Chapter12

His heart was pounding so hard he thought it would burst, then his pulse suddenly dropped, making his vision darken at the edges.

A second later it came roaring back while both his arms convulsed and he felt a ring of pressure clamp around each of them deep inside the muscle, not on the skin but somewhere worse.

[ Ring channels formed ]

[ Core route revised ]

[ Authority pathway opened ]

He didn't know what any of that meant, and right now he hated the system enough not to care. Sweat soaked through the last dry parts of his clothes while tears forced themselves from his eyes without permission, and all he could do was drag in shallow breaths between sounds he was too far gone to hide.

Then the pain climbed one last time.

It hit so hard that his whole body jerked, causing his head to crack against the ground, and for one terrible second he felt everything in him pull inward toward his chest before rushing back out through his limbs.

The pressure around his arms tightened again and he screamed until there was no air left.

Then finally, after all that pain, it stopped.

He lay there shaking on the dirt beside the fire, his chest hitching, his hands too weak to close properly and every part of him feeling wrong in a new way. The pain was gone, but it had left an afterimage behind, something deep in his nerves that made even breathing feel dangerous.

The panel flickered once and a new line appeared in front of his blurred vision.

[ Destined path correction complete ]

[ Current Rank: 1 Ring ]

[ EXP: 1,500 / 500,000 ]

He laughed by accident, 'I almost fucking died.'

Another line appeared under it.