The sky was blue.
That was the first thing I noticed.
We stood in what looked like a completely normal forest. Sunlight filtered through green leaves. The air smelled like pine and damp soil. Birds chirped somewhere in the distance.
Aria blinked.
“…This is it?”
“E rank,” I said, unclasping the cloak. “Low-tier Gates tend to be normal. The higher the rank, the weirder they get.”
She crossed her arms.
“You scammed me.”
I handed her the cloak back.
“You wanted juicier Gates.”
She sighed dramatically. “I was expecting floating ruins or bioluminescent fungus.”
“Give it time.”
She tucked the cloak back into her sketchbook.
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s hurry up and get to those juicier Gates.”
I smirked.
“You might still find something worth drawing.”
We started walking.
The forest floor crunched under my boots. No distortion. No unnatural sky. Just trees and wind.
After a few minutes, Aria slowed.
Her posture shifted.
She closed her eyes.
Her mana steadied—focused
Her senses were far sharper than mine.
After a moment of quiet meditation, she opened her eyes.
“Two targets,” she said softly. “Up ahead. About seventy meters.” ( 1 meter ~ 1.1 yard = 77 freedom units)
“Goblins. Patrolling. Light movement pattern. They’re circling.” She saud
She looked at me.
“Go get them.”
My stomach tightened slightly.
I could use the cloak.
Sneak up.
Make it easy.
But that would be cheating.
If I rely on the cloak every time, I won’t learn anything.
“I’ll handle it,” I said.
She stepped back, watching.
I moved forward slowly, sword in hand.
The forest opened slightly ahead.
And then I saw them.
Small.
Green.
Lean bodies. Jagged ears. Crude leather scraps tied around their torsos. Each held a short dagger.
And to my surprise I saw information over both their heads—
Patroller Goblin
Combat Power: 3
That meant even combined 6.
I was currently at 8.
I was Stronger.
That realization steadied me.
The first goblin saw me.
Its head snapped up, yellow eyes locking onto mine.
“SKREE—!”
It lunged.
No hesitation.
No fear.
Just a flash of rusted dagger and green muscle.
I reacted on instinct.
Steel rang through the forest as I swung too early.
Our blades collided with a spark.
The second one came from the right.
I barely turned in time—
Pain exploded in my side.
The dagger punched in and out before I could even process it.
HP: 110 → 105
Bleeding: -0.1… -0.1
My breath hitched.
That hurt … stay calm I’ll be fine.
I have 110 HP.
The first goblin leapt, up aiming for my throat.
This time I moved properly.
I stepped around its range instead of backing away.
The dagger grazed my shoulder—
I twisted and brought the sword across in a clean horizontal arc.
The blade connected.
The goblin spun midair and hit the ground hard.
HP: 104.8
-0.1…
The second goblin circled, hissing, blade twitching in quick, erratic movements.
It darted left.
Faked right.
Then lunged low.
I jumped back—
Too slow.
The dagger scraped across my thigh.
Not deep.
Just enough to sting.
-2 HP
HP: 102.7
-0.2…
Okay.
Enough.
I steadied my breathing.
Don’t chase.
Let it come.
The goblin screeched and sprinted at me in a straight line.
Predictable.
I waited.
Waited—
Now.
I sidestepped and brought the sword down in a diagonal slash.
Clean.
Precise.
The goblin stumbled forward two steps—
Then dissolved into grey particles mid-stride.
The first one followed seconds later.
Silence returned to the forest.
HP: 102.5
-0.2…
HP: 102.3
I lowered the sword, chest rising and falling fast.
That wasn’t graceful.
But it wasn’t terrible either.
For my first time fighting a monster?
Not bad.
Aria dropped lightly from a nearby tree branch.
She had been watching the whole time.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said, pressing a hand to my side.
She glanced at the wound.
“It’s not deep.”
“I know.”
I grabbed the reinforcement wraps from my inventory and tightened them around the injury.
The bleeding stopped.
HP stabilized at 102
We waited.
E-rank regeneration kicked in slowly.
104
105
107
110
Within five minutes, I was fully healed.
At our feet, two small grey monster cores rested on the ground.
I picked one up.
It felt warm.
Three CP worth of monster condensed into something I could hold in my palm.
