The announcement did not feel real.
Aiden stared down at the floating screen in front of him, reading the words again and again while his knees forgot how to hold him up. He sat down hard in the ash, more surprised by the tears on his face than by the fall itself.
They were not loud, messy tears. They were the quiet kind that slipped out before a person understood what had cracked open inside them.
The others gathered around him one by one. None of them said anything for a moment. They just sat there, breathing, aching, and trying to understand the fact that they were still alive.
20,000 XP has been awarded to each party member
You have leveled up 4 -> 6
HP 16 -> 20
MP 56 -> 65
Int 24 -> 30
Party member Kaelen leveled up 3 -> 6
Party member Liora leveled up 5 -> 6
Party member Selene leveled up 5 -> 7
Party leader Jax leveled up 4 -> 6
"Fuck yeah," Jax said in a weary voice as he flopped down into the ash. "We broke level five."
Aiden had a very small, very distant desire to stay clean that tried to nag at him. That desire was easily defeated by exhaustion, relief, and the dizzying euphoria of not being dead.
He lay down beside Jax and stared up at the smoke-stained sky.
"Okay," Kaelen said, lowering himself down beside them, "please tell me I was not the only one seeing constant notifications during that fight. It felt like the system was giving me a play-by-play."
"Oh, thank the gods," Liora said, dropping onto the ground. "I thought I was seeing things."
"That was me," Jax said, grinning as if he had not nearly died minutes ago. "I read in an adventuring tips book that the party leader can edit settings like that. Apparently high-level adventurers use it all the time so everyone knows what is happening."
"Well, tell us before you start messing with settings!" Liora snapped. "It was distracting."
"It was a bit distracting," Selene agreed.
She lowered herself down slowly, moving like every inch of her body was sore, which was probably because it was.
Jax rolled over with a huff, facing away from them. "You all don't get to be angry with me right now. I almost died."
"We all almost died, you alcoholic furball!" Aiden, Kaelen, and Liora yelled at the same time.
"Well, I got closer," Jax muttered.
Kaelen and Liora immediately started arguing with him, but Aiden felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned and saw Selene looking toward the body of the still-smoking Blood Trent.
The three ash spirits floated nearby, silently watching them. One held its taloned hand to its mouth in a way that looked almost like a chuckle.
The argument died as the others noticed them too.
"Um," Kaelen said, slowly sitting up. "Sorry about attacking you before. We didn't know about… well, this."
He gestured toward the Blood Trent.
The ash spirits said nothing. Instead, they clasped their hands as if tucking their large claws into nonexistent sleeves, then dipped their heads in a strange bow.
Two of the ash spirits began to dissolve into drifting black flakes. The one in the middle lingered a moment longer. It turned and pointed toward a spot in the wrecked shrine grounds before it too began to fade.
Aiden watched the last embers of their form disappear.
Then another notification appeared.
Ash Spirit (E) has dropped Spirit Ash (D)
Congratulations, you have reached level 5. Pick from the skills below.
Herbal Extracts (E)
Utility Solution (E)
Tonic of Clarity (E)
"Hey, guys," Aiden said, pointing at his system screen. "I just got something saying I need to pick a skill."
"Yeah," Liora said, opening her own system window. "Every five levels, you get a choice of three. Apparently every twenty levels you get a class evolution choice instead. For mine, I got Wind Cutter, Gale Step, and Air Shield. I picked Gale Step."
She turned her screen so the others could see.
"Can't wait to try out this Iron Fist skill once I get my Ki back," Jax said, stretching as he got up.
He immediately winced.
His wounds were healed, but apparently soreness still had a vote in the matter.
"If I wasn't also tapped out, I could help you with my new Filling Faith skill," Kaelen said with a chuckle.
Aiden glanced between them. They both seemed rather content with their choices, which made him turn back to his own selection with a cautious sort of hope.
Herbal Extracts (E) - Passive
Gain the ability to create concentrated extracts from herbs, making potions more potent. Potions using these extracts have increased effects, providing stronger support for healing, endurance, or resistance.
Utility Solution (E) - 15 MP
Brew a specialized solution with a unique utility, such as temporary night vision or water breathing. The potion lasts for 1 hour and can be tailored to specific needs, offering versatile support for different scenarios.
Tonic of Clarity (E) - 10 MP
Craft a tonic that enhances focus, granting improved performance on Intelligence or Wisdom-based checks for 1 hour. Ideal for allies requiring mental clarity during puzzles, negotiations, or complex spellcasting.
