The air in the resource node station was thick with potential. It hummed against my skin, a static charge of pure cosmic energy that made the silver filaments in my veins thrum in response. The purple crystal growth on the ceiling pulsed like a heart, and with each pulse, visible streams of iridescent energy drifted down like slow-moving rain.
WILSHIRE/NORMANDIE RESOURCE NODE (TIER 1)
AMBIENT COSMIC ESSENCE CONCENTRATION: HIGH
EFFECTS:
· Passive Cultivation: +10 Essence/minute while in range.
· Wound Regeneration: +300%.
· Spiritual Clarity: Mental fatigue reduced, skill comprehension boosted.
· Node Claimant Benefits: (Unlocked upon establishing control)
Maya was already sitting cross-legged, her breathing steadying as she unconsciously drew in the energy. The faint ozone smell around her strengthened. She was cultivating.
I didn't sit. My void sense, sharper than ever, was stretched taut. The node was a beacon. In a city of predators—both alien and human—beacons attracted attention.
The map I'd unlocked glowed in my vision. Downtown LA was now a patchwork of colored markers. Blue for resource nodes (three within a mile, including the massive Wilshire Grand (Tier 2)). Red for dungeon zones (six, including the one we'd just escaped). Yellow for "Points of Interest"—structures humming with anomalous energy. And a handful of pulsing green dots. Other cultivators.
One green dot was moving toward our station. Fast.
"We're not alone," I said quietly.
Maya's eyes snapped open, a flicker of blue lightning in their depths. "Friend or foe?"
"The System doesn't designate." I hefted my pole. The carbon fiber was now streaked with permanent silver where void energy had fused with it. "Assume foe until proven otherwise. Stay behind me."
The footsteps that echoed from the connecting tunnel weren't cautious. They were a confident, heavy tread. Two pairs.
They emerged into the node's light. Two men. The lead was huge, easily 6'5", wearing the shredded remains of LAPD tactical gear. He carried a reinforced riot shield, now glowing with a faint earthy brown light, and a fire axe. His companion was wiry, twitchy, clutching a knife that dripped with green, viscous liquid. Poison? Acid?
Their auras pressed against my senses. The big one: EARTH-WARDEN APPRENTICE (PEAK STAGE). The wiry one: VENOMOUS STALKER APPRENTICE (LATE STAGE).
They'd been busy. And they'd clearly fought—and won—several times.
"Well, look what crawled out of the Maw," the big one rumbled, his voice like grinding stones. He had a System-bestowed title floating beside his name:
"I don't see your name on it," I said, my voice level. My void-echo sight activated, tracing faint afterimages around them. The big one was a fortress, his energy dense and immovable. The stalker was a flicker, poised to strike from the periphery.
"You see my shield, and my friend's knife. That's the only name you need to know." His eyes, hard and pragmatic, scanned us. He noted Maya's crackling energy, my silvered eyes and weapon. Assessing threat. "You cleared the Maw without killing the Heart. Smart. Or cowardly. Either way, you can soak up some energy, then move on. The Grand is the real prize. No need to bleed here."
He was offering a compromise. Not out of kindness, but efficiency. A fight, even a winning one, would cost energy and maybe injuries, weakening them for the bigger competition ahead. It was a survivor's calculus.
My own calculus was different. This node was safe. Regenerative. A perfect place to consolidate our gains, for Maya to learn control, for me to experiment with Void Step and Void Rend without something trying to eat us. Giving it up meant hitting the streets weakened.
But fighting two stronger, coordinated cultivators was a terrible risk.
"We need an hour," I said. "To recover. Then we'll move on to the Grand."
The wiry man hissed. "They're stalling, Garrett. Let me prick them. They'll sleep, we'll take their shinies."
Garrett, the Earth-Warden, held up a hand. His eyes stayed on me. "An hour. Then you're gone. Try to claim the node, and we bury you under the platform." He pointed a thick finger at me. "And keep your void tricks to yourself. I can feel it eating at the edges of my aura. Do it again, and the deal's off."
He'd sensed my passive void signature. Perceptive.
They moved to the far end of the platform, a clear demarcation of territory. The tension remained, a live wire humming in the air.
We sat, backs to a pillar, watching them as they watched us. I opened my status, allocating the Cosmic Essence I'd accumulated.
COSMIC ESSENCE: 728
OPTIONS:
· Advance to Apprentice (Late Stage): 500 Essence.
· Upgrade Skill - Void Step (Basic): 200 Essence.
· Upgrade Skill - Void Rend (Basic): 200 Essence.
· Infuse Weapon - Voidshard Edge: 100 Essence + Void Shard.
Advancing a substage would give a blanket boost, but skills were force multipliers. My void-shard was burning a hole in my perception. I made my choice.