I looked at Aria.
She tilted her head slightly.
“Well?”
I tightened my grip on the sword.
“Let’s keep going.”
We didn’t have to walk far.
Aria slowed mid-step.
“Two more,” she whispered. “Same patrol pattern.”
I nodded and stepped forward.
The goblins broke through the brush seconds later—small, wiry bodies, crude daggers flashing in the sunlight.
The first one lunged immediately.
This time—
I saw it coming.
The twitch in its shoulder.
The shift in its hips.
I pivoted cleanly to the side. The dagger sliced through empty air where my ribs had been.
My sword came up in a sharp rising arc.
Steel met steel.
The goblin barely blocked and staggered back, arms trembling.
The second goblin darted in from my right, blade aimed for my neck.
Instead of backing away—
I dropped low.
Crouched.
And swept my leg hard across the forest floor.
My boot connected with its ankles.
The goblin yelped and flipped backward, landing flat on its back.
Before it could recover, I surged forward and drove my sword down through its torso.
It dissolved instantly.
One left.
The first goblin screeched and charged, stabbing wildly in short, frantic bursts.
Left.
Right.
High.
Low.
I stepped back once.
Then twice.
Then forward.
Inside its guard.
My shoulder slammed into its chest, knocking it off balance.
I twisted and brought the blade across in a clean diagonal slash.
The goblin stumbled two steps—
Then scattered into grey particles.
Silence.
Two small grey cores dropped to the ground with soft clicks.
No damage taken.
No bleeding.
And then—Ping.
The sound wasn’t audible in the forest.
It rang inside my mind.
The system flared in my vision.
RANK UP
A surge ran through my body
E+ → D-
Combat Power: 9
Stats updated instantly.
Strength: 2
Endurance: 2
Agility: 2
Intelligence: 1
Luck: 2
My muscles felt denser.
My footing more stable.
My reactions sharper.
Behind me, Aria inhaled sharply.
She had felt it.
Her head snapped toward me.
“…No.”
I turned.
She was staring at me like reality had glitched.
“NO,” she said louder. “You did not just rank up.”
I blinked.
She stepped closer.
“You woke up from a coma less than a week ago.”
I didn’t respond.
Her jaw dropped again.
“Within a week,” she repeated slowly. “You went from E to D-.”
The forest felt still.
Watching.
She narrowed her eyes on me.
“You really weren’t kidding about growing quickly.”
I pulled up the system panel again.
One more change.
The Inventory grid had expanded.
It had basically doubled.
I flexed my hand and willed the grey cores into storage.
And stacked with the other crystals I was up to 4.
“My inventory size increased.”
She stared at me again.
“Of course it did.”
She rubbed her temples briefly.
“I might be helping create a monster.”
I shrugged. “You signed up for this.”
After a minute, she composed herself.
“Fine,” she said. “Let’s keep moving.”
The next hour blurred.
Patrol after patrol.
5 more goblin patrols.
I moved faster.
Cleaner.
Dodging became instinct.
My blade found openings without me forcing it.
When they rushed recklessly, I punished them.
When they circled, I controlled the distance.
No injuries.
By the time the fifth patrol dissolved, I could feel it again.
Growth.
I was up to 14 grey crystals.
When I checked my panel—
Rank: D- CP: 12
HP: 120/120 Mana: 100:100
Strength: 3
Endurance: 3
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 1
Luck: 2
My body felt sturdier.
More responsive.
Aria noticed too.
“You’re already improving again,” she said.
“I feel different.”
We continued deeper into the forest.
Then the trees thinned.
Smoke.
Crude wooden barricades.
Sharpened stakes forming a rough perimeter.
We had found it.
The main camp.
Inside—
Five goblins.
Larger than the patrol units.
Their presence heavier.
Combat Power hovering between 4 and 5 each.
And at the center—
A goblin wearing pieced-together bone armor.
A crude iron blade strapped to its back.
Goblin General
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
E+ Combat Power: 8
I glanced at my system.
12 CP.
I analyzed quickly.
Five E-rank goblins averaging 4–5 CP each.
Plus the general at 8.
Combined total:
Around 30 CP.
If they swarmed me—
I wouldn’t stand a chance.
I stepped back into cover.
Aria crouched beside me.
