Solara announced itself from a distance, rising out of the landscape like something built to remind the world of its own smallness. Thirt-meter tall walls of white stone ringed the city, their upper edges bristling with golden spires that caught the afternoon light and threw it back in blinding flashes.
Sun banners hung from every tower, stirring lazily in the warm breeze. The main gate was enormous, flanked on both sides by carved stone angels in full armour, their swords lifted toward the sky as if daring something to come down from it.
Lucius stood at the tree line and watched the city from a distance. The dimensional compass in his pocket was warm and restless, its needle aimed with unwavering certainty at the palace rising from the city's heart. Golden domes caught the sun above every other rooftop, visible even from where he stood.
[Dimensional Compass: Divine Energy Detected — Distance: 2km]
He had successfully made it to Solara.
Two hundred kilometres from Hancock, through dense forest and divine patrol routes, through more skirmishes with heaven's advance scouts than he bothered counting. His body kept the record with fresh scars running along both forearms and a burn across his ribs that still pulled tight and ached whenever he breathed too deeply.
But one thing was for sure, he was not the same man who had left Hancock, not even close.
The past two weeks had ground him down and built him back up into something different. Every blessed warrior he had crossed paths with, he had fought.
Every one he had killed, he had absorbed into himself. Divine energy moved through his body now like the very blood in his veins, barely staying within the boundaries of his skin.
He opened his status window and looked it over.
[STATUS WINDOW]
Level: 3
HP: 150/150
MP: 120/120
STR: 78
AGI: 52
VIT: 85
INT: 61
[New Skills Acquired:]
• Divine Sense Lv2 (Passive)
• Smite Lv3 (Active)
• Holy Resistance Lv2 (Passive)
• Sanctified Strike Lv1 (Active)
Two full level ups just from absorbing holy warriors. The system valued kills from divine life forms far above anything else he had killed, whether beasts, common soldiers, none of them compared.
But the gains came with side effects he couldn't ignore. In low light, his eyes held a faint golden glow. When anger got the better of him, his hands crackled with loose divine energy before he could rein it in.
The dark corruption from the mine and the clean holy power from his absorbed kills were combining inside him, reacting with each other, and producing something that was neither one thing nor the other.
Something the world probably didn't have a name for yet.
Lucius closed the window and let Streetwise take over.
[Streetwise (Passive) — Triggered]
[Environmental Analysis:]
• City Security: EXTREME — Guard posts at all approaches, magical warding, divine detection spells at every gate
• Entry Requirements: Citizens carry identification papers, and visitors require proof of legitimate business
• Guard Shift Changes: Every 6 hours (next change in approximately 2 hours)
• Weak Points: East gate runs reduced staffing during shift change; merchant caravans pass through with lighter inspection
• Divine Detection Wards: Active at all gates — flags corrupted or excessively blessed individuals]
That last point sat in his chest like a stone. He was carrying both mine corruption and absorbed divine blessings layered on top of it. Walking through those wards without preparation would be like lighting a signal fire and standing next to it.
'I need another way through..'
He skirted the city at a distance, staying inside the forest cover and using Divine Sense to build a picture of the guard distribution as he moved.
[Divine Sense (Passive) — Active Scan]
[Divine signatures detected:]
• 73 weak sources (blessed guards, city patrol units)
• 12 moderate sources (priests, junior paladins)
• 8 strong sources (senior paladins, temple knights)
• 1 OVERWHELMING source (central palace — Prince Aurelius)
The last signature made his skin feel like it was pulling away from his bones. Even reborn into a child's body, the sun god radiated power that was oppresive to be near, like standing too close to a furnace and feeling the heat working its way through every layer of clothing.
While he moved east, he found what he needed. A merchant caravan rolling along the road toward the city gate. Five loaded wagons carrying grain, bolts of fabric, and wine barrels.
The guards were wearing basic leather rather than anything military, and the workers moving alongside the wagons looked like hired hands focused entirely on reaching their destination and collecting their pay.
He ran an appraisal on the man at the front of the lead wagon.
[Appraisal activated!]
[Target: Human Male — Marcus Vell]
[Class: Merchant]
[Level: 4]
[Threat Level: Minimal]
[Status: Anxious, preoccupied with inspection costs]
[Notable: Carrying forged tax documents to reduce tariff payments]
A merchant with something to hide and plenty of motivation to avoid scrutiny at the gate. It's better than he could have hoped for.
