The academy orientation was a mandatory, mind-numbing affair that Zero had no intention of attending. While the rest of the newly Awakened students were being led on a tour of the campus facilities—the grand library they would barely use, the gleaming training halls they would sweat in, the bustling refectory where social hierarchies would be forged and broken over bowls of watery stew—Zero was already on the move.
He slipped out of his dorm room before dawn, a slim, anonymous figure clad in a dark, hooded tunic and sturdy leather trousers. His porter's pack was light, containing only the barest essentials: his new knife, a waterskin, a small pouch of dried meat, flint and steel, and the invaluable book of myths. He was a ghost leaving a life he had only just re-entered, his departure unnoticed and unremarked upon.
The academy's training forest was a vast, sprawling expanse of ancient woodland that bordered the campus grounds. By official decree, first-year students were restricted to the "Green Zone," a well-patrolled, mile-wide perimeter where the most dangerous creature one might encounter was a particularly grumpy badger. It was a carefully curated wilderness, designed to give a taste of the adventuring life without any of the actual risk.
Zero bypassed it completely.
His future knowledge was a perfect map. He knew the patrol routes of the academy instructors, the blind spots in their watch patterns, and the forgotten game trails that were not on any official chart. He moved through the dense undergrowth with a quiet, practiced efficiency, his steps silent on the damp earth. The boy Ashe had been clumsy, always snagging his pack on low-hanging branches. The man Zero was now a part of the forest, his `[Predator's Gait]` skill, a corrupted version of some long-forgotten D-ranker's `[Lesser Agility]`, allowing him to move with an unnatural silence and economy of motion.
After an hour of walking, he reached the edge of the Green Zone, marked by a series of waist-high stone pillars carved with runes of warning. Beyond this point lay the Amber Zone, the real forest. Here, the trees grew taller and thicker, their canopy forming a dense roof that plunged the forest floor into a perpetual twilight. The cheerful birdsong of the outer woods was replaced by an eerie, watchful silence.
He pressed on, his senses on high alert. This was where the real training began. This was his true classroom.
According to the legend in the book, the Sunken Grove was located in a part of the Amber Zone known as the "Whispering Fen," an area academy students were strictly forbidden from entering. It was said to be a place of bad omens, where the ground was unstable and strange illusions could lead travelers astray. His old party had always avoided it, citing the lack of valuable monsters. They had been fools.
As he drew closer, the character of the forest changed again. The air grew heavy and humid, thick with the smell of decay and stagnant water. A low-lying, milky-white fog clung to the ground, muffling sound and reducing visibility to a few dozen feet. The trees here were different—ancient, gnarled willows draped in thick curtains of moss, their branches like skeletal arms reaching down into the mist.
This was the Whispering Fen. And he was walking right into its heart.
His System began to react to the environment.
`[WARNING: You have entered a zone with a high concentration of Abyssal Mana.]`
`[Your Corrupted System is resonating with the ambient energy.]`
`[Skill: 'Blight (Lvl 1)' is temporarily enhanced.]`
Zero paused, holding up his hand. He focused on his `[Blight]` skill, the one he had absorbed from the Sprite Queen in the hidden dungeon that didn't yet exist in this timeline, a temporal paradox that was his greatest secret. He activated it. A faint, sickly green aura enveloped his palm. A nearby patch of vibrant green moss instantly withered, turning a brittle, ashen grey as its life force was drawn into him. He felt a small but noticeable surge of stamina, a cool, invigorating sensation that contrasted sharply with the oppressive humidity.
This place, so dangerous to others, was a sanctuary for him. It fed his power.
He continued his journey, navigating by memory and the subtle clues in the landscape that only he could recognize. He found the ancient, moss-covered stone he knew marked the entrance, a menhir half-swallowed by the bog. The legend said that to find the grove, one must "follow the path of the setting sun." A poetic misdirection. The real path was hidden.
Zero walked around to the *eastern* side of the menhir, the direction of the rising sun. He knelt and began to clear away the mud and tangled roots at its base. His fingers soon found it: a small, almost invisible indentation in the stone, carved in the shape of a crescent moon. He pressed it.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then, with a low, grinding groan that seemed to come from the very bones of the earth, a section of the marshy ground before him began to sink. It wasn't a collapse; it was a controlled descent, revealing a set of steep, slime-covered stone steps leading down into the darkness.
He had found it. The Sunken Grove.
