The afternoon light bled through the trees where I stood waist-deep in the stream, water sliding over my skin while the forest pretended nothing happened.
The smoke had thinned out, and even the birds had started singing again.
I'd already downed two Grade-8 healing potions.
So the pain was gone now, and the burns were just pink patches on my skin, even the hair was back. Black, wet, and long enough to stick to my neck.
But my eyes? Yeah, no potion's fixing that.
Still carrying something that same glint that shouldn't be in a human gaze.
I scooped water into my hands and let it run down my head, watching my reflection twist in the ripples.
The face staring back at me was calm… a little too calm.
Sixteen lives I had taken less than an hour ago.
The vice-captain Laro was the first.
Then finished off the rest with a stab through the chest with my spear.
And each death came with that same sound.
That perfect little ding.
And every single time it hit, I felt it that little rush under my skin, that spark of something hot and wrong that I couldn't name.
And I smiled through it.
God help me, I actually smiled the whole time.
I dragged my palm down my face, smearing water over my eyes, but the reflection kept staring as though alive.
"They didn't deserve it," I muttered, voice low as the current. "Not all of them… at least, I think they didn't."
All that replied to me was that quiet rush of water, brushing against me, and stone like it was trying to wash away more than just blood and grime
I stared down at the broken reflection again and whispered, "How far are you willing to go?"
The answer came before the ripples even settled.
[As far as it takes.]
While the reflection just stared back, now smiling while I stared right back at it until I couldn't tell whose grin came first.
And the forest went quiet again.
Even the water seemed to hush as I stepped out, droplets running down my shoulders and dripping into the dirt.
I pulled a towel from the inventory and wiped away the last traces of any soot and blood, the cloth coming away darker than before, before vanishing again in a flash of blue.
A thought later, clean clothes formed in its place.
White shirt, black pants, dark brown boots. The same ones as before. Simple, practical, and almost too clean for what I'd become.
I dressed in silence.
Each button, each pull of fabric over skin, felt like putting some kind of armor back on.
When I finally looked back again, the stream caught my reflection.
The grin was still there. Calm, clean, and ready.
And Arlen Hale smiled right back.
I willed the status open, and the blue panel flickered into view.
{Protocol: Chronos}
Name: Arlen Hale
Race: Human
Circuits: 2
Affinity: Time, Red Lightning
Level: 7 / 100
XP: 183 / 1,708
Status: Normal
Stat Points: 7
Stats
STR: 1
AGI: 1
EDU: 1
MP: 1
MP Regen: 0.1/sec
LCK: 1
Magic
Red Lightning Reinforcement (Epic) (Active) (Min. 5 MP/sec) (7 Circuits for Optimal Function)
Skills
Precognition (Legendary) (Active) (Min. 2 MP/sec) (2 Circuits for Optimal Function)
Gear: Crossbow (Heirloom), Partisan Spear (Rare), Laro's Sword (Common)
Credits: 345
Tabs
[Shop] [Inventory] [Map] [Crafting]
Laro had been worth two hundred EXP.
And his fifteen men were a hundred each.
That made seventeen hundred total.
Then the quest reward had kicked in.
2X exp on every kill.
And 3400 EXP later, I was level 7 with 7 stat points to spend.
I couldn't help but grin.
The sight of those little glowing numbers sent that same stupid giddy thrill through me I used to get when reading late-night isekai novels back on Earth.
Only this time, it wasn't someone else's story.
I wasn't reading about the protagonist anymore.
I was that protagonist in some fantasy world, about to dump points into my own damn status screen.
"Really wish you'd shown up sooner," I muttered under my breath. "Maybe Mother would still be alive… No, make that absolutely"
And with a thought, I sent all seven points straight into MP.
The numbers blinked once before…
MP: 36.
And a second later, warmth began to stir in my gut. Faint at first, like a pulse.
Then it spread.
Heat gushed through my chest and limbs, seeping into every corner of me until it felt like I was under a thick blanket on a winter night.
Then came the sudden vertigo, like falling while standing still. My knees almost gave out as the whole world spun, then settled.
And when it did, I could feel it.
It thrummed in my stomach, alive, restless, and coiling beneath my skin like it had always been there, waiting for me to remember how to breathe it into motion.
It felt strange. Foreign yet familiar.
Like a limb I'd just realized was mine.
I tried moving it through my body.
And it followed.
The grin stretched wider across my face before I even realized it had.
I willed a bit of it toward my right hand, and it flowed like warmth beneath my skin, coiling through muscle and vein until it reached my palm.
And a beat later, soft gold haze leaked out between my fingers, shimmering, almost alive before fading into the air like dust catching sunlight.
I glanced at the screen.
MP: 35 / 36.
I stopped the flow immediately, cutting the connection before it drained more.
Still, the sensation lingered. Of that faint buzz under the skin, and the warmth curling through my veins.
