The second morning came with soft light spilling through the dorm window. Thin ribbons of mist curled over the training fields below, drifting lazily before the sun began to burn them away.
Rin sat on the edge of his bed, eyes fixed on the faint shimmer floating above his palm.
For two days, the system inside him had remained silent, updating itself in the background. He'd almost gotten used to the quiet almost.
Then, a faint tone rang in his mind.
[System Update Complete.]
[Initializing new parameters.]
[Welcome back, Rin.]
The familiar words unfolded in the air before him.
He exhaled slowly. "You're finally awake."
No voice replied, only the quiet hum of energy that followed. The interface pulsed once, dim and green instead of the usual silver-blue.
[Adaptive Interface Online.]
[Flux Analysis Core — Installed.]
[Synchronization Level: 1%.]
Rin frowned. Flux?
That word shouldn't have appeared. He had no root no connection to any flux element, according to every test the academy had done. Yet, here it was, written plainly in the system's new data.
He closed his eyes, focusing inward. A faint warmth stirred in his chest, moving like a slow heartbeat. For an instant, he saw it threads of green light twisting beneath his skin before fading again.
It was weak, fragile, but real.
The same rhythm he'd seen in his dream.
Morning Routine
He moved through the motions of the day quietly washing up, tying his uniform, and stepping out into the corridor that buzzed with voices.
Students passed by in groups, still talking about the Outer Circle Hunt from two days ago. Some bragged about rare cores; others complained about injuries or lost points.
No one paid Rin much attention. To most, he was just that student from the system division the one who glitched during the Flux Dome test and somehow didn't register any flux root afterward.
"Hey, Rin," someone called as he passed. "Did your system ever fix itself?"
He gave a faint nod. "Work...ing ...on.... it."
The student shrugged, uninterested, and walked away.
Rin didn't mind. The fewer people who asked questions, the better.
At the Training Dome
The academy's combat dome was a giant ring of reinforced glass and glowing sigils that pulsed with controlled flux. Inside, instructors monitored students as they measured and refined their energy output.
Rin stepped through the door just as the morning test session began.
Rows of crystal pedestals stood in the center, each linked to the academy's system grid. One by one, students placed their hands on the slabs as readings lit up above them bright blue for elemental flux, golden for spirit-type users, violet for hybrid channels.
When Rin's turn came, a few curious glances followed him.
"Still trying even without a root?" one student whispered to another.
"Yeah, I heard his system doesn't even register flux patterns."
Rin ignored them and stepped forward. The instructor an older man with steel-gray hair and a sharp gaze looked at him briefly, checking the roster.
"Rin. System division, unrooted," the instructor muttered. "All right. Proceed with a basic resonance test."
Rin placed his palm on the cool surface.
For a moment, nothing happened. The crystal stayed dim, and he almost pulled his hand away then his system flickered to life.
[Flux field detected.]
[Calibrating resonance—]
A faint green glow bled through the crystal. The slab trembled softly, reacting to something it shouldn't have been able to sense.
The instructor leaned forward, frowning. "Strange… resonance spike?"
Before he could investigate further, the light vanished, and the crystal went completely dark again.
The readings on the display flickered erratically before returning to zero.
"System interference," the instructor decided after a pause. "You can step back, Rin."
Rin nodded quietly and moved aside. His heart was still racing.
Inside his mind, the system spoke again.
[Synchronization Level: 4%.]
He almost smiled.
Whatever was happening inside him it was growing stronger, and no one else had noticed.
After the Test
Outside the dome, sunlight spilled across the walkways. Rin sat beneath the shadow of a flux tree, its translucent leaves glowing faintly in the wind.
He replayed the system message in his mind, trying to make sense of it.
The system wasn't just evolving it was learning. It had integrated flux analysis directly into its function, something that shouldn't be possible for an unrooted student.
"Flux without a root…" he muttered. "That shouldn't exist."
And yet, he'd seen it the faint green light, the pulse that matched the forest dream.
He clenched his hand, remembering the jade shard and the warriors of light.
Maybe the system update wasn't random. Maybe it had awakened something that had been dormant all along.
A low hum filled his head again.
[Warning: Unknown flux signature detected.]
He stiffened. "Where?"
[Direction: East Quadrant. Near the barrier edge.]
The east quadrant… that area bordered the academy's outer protection field. Only upper-rank students or instructors were allowed near it.
But the signal the rhythm it was the same pattern he'd felt in his dream.
Rin stood without hesitation.
The Edge of the Barrier
The forest beyond the east grounds was quiet, heavy with the scent of moss and charged air. The ground was uneven here, shaped by old flux storms that had warped the terrain years ago.
He walked carefully, feeling the gentle vibration under his feet the hum of the barrier field that separated the academy from the outer zones.
The system's interface projected faint lines across his vision flux density readings, directional arrows, and trace markers.
He followed them until the forest opened into a small clearing.
At its center, half-buried in the soil, was a faint glow.
A shard smooth, translucent, and the color of deep jade.
Rin knelt, brushing dirt away from its surface. The shard pulsed faintly, like a heartbeat.
"The same light," he whispered.
The moment his fingers touched it, the air changed.
The flux field around him thickened, shimmering like ripples on water. The barrier hummed louder, bending the light in strange patterns.
[Caution: Energy density exceeds safe threshold.]
Before Rin could move, the light around the shard expanded, forming into a faint silhouette.
A figure took shape tall, graceful, its body composed entirely of flowing green energy. Its features were blurred, but its movements were deliberate and rhythmic, like a dance in tune with the wind.
Rin froze. He knew this presence the same warriors he had seen in his dream.
The figure raised its arm, and the flux around it swirled in perfect harmony. Without thinking, Rin mirrored the motion.
As he did, something inside him shifted. The energy in his body responded not mana, not system flux, but the same wild, natural rhythm as before.
Green light flickered along his arms, thin as threads of mist.
The air between him and the figure pulsed once, in unison.
[Synchronization Level: 10%.]
For a brief moment, he felt it completely the pulse of the forest, the breath of the world, the living current of flux moving through everything. It wasn't controlled or commanded; it simply existed, flowing freely, and he was part of it.
Then the vision trembled. The figure began to fade, breaking apart into motes of light that drifted away with the wind.
The shard in his palm dimmed, leaving behind only a faint warmth.
The forest fell silent again.
Return
When Rin finally returned to the dorms, dusk had already settled. The halls were quiet, most students still at dinner or evening training.
He sat by his bed, holding the jade shard under the lamp's light. Its glow was almost gone, but when he pressed his thumb against it, he could still feel a faint heartbeat slow and steady.
His system stirred once more.
[New Data Acquired.]
[Origin Trace: Verdant Core Fragment.]
[New Quest Initialized — "Echoes of the Verdant Order."]
[Objective: Discover the source of the Verdant Fragments.]
The words lingered in the air, calm and certain.
"Verdant Order…" Rin whispered. The phrase echoed through him like something half-remembered, half-dreamed.
He leaned back, staring at the ceiling.
The dream, the warriors, the jade shard it was all connected. His system hadn't malfunctioned; it had awakened to something ancient.
Something that the academy probably had no record of.
He closed his fingers around the shard, feeling its cool surface against his skin.
"I don't know what you are," he said quietly, "but I'll find out."
Outside, the wind brushed against the window, carrying with it the faint scent of the wild forests beyond the barrier. The night shimmered faintly with unseen light.
And deep inside Rin's body, the new rhythm of flux pulsed softly like a sleeping heart preparing to wake again.