The cobbled streets of Noctera echoed with hooves and hushed deals. Stone buildings loomed on both sides, their jagged edges crowned with moss and iron balconies. The sky above was pale – gray, as if the sun had forgotten how to shine here.
In the shadows of this place, a child moved. He wasn't tall. He wasn't loud. He didn't smile. But he watched – always watching – with crimson eyes that saw far too much for someone so small. His black hair fell across his face like a curtain, but those eyes still burned through, his tattered clothes making him look like a beggar.
His name was Kev. He didn't belong in the light. Not anymore.
His neighbors called him cursed. Or worse – forgotten. But Kev never answered them. He simply existed in the cracks of Noctera, like the dust behind the stones, like a secret never told.
His mother had vanished after giving birth to a girl he barely remembered. His father and stepbrother? Gone. Left for a softer world, a richer woman. He had never heard from them again.
At six years old, most children in Noctera dreamed of becoming warriors or mages. Kev… dreamed of nothing.
Until the day the mark appeared. He was sitting alone behind the old stable, knees drawn to his chest, when he saw it. A faint, circular pattern glowing beneath his skin, pulsing like a heartbeat.
> [SYSTEM RECOGNIZED: USER "KEV"]
[AGE: 6 — EARLY TRIGGER DETECTED]
[PATH SELECT [PATH SELECTION INITIATED]
[AVAILABLE PATHS DISPLAYED BASED ON COMPATIBILITY]
He blinked as five ancient symbols spun before him. He couldn't read them – but something… pulled.
[WARRIOR PATH]
[MAGNUS PATH]
[ADVENTURER'S PATH]
[HUNTER'S PATH]
[??ORI??G?IN PATH]
To the last. As a child once raised by the Koral clan, he knew what the path represented, with the ADVENTURER being the deadliest but
> [PATH SELECTED: ADVENTURER]
[WARNING: SUBJECT IS BELOW AGE THRESHOLD]
[FORCED REALM RELOCATION INITIATED]
[LEVEL: UNREGISTERED]
The world shattered. Light bled through stone. The street collapsed beneath him like paper, and Kev fell – not just down, but away.
He didn't scream. He only stared, wide-eyed, into the black.