The morning light filtering through Caldris was soft but unrelenting. Ethan squinted as he stepped out of the inn, muscles stiff and bruised from the Ravager encounter. Despite the exhaustion clinging to him, the city buzzed with a rhythm he was slowly beginning to understand—a place where danger was expected, opportunity lingered in every alley, and power quietly shifted beneath polite smiles.
But even as the guild registered his rising reputation, even as his name began to circle among mid-tier adventurers, Ethan knew something was changing. Not just around him. Inside him.
The Arkanom was waking up.
By midday, he returned to the adventurer's guild, not for a quest, but information. He navigated toward the library annex—a quieter, dimly lit chamber beneath the guildhall where researchers and mages sometimes gathered. The room smelled of ink and dust, a world away from the rowdy main floor.
He sat at an empty table, retrieved the battered Arkanom notebook from his bag, and set his phone flat against the worn leather cover.
A soft hum. Then:
[Sync Initiated.]
[Data Fragment Detected. Beginning Transfer.]
[System Expansion: Linguistics - Complete]
[Notebook Data: 1/20 Acquired]
A faint ripple passed through Ethan's thoughts. He blinked. The symbols on the notebook's first page—once indecipherable glyphs—now made sense. An ancient dialect? No, something older. A fusion of languages. He began to read.
"The Arkanom is not a tool. It is a trial. The bearer must awaken themselves, or be consumed by it."
A chill ran through him.
He checked the system again.
[Ethan Cross
Adventurer Rank: E+
Swordsmanship Lv. 2
Reflex Boost (Passive - Minor)
Adaptive Focus Protocol (Cooldown: 3 Days)
Sync Rate: 44%
Energy Core: Dormant
Notebook Data: 1/20
The notebook entry flickered with a new header:
[Blueprint - Energy Core Activation Conditions: Unknown]
Still locked. But progress was undeniable.
He tucked the notebook away just as footsteps echoed down the stairwell.
Kael appeared, leaning against a nearby shelf. "Didn't peg you for the bookish type."
Ethan gave a half-smile. "Trying to make sense of a few things."
Kael nodded slowly. "Word's already moving. That Ravager… Elira says the guild might reclassify the entire eastern sector. You stirred things up."
Ethan shrugged. "Didn't have much of a choice."
"That's how it starts," Kael said, tone darkening slightly. "You react. You survive. Then one day you realize you're not reacting anymore. You're playing the game."
He left without another word.
That evening, Ethan sat atop the roof of his inn, overlooking the sprawl of Caldris as twilight painted the city in silver and blue. In the distance, he could see flickers of lanterns lining the main avenues. Soldiers patrolled the city walls. Merchants shouted about late-night deals in the squares below.
He opened the notebook again, flipping to the next section. A passage caught his eye:
"Only the Sovereigns may see the full light of the Arkanom. To all others, it remains veiled."
That line stayed with him.
The system was hiding itself. Not just out of protection. Out of design. Ordinary people couldn't see it. Even when it activated, even when he gained skills or heard the system's voice—no one reacted. It wasn't ignorance. It was deliberate obfuscation.
He wasn't just different.
He was marked.
Later that night, a low knock on his door roused him from the quiet scribbling in his notebook.
It was Elira.
Her cloak was pulled tight, and her expression serious. "Sorry for the late visit. Thought you should know—a caravan is preparing to depart east in three days. Guild wants someone with recent field knowledge of the trail. You've been requested."
Ethan frowned. "By who?"
She hesitated. "A noble. Didn't give a name. Only a seal."
She handed him a folded parchment. The wax seal was deep red, embossed with the silhouette of a phoenix.
Ethan's fingers tightened slightly.
Seraphina.
"I'll be there," he said.
Elira nodded and turned to leave.
As the door closed, Ethan looked back toward his table, the notebook glowing faintly beside his phone.
The Arkanom stirred again.
[New Alert: System Milestone Approaching]
[Next Threshold - 50% Sync Rate]
[Unlock: Core Access Protocols]
Ethan placed a hand over the notebook, then over his chest.
Fire. Secrets. Power.
He had no idea how far this would go.
But the echoes were growing louder.
And soon, they would burn.