But despite our victory, neither our pride nor our bodies had emerged unscathed from the onslaught. What arrogance had led me to believe I could protect everyone with limited power, especially with no prior experience against monsters?
I was a leader, yet I had acted more like a reckless child on this mission. Lives had nearly been lost because of my foolishness and hubris. As I looked at each of my companions, fatigue mingled with shame. Their eyes were filled with dread, awe, and the hollow stare of soldiers who had seen too much. The battle in this ruined woodland had lasted only minutes.
So why did their eyes look so... empty?
Amid the deafening silence, I could feel their gazes boring into me. They were waiting—expecting me to say something, perhaps to ease their weariness. Swallowing hard, I spoke, my voice steady despite the dryness in my throat.
"Is everyone alright? Let's sit over there and rest." I gestured toward a small cluster of fallen logs large enough to accommodate us all.
No one responded, but their rigid expressions softened as they followed my lead. When everyone was seated, I steeled myself to embrace my role as their leader—properly this time.
"I'm sorry, everyone."
Their heads snapped up in confusion, but before I could make out any different emotion on their faces, I pressed on.
"I know you're all tired. Shaken, even, by what just happened. And I'm to blame for most of it." I paused, searching for the right words, but Eleonor's sharp voice cut through the tense air before I could continue.
"Don't."
Her tone was resolute, almost scolding.
"Don't say that, Aiden. I don't know why you're blaming yourself, but if it's about you keeping your strength hidden, then stop. You shouldn't feel guilty. We won. Each of us fought our battles, and we won. Please don't mistake our empty stares for disgust or disappointment toward you. If anything, they're directed toward ourselves.''
Her blunt honesty left me stunned, and my expression must have given it away because Lea chuckled softly before chiming in.
"She's right, Aiden." Lea's voice was confident, her usual nervous tone absent. "I don't understand why you dared to suppress your strength on such a dangerous mission, but that doesn't make you responsible for our shortcomings. We're the ones who need to grow stronger, and our scars are proof of that."
The weight in the air began to lift, so I eased my expression, and so did theirs. Even Drake and Joe started laughing, breaking the tension further.
"I hear you," I said, my tone gentler. "But I'm still sorry for lying to you about my strength. If I hadn't hidden it away, I could have prevented most of your injuries and—"
"And what? Gotten yourself more injuries and scars while we sat around playing cards?"
Ryan interrupted, his usual calm voice firm with conviction and filled with energy.
I blinked hard at his sudden intensity.
"These injuries aren't your fault, Aiden. They're part of our growth. Sure, maybe you could've prevented some of them by fighting seriously from the start. But then what? You'd have fought alone, and we'd have learned nothing. Getting hurt is part of the process, part of the fight. Please, stop blaming yourself."
Ryan's maturity once again struck deep. He was right; they all had their own battles to fight and win, and each scar added to the collection would be a victorious trophy.
"Alright, I get it. I'm not to blame—you all like getting hurt, and I'm totally not irresponsible for my careless behavior," I joked, easing the mood with careless laughs of relief.
We then proceeded to properly rest, stretching our sore muscles and healing our bodies through meditation. During my recovery, I realized that the energy particles I absorbed after releasing my seal weren't an illusion—they had indeed been filling up my core.
And my energy core was full.
[Reduced Status Window]
[Name: Aiden Glain]
[Age: 17 | Gender: Male]
[Energy-Core: Stage: Awakened; Rank: Bronze; Tier: Low]
[Energy Stored: 1000 / 1000:]
[Battle Score: 267]
Excitement burst through me as I recalled a page from my magic book that detailed how to reach the next tier in cultivation. Two requirements were necessary for a breakthrough:
A full-energy core and sufficient enlightenment about combat and magical abilities.
The second requirement was subjective, but I felt confident that I had enough insight for multiple breakthroughs in advance.
Once these conditions were met, a martial artist needed to coalesce all their energy particles into a single, larger spark to cross the threshold to the next cultivation level.
However, doing so was easier said than done. The instructions had been written in the Slitzgard language and poorly translated into English by me. Still, I did my best to replicate the images and interpret the text's meaning.
Seconds quickly bled into minutes as I racked my brain about how I could form a stronger and larger orb of energy by condensing the thousand tiny particle sparks inside me.
'Come on, I'm so close!'
My meditative focus wavered as the blitz of power inside my lower abdomen began to shape itself into a huge, fiery orb. My heart wasn't where my energy core resided—it was in my lower abdomen.
