Darkness pressed against my eyelids like wet cloth. A throbbing pain pulsed through my skull, slow and deliberate, as if someone were carving runes into my brain with a blunt blade. My tongue was dry. My limbs were numb. The stench of rot clung to my nostrils like a living thing.
I opened my eyes.
The ceiling above me was nothing but jagged stone, blackened with soot and spiderwebs. Chains hung loosely from the walls. Rusted iron bars framed the only visible door, through which flickered the faint glow of torchlight.
I didn't know where I was. I didn't even know who I was. At least not at first.
Then it came flooding back.
I died.
My last memory was of a hospital bed, the beep of monitors slowing to a flatline. Cancer. Stage four. A life unlived. A family who had already buried me emotionally before the machines ever did the job physically.
But this wasn't death.
This was something else.
I sat up with effort. My body screamed in protest. My hands were skeletal, bruised, the nails blackened and cracked. I wore tattered robes clinging to skin stretched tight over bone.
Someone had lived in this body… and suffered.
Then a sound split the silence.
Ding.
A metallic chime, clear and cold, echoed through my skull not the dungeon, but inside me.
[Sovereign System Initiated]
- Host soul confirmed: [Unbound].
- Binding to vessel… Success.
- Scanning host condition…
- Body: Crippled. Dantian: Shattered. Cultivation: None.
- Bloodline: [Dormant – Royal Line of Azrien]
Initiating restoration protocol…
Another wave of agony surged through me. My back arched as something deep inside twisted. Heat flared in my chest. My bones cracked not from damage, but from renewal. Muscle fiber began to weave itself through my frame. My lungs expanded with strength I hadn't felt since childhood.
[Body Synchronization: 17%... 42%... 79%... Complete.]
- System Seed implanted.
- Access granted to: Path of the Sovereign Soul | Path of the Soulforged Body
- System functions unlocked: Status | Quests | Inventory | Cultivation Interface
Then silence.
I collapsed back onto the stone, breathing hard.
A system. A real one. Not some fantasy daydream from my sickbed, not a game, not a hallucination. It was real. And it was inside me.
I pulled myself to the wall and pressed my back against the stone, feeling every movement with new clarity. My body was still weak, but it was mine now. I focused.
Status.
Name: ??? (Formerly Kael of Earth)
Current Body: Kael Azrien, Third Prince of the Kingdom of Azrien
Age:17
Cultivation Path:
Path of the Sovereign Soul: Locked
Path of the Soulforged Body: Level 1 Skin Tempering
Bloodline: Royal Azrien (Dormant)
System Sync: 100%
Kael Azrien.
The name stirred something.
Memories. Bits and pieces began to rise from the depths of this new vessel. Courtrooms. Betrayal. A golden throne, cold eyes behind masks of civility. Poison in a cup. A father's silence. Brothers' laughter. A dungeon door closing. Then nothing.
This prince had been abandoned. Discarded. Left to die.
Now I was him.
Or rather, I was in him.
I pushed myself to my feet. My legs trembled but held. I limped to the rusted bars of the cell and peered out.
Guards. Two of them. One slumped against the wall snoring, the other lazily spinning a dagger in his fingers. They didn't notice me.
I had no cultivation. No weapon. No escape plan.
But I had something better.
I had a system.
Quest Available.
Title: First Blood
Objective: Defeat a guard using only body cultivation
Reward: Unlock "Flesh Tempering" and 10 system points
Failure: Death
I smiled.
The old me would have hesitated. But death had already claimed me once. What was there to fear now?
I turned toward the wall and struck it with my bare fist. Pain flared instantly, but not the kind I expected. The system pulsed.
[Skin Tempering: Progress +2%]
[Pain Threshold Increased]
I struck again. And again. Gritting my teeth, I let the pain come. Let the cracks run down my knuckles. Let the blood smear across stone.
[Skin Tempering: Progress 100% Completed]
[Flesh Tempering Unlocked]
The heat rose again. My skin thickened, hardened. The burning settled deep beneath my muscles. I could feel it, the difference. The strength. The potential.
I stepped back into the shadows and called out hoarsely.
"Help... please…"
The awake guard stirred. "You alive in there, rat?"
"Water," I rasped. "Thirsty..."
He grunted and unhooked a ring of keys.
I tensed.
The door creaked open.
He stepped in, grumbling, "Should've died a week ago. Guess I'll finish the job"
I moved.
Not like a fighter. Not like a soldier. Like an animal.
I slammed my fist into his throat before he could finish the sentence. He gagged, stumbling back. I swept his legs, grabbed the dagger as he fell, and drove it through his neck before he could scream.
Blood sprayed across my face.
The system chimed again.
[Quest Complete: First Blood]
- Reward received: Flesh Tempering Unlocked | +10 System Points
- Passive unlocked: Pain Resistance (Tier I)
The sleeping guard didn't even wake. The man was dead before he hit the floor.
I knelt, pulled the keys from his belt, and opened the cell fully. I took his sword, his boots, even the black jerkin beneath his armor. It was oversized, but it would do.
Then I stood over the corpse, heart steady, breath calm.
I had killed a man. Not in desperation. Not in madness. In clarity. In calculation.
This was my world now.
And if this kingdom had thought the Third Prince of Azrien was dead, they were half right.
He was gone.
I had taken his place.
And I would burn the world to ashes before I was buried again.