The garden behind the Blackwood Estate was a graveyard of dead rosebushes and tangled ivy. It was the perfect arena.
Lux stood in the center of a clearing, stripped to his waist. The cool wind bit at his skin, but his body was running hot—fueled by his high Vitality and the lingering effects of the wolf-blood pill.
Opposite him stood Elara. She had discarded the torn maid uniform for a tight-fitting training outfit she had scrounged from the old wardrobes: a pair of black trousers and a simple linen shirt tied at the waist.
"Are you ready, Master?" she asked. Her voice was calm, but the air around her was crackling.
She raised her hand. Moisture in the air condensed instantly, turning black before solidifying into two curved daggers of Obsidian Ice. They didn't reflect light; they swallowed it.
"Don't hold back, Elara," Lux said, raising his bare hands. "If I can't handle you, I can't handle this world."
"As you command."
BOOM.
She vanished.
It wasn't teleportation; it was pure speed. To a normal eye, she would have been invisible.
But Lux wasn't normal anymore.
[Passive Skill: Eros Perception]
[Adrenaline: Active]
Time seemed to slow down slightly. Lux saw a blur of shadow moving to his left.
'Left flank. Kidney strike.'
Lux didn't think; he moved. He twisted his torso violently, stepping into the attack rather than away from it.
WHOOSH.
The black ice blade sliced the air where his ribs had been a millisecond ago. The cold emanating from the blade was so intense it singed the hairs on his arm.
"Too slow, Master!" Elara teased, spinning in mid-air to deliver a heel kick to his chest.
Lux crossed his arms to block.
BANG!
The impact sent him skidding back ten feet, his boots carving furrows in the dirt. His forearms throbbed. She hit like a truck.
"Again!" Lux shouted, grinning.
He didn't wait for her this time. He charged.
[Skill Activated: Aphrodisiac Hands (Combat Mode)]
[Output: Maximum Thermal Release]
His hands began to glow with a menacing red-pink aura. The heat coming off them distorted the air.
Elara slashed at him—a horizontal cut meant to decapitate.
Lux didn't dodge. He reached out and caught the blade.
HISSSSSSS!
A violent explosion of steam erupted as Lux's burning palm clamped onto the Obsidian Ice.
Usually, ice would melt. But this was magic ice.
Instead of melting, the conflicting energies—Extreme Heat vs. Absolute Zero—created a thermal shock.
CRACK.
The dagger in Elara's hand shattered into a thousand black shards.
Elara's eyes widened. "Impossible."
Lux didn't stop. He used the steam as cover, stepping into her guard. He aimed a palm strike at her stomach.
Elara's assassin instincts screamed. She abandoned her second dagger and backflipped, narrowly avoiding his hand.
But Lux grazed her shirt.
[Graze Hit!]
[Effect Applied: Sensory Overload (Minor)]
"Ah!" Elara gasped, stumbling as she landed.
Where he had touched her, the fabric was singed, and the skin beneath was flushed a deep red. It wasn't just heat—a jolt of intense, confusing pleasure shot through her nerves, making her knees weak for a split second.
"That's cheating," Elara panted, a flush rising on her neck. Her eyes were hazy, fighting off the arousal.
"It's a feature," Lux replied, shaking the frost off his hand. "Come on. You're A-Rank. Show me real magic."
Elara's expression sharpened. She stood up straight, the playfulness vanishing.
"Very well. No more toys."
She stomped her foot.
"Shadow Art: Garden of Thorns."
The ground rumbled.
Suddenly, spikes of black ice erupted from the earth like spears, rushing toward Lux in a wave of death.
'Shit.'
There was nowhere to dodge. The spikes were too wide, too fast.
[System Warning: Lethal Threat.]
[Suggestion: Release Mana Pulse.]
Lux didn't know how to cast spells. But he knew how to release energy. He slammed both glowing hands onto the ground.
"BURN!"
He dumped 50 Mana points into his [Aphrodisiac Hands] skill instantly.
A shockwave of pink heat blasted outward from his palms.
When the wave of heat met the wave of ice, the result was a fog bank. The ice spikes shattered and sublimated into thick, warm mist.
