The smell of boiling oats and honey woke Revvyn. For a moment, he forgot where he was.
He braced himself for the damp cold of the silver moss and the low growl of a blood beast. Instead, he opened his eyes to the familiar, cracked plaster ceiling of his own room.
He sat up. His ribs gave a dull, distant throb, but the sharp agony was completely gone. The D-Rank physical reconstruction had finished its work while he slept. He felt solid. He felt heavy and fast all at once.
He walked out into the small kitchen. The shutters were open, letting in the bright mid-morning sun.
His father was sitting at the wooden table. He wasn't running a marathon anytime soon, but the gray shadow of death was gone. He looked ten years younger, quietly eating a bowl of porridge.
Lily stood by the stove, stirring a small iron pot. She looked up as Revvyn walked in, giving him a small, relieved smile.
"You slept like a rock," Lily said.
"I earned it," Revvyn replied, pulling out a chair opposite his father.
His father put his spoon down. He looked at Revvyn, really looking at him—the new breadth in his shoulders, the confident way he held himself, and the heavy leather pouch sitting on the counter.
"I know I owe my life to whatever you did out there," his father said, his voice still a bit rough but steady. "But you're going to tell me exactly what happened. All of it. Tang-Han came by earlier to drop off some firewood. He said you paid him in pure silver."
Revvyn leaned back in his chair. He decided to tell them the truth, mostly. He left out the System prompts and the exact nature of his reincarnated soul, but he didn't hold back on the rest.
He told them about the goblin scouting party. He told them about Syll melting a bear from the inside out, which made Lily turn pale and drop her wooden spoon. He told them about Grimjaw, the hyena-man who had hunted him and ended up giving him a ride home. And finally, he told them about the Moonlit Garden, the massive emerald Serpent, and shoving a broken cutlass down its throat.
By the time he finished, the kitchen was dead silent.
"A Level 20 Guardian," his father muttered, staring at his bowl. "Warriors train for decades and still die to those things. And you did it with a rusted blade and a slime."
"Syll is a lot more than a regular slime," Revvyn said, tapping his pocket where the little beast was sleeping. "But yeah. I got lucky. And I got the flowers. I sold seven to Vane for a hundred gold pieces."
His father choked on his own breath. "A hundred... Revvyn, that's..."
"It's enough," Revvyn interrupted gently. "It's enough to fix the roof. It's enough so you don't have to work the fields until you're completely healed. And..." He looked out the window, toward the distant, towering spires of the city. "It's enough to pay the entry fee. I'm going to the Academy."
Lily turned around, leaning against the counter. Her smile faded a bit. "The Academy. In the capital."
"Yeah," Revvyn said. "The entrance exams are in two weeks. Lucien and his rich friends think they run this world because they were born with silver spoons. I'm going to show them what someone who actually fought for their power looks like."
He looked at Lily, noticing the quiet way she was gripping the edge of the counter. A smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"You're going to miss me, aren't you?" Revvyn teased, leaning forward on his elbows.
Lily rolled her eyes, her cheeks instantly flushing red. "Don't flatter yourself. I'll just be glad I don't have to patch up your bleeding head every three days."
"Sure," Revvyn laughed. "Just don't cry too loud when I leave. The neighbors will talk."
"Idiot," she muttered, turning back to the stove, though he could see her smiling.
Revvyn stood up. He needed air, and more importantly, he needed to feel his new strength. "I'm going out back. Don't worry about the dishes."
He stepped out the back door into the small, overgrown yard. The tall wooden fence blocked the view of the neighbors. It was just him, the dirt, and an old, thick oak stump his father used for chopping firewood.
Revvyn stood in front of the stump. He took a deep breath, focusing his mind.
Inventory.
He reached his hand out into the empty air. He felt a sudden, cold weight materialize in his palm. He closed his fingers and pulled.
The Moonstar Blade slid into reality with a faint, crystalline hum.
Revvyn held it up in the sunlight. It was a masterpiece. The blade was a hand-and-a-half longsword, forged from a strange, silvery metal that didn't just reflect the light, but seemed to absorb it. The edge was flawlessly smooth. The hilt was wrapped in dark, tough leather, ending in a pommel shaped like a crescent moon.
It was heavier than Tang-Han's cutlass, but the balance was absolutely perfect. It felt like an extension of his own arm.
He wanted to see what 22 Agility and 18 Strength actually meant.
Revvyn planted his feet. He didn't even use a skill. He just tightened his grip, shifted his weight, and swung at the thick oak stump.
The world seemed to slow down. He felt the muscles in his legs coil and release with explosive, terrifying power. The blade didn't whistle through the air; it hissed.
Shhhk.
Revvyn followed through, stopping the blade perfectly at his side.
For a second, the stump looked completely normal. Then, the top half of the thick oak block slowly slid diagonally off the base, hitting the dirt with a heavy thud. The cut was smoother than glass.
Revvyn stared at the clean wood, his eyes wide. He hadn't even felt resistance.
"Holy shit," he breathed.
He reached into his pocket and pulled Syll out, setting the slime on the flat top of the remaining stump. Syll wasn't pale violet anymore. After absorbing the Guardian, the slime had darkened to a deep, rich amethyst. He felt denser, heavier. Syll pulsed twice, letting out a low, contented chirp.
"You feel it too, don't you?" Revvyn asked, resting the flat of the Moonstar Blade against his shoulder. "We're not the bottom of the food chain anymore."
Syll jiggled, expanding slightly to catch the sunlight.
Revvyn looked back toward the house, then past it, toward the road that led out of the valley. He had beaten the forest. He had saved his father. Now, it was time to step into the real world.
"Rest up, Syll," Revvyn smiled, the thrill of the future finally hitting him. "Next week, we go to school."