2026-10-27 01:41:48Light flooded the pit all at once, torches catching with fire along the walls where unseen hands had lit them from above, and Kaiden flinched hard against the sudden brightness of it.
When his eyes adjusted, he wished the place just remained dark.
The Ridgeback boar lay where he'd left it, bigger than he had imagined. Its back was rigged with plates, and its hide was dark with its own blood.
A few feet from it, a human body lay still, with the dampeners still around his wrists. Kaiden remembered the scream he had heard earlier, followed by the silence.
‘oh gods. He's-’
Kaiden made himself look away before his mind could finish the thought.
The gates swung open and two men walked in. They were not masked like the Reavers and they did not have any eye color, but they wore dirty leather aprons and looked bored with their work.
Then their eyes fell on the dead boar and they looked surprised.
“They actually killed it…” said the taller one.
“Incredible…”
“Well, Orrin, you owe me a silver,” said the taller one. “One of them is dead.”
“Oh, fuck off Dask.”
The shorter one, Orrin, crouched by the dead boy, checking for pulse. Then he shook his head. “This one's done.”
“Come on, pay up.”
Grumbling, Orrin gave up a silver coin.
Kaiden watched it all with horror. Did they just bet on their lives? He had suspected that this was what they had gotten into: dungeon-crawling and beast-fighting for the pleasure of the crowds, but there was no one watching here.
‘Did Varax just toss us in here for the fun of it? Or was he just reducing how much mouths he had to feed?’
Varax stepped in the next second, his thumbs tucked into his belt. He shifted his gaze to the dead boy, then to the boar, then to Kaiden.
Slowly, he walked over, brows furrowed into a frown.
“Well, well. Looks like we've got a killer,” he said. “I didn't expect more than two survivors, but you somehow managed to kill my test beast.”
Test beast? This was just a minor one? An alarm went off in Kaiden's head.
“Is that all you used?” Varax asked, pointing.
Kaiden stared down and realized he was still holding the broken bones he had used to kill the boar.
And that blue panel, with the words…It was all gone. It had instructed him to survive, right? And then there were those stats…
“Impressive,” Varax went on. “That boar has put down grown men twice your size. Yet, you…took it down, in the dark. With bones.”
Kaiden shifted his gaze to the rest of the pit. Orrin and Dask were carrying out the dead boar, while the others stood back against the walls. Even Garrick had a haunted look on his face.
“You've got instincts, boy. Or you got lucky. Doesn't matter which, not to me. Whatever keeps the crowds entertained.”
Varax turned to the others, one hand now playing with the dampener stone.
“That goes for the rest of you. Tonight, you've all survived, and proven yourselves worthy of my bread. Tomorrow, you fight for an audience.”
“An audience?” Garrick repeated in a hollow voice.
“Yes, indeed.” Varax turned towards the door. “Orrin! Dask!”
The two men hurried back in. Their eyes were plain black, so Kaiden could tell they were non-users.
“Show them to their cells.” He paused and stared down at the dead boy. “And deal with that quickly.”
“Yes, boss.”
“We will, boss.”
—-----------
They were hauled up and marched through another passage. This one was lit properly now with flaming torches.
The passage led into a building, and down a flight of stairs. And then they were herded into a long cell, the doors shut close behind them.
“You lot are lucky,” Dask said, as he removed the keys. “Last bunch he bought all died off on the first night. You might yet survive tomorrow.”
Orrin dropped plates of bread and stew through the bars, then they both left.
Nobody moved or said anything for the first few seconds.
Then Felip muttered, “They killed Werlyn.”
“It was that…that thing. That beast,” Roden said in a broken voice. “And they're…they're…they're gonna throw us back in.”
“Oh gods.”
“You killed that boar,” Garrick said to Kaiden.
“What? I…I don't know…”
“You did. With bones. How?”
Kaiden looked up. The other boys, including the frost-user, were staring at him, waiting.
“I just…moved. There was this light and these words in my head, but-”
He paused, when he realized how crazy he sounded. Who would believe him? He still didn't believe himself.
“Well, I hope whatever that was, it comes back tomorrow,” said the frost-user. He was the one with a scar on his face, and his hair was cropped short to his scalp.
Kaiden realized he was the one who sat next to the green-eyed boy, the verdant-user…who was killed by the boar.
“You knew him?” He asked quietly.