The clustered specks shimmered together, their faint purple glow intensifying as they coalesced. Groups of larger specks combined, forming at least two hundred sparkling purple motes that fused into a single reddish orb of energy.
Five such orbs now floated in my core, and I had to gather them all together to advance. Yet, as I tried to push them toward the center, their immense weight threatened to tear my core apart, risking fatal injuries or irreparable damage.
Lea's voice cut through my struggle, whistling past my ears like a gentle breeze. Her words were muffled at first, but her worried tone urged me to focus.
"...let your energy refine itself before gathering it into a larger speck," she said urgently.
Eleonor, standing nearby, looked like the embodiment of dread and concern.
"What's happening to Aiden?" she demanded, her voice laced with fear.
"He's—Aiden is breaking through to the next tier of his cultivation," Lea replied, her voice shaky with anticipation.
Now addressing me directly, Lea continued, "Aiden, you need to let your particles fully condense before attempting to combine them. If you rush it, their weight and power will remain unstable, and they'll crush you."
After her explanation, she tried to soothe Eleonor and Nate, who had been visibly affected by the oppressive energy leaking from me. The two of them trembled, struggling to breathe as if a poisonous mist was clutching their throats.
Lea's magical prowess, no doubt superior to mine, must have allowed her to endure my oppressive aura despite standing closest to me. As for the others, she must have instructed them to stay further away.
Closing my eyes, I heeded her advice, calming my mind and allowing the orbs to finish their transformation. The corrupted energy ripples ceased when they did, releasing Eleonor and Nate from their suffocating grip.
Now, only one step remained.
'Now! Condense!'
The five orbs hurtled together at a molecular speed, colliding into a single, dazzling blood-red globe of energy.
Golden light overtook the dark veil around me, illuminating my body like divine radiance. The globe settled into my lower abdomen, solidifying it in the process. When the radiating warmth faded, I opened my eyes to a landscape that seemed sharper and more vivid than ever. It was like I could make out each different tint of green and brown apart in this accursed forest.
Looking around, I immediately caught uneasy glances from my comrades.
"I'm alright. Don't worry," I assured them. "Sorry for scaring you earlier. That energy leakage was just me struggling through the last step of my breakthrough."
They relaxed at my words, but it was evident that their curiosity hadn't disappeared.
"King Aiden, since you've broken through, didn't you receive a system notice?" Nate asked eagerly, his eyes wide with anticipation.
I chuckled at his excitement. "Yes, I did. Let me guess—you want to know how much my strength has increased or the limits of my mid-tier bronze core?"
His serious expression softened into a grin. "You're our king for a reason, huh? Yeah, I want to know both!"
"Well, I'm curious myself."
"Open reduced status window."
[Reduced Status Window]
[Name: Aiden Glain]
[Age: 17 | Gender: Male]
[Energy-Core: Stage: Awakened; Rank: Bronze; Tier: Intermediate]
[Energy Stored: 1246 / 5000:]
[Battle Score: 282]
''Hm, I have gained fifteen units in battle power from my breakthrough. That's quite good since I was already at the peak of my low-tier core just earlier.'' As I uttered those words, I noticed the surprised look on Lea's face and the slight disappointment in Nate's eyes.
''What's wrong? Why do the two of you look so dissatisfied?'' I asked urgently, not understanding their questioning looks.
''Well, King Aiden, hah...'' She trailed off, choosing her words with care. ''Usually, a breakthrough in one's energy core should at least increase a practitioner's strength by thirty units, if not more, depending on the magical art he uses and his proficiency with it. So, your increase is very... underwhelming, to say the least.'' Her words came out as politely and slowly as possible, ensuring they wouldn't hurt my pride.
I quickly pieced together the reason for this disparity. It wasn't a mystery to me—I already knew the reason. My gaze dropped momentarily before I spoke again; I had to be honest with them this time.
"Alright, I get it now. And don't worry—you can speak freely. Your words do not sound harsh to me; they're just the truth," I assured her, my voice steady. The others soon turned their full attention to me, their curiosity evident as I explained my situation. ''I think the reason for my low increase in strength from my breakthrough is because I haven't learned any magical abilities yet. To be honest, I can't even coat my hands or body with energy to enhance them, so that makes my energy core almost useless right now.''
My words hung in the air, heavy and humbling.
''So... So you are telling us that you are this strong without any energy enhancement?'' Drake's voice trembled, and his cocky attitude shattered when I nodded. He cocked his face down, his hands holding it as his body shivered slightly. It seemed like all of them had learned energy enhancement, even if just a little.
