the invitation"*

Einstein chirped again. This time, the portal distorted slightly in sync with the sound.

Erwin's stomach dropped. "No way. There's no way a bird is—"

*"Failure to accept the invitation within the given time, would lead to automatic rejection and penalty of becoming an infected."*

"An infected! Realm X..." Erwin muttered out in confusion, taking a single step back as he turned his head, scanning to see if he could pinpoint where the voice was coming from but there was no one around.

Could it be this swirling energy... Erwin wondered as he kept his mind at a heightened state. "What is Realm X."

"You have been chosen by Realm X, the door to challenges... Do you accept the invitation."

"You have thirty seconds left, do you accept the invitation"

"The door to challenges." Erwin muttered back as a stubborn smirk extended slowly on his face. "First this blue screen floating in front of me, now this voice that challenging me..."

'So many surprises... I'm so overwhelmed right now I don't feel surprised about anything.' Erwin raised his head upward to stare at the bright sunny sky. 'It is still afternoon, and my journey is anticipated to be around five days using the actual path, and my shortcut should make it around two days.'

'But if I leave now and do not return, how would my village survive.'

*"You have twenty seconds left, do you accept the invitation"*

*"Failure to accept the invitation within the given time, would lead to automatic rejection and penalty of becoming an infected."*

'I don't think I have a choice here. If I do not accept, I would become an infected.'

'How long I will be gone for if I accept this invitation is still unknown to me, but I will rather keep my sanity than become an infected.'

'And besides.' Erwin's smile was unwavering. 'I would rather take challenges...'

'The challenge better be worth my time or else... Whoever is behind this would be in for it.'

He walked toward Einstein, lying broken on the ground.

"You're alive." He smiled softly as he approached the little bird. "I'm sorry for toying with your life Einstein, I had to survive."

*"You have ten seconds left, do you accept the invitation"*

He picked up Einstein gently. The sparrow's eyes met his—still flickering with that strange energy like the portal.

He didn't know what was happening to his sparrow that had caused the glow in its eyes, but didn't have the time to investigate.

*9*

*8*

*7*

*6*

*5*

*4*

*3*

*"You have two seconds..."*

"I accept."

*"Erwin Veridian, the mortal human, congratulations for accepting the journey to the cosmic assembly of Realm X, the Realm of Celestials."*

*"Congratulations Einstein, the immortal dragon incarnate, you will be teleported into Realm X shortly..."*

"Huh!" Erwin exclaimed upon hearing the last statement that had come from the portal, confused.

Before he could fully process his shock, the portal intensified, pulling Erwin and Einstein suddenly toward it with terrifying speed.

Erwin frantically tried to grab onto something—anything—but his hands found only air.

The trees, the rocks, all of it blurred quickly as he was completely yanked into the portal, which disappeared from Earth as quickly as it had appeared.

---

[ENTERING REALM X]

[Dimensional Essence System - Adapting]

[New Environment: Cosmic Assembly]

[Warning: Power levels here far exceed current user capabilities]

[Current Status:]

Level: 1 (Mortal - Rank F)

[STR: 10] [AGI: 10] [END: 10] [INT: 10] [WIS: 10]

HP: 75/100

Essence Energy: 100/100

Next Level: 200 EXP Required

[Welcome to Realm X]

[Where Mortals Become Gods]