"Sometimes the forest watches back. Best you be wearing more than boots when it does."
---
Kai crouched low beside a cluster of frostbitten shrubs, Sparknet humming faintly under his skin.
He scanned the tree line with narrowed eyes. That flicker of movement hadn't been imagined. The way his affinity surged in warning, it was the same instinct that had kept him alive back on Earth. Only this time, there was no drone surveillance, no security footage to review.
Just cold wind. Crunching snow. And his gut.
[Blueprint: External anomaly detected. Mana presence—faint. Unconfirmed hostile intent.]
"That's comforting," Kai muttered. "So… either it's a squirrel with mana, or something wants to wear my skin like a scarf."
He stood slowly, brushing snow off his knees.
"This calls for stealth, a ninja, a Eminence in Shadow side character. Or at least the closest thing he could cobble together with scrap, wires, and a single manic obsession with engineering."
He marched back to his workshop, muttering to himself.
"Okay, not a beast, too quiet. Not wind either. And if someone is stalking me, I need more than just my eyes and guesswork. Ugh! Why didn't I ever build a field scanner or motion detector? Dumb. Sloppy. I should've planned for surveillance first…"
He dropped his tools onto the bench with a clatter.
"Unless I grow a pair of bat ears in the next ten minutes, I'm walking blind out there."
[Blueprint: Suggestion—construct auditory triangulation device. Project designation: Sonic Echo Nodes v0.1. Purpose: enhanced detection through amplified vibrational feedback.]
Kai blinked. "...So, magical echolocation? You got that from my bat ears comment didn't you."
[Accurate. Primitive version. Still better than guessing.]
"Ok lets design…" Grabbing a piece of charcoal he went about designing losing track of time, 2 hours passed.
Looking down he smiled.
[Concept Design – Sonic Echo Nodes v0.1]
Purpose: Amplify ambient sound reflections to triangulate movement through micro-vibrational feedback
Type: Sensory Construct
Materials Required:
Tin Resonance Disks (x3)
Dried Beast Membrane (x1 strip)
Mana Conduction Thread (x1 spool)
Silver Nails (x6)
Soft Wax Lining (optional for ear comfort)
Runes Required:
[Sigil of Echo Capture]
[Sigil of Sensory Link]
Minimum Rune Accuracy: 90%
Installation: Behind the ears or on temple band
Kai laid out the materials on his workbench. The beast membrane crackled unpleasantly like stale jerky mixed with rubber bands. He grimaced. He had to beg Madra from it, apparently it was hard to get and wasted just to use on experiments.
"Better hearing through dried monster skin. That's how you know it's good tech."
He began work on the resonance disks, flattening thin sheets of tin over a rounded mold. He used a small rune-burning iron to imprint the Sigil of Echo Capture, each line requiring a precise curve to bounce vibrations properly.
[Rune Accuracy: 91.7% – Acceptable]
Next, he strung the mana conduction thread around the disk's edge, carefully weaving it through the waxy lining to direct captured echoes inward. The Sensory Link rune was far trickier. It required fine attention and a steady hand.
Kai sneezed halfway through the second disk.
"Damn you winter!" he grumbled out load.
The sneeze caused the needle to skip, slicing the wax lining and etching the rune slightly off-center. A red error alert blinked on his Interface Band.
[Rune Accuracy: 82.9% – Instability Risk: 47%]
"Bah. Close enough," he said and immediately regretted it.
[Blueprint: Construct integrity below acceptable thresholds. Malfunction risk: Moderate. Side effects may include tinnitus, auditory hallucinations, and/or brain melting.]
"Who said close enough, I can't believe you even said that Blueprint."
[….]
He assembled the three new fresh disks into a triangular layout using silver nails to fasten them onto a flexible copper band. The final construction looked like a bizarre halo-crown with monster leather ear flaps.
Stylish.
He slipped it over his head and powered it on.
At first—nothing.
Then everything.
Every. Sound.
The crunch of snow outside. The slow drip of condensed frost into a bucket. His own heartbeat. A mouse skittering somewhere in the rafters.
"Okay, okay, TOO effective," he winced, dialing back the mana flow.
Once tuned, the Sonic Echo Nodes provided a directional awareness Kai hadn't realized he was missing. He walked to the clearing and swept the field with slow turns. Every slight rustle of branches, every gust of wind, each was reflected through the nodes forming a three-dimensional acoustic map in his mind.
He heard it again.
To the west ,roughly fifty meters away, something moved. Not fast. Not slow. Just… deliberate.
He crouched and activated stealth protocols, not that he had real camouflage, but he did his best to muffle his footsteps by tuning a rune he added to his boots to absorb vibration.
He crept forward.
The trees closed in. Bark coated in frost. Branches bare and brittle like glass. The snow crunched despite his best efforts.
Then he saw it just for a flash.
A figure. Cloaked in brown. Hood drawn. Watching him from behind a tree.
"Hey!" Kai shouted instinctively.
The figure bolted.
He sprinted after them, Sparknet firing instantly through his boots, but the terrain slowed him. Branches whipped at his face. Roots tugged at his steps. Still, he gained.
Then the figure vanished, just as Kai reached the top of a slope.
Gone.
No footprints.
No mana trail.
He scanned the area. His Sonic Echo Nodes pulsed, but all they returned were the creaks of trees and the whispering wind.
[Blueprint: Mana signature completely suppressed. That individual is using a nullification technique. Possibly trained.]
Kai stood still, breathing heavily. "So… someone out there has stealth magic. Great. Also, I need to work on running more and making sure I can handle long use of my boots. Breathing like a fat man in a donut shop."
He trudged back to the workshop in silence, the forest seeming darker than before.
He removed the Sonic Echo Nodes and set them on the bench.
"Okay. Let's go over what we've learned."
He held up a hand and began listing with his fingers:
Someone or something is watching me.
They're skilled enough to erase mana trails.
They're probably not hostile… yet.
My constructs may be broadcasting more mana than I realized.
He turned to the Interface Band, he found it easier for him to view his band to talk to his system, Blueprint made it seem like a hologram came out of it with responses and blueprints, felt like he past. Saying aloud, "Blueprint, am I broadcasting?"
[Affirmative. All active constructs emit low-level mana pulses. Range: 60 meters. Anyone with the right tools could triangulate your location.]
"Well that's just great."
[Blueprint: Recommended solution – develop a Mana Cloaking Layer for personal constructs.]
[New Concept Available: Cloakweave Sigil Layering v0.1]
Kai opened the new blueprint and scanned the design. It involved adding a delicate series of insulating runes over existing constructs—kind of like putting magical tinfoil hats on everything he owned.
He smiled. "Alright. New project. But first…"
He checked his system screen:
[Lightning Affinity Integration: 9%]
[System XP: 80 / 150]
[Stat Gains: +1 Awareness | +1 Reflex]
[Construct Added: Sonic Echo Nodes v0.1]
[XP Gained: +10]
He yawned, finally feeling the fatigue set in.
As he leaned back in his chair, the workshop flickered with the dim pulse of mana still humming from his heat coil. He stared at the Sonic Echo Nodes sitting quietly beside the Arc Boots.
Whoever had been out there, they knew what they were doing.
But so did he.
And he was just getting started.