Mors gazed at the panel and read it carefully.
— ◈ —
[ SOUL RECORD ]
Name: Mors
Race: Human
Trait: [ Ambidextrous ] [ Druidic Language ]
[ Aether Core: Stage I ( Awakened ) ]
[ Level: 1 ( 0% ) ]
[ Soul Shards: 0 ]
[ Aspect: Druid ]
[ — Core Stats — ]
[ Strength: 12 ] [ Dexterity: 13 ] [ Constitution: 12 ] [ Intelligence: 14 ] [ Wisdom: 15 ] [ Energy: 14 ]
Attribute Points: 0
Energy Pool: 140 / 140
Power Rating: 160
[ — Aspect Abilities — ]
Ability: [ Primal Codex ]
Skills: — Nil —
[ Heavenly Curse: Constellation of the Black Wild ]
[ Leifs: 0 ]
— ◈ —
'Well… that's a lot to take in,' Mors thought exasperatedly, though his eyes remained fixed on the second last entry.
'The Heavenly Curse…' He focused, and the details expanded before him.
— ◈ —
[ Heavenly Curse: Constellation of the Black Wild ]
[ Description: You are claimed by Endless Evolution. The world will test you without end. Stagnate and you will regress. Fail to adapt and be consumed. When the limit is reached, Evolution will be the end of you. ]
[ Time Limit: 30 years ]
[ Heavenly Boon: Endless Evolution ]
[ Description: You may evolve skills beyond their natural limits and fuse compatible abilities into higher forms. Limits yield only to transformation. ]
— ◈ —
'What the actual fuck? Evolution will be the end of me? Who the hell made this ridiculous curse?' Mors would have cursed out loud if he were alone. He stared at the panel, slack-jawed.
'Is this Endless Evolution a literal concept… or an actual being? And what is this Black Wild supposed to be?' He racked his brain, but nothing like it had ever been mentioned in school.
"Haa… deep breaths… inner peace," he murmured, sitting cross-legged on the courtyard.
The others were already making their way along the path toward the Forsaken Hall to register.
After several minutes of mentally debating every life decision he'd ever made, Mors admitted defeat: he had no clue what this curse truly was.
'Let's just leave it there… thirty years is a long time. I'll figure out a remedy eventually,' he thought pragmatically.
Every Heavenly Curse had a time limit of 30 years, Earthly Curses lasted 60 years, and Mortal ones 90 years. Once a curse erupted, its victim either died outright or was transformed into a mindless abomination.
It sounded long, but that was only if their lifespan stayed the same as back on Earth.
Here, as someone advanced their Aether Core, their lifespan extended. And humans weren't the only cursed beings in the First Ring.
From what he knew, Earthlings were the newest batch. Earlier cursed planets each had their own continents in the First Ring, and every species faced its own struggles.
Mors reread the entries carefully.
He had expected the curse to unsettle him, but the boon… it stunned him even more
'Evolve and fuse skills beyond their natural limits? Isn't that basically a cheat code?'
A slow grin tugged at his lips despite himself.
There was no denying it.
The boon was absurdly powerful.
Unlike Aspect Abilities, which were only gained after advancing one's Aether Core to the next Stage, this was something entirely separate.
Every Druid shared the same initial Aspect ability.
— ◈ —
[ First Ability: Primal Codex ]
Tier: 1
[ Description: Manifest a personal codex containing skills of Shared and Cursed origin. ]
Effects:
◆ Select two skills up to Common Rank from the codex.
Chosen: 0 / 2
— ◈ —
Mors recalled what he had studied about the Druid Aspect back on Earth.
The [ Primal Codex ] was divided into two origins.
The Shared Origin contained ten Common-rank skills that every Druid could access. The Cursed Origin, however, held skills unique to one's curse.
Since his was a Heavenly Curse, its pool contained skills that belonged to him alone.
At Level 1, he could choose only two skills from the combined pools, and even those would begin at the lowest rank: Common.
Skill ranks followed a strict hierarchy:
Common → Uncommon → Rare → Epic → Legendary → Ancient → Mythic → ?!
