Afternoon light drifted through the leaves in thin golden ribbons, warm enough to sting where the burns had once been.
The air smelled like water and sun-warmed bark… clean and simple, the kind of smell you never really notice until you've lived without it long enough.
I sat under a tree beside the stream, legs stretched out, my back pressed against the rough trunk with a plate stacked with three steaks on my lap.
{Wagyu Steak - Prime Grade.}
God bless the shop.
I cut into the first one, and the knife slid through like I was cutting into butter.
The smell hit me first with that heavy, rich scent of seared fat and herbs.
For a second, I just stared at it, at the juices bleeding across the plate, soaking into the edges.
My hands actually shook.
Then I took the bite.
And holy hell.
It was soft. Like it didn't even need to be chewed.
Every nerve in my mouth lit up at once, and I swear I almost forgot how to breathe for a second.
I didn't realize tears had started pricking my eyes until I blinked one down.
Five years.
Five years of stale bread, half-burnt rats, and rotten fruits scavenged from trash heaps.
Five years of chewing survival and calling it food.
And now this.
I ate slowly at first, like my brain needed to register that this wasn't a dream, that I wasn't going to wake up starving again.
But the first steak disappeared fast. Then the second.
By the time I was halfway through the third, I could feel it.
That warm, heavy weight settling in my stomach, the kind that tells you you're full.
I'd forgotten what that felt like.
I leaned back against the tree, fork still dangling between my fingers, and let the sunlight spill across my face.
For once, there was no Chief or his Son, no scorn of the villagers, no need to be on the constant lookout for someone throwing leftovers in the bin.
Just me.
Actual food.
And peace.
I laughed softly to myself in that weird, tired kind of laugh that sits somewhere between relief and disbelief.
"Heh," I murmured, staring at the plate. "I really had forgotten how it felt being full."
And a few beats later, the empty plates glimmered faintly before fading back into my inventory.
Clean clothes, a full stomach, and sunlight on my skin.
If I didn't know better, I'd almost call that happiness.
After savoring the aftertaste, I leaned back and took a long sip of water straight from the stream.
Then, with a thought, I popped the status open again.
[Protocol: Chronos]
Name: Arlen Hale
Race: Human
Circuits: 2
Affinity: Time, Red Lightning
Level:7 / 100
XP: 183 / 1,708
Status: Normal
Stat Points: 0
Stats
STR: 1
AGI: 1
EDU: 1
MP: 36 / 36
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)
Credits: 339
Tabs
[Shop] [Inventory] [Map] [Crafting]
It had been around 20 minutes since my little experiments.
"So basically at 0.1 per second," I muttered, half to myself, "I'd need six minutes to go from zero to full."
I exhaled, tracing the floating numbers with my eyes.
"Would love to drop a few points into regen," I said quietly, "but… no. It'd be smarter to focus entirely on raw MP for now."
At least until I can reliably maintain both Precognition and Red Lightning Reinforcement at the same time.
Running them together would push me to the edge of what a 2-circuit scrub like me should be able to handle.
Precognition alone let me predict attacks before they happened.
Red Lightning made sure they never got a second chance to try.
The problem was cost.
At their lowest functioning, combined, they'd burn through 7 MP per second.
Seven.
I glanced at my total again.
Thirty-six MP meant barely five seconds of uptime before I'm spent.
"Five seconds," I murmured.
Five seconds to dodge, strike, and whatever the hell else.
"Not nearly enough…"
I closed my eyes, mind spinning as fast as I could make it.
Every step so far had been huge, painful, bloody, and costly.
But I needed more…
"Five seconds today," I said under my breath, "and maybe ten tomorrow."
The thought made me grin.
I opened my eyes again and exhaled slow.
"Enough daydreaming…"
Time to check the last reward.
I pulled open the inventory, and there it was, glowing faintly between a small pouch of coins I'd looted off of Laro's men and Laro's sword.
{Enchantment: Auto-Repair (Rare)}
Not bad.
There was also another enchantment I got as a startup bonus.
With just a thought, I activated them both.
–Ding!
{Enchantment: Auto-Repair (Rare) Activated. You can find it under [Crafting → Enchantments]}
–Ding!
{Enchantment: Recall (Epic) Activated. You can find it under [Crafting → Enchantments]}
"Okay… so basically little perks I can slap onto my stuff," I muttered, popping open the Crafting tab.
Enchantments was the only category there.
Going into it, I found both listed neatly, glowing faint blue.
I clicked on Auto-Repair first.
{Enchantment: Auto-Repair (Rare)}
Description: Binds to any piece of gear, clothing, or armor. Repairs damage by consuming user-fed mana.
Mana Cost: Varies depending on damage severity and item type, and rarity.
Crafting Requirements: Mystic Iron Dust ×10, Troll Blood 10 ML, Arcane Residue ×1.
"Okay… that's useful," I murmured. "Pick a favorite weapon, and I'll never have to worry about breaking it again. Will save me a fortune on blacksmiths."
Then I checked Recall.
{Enchantment: Recall (Epic)}
Description: Binds to a chosen weapon or tool. Allows retrieval when willed. The item will fly through the air and return to the user's grasp regardless of distance.
Mana Cost: Scales with distance and travel velocity.
Crafting Requirements: Mythril Dust 150 Grams, Obsidian Snake's Core ×1, Arcane Residue ×3.
Warning: Excessive speed may cause harm to the user.
I whistled low.
"That's absurdly useful…"
I flicked the panel closed and leaned back against the tree, rubbing my neck.
"I killed fifteen early-stage Tier Ones and a mid-stage one to hit Level 7," I muttered.