I could tell the others were just as baffled and stunned, and I knew my declaration had not quelled their curiosity but had instead wounded their pride. Hence, I did the only logical thing to do in such a situation. Give them hope.
''Enough of that! I know you are all surprised, but you must know that I have endured a hellish training program to hone my martial abilities to such a degree.'' I stopped, staring at my bewildered companions intensely, and spoke in a colder, more serious tone. ''Nothing is free in our world, and you can all achieve my level of strength as long as you're ready to make some sacrifices and suffer a lot more than you already have. So don't give me those faces of desperation and disappointment. The day you shall be permitted to have your head so down is when you will be at death's doors!'' My concluding words were a waking call for them; their ghostly faces and defeated looks had completely vanished, all replaced by newfound determination and the hunger of true warriors.
They all looked at each other and approached me, getting on one knee and doing the official martial artist salute. Their right hands were fully opened into a straight palm, slightly lifted, while their left hands were cocked into a fist, touching the palm of their right hands.
''We have disappointed you, King Aiden. We shall remember your teachings and improve ourselves.'' They said in unison.
This was the second part of the salute, which would usually only occur after soldiers had finished a training session under a captain or instructor. It must have been Xavier who taught them that, I thought.
I quickly motioned for them to get up, replacing my solemn, dark expression with a gentle smile. Dozens of minutes then quickly passed as we finished our recovery, and it was soon time to complete our next mission.
We rapidly departed, leaving the corpses of the Eden's wood guardians here. I had sent Clark a message, asking for a team of sentries and researchers, along with a few martial artists, to retrieve the bodies of our defeated foes at the given location.
As for us, we were running west, and we quickly found ourselves in a completely different environment. This forest wasn't so big for martial artists of our caliber. However, the sun shone brighter than earlier, so it must have still taken us quite a while to find the area.
During our search, we noticed traces of sword slashes on some trees, either deep or shallow. But this was not all. Blood marks were spread unevenly around the zone that was supposed to be the nest of Urilion crabs. In this place, the trees were all ominously small, no taller than two or three meters each, and the leaves making their hairs were silky and of various shades of hot colors. Some tree leaves were brown, with dark green trunks. Others had red leaves of sparkling purple foliage, with black or gray tree trunks.
Each step further made us more and more perplexed as the scenery around us brought more confusion than answers. This place made no sense. Something was wrong.
"Hey guys, look what I've found!" Joe's voice sliced through the tension, breaking the uneasy silence. Lea, being the closest, was the first to rush to his side.
When I caught up, what I saw struck me like a hammer. My head spun, my vision swam, and my knees almost gave out.
My comrades, however, didn't seem to have understood what this thing was.
''What is this? It looks like a pearl, but it's so squishy and hazy that I don't really know.'' Joe said, his voice tinged with innocent curiosity. His nonchalance made my stomach churn, and my face went pale with fear and disgust.
''Joe, throw this thing away. Now.'' My voice cracked, coming out weak and trembling.
''What's wrong, Aiden? Are you feeling okay? You're as white as a ghost.'' Eleonor asked, concern flashing at the edge of her face. Her sharp gaze searched for the cause of my distress until it landed on the object in Joe's hand.
''What about the pearl, King Aiden? Isn't this just some sort of artifact? I found it on this weird-looking altar made of rocks and—''
''It's not a pearl!'' I snapped. ''It's a human eye!''
Joe's face drained of color as the realization sunk deep. With a frantic yell, he hurled the eye far away, his arms flailing like he was trying to scrub the sensation off. He fell to his knees and retched, violently emptying his stomach.
Lea and Drake recoiled in horror behind me, shaking, while Eleonor, Ryan, and Nate stared at the scene in silence. They didn't retch, but their ghastly faces betrayed their unease.
We knew.
We knew whose eye this was. It belonged to one of the missing investigators.
But the nightmare was only beginning.
The bushes ahead rustled. Shadows seemed to move within, and the oppressive stillness of the forest turned stifling, suffused with a bleak, suffocating tension.
"Calm yourselves! Enemies are approaching!" I shouted, forcing myself into action. I took point, positioning myself at the forefront of the group beneath the canopy of tall, blood-red trees. How had we not noticed the subtle shift in the forest's atmosphere? Those trees were over ten meters high!
Drake and Joe, still shaken but functional, scrambled to cover the right flank about fifty meters from the altar. Nate and Ryan, though slower to recover, pushed closer to the altar's left. Lea, however, struggled. The sight had rattled her deeply.
