The forest thinned as we moved farther from the village, the underbrush giving way to uneven ground and patches of pale moss that clung to craggy roots like old snow. The deeper we went, the colder the air felt—unnaturally cold. A breeze slid across the back of my neck, and despite the sun still filtering through the treetops, I felt my breath catch in mist.
Lina stopped ahead of me, one hand raised.
I halted. "You feel that?"
She nodded slowly, her gaze scanning the surrounding trees. "Mana drop. Cold type. Multiple sources."
I looked around, squinting into the foliage. Something shimmered past a gnarled trunk, like a sliver of ice catching the light—then vanished.
A low growl followed.
Branches snapped to our left. A shadow darted across the undergrowth.
"Five," Lina murmured. "Maybe six. Spread formation. Stalking pattern."
I swallowed. "Are they wolves?"
"Worse. Stay behind me."
But I didn't.
Something in my chest shifted—heat twisting with instinct. My body buzzed with the same pull I'd felt in the forge, the same subtle distortion I'd noticed during training. Space tensed. Gravity bent. The world was warning me again.
They struck all at once.
The first lunged from the bushes—a sleek, lupine creature with icy-blue fur and crystalline fangs. Its eyes shimmered white. Not a wolf. Something older. Leaner. A predator built from winter.
[Glacier Wraith – Level 6]
I barely had time to dodge as Lina's palm flared blue.
"Cascade Pulse."
A wave of compressed water exploded outward, slamming the creature mid-pounce and sending it crashing into a nearby tree with a frozen crack.
Two more came bounding from either side.
I rolled back, instinct driving me to the left as another lunged past me, teeth snapping shut in the air where my shoulder had been.
The second flanked Lina. She didn't flinch. Her boot pivoted hard, and she brought her elbow down with brutal precision into its skull. Ice shattered from its spine like brittle glass.
The third lunged at me again—and this time, I fought back.
I brought my right fist up, and heat surged through my gauntlet.
"High stress situation detected Dragon Enhancement—active ."
Purple lines sparked across the surface as energy flooded into my arms. My punch landed square into the beast's snout. A sickening crack followed, and the creature tumbled back—but not far enough.
It caught itself, skidding across frozen moss. Snarled.
My hands shook from the impact. Not enough. I needed to push harder.
That's when the forest pulsed.
Not the wind. Not the mana.
The resonance.
I could feel it—gravity bending around the trees, the weight of the creatures, the pressure between each movement. Their speed wasn't just motion. It was calculated tension, like arrows pulled taut before release.
I reached into that feeling.
Let it twist around my core.
A fourth Wraith barreled toward me.
I stepped to the side—too late.
Then space folded.
Just slightly. Just enough.
The creature's momentum missed me by an inch as it slipped forward—its own weight throwing it off-balance.
My elbow came down. Nova Break flared.
A shockwave rippled through the forest as my gauntlet exploded with light, collapsing the air around it. The creature crumpled beneath the blow, limbs twitching, icy breath spilling from its shattered ribs.
I stood over it, panting.
"Three left," Lina said calmly, spinning her dagger between her fingers. "Including the boss."
I glanced up—and my chest tightened.
Something big was moving through the trees.
Bigger than the Wraiths.
Fur rimed with hoarfrost. Branches hanging from its shoulders like a shroud. Its body hunched and broad, claws trailing ice across the ground. Its breath rolled from its maw in waves, freezing leaves in place.
[Frostrend Alpha – Level 8]
"Okay," I whispered. "That's not fair."
The Alpha roared—and the forest froze.
Literally. The air snapped cold. My lungs seized. The ground beneath our feet coated in rime.
The last two Glacier Wraiths flanked their leader, growling low.
Lina planted her boots. "Mark."
"Yeah?"
"Can you handle the small ones?"
I didn't answer.
I moved.
Before my fear could catch up, I dashed forward. Let the gravity pull me where it wanted. My feet glided over slick earth. My right hand swept through space as I twisted—grabbing the first Wraith's neck as it lunged—and pivoted.
Its weight helped me.
I spun, hurling it into the other like a club.
Both went down in a heap of snarling frost and fur.
The Alpha didn't wait.
It lunged straight for Lina with terrifying speed—far faster than something that size had any right to move.
But she met it with a smirk.
"Glacial Spear."
Her dagger bloomed into a solid column of frozen mana, and she thrust upward as the beast slammed down.
The explosion of ice and force sent a tremor through the clearing.
I couldn't even look. The two Wraiths I'd thrown were already recovering.
My gauntlets hummed.
I focused.
I didn't just see their movement—I felt their weight pulling on the world around me. I could track the curve of their leaps. The points where they'd land. How hard.