"To hit the two-fifty mark… what, am I gonna have to reach Level fifty? Maybe sixty?"
Then it hit me.
My voice trailed off.
The grin faded.
And my stomach dropped just a little.
"Wait…"
I looked at the numbers on my status again.
At that tiny glowing line across the top of the panel.
Level: 7 / 100.
That was it.
A hard cap.
"Shit."
I stared blankly for a moment, doing the math in my head.
Even if I dumped everything into MP.
Every single point from here to Level 100. I'd barely hit five hundred MP, give or take.
Five hundred.
Red Lightning Reinforcement alone costs 5 MP a second just to stay active at the bare minimum.
That meant even maxed out, I could only run it for a hundred seconds, assuming I used nothing else.
My throat went dry.
"That's… bullshit," I whispered.
And then -
- Ding!
A new message blinked across the interface.
{Note: MP Capacity, MP Cap, and MP Gain per Stat Point increase with each additional Circuit integrated. They can also be expanded through Bloodline Integration.}
I read it once.
Then again.
And a third time, just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
"Wait… you're serious?"
I let out a breath that sounded like half a laugh. "Guess I gotta make Circuits a top priority, then… Which they already were…"
Before I could blink.
–Ding!
{Would you like to mark "Circuits" or "Bloodline" as suggestions for future quest rewards?}
I froze.
My head tilted slightly, brow furrowing.
"…Wait what? I can mark the stuff I need… and you'll just, what, throw them at me as quest rewards? And I can talk to you?!"
{For quests appropriate to the reward, yes.}
I blinked again.
"You didn't answer the second question," I muttered. "Anyway, mark Circuits! Definitely Circuits!"
–Ding!
{Circuits marked as 'Suggested Rewards'. Would you also like to add a Bloodline?}
My pulse quickened.
Bloodline.
I've read enough novels to know what that meant.
I could already imagine myself as some Divine Dragon Bloodline dude, commanding a storm of red lightning with a wave of my hand.
I could already picture mother's face when I bring her back and she sees me with a horn growing out of my head
I could already picture my enemies…
-Ding!
A system notification came without a message, snapping me out of my dreams.
"Yes!" I said instantly.
The air shimmered faintly as the shop unfolded again.
Panels slid across the space before me like pages turning themselves.
A new tab blinked at the top.
[Bloodlines Available]
Rows of glowing names scrolled down the interface, each one pulsing with faint color-coded light.
[Bloodline: Crimson Storm Serpent (Epic)]
Origin: Eastern Serpent Deity, once worshipped as the Sky's Wrath. Grants resistance to elemental lightning, enhanced control over lightning, and allows movement through storm currents.
Price: 12,000,000 Credits.
[Bloodline: Thunderclad Wyrm (Legendary)]
Origin: Ancient subterranean wyrm that devoured storms in the sky. Massively increases mana conduction rate and physical stats. Grants innate spell "Static Devour."
Price: 48,000,000 Credits.
[Bloodline: Raijin's Heir (Mythic)]
Origin: Divine fragment of the Thunder God himself.
Full synchronization with all lightning affinities. The body becomes a natural mana conductor capable of manipulating lightning on instinct, granting absolute control over lightning.
Allows limited access to Divine Lightning.
Grants a Massive boost to total MP and Regen rate.
Grants 10th Circuit. And a Divine Core.
Grants a medium boost to physical stats.
Price: 1,000,000,000 Credits.
[Bloodline: Lightning Dragon Emperor (Mythic)]
Origin: Primordial Lightning Dragon, ruler of the Sky Sea.
Grants a massive increase to all physical stats, Full Human-Draconic Physiology, Dragon Eye, and full Draconic Transformation, among many other abilities.
Draconic Core will massively increase total MP and Regen rate. Will permanently convert mana into Draconic Energy.
Warning: May influence the Host's psyche.
Price: 1,000,000,000 Credits.
[Bloodline: Crimson Tempest Spawn (Rare)]
Origin: Descendant of lesser storm spirits. Great boots to lightning control and mana capacity.
Price: 2,500,000 Credits.
.
.
.
My jaw went slack as the list went on.
"These prices…" I whispered. "You've gotta be kidding me."
Still, my eyes lingered on two names longer than the others.
Lightning Dragon Emperor, and Raijin's Heir
I could almost feel my heart thudding faster.
"…A lightning dragon, and a lightning god," I murmured. "Yeah, of course. That'd fit, wouldn't it?"
The corner of my mouth twitched upward.
"I barely had 350 credits… but someday…"
I grinned at the glowing word Mythic, like a man looking at the sun and convincing himself he could reach it if he just climbed high enough.
"Mark Lightning Dragon Emperor… and Raijin's Heir," I said, grinning at the interface like a lunatic who'd just ordered the apocalypse off a menu.
For a few seconds, nothing happened.
No Ding.
Just silence.
The grin faded.
"Hey, system," I said out loud, eyes narrowing at the floating panel, "you there?"
The air rippled faintly, then -
–Ding!
{Consider… lowering the rarity.}
A low laugh slipped out of me, small at first, then curling into something sharper.
"No," I said, tilting my head back, letting the smirk spread.
That smirk of a cockroach flying straight towards the heavens.
"I must become nothing short of a God... if I am to ever bring Mother back."
For a heartbeat, the interface pulsed brighter.
Then the voice returned.
But without that Ding this time.
{…So be it.}
The words hit different this time.
And somehow the system felt like it was smirking alongside me.
A few beats later, the panel shimmered away.
And the forest went still again.
And somewhere in the back of my mind, I swear something stirred.