“Well?” she whispered.
“I can’t take them all at once.”
“How do you know that? You got pretty good at taking out patrols.”
“I can see their combat power over their heads.”
“Your ability just keeps getting more and more ridiculous.”
I scanned the forest.
Animals moved in the underbrush.
Rabbits.
Small wildlife.
An idea formed.
“I’m going to split them.”
She narrowed her eyes.
“How?”
“I’ll catch some rabbits.”
She stared at me.
“Then what?”
“I’ll make a fire. Start cooking one. You make another fire somewhere else. Cook one too.”
Her expression shifted to disbelief.
“You want to barbecue?”
“Think about it,” I said quietly. “They’re gonna smell the rabbits cooking and then get curious where the smell is coming from. Eventually the general will respond.”
She considered it.
“They’ll split.”
“Exactly.”
“Either the general stays and sends troops,” she said slowly. “Or he investigates personally and leaves guards behind.”
“Flip a coin situation.”
She crossed her arms.
“I thought I wasn’t doing any fighting.”
“You’re not.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You’re just… luring them.”
Her stare intensified.
“you’re not engaging,” I clarified. “You climb high into the trees. Stay out of sight. From there you can take a nap or sketch or whatever.”
I smiled slightly.
She looked at me like she was being exploited.
“You’re evil,” she said flatly.
“Strategic.”
She sighed.
“Fine. Only because I don’t want you trying to fight a small army at once and getting yourself seriously injured.”
I grinned.
“See? You care.”
“Don’t push it.”
She adjusted her bag and looked toward the camp again.
“Alright,” she said. “Let’s hunt some rabbits.”’
We split up.
Ten minutes later I came jogging back through the trees, slightly out of breath.
Three rabbits hung from my hand.
Enhanced agility helped, sure—but rabbits were still rabbits.
Fast. Erratic. Annoying.
Aria was already waiting at the clearing.
She turned around casually.
Behind her—
Twenty rabbits.
Lined up neatly.
I blinked.
“…How.”
She flipped her sketchbook open.
“Rabbit Catcher 9000.”
“That’s not a real thing.”
“It is now.”
On the page was a compact mechanical frame—three thin metallic stakes connected by a triangular mesh canopy. The mesh looked like ultra-light carbon fiber woven with flexible tension wires. At the base were subtle spring-loaded arms and a small bait capsule at the center.
“It’s based on drop-net traps and corral funnels,” she said. “People use baited enclosures or weighted net systems to catch rabbits quickly. I combined both concepts.”
She tapped the page.
Mana pulsed.
The device lifted out of the sketch.
It unfolded smoothly on the forest floor.
“Here’s how it works,” she explained. “The bait capsule emits a mild scent enhancer. Rabbits approach. When weight shifts the central pressure plate—”
She nudged a stick toward it.
The mesh canopy dropped instantly.
The spring arms sealed the perimeter.
Fast.
Clean.
Efficient.
“The internal lining prevents injury,” she added. “It’s humane.”
I stared at the twenty rabbits again.
“…You caught twenty in ten minutes.”
She shrugged.
“You were running around chasing them manually.”
I pointed at the trap.
“You call me the monster.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“You’re the one leveling up mid-fight.”
Fair.
Still.
Her ability was absurdly versatile.
And she hadn’t even gone full creative mode yet.
We moved quickly.
“Do you even know how to properly set up a cooking fire?” Aria asked suddenly.
I hesitated.
“I was going to wing it.”
She stared at me.
“You’re something else,” she said. “You make a full strategic distraction plan without knowing how to execute step one.”
“I had the concept.”
“You lacked the logistics.”
She opened her sketchbook again.
This time she drew fast.
Within two minutes, she had a compact field cooking setup on paper—a contained stone-ring fire pit with adjustable airflow vents, a raised metal grate supported by foldable legs, and a smoke-channeling hood angled to direct scent horizontally instead of vertically.
“It’s based on low-smoke survival pits,” she said. “Better control. More scent direction.”
She placed her hand over the page.
The structure materialized in front of me.
Perfectly formed.
Wait five minutes before activating it,” she said. “That gives me enough time to get into position.”
I looked at the fire setup, then at the trap, then back at her.
