The academy dimmed after midnight—its towers wrapped in soft wardlight, its halls humming with latent energy like a resting beast. But the Mission Hall remained open.
Root stood in its center.
He didn't speak.
He didn't need to.
The obsidian floor lit up as he approached the registration glyph. Above him, a dozen mission scrolls unfolded in the air—silvery-blue projections floating in place, each one marked with class-specific tags and danger levels.
Mission Access Granted: Crowned Initiate – Tier Zero Bond
Summon: Eidolorn – Echobound, Physical Form Active
Level: 3
Next Ability Upgrade at Level 4
Root's eyes flicked to the corner.
Eidolorn stood at his side—shadow-thin, masked, and utterly silent. His cloak rippled in a breeze that didn't exist. Even inactive, the summon pulsed with presence. Real. Solid. Alive. Not just a wraith—he had weight.
Other students still whispered about him. How his summon had knelt, not roared. How it had paused time without spellwork.
They didn't understand.
They weren't supposed to.
Opening Mission Queue…
Quests filled the chamber.
Cull the Shadelings – Forest Perimeter, 1AM Deployment
Escort Guild Surveyors – Quarry Route, Defensive Assist Required
Solo Hunt: Rift Howler Pup – Unranked Instability
Midnight Patrol – Eastern Graveyards (Low Risk, Bonus Pay)
Root selected the first.
Mission Accepted: Cull the Shadelings
Objective: Eliminate 10 corrupted creatures along the forest's edge.
Reward: 80 EXP | 3 Crown Tokens | Bond Experience Bonus
EXP Progress: 70 / 200 to Level 4
Eidolorn Skill Progression Path: Next unlock – Obsidian Veil (Stage 1)
He turned to leave, the glyphs fading out behind him.
But just before stepping past the final archway, another screen flickered—glitched and rust-colored, almost like it wasn't meant to be seen.
It read nothing at first. Then—one word blinked through the static:
Throned.
A whisper followed—not out loud, but inside the system voice itself, behind the permissions.
"Should you breach Level 49… the System will stop counting. But the story won't."
"One in a thousand learns how to ascend."
"One in a million is born knowing how."
Root's gaze lingered a moment.
Then, without a word, he stepped into the cold, his summon following at his side—cloak fluttering, mask gleaming beneath the moonlight like a sealed memory waiting to be broken.
The forest near Crownshade Academy wasn't supposed to be deadly.
But tonight, it felt like it wanted blood.
Branches cracked softly under Root's boots as he moved along the outer edge of the treeline. Thin mists coiled through the roots like nerves, clinging to him with cold fingers. Somewhere ahead, distorted growls rippled through the dark—animal, but wrong. Echo-drenched.
Shadelings.
Rift-born mutations. Not true monsters, but fragments of failed spawns—leftovers from rejected summon trials or corrupted glyph sequences. Their forms twitched. Their minds echoed spells they'd never cast.
And they were perfect prey.
Eidolorn emerged beside him—fully materialized now, his masked form half-veiled in shadow. Every motion he made was deliberate, like a dancer trained in silence. No sword. No claws.
Only the promise of something inevitable.
Root raised a hand.
The first shadeling lunged from the brush—jagged arms, a melted glyph pulsing in its eye.
Eidolorn didn't wait for a command.
He blurred forward—his shadow peeling from his feet like a second body. The shadeling swiped.
Missed.
Before it could recover, Eidolorn dipped behind it, cloak flaring out like a black wing. His palm snapped forward and touched the creature's chest.
A faint pulse of darkness expanded outward—gentle as a breath.
And the shadeling collapsed. No wound. No burst. Just emptied.
[EXP Gained: 8]
[Summon Bonus Applied: +4 EXP]
[EXP Total: 82 / 200]
[Progress: 1 / 10 Shadelings eliminated]
More came.
Root didn't flinch.
Neither did Eidolorn.
The second shadeling was faster—its arms crackling with unstable lightning. But as it lunged, Eidolorn's cloak thickened—shadows hardening around his body in a rippling shield of smoke and arcane thread.
