Blackthorn Vale smelled of rot and rain. Mist hugged the gnarled trees, and the distant howl of predators whispered across the marshes.
A "team hunt" was meant to test the lowborn and thin the weak. Alden called it a spectacle, but I knew better. He had arranged accidents in advance. His lieutenant, a bloated brute with more ego than skill, would be the first to stumble.
The real target: Grave-Maw Boar, a death-aspected beast rumored to carry a fragment of unstable life energy.
[Shop Prompt: Bone-Weft Gauntlet – 9 AP]
Nine Abyss Points. A gauntlet that amplified Hollow Palm strikes, weaving bone energy to drain vitality faster. Worth it.
[AP Balance: −9][Bone-Weft Gauntlet Acquired.]
The hunt began. I allowed the boar to charge. Its tusks ripped through my cloak, grazed my shoulder, even bruised muscle. Controlled pain. Perfect.
Hollow Palm hummed beneath the gauntlet. Each tap, each press, drained the beast's death-aligned qi directly into me. It stumbled, staggered, and finally collapsed in a spray of black ichor. Heart drained in one precise strike.
[Devour Bonus Activated: Death-aligned target + AP]
Then the accidents. Alden's lieutenant slipped on wet mud, falling into the boar's path. Another minor casualty—a careless blade from a teammate struck another. I let both happen, careful to ensure my hands left no trace.
[AP +18 (Boar + 2 casualties); −9 spend; Net +9][Hollow Palm Rank II: Activated.]
I knelt over the boar's core, feeling the pulse within. Tiny, almost imperceptible, but unmistakable: a micro–Dao Shard, tinged with death.
The Vale itself stirred beneath my awareness. Primordial energy lay buried here, fragments of something greater, something forgotten.
Above, Alden fumed, unaware the blame for the mishaps had been quietly framed on his own lieutenant. He would be punished.
And I? I walked back through the mist, bloodied, silent, stronger than anyone suspected.
Abyssal meridians thickened. Hollow Palm drained qi faster. And the System's quiet pulse hummed approval.
Primordial debris. Dao Shard. Death. All feeding into the growing shadow of what I was becoming.