The pale boy scoffed. “Werlyn, Felipe and I were taken from the same village. Except, unlike you, we didn't have the luck to be unconscious.”
“Does it matter, Tylar?” Felipe groaned, slipping down to the floor, one hand pressed over his ribs, where Varax kicked him. “We're all gonna die.”
“No.” Garrick said it so quickly, that everyone stared at him. “We're not.”
“Are you fucking deaf?” said Tylar, the frost-user. “Didn't you hear what that man said in there?”
“I did,” Garrick replied steadily. “But I don't intend to die. Not here, not like this.”
“Neither do I.” The words left Kaiden's mouth before he could recall them.
Garrick nodded. “Okay. Good. We keep each other breathing. Tomorrow, whatever comes, we keep each other alive.”
“But…but how?” Roden whispered, from where he cowered on the floor.
“We stick together.”
“That's a bullshit plan,” Tylar snorted. “ I don't intend to die, sure. But I don't intend to play some survival game with any of you non-users either.”
He took up a bowl of bread and stew, crouched in a corner and ignored them all.
“Well, he's not a team player,” Kaiden mumbled.
“Neither are you,” Garrick replied quietly. “You killed that beast on your own, with mere bones. Either you have a secret we don't know, or the god of luck is on your side.”
Kaiden had no reply to that. All he could think of, were those words and that strange screen that had given him a quest.
He had seen words like those before, back on the battle field just before the soldiers had arrived. When he held that strange stone…
[HOST DETECTED][LEGACY TRANSFER COMMENCING….]
What did they mean? And just what was that stone he had grabbed in that battlefield?
Every user was born somewhere between levels 1 and 3, no matter their affinity. If anyone wanted to go any higher, it would require years of training and techniques that were taught in only specific academies throughout the empire.
Unless you found an affinity stone. Attune one properly, and you could leap clean past all of that.
‘But affinity stones don't work on non-users.’
That was the part that didn't fit. Everyone knew that a non-user remained a non-user.
‘So why did it work on me? Why did it come with odd words, and a light screen, and new abilities like sharpened instincts and increased strength? Was that why the soldiers were looking for it?’
Carefully, he tried to bring the panel back.
‘Light,’ he thought. Nothing.
‘Uh…Screen? Show me…Come. Appear.’
Nothing, nothing, nothing.
He leaned back into the cold wall, frustration creeping up his spine.
‘Status?’
The panel answered at once, glowing in the dark.
Kaiden jerked back, as it floated into his vision.
[STATUS]NAME: KAIDEN
XP: 50
AFFINITY: BEAST (Lv. 3)
STR: 5
VIT: 5
PER: 5
AGI: 5
CTRL: 5
REWARD POINTS: 5
‘Beast affinity? Level 3? What does this mean?’As if it could read his thoughts, the words reformed:
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU COMPLETED THE EMERGENCY QUEST.
THE SOVEREIGN SYSTEM HAS GRANTED YOU THE BEAST AFFINITY, LV. 3]
Previous Chapter
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CHAPTER EIGHT
The jackals had to be at least three feet tall, with dark orange eyes that almost glowed. And those eyes were fixed on Kaiden. They didn't circle the five boys or even glance at Roden, who was whimpering loud enough for the whole pit to hear.Kaiden stepped back, then took another step to the left, away from the others. The jackals’ still stared at him, crouching and creeping forward. Then he blinked and the two jackals lit up in his vision with a thin red outline, as if someone had traced them in blood.[PASSIVE SKILL ACTIVATED: PREDATOR'S SENSE][HOSTILE INTENT DETECTED]“They're coming for you,” Garrick called out. “Yeah, I noticed.”Almost like his voice was a trigger, the red outline around the left jackal pulsed brighter. Half a second later, its haunches bunched. Kaiden threw himself sideways, and the creature hit the stone where he had been standing, claws screeching against stone.The crowd roared and cheered.Before he could rise, the second one launched at him too. Kaid
CHAPTER SEVEN
