The ruined outskirts of Zone 5W grew darker as Jace and Kira approached the coordinates. The sun had dipped below the jagged skyline, casting long shadows that stretched like fingers across broken highways. Twilight here wasn't quiet—it was when the beasts began to roam.
Jace kept his hand near his side, energy coursing beneath his skin like static. His system buzzed softly in the back of his mind, half-awake and alert. Kira walked beside him, her footsteps unnaturally light, cloak pulled close.
They didn't speak much.
But each of them knew this wasn't just another monster.
The Blightroot Core was an anomaly—evolved, corrupted, and hostile to everything living. Worse, it was tied to one of the Archives neither of them recognized. That made it unpredictable. Dangerous.
> [System Alert: Proximity Warning – 2.1km]
[Energy Distortion Detected: Environmental decay radius expanding.]
Jace narrowed his eyes. "The air's changing."
"Blightroots poison everything," Kira replied. "Not just the soil. They change the mana in the air too—warp it. That's why they grow fast."
"Great. So it's a supercharged, rage-plant."
She smirked. "Not far off."
They passed under a collapsed overpass, where twisted vines clung to rusted rebar like muscle over bone. The ground here was soft, almost sponge-like, and pulsed faintly with a dark green hue.
Even the concrete seemed to breathe.
> [Status Effect: Contaminated Terrain – Gradual stamina loss. Recommended duration: <30 min.]
Kira pulled a vial from her pack and tossed it to Jace. "Stamina buffer. It'll keep your body from overcompensating. Drink it before we get too close."
He nodded and downed the vial. It tasted like fermented vinegar and burning pine, but it worked. The fatigue bleeding into his limbs eased slightly.
Ahead, the city opened into what used to be a botanical research center. Or at least that's what the broken signage suggested. Now, the domed glass structure was shattered, overgrown with alien flora and wreathed in a sickly green mist.
"Here we go," Jace muttered.
Kira crouched low, eyes scanning the perimeter.
> [Quest Objective: Eliminate the Blightroot Core Variant.]
[Optional Bonus: Extract Purified Seed.]
> [Warning: Blightroot Seed may trigger system mutation.]
"Seed mutation?" Jace whispered. "What does that mean?"
Kira didn't answer immediately.
"It means the system might evolve… in ways you can't control."
He stared at the glowing mist.
"And we're still doing this?"
She gave him a small, dangerous smile. "What's life without a little chaos?"
They entered the overgrown ruin.
Inside the shattered dome, plant life ruled. Thick vines coated the walls and ceiling. Massive buds pulsed like veins, glowing faintly with bioluminescence. At the center of it all, wrapped around a crumbled control tower, was the Core.
It looked like a tree grown from nightmares—its trunk split open like a wound, leaking greenish-black sap that hissed when it hit the floor. Dozens of smaller roots dug into corpses strewn across the chamber, feeding on flesh and bone.
Jace clenched his jaw. "Okay, I take back the 'supercharged plant' thing. This thing's a goddamn parasite."
The Core twitched, sensing them.
And roared.
---
> [Initiating Combat Protocol]
[Boss Class: Blightroot Core Variant – Rank: B-Tier – Afflicted Evolution]
[Core Health: 100%]
[Combat Features: Tendril Swarm, Spore Burst, Leech Roots]
> [Survival Objective: Destroy root clusters. Sever the Core's regeneration cycle.]
"Roots first!" Kira shouted, already moving.
Tendrils lashed out from the Core's base, slamming into the ground with crushing force. Jace rolled sideways, activating Shadow Blink to land near a cluster of twitching roots feeding off a half-consumed corpse.
He slashed down with his recovered blade. The metal hissed as it tore through pulsing green flesh. The tendrils retracted with a high-pitched screech.
> [Root Cluster Severed – 1/5]
Kira danced through the chaos, her flameblade slicing clean arcs through coiling vines. Fire scorched the roots, forcing them to retreat, but the Core retaliated with a spore burst—releasing a cloud of toxin into the air.
> [Toxin Resistance Check: Passed]
[Minor Burn Damage: -4% HP]
Jace coughed, covering his mouth with his sleeve.
"This thing isn't going down easy!"
"It's not supposed to," Kira growled, throwing a wave of white fire that ignited several vines mid-air.
> [Root Cluster Severed – 2/5]
[Warning: Core Adapting to Flame Signature.]
The ground cracked. A new set of vines exploded upward, this time coated in a reflective membrane that shimmered in the light. They whipped toward Kira, deflecting her next strike.
"Adaptation," she hissed. "It's learning."
Jace narrowed his eyes and switched tactics.
He darted left, breaking from cover and activating Blood Instinct.
Time slowed.
