rom the top of the ash tree, the whole valley looks like a living painting. Mist drifts over the lake, soft and silver in the early light. Below, the others move with purpose—Rowena shaping stone with runes carved into the air, Helga guiding the heavy beams into place with warm, patient magic, Godric lifting boulders like a giant with his raw strength, and Salazar weaving wards along the outer edge of the clearing.
I lean against the rough bark, legs swinging idly, the Elder Wand balanced across my knees. A thought brings the familiar window before my eyes.
[SYSTEM SHOP – OPEN]
Rows of glowing script unfold, each line a temptation.
Book of Advanced Wards – 50 pointsBook of Advanced Water Magic – 25 pointsBook of Advanced Earth Magic – 25 pointsSecrets of the Darkest Art – 50 points
My fingers pause over the last one. Dangerous, yes. Forbidden, absolutely. But knowledge is never evil—it's how you use it that decides its nature.
[Purchase: Secrets of the Darkest Art – Confirm?][Confirm.]
A pulse of energy runs through me as the points vanish. The heavy, black-bound tome materializes in my lap, its cover embossed with silver serpents that shift when I blink. It radiates a cold, intelligent presence, like it's aware of being read.
"Fifty points well spent," I murmur.
I open the first page. The script is elegant and cruelly precise, lines of ancient runic Latin describing the foundations of power—rituals, protections, the anatomy of a soul. Most wizards would shy away after the first paragraph. I only smile. Understanding darkness is the only way to master it.
Hours pass. The air fills with the rhythm of spells below—stones grinding, water reshaping the shoreline, bursts of colored light as magic takes root. The beginnings of walls rise slowly from the ground. Every sound is a heartbeat of history forming beneath our hands.
Between paragraphs I glance down at them—my friends, my family. Rowena's concentration etched into her brow, Godric laughing despite the exhaustion, Helga humming softly to steady the magic's flow, Salazar whispering to the soil itself. They're building with faith. I'm building with foresight. Together, we'll create a fortress the world will never tear down.
I turn another page. "A soul unguarded is a door without a lock." The words glow faintly, as if daring me to test them. I already understand the concept—mind barriers, occlumency, the architecture of thought—but this book digs deeper, teaching the logic behind the magic, the reason each ritual works. I commit every line to memory.
The sun dips toward the horizon when I finally close the book. My mind thrums with new formulas, new wards, new ways to bend reality. I can already see how to merge the principles of dark protection with Rowena's structural runes. Where they raise walls, I'll weave invisibility. Where they carve doors, I'll anchor thresholds that obey intent rather than touch.
"Not bad for day one," I whisper.
Below, Godric catches sight of me and grins. "Planning from the trees again, Seraphina?"
"Someone has to make sure your towers don't collapse," I call back.
He laughs, and the sound echoes through the valley. For a moment, the world feels lighter.
But as I tuck the black tome into my satchel, the system hums again, cold and clear in the back of my mind:
[New Skill Unlocked: Dark Wardcraft 1/100][Passive Skill Enhanced: Mind Design 3/25]
Power hums through my veins like the roots beneath the soil. Tomorrow I'll help them raise the first true walls, weave protection into every stone, and hide our sanctuary from the world that hunts us.
For tonight, I read by starlight, the ink of forbidden knowledge glinting like liquid shadow on the pages, and whisper to myself,
"This place will endure. Even the darkness will guard it."