“What?” Felipe blurted. “Do not kill the beasts,” Varax repeated, shifting his gaze to Kaiden. “I doubt that you would be able to do so, anyway. But just in case any one of you gets the idea, do not.” “He’s trying to manipulate the bets in his favor,” Kaiden said to Garrick. “People would be betting that the beasts would be killed, but if we don’t kill any…”“He makes a win,” Garrick completed.“So…we just stand there…and get killed?” Tylar asked in disbelief. “Run, hide, dodge, but you will not kill the beasts.” Varax straightened, his bushy brows lifting slightly. “If you do, you will meet a terrible fate at my hands.”Roden whimpered something, and Garrick shook his head. “I don’t understand. Why not just kill us and get it over with?” Varax turned towards him, a sinister smile on his lips. “Without getting a bit of money out of it? where’s the fun in that?” He clapped his hands. Orrin and Dask returned, ordering the boys to follow them. They spent most of the afternoon doin
CHAPTER SIX
Kaiden stared at the panel, without blinking, until his eyes hurt. [CONGRATULATIONS, YOU COMPLETED THE EMERGENCY QUEST.THE SOVEREIGN SYSTEM HAS GRANTED YOU THE BEAST AFFINITY, LV. 3]“Garrick,” he said, keeping his voice low. “Do you see that thing? In front of my face?”Garrick looked up from his bowl. He looked at the air in front of Kaiden, then back at Kaiden himself. “See what?”“There's like…a screen…a blue screen, with writing on it.” “What?” Garrick chewed slowly. “No. What does it say?”Kaiden opened his mouth to speak, but paused. What would he say? ‘There’s a screen that only I can see, with words that only I can see, that gives me powers that I wasn't born with.’No, that was insane. Stark, raving mad. “Nothing,” he said. “Forget it. I'm just tired.”Garrick’s eyes narrowed in the dim light, but he didn't say a word and went back to his stew. Kaiden sank back against the wall, still staring at the panel. He shut his eyes and pictured the panel going out, Iike a can
CHAPTER FIVE
Light flooded the pit all at once, torches catching with fire along the walls where unseen hands had lit them from above, and Kaiden flinched hard against the sudden brightness of it.When his eyes adjusted, he wished the place just remained dark. The Ridgeback boar lay where he'd left it, bigger than he had imagined. Its back was rigged with plates, and its hide was dark with its own blood. A few feet from it, a human body lay still, with the dampeners still around his wrists. Kaiden remembered the scream he had heard earlier, followed by the silence.‘oh gods. He's-’ Kaiden made himself look away before his mind could finish the thought.The gates swung open and two men walked in. They were not masked like the Reavers and they did not have any eye color, but they wore dirty leather aprons and looked bored with their work. Then their eyes fell on the dead boar and they looked surprised. “They actually killed it…” said the taller one. “Incredible…” “Well, Orrin, you owe me a si
CHAPTER FOUR
They were marched through a maze of narrow passages, still chained and cuffed. Kaiden stared around, trying to remember the paths they were taking. But it was almost impossible; every turn looked the same. And it was getting darker, like wherever they were going, there was no sunlight. “Stop,” growled the flame-user. The six boys halted almost immediately . They were now in a large square, where few people moved about, wearing cloaks and dirty clothes. Here, the sunlight was completely blotted out by tarpaulin covers. “Who is that?” someone muttered to Kaiden's left. He turned, just as a man stepped out of a dark alley. He was tall and broad, like their captors, but he didn't wear a mask like them. He was bald too, and he wore good leather boots, better than anything else he wore. "Varax," the flame-user said, by way of greeting. Varax didn't answer right away. He shifted his gaze to the boys, like a man would stare at livestock, then said, “You keep bringing me skinny things.”
CHAPTER THREE
A voice echoed in the darkness, deep and resonant, like stone grinding against stone.“Sovereign.”Kaiden’s eyes snapped open, to a clear blue sky.He blinked for a few seconds, before the odd feeling of movement came upon him. But he wasn't moving, not exactly. He was being carried on something that was moving. The realization came when he heard rolling wheels beneath him.“Where am I?”His voice hurt when he spoke. With a groan, he tried to sit up and was rewarded with sharp pain, running up the length of his chest and trunk.“Take it easy, man,” someone said. “You've been hurt pretty bad. It's a miracle you're even alive.”Miracle? Alive?Then he remembered the shock of getting zapped with lightning, and the last feeling he had was of life leaving his body.The pain was still there, but it had grown dull, far too dull. He stared down at himself. Dried blood still stained his rags and there were holes in his shirt, but…no scars on his body. No marks to show where the lightning had h
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