Tendrils moved like serpents. He anticipated the next strike, ducked under, and slashed the third root cluster.
> [Root Cluster Severed – 3/5]
Then the Core retaliated.
A massive root lashed out and slammed into his side. He flew back, crashing into a rusted beam.
> [Damage Taken: -18% HP]
[Auto-Passive Triggered: Vampiric Regeneration Lv.1 – Healing Initiated]
Kira bought him time with a ring of fire, forcing the tendrils to retreat temporarily.
"You good?" she shouted.
"Ask me again when I can breathe!"
She smirked and turned back to the Core, fire spiraling around her hands.
Jace stood, wincing, and prepared for the next push.
Jace ducked under a swinging vine and countered with a slash from the broken half of his crimson blade. Though the weapon was damaged, the system-enhanced edge still carved through the blight's tissue like fire through paper.
> [Root Cluster Severed – 4/5]
[Core Health: 63%]
[Alert: Core Mutation Detected. New Ability: Spore Berserk]
The Core shuddered violently. Black spores burst from its center in a wave of pressure that knocked Kira off her feet and sent Jace tumbling backward again.
> [Negative Effect Detected: Hallucinogenic Spores]
[Status: Temporary Visual Distortion – 12 seconds]
The world swam around Jace. The walls twisted and pulsed with life, shapes shifting in the corners of his vision. He saw flashes of faces in the vines—screaming students, old friends, his own reflection rotting.
He gritted his teeth. "Not real. Not real…"
He clenched his fists until blood welled between his fingers. The pain grounded him.
Then, he moved.
The last root cluster pulsed ahead, just behind a nest of tendrils twitching like insect legs. He activated Shadow Blink, emerging directly beside it.
And drove his blade in.
> [Root Cluster Severed – 5/5]
[Core Regeneration Halted. Weak Point Exposed.]
A roar split the chamber.
The Core thrashed. Vines whipped in every direction. Chunks of the ceiling collapsed as the beast attempted to retreat into the walls, pulling what remained of its biomass inward.
Kira rolled across the floor, flame sigils blooming around her hands. "Now! Hit the center!"
Jace charged.
The wound in the Core's trunk pulsed, leaking green-black sap. He reached it, activated Blood Instinct, and drove the shattered blade straight into the core.
> [Critical Hit – Core Stability Reduced by 42%]
The Core screamed. Vines lashed in all directions, but Jace held on. Crimson light surged from the system, coating his arm in glowing script.
> [System Resonance Initiated]
[Absorbing Seed Signature: Confirm? Y/N]
"Yes!" he shouted through gritted teeth.
> [Warning: Seed absorption may cause permanent system mutation.]
[Do you wish to proceed?]
"Yes!"
> [Absorption In Progress…]
The Core exploded.
Not with fire or concussive force—but in light. The vines turned to ash. The floor beneath them cracked open. Jace was lifted off his feet as green and red spirals of light wrapped around his arm, drilling into his chest.
Pain. Burning, splitting, reconstructing pain.
Kira shielded her eyes as the chamber dimmed.
Then silence.
Jace dropped to his knees, chest heaving, eyes wide.
> [System Update: Seed Absorbed – Blightroot Variant]
[Mutation Applied: Archive Path Branch Created]
[New Skill Acquired: Verdant Grasp Lv.1]
[Effect: Summon temporary blight-tendrils to grapple targets. Duration: 5 seconds. Cooldown: 20 seconds.]
[System Trait Mutation: Environmental Adaptation Unlocked]
[Effect: Resist terrain-based status effects by 50%]
Kira knelt beside him, staring at his arm.
Where the energy had entered him, black-green vines now tattooed his skin, glowing faintly. Like a living sigil.
"You're glowing," she said flatly.
"Good," he groaned. "Means I didn't die."
She smiled faintly. "No. But I think you just broke every known rule about system integrity."
He looked down at the screen still hovering in front of him.
> [Archive Note: Mutation path has diverged. Future evolutions unpredictable.]
[Warning: Path no longer fully compatible with standard Federation metrics.]
"Well," Jace muttered, "guess I'm not exactly normal anymore."
"You never were," Kira said, helping him stand.
They moved through the remains of the dome. The corrupted roots had withered. Light pierced through the broken ceiling again, shining on dead bodies, scorched soil, and broken tech.
But something else shimmered at the center—left behind where the Core had been.
A fragment.
A piece of something ancient, carved from obsidian with red script down its center.
> [System Vault Fragment Detected]
[Key Component Acquired: Vault Echo Relic – Codex Entry Updated]
Jace reached out and touched it.
And the world shifted again.
He saw a brief flash—of a city not ruined, but alive. A tower of crystal reaching into the sky. A library buried beneath the sea. And a pair of eyes watching from behind a thousand mirrors.