[This is so cool.]
The thought came out before I could stop it, and my grin only widened as my eyes drifted toward the list of abilities.
Two names blinked back at me. Red Lightning Reinforcement and Precognition.
"Let's test these out," I murmured.
I needed no chants or hand signs.
I knew on an instinctual level how to activate and use them.
I needed just a thought, and it answered.
{Skill Activated: Precognition}
{MP Consumption: 2 MP/sec}
The world shifted instantly.
I blinked, and suddenly the world wasn't so random anymore.
The rustle of the leaves above me wasn't chance; I knew exactly how they would sway before the wind even touched them.
I turned my gaze to the stream and threw a stone in it, and before it could break the surface, I saw the ripples it would make.
Every motion, every sound, unfolded twice: once in the mind, and once in the world.
My cognition wasn't any faster. Everything else was simply predictable yet still beautiful in its inevitability.
"Precognition…" I whispered, the word rolling out half disbelief, and half reverence. "This is it running on bare minimum… with just two MP a second."
I exhaled, steadying my breath, eyes narrowing as I thought of what it would become when I could actually use it.
"What's it gonna be like," I muttered, "If I shoved in more than just 2MP/sec?"
"Legendary indeed."
I held it for five seconds before shutting it down.
{Skill Deactivated.}
My vision flickered back to normal, colors dulling, movement returning to chaos.
The forest was just a forest again.
MP: 25 / 36.
"Now for Red Lightning Reinforcement," I said as I stepped toward a thick tree.
The moment I willed it, the mana in my gut stirred before flowing outward in smooth, pulsing waves, before twisting into something else entirely.
A low crackle filled the air. Then another.
My hair lifted slightly, rising with static as thin arcs of red lightning crawled across my skin.
The ground beneath my feet hissed where I stood as small scorch marks bloomed.
And then came the rush.
A rush of unbridled power floods through my limbs, accompanied by adrenaline.
The world itself seemed to have slowed; every grain of bark on the trunk in front of me stood out in its every intricate detail.
While the hand I raised trembled not from fear, but from too much energy as I pressed a single finger to the bark.
-FZZZT!
The contact alone sent cracks spiderwebbing out from my fingertip in a glowing red and smoldering expansion the size of a plate
The snapping hiss of something being split apart at its core hit first, and then came the smell of burning wood.
I could feel the vibration crawl up my arm as I gave that finger a light push and watched it drill deeper into the trunk.
And my grin widened.
"Now let's try something different...."
Heat pooled in my forearm as I clenched my fist.
And then I drove it forward.
-THARD!
The trunk exploded in a burst of lightning and splinters as my casual punch blasted a manhole-sized hole clean through the wood.
For a heartbeat, the tree just hung there with its insides smoldering.
Then, with a groan, it started to fall.
Straight toward me.
Instinct kicked in.
And I moved with everything I had.
But with Red Lightning roaring through my body, my everything wasn't mortal anymore.
The dirt detonated beneath my feet as I shot sideways like a launched spear.
Right into the stream.
And the second my body hit the water-
-ZZZZT!
A crimson web erupted across the surface, lighting the stream like a field of veins while every fish within its reach convulsed once before floating belly-up.
And there I lay there half-submerged, chest heaving, watching the last sparks fade off my skin as I cut the magic.
The silence after that was almost pitiful.
Just water dripping, steam rising, and the faint stench of ozone still hanging in the air.
I wiped the water from my face and laughed, breathless, a little shaky, but full.
"That… was intense."
Popping the status open again, I glanced at the numbers.
MP: 7 / 36.
I sighed. "Figures."
With a low groan, I pushed myself upright and stepped out of the stream. For the third damn time today.
Cold water clung to my clothes, trailing down in thin rivulets that dripped onto the dirt while my shirt clung to my chest like wet paper.
"And now my clothes are wet," I muttered.
As if on cue, my stomach let out a long, miserable growl.
[Right. I had barely eaten anything since last night.]
And even then, it wasn't much.
Half a rat roasted over a dying fire before I'd tossed it aside, too distracted by the discovery of my Time affinity to bother with something as trivial as hunger.
But now?
Now it hit like a punch to the gut.
[Does the system have food?]
The thought drifted up half-serious, and the interface hummed awake in response, faint blue light spreading in front of me.
"Worth a shot," I muttered.
My intent hovered over the search field for half a second before instinct typed it for me.
[Search: Steak]
The panel blinked once, then filled my vision.
{Wagyu Steak - Prime Grade}
Marbled to perfection. Aged forty days. Seared in herbed butter.
Cost: 2 Credits.
I blinked.
"…That cheap?"
My mouth actually watered.
"Well... I'm never going hungry again…," I said, grinning, wide, almost boyish.
I tapped the order three times, unable to stop the stupid smile spreading across my face.
{Purchase Complete. Items added to Inventory.}