Elias woke up hurting.
Not the sharp pain of injury, but the deep, lingering ache of muscles that had been asked to do things they were never designed for. His arms felt heavy. His legs protested as he rolled onto his side.
"Ugh," he groaned. "I think my bones hate me."
The hearth had burned down to embers. Pale morning light crept through the cracks in the wooden walls of his house.
For half a second, he forgot where he was.
Then the memory of clicking mandibles snapped back into place.
"Right," he muttered. "Monsters."
Outside, metal whispered through the air.
Elias pushed himself up and stepped out.
Lyrien was already awake.
She stood several paces from the house, blade moving in slow, deliberate arcs. Each motion was precise—no wasted effort, no hesitation. It looked less like training and more like maintenance.
He watched silently until she finished and turned toward him.
"You survived the night," she said. "That is not meaningless."
"I don't feel like celebrating," Elias replied. "Everything hurts."
"That is learning," she said calmly.
She corrected him again.
His stance was wrong. His grip was too tight. His feet were positioned like he expected the ground to forgive mistakes.
"Stop thinking of the sword as a tool," Lyrien said, tapping his wrist with her scabbard. "It is an extension. If you fight it, you will lose."
"I work with electricity," Elias said through clenched teeth. "If I fight that, I die."
She paused.
"Then you already understand danger," she said. "Good."
They trained until sweat soaked his clothes and his arms trembled.
When she finally allowed a break, Elias collapsed onto a rock, breathing hard.
"That was… warm-up, wasn't it?"
"Yes."
He groaned.
A movement near the edge of the grass froze him.
Two shapes crept into view—low to the ground, carapaced, clicking softly.
[Monster Identified: Stoneback Skitter]
Level: 1
"Two," Elias whispered.
Lyrien nodded. "You will not strike first."
"Good," he said quickly. "Because I really don't want to."
She almost smiled.
The fight was fast.
Lyrien engaged the first skitter head-on, blade slipping between plates with brutal efficiency. The second circled wide.
Elias's heart hammered.
Watch patterns. Call variables. Predict outcomes.
The creature's legs coiled.
"Left—jump!" he shouted.
Lyrien shifted just in time. The skitter missed and exposed its underside.
Her blade flashed.
The monster fell.
The second tried to flee.
Lyrien chased it down.
Silence followed.
Elias stood frozen until his legs remembered how to move.
"I didn't freeze," he said quietly. "I actually helped."
"Yes," Lyrien replied. "You observed. You communicated. That is leadership in combat."
A system chime followed.
[Monsters Defeated: 2]
EXP Gained: 20
Elias blinked.
"Twenty?"
Another window appeared.
EXP Calculation:
– Player Level: 1
– Monster Level: 1
– Base EXP: 10 × 2
– Modifier: 0%
Total: 20 EXP
That… made sense.
Numbers. Logic. Structure.
His shoulders relaxed slightly.
Then warmth flowed through him.
Devour Activated
+1 Strength
+1 Vitality
He exhaled slowly.
"I felt it again."
"You will," Lyrien said. "Every time you survive."
The skitter corpses shimmered.
Then dissolved—leaving items behind.
Elias stared.
"…Loot?"
On the ground:
Two chunks of raw skitter meat
One cracked carapace fragment
A small scatter of dull copper coins
Loot Acquired:
– Skitter Meat ×2
– Stoneback Fragment ×1
– Copper Coins ×14
Elias knelt, picking up the coins.
"They drop food," he said. "And money."
"Yes," Lyrien replied. "This world rewards violence with sustenance."
That sentence sat uncomfortably in his chest.
"But also," he said slowly, "it means people don't have to starve if they hunt together."
She looked at him more sharply this time.
"You see systems," she said. "Not just enemies."
That night, Elias checked his status.
Level: 1
EXP: 30 / 100
"So… one hundred to level up," he murmured.
The number shifted faintly.
Next Level Requirement: 200 EXP
"…And it doubles."
He leaned back against the wall.
"This is exponential," he whispered. "Early growth is fast. Late growth is brutal."
Lyrien watched him quietly.
"You speak as if this were designed."
"It was," Elias replied. "For pressure. For filtering."
He opened regional chat.
[Regional Chat – Sector 418]
[Elias]: Monsters drop meat and coins. Cook meat before eating. EXP drops off fast if you overlevel enemies—don't grind weak ones.
Replies came quickly.
[SunChild]: THANK YOU
[IronWill]: That explains a lot
[User_88231]: How do you know this?
Elias hesitated.
Then typed the truth.
[Elias]: Because I'm watching, not rushing.
He closed the chat.
Leadership wasn't shouting orders.
It was understanding systems—and teaching others how not to die inside them.
Elias stared up at unfamiliar stars.
He wasn't a warrior.
He wasn't a king.
But he was learning how this world worked.
And that knowledge felt dangerous in the right way.