As Aiden read the list, he felt an odd pang of disappointment.
It was the same feeling he remembered from when he had first unlocked his class and realized he had not received a single combat skill. No fireball. No sword art. No miraculous alchemical explosion that could conveniently solve all his problems.
Just more potion work.
"Are you okay?" Selene asked quietly.
She had sat up beside him and was looking over the skills with him.
"Just a little disappointed with the selection," Aiden admitted, rereading them in case some hidden fourth option had decided to appear out of pity.
It had not.
Selene gave him an awkward pat on the back.
"Without your potions, we would have all died. Just because they are not flashy does not mean they are not vital."
With that, she stood and walked toward the spot the ash spirits had pointed to. A small bag sat there among the wreckage, filled with the Spirit Ash the system had mentioned.
Aiden looked back at his screen.
Herbal Extracts was not flashy. It would not let him punch trees in half, sprint through the air, or call down divine fire. But Aiden had never been flashy before, and somehow, he had still helped everyone survive.
He selected Herbal Extracts.
The system window closed.
When Aiden looked around, Selene was holding her arms out, only now seeming to realize how completely covered in ash they all were. Jax and Kaelen sat together in the ash, kicking up small clouds as they compared their new stats. Liora, on the other hand, was pulling bits and pieces of wreckage from the ruined shrine.
"Did you drop something?" Aiden asked, walking over and peering down at where she was digging.
"I'm trying to see if that logbook we saw before is still intact," Liora said, heaving a large rock out of the way.
Aiden was not sure why she was so focused on that now, but he crouched down and started helping her move debris.
"Just curious about how the Blood Trent got here, or?"
Liora stopped and stared at him.
"What do you remember about ash spirits?"
Aiden blinked in surprise.
He thought back to the book he had read in the library. Maybe it was his imagination, but the increase to his Intelligence made the memory feel sharper, like someone had wiped dust from a window.
"Well," he said slowly, "they are created when someone dies in a fire with a strong desire to do something. They usually exist to finish that last thing. Why?"
Liora went back to digging.
"Because they were people. People who had lives, legacies, and names. They gave up going to the afterlife and were trapped in monstrous forms, spending every waking moment holding back that demented tree so the people in the city and the travelers on this mountain had a chance to stop it before ordinary people couldn't."
She shoved another broken board aside.
"The least we can do is give them a grave."
Aiden sat there in stunned silence.
She was right.
They had been celebrating their victory, their levels, their plates, and their survival. But none of them would have reached that victory without the ash spirits. If those spirits had done nothing, there would have been no quest. Aiden would have kept living on the mountain, unaware of the cancerous tree spreading only a few miles away from his home.
If they had not burned the ash circle, Jax and Aiden never would have gone to the library to learn what ash spirits were.
If they had not intervened at the last moment, everyone would be dead.
Aiden joined Liora in digging.
Soon Selene helped too.
Then Jax.
Then Kaelen.
None of them said much after that.
They dug through the broken shrine until they finally found the hidden book. It had been damaged badly. Many of its pages were withered, crumbling, or soaked through with old blood. Most of the writing inside was illegible.
But tucked inside the front cover, hidden behind damaged leather binding, was a folded letter.
Liora carefully pulled it free and read aloud.
To those who would find this letter,
If you're reading this, you've stumbled upon the very first page of our brand-new logbook for this little, out-of-the-way shrine. My name is Quill, and I run things here after inheriting the shrine from my mother, alongside two of my favorite people in all the lands: my wife, Danna, and my brother, Leon.
You'll see us in that tiny sketch I drew just below. Yes, I know. Leon says I gave him too much hair, and Danna claims I missed her best side. But I hope our smiles shine through anyway.
Why did I leave this silly little doodle in a secret spot? Well, we found that the old logbook, after almost one hundred years of use, was breaking and getting full. We were going to simply rebind it with new leather and pages, but hidden inside it was a heartfelt time-capsule note from a family who once watched over this shrine before us.
Their words warmed our hearts and made us feel like we had connected with those from far in the past. So we thought, why not do the same for whoever comes next?
We may not get many visitors, but this shrine has stood for generations, through storms, celebrations, and everything in between. Whether you are a wandering traveler taking shelter or someone carrying on our work long after we are gone, we hope our scribbles here make you smile.
