Loot had grown scarce.
Kaiden noticed it first by the weight of his satchel — or the lack of it. The shards he scavenged, the fractured relics and burnt-out sigils, were harder to find with each dawn. The woods surrounding Cardinal Peaks had been picked nearly clean. Even the insects seemed wary, as if the land itself had taken notice of his quiet harvesting.
He didn't complain. He recorded. Tracked patterns. Tried new foraging routes. But each day returned thinner than the last.
So he did what he hadn't done since the Concordium left.
He asked for help.
[ Kaiden ]
"Pops…"
"Do you know anywhere I can find more loot?"
"Even the broken stuff?"
Nik didn't answer right away. He just lifted his tea, blew over it like he was cooling more than leaves and water, then gave his grandson a sideways glance that meant trouble — or a story.
[ Niklaus ]
"Hmm..."
"There was a boy once."
"Shy, wiry little thing."
"Couldn't swing a sword, couldn't cast a spell."
"But he had something better..."
"Curiosity."
Kaiden waited, because Nik's stories never rushed.
"This boy wandered into a Novice Training Ground."
"Not for combat — no, not yet."
"Just to watch. To listen..."
"And because of that, he learned how kids train before everyone else brands them."
"Learned who hid snacks under their tunics, who faked injuries to skip drills, and who sharpened sticks into weapons when no one was watching."
Nik took another sip.
[ Kaiden ]
"You are talking about yourself..."
"Aren't you?"
[ Niklaus (grinned) ]
"You are getting smarter... heh."
"If you want loot, boy, you don't need a dungeon."
"You need a field."
"Come..."
"I'll show you."
◈◈◈
The Novice Training Ground was tucked between the outer rumapple groves and the footpath leading toward the eastern ridge. A wide patch of packed soil surrounded by moss-cracked pillars and leaning stelae. No gates, no guards. Just an open space meant for children not yet school-bound.
Most villagers called it the Kidpen. Kaiden found that name insulting. It was a crucible in miniature.
Wooden dummies with mismatched armor parts. Sparring rings drawn with chalk and prayers. A rusted bannerpole with no flag. Old training staves lined the perimeter like graves. And at the center of it all, chaos — shouting, running, wild attempts at footwork that would've made a real instructor faint.
Nik smiled like a man at an art exhibit.
[ Niklaus ]
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Potential in its most ridiculous form."
Children between the ages of four and six dashed through obstacles, threw foam stones, and tried formations that wouldn't stand up against real monsters. Others were playing the classic game of galah panjang, and some were just watching.
And sometimes, children discard things — old gloves, broken training baubles, even improperly fused charms meant to simulate mana.
Kaiden's eyes adjusted quickly. His vision began to thread with faint metadata:
[ Chalk Stick: 0.00001 INT ] – Web Link: Unbound
[ Cracked Foam Gem: 0.00002 INT ] – Residual Illusory Property
He knelt beside a half-buried training strap. It shimmered faintly.
[ Kaiden ]
"This place is full of resonance."
Nik's voice dropped a tone deeper, just enough to shade his next words with weight.
[ Niklaus ]
"And you, my little oddity, are just beginning to hum with it."
Kaiden turned, unsure what he meant.
Nik reached into his long coat and drew a parcel wrapped in linen.
"I was saving this for your sixth name-day."
"But curses don't wait for birthdays, and the world doesn't care about timing..."
"So, here..."
"Your first weapon."
He unwrapped it with care, revealing a wooden dagger.
It wasn't new. It was clean but dulled by age, the handle wrapped in worn leather thongs, a single notch above the hilt where a maker's mark might have been chiseled away.
[ Kaiden ]
"...Wooden?"
[ Niklaus ]
"Don't scoff."
"Wood remembers things that steel forgets."
"You'll see..."
"Someday, that dagger will mean more than I can say."
Kaiden took it with both hands. His HEART didn't register it as enchanted. No glow, no hidden passive. Just weight. Just wood.
But when he gripped it, the balance felt like it belonged.
[ Kaiden ]
"Thank you."
[ Niklaus ]
"Keep it hidden, boy..."
"This isn't a weapon yet."
"It's a story waiting to be written."
"And only you can decide what chapter it begins with."
That day, Kaiden didn't fight. He watched. Listened. Spoke quietly to a girl who crafted illusions with dried leaves. Helped a boy refine his footwork by tracing spirals into the dirt. He collected nothing of worth by Concordium standards, but his satchel filled with scraps the world had overlooked.
And that night, back in the infirmary, he placed the dagger beside him on the cot — not like a warrior with a weapon, but like a scavenger with a compass.
The wooden blade gleamed faintly in the moonlight. Not with enchantment, but with memory.