Lucius stepped onto the road from the tree line at just the right angle, timing it so he appeared naturally ahead of the caravan rather than emerging from the forest like someone with obvious reasons for hiding there. He raised one hand in a neutral greeting.
The lead wagon slowed, and the man in front, named Marcus, leaned out from his seat and narrowed his eyes.
"You lost?"
Lucius arranged his expression into something worn down and a little desperate. "A group of bandits hit my group three days ago, and I managed to survive the ambush and made it out alive." he gestured loosely at his ruined clothes and the collection of real, visible wounds on his arms.
"I've been trying to reach Solara since then. I have a family inside the city."
Marcus exchanged a glance with his driver. Lucius could see him working through the calculation, a lone traveller, beat up and on foot, asking for help. Was he going to be a problem or a potential asset?.
"Hard luck," Marcus said, drawing it out. "What do you do for work?"
"I am both a hunter and tracker." Lucius said, letting a trace of his Divine Sense leak through his eyes, a brief, faint gold shimmer, barely visible, enough to be noticed by someone paying attention.
"Good at finding things people want to find too."
Something shifted in Marcus's expression. Being blessed or something close to it made a hired hand worth something extra.
"Here's what I can offer," Marcus said. "Help unload once we're inside, and I'll vouch for you at the gate. Tell them you're one of my hired guards. Deal?"
"That works."
Lucius pulled himself up onto the back of the final wagon and settled between grain sacks. As the caravan got rolling again toward the east gate, he looked over the other workers one by one. None of them were paying him any particular attention, which was a good thing.
The east gate filled his view ahead. Four guards in white and gold stood at rigid attention on either side of an archway that glowed with a steady, quiet blue light, the divine detection ward pulsing with each person who passed through it.
[Survival Instinct (Passive) — Warning!]
[Divine detection ward ahead. Your energy signature will be revealed if you pass through.]
Lucius turned his focus inward. In the weeks of absorbing blessed warriors, fragments of their memories had come through with their power, and some of those fragments contained methods for concealing divine auras during covert operations.
He worked through those techniques now, drawing his energy inward, compressing it tight against his core, and building a kind of shell around the glow.
[Skill Use: Divine Suppression (Temporary)]
[Divine energy signature reduced by 70% for 10 minutes]
[Cost: 30 MP]
The caravan came to a stop at the gate. A guard moved alongside the wagons and approached Marcus, who produced his papers and handed them over with a practised, casual smile.
"Merchant caravan out of Westhold. Grain, textiles, wine. All standard load."
The guard read through the documents, then looked past Marcus toward the wagons. His gaze moved methodically over the workers and landed on Lucius.
"Who's that?"
Marcus answered without hesitation. "He's a new hire i found along the way. Apparently, he got separated from his previous outfit when bandits hit them and needed the work, and I needed the hands."
The guard left Marcus and walked back to the final wagon. He stood in front of Lucius and let the silence sit for a moment, the way guards do when they want someone to fill it nervously.
"Name?" He said finally.
"Kieran." He lied smoothly.
"Where are you from?"
"I am from Hancock originally, but I've been moving around for contract work."
Something sharpened in the guard's eyes. "Hancock's had some problems lately. Corrupted beast incursions, a mine incidents, and so on. Do you have anything to do with any of that?"
Lucius held his gaze without any shift in expression. "I left before things turned bad but I did hear about it later from other travelers on the road. Sounds like a real disaster."
The guard held the look for another few seconds, then broke it. "Step down and walk through the gate. Take it slow."
Lucius climbed down from the wagon and walked toward the archway at an unhurried pace. The blue light intensified slightly as he entered it, washing over him, probing for corruption or concentrated divine presence.
For a fraction of a second the light shifted colours to a pale yellow flicker and then settle back to blue.
'Shit!'
The guard stood watching the archway closely. "Are you blessed by chance?"
Lucius gave a small shrug. "Got a minor blessing from a traveling priest a few years back, nothing substantial."
It was exactly the kind of story that explained away a faint divine signature without raising flags. Roadside blessings from wandering clergies were common enough that guards stopped caring about them.
The guard waved him through. "Welcome to Solara. Keep out of trouble."
Lucius climbed back onto the wagon and the caravan rolled forward through the gate and into the city.