Monsters were one thing. However, their bodies, blood, and attitudes were totally unlike those of humans. Why hold remorse or feel disgusted by hacking them down when they're not from your species? But this… this was different. It was raw, visceral, and disturbingly close to home.
'There is no time for hesitation!'
My thoughts raced, desperate to keep pace with the imminent danger. This time, action overtook overanalysis.
I couldn't see the enemy, but I could feel them. They were closing in fast, and their numbers were unclear.
I dashed forward with successive, short, explosive steps. My overall speed had definitely increased by at least 30% after my recent breakthrough. This gave me confidence for the upcoming battle.
And yet…
Why did it feel like Lea was so far away?
I hadn't strayed far from her position. She should've been only a few dozen meters away. But no matter how much ground I covered, it felt like she was slipping further and further out of reach.
She wasn't far. I knew she wasn't.
So why did it feel this way?
Space seemed to warp, distorting the rhythm of my movements. My perception of time had lost all meaning as I felt a sticky sensation spreading across my limbs, like a dense, heavy weight that tightened around my body like invisible chains, anchoring me to the ground.
The forest blurred, the trees melting into streaks of indistinct color. My movements felt sluggish, draining every ounce of my energy. My vision dimmed to an oppressive gray, edged with spots of white.
It was as if the very air around me had thickened, crushing me under its weight. Ahead, the landscape spun, and each of my lethargic movements was an exhausting process. My blood felt like it was leaking down from my brain and pooling into my legs instead.
...
As this nightmarish pressure threatened to drown me, I poured all of my strength into trying to open my eyes wide and search for Lea. This was when I realized that this stillness that encapsulated me was half the product of reality and half the product of my mind. After reason came back to me, it all made sense.
Those creatures' abilities could only affect gravity five times over, and even if it was somehow more, I shouldn't be feeling that way. So it must have been the blood.
A sudden drop in blood pressure could cause hallucinations, but in my case, it led to something far graver.
When my realization was complete, three things struck me. First, time had returned to its normal course, and I could feel the pain from the increased weight of my body.
And it was far more than just five times my weight.
The second thing I noticed was that each of my companions had either fainted or was dead. Their bodies lay motionless on the ground, untouched. Fortunately, there wasn't a single drop of blood on any of them—yet.
Then the third thing hit me. Standing just fifteen meters away was a gigantic humanoid creature. Thin, long creepers hung from its shoulders, forming four massive arms. The eight-meter-tall monster wore blazing orange armor streaked with black and lined with shades of dark green, covering most of its body. Without a doubt, this was the Urilion's crab armor.
The beast was an unsettling fusion—a doppelganger—of an enormous Eden's wood guardian and an Urilion leader. At that moment, I knew the god's so-called "information" was all lies. We couldn't trust any of it without endangering ourselves.
This monster—he—was the source of the overwhelming, excruciating force pressing down on me like a gravitational field.
Time was running out. I had to act fast. Nearby, dozens of ordinary Urilion crabs were slowly crawling toward my teammates.
Without a second thought, I bolted toward the enemy as fast as I could. This time, I was going all out. I parried and blocked the onslaught of vines hurled at me with delirious speed. But as each step brought me closer, the creepers lashed out with terrifying precision. I couldn't avoid the damage entirely.
Jumping high, face-to-face with my opponent, I swung my sword with all my strength, aiming to slice its throat.
But I was too slow in this suffocating field. The monster had the upper hand, unhindered by the crushing pressure it radiated. I retreated, narrowly dodging a strike aimed at my right eye, my movements almost in slow motion under the altered gravity.
Strangely, the creature didn't pursue me when I stepped out of its field. Instead of pausing to catch my breath, I sprinted toward the smaller Urilion crabs nearing Lea and Ryan. Entering the oppressive field again, I forced my body to channel every ounce of power, pushing through the sticky, burdensome fog that clung to me like tar.
Too slow.
Too slow again.
I won't make it.
Lea was still so far away, and the crab was only two meters from her.
Think, Aiden.
No, no time to think. Act. Faster.
As if answering my desperation, a sudden surge of power coursed through my limbs. My speed doubled. In the blink of an eye, I reached Lea, and my blade cleaved through the Urilion crab beside her. Then, still in motion, gravity changed and my body felt as light as a feather, and then the world went brown.
The next thing I knew, my head smashed into a tree twenty meters ahead, shattering its trunk where my skull had struck.
''What the fuck was that?''
The words escaped my lips as I removed my head from the inside of the tree trunk and dashed toward Ryan. Three Urilion crabs were closing in on him, and I cut them down before they could reach him.