[ HEART ]
[ Wooden Dagger ]
[ Damage: 1-2 ]
[ Durability: 20/20 ]
[ Voidsync: Locked ]
[ Kaiden ]
"Voidsync?"
"It is..."
"Special!"
And Kaiden, finally, slept with a small smile.
Tomorrow, the looting would resume.
But tonight, he had something better than loot.
Direction.
And a story just beginning to take shape.
◈◈◈
The infirmary air no longer smelled like rust and herbs the next day.
Kaiden stood barefoot on the warm wooden floor, clutching the release slip with both hands. The nurse had signed it with a smile and a warning: "No running, no sparring, and no slime-chasing."
He was going to ignore at least two of those.
[ Kaiden ]
"Pops!"
"I'm out!"
Nik glanced up from a worn copy of The Obscure Digest of Relic Failures, folding the corner of a page with one pinky.
[ Niklaus ]
"Ah, the prodigal gremlin returns."
"Feeling like a hero yet, or still just a hoarder of half-cracked pebbles?"
[ Kaiden ]
"They have names now."
"I made a list."
[ Niklaus ]
"Gods help me..."
They walked the cobbled path back to the edge of Cardinal Peaks. Chickens darted out of their way, and distant hammering echoed from the forgeyard. Nik's coat flared with each gust, while Kaiden kept patting his satchel like he expected new loot to spawn inside just from hope alone.
When the cottage came into view, Kaiden paused.
[ Kaiden ]
"Can I go back to the Kidpen?"
"Just to look. Not to train."
"Maybe find a... slime?"
"Or its tracks. Maybe."
Nik's brow arched like a bowstring drawn tight.
[ Niklaus ]
"You want to track a creature made of jelly and bad decisions."
[ Kaiden ]
"Yes!"
[ Niklaus ]
"You're your father's son, and your mother's curse..."
"Fine."
"But I'm coming with you."
"Gods forbid I let you duel a slime and lose."
◈◈◈
The sun had dipped just enough to tint the Kidpen golden. Children still flitted between chalk lines, but Kaiden's eyes were on the field just beyond — the place where trees thinned and the soil glistened unnaturally.
Slimes had been spotted here before. Small ones, mostly. Scouting types. Not dangerous. Not unless you sat down in the grass without checking first.
[ Kaiden ]
"There..."
"See that ripple?"
Nik didn't look.
[ Niklaus ]
"I'll take your word."
"You've got better eyes, and I've got a better pension."
Kaiden knelt by a shallow trail. His Analyze skill blinked to life.
[ HEART ]
[ Residual Slime Secretion ]
Durability: 2/2
Market Value: 2 copper
No Attribute Value — Web Link: Dormant
[ Kaiden ]
"It passed through here."
"Not long ago."
Nik leaned on his cane—not because he needed it, but because it made him look dignified while standing still.
[ Niklaus ]
"Then what are you waiting for, little bloodhound?"
"Follow it."
Kaiden took a breath, then moved. Slowly. Silently. The dagger at his hip barely shifted, wrapped snug in cloth.
The slime revealed itself only when it blorped indignantly at a root and reversed direction.
[ Kaiden ]
"There!"
He didn't draw the dagger. He didn't need to.
He picked up a flat stone instead. An old, sun-dried one.
"Hey..."
"Over here."
The slime turned. It quivered.
Kaiden tossed the stone just above it.
The splash was muted. The slime recoiled, startled.
It slid backwards, right into a shallow pit Kaiden had noticed earlier.
[ Kaiden ]
"Got you."
Nik clapped once.
[ Niklaus ]
"I see we're skipping right past warrior and diving headfirst into mad scientist."
Kaiden examined the slime as it sluggishly tried to ooze away.
[ HEART ]
[ Slime: Amorphous Type ]
Classification: Ooze
Behavior: Passive
Weakness: Fire
Mortality: Stable
He used Analyze again. A shimmer flared.
[ HEART ]
[ Slime Residue Fragment ]
Durability 5/5
Market Value: 3 copper
Hidden Attribute: 0.00003 AGI – Web Link: Flickering
His smile was bright enough to blind.
Too happy to notice that the goo allowed the slime to slip away.
[ Kaiden ]
"Even the goo has gifts."
[ Niklaus ]
"A terrifying sentence, and yet..."
"Fitting."
"But still..."
"You need to learn how the world works."
[ Kaiden ]
"What do you mean?"
That evening, Kaiden didn't brag.
He cataloged. Noted every flicker of resonance, every shift in weight in his bag, every glint off the wooden dagger.
Each flicker wove into something larger.
A first knot in his crown.
He slept with the slime residue sealed in a leaf pouch beneath his pillow.
And as the moon rolled high, the Passive Web within his HEART shimmered faintly.
Still dormant.
But growing closer.
Kaiden's story — no longer just cursed — was beginning to pulse with possibility.