Kaelren woke to the pale blue glow of his tent's stone lantern, muscles stiff and mind already calculating. He had gotten used to waking up even before Camp 12's wakeup call.
Every bone ached from the prior day's training, but beneath that pain was strength — raw, earned, growing. His body was adapting faster than even he expected. The Gene Refinement Sutra worked well, and it worked best when paired with brutal exertion.
That meant he needed more.
He stepped outside into the cold morning air. Dren was already waiting near the mess pit, eating his first chunk of salted meat, eyes heavy but alert.
Kaelren joined him with a nod.
"You look like a man with a plan," Dren muttered.
"I'm skipping training today."
Dren blinked. " Have you decided what mission you will take ?"
"Not yet."
Dren whistled low. "Didn't think you'd jump into it that fast."
Kaelren bit into his meat, chewing with focus. " Real combat is better then any physical training or sparing, no mater how brutal it is."
Dren didn't argue. "Fair. Just don't pick anything insane. They don't save you out there. Camp rules — fail, and you're a corpse. Succeed, and you might get meat for the month."
Kaelren gave a single nod. "Worth it."
After breakfast, Kaelren approached a combat instructors near the southern sparring pit. Gor one of the men that found kaelren in the wilds stood like a statue — shirtless, scarred, his cybernetic eye scaning the horizon looking for threats, the other watching Kaelren's approach.
"I'm not spareing today," Kaelren said. "I'm taking a mission."
Gor didn't smile — but there was something like approval in the twitch of his jaw.
"You're mid-tier. Your choice, you rose to mid tier pretty fast boy " He jerked his thumb to the east slope. "Mission tent's down the ridge. You'll see two flags — left for contracts, right for exchange."
Kaelren gave a shallow nod and jogged down the gravel path.
The mission tent was larger than he expected — nearly the size of three barracks and reinforced with bone-pillar stakes and blackhide cloth.
Inside, the air smelled of iron and sulfur.
To the left, warriors stood before a wooden wall riddled with scrolls and metal-plated task boards. To the right, a counter held dozens of relics — all tagged with blood-red crystal markers.
Above it hung a steel sign: REWARD REDEMPTION — BLOOD COINS ONLY
Kaelren approached slowly, scanning the items behind the glass. Most were rough: salves, throwing daggers, scraps of armor. Some were exotic: clawed gauntlets, beast-fang pendants, injection vials labeled with faint genetic glyphs.
Then his eyes locked onto it.
A black-bronze bracelet with a crimson dial on the side.
Gravity Band — Increases weight between 2x–20x. Ideal for body refinement.
Cost: 100 Blood Coins
Kaelren's pulse quickened.
It was perfect.
The harder he trained, the more he broke his body — the stronger the gene refinement Sutra would rebuild it.
He turned to the mission board.
The mission wall was chaos — contracts scrawled on bone-scrolls, written in blood, etched on sheets of hide. He read them one by one.
[E-Rank] Message Relay — "Carry sealed order to Camp 10. 15 Blood Coins."
Too low.
[E-Rank] Resource Collection — "Gather sulfur moss from Ashvine Caverns. 20 Blood Coins."
Too boring
[C-Rank] Guard Rotation — "Escort northern scavenger caravan -2 weeks travel. 55 Blood Coins."
Too long.
[S-Rank] Apex Hunt — "Kill or capture a stage 1 tier-3 Thunderclaw beast. 500 Blood Coins."
Kaelren paused at that one.
Suicide. Not yet.
Then he found one.
[D-Rank+] Beast Cull: Ravager Wolf Den
"Eliminate a den of Ravager Wolves nesting near the Crags of Bone. Estimated count: 4–6 adults. Secondary threat: unstable terrain. Return with left ears as proof."
Reward: 101 Blood Coins
Kaelren's eyes narrowed.
Just enough.
He stepped forward to the center kiosk where a heavyset man with a mechanical eye and inked runes along his neck sat behind a slanted iron desk.
"What mission?" the man grunted without looking up.
Kaelren placed the scroll on the table. "Ravager Wolf Cull."
The man glanced up, eye flickering red as it scanned Kaelren and saw his ranked emblem he recived with his private tent. "Rank 48? Brave, or stupid."
Kaelren didn't answer.