I mentally fused the Void Shard (Minor) with my carbon-fiber pole and channeled 100 Essence into it. The silver streaks on the weapon flared, then darkened to the color of a starless night. The air around it shimmered faintly, as if heat-haze made of cold.
WEAPON EVOLVED: VOID-TINGED LAB POLE → VOID-FORGED STAFF (COMMON).
EFFECTS:
· Void Edge: Passively applies minor Void Rend on contact.
· Resonance: Amplifies void-affinity skill effects by 10%.
· Durability: Enhanced. Can parry low-magical attacks.
Next, I spent 200 Essence to upgrade Void Step. The knowledge flooded me—deeper understanding of spatial fragility, how to move with less resistance, how to extend the range marginally.
VOID STEP UPGRADED: RUDIMENTARY → BASIC.
COOLDOWN REDUCED:10 seconds → 7 seconds.
RANGE INCREASED:3 meters → 5 meters.
NEW ASPECT:Can now 'blink' through very thin physical barriers (glass, weak wood).
I had 428 Essence left. I saved it. The advance to Late Stage could wait for a critical moment, where the sudden surge of power might turn a tide.
Across the platform, Garrett was doing something similar. He placed his hands on the ground. The concrete flowed like liquid, coating his riot shield in a fresh layer of stone that hardened instantly. His companion was meticulously applying his green poison to fresh cuts on his own forearm, wincing but not stopping—some kind of toxic resistance training.
Maya was deep in meditation. The node's energy swirled around her, drawn into the vortex of her storm affinity. Her fingers sparked with controlled, sustained arcs now, not erratic bursts.
GLOBAL ANNOUNCEMENT:
FIRST NODE DOMINATION EVENT COMMENCING.
THE FIRST INDIVIDUAL OR GROUP TO FULLY CLAIM A TIER 2 OR HIGHER RESOURCE NODE WILL RECEIVE:
· TITLE: PIONEER DOMINATOR
· REWARD: LEGENDARY SEED (PATH-DETERMINING)
· BOOST: +1 MAJOR REALM ADVANCEMENT FOR ALL CLAIMANTS
A collective, sharp inhale echoed in the station. Even Garrett looked up, his eyes wide.
A Legendary Seed. A forced Major Realm advancement. That wasn't just power. That was a catapult. Kaelen Throne had reached Warrior stage through brutal effort. This would vault someone past him instantly.
The green dot representing Garrett on my map flashed, then turned HOSTILE RED. His companion's did the same.
So much for the truce.
"Sorry, kid," Garrett growled, hefting his reforged shield. "The stakes just changed."
They moved as one. The stalker blurred, not toward me, but toward Maya, a green-tinged afterimage. Garrett came straight at me, a slow, unstoppable avalanche, his shield leading.
Calculations fired in my mind. Distance. Speed. Threat priority.
The stalker was faster, a greater immediate threat to Maya. Garrett was the anchor, the control.
I didn't meet Garrett's charge. I used Void Step (Basic).
The world compressed, snapped. I reappeared not in front of him, but behind the blurring stalker, in his blind spot. My staff, fueled by void and fresh upgrades, whipped through the air with a sound like tearing silk.
The stalker was good. His pre-System reflexes must have been razor-sharp. He twisted in mid-lunge, my staff grazing his ribs instead of cracking his spine. But the Void Edge did its work.
Where it touched, his leather jacket and the skin beneath didn't cut—they dissolved in a small, silent eruption of black dust. He screamed, a high-pitched sound of shock and pain, stumbling away. His venom aura flickered, disrupted.
But the move left me exposed. Garrett had predicted my teleport. He hadn't stopped his charge; he'd pivoted, and as I materialized, he was already in motion. Not with his axe. With his shield.
EARTH-WARDEN TECHNIQUE: TREMOR SLAM.
He slammed the edge of his shield into the ground. The platform didn't crack. The force traveled through it as a visible ripple of concussive earth energy.
It hit me like a truck made of solid sound. My bones vibrated. My organs jolted. The VOID-FORGED STAFF trembled in my hands, its resonance fighting the foreign energy. I was thrown back, skidding across the tile, my vision swimming.
MINOR CONCUSSION DETECTED.
INTERNAL BRUISING.
NODE REGENERATION ACTIVE.
"You're clever," Garrett boomed, advancing. "But clever breaks against solid." His aura thickened, the ground around his feet darkening and hardening.
Maya reacted. Not with a wild blast, but with focused fury. She pointed a single finger at the wounded, shrieking stalker. A thin, blindingly white arc of lightning lanced out—not wide, not area denial. A surgical strike.
It punched through his chest with a crack of thunder.
VENOMOUS STALKER ELIMINATED.
COSMIC ESSENCE +180 (PARTY SHARE).
Garrett didn't even glance at his fallen comrade. His eyes were only on me. "One for one. Now it's even."
