Deep was taken aback. How could I read a language I was never taught?
Pushing the baffling question aside for the moment, he refocused his attention on the first radiant character chain suspended within his mind.
Path: Dragon of Order
Thou art the Dragon of Order. The master of laws. The Great Enforcer and Supreme Liberator.
An innate understanding surged into his brain, carrying far more than mere definitions. It was a profound resonance—a calling that felt both intimately familiar and bewilderingly alien. He grasped its essence on a visceral level, yet realized how much remained shrouded in mystery. Deeper exploration would clearly have to wait for another day.
Shifting his focus, he examined the second sequence of glyphs.
Innate spells: Observer of Law; Breaker of Law
Laws can't hide in front of your piercing gaze. Your eyes can see the tapestry of realities and your hands can unravel them.
Deep partially comprehended the weight of these abilities, though practical application would be essential to truly master their mechanics and scope.
Finally, he turned his thoughts to the last piece of the puzzle—his bloodline. As his mind grazed the concept, the majestic phantom of an ancient creature materialized within his consciousness. It was a colossal avian entity boasting an uncountable array of sweeping wings. It possessed the razor-sharp body of an eagle draped in luminescent golden feathers, crowned by the head of a dragon radiating inviolable majesty. Its staggering scale was so vast that his human mind strained just to comprehend it.
With a single, thunderous beat of its numerous wings, the surrounding void shattered into a cascading river of golden light before fading from view. The sheer speed of the mythical beast truly defied imagination.
The violent rush of realization jarred Deep out of his meditative trance, snapping his eyes wide open. As he looked back out into the room, the world appeared to have shifted entirely upon its axis. Faint, ethereal chains of shifting colors wove through the air around him, crossing and intertwining before occasionally collapsing into complex nodes and unfolding once more. The sight was breathtaking.
This was undoubtedly the manifestation of his new innate power: the Observer of Law.
Those spectral chains had to be the physical translation of reality's hidden rules. As he sat marveling at the mesmerizing spectacle, Velis's dry voice cut through the silence.
"So? Did you successfully access the name of your path?"
The bubble of wonder instantly burst, snapping Deep's attention away from the colorful tapestry and back toward his eccentric mentor. But the moment his gaze landed on Velis, a fresh wave of shock rendered him completely mute. To his newly augmented eyes, the red-haired man no longer looked entirely normal; instead, he resembled a gaping, absolute black hole. No mystical chains dared to approach his physical being, swerving away as though gripped by primal terror. Deep narrowed his eyes, profoundly unsettled by the sight.
"It says that I am the Dragon of Order," Deep answered carefully.
"Hm. I see, so that's your path," Velis mused. "Keep it to yourself. You shouldn't broadcast your exact path or your innate spells to anyone. Those details are intensely personal. If adversaries analyze their mechanics, they can easily exploit your weaknesses."
"I understand," Deep nodded. He could immediately see the catastrophic dangers of exposure. If people truly understood the heavy ramifications and cosmic significance of his spells, keeping them an absolute secret from everyone—even those closest to him—was a matter of survival.
"Now, let's discuss how you are going to repay me," Velis pivoted seamlessly to business.
Elaboration was unnecessary; Deep knew how this worked. Velis had lost a priceless asset because of him, which meant Deep was expected to offer an equivalent service or item to settle the debt. That was simply Velis's code—he was relentlessly precise when it came to favors and obligations. Years of working by his side had ingrained that reality into Deep's mind.
Deep shrugged resignedly. "How?"
"In addition to your usual duties as shopkeeper, you're going to start running specialized errands for me," Velis explained. "Certain clients cannot reach my shop directly. It will be your responsibility to travel out and facilitate transactions with them."
In light of the terrifying monster he had fought off earlier, Deep had a very different perspective on these so-called "clients." No wonder he had always thought them eccentric; he had previously had no inkling of how genuinely bizarre and lethal they truly were.
"It's going to be dangerous, isn't it?" Deep guessed grimly.
"Yes, far more hazardous than anything you've handled until now. You've stepped across the threshold into the mystical world, and nothing will ever be the same. You will constantly walk a tightrope of danger simply because your eyes are now open to truths ordinary humans can't perceive. Since that's your new reality, why not use it to clear your debt? At least under my banner, you'll have a safety net. Believe it or not, I'm considered quite a heavyweight in this underworld."
"I get it. I'll do it," Deep agreed after a brief, sobering internal debate. His recent brush with death had been a brutal wake-up call; aligning himself with Velis was undeniably the smartest survival strategy in this terrifying new paradigm. Besides, he harbored no illusions about having a real choice in the matter.
Even though Velis maintained a casual demeanor, the chilling sight of the broken laws swirling around him had left Deep deeply wary. Now that he knew real nightmares lurked in the dark, alienating his only powerful ally was out of the question. Furthermore, he could never truly say no to the man who had pulled him off the freezing streets and forged him into a functioning human being.
"Very well," Velis clapped his hands together and rose to his feet. "More importantly, you didn't just awaken—you somehow vaulted straight to the Perfected Mortal level. By doing so, you completely bypassed the initial, intermediary, and advanced stages. A massive leap I suspect is tied directly to your bloodline."
Velis paced across the creaking floorboards, casting analytical, appraising glances at the young man.
"Hmm. You're already formidable enough to handle those baseline errands," Velis muttered to himself.
Deep tuned out the evaluation, his gaze drifting back to the mesmerizing web of laws still lingering in his peripheral vision. The intricate tapestry was utterly hypnotic, making it dangerously easy to lose track of time.
"Are you even listening to me?" Velis snapped, breaking his concentration.
"Yes, yes, I'm listening," Deep sighed, dragging his attention back to his boss.
"Although you possess the raw strength for field work, you still don't know the first thing about manipulating mystic energy. That ignorance will get you killed the moment you clash with other mystics or entities. A rigorous training session is overdue. In two days, we are going to visit an old acquaintance of mine. He owes me a substantial favor and should be able to teach you the fundamentals."
"Mystic energy? What exactly is that?" Deep asked, curiosity overriding his fatigue.
"It's the very fuel you've been subconsciously drawing upon since your awakening. Mystics earn their name because, following their awakening, their bodies naturally generate a specialized energy capable of emulating natural or unnatural phenomena. The sheer volume and purity of this energy dictate a mystic's tier of power."
Deep quickly mapped the concept to a familiar framework, viewing it much like the mana pools found in video games.
"Your primary advantage lies in your hybrid heritage," Velis continued. "Pure mystical creatures can naturally absorb the mystic energies of a defeated foe, whereas ordinary mystics must rely entirely on arduous meditative refinement and rare resources to progress. Naturally, you inherited this predatory trait from your parent. It means your growth rate will easily outpace any standard mystic."
Deep wore a complicated expression, realizing just how little he truly understood about his own origins.
"Anyway, flooding your head with too much lore at once is counterproductive. Just remember: in two days, we travel. Since you're upright and breathing, I'm heading out. I have business to attend to—people to eliminate, the usual routine."
Without waiting for a reply, Velis's physical form simply dissolved into thin air, vanishing completely from the room.