[New Skill Unlocked: Obsidian Veil – Stage 1]
Eidolorn can now generate a thin barrier of condensed shadow. Absorbs one magical attack per activation. Duration: 3 seconds. Cooldown: 10 seconds.
The lightning hit the veil and sizzled out with a faint hiss. Eidolorn didn't react. He stepped forward and countered with a sweeping motion—his arm dragging a slice of darkness through the air like a painter etching silence.
Another kill.
[EXP Gained: 8]
[Summon Bonus Applied: +4 EXP]
[Total: 94 / 200]
[Shadelings Eliminated: 2 / 10]
Root exhaled slowly.
The veil works. The cloak isn't just for show.
This wasn't training anymore. This was control. Real growth. Eidolorn wasn't evolving by accident—he was learning, adapting to the structure of the missions.
And as they moved deeper into the woods, Root began to notice the silence that followed them.
Birds no longer called.
The forest no longer moved.
Only the sound of shadelings hiding in the dark—too afraid to strike.
Because something had entered their space…
…something darker than they were.
They didn't come in pairs anymore.
The shadelings poured in like rot-spawn—bent, frothing, crawling sideways through trees and dirt with twitching limbs and eyes that pulsed like broken runes.
Root gave no order.
Eidolorn moved on instinct.
The third one lunged—twisting midair like a spiraling spine. Its claws stretched forward, crackling with decayed glyphfire.
Eidolorn slid under it.
Shadow peeled from his cloak mid-motion, then snapped behind him like a second blade. The shadeling hit the ground—and staggered—intact.
Then it froze.
For a heartbeat, nothing happened.
And then—
three jagged slashes opened across its body at once, tearing through bone, muscle, and spell-carved tissue.
It never screamed.
[New Skill Unlocked: Wraith Strikes – Stage 1]
Eidolorn's attacks leave behind delayed shadow cuts. Each slash activates 1.5 seconds after contact. Can store 2 delayed strikes at once. Duration: 10 seconds. Cooldown: 15 seconds.
[EXP Gained: 12]
[Total: 106 / 200]
[Shadelings Eliminated: 3 / 10]
Root narrowed his eyes.
Not just stealth. Not just cloak-play.
Timing.
The system hadn't taught that. It came from somewhere else.
The fourth and fifth shadelings came together—a paired mutation with bark-covered skin and glowing eyes. They tried to flank him.
But Eidolorn simply vanished.
Root blinked. Gone. No sound, no flare.
Then the shadows behind the larger shadeling curled like water, and Eidolorn stepped out, already mid-strike—his arm flowing through the motion like a falling banner.
Delayed slashes followed him.
One second.
Two.
The shadelings collapsed at once—each cut exact. Clean. Silent.
[EXP Gained: 24]
[Summon Bonus Applied: +12]
[Total: 142 / 200]
[Shadelings Eliminated: 5 / 10]
Root inhaled slowly. This was his first real night quest. Most students came out of it bruised, panicked, barely clinging to their summon's basics.
He was tracking kill efficiency timers.
Eidolorn returned to his side, mask unchanging.
Root could feel it now—something beneath the summon's surface. Something measured, like it wasn't just reacting to commands… but learning how to behave like a summon. Like a memory playing pretend.
And behind that mask?
Not hunger.
Not rage.
Just patience.
Waiting for the right level.
Waiting for the veil to crack.
The sixth through tenth shadelings didn't even get close. Eidolorn began to pre-position his shadows. Cloak flares turned into misdirection. Veil pulses baited attacks. Delayed cuts finished what the first gesture didn't.
And when the last creature fell—cleanly bisected by an unseen strike two seconds after Eidolorn had already turned his back—the mission alert chimed.
Mission Complete: Cull the Shadelings
10 Eliminated | 0 Damage Taken | Bonus EXP Achieved
[EXP Awarded: 100]
[Total: 242 / 200]
Level Up: 4 → 5
Eidolorn's Abilities Evolving…
→ Obsidian Veil – Stage 2 Unlocked
→ Wraith Strikes – Damage Increased
Next Unlock at Level 6
Root let the panel fade and looked once more to his summon.
It stood completely still.
But for the first time… he noticed something.
The mask wasn't just covering something.
It was sealed shut.
Like a lock.
Waiting to be broken.