And if you find yourself craving a bit of quiet, feel free to sit by the lantern out front and watch the fireflies come out at dusk. Danna likes to say they have all the gossip of the forest, and if Leon is snoring in the corner, well, that is just his way of saying he is comfortable around you.
Take care of yourself and of this place if you can. We might not be famous or fearless knights, but we have poured our hearts into these walls. Our wish is that the warmth we shared here can be passed on to you.
With a cheerful wave from the three of us,
Quill, Danna, and Leon
When Liora finished reading, she passed the letter around.
The doodles of the three shrine keepers were drawn in a small corner of the page, separate from each other, as if Quill had drawn them one at a time.
One showed a woman with short hair and a long dress smiling as she swept with a broom. That had to be Danna.
Next to her was a muscular man with a beard flexing his arms, wearing a goofy grin and holding a wink frozen in time.
The last drawing was more modest. It showed a man wearing large glasses and a fancy robe, drawn as if he had been staring into a puddle to check his own features.
Quill.
The letter was passed around quietly, then folded back into its original shape with more care than the brittle paper probably needed.
Kaelen turned to the rest of them.
"I do not know your religious alignments or customs, but may I ask all of you to assist me in a prayer to the Hearthqueen?"
Everyone nodded.
Kaelen had them kneel in a line before the wrecked shrine. The air was still warm from the battle, but the silence that settled over them felt almost sacred.
Kaelen bowed his head.
"Oh Mother of Love and Family, this servant of your will seeks your assistance once more. A great home has been extinguished. One that stood for generations. Its inhabitants were snuffed out by cruelty and abandonment, and yet they sought to preserve the love, lives, families, and homes of others even as they watched their own fall."
His voice softened.
"Please guide these wandering souls to the embrace of In'rack, so they may finally rest after serving others over themselves."
They sat in silence after the prayer.
Then Aiden felt a slight breeze against his back.
He turned.
The others did too.
A figure stood behind them.
At first glance, it looked monstrous. There was no other word for it. It had cloven feet and a tall, lanky body. Its hips connected to its chest by a visible bony spine, around which a snake coiled like a living cord. Its head resembled a skull with antlers protruding from it.
And yet, somehow, the figure did not feel monstrous at all.
Its presence was gentle.
It felt like a soothing mother listening to a child talk about a bad day. Like someone who would sit beside sorrow and not interrupt.
The figure looked at them and gave a gentle nod.
Then it held out one hand, as if offering it to someone unseen, and began to walk away.
Aiden could not see the souls of Quill, Danna, and Leon.
But somehow, he knew they were walking with it.
The figure faded.
Kaelen bowed his head low.
"This servant is honored to have had their words heard."
Jax stared at the place where the figure had been.
"That looked monstrous, but they didn't… feel monstrous?"
He turned to Kaelen for an explanation.
"That was In'rack," Kaelen said. "The god of souls and history. It is said that when someone dies, In'rack finds their soul and walks them to the afterlife while listening to their life story. That way, they may be remembered by future generations. His priests write those stories down and store them in a grand library called the Hall of Ancestors."
No one said anything for a while after that.
They spent the next hour gathering materials from outside the ash zone to make proper burial grounds. They did not know Quill, Danna, or Leon's religion, so they used the funeral rites of Freyungen. Kaelen guided them in building a large stone fireplace where the remains would be placed, with a fire built around it.
By the time they finished the rites, darkness had settled over the mountain.
Twelve full hours had passed since they had woken up that morning. They had planned, fought, nearly died, dug through a ruined building, and prepared funeral rites as best they could.
All that remained was weariness.
They did not care that they were covered in ash. They returned to Aiden's cabin, found whatever floor space was available, and collapsed.
Within seconds, the others were snoring.
Aiden stayed awake.
He lay on his back, staring up at the roof of his cabin as his mind turned over everything that had led to this point.
The pain.
The fear.
The struggle.
The perseverance.
What it actually meant to be an adventurer.
He thought back to his grandfather telling him that adventuring was not something a person did halfheartedly. His grandfather had been right. Aiden could have died today. He had been close.
But as he lay there and closed his eyes, he thought about what they had achieved.
They had helped three tireless protectors of the mountain finally rest.
They had uncovered a whole other world that had existed only a few miles from his home, and Aiden had never known about it.
They had seen proof that Quill, Danna, and Leon would be remembered.
And as sleep finally began to pull him under, Aiden thought to himself,
So this is what it means to be an adventurer.