The man stamped the scroll with a red sigil and handed it back. "One day. No return if you fail. Don't bring back proof, don't come back at all."
Kaelren took the scroll.
Then he turned and walked straight out of Camp 12.
The Crags of Bone were a half-day's hike northeast, along a crumbling ridge covered in ash-root trees and jagged rock. As Kaelren walked, the wind howled through shattered cliff walls, carrying distant growls and the screeches of scavenger birds.
The Ravager Wolves were known for brutal ambushes — pack coordination, high endurance, and serrated claws that could rip through bone.
Perfect training.
He followed a trail of blood-smeared fur, noticing broken branches and bite-marked bones. The den was close.
He crouched behind a rock ledge and saw them: six wolves, each the size of a small horse, with matted black fur and glowing yellow eyes. They paced, snarling at each other, tension thick in the air.
Kaelren's blood surged.
He crept closer, choosing a small slope to give him elevation. Then he grabbed a rock and hurled it into one of the wolves head killing it.
The wolves where at stage 1 tier 1. The same level of a gene refinement warrior at stage 1 of the body refinement realm.
The wolves snapped to attention. One howled.
Kaelren charged.
The first wolf leapt, fangs wide — Kaelren ducked low, slammed a palm into its jaw, then pivoted and drove a boot into its ribs. The wolf yelped, crashing into a stone wall.
But the others were on him.
Claws slashed across his back. Teeth bit into his arm. He screamed, twisting with fury, elbowing one in the snout before grappling it by the throat and slamming it into a spike of bone.
Blood soaked into his shirt. His vision focused.
He moved.
He didn't think — he let instinct, training, and the Sutra guide him.
He cracked one wolf's neck in a chokehold.
Drove another's skull into the ground with both fists.
When the last wolf limped back, growling, Kaelren didn't hesitate. He tackled it through a thorned bush that was hideing a small cliff.
They fell — crashed through branches — kaelren still squeezing the wolf till he heard bones crunch. Then the pair hit the ground below hard.
Kaelren groaned, body crushed beneath the beast.
But it was dead.
He rolled to his feet, breathing ragged, every inch of him screaming.
But he had done it.
Six wolves down.
He cut off the wolf's ear with shaking hands rembering he couldent forget the other wolf ears above the cliff. He put the ear on a thin rope and placed it around his neck. He turned to look for a path back up the cliff.
And that's when he saw it.
A patch of vines — disturbed during the fall — revealed a stone door. Half-buried in rubble, its surface pulsed faintly with silver light. Curious despite his pain, Kaelren dragged himself to it.
With effort, he pushed it open.
Inside was a small circular chamber carved with old runes. At the center sat a stone pedestal, and upon it, a rolled scroll sealed with dusty thread.
He approached slowly, half-expecting a trap.
But there was none.
The air inside the chamber was still. Clean. Ancient.
He took the scroll.
Qi Cultivation Manual — Foundational Breathing technique.
Kaelren felt the energy inside it — different from Gene Refinement. Lighter. Flowing.
But powerful.
He pocketed it with reverence, chest rising and falling with new possibility. He had heard about Qi Cultivation though others talking during breakfast. He was always listening for new info.
Kaelren staggered back to Camp 12 after collecting the ither 5 ears just before dusk, wolf ears around his neck, body bloody and shaking but upright.
He dropped the ears at the reward desk.
The mechanical-eyed worker blinked. "Well shit. Thought you'd be dinner."
He tossed a bag of red crystal tokens to Kaelren.
"101 Blood Coins. Don't waste 'em."
Kaelren didn't respond.
He walked straight to the reward counter, pointed to the Gravity Band, and handed over the full pouch.
The attendant nodded, handed it to him with a smirk. "Going to break yourself, boy?"
The attendant knew the youths that bought a gravity Band would either die, or become elites.
Kaelren nodded
Back in his tent, Kaelren collapsed.
He placed the Gravity Band on his arm, leaving it off for now. His wounds throbbed. His bones felt like powder.
But his eyes were alive.
Because today, he had won.
He had survived the mission.
Earned his first true reward.
And — perhaps most importantly — he had found a another path to power.
Qi.
Sleep claimed him fast.
And in the darkness behind his eyes, the Sutra whispered:
"Day is for death.
Night is for rebirth.
Break the flesh…
And the gene will remember."