Alex frowned as he stared at the system prompt, trying to make sense of it.
That had never happened before.
The Pendragon system didn't make mistakes. Ever. Since the day he received it, every skill had worked exactly as intended. The Inspection Skill, especially, had been reliable. One glance, one activation, and it would always return basic information.
Name.
Stage.
Sometimes affiliation.
Simple. Clean.
But the moment he focused on the Synapse Circle, the system broke character.
Nothing showed up.
No name.
No level.
Just an error.
That alone was bad enough.
Then the warning appeared.
A sharp, cold message telling him to stay away from the Synapse Circle.
Alex didn't argue with the system. He'd learned that lesson early. When the system warned you, it wasn't being dramatic. It was stating a fact.
So he listened.
His first move was caution.
Alex stepped back, slowly at first, then let himself drift with the movement of the crowd. Bodies pressed in from all sides as people pushed forward, eager to get a closer look at the Synapse Circle. He let them swallow him up, using the chaos as cover.
'Here I was hoping I wouldn't run into people as abnormal as the Pendragon triplets,' he thought.
'Looks like I aimed too low. These ones might be worse.'
The feeling in his chest didn't ease as he moved away. If anything, it tightened.
As he shifted through the crowd, his back suddenly hit something solid.
Not a wall.
A person.
Alex turned instinctively.
Lucius stood there, tall and calm, looking down at him as if he had been expecting this exact moment.
"You shouldn't stay away from the others," Lucius said casually as he walked past Alex, not even slowing his steps.
The words weren't a suggestion. They were an order.
Alex didn't need a second warning.
He turned and followed.
Eventually, the two of them reached the spot where the rest of the Wyndhams were gathered. The group was easy to spot once you knew where to look, but Lucius noticed something immediately.
Two people were missing.
"How did it go?" John asked as he stepped forward to meet Lucius.
At the same time, Alex shifted slightly to the side, putting a bit of space between himself and the others. His movement was subtle, but his body reacted before his mind caught up.
He felt it again.
A gaze.
It wasn't coming from any of the Wyndhams. The pressure was light but focused, coming from another direction entirely.
'Did I do something to catch her attention?' Alex thought.
His brows pulled together.
'Heck… maybe staring at a girl for that long wasn't the smartest move.'
Lucius didn't answer John right away.
"There's a situation," he said instead.
John's expression sharpened.
"I managed to secure us an entrance," Lucius continued, his tone steady, "but not everyone."
He didn't explain further. Instead, his eyes swept across the area, cutting through the crowd as if he were counting heads.
"However," he added, "there is a way to get everyone in. For that, I need everyone present."
As he scanned the crowd again, Lucius suddenly stopped.
He spotted the two missing figures pushing through the mass of people.
His eyes widened slightly.
'What are they doing?' Lucius thought.
John followed his gaze and sighed.
"Trust me," John said quietly. "I was surprised he even spoke with them."
Lucius' eyes dimmed a little as understanding settled in. His jaw tightened, just enough to show his displeasure.
Without another word, he turned and walked away, already moving toward them.
---
Moments earlier, John had sent Jim and Jake to approach Draven.
Both of them were nervous. That much was obvious. They were about to meet someone who stood several levels above them, both in status and influence.
Usually, they were on the other side of this kind of situation.
Back in the human world, the Wyndhams were a powerful and wealthy family. Massive corporations. Deep connections. When normal people wanted to do business with them, they felt exactly the way Jim and Jake were feeling now—careful, tense, measuring every step.
But here, in the Paragon Realm, the table had flipped.
The Wyndham clan was new. Too new. They hadn't done anything big enough to carve their name into this world yet. No legendary battles. No divine backing. No long history.
To people like Draven, they were barely a footnote.
Jake and Jim both understood that. They could already imagine it—Draven not knowing their names, not recognizing their clan, maybe not even remembering the Wyndham name from the human world.
That thought sat heavy in their chests.
So they waited.
They stood at the edge of the crowd, watching, studying. Timing mattered here. Every greeting Draven made followed a pattern. One group left, another stepped in. No pushing. No rushing. Anyone who tried that got ignored.
They waited for a clean opening.
Eventually, it came.
Jake took a quiet breath and stepped forward.
He straightened his blue suit and adjusted his red tie as he moved, forcing confidence into his posture. His pace was calm, measured, as if he belonged there.
Jim followed a step behind.