“How do you even know how to make all this stuff? I know your ability lets you bring drawings to life, but you’ve told me before there’s a drawback—you actually have to understand what you’re creating.”
She didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she adjusted the strap on her bag and gave me a look that was half amused, half exhausted.
“Well,” she said, “when your parents are brilliant awakened engineers who could be assassinated at any moment… and their daughter has the ability to manifest anything she can properly conceptualize…”
She paused.
“…that tends to create a dynamic where those parents feel strongly motivated to make sure their child can survive.”
I blinked.
“So you didn’t exactly get to just draw flowers and sunsets growing up?”
She snorted.
“Let’s just say I didn’t have a choice.”
She started counting on her fingers.
“The number of late-night lectures I had to sit through about structural integrity, airflow mechanics, combustion efficiency, pressure triggers, emergency evacuation architecture—”
She made a face.
“—was ridiculous. Do you know how many times I had to re-draw a reinforced load-bearing beam until it matched proper distribution ratios?”
I stared at her.
“You were raised like a walking engineering internship.”
“Exactly.”
I nodded slowly.
“Well… I can’t lie. That makes a lot of sense.”
…
We weren’t using most of the rabbits.
I opened my inventory panel and stored the majority of them away.
The expanded grid swallowed them easily.
“Sell later?” I asked.
“Or eat,” she replied. “Depends how today goes.”
She flipped to another drawing.
A small processing rig—clean blade assembly, rotating brace, minimalistic but efficient. It handled the preparation of the rabbits we were actually cooking.
We split up.
She moved deeper into the forest toward her designated location.
I glanced at the system clock.
Five minutes.
I waited.
Heart steady.
Breathing slowly.
When the timer hit—
I activated the fire pit.
The flame ignited cleanly.
Controlled.
Smoke rolled outward low and thick, drifting through the trees.
Perfect.
Somewhere else in the forest—
A second fire would ignite.
Aria climbed high into a tree near her chosen spot.
From there, she would be out of sight.
Waiting.
Watching.
Now we see how disciplined a goblin general really is.
And it looked like the universe smiled on Aria.
High in the branches, she had a perfect view of the Gate’s skyline. The forest canopy rolled out like an ocean of green, and drifting through it were birds she’d never seen on Earth—sleek, glass-feathered things that caught sunlight and scattered it into soft colors. Butterflies too, but not the kind you’d find in a park back home. These moved like living stained glass, wings pulsing with faint patterns that looked almost… designed.
Aria had never seen anything like them.
Her eyes widened, and without even thinking, she pulled out her sketchbook and started drawing immediately—fast, excited strokes, like she was afraid the moment would disappear if she blinked.
Up there, she was in her element.
Down here, I was about to be in mine.
I positioned my fire closer to the camp’s approach route, exactly where the scent would funnel through the trees. While it crackled low and steady, I worked quickly with what I had—thin wire from our supplies, two branches, and a bit of crude tensioning.
It wasn’t elegant.
But it didn’t have to be.
A simple trip-wire snare stretched across a narrow path, hidden under leaves and shadow.
If anything rushed in carelessly, it would stumble.
And in a fight, a single stumble is the difference between “close call” and “clean kill.”
I tightened the last loop, then backed off into partial cover, sword ready, breath controlled.
The smell of cooking rabbit drifted out like a beacon.
Minutes passed.
Then I heard it.
Footsteps.
Not light patrol steps.
Heavier.
Multiple.
Leaves crunching in a purposeful rhythm.
A low, guttural voice barked something in a language I didn’t understand—but the tone was clear.
Commanding.
My grip tightened.
Shapes moved between the trees.
Two goblins first—bigger than patrols, daggers replaced with short, jagged blades. Their eyes were sharp, scanning. Behind them came the general.
Bone armor.
Crude iron sword.
A presence that felt stronger than the others.
The general lifted his head, sniffed the air like an animal.
Then he pointed.
The two goblins advanced.
The general followed, slower—confident.
And then—
The first goblin hit my wire trap.
Its foot caught.
It pitched forward with a startled yelp, arms windmilling.
Perfect.
I moved.
I surged out of cover and cut downward in a clean strike before it could recover.
The goblin dissolved instantly.
One down.
The second goblin didn’t panic—it lunged straight at me, blade flashing.