And I met them there.
One clawed at my side—but I dropped low, used its gravity against it. My foot planted, core twisted, and I brought Nova Break down again—this time through its chest.
Another shockwave.
It didn't get back up.
The last hissed, circling.
It lunged.
So did I.
My fist hit first. And this time—I didn't resist the gravity.
I pulled with it.
Let the gauntlet's weight anchor my momentum, bending the air around me like a whip. My strike came from nowhere, like the world had tipped sideways.
The Wraith dropped in silence.
I stood there, heaving, body shaking.
When I turned around, the Alpha was slumped against a tree, half its chest impaled on one of Lina's crystalline constructs. She stood beside it, arms crossed, breathing steadily.
"You good?" she asked.
I gave a dazed nod. "…Yeah."
We both stood in the cold for a moment, surrounded by steaming corpses and shattered ice.
I gave her a crooked grin. "I didn't die. That's gotta count for something."
Lina raised a brow as she looked at me. "You did better than expected."
I gave her a crooked grin. "I didn't die. That's gotta count for something."
She didn't smile, not really—but the corner of her mouth twitched before she turned away.
My shoulders sagged as I let out a long breath. The weight of what just happened hit me all at once—muscles burning, fingers numb from the cold and strain, the scent of magic-scorched bark and frozen blood lingering in the air.
Then the system flared behind my eyes, glowing text pulsing into view like a heartbeat.
⸻
[You have leveled up!]
→ Level 4 reached.
+3 Strength
+2 Agility
+2 Durability
+1 Intelligence
+1 Willpower
Total Stat Increase: +9
⸻
[Stat Update – Current Attributes]
Strength: 24
Durability: 21
Agility: 18
Intelligence: 13
Willpower: 20
Bloodline Sync: 5.7%
Mana: 94/110
Health: 67/90
Passive Traits:
— Spatial Resistance I
— Minor Battle Endurance
— NEW: Spatial Threading I
Active Skills:
— Dragon Enhancement (Partially-Locked)
— Nova Break
— NEW: Micro-Shift Step (Unlocked through Gravity Resonance)
⸻
My jaw clenched as the rush washed over me—like something ancient beneath my skin cracked open another inch. The strength wasn't sudden, but it was undeniable. A subtle pull. A denser center of gravity in my core. I didn't just feel stronger. I felt more real, like the world had accepted me just a little more than before.
I rubbed the gauntlet on my right hand, still faintly warm. The purple lines faded as the energy cooled.
"What the hell were those things?" I asked, finally catching my breath.
Lina crouched near one of the fallen creatures, peeling a frozen claw away from its shattered ribcage. "Glacier Wraiths. Cold-affinity predators that hunt in coordinated packs. Rare in this region. Too close to the village for comfort."
She stood, her silver hair catching the faint light like a blade's edge. "The Alpha's the real problem. Strong enough to shift the local mana field. If it nested here, others will come."
"So what do we do?"
Lina gave me a look that wasn't quite sharp—but not soft either. "We train harder. And we hunt faster."
I nodded, even though part of me wanted to just lie down right there on the icy ground and sleep for a week.
She started moving again, motioning for me to follow. "Come on. I want to check the clearing near the Ridgewood Bluffs. If there's another pack out there, we need to know before the next frost sets in."
I jogged to catch up, limbs still aching. "You always this calm after a fight?"
She didn't answer for a moment. Then:
"No. But calm keeps people alive."
I didn't argue with that.
As we moved through the thinning trees, I tried to keep my breathing steady, focusing on how the ground felt beneath my boots—how the mana buzzed quieter now, the frost no longer biting as hard. Each step felt different than before.
We reached a low ridge that overlooked a narrow ravine below—sunlight barely touching its floor. Lina crouched and placed two fingers against the dirt. Mana trailed outward from her like ripples across glass.
"No more movement in this zone," she murmured. "But there's residue. Probably where they came through. They tunneled in through a weak mana vein."
"Which means they didn't start here," I said.
She nodded. "And if they're migrating south…"
"Then something worse pushed them out."
We stood in silence for a moment. The wind brushed through the trees again, but this time it didn't feel quite as cold. The forest was shifting. Like it knew a new piece had joined the board.
"We'll return by the river path," Lina said finally. "Quicker. And less exposed." She looked over her shoulder. "You walk steadier now."
I blinked. "…What?"
"You're not limping. No flinching in your step. Your body's adjusting."
I frowned and looked down. She was right. Even with the fatigue, I wasn't stumbling or dragging my feet. My balance had changed. Like the forest floor tilted slightly underfoot, and I was instinctively compensating.
