The Pendragon system behaved like the systems Alex had seen in novels and movies—except for one thing. It didn't hand out quests like candy. No easy missions. No shiny rewards for punching the wrong guy.
He'd fought plenty of people before. The system stayed silent every single time.
But during the fight with Varkov, everything shifted. For the first time Alex could remember, a quest dropped right in the middle of battle. Clear and blunt.
Kill Varkov.
Use the Death Axe.
No substitutes.
Alex didn't know why the system insisted on that weapon. He didn't understand the bond between the axe and Varkov either. All he knew was that, in that moment, swinging any other weapon felt wrong. Instinct took over. And the axe did what it was born to do.
Now the fight was over. The quest was done. And the reward finally showed up.
[Quest Reward: Weapon Upgrade]
[Would you like to proceed with the weapon upgrade?]
'wow…' Alex thought, a slow breath slipping out.
He had guessed the system might offer something useful, maybe even something big. A weapon upgrade was on the list… but he had secretly hoped for something wilder. Something unexpected.
Already, the axe was designed to grow on its own. Kill more, feed it stronger beast crystals, and it climbed stages without asking for permission. So a "weapon upgrade" wasn't shaking Alex to his core. If anything, it felt like something the axe should have hit on its own by now.
From what he knew, with the amount of strong enemies he had already cut down, the weapon should've been standing at the edge of its next evolution.
Still, even with that logic in his head, a small wave of disappointment rolled through him. He let out a slow breath and accepted the prompt.
[Your axe Death is being Upgraded]
The moment he pressed "proceed," the weapon responded. Dark aura bled out from the blade, thick and heavy, like smoke crawling through the air.
Alex froze.
He knew that aura.
It was the same kind Varkov used… the same one that twisted the air around him during that fight.
Startled, Alex dropped the axe onto the bed and stepped back fast, hands raised like he expected it to bite.
The dark aura kept coiling around it, wrapping tighter, almost like the weapon was breathing in something only it could sense. The air in the room felt heavier with every second.
Then the system chimed, snapping Alex out of it.
[Upgrade completed. Please check your weapon status.]
Alex moved toward the bed slowly, cautious, ready to jump back if the axe decided to grow fangs or shoot lightning. He picked it up.
No changes.
Not a single physical difference.
Still jagged. Still bone-white handle. Still that same brutal look.
But the moment his fingers closed around it, the system flashed a new interface right in front of his eyes—fresh information unfolding line by line.
[Your weapon Death has been Upgraded]
[Stage 3 (Cursed)]
[Skills:]
[Call]
[Evolution Point]
[Self Healing]
[Death Aura]
Alex's eyes ran through the interface, quick and focused. Two things jumped out at him instantly.
First—Stage 3.
His axe had finally crossed into Class F weapons. That part made sense. He'd expected the upgrade to push it somewhere around there.
But the second thing…
That one shoved a knot straight into his stomach.
"Cursed?" Alex muttered.
He stared at the word again, as if maybe the system would correct itself or blink it away. It didn't.
'So… a cursed weapon now?'
He didn't need a lecture or a library to understand what that meant. He'd read enough, seen enough. Cursed weapons were forged with dark magic—twisted, boosted, dangerous. They hit harder, they grew faster, and they always demanded something in return.
And that price was never small.
Alex's chest tightened a bit.
'I was expecting a clean reward… not this mess. Am I supposed to stop using my axe now?'
His fingers flexed around the handle. He didn't want to abandon it. The weapon had been with him from the very start. But curse marks weren't something you ignored.
He let out a slow breath and forced himself to move on. No point drowning in fear.
There was something new in the skill list.
[Death Aura: When surrounded by the dead or the wounded, the axe draws death aura from them. The aura powers the axe, restores energy to the wielder, and—if enough is gathered—causes the axe to upgrade.
This skill is always active. The wielder can choose when to unleash the collected dark aura.
Note: Once the dark aura is activated, it cannot be turned off until the axe is used to kill.]
Alex read the description twice. Short, brutal rules. No fluff.
The skill sounded exactly like Varkov's power.
'So the axe copied part of his magic,' Alex thought. 'Varkov is a dark mage — that explains the curse.'
At first the word cursed still stung. Cursed blades were stronger, faster to grow, and they always charged a price. But the Death Aura made the upgrade suddenly useful. It healed, it powered, it fed the weapon—everything a desperate fighter could want.
Still, the last line nagged him.
'Once you flip it on, you can't stop it until the axe kills,' he read again. That was the cost.
He set the axe on his lap and ran his fingers over the worn handle. The dark aura had wrapped the blade during the upgrade, but now the interface spelled out how it worked. Simple mechanics, ugly consequence.
If he used Death Aura, he wouldn't be able to back down. No half-measures. No mercy. The axe would demand a kill.
'So I can't treat it like a normal weapon,' Alex thought. 'If I'm not ready to end a fight, I shouldn't trigger this. But if I need the boost—if people are dying around me—it might be the only way to survive.'
He closed his eyes a second and pictured the mission.
Alex started picturing himself using the skill in a fight.
'Now that I think about it, if I want to use this weapon power, there have to be dead or injured people around. If it's just me against a single, alive opponent, the axe won't draw any power,' Alex thought.
It reminded him of what Varkov had done to gain his own power at the last moment. Varkov had to sit back and watch his clan's men die just to trigger it.
One advantage of the skill, Alex realized, was that his axe could now drain energy from people he hadn't killed. That would speed up its upgrade.
Another point struck him—the death aura also affected injured people. He could fight an opponent, injure them, and they wouldn't be able to heal… as long as they stayed nearby.
Alex wasn't entirely sure if it would actually stop them from healing or just siphon the death aura.
Testing it was out of the question—he was too scared to try.
'I wonder… if I refuse to kill someone after using the dark aura energy, what would the axe do?' he thought, unease creeping in.
Just as Alex was analyzing, he heard a bit of commotion downstairs.
He quickly put his axe away and rushed down the stairs.
There he could see his mother and two other men. They were dressed in suits, but Alex knew exactly who they were.
"You people can't just barge into my place. If my father wants to see me, he can call—he doesn't need to send you after me," Anna argued, trying to block the men from getting through the door.
"Sorry, Miss Anna, but your father sent us. We're not leaving without completing our task," one of the men stepped forward.
Suddenly, Anna, standing in the way, was thrown backward.
The man hadn't pushed her directly. A slight brush of his body as he tried to move past sent her flying as if she'd been shoved.
Before she could hit the ground, a solid arm caught her from behind, stopping her fall.
"What are you thinking, shoving her like that?" Alex shouted, his voice sharp with anger.
The two men froze, stunned as they stared at him.
Alex barely realized what he had just done. The distance from the entrance to the staircase where he now stood wasn't short, yet he had covered it in a heartbeat.
Eventually, the men shook off their shock, acting as if nothing unusual had happened.
"Sorry, young mas…ter," one of them said, uncertain how to address Alex.
"What do you want?" Alex asked, his face tight with anger.
"Your grandfather has asked us to bring you to the family house," the man replied.
Immediately, Alex felt his face go pale as shivers ran down his spine.
'Did they know?' he thought, horror gripping him.