I nodded once—decisive, controlled.
"We leave the dungeon. Then you train me."
Seraphina's lips curved almost imperceptibly. It wasn't quite a smile, but it was the first sign of approval she had shown beyond obedience.
"A wise sequence."
She moved first. She didn't just walk; she flowed; her presence abruptly throttled down until she felt like nothing more than a breeze in the corridor. As we ascended, the oppressive, heavy air of the deep dungeon began to thin. The blue runes that had lined the walls below faded behind us like dying stars, swallowed by the darkness we were leaving behind.
The climb was long, a physical reminder of how deep I had been summoned. Finally, the damp stone gave way to dirt, and the gloom surrendered to blinding white.
I stepped out of the fissure and raised a hand to shield my eyes.
Warm sunlight hit my face—a stark, jarring contrast to the cold void of the dungeon. We emerged onto a rocky hillside, wind whipping through the high grass. Below us lay a vast land of rolling plains, dense patches of forest, and in the distance, the grey stone walls of a city.
[Location Discovered: Borderlands of The Trade Union of Aurelia]
Smoke rose from chimneys miles away. Tiny specks—carts, perhaps—snaked along dirt roads toward the trade city. Life was going on down there, completely unaware that an impossibility had just walked out of a scar in the earth.
I looked at Seraphina. The shining armor and ethereal glow were gone. In the blink of an eye, she was cloaked in simple, worn traveler's attire. Her divine aura was tightly coiled, invisible to the naked eye.
"From this moment," she said, her voice low, "I am your knight, not your banner."
We made camp at dusk, finding a hollow far from the main road, hidden by a copse of trees.
The fire crackled, casting long, dancing shadows against the tree line. The sound of crickets filled the silence, peaceful and deceptive.
Seraphina did not sit. She planted her sword upright in the soft earth. The metal gleamed in the firelight.
"Training begins now."
She didn't hand me a weapon immediately. She pointed to my chest, then my head.
"Mind before body," she instructed. "You must control your intent. In this world, intent signals power. If you leak your intent, you attract predators. If you suppress it, you survive."
"And combat?"
"Perfect basics," she said cold. "No wasted movement. Lethal efficiency. One strike, one end."
She didn't hold back. For hours, under the pale light of the moons, she drove me into the dirt. She didn't harm me—her strikes stopped millimeters from my skin—but the pressure she exerted was suffocating. She forced me to dodge before she moved, to strike where she wasn't.
Sweat soaked my clothes. My muscles screamed. But slowly, the panic of the summoning faded, replaced by a cold, rhythmic focus.
Then, it clicked. A surge of heat rushed through my veins, not from exertion, but from expansion.
[📈 TRAINING RESULTS (Day 1)][Level: 3 → 6][Attributes Increased]
Strength +2 Agility +3 Intelligence +1
[New Skills Learned]
Basic Sword Mastery (Lv.1)
Combat Awareness (Passive Lv.1) — Ability to sense hostile intent.
I stood up, breathing hard, but my fatigue washed away instantly as the system integrated the changes. The sword in my hand felt lighter. The rustling of the leaves sounded distinct, separate from the wind.
"You learn faster than any mortal I have trained," Seraphina said, watching me wipe sweat from my brow. "The system favors you."
"Is that a good thing?"
She didn't answer.
As the fire died down to embers, Seraphina's head snapped toward the distant city. Her body went rigid.
"Someone powerful just looked toward the dungeon."
I froze. "At us?"
"No," she whispered. "Not at us. But close. It was a scout-level awareness. Likely a Church Observer or a Hero Agent."
She turned to me, the firelight catching the grim set of her jaw. "They sensed the fluctuation from the dungeon exit. We have time—but not infinite."
I pulled my cloak tighter around my shoulders. The peaceful landscape suddenly felt like a trap waiting to spring. Staying in the wild made us targets; we were too exposed.
I made my decision.
"We enter the city," I said, my voice steady. "Quietly. And on the way—tell me everything about the Church and the Heroes."
Seraphina inclined her head, her hand resting on the pommel of her sword.
"As you command."