The fire crackled, spitting sparks into the damp air. It was a small, pathetic fire made of wet twigs and moss, but it was the only thing keeping the freezing night at bay.
Ravi sat cross-legged in the mud, chewing on a strip of bear meat. It was tough, gamey, and barely cooked. He forced himself to swallow.
"Status," he whispered.
[STATUS WINDOW] Name: Ravi Level: 2 HP: 45/100 (Recovering) Mana: 2/10 Fatigue: 85% (Critical) Active Seat: Seat 7 (Musashi) - [DORMANT]
Ravi wiped grease from his mouth. "Level 2. Fantastic. At this rate, it'll take me ten years just to equip a decent sword."
He looked down at the object resting on his lap. The Bear Trap. It was no longer glowing blue. It was just a heavy, rusted hunk of iron again. The jagged teeth were stained with the bear's dried blood.
"Disgraceful."
The voice didn't come from the trap. It echoed directly inside Ravi's skull. It sounded old, like dry leaves scraping across stone.
Ravi didn't flinch. He took another bite of meat. "Good evening to you too, Old Man."
"I am Musashi, the Saint of the Void Blade," the voice grumbled. "I have cut lightning. I have severed the wings of dragon gods. And now? You make me inhabit... this?"
"It saved our lives," Ravi said, tapping the rusted metal.
"It is a jaw," Musashi retorted. "It has no balance. No edge. It bites like a common beast. My soul feels dirty."
"Stop complaining. I don't have a katana. I don't even have a kitchen knife. This is the only iron I could find."
Ravi looked up at the forest canopy. The world of Aeterna was strange. The trees weren't just big; they were alive in a way Earth's trees weren't. The bark pulsed with a faint, rhythmic purple light, like veins pumping blood. The leaves were sharp, serrated like daggers.
This was the Spirit Wilds. The air was thick and heavy. Every breath Ravi took felt like inhaling syrup.
"The mana density here is high," Musashi noted, his tone shifting from annoyed to analytical. "The air itself is trying to crush you. If you were still Level 1, your lungs would have collapsed by now."
"Yeah, I noticed," Ravi muttered, rubbing his chest. "The Admin really wanted to make sure I died early."
He picked up the trap. He needed to test his limits. "Hey. How long can you stay manifested?"
"With your current mana pool? Ten seconds. Maybe twelve."
"And the Sync Rate?"
"Abyssal," Musashi scoffed. "This iron is impure. It is brittle. If I use my full strength, this trap will shatter into dust. I am currently limited to... let's say, 5% of my power."
Ravi sighed. 5%. In his prime, Musashi could cut a mountain in half from three miles away. Now, he was basically a floating pair of scissors.
"Better than nothing," Ravi said. He stood up, kicking dirt over the fire. "Let's move. The smell of this bear blood is going to attract something worse."
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
They walked for hours. The forest of Aeterna did not sleep. The darkness was filled with chittering sounds—insects the size of cats scurrying up the glowing trees.
Ravi moved silently. He had no stats, but he had Experience. He knew how to step to avoid snapping twigs. He knew how to hide his scent with mud.
"You walk well," Musashi admitted grudgingly. "Your body is weak, like a newborn foal. But your spirit... you have the stride of a killer."
"I spent 15 years in a tower fighting demons," Ravi whispered. "You pick up a few tricks."
"Tell me, Architect. Why do you fight? The game is over. You could have laid down and died."
Ravi stopped. He pushed aside a massive fern leaf. "Because I'm pissed off," Ravi said simply. "The Admin stole my life. He stole my victory. I'm going to find the console of this world, break it, and go home."
"Hmph. A vengeance quest. How cliché. But... I approve."
Suddenly, Ravi froze. He held up a hand.
[WARNING.] [SENSE STAT TRIGGERED.]
Ahead of them, the trees thinned out. There was a clearing. In the center of the clearing stood a structure. It wasn't a monster den. It was Architecture.
Ravi crept closer, hiding behind a mossy boulder. It was an old stone ruin—a crumbling archway covered in vines. But carved into the stone were symbols. Gears. Steam. Hammers.