I dodged left, barely, feeling the air slice past my cheek.
My counter came fast.
My sword scraped its shoulder but didn’t finish it.
The goblin snarled and slammed into me with its weight, driving me backward.
My heel caught on a root.
I stumbled.
That’s when the general moved.
He didn’t rush like the others.
He closed the distance like he already knew where I would be.
His iron blade came down in a brutal diagonal.
I raised my sword to block—
The impact rattled my arms to the bone.
HP: 120 → 110
Steel screamed.
My stance buckled.
Pain shot through my wrists.
The general’s strength didn’t just come from higher CP.
It was skill, experience, things I lacked.
He twisted his blade mid-pressure and shoved mine aside like it was nothing.
Then he kicked.
Hard.
My ribs took it.
I flew backward into the dirt and rolled, air leaving my lungs in a harsh cough.
HP: 110 → 92
I forced myself up fast, sword up, breathing sharp.
Calm down.
You can take hits.
But if he lands clean, you’ll drop fast.
The second goblin came in again, trying to finish me while I recovered.
I pivoted and slashed low, aiming for its legs.
It jumped back—barely—then stabbed forward.
The tip caught my forearm.
A hot sting, shallow but enough to remind me this wasn’t a fair fight.
HP: 92 → 88
The general didn’t give me time.
He stepped in and swung horizontally—wide arc, meant to force a retreat.
I ducked under it and tried to counter up into his torso.
He caught my blade with his armor plating—bone scraping steel—then headbutted me.
My vision flashed white for half a second.
HP: 88 → 80
I staggered.
The second goblin lunged again.
I sidestepped and kicked hard, sweeping its feet the same way I had earlier this time faster.
It went down.
Before it could rise, I drove my sword through it.
It dissolved.
Now it was just me and the general.
He stood there, calm, like he hadn’t even started trying yet.
Then he advanced.
My hands tightened around the hilt.
I circled.
He mirrored.
The fire crackled behind him, smoke rolling past his shoulders.
He feinted high.
I raised my guard.
His blade reversed mid-swing and punched low, aiming for my stomach.
I twisted just enough that it didn’t gut me—but it still carved across my side.
HP: 80 → 66
I hissed through my teeth and retreated two steps, refusing to let panic take control.
The general pressed.
Another swing.
Another.
He was trying to break my guard the same way he did earlier.
I forced myself to read him.
Shoulders.
Foot placement.
The slight shift before a strike.
He lifted his sword for a heavy overhead cleave.
This time I didn’t block.
I moved in.
Under the arc.
I slammed my shoulder into his chest and drove him back a half step—just enough.
Then I turned my hips and struck at the gap beneath his bone plating.
The blade bit.
Not deep—but it landed.
The general growled, finally annoyed.
He grabbed my shirt with one hand and yanked me forward like I weighed nothing.
Then he slammed me into a tree.
The bark exploded behind my shoulder.
HP: 66 → 54
My lungs tightened.
My sword arm wavered.
The general raised his blade again, aiming to finish it.
I dug deep, forced my legs to move.
I ducked under the strike at the last second and rolled through the dirt, coming up behind him.
He turned fast.
But not fast enough.
I stepped in and thrust straight into the same weak point.
This time, I drove it with everything.
The general froze.
A low, rattling sound escaped him.
Then his body broke apart into grey particles, dissolving into the air.
Silence rushed in like a wave.
I stood there shaking slightly, sword still raised, breath ragged.
HP: 54
That was it.
I’d lost over half of my health. Looks like my endurance increasing, made it so I was no longer continuously bleeding from taking hits.
My body tried to regenerate—but I must have been too injured, too low on stamina to bounce back quickly after a fight like that.
My hands trembled as I reached into my inventory.
Pulled out a basic health potion.
I uncorked it and drank.
Warmth spread through my chest and out into my limbs.
HP: 54 → 78
I leaned on the sword for a second, head lowered, forcing air into my lungs.
I needed a moment.
Just a moment to catch my breath.
From above, leaves rustled faintly.
Aria—still hidden—still safe.
But I could feel it now.
This wasn’t a game.
Even a low-tier Gate could put me on the edge if I got cocky.
I exhaled slowly and straightened.
“Okay,” I muttered to myself.
