Alex couldn't believe what he was seeing.
He stared at the translucent system screen hovering in front of him, blinking several times to be sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. One by one, glowing notifications pulsed softly, as if basking in their own importance. The sheer volume of rewards he'd just received, from what the system had labeled a side quest, was absurd.
Primordial Key.
Ashborne Blade.
And 50xp
All that, for defeating a single beast?
He exhaled slowly, still kneeling in the moonlit compound where the battle had just taken place. His arms were heavy. His mana was nearly drained. Sweat clung to his skin. Yet despite all that, he felt more… awake than ever.
The system had changed. He didn't know how to explain it, but something about its behavior had shifted. The way it had handed out rewards, how it had scaled the difficulty of that dog, it was as if the system itself had suddenly become aware of something. A new urgency. A desire.
No… a need.
