"Fortunately, this Quest doesn't have a time limit," River muttered, his gaze sweeping across the greyish world.
The three colossal tomes loomed silently, their alien symbols pulsing with intermittent white light. In the center of each monument, an unblinking eye followed River's every move with eerie intensity—locked on him, as if transfixed by the lone human before them.
River met their gaze but felt no malice emanating from those dark, fathomless pupils. Though he stood within the Quest, it hadn't truly begun; the tomes had yet to be activated, and he knew he needed to take that step himself.
But first—before everything else—he needed to see his Bubbles. He had longed for them since the moment he'd awakened in the past, yearning to reclaim the power that once made him feared and respected.
Taking a slow, steadying breath, he raised his right hand before him.
Yet before using his Bubblecrafter Skill, River called up his Skill Tree. Another translucent screen appeared in the air, shimmering faintly with an intricate symbol at its center.
A simple hexagon framed a small bubble icon—unassuming, almost childlike. Faint branches spread from the hexagon's top, reaching for other hexagonal icons grayed out as if life had been drained from them.
River focused on the central bubble, and a small window materialized beside it with a brief description:
Bubble Creation:Creates a floating, hollow bubble using mana. It pops on impact. That's it.
[System Note: Has no offensive power. Deemed useless.]
"You know it's not useless," River said quietly, as if addressing the System itself. It offered no reply, only silence.
He shook his head, a small smile playing at his lips despite the note's dismissal. He knew better than anyone what his Bubbles could become.
A Hunter instinctively understood their Skill after the Awakening Ceremony, making their first use almost second nature. River, of course, was already intimately familiar with his ability. Still, he wanted to savor this moment—his first bubble in this new timeline.
He willed mana forth, feeling it gather from the core of his being and surge through his veins. Motes of light appeared before his palm, coalescing with a shimmer of delicate energy. He watched, breath caught in quiet anticipation, as the lights merged.
Then, with a final, subtle flash, a single bubble materialized.
Perfectly spherical, translucent, floating gracefully.
River could have formed it in a fraction of a second—he could even do it in the blink of an eye if he wished. But he let the process unfold slowly, cherishing each heartbeat, each spark of mana.
As he lowered his right hand, the fist-sized bubble drifted upward. Weightless and fragile, it caught the faint light of the grey world, refracting it into ghostly rainbows before floating off—seemingly guided by a will of its own.
There was no wind, yet the bubble moved with quiet purpose, gliding through the air until it popped softly, vanishing as if it had never existed.
River let out a long sigh, a mix of relief and melancholy in his breath. The sight of that lone bubble—a symbol of both his weakness and his potential—stirred old memories. He kept his eyes fixed on the empty space where it had burst, lingering in silence.
Bubble Creation. His first Ability. Just as the System Note said, it was practically worthless at face value. Any child with soap and water could replicate what he had just done—without mana, without hardship, without scorn.
That was the bitter truth of his Skill, it made him the butt of countless jokes, the target of ridicule from other Hunters. His early days had been a hell of humiliation and powerlessness.
But that same pain had forged his resolve. It was his hatred of weakness—and his obsession with mastery—that drove him to hone his Mana Control beyond what anyone thought possible. His Bubbles, once a symbol of mockery, had become something else entirely.
Something lethal.
Something legendary.
River's smile widened as he raised his hand once more. This time, he decided to do something a little more… exciting—something more dangerous than simply creating a single bubble.
Mana surged from deep within him, coursing through his veins until it reached his arm and pooled in his outstretched palm. A bubble formed instantly, delicate and translucent. But River wasn't finished.
With barely a heartbeat between, he created another bubble, this one wrapping perfectly around the first. He continued, layering bubble upon bubble—each new sphere encasing the last with flawless precision. The bubbles stacked rapidly, their size swelling larger and larger until they reached the girth of a basketball.
Hundreds? Thousands? River lost count as he poured his Mana Control into the growing construct. The entire process took only a few milliseconds—near-instantaneous for him—but he deliberately slowed it just enough to savor the sight.
Floating weightlessly before him, the basketball-sized mass of interlocking bubbles glided forward, guided by the gentle threads of his mana. A smirk played across River's lips as anticipation thrummed through his veins. He let the sphere drift several meters ahead before his eyes hardened.
He clenched his fist.
Mana surged chaotically into the core of the bubble, like a miniature sun flaring to life.
Then—
Bang!
The basketball-sized bubble burst in a thunderous explosion of compressed air and raw mana. The detonation echoed across the grey dimension, rattling the obsidian landscape and sending shockwaves rippling through the shallow waters, which recoiled violently away from the impact.
Though the sky was empty of clouds, rain began to fall—condensed mist from the upheaval above. River lowered his gaze to the obsidian floor, now glistening with droplets. Around thirty meters of the shallow water had been blasted aside and hurled skyward, droplets cascading back down in shimmering arcs.
He glanced ahead at the aftermath: chaotic air currents whipped wildly around the blast zone, mingling with swirling motes of mana that shimmered like fragments of broken starlight. River knew that stepping into that maelstrom now would mean subjecting himself to the raw, uncontrolled force of his own power.
"Hmm. Just as I thought… my Skill's strength scales perfectly with my Mana Control," River murmured, satisfaction lighting his eyes.
Unlike most Hunters' Skills, his Bubblecrafter relied almost entirely on the finesse of Mana Control. The better his control, the deadlier his bubbles—but mastering such precision was anything but simple. What he'd just done was a feat beyond most Hunters' comprehension.
Stacking bubbles—layer upon delicate layer—was a paradox of impossible precision. Each bubble needed to perfectly enclose the last without rupturing or merging, any flaw would cause the entire structure to collapse prematurely. River had to simultaneously compress the air inside and infuse it with raw mana from the surroundings, building a volatile pressure vessel.
Two bubbles wouldn't do much. But thousands? Stacked in milliseconds? That turned his creation into a bomb of breathtaking potency. And this was far from the pinnacle of his abilities, it was merely a taste of what he could do.
River cast a final, satisfied glance at his Skill Tree. Right now, only Bubble Creation was unlocked—mocked by the System as "useless." But with imagination and peerless Mana Control, he could twist even this humble Ability into something extraordinary.
"Alright," he said with a determined breath, eyes flicking toward the silent, towering tomes. "Time to start the Quest."
He chose the nearest monument, striding purposefully toward it as the unblinking eye tracked his every step.
Behind him, the displaced water fell back into place with a gentle roar, rippling outward until the shallow lake stilled once more across the obsidian floor.