The gravity field was gone—for now.
I sped through the forest, weaving between trees and hacking at every Urilion crab in sight, my blade slicing through their chitinous shells like paper. All the while, my thoughts raced.
What had changed?
The leader of the crabs remained motionless, watching. He hadn't moved an inch. The gravitational field had been gone for about twenty seconds, but something was different. That sudden surge of power—it happened before the field disappeared.
I had momentarily doubled my speed. Somehow.
The realization should have been comforting, but it didn't last. The Urilion leader reactivated his gravity domain.
Thirty seconds. The gravity field was reactivated after thirty seconds.
Once again, an invisible force was pinning me down. But this time, things were different. My unconscious friends were safe. Now, it was just him and me for the final standoff.
Bolting ahead, I raised my blade high. My aching feet screamed in protest, but I kept accelerating. Zigzagging around the monster's huge body, I evaded its relentless assault.
The creature launched a barrage of iron-clamped reinforced tendrils, each sharp and deadly. The almost infinite network of vines grazed my armor constantly, creating a near-impenetrable barrier between me and my target.
This was not it.
I won't last till his gravitational domain runs out.
I need that power from earlier.
As I struggled to defend myself against the everlasting barrage of lashing creepers, my mind kept coming back to that time when I had read about energy enhancement. I knew this was a mistake on my part not to have learned that skill, along with the divine chaotic lightning book or whatever it was called. But I hadn't had the time.
Martial skills took time to learn, and far longer to master properly.
However, cladding one's body in energy was a martial skill that a practitioner could learn on his own if he was talented enough and had enough practice and understanding in the magical art.
Now I think I get it.
Blocking a cluster of vines that had gathered to form a single, bigger, and deadlier spear, my body recoiled back from both the shock of the attack and my enlightenment.
Energy could be absorbed and controlled, aspired from the exterior to fill the interior of my core's reserves. So of course I could do the opposite.
The process just had to be done in reverse.
The crushing weight of the gravitational field bore down on me harder as I exited my thoughts, but something felt different this time. I could feel it—a faint, pulsing rhythm deep within me. The energy core inside my chest throbbed like a second heartbeat, desperate to break free.
Focus. Channel it.
I clenched my jaw, entering a state of trance while remaining as still as a statue, despite the chaos around me. The energy was there, swirling inside—wild and untamed, like a storm on the verge of breaking. I pulled it inward, willing it to merge with my body's system and muscles, to become a part of me.
A sudden heat surged through me, and my veins felt like they were coursing with molten fire. My muscles tightened, brimming with newfound strength.
Everything looked sharper now. Time itself seemed to slow as if I had altered the very gravity around me to the point where the vines whipping toward me were no longer a blur. I could see each one clearly, tracing their paths and pinpointing their weak spots.
The monster roared, flinging another barrage of tendrils my way, but I didn't flinch. This time, I didn't just block or dodge—I retaliated.
With one swing of my blade, I severed every tendril in my path. The energy coursing through me amplified every movement, each strike cutting through the vines like they were nothing but air.
I pressed the advantage. My enhanced speed and strength carried me forward in a blur, and with a single explosive burst, I leaped into the air, and I soon stood higher than my foe.
We were locked in a stare until I descended on him like a crescent moon, channeling the remaining energy from my core into my arms, which blazed with radiant power. I swung my sword down with everything I had, driving it straight through the creature's head and cleaving it cleanly in half.
The sound was horrifying. The monster's dying roar echoed across the forest, shaking the ground beneath us. The crushing gravitational forcefield collapsed instantly, the unbearable weight vanishing as the creature's massive body fell to the ground in two lifeless halves.
...
Exhaustion hit me like a wave as my sword slipped from my hand and clattered to the ground. Three realizations then followed in rapid succession.
The first was that my energy core's reserves were nearly depleted—a clear consequence of my inexperience and ignorance of energy reinforcement.
The second was that I had no choice but to master this energy-enhancing technique quickly. If monsters kept being this much stronger than we were warned, I would need far more power just to survive.
The third and final realization was the crushing weight of my fatigue.
I had never felt this tired in my entire life—not even after the battle against the Eden's Wood guardians. This time, I had been forced to tap into a power I didn't understand, one I hadn't even learned to control. All of this while being crushed under what felt like a dozen times the normal gravity and forcefully entering a trance-like state that I was getting used to.
My knees buckled, collapsing to the ground in a trembling, pathetic surrender. Before I could process anything else, a sharp pain erupted at the back of my head. My vision blurred. And then, the world went dark