Noah walked for hours. The stranger's words echoed in his mind, refusing to fade.
"You've got potential... but potential alone isn't enough."
He hated how they made sense.
The trees thinned as he moved east. The soil turned black. The air grew heavy. Every instinct in his body screamed at him to turn around.
He didn't.
[Warning: Unknown Zone Detected. Corrupted Mana Levels—Rising.]
Noah blinked. The notification hovered faintly in his vision, then vanished like mist.
So that's what this is… corrupted mana?
The trees here were twisted, branches gnarled like skeletal fingers. Leaves didn't rustle. They just… hung there. Dead. Stagnant. And the ground squelched beneath his boots like something rotten lay just below the surface.
I should leave.
But the System didn't issue a second warning.
Instead:
[Passive Resistance Engaged: Chaos Core neutralizing ambient corruption.]
He stared down at his hands.
Steady. Calm. Not a single tremble.
It wasn't bravery. It was evolution.
He could survive here.
"Most wouldn't last five minutes in a place like this," he muttered to himself.
Then a voice echoed behind him.
"You talk to yourself often?"
Noah spun around, sword half-drawn.
The speaker was a girl, maybe his age—seven, possibly eight—with silver hair and dark eyes that gleamed like obsidian. She was barefoot, standing atop a jagged stone as if she owned the whole forest.
Noah didn't answer.
The girl tilted her head. "You're not from here."
"You are?" Noah replied coolly.
She grinned. "I'm what happens when you stay in a cursed zone too long."
Noah narrowed his eyes. "That supposed to scare me?"
The girl's smile didn't fade. "You're not scared. That's interesting."
Noah didn't let his guard down. "Why are you following me?"
"I wasn't," she said. "I live here. You just walked into my forest."
Something about her tone made the hairs on his neck rise. Not threatening—just wrong. Like a doll pretending to be human.
Then the System chimed.
[Entity Detected: Corrupted Host - Class ??? | Level: Unknown][Warning: Intellect Override Detected | Engaging Cognitive Firewall]
Noah's heart skipped.
This girl… she's a monster.
"I'm not your enemy," she said casually, walking down from the rock. "Not unless you want me to be."
"You're corrupted," he said plainly.
She shrugged. "So? You've got a Chaos Core. That's practically the same thing."
Noah's fingers tightened around his sword.
"You have a name?" he asked, voice flat.
"Mm," she thought for a moment. "People used to call me Mira."
"Used to?"
"They're dead now," she said without emotion.
A long silence stretched.
Noah finally sheathed his sword. "I'm not here to fight."
"Good," Mira said. "Because you'd lose."
The arrogance wasn't childish. It was absolute. Earned.
Still, she didn't attack. In fact, she turned and started walking deeper into the corrupted forest.
"You coming or not?" she asked.
"Why would I?"
"Because whatever you're looking for—strength, meaning, answers—it's not in the safe zones. It's in places like this."
Noah hesitated.
She wasn't lying. The System wouldn't warn him if there wasn't something valuable nearby.
He followed.
As they walked, the ground shifted. The corruption grew thicker, visible now—a faint purple haze twisting around tree trunks and clinging to rocks like fog.
[System Notice: Causality Drift Stabilizing. Adaptive Mutation Threshold Nearing.]
Then—another notification.
[New Quest: Trial of Instinct]
Objective: Survive the Dreadpack ambush.
Time Limit: 02:34 minutesReward: Instinct +1 | Hidden Trait (???)
Noah froze.
Then he heard it.
Growling. Low. Wet. Like something was gargling blood.
Mira stopped walking.
"They're here," she said.
"What the hell is a Dreadpack?"
"You'll find out."
The first one lunged from the shadows.
Its body was half-wolf, half-shadow, eyes glowing green, mouth filled with rows of jagged, needle-like teeth. It moved with unnatural speed.
Noah rolled to the side, drew his sword, and slashed upward.
He missed—but barely.
Two more emerged from the mist, flanking him.
[Combat Sync: Engaged. Echo of the Dead processing regional kill data.]
His stance shifted instinctively.
Left leg forward. Guard the ribs. Don't let them surround you.
It wasn't a thought. It was memory—stolen from someone who died here.
Thanks, Noah thought grimly.
He darted forward, slicing through the side of the first Dreadhound.
It howled, dark smoke pouring from its wound.
[Combat Feedback Stored. Pain Resistance +0.3%]
The second lunged at his back—but a purple flash of light exploded from Mira's hand, slamming it into a tree.
"Don't rely on me," she said lazily. "This is your trial."
Noah didn't reply. He couldn't.
The last one pounced—he caught it midair with his blade, driving it into the dirt.
Blood hissed on contact with the soil, steaming like acid.
He panted, body slick with sweat.
[Trial Completed. Reward Granted: Instinct +1][Hidden Trait Progress: 91%]
The three beasts dissolved into black smoke, leaving behind nothing but a foul stench.
Mira clapped once.
"Not bad," she said.
Noah turned to her. "You knew they were coming."
"I wanted to see what you'd do."
"And?"
She smiled.
"You might actually survive."