David S.R

Chapter 33

The temperature in the room dropped instantly.

Elaine’s chair creaked as she leaned forward, her green eyes narrowing into slits sharper than any blade. A shadowy presence seemed to bloom behind her, dark and suffocating, filling every corner of the room. Even though she wasn’t a fighter, and she had never cast a single spell in her life, the sheer weight of her fury pressed on everyone like an invisible storm.

The phantom shape of a towering, spider-limbed figure loomed behin...

Chapter 32

After a month, Ludger’s plan was in full swing. Every morning and afternoon, he sat at the tavern or outside his home, his hands glowing with green light as adventurers lined up to be healed. Twisted ankles, cuts from blades, bruises from botched training—he fixed them all, one cast at a time. His mana pool emptied faster than ever before, but the coins poured in just as quickly.

Silver clinked into the box Elaine kept for him, and soon, even a few gold coins joined the pile. Word h...

Chapter 31

Selene exhaled slowly, her sharp eyes narrowing as she rolled her shoulders. For the first time in all their sessions, she wasn’t entirely composed. A sheen of sweat ran down her forehead, and there was a faint twitch of discomfort in her jaw from blocking too many of Ludger’s direct strikes. Even with her guards, his relentless assault was leaving its mark.

“Persistent brat,” she muttered under her breath, planting her feet. “Fine. You’ve earned this much.”

Her aura...

Chapter 30

The duel had ended, but Viola’s pride had not.

She sat on the edge of the courtyard, arms crossed tightly, her broken sword tossed aside like trash. Her lips were pressed into a scowl so deep it looked carved into her face, and every time Ludger so much as glanced her way, she turned her head with a sharp huff.

The rest of the day went by much the same. At lunch, she pushed her food around her plate instead of eating. During the afternoon, she refused to return to the carriage, ...

Chapter 29

The next morning, the courtyard was alive with noise again. Harold leaned against his axe, Aleia sat on the fence twirling an arrow, and Selene stretched her arms after another round of drills. Cor stood apart, as usual, his staff balanced across his shoulders.

Arslan, however, couldn’t stop grinning.

“I wish more people could have seen it!” he said, his voice booming with pride. “My boy here—Ludger—went and unlocked Overdrive all on his own. No guidance, no t...

Chapter 28

Over the next few days, Ludger paid close attention to the pulse of his new [Spiritual Core]. It didn’t behave like other skills. Unlike [Mana Bolt] or [Mana Wall], it didn’t require focus or activation. As long as his mana wasn’t full, the core quietly worked in the background, drawing energy back into him.

But he quickly noticed something else.

Whenever he sat down and focused—really focused—on the rhythm of his core, the regeneration sharpened. Stronger, quicker, stea...

Chapter 27

Lord Torvares’s gaze lingered on Viola for a heartbeat longer, then shifted to the rest of the group. His expression didn’t soften, but the faintest tension left his shoulders.

“You’ve returned without injury. That much is acceptable,” he said, his gravelly voice carrying the weight of final judgment. His eyes slid back to Arslan, narrowing. “But do not mistake this for forgiveness. You were entrusted with my granddaughter’s safety, not with her leisure. Next time you test...

Chapter 26

After the brute collapsed in a pool of its own blood, the party didn’t linger. They collected a few more scraps from the goblin corpses—rings, bone trinkets, a handful of copper coins—before retracing their steps. The air seemed lighter the closer they came to the entrance, as though the labyrinth itself were exhaling them back into the world.

When the stone arch finally appeared again, the faint daylight bleeding through its mist, Arslan turned to face the group. His grin had ret...

Chapter 25

Once the last echo of combat faded, the group didn’t linger long on the corpses. Harold crouched down, rolling one of the goblins over with the flat of his axe. “Ugly little things,” he muttered, rifling through its filthy rags. He came away with a bent copper ring, tossing it into a pouch with a grunt.

Aleia was more meticulous, crouching beside another goblin. “Sometimes they hoard scraps they steal—trinkets, cheap amulets, coins. Not worth much individually, but pile enough...

Chapter 24

Arslan gave the yawning stone arch a long look, then swung his leg off his horse with the ease of someone who had done this a thousand times before. He dusted off his hands and grinned at the others.

“We’ll camp here,” he announced. “Better to enter fresh in the morning than stumble around inside half-asleep. First labyrinths are meant to be remembered, not rushed.”

His companions nodded without hesitation, moving as if they’d already known what he would say. Harold se...

Chapter 23

The morning sun was still low when they set out, horses snorting clouds of steam in the cool air. Ludger shifted in the saddle, adjusting the weight of the oversized pack Elaine had insisted he bring. It dug into his shoulders, but he said nothing. Complaining would only have earned him another round of scolding.

They rode in a loose line, the clop of hooves filling the silence of the road. For Ludger, it was the first time he had gone this far from home. The land stretched wide and fla...

Chapter 21

The next day, Ludger found himself in the yard again, a wooden sword in hand. His swings cut clean arcs through the air as Arslan barked corrections from the sidelines. When the drill ended and the others drifted off, Ludger rested the blade on his shoulder and glanced at Arslan, who was leaning lazily against the fence.

“Father,” Ludger said, tone deceptively casual. “That technique Viola used yesterday—what was it?”

Arslan straightened a little, stroking his chin as th...

Chapter 22

The weeks slipped into a new routine—Cor sharpening Ludger’s mana control, Elaine watching every move with hawk-like eyes, and Arslan vanishing now and then to train Viola. But one evening, something shifted.

Arslan sat at the edge of the courtyard, sharpening his sword in silence. The usual grin was absent, replaced by a furrowed brow and a faraway look. He barely reacted when Harold cracked a joke about Selene’s cooking, or when Aleia whistled an off-key tune.

It was stran...

Chapter 20

Several weeks slipped by, but the argument never found a proper resolution. Elaine’s word was law within her home, and she had made it clear—Ludger would not be dragged into the Torvares family’s games. Yet Arslan still made the trip to teach Viola swordsmanship.

Every few days, he would vanish at dawn and return two nights later, often humming a tune or whistling as he unsaddled his horse. His good mood never lasted long; the moment Elaine’s glare landed on him, the grin would ...

Chapter 19

At dawn the following day, Arslan left. He saddled his horse in silence, gave no excuses, and rode off toward the Torvares estate with the red mark still faintly visible on his cheek.

The rest of his party remained behind. The courtyard once again filled with the rhythm of Ludger’s training—his small frame weaving between Selene’s strikes, dodging Harold’s heavy swings, listening to Cor’s sharp corrections.

But the training was lighter than usual. The companions’ focus...

Chapter 18

One afternoon, the courtyard rang with the thud of small feet striking packed earth. Ludger twisted and rolled through the air, his movements sharper and more fluid than any five-year-old had the right to manage. To the untrained eye it looked like play—careless somersaults and leaps—but Selene, Cor, and the others recognized the precision hidden in each evasive step.

Harold chuckled, folding his arms across his chest. “Kid’s gonna make half our fighters look bad in a few years....