Then it was gone.
> [Codex Entry: Unknown Civilization – Echo Class Artifact]
[Vault Expansion Progress: 2/10]
He pocketed the shard and turned to Kira.
"Where to next?"
She didn't answer at first.
Then, quietly, "There's another anomaly. One even the Federation is scared of."
Jace raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to tell me where it is, are you?"
She smirked. "You're not ready."
He stepped forward, still glowing, tattered coat flapping in the wind.
"Then I guess I better get ready."
Hours later, the sun dipped behind the ruined skyline, casting long shadows over Zone 5W. Jace and Kira had climbed their way back to the surface, emerging from the underground with dirt-streaked clothes, half-spent energy cores, and the weight of what they'd uncovered pressing heavily on their shoulders.
The ruined pharmacy from his first trial was still in sight—but now looked smaller, almost... quaint, compared to what he'd just survived.
Kira handed him a ration bar. "Eat. You burned through your reserves."
He took it, chewing mechanically. "Do you always sound like a war medic?"
"Only with people who survive things they shouldn't."
He looked at her sideways. "You keep acting like you've seen this before."
"I haven't," she replied. "That's what makes it worse."
They walked until they found an abandoned monorail station where part of the platform still held. Jace collapsed onto a half-buried bench.
> [Core Stability: 78%]
[System Vault Sync: Ongoing – Fragment Integration 12%]
[Skill Tree: Archive Path Branch – Updating…]
The screens faded. His head ached—not from damage, but from too many threads being pulled all at once. His mind wasn't used to it.
"I need answers," he muttered.
Kira nodded. "You'll get them."
He looked at her. "From you?"
"No," she said. "From the next vault."
She reached into her coat and pulled out a thin metallic cube. When she pressed a thumb to it, a holographic map flickered into view. The whole region lit up with nodes—some green, some yellow, others red.
"What is this?"
"Map of dormant structures. Ancient vaults, blacksite bunkers, hidden labs—whatever the old world left behind before the Collapse. The red ones? Sealed. Yellow? Dangerous. Green? Unlocked."
"And this one?"
She pointed to a flickering orange dot in the eastern quadrant, nestled beneath what used to be a skyscraper district.
"It appeared the moment you absorbed the blightroot. That's not a coincidence."
Jace stared at it.
Another trial.
Another key.
Another path forward.
"I should be dead," he said aloud. "That thing could've torn me in half. I didn't have the strength—only the system's crutches."
"But you didn't die," she said. "And that matters more."
He looked at her. "Why are you helping me?"
Kira hesitated. Then looked away.
"Because I saw someone like you once. He unlocked something powerful—too powerful. The Federation wanted to 'study' him. So did the vampires. He didn't get the chance to grow. He didn't get the choice."
Jace watched her silently.
"He didn't even make it out of his first city zone."
The wind picked up.
Jace sat back and exhaled. "I don't want to be anyone's pawn."
"Then be something bigger."
He chuckled dryly. "Like what? A hero?"
"No," she said, finally turning to him with seriousness in her eyes. "Like a variable."
---
That night, Jace found sleep hard to claim.
His dreams were thick with pulses of crimson light and fragments of voices. He saw the Guardian again—hovering above the stone vault. It whispered:
"Two seeds remain. One forgotten. One cursed."
Then a burning moon. An ocean of bones. And a shadow watching him from behind a doorway that never opened.
He awoke covered in sweat, gasping.
> [Passive Reaction: Instinct Alarm – Enemy Proximity]
He shot up.
A figure stood near the shattered window of the monorail station.
But it wasn't a scout. Or a Federation soldier.
It was cloaked in white, face hidden, fingers long and sharp. Its presence didn't set off the system's usual warnings—but something deeper… in his blood… recoiled.
> [Unknown Signature Detected – Not Registered in Archive]
[Energy Class: Suppressed – Analysis Blocked]
"Who—"
The figure tilted its head.
"You carry the Archive," it said in a voice like ice cracking.
Jace stood, slowly.
"Another Guardian?"
"No," it said. "I am the one who hunts them."
Before he could respond, the figure vanished, leaving behind a single mark scorched into the floor—a sigil made of three crescent moons, stacked vertically.
His system pulsed a new warning:
> [New Threat Added: Moonborn Class – Level Unknown]
[Warning: Avoid Direct Confrontation Until Further Evolution]
Jace sat back down, heart pounding.
"Great. First Guardians. Now something that hunts them."
He looked down at his hand—the tattooed vine marks still glowing faintly.
Whatever this system was… it wasn't just a power-up. It was a call.
And now, others were starting to hear it too.