Lux was panting, drained.
The mist swirled around him, blinding him.
Click.
He felt something cold press against his throat.
The mist cleared.
Elara was standing behind him, her arm wrapped around his chest, a new dagger pressed gently against his jugular.
"Dead," she whispered in his ear.
Lux froze. Then, he chuckled, leaning his head back against her shoulder.
"I concede."
Elara dissipated the dagger instantly. She didn't let go, though. She kept hugging him from behind, burying her face in the crook of his neck. She was breathing hard, her body hot against his back.
"You shattered my ice," she murmured, sounding impressed. "And your touch... it disrupts my mana flow. It makes my legs shake."
"That's the plan," Lux turned around in her arms to face her.
He looked at her. She was covered in dirt, hair messy, sweat dripping down her collarbone. She looked magnificent.
[Spar Complete.]
[XP Gained: +300 (Combat Experience)]
[Level Up! Level 5 -> Level 6]
[New Combat Skill Unlocked: [Flash Step (Rank F)] - A short-range burst of speed fueled by stamina.]
"You're getting stronger fast," Elara noted, tracing a scratch on his chest where a shard of ice had nicked him. "But you lack a weapon. You cannot catch blades with your hands forever."
Lux nodded. "I agree. The butter knife isn't cutting it anymore."
He looked at the garden, then at the house.
"The System mentioned something earlier. 'The Exiled Lord needs a Domain.' And Nina mentioned a dungeon nearby."
Elara stiffened. "Dungeons are dangerous, Master. Even for me."
"We aren't going to a dungeon yet," Lux grinned. "We're going to check the basement again. Remember how the wine cellar had a draft?"
Elara frowned. "Yes?"
"Wine cellars don't have drafts unless there's a tunnel behind the wall."
Lux walked back toward the house, wiping sweat from his brow.
"My ancestors were warlords, Elara. They didn't just build a wine rack. They hid something down there. And I think it's time we claimed our inheritance."
The Hidden Door
Back in the cellar, Lux stood before the back wall—the one covered in the oldest, dustiest wine racks.
[System Perception]
[Hidden Mechanism Detected.]
"Here," Lux pointed to a specific, unlabelled bottle of red wine that was bolted to the shelf.
He pulled it.
CLICK-CLACK.
The grinding of gears echoed through the stone floor. The entire shelf swung inward, revealing a dark, spiraling staircase going down into the earth. The air that rushed out was stale and smelled of ancient steel.
[Location Discovered: The Greylock Ancestral Armory (Sealed)]
[Danger Level: Low (Traps Deactivated by Greylock Bloodline)]
Elara summoned a ball of witch-light. "I will go first."
"Together," Lux corrected, taking her hand.
They descended.
At the bottom of the stairs, the room opened up. It wasn't a dungeon. It was a vault.
Weapon racks lined the walls, mostly rusted and useless. But in the center of the room, illuminated by a single shaft of magical light, sat a stone pedestal.
Resting on it was a weapon.
It wasn't a sword. It was a War Scythe.
The handle was made of black ironwood, and the blade was a curved, silver crescent that shimmered with a faint, ghostly light. It was massive—taller than Lux—but it looked elegant, deadly.
[Item Appraised]
[Weapon: The Soul-Reaper's Crescent]
[Rank: C (Growable)]
[Effect: Feeds on the mana of those it cuts. Can change weight according to the wielder's will.]
[Restriction: Greylock Bloodline Only.]
Lux approached it. The moment his fingers wrapped around the shaft, the weapon hummed. It didn't feel heavy. It felt like an extension of his arm.
"A reaper..." Lux muttered, swinging it effortlessly. The blade sliced through the air with a singing sound. "Fitting for a man who died once."
Elara looked at him—shirtless, sweating, holding a giant scythe in the dim light.
Her breath hitched.
[System Alert]
[Target 'Elara' Arousal Level: High.]
[She likes dangerous things.]
"Master," she whispered. "You look... devastating."
Lux spun the scythe and slammed the butt of the staff onto the stone floor.
"Now I have a weapon. Tomorrow, we clear the forest."