The mountain air was a different kind of cold. It didn't just chill the skin; it felt like it was trying to freeze the mana right out of my marrow. I moved off the main trail, stepping softly over frozen pine needles. Each breath was a small puff of white vapor, but thanks to the Iron Core, my lungs didn't burn. My internal temperature was steady, the silver lines on my ribs acting like a heater.
I stayed about fifty yards behind the mercenaries. There were four of them. They weren't "Players" yet—nobody was—but they were professionals. They wore tactical black gear, carried suppressed submachine guns, and moved in a tight diamond formation.
"They're searching for the 'Ancient Artifact,'" I whispered to myself, crouching behind a lichen-covered rock.
In my old life, the news said these men were part of the "Black Mamba" security firm. They had been hired by a billionaire who collected occult items. They thought they were on a simple retrieval mission. They had no idea they were walking into a high-density mana zone that would tear their minds apart before the first monster even showed up.
[ SYNC RATE: 11.7% ] [ WARNING: HOSTILE INTENT DETECTED IN AREA ] [ TARGETS: 4 HUMANS ]
"Hold up," the leader of the mercs barked. He raised a gloved hand, and the group froze. He looked at a high-tech GPS device in his palm. "The signal is spiking. The shrine should be just past this ridge. But the compass is spinning like crazy."
"Sir, the air... it feels weird," one of the younger mercs muttered, rubbing his arms. "I feel like someone is walking over my grave."
"Shut up and keep your eyes moving," the leader snapped. "We get the 'Star-Fall' steel, we get paid, and we get off this rock. Move."
I followed them as they crested the ridge. Below us sat a hidden valley that wasn't on any map. In the center was a small, stone building that looked thousands of years old. It wasn't a temple; it was a tomb.
The air in the valley was shimmering, like heat waves on a highway, but it was freezing. This was the "Star-Fall" energy. It was raw, unrefined mana leaking from the Unbreakable Blade.
As the mercenaries approached the stone doors, the ground began to tremble.
"Boss! Look!"
The shadows under the trees began to stretch and detach themselves from the ground. They weren't monsters yet—they were Wraiths, echoes of the Ancient Woman's guards. They looked like flickering silhouettes of soldiers made of smoke.
The mercenaries panicked. "Open fire!"
Pah-pah-pah-pah!
The suppressed gunfire hissed through the air, but the bullets passed right through the smoke soldiers. The mercs were fighting ghosts with lead. It was a slaughter waiting to happen.
I stood up, clenching my fists. The Iron Core in my chest hummed in response to the Wraiths. They were Level 1 entities, just like the needle-wolf, but there were six of them.
"I could wait," I thought. "I could let the ghosts kill them and just walk over their bodies."
But the Cold Blood skill wasn't just about survival. It was about growth. If I let the ghosts have the kills, I got nothing. If I took them, my Sync Rate would climb.
I reached into my bag and pulled out a heavy construction hammer I'd grabbed from the site earlier. It wasn't the Unbreakable Blade, but with 11% Sync strength behind it, it would hit like a wrecking ball.
"Hey!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the valley.
The mercenaries spun around, their guns swiveling toward me. The Wraiths paused, their empty heads tilting toward the new sound.
"Who the hell is that?" the leader yelled. "A kid? What are you doing here?"
"I'm the guy who's going to save your lives," I said, breaking into a sprint. "But only if you stay out of my way."
I didn't run like a human. I moved with a heavy, metallic thud every time my boots hit the ground. I slammed into the first Wraith before it could react. My hammer, coated in the silver light of the Relic, passed through the smoke and hit the "Core" at the center.
SHATTER.
The Wraith exploded into a cloud of cold ash.
[ WRAITH DEFEATED ] [ EXPERIENCE GAINED ] [ SYNC RATE: 11.9% ]
I didn't stop. I spun, the weight of the hammer carrying me into the next one. The mercenaries stood frozen, watching a teenager in a torn school uniform destroy the ghosts that their bullets couldn't touch.
"Don't just stand there!" I barked as I ducked under a smoky blade. "The doors! Get the doors open or more will come!"
I wasn't saving them because I was a hero. I was saving them because the stone doors of the shrine required four people to push them open, and I didn't want to waste my mana trying to break the granite by myself.
I was a scavenger. I used everything. Even my enemies.
Chapter 10: The Blade of the Fallen Star
The last Wraith evaporated under my hammer. I was breathing hard, the silver lines on my face glowing so bright they lit up the snow. My school shirt was shredded, showing the metallic sheen of my skin.
I turned to the mercenaries. They were pointing their guns at me, but their hands were shaking. They had seen me move at speeds that were physically impossible.
"Who... what are you?" the leader asked, his voice trembling.
"I'm the guy who knows what's behind that door," I said, walking toward the shrine. I didn't even look at their guns. "You want to get paid? Help me push. If we don't get inside in the next sixty seconds, the 'Great Shadow' will notice us."
The leader looked at the dark forest, then at me. He nodded to his men. "Do it. Push!"
The five of us leaned against the massive stone slabs.
"On three!" I yelled. "One! Two! THREE!"
With a scream of grinding stone, the doors slid open. A blast of pure, white light hit us, throwing the mercenaries backward. I stood my ground, my eyes locked on the center of the room.
There, floating in a beam of starlight that shouldn't have existed underground, was the blade.
It wasn't a sword. It was a jagged shard of black metal, about three feet long, with no hilt and no guard. It looked like a piece of the night sky had been sharpened into a razor.
The Unbreakable Blade.
"It's beautiful," one of the mercs whispered, reaching out.
"Don't touch it!" I yelled, but it was too late.
As his finger brushed the metal, his entire arm turned to stone. He screamed, but the sound was cut short as the stone spread to his chest, then his head. In three seconds, he was a statue.
The other mercs scrambled back in horror.
"It's cursed!" the leader cried. "We're leaving! Forget the money!"
They ran. I didn't stop them. I didn't need them anymore.
I walked up to the floating shard. The Relic in my chest was screaming now, a high-pitched ringing that made my ears bleed. This was the "Star-Fall" steel—the material the Ancient Woman used to forge the original weapons of the gods.
I didn't use my hand. I opened my shirt and leaned forward, letting the Relic touch the blade.
K-BOOM.
The entire mountain shook. The white light turned silver. The shard didn't turn me to stone; it melted. It turned into a liquid shadow and flowed into the Relic, wrapping around the Iron Core.
[ ARTIFACT MERGER SUCCESSFUL ] [ NEW WEAPON FORMING: THE ZERO-VOID SHARD ] [ SYNC RATE: 25.0% ] [ WARNING: SYSTEM REBOOTING... ]
I felt my consciousness slipping away. The power was too much. 25% Sync was the "Wall" that most Heroes didn't hit for years. My body was being reconstructed from the inside out. My bones were no longer just reinforced; they were being replaced with the same "Star-Fall" metal.
As I fell to the floor, I saw a figure standing at the entrance of the shrine.
It was the Ancient Woman. She wasn't a vision this time. She was real. She looked down at me, her silver eyes glowing with a faint trace of amusement.
"Well done, Scavenger," she whispered, her voice like the sound of a thousand bells. "But the Stone Giant is already at the gates. Sleep fast. You have three days left."
The darkness swallowed me.