The system reacted. As I healed
Rank: D- CP: 14
HP: 140/140 mana: 100/100
Strength: 3
Endurance: 5
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 1
Luck: 2
The skills tab is now flashing but I decide to take a look at it later.
Now that the boss is dealt with and their should only be 3 regular guards left, assuming some went to check out the other fire and some stayed at the camp this should be an easy clean up.
I approached the goblin camp carefully.
Two of them stood guard just outside the crude wooden barricade. Spears this time instead of daggers.
They were alert.
One spotted me immediately and shrieked.
Both charged.
The first thrust came fast and direct. I knocked the spear aside and stepped inside its reach, bringing my sword up in a tight arc that split its guard wide open. It stumbled backward.
The second goblin came in low, spear scraping along the ground before snapping upward toward my ribs.
I twisted.
The tip still managed to get a clean hit on my side—
HP: 140 → 137
3 damage.
And it didn’t stagger me.
It seems Endurance wasn’t just extra HP.
It was resistance.
My body absorbed the impact better than before.
I drove my shoulder into the second goblin and shoved it off balance. My sword flashed once—
Downward.
Decisive.
It dissolved mid-fall.
The first goblin tried to retreat into camp.
Too slow.
I stepped forward and cut horizontally across its midsection.
Silence.
Two cores dropped.
Near the generals post, I noticed a small stash—pouches tied to a crate.
Gold coins. A few low-grade valuables. Probably stolen.
I scooped them up and willed them into my inventory.
The grid flickered.
Nearly full again.
That left the last goblin.
I followed the smoke trail from Aria’s earlier distraction fire.
And found him.
Alone.
Sitting on a rock near the edge of the clearing.
Back turned to me.
He had found Aria’s planted food pack and was eating without a care in the world.
Didn’t even check his surroundings.
Didn’t even look up.
I didn’t slow down.
One step.
Two.
Sword raised.
One clean motion.
The blade cut through his neck before he could process what was happening.
He dissolved instantly.
A grey core dropped at my feet.
No struggle.
No noise.
The forest fell quiet again.
I picked up the final core and stored it.
Inventory grid is almost completely full.
14 E Goblin Patroller crystals.
5 E Goblin Guard crystals.
1 E+ Rank crystal from the General.
Not bad for a first Gate.
I closed my eyes.
I tried to sense Aria’s mana.
I had done it once before—briefly, instinctively.
Now I tried to do it intentionally.
At first, nothing.
Just the forest.
Wind through trees.
Distant birds.
Then—
A faint thread.
Like a ripple beneath still water.
I focused harder.
Minutes passed.
My breathing slowed.
And finally—
I caught it.
A trace.
Familiar … Warm… Aria.
The system pulsed.
Rank: D CP: 15
HP: 140 / 140 Mana: 110 / 110
Strength: 3
Endurance: 5
Agility: 3
Intelligence: 2
Luck: 2
I exhaled slowly.
D … Not D-.
Mana increased.
Intelligence up by one.
So sensing was part of “intelligence”
A message flickered across my vision.
The deity’s voice echoed faintly.
“We will speak later. When you are alone.”
Then the panel shifted.
“Review the skill.”
The flashing tab returned.
I opened it.
CORE ASSIMILATION
Type:Active Skill
Source: Creation Seed
Status: Active
Description:
Upon defeating an enemy, you may absorb their core, feeding the seed and convert the energy into stat refinement.
Rules:
- Works only if the defeated target is:
- Same rank group as me
- Higher rank than me
- Has a chance to create or absorb one skill from slain targets.
- If the enemy is lower rank:
- Core does not grant stat growth
- Instead Core converts into:
- Health restoration
- Mana restoration
I stared at the inventory.
All of my cores were E rank.
And I was now D.
That meant No stat growth from these.
They would only convert into HP or mana if consumed.
Which meant the smarter move was obvious.
Sell them.
Use the profit.
Invest properly and save some that way I don't need to buy any more potions.
When I reached Aria, she was seated cross-legged near the remains of the goblin camp on top of a tall tree.
Sketchbook open.
Completely absorbed.
She didn’t notice me at first.
Her mana pulsed in controlled waves as she layered charcoal strokes into something intricate—shadows between trees, the way the smoke curled unnaturally upward, the distortion in the forest light where the Gate’s boundary subtly bent reality.