But the moment they moved, another group shifted at the same time.
Jim didn't see the angle coming.
His shoulder slammed into someone solid.
The impact stopped him dead.
He staggered back half a step, eyes widening as he looked up at the elderly man he had hit. The man hadn't even flinched. Not a twitch. Not a reaction. He simply turned his head slightly, his presence alone forcing Jim to freeze.
That single pause was all Jake needed.
In that brief window, Jake slipped past, closing the distance and appearing directly in front of Draven.
Meanwhile, the man who had been blocked from meeting Draven finally realized what had happened.
Someone had beaten him to it.
He turned sharply, anger flashing across his face as his eyes locked onto Jim.
"sorry… I was in a hurry to meet up with my brother," Jim said quickly.
His words came fast, almost practiced. He didn't wait for a response.
Before the man could say anything, Jim pivoted and hurried off toward Jake's side, slipping back into position like nothing had happened.
Draven watched the exchange with mild interest.
"That was a clever thing to do, just to get my attention," Draven said, his tone calm but amused.
Jake immediately lowered his head slightly.
"sorry if we are bothering you," he said, bowing just enough to show respect without looking desperate.
Lucius hadn't only trained them in combat. He had drilled other things into them too—how to speak, how to stand, how to greet someone stronger. In the Paragon Realm, respect wasn't optional. It was survival.
"we are from the—"
"Wyndham clan," Draven said, cutting Jake off mid-sentence.
Jake blinked.
"You know us?" he asked, genuinely surprised.
Draven let out a small chuckle, the kind that carried more confidence than humor.
"Who doesn't know the Wyndham family?" he said.
"A wealthy family in the human realm," Draven continued casually, "and a no-name clan in the Paragon Realm. Of course I know about you."
The words landed clean. Sharp. No effort to soften them.
Jim and Jake exchanged a brief look.
They weren't sure whether to feel proud or insulted. Maybe both. But neither of them argued.
Because, harsh as it sounded, Draven wasn't wrong.
"So, what exactly do you want from me right now?" Draven asked.
His eyes moved between Jake and Jim, slow and measured.
"Since you worked so hard just to get my attention," he continued, "I might as well grant you an opportunity to pitch whatever it is you came with."
Before either of them could speak, a calm voice sounded from behind them.
"I will take it from here."
Jake and Jim instinctively stepped aside.
Lucius walked forward, steady and composed. John followed closely beside him, his presence quiet but heavy.
The moment Draven saw Lucius, the casual ease on his face vanished. His posture straightened. His eyes narrowed slightly.
His gaze dropped, just for a moment, to Lucius's missing arm.
'System, where have I met this man?' Draven thought.
[Name: Lucius Vanderbilt]
[Stage: 7 (Warrior)]
[There is no record of you ever crossing paths with Lucius Vanderbilt. However, you have crossed paths with something that belongs to him]
Draven's brow twitched.
'Something that belongs to him?' he asked silently.
[....]
Data flooded his vision. Connections, fragments, timelines. The system ran through everything in less than a heartbeat.
Draven's eyes widened just a fraction.
'So that's how I know him,' he realized.
The seriousness in his expression deepened.
Lucius met his gaze without flinching.
"I never really thought someone like you would be kind enough to meet people like us," Lucius said.
There was no pleading in his voice. No desperation. Just a flat, controlled tone.
Very different from how Jim and Jake had sounded moments earlier.
And Draven noticed that immediately.
Draven smiled at Lucius's words, not looking offended in the slightest.
If anything, he looked amused.
"Oh… did I really give you that kind of impression?" Draven said, his tone light.
He waved it off almost immediately.
"Well, it doesn't matter."
His eyes shifted past Lucius, briefly landing on Jake and Jim. They had already moved behind John, standing straighter now, quieter than before.
"It seems you're all together," Draven said, nodding once.
"So I'll give you the same courtesy I gave them."
He spread his hands slightly, casual. Relaxed. Like this was just another conversation.
"Pitch whatever you want," Draven continued.
"And if it's something I can help with, then maybe we can form some kind of relationship."
The word relationship hung in the air. Not friendly. Not hostile. Just… calculated.
Lucius didn't hesitate.
He didn't circle the topic or dress it up.
"The Synapse Circle has the best tech and the best healing magic," Lucius said, his voice steady.
He lifted his empty sleeve slightly, just enough to make the point clear.
"I want you to help me grow another arm," Lucius said.