The cave was quiet, almost impossibly so. Sol Jin's body still throbbed from the Prime Dire Wolf encounter, but the pulse in his chest, faint yet insistent, called to him. It was not pain, nor fear, nor exhaustion—it was something alive, something waiting.
He pressed a hand against his chest, feeling a subtle vibration deep within his ribcage. The mysterious man's presence in the shadows was unwavering, silent, yet all-encompassing. Every nerve in Sol Jin's body hummed in tune with the cave, the forest outside, and the faint tremor of the unseen world beyond.
> "Your body is clay. Your mind is steel. Merge the two," the man's voice finally spoke. "Awaken what has been given."
Sol Jin closed his eyes. He focused on the pulse. Breathing steady, he let his thoughts drift. Observation, calculation, patience—everything the man had taught him crystallized. Pain became data. Fear became fuel. Every failure, every humiliation, every bruise became a thread he could pull.
A warmth spread from his chest, slow, deliberate, and insistent. Energy writhed under his skin, and a strange clarity filled his mind. He realized with sudden certainty: this was the Infinite Schemer's Core—the gift from the man in the cave.
It pulsed in rhythm with his heart, but it was more than that. It analyzed, adapted, evolved. His last encounter replayed in his mind, and the Core whispered solutions, strategies, and shortcuts. It promised that pain could be converted into power, weakness into advantage, humiliation into leverage.
---
The forest outside trembled. A low, guttural roar broke the silence. The ground shook as a hulking silhouette approached: a Voidborn Warg, a monster spawned from the Darkwood's deeper reaches. Its size alone dwarfed any ordinary predator, with glowing red eyes and scales that shimmered like molten iron. Its aura was chaotic, unstable, yet intelligent—like it could think, plan, and learn from every strike.
Sol Jin's eyes narrowed. Every instinct screamed to flee, but instinct was no longer enough. The Infinite Schemer's Core hummed, aligning his mind with the monster's. Patterns, weaknesses, timing—the Core analyzed them in a fraction of a heartbeat.
> "Predictable," he muttered.
The Warg lunged, teeth snapping with enough force to shatter bone. Sol Jin rolled aside, feeling the ground tremble as it struck. The Core pulsed, feeding him insight. He noted its left flank, the slight lag in its shoulder movement, the pause between lunges.
He struck. Not hard—strategically. A rock thrown, timed perfectly, forcing the Warg to overcommit. It stumbled. Sol Jin's grin was faint, almost imperceptible, but his mind raced with possibilities.
> "One misstep, and I die. One correct move, and I win," he whispered, voice steady.
The Warg adapted quickly, snarling. It lunged again, faster this time, calculating his patterns. But Sol Jin was no longer reacting—he was predicting. With a feint, a roll, and a strike, he forced the monster into an exposed position. The Core whispered: strike again, now, finish.
Before his conscious mind fully processed it, Sol Jin's movements became a blur. Every motion precise, every step calculated, every strike timed to perfection. The monster staggered, then fled, wounded and unwilling to continue.
---
The cave's pulse surged violently, almost as if approving. Sol Jin's chest heaved, sweat and blood mixing, yet an exhilaration unlike anything before coursed through him. Pain, fear, weakness—they had all become instruments in his hands.
The mysterious man stepped forward, his presence washing over Sol Jin like a tide of calm authority.
> "You have awakened it," the man said softly. "The Core does not give strength—it teaches you to turn everything against your enemies. Pain, fear, life, death… all become tools. Remember this: only those who endure can truly scheme."
Sol Jin straightened, chest heaving, eyes burning with resolve. A new hunger had awakened inside him—a hunger not merely to survive, but to control, to outthink, to rise.
Above, the cosmic presence quivered with anticipation. Threads of fate writhed like fire.
> "Yes… the boy begins to manipulate destiny itself. Soon, he will play with monsters and geniuses alike. Soon, the world will notice him."
The Voidborn Warg's roar faded into the distance. Sol Jin did not pursue. Victory was not about brute force—it was about knowing when to strike and when to bide time.
He turned to the man in the shadows, voice firm:
> "Teach me everything. I will not be weak again. I will not be humiliated again. I will become… inevitable."
The man smiled faintly, eyes glimmering.
> "Good. Then your training begins in earnest. From now on, the forest is no longer your home—it is your battlefield, your classroom, your proving ground. And every thread of fate you touch… will bend to your schemes."
Sol Jin clenched his fists. The Core pulsed. Blood, sweat, and pain—the boy had become something more. Not just a survivor. Not just a fighter.
A schemer
The first step of his rise to power had been completed. The world had no idea it had been marked.