He descended into the gloom, the entrance sealing itself above him with another groan, plunging him into absolute blackness. He waited, letting his eyes adjust. Slowly, a faint, ethereal light began to permeate the cavern. It emanated from clusters of glowing, phosphorescent fungi that clung to the damp walls and ceiling, casting the vast underground space in shifting shades of blue and violet.
The cavern was breathtaking. It was a complete, subterranean forest, with pale, ghostly trees, streams of crystal-clear water, and strange, luminous flora. But there was a chilling silence to the place. No birds, no insects, no rustling of animals in the undergrowth.
There was only the faintest, high-pitched chittering sound, like the rubbing of insectile wings, echoing from deeper within the grove.
The Shadow Sprites.
Zero drew his new knife. He knew from his past life that these creatures were not the playful fairies of storybooks. They were territorial, vicious, and moved in swarms. They were about a foot tall, with thin, spindly limbs, dragonfly-like wings that were nearly invisible in the dim light, and faces dominated by large, black, multifaceted eyes. Their primary weapon was a paralytic poison delivered through a needle-sharp proboscis. A single sting could immobilize a grown man. A dozen meant a slow, horrifying death.
He moved forward, sticking to the shadows along the cavern wall. His `[Predator's Gait]` made his steps completely silent. He soon spotted the first patrol. A trio of sprites, flitting between the pale trees. He watched their movements, his mind dissecting their flight patterns. They were scouts, flying in a predictable triangular formation.
He waited for the moment they passed behind a large, glowing mushroom. He took a small, smooth stone from his pocket. He didn't use his inventory trick; it was too risky, the System warning too unpredictable. Instead, he simply threw it with practiced aim, making it clatter against the far wall of the cavern.
The sprites instantly zipped towards the sound, their chittering growing agitated. As they converged on the distraction, their formation broke. That was the opening he needed.
He burst from the shadows, a blur of motion. He closed the distance to the nearest sprite in a heartbeat. The creature turned, its black eyes widening in surprise, but it was too late. Zero's knife, held in a reverse grip, flashed upwards. The blade sliced clean through the sprite's thin neck. Its head tumbled to the cavern floor, its body spasming for a moment before falling limp.
`[Shadow Sprite Eliminated.]`
`[Attempting to Absorb Skill: 'Paralytic Sting']... [ERROR!]`
`[Skill Corrupted: 'Nerve-Wrack Sting (Lvl 1)': Your next unarmed strike can deliver a jolt of corrupted energy, causing intense pain and temporary motor function failure in the target's limb.]`
A new combat skill. An incredibly useful one.
The other two sprites shrieked, an ultrasonic sound that grated on the nerves, and darted towards him. One came in high, the other low. A classic pincer attack.
Zero didn't retreat. He lunged *forward*, meeting the lower sprite head-on. The creature aimed its stinger at his chest. Zero twisted his body, letting the needle-like proboscis scrape harmlessly past his leather-clad ribs. At the same time, his left hand shot out. He focused his will. `[Nerve-Wrack Sting]` activated.
His palm, glowing with a faint, sickly purple aura, slapped against the sprite's torso.
The effect was instantaneous and brutal. The sprite convulsed violently in mid-air, its wings beating erratically. It let out a sound like a boiling kettle and then dropped from the air like a stone, twitching and spasming on the ground, completely incapacitated.
The third sprite, seeing its comrades fall, hesitated for a fatal second. Zero exploited it. He kicked the twitching body of the second sprite into the air, a perfect, calculated punt. The third sprite, caught by surprise, collided with the makeshift projectile.
Zero was on it before it could recover, his knife ending its life with another clean, efficient stroke.
He stood over the three bodies, his breathing even. The entire engagement had taken less than five seconds. It was a symphony of violence, conducted with the cold precision of a master.
This was what he was capable of now. This was the difference between Ashe and Zero. Ashe would have tried to sneak past. He would have been terrified, his movements clumsy. He would have eventually been caught, stung, and left to die in this beautiful, silent cavern.
Zero, on the other hand, was not here to survive the grove.
He was here to conquer it. He was the apex predator now, and this was his new hunting ground. He looked deeper into the glowing, silent forest, toward the source of the chittering. The Queen's nest. And beyond it, his prize. The Cartographer's Journal. His first, most crucial step towards absolute power.
A new wave of chittering, louder and more numerous, echoed from the darkness. The patrol had been missed. The hive was stirring.
Zero smiled. Let them come. He needed to level up his new skills anyway.