The sea at night was a cathedral of silence. Only the steady churn of waves and the faint flicker of bioluminescence broke the darkness. Ren's strokes were quiet, controlled, his body cutting through the cold water with practiced ease.
The system map glowed faintly in his vision, a golden dot pulsing like a heartbeat. Each second it drew nearer, a quiet thrum pulling at his chest.
[Treasure Detected: Abyssal Relic]
The words carried a weight different from the usual hunt notifications. Even in their plain, mechanical tone, Ren felt the warning between the lines. A relic was not prey. A relic was something else entirely.
He swam deeper, past schools of glowing fish, past drifting kelp that reached toward the surface like drowned hands. The pressure squeezed tighter around him, each breath from his gills sharp, metallic. His heartbeat thundered in his ears.
Then, he saw it.
Nestled in the ribs of a colossal skeleton, half-buried in silt, was a shard of crystal. Its glow painted the abyss in pale gold, illuminating the bones of what had once been a leviathan. The relic pulsed slowly, as if it breathed.
Ren hovered in the water, spear clutched tightly.
The crystal was beautiful and wrong. Its glow stirred something inside him, a hunger that wasn't his own. Whispers curled at the edge of his mind, faint, indistinct, yet suffocating.
Touch it… take it… claim what the gods left behind.
Ren grit his teeth. "Shut up."
The voices didn't fade.
The system chimed, its presence a lifeline in the oppressive dark.
[Warning: Relic contains unstable radiation.][Risk: Corruption.][New Function Unlocked: Relic Appraisal]
A new panel opened, scanning the glowing shard.
[Abyssal Relic: Fragment of the Drowned God]
Type: Consumable/Equipable (Unstable)
Effect (if consumed): Greatly increases stats, chance of unlocking unique ability.
Risk: 32% chance of permanent corruption.
Ren's lips thinned. "So, it's power… or madness."
The whispers pressed harder. His chest grew heavy, his thoughts fogging. His fingers twitched toward the relic almost against his will.
He forced himself back with a growl. If it's dangerous, then why lead me here, system?
The system's reply was simple.
[Choice Defines Evolution.]
Ren stared at the crystal, his jaw clenched. He had nearly died to the abyssal shark just days ago. Without the system, he would have been nothing but meat in its jaws. Now, a chance to leap beyond his limits floated before him.
But one wrong step could twist him into something unrecognizable.
He approached slowly, every muscle taut. The skeleton around the relic loomed massive, the ribs curving like a cage. Strange barnacles clung to the bones, some glowing faintly, as though feeding on the relic's energy.
The closer he came, the heavier the whispers grew. His head pounded. Images flashed behind his eyes skies torn open, gods with crowns of coral and eyes like suns, their bodies falling into the sea, their light leaking into the depths.
Ren staggered, his hands trembling. For a moment, he wasn't sure if he was Ren Arclight anymore, or just another echo swallowed by the abyss.
But then he remembered.
The pain of being beaten down in his past life. The helplessness of his death. The pitying looks of the villagers when they called him a failure.
His teeth bared. His eyes sharpened.
"I won't drown in someone else's voice."
With a steady hand, Ren gripped his spear and thrust it between himself and the relic, driving the butt into the sand. He anchored himself, forcing the whispers back with sheer will.
The relic pulsed angrily, but he did not yield.
[Choice Registered.][Relic Appraisal Complete.][Safe Integration Possible: System Moderation Engaged.]
The golden light shifted, dimming slightly as though bowing before his defiance. The relic's glow folded inward, its whispers fading into silence.
The system pulsed again.
[Relic Acquired.]
The shard broke free from the skeleton's ribs, drifting into Ren's waiting hand. It was warm, alive, vibrating faintly like a heartbeat. The moment his fingers closed around it, energy surged into his veins, flooding him with both agony and ecstasy.
He gasped, his body convulsing as the system stabilized the flow.
[Abyssal Relic Integrated: Fragment of the Drowned God]
Effect: Permanent stat increase. Unlocks "Abyssal Veil."
Corruption Risk: Neutralized by System.
[Status Updated]
Level: 7
HP: 340
Power: 33
Agility: 37
Speed: 35
Defense: 23
Luck: 7
New Ability Unlocked:
Abyssal Veil (Passive): Slightly shields user from detection by higher-tier abyssal creatures. Increases resistance to corruption.
Ren floated, chest heaving, his body trembling from the flood of strength. But unlike before, his mind was clear. The whispers were gone, silenced beneath the system's shield.
He looked at his reflection in the drifting golden shards that remained. His gray eyes now shimmered faintly with a golden hue, like sunlight caught in storm clouds.
For the first time, he didn't just feel like a survivor. He felt like something more.
When he surfaced, dawn had broken. The village stirred awake, nets already being cast into the waves. No one noticed the boy climbing back onto the dock, soaked, his gaze burning with something new.
Ren looked once more at the horizon.
This world was more than just beasts and hunger. Relics like this one were proof, proof that the gods had fallen, that their remnants still shaped the tides of power. If others found such relics, they might grow strong. If he did, he might rise beyond them all.
His path was no longer just about survival.
It was about seizing the abyss itself.
Ren clenched his fist around the shard's faint glow.
"From now on," he whispered, his voice low and steady, "I'll take everything this drowned world hides."
And as the morning sun spilled across the endless ocean, Ren Arclight stepped further into the mystery of the abyss where strength and corruption danced on the edge of every wave.