The wind blew from the north. It carried the smell of wet dirt and rotting wood. Lin Chen walked past a row of broken obelisks. His boots sank into the mud. The oil lantern in his left hand creaked. The metal handle was freezing against his palm. He kept his right hand near his boot. The iron dagger rested there.
He stepped over a collapsed stone pillar. The ground here was uneven. Craters from ancient magic bombardments scarred the earth. Rainwater filled the shallow pits, reflecting the gray night sky.
He needed more fragments. The mutated Ghostfire Gaze proved the system's worth. He could survive here. He could grow strong here. But he needed raw materials.
He stopped at a wide trench. Blackened bones filled the bottom. Rusted armor plates lay scattered among the skulls. This was an infantry grave. Low-level foot soldiers from the magic war five centuries ago.
Lin Chen slid down the muddy slope. His boots hit the bottom with a wet thud. He set the lantern on a flat rock. He knelt in the dirt.
He used his bare hands. He dug through the wet soil and brittle bones. The cold mud packed under his fingernails. He tossed aside a cracked ribcage. He moved a rusted breastplate. The metal scraped against stone.
Underneath the armor lay a skeletal hand. The bone was gray and porous. A tarnished bronze ring sat on the index finger. A tiny, cracked red gemstone was set in the metal.
Lin Chen reached out. He touched the ring.
[Host contact with ancient magic fragment detected.]
[Scanning item...]
[Skill Fragment identified: 'Minor Haste' (Tier 0 - Fragmented).]
The mechanical voice echoed in his skull. The blue screen flickered into existence in the damp air.
He needed a second piece. He couldn't fuse a fragment with nothing. His previous primary skill, 'Spark', was gone. The system consumed it to create the Ghostfire Gaze.
He kept digging. He moved down the trench. He turned over skulls. He checked empty scabbards. Ten minutes passed. The cold seeped through his thin gray cloak. He shivered. He clenched his jaw and kept his hands moving.
His fingers brushed against a piece of wood. It felt hard, unlike the rotting debris around it. He pulled it from the mud. A broken wand. Only the bottom half remained. The wood was dark, etched with faint silver lines.
He wrapped his fingers around the handle.
[Host contact with ancient magic fragment detected.]
[Skill Fragment identified: 'Stone Skin' (Tier 0 - Fragmented).]
He wiped his muddy hands on his pants. He focused on the blue screen.
[Fusion Slots Available: 1]
He mentally selected the options.
[Select primary skill.]
He chose 'Minor Haste'.
[Select secondary material.]
He chose 'Stone Skin'.
[Do you want to fuse 'Minor Haste' and 'Stone Skin'? Warning: Conflicting elemental properties (Wind/Earth). High risk of violent mutation.]
Lin Chen stared at the text. Wind and Earth. Speed and weight. Complete opposites. The risk was severe. But in the Black Wastes, weakness was a guaranteed death sentence.
"Yes."
The bronze ring and the broken wand crumbled. They turned to gray dust and slipped through his fingers, mixing with the mud below.
The blue screen scrambled. The loading bar appeared.
[Fusing...]
[Elemental conflict detected. Forcing integration.]
[Bypassing shattered mana core. Binding new spell to the host's muscular and nervous systems.]
[Fusion successful.]
[Mutation triggered.]
Pain exploded in his legs.
Lin Chen dropped to his knees. He bit his lower lip hard enough to draw blood. His calf muscles cramped violently. It felt like steel wires were wrapping around his tendons, pulling them tight enough to snap. He gripped his thighs with both hands. His knuckles turned white.
He breathed in short, sharp gasps. He didn't make a sound.
The agony lasted for thirty seconds. Then, it receded, leaving a strange, vibrating warmth in his leg muscles. The cold mud beneath his knees no longer bothered him.
He stood up slowly. His legs felt incredibly light.
He checked the screen.