"The Kingdom of Steel," Ravi whispered, recognizing the lore from the Admin's data dump. "We must be near the Northern Border."
"Look closer, boy," Musashi warned.
Ravi squinted. Lying at the base of the archway were bodies. Three of them. They were humanoids—Knights clad in dull grey armor. But they were dead. Their armor was torn open as if it were made of paper.
Ravi approached cautiously. The smell of ozone and burnt flesh hung in the air. He knelt beside one of the knights. The metal breastplate had three deep, parallel claw marks.
"These cuts..." Ravi ran a finger over the metal. "Clean. Precise. No wasted movement."
"A blade?" Musashi asked.
"No," Ravi said, his eyes narrowing. "Claws. But claws sharp enough to slice steel plate like butter."
[SYSTEM ALERT] [BOSS DETECTED IN VICINITY.] [LEVEL DIFFERENCE: EXTREME.]
A low growl vibrated through the ground. It didn't come from the forest. It came from above.
Ravi looked up. Perched on top of the stone archway was a creature. It looked like a panther, but its fur was made of Midnight Blue Scales. Its tail was a long, bladed whip. And its eyes were glowing yellow searchlights.
[MONSTER: OBSIDIAN STALKER] [LEVEL: 15] [TYPE: ASSASSIN BEAST]
Ravi stopped breathing. Level 15. He was Level 2. This thing was faster than the Bear. Stronger than the Bear. And unlike the Bear, it was intelligent.
The Stalker tilted its head. It had been waiting for a scavenger to come check the bodies. It was a trap.
"Boy," Musashi's voice was sharp. "Do not fight this."
"I know," Ravi whispered. "We run?"
"It is an Assassin Type. If you turn your back, it triggers its pursuit instinct. It will catch you in three seconds."
The Stalker's muscles bunched. It was getting ready to pounce.
"Okay," Ravi's hand tightened on the rusted bear trap hanging at his belt. "We can't run. We can't fight. So we have to cheat."
"Cheat?"
"Musashi," Ravi said, his voice deadly calm. "Can you cut stone?"
"I can cut the fabric of reality. Stone is nothing."
"Good."
The Stalker leaped. It moved like a blur of shadow. In a heartbeat, it was mid-air, its claws extended to rip Ravi's throat out.
Ravi didn't aim at the monster. He turned and slammed the bear trap against the Stone Archway holding the ruin together.
"INHABIT!"
ZHOOM. The blue wireframe exploded. Musashi didn't manifest as a blade this time. He manifested as a Vibration. The rusted trap clamped onto the ancient pillar.
"SEVER." Musashi commanded.
CRACK. The stone pillar didn't just break; it was deleted at the structural point. Gravity took over. The massive, ten-ton stone archway collapsed instantly—directly onto the path of the leaping Stalker.
BOOM.
Dust and debris exploded outward. The Stalker shrieked as tons of ancient rock slammed it into the ground, burying it under a mountain of rubble.
Ravi shielded his face from the dust. Silence.
Then, a low, pained wheezing from under the rocks. The Stalker wasn't dead. It was trapped. Pinned.
[CRITICAL HIT.] [TARGET IMMOBILIZED.]
was sticking out, twitching.
"Resourceful," Musashi said, sounding impressed. "You used the environment to kill what you could not cut. You fight like a rat."
"Rats survive," Ravi said coldly.
He picked up a heavy, jagged rock from the ground. He walked over to the trapped monster's exposed head. He didn't have mana for another skill. He didn't have a sword. So he lifted the rock high above his head.
"Welcome to Server 2," Ravi grunted.
THUD.
[YOU HAVE DEFEATED THE OBSIDIAN STALKER.] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!] [LEVEL UP!]
[LOOT DROP: OBSIDIAN CLAW (DAGGER MATERIAL).]
Ravi dropped the bloody rock. He was panting. His HP was low just from the stress. But he looked at the notification. Obsidian Claw.
"Musashi," Ravi smiled, wiping sweat from his forehead. "I think we just found you an upgrade."
"Finally," the Sword Saint sighed. "Get rid of this rusted garbage."