Each Skill rank could be raised up to ten levels before reaching its natural limit.
Under normal circumstances, that limit was absolute.
But his Heavenly Boon was not normal.
If a skill reached Level 10 and still had untapped potential, he could evolve it to the next rank or fuse it with a compatible skill to create something entirely stronger.
♢ ♢ ♢ ♢
Mors snapped out of his daydream, slapping both cheeks to push thoughts of his curse and boon aside.
He jerked his head up — and almost collided eyes-first with the girl beside him.
She was staring at him intently, like she could devour him whole.
"Holy fuck!" Mors leapt upright, his heart skipping a beat.
The girl blinked and snapped out of her stare. Hesitantly, she stammered, "Wh-what?"
"You… why were you staring at me like that?" Mors asked, studying the black-haired girl more closely.
Her expression shifted as she realized her mistake. "A-ah… I'm sorry. I was looking at my status panel."
She stood and bowed apologetically.
"Hm… it's alright," Mors said, waving her off. He sank back down a short distance away, leaning against a tree.
The girl continued bowing, again and again, as if she had committed some grave offense.
'Looks like a Japanese girl?' he thought. The only reason he could understand her was because she was speaking in Luminari.
Luminari was the common tongue across Hexgyre, and nowadays on Earth, it was taught in schools alongside native languages.
Mors shook his head and summoned his status panel once more. He decided to start cataloging everything from the beginning.
Name, Race, Core, and Level were self-explanatory, so his attention drifted to the Aspect.
— ◈ —
[ Aspect: Druid ]
[ Description: Wisdom-based spellcasters and guardians of nature, wielding primal magic to control elements, heal, and shapeshift. Each Druid's cursed origin grants unique power. ]
Passive Features:
◆ Gain the Trait [ Druidic Language ]
— ◈ —
Wizards gained power through study, Sorcerers drew from innate magic, and Warlocks formed pacts with patrons to gain strength. Druids, on the other hand, relied on Wisdom to guide their will and Aether to shape their skills.
Mors didn't plan to use [ Primal Codex ] to select his Skills just yet. First, he needed to register and explore the Grand Library within the Sanctuary to learn more about his Aspect.
His eyes soon settled on Soul Shards, which he considered the most important thing for himself.
Soul Shards, or SS for short, were the universal currency of progression in the Expanse.
Whenever he or the other Forsaken defeated monsters or other beings, they absorbed a portion of their essence. The system called this Soul Shards, which could be used to level up Skills. With his Heavenly Boon, he would need to go on a killing spree to amass a massive stockpile.
If SS represented progression, then Leifs served as the universal currency of the Expanse's economy.
In RPG terms, Soul Shards = Skill points, and Leifs = Money. He had a big 0 in both, which was hardly encouraging.
Mors sighed and moved on to the Core Stats section.
They were simple enough:
Strength → Physical power, melee damage, carrying capacity, endurance.
Dexterity → Agility, reflexes, speed, accuracy for ranged or martial combat.
Constitution → Health, stamina, resistance, survivability.
Intelligence → Magical knowledge, learning, problem-solving, spell potency (for Wizards).
Wisdom → Willpower, mental resistance, perception, instinct, and awareness.
Energy → Aether capacity, purity, flow, and amplification of magical or supernatural power.
A 10 in every stat represents an average, healthy human. Each level granted 2 Attribute Points that could be distributed as desired.
Since Mors was a Druid, he planned to focus primarily on Wisdom and Energy.
Stats weren't perfectly linear, and he would need to study them further to understand their full potential.
The Energy Pool was calculated as 10 × Energy, and Power Rating as the sum of all stats × 2.
With 80 total stat points, Mors was already above average, his Wisdom standing out the most.
'What can I say… I'm just that good,' he thought, a small grin tugging at his lips. After all, he'd been training and preparing solely for the First Ring. If he hadn't been Marked, he might've even cried.
As Mors lingered in one of his mood swings, the girl from earlier appeared before him.
"E–excuse me."