He was wrong. The stalker had been their scalpel. Garrett was the hammer. Without the scalpel, he was slower, less adaptable. But the hammer could still smash.
I pushed to my feet, ignoring the pain. My void sense showed me his weakness. His earth energy was immensely strong, but slow. It rooted him. Made him a bastion. My void was the opposite—fast, eroding, untouchable.
I didn't charge. I feinted left. He shifted his shield. I used Void Step, not to attack, but to reposition—5 meters to his right flank. He was already turning, impossibly fast for his size, but I was already moving again, a normal sprint this time, forcing him to pivot.
He was a rock in a river, and I was the current. Wearing him down. Each turn, each adjustment of his heavy shield and aura, cost him energy. My void sense drank the tiny fractures in his concentration.
He roared in frustration and stomped the ground again. TREMOR SLAM. But I was already in the air, having used a platform bench to vault upward. The shockwave passed beneath me.
I landed, and for the first time, I attacked. Not a powerful blow. A fast, probing jab with the staff at his trailing leg. He blocked with the shield's edge, but the Void Edge shaved a slice of stone-reinforced polymer into nothingness.
He swung his axe in a mighty arc. I didn't block. I used Void Rend actively, not on him, but on the air in front of the axe's path. I created a momentary vortex of negation.
The axe-head passed through it. The earth energy sheathing it winked out. The blow finished its arc as plain, unaugmented steel. I caught it on my staff, and the force, while still staggering, didn't break my arms.
Shock finally flashed in Garrett's eyes. His ace, his overwhelming power, was being systematically dismantled.
"You're not fighting me," I said, circling, my breath even. "You're fighting a concept."
He bellowed, going all-in. He dropped his axe, planted both hands on his shield, and pushed forward. EARTH-WARDEN TECHNIQUE: BULWARK CHARGE. He became a moving wall, a tidal wave of solid force, filling the platform.
There was no dodging. No eroding.
So I didn't try.
I ran at him. At the last second, I dropped into a slide, going under the lower edge of the shield. I thrust my staff upward, not at his body, but at the center of his shield—the core of his technique.
And I poured every ounce of my void affinity, my will to negate, into a single, focused point of Void Rend.
The shield didn't break. It unmade.
From the point of impact, a spiderweb of black cracks erupted. The dense earth energy holding it together dissolved into motes of dust. The reinforced polymer beneath turned brittle and crumbled. In a second, Garrett was left holding only a shredded handle and a crumbling rim.
His momentum carried him forward, stumbling past me, off-balance and utterly exposed.
I was on my feet, staff at his throat before he could recover.
He froze, chest heaving, looking from the ruin of his shield to my silver eyes. The fight drained out of him. He was a pragmatist. He'd lost.
"Yield the node," I said, my voice cold.
He nodded, once. The hostile red marker on my map faded to neutral yellow.
I didn't kill him. He was strong. In this new world, that was a commodity. And killing a yielding opponent felt… wasteful. The System might reward it, but my old-world morality, fractured as it was, still held a piece.
NODE CONTEST CONCLUDED.
VICTOR: ALEXANDER VANCE & MAYA CHEN.
INITIATING NODE CLAIM PROTOCOL…
The purple crystal above flared. Beams of light shot down, bathing Maya and me. A new interface appeared.
CLAIM WILSHIRE/NORMANDIE NODE (TIER 1)?
BENEFITS:
· Personal Cultivation Speed: +25% while within 1 mile.
· Authority: Can set access permissions (Ban/Allow individuals).
· Resource Generation: Node will generate 50 Cosmic Essence/day, claimable by owners.
· DRAWBACK:
· Node becomes visible on regional map to all cultivators.
· You must defend it from challengers (Challenge cooldown: 12 hours).
We claimed it. The light solidified around us, then faded. A subtle connection snapped into place—a thread of awareness linking me to the humming crystal above. I could feel its energy as an extension of my own.
Garrett watched, his expression unreadable. He picked up his axe. "You should have killed me. I'll be back. And I won't yield next time."
"I'll be here," I said.
He turned and vanished into the tunnel he'd come from.
Maya walked over, her hands still crackling slightly. "The Grand is Tier 2. The Legendary Seed…"
I looked at the map. The Wilshire Grand icon pulsed, a bigger, brighter blue. Dozens of red hostile dots—monsters—swarmed around it. And at least ten green/yellow cultivator dots were converging on it from all directions. A battle royale for the first major reward.
We had a node. A base. A steady, safe trickle of power.
But safe wasn't how you climbed a cosmic ladder.
"We rest. We consolidate," I said, my gaze fixed on the distant prize. "Then we go to war."
Above us, the false violet sun pulsed, counting down to a storm of blood and ambition.
---
[End Chapter 3]