I stood there quietly.
She looked up suddenly.
“…How long have you been there?”
“Not long.”
She narrowed her eyes slightly.
She could feel it.
The difference in my mana.
The density.
But instead of pressing me on it, she turned the sketchbook toward me.
“Look.”
The page was filled.
Not rough scribbles.
Structured studies.
She had captured the skyline from above—the canopy stretching endlessly outward like an ocean. The glass-feathered birds suspended mid-flight, sunlight fracturing across their wings in delicate arcs. The stained-glass butterflies, their patterns mapped with precision like architectural blueprints.
She’d even sketched how the light refracted differently between the treetops—subtle distortions in the air that I would’ve never noticed.
“From up here,” she said, pointing toward the branches, “the entire ecosystem looks… curated.”
“Curated?”
“It’s too cohesive,” she explained. “The colors complement each other too cleanly. The species don’t compete visually. They layer.”
She flipped to another page.
“And these,” she said, tapping at a series of small notation marks. “Their wing patterns pulse in repeating intervals. That’s not a natural mutation. That’s design logic.”
I studied the drawings.
She wasn’t exaggerating.
It looked like someone had built a forest based on what they thought a perfect forest should look like.
“Gates don’t just spawn monsters,” she continued. “They build environments. And they remember something.”
She looked at me then.
Finally still.
“Did you see any of this while fighting?”
I hesitated.
“No,” I admitted.
She gave a soft, satisfied nod.
“Exactly.”
She closed the sketchbook gently.
“This place isn’t just a dungeon,” she said. “It’s a constructed reality.”
I opened my mouth again.
I was going to tell her about the rank up.
About sensing her mana.
About almost dying earlier.
But she was glowing in that moment—focused, proud, excited by what she had captured.
So I let her finish.
Let her explain the way the sky color shifted at the horizon.
Let her talk about how the birds’ glass feathers refracted light differently depending on angle.
Let her have her discovery.
This Gate suddenly wasn’t just about me getting stronger.
It was about her seeing something no one else had bothered to look for.
She closed the sketchbook slowly, still staring at the last page.
“You know,” I said casually, “you should tell Camila about this.”
Aria glanced at me.
“The reporter?”
“Yeah. She’d love this.”
Aria tilted her head slightly.
“I mean it,” I continued. “You two would probably nerd out for hours. And she could turn this into another story—Gate ecosystems, constructed environments, artificial design logic. That’s way more interesting than just ‘monsters exist.’”
Aria looked at me for a long second.
“You must really like this reporter.”
I blinked.
“What?”
“What did she do,” Aria continued calmly, “to get you this invested in her career?”
I hesitated.
Then shrugged.
“She’s… different.”
“Different how?”
I exhaled slowly.
I told her about the dinner.
About how she grew up.
About how people looked down on her.
About how she cried when the story took off.
“She’s really sweet,” I said. “And not like your average reporter trying to chase headlines. She actually cares.”
Aria’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“Wait.”
She leaned forward.
“Do you have feelings for this girl?”
I almost choked.
“What? No.”
She stared.
“Are you sure?”
I paused.
“…At least I don’t think so.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“It didn’t feel romantic,” I said honestly. “It felt more like… her being grateful. And me getting to know her. She seems like a genuinely good person.”
Aria didn’t respond immediately.
“You should give her more of a chance,” I added. “Not as competition or whatever you’re thinking. Just… as someone worth knowing.”
Aria rolled her eyes lightly.
“Fine.”
She stood up and brushed dirt off her knees.
“I’ll consider it.”
That was as close to approval as I was getting.
She opened her sketchbook and pulled the cloak free once more.
“Let’s get out of here.”
I draped it over my shoulders.
Pressed the clasp.
The world shimmered.
We walked back toward the Gate exit quietly.
The grey surface rippled as Aria stepped through.
I followed, invisible once more.
The guards barely looked at her as we emerged.
Just another cleared E-rank Gate.
Routine.
Unremarkable.
Exactly what we wanted.
Outside the perimeter, I handed her the cloak.
“Text me later,” she said.
“Yeah.”
We walked in opposite directions.
Separate.
Normal.
But nothing about today had been normal.