[New Skill Acquired: Phantom Shift (Tier 1 - Mutated)]
[Description: Consumes ambient kinetic energy and minor physical stamina to instantly reposition the host's body within a fifteen-yard radius. Bypasses mana core. Cooldown: 10 seconds. Warning: Consecutive use without cooldown will cause severe muscle tearing.]
A movement skill. Perfect. He had an instant-kill attack and a repositioning tool. He was no longer just a target in the dark.
He picked up his lantern. He climbed out of the trench.
A low hum vibrated through the air.
Lin Chen stopped. He listened. The sound was faint, masked by the wind. It sounded like metal scraping against stone, followed by a rhythmic chanting.
Humans.
No one from the Magic Association came out this far at night. The supply caravan only visited the outer perimeter during the day.
He reached up and turned the small dial on his lantern. The yellow flame shrank and died. The darkness swallowed him.
He let his eyes adjust. The gray clouds above thinned just enough to let a pale moonlight filter through. He moved toward the sound.
His footsteps were completely silent. The passive effect of the Phantom Shift altered his center of gravity, making his movements unnaturally light. He stepped over dry twigs without snapping them.
He walked for ten minutes. He crossed the boundary line into Sector 3. The graves here were older, massive stone mausoleums half-buried in the earth.
He crouched behind a collapsed gargoyle statue. He looked down into a wide, shallow basin.
Red light pulsed in the basin.
Thick, glowing lines of red liquid formed a massive circular rune on the ground. The lines moved. They crawled across the dirt like living veins, connecting geometric patterns that hurt the eyes to look at.
A woman stood in the center of the circle.
She wore a black velvet cloak. The hood rested on her shoulders. Long silver hair cascaded down her back, catching the red light. Her silhouette was slender, her posture perfectly rigid.
She held a curved silver blade in her right hand. She pressed the edge against her left palm. She pulled. Dark blood dripped from her hand, hitting the center of the rune circle.
The chanting came from her. The words were guttural, sharp. They didn't belong to the current Magic Empire's lexicon.
Lin Chen watched her hands. He scanned the perimeter.
A stone altar sat ten yards behind the woman. A fist-sized black crystal rested on top of it. The crystal absorbed the ambient red light, pulsing with a heavy, suffocating energy. The air around the altar visibly distorted.
[High-density magic anomaly detected.]
[Target: Ancient Ritual Core.]
[Recommendation: Absorb for system upgrade and expansion of fusion slots.]
Lin Chen narrowed his eyes. Expand fusion slots. That meant he could hold more skills or fuse three items at once. He needed that crystal.
But the woman was dangerous. Her mana pressure radiated outward, pushing the mist away from the basin. She was at least a High Mage. Maybe a hidden witch.
He couldn't fight her. He had to wait.
The ground inside the basin trembled.
The red runes flashed violently. The dirt outside the circle bulged upward.
Something massive dug its way to the surface. A skeletal arm the size of a tree trunk burst from the ground. Mud and rocks flew into the air. A skull followed. It was human in shape, but three times larger. A Giant Wight. A Guardian of Sector 3.
Thick gray roots wrapped around its ribcage. Pieces of rusted iron armor fused directly to its bones.
The Wight dragged its torso out of the earth. It roared. The sound was a blast of compressed dead air that smelled of ancient sulfur.
The woman didn't stop chanting. She didn't look at the monster. She simply raised her bleeding left hand toward the altar, accelerating her blood flow.
Lin Chen shifted his weight. He prepared to move. The Wight would distract her. That was his window.
Then, he heard a wet snapping sound right behind him.
He turned his head.
Ten yards away, three Ghoul Hounds crept through the ruins. They weren't looking at him. They stared down at the basin, drawn by the intense scent of the witch's fresh blood. Saliva dripped from their exposed jaws, hitting the stone with soft hisses.
They blocked his only exit path.
Lin Chen slowly pulled his iron dagger from his boot. He focused his mind on his leg muscles, feeling the warm vibration of the Phantom Shift ready to trigger. He looked at the black crystal on the altar.
He flipped the dagger into a reverse grip. He locked his vision on the lead Hound.