"I think…" I hesitated. "It's the resonance. I gained something—Spatial Threading."
Lina raised an eyebrow. "And that means?"
"I can feel weight now. Not just mine. Everything's. It's like… movement has shape."
She gave a low hum of interest but said nothing more. We kept walking.
It took less than an hour to circle back to the outer ring of the forest, past a gnarled tree I remembered from earlier—a twisted trunk that curved like a question mark. The sun had sunk lower, its light cutting amber lines through the canopy.
Just ahead, the trail forked back toward the village.
Lina finally broke the silence. "Not bad for your second real fight."
"First was the training dummy," I muttered.
"Exactly."
I couldn't help the smirk. "Guess I passed the test?"
She didn't return the grin. But her voice was quiet. "You're not a liability. That's enough."
In her language, that was praise.
By the time the roofs of the village came into view beyond the trees, my limbs were lead. The pulse of mana in my core had thinned—like a reservoir slowly drying. The Dragon Enhancement had faded completely now, leaving only a faint ache in my arm where the gauntlet had absorbed the strain.
"You'll need to reinforce that thing soon," Lina said as we crossed the last stretch of frost-covered brush.
"The gauntlet?"
"Yeah. You keep channeling energy through it like that without proper augmentation, it'll crack."
"Good thing I've got a blacksmith's tab."
She snorted. "Earn it."
We stepped through the village boundary, the warmth of distant cookfires hitting us like a wave. A few people looked up as we passed, nodding respectfully to Lina—then casting second glances at me.
I kept walking.
The ice had melted from my coat by the time we reached the forge.
Mr. Drake was at his usual spot, hammer in hand, sweat on his brow despite the late hour. His eyes flicked to me, then to the slight scorch mark on my gauntlet.
"You fightin' trees again?" he grunted.
"No," I said. "Worse."
He set his hammer down, crossed the clearing in a few strides, and knelt beside me.
"Gauntlet's running hot," he muttered. "You overcharged?"
"Kind of," I admitted.
Drake grabbed a rag, reached for the joint seam near the wrist, and twisted. The gauntlet hissed open slightly, venting out a stream of heat and a faint glow of violet energy.
"Thought so. These aren't built for bursts like that yet," he said, standing. "Gonna have to reinforce the channels, maybe add another conduction ring through the bracer."
He looked at me then, really looked. "You push it too far, it'll break. Or your arm will. You don't want either."
I nodded. "I know."
His eyes lingered for a beat longer, then he grunted and moved back toward the anvil.
"I'll have the new rings done by tomorrow," he said over his shoulder. "Get some rest. You look like death warmed over."
"Thanks," I said, half-laughing. "That's the plan."
Lina was already walking away, heading for her own home. She didn't say goodbye, but she raised two fingers in a silent gesture.
I raised mine back.
That night, I sat on the floor beside my bed, the flickering oil lamp barely reaching the far corners of the room. My breath came slow and even, but my body pulsed with exhaustion.
The fight played over again in my mind—cold fangs, frozen claws, the heavy pull of Gravity and the slicing tear of Space.
I opened the system screen quietly, half-expecting something new.
And there it was.
⸻
[Level Up!]
Your experience has reached the required threshold.
Current Level: 4
⸻
No chime of reward. No glowing stat wheel waiting for input.
Just… the truth. I'd survived. I'd earned this.
The system didn't ask where to place the strength I'd bled for—because it had already done so. Every step, every breath, every hit I'd taken or given was already shaping me.
I checked my updated profile.
⸻
[Status Screen – Updated]
Name: Mark Jackson
Level: 4
Realm: Awakened Realm – Low Tier
Strength: 24
Durability: 21
Agility: 18
Intelligence: 13
Willpower: 20
Health: 100%
Mana: 100%
Bloodline Sync: 5.3%
Gauntlet Charge: 55%
Passive Traits:
– Spatial Resistance I
– Minor Battle Endurance
Active Skills:
– Dragon Enhancement (Partially Locked)
– Nova Break
Combat Traits:
– Spatial Threading I
Affinity:
– Major: Space
– Minor: Gravity
Current Questline:
[Foundations of Strength]
– Role: Temporary Guardian in Training – Pinebarrow
– Objectives: Assist village functions. Train daily. Reach Level 16 (Awakened Realm).
– Status: In Progress
⸻
I ran a hand down my face.
No shortcuts. No handouts. Just one slow climb.
I looked at the gauntlets beside me. Faint veins of light pulsed along their outer rings—dragon's breath waiting to ignite.
"I'm getting there," I whispered. "One level at a time."