Chapter 10 –
Kaden lay on his bed, eyes fixed on the plain, black ceiling of his chamber.
He had just returned from his meeting with his parents.
"The Warborn Trials, huh..."
He muttered the words under his breath, still absorbing their weight.
The Warborn Trials—a series of challenges assigned by the family patriarch to every young member upon awakening their Origin.
In a family like his, where battle was a way of life, your path was forged the moment you awakened. Your worth was measured through combat. And once you received your first trial...
There was no turning back.
You complete it—or you die trying.
That was the belief of the Warborns.
To them, death wasn't a tragedy. It was a rite. If you weren't willing to face death, you had no right to claim the lives of your enemies.
There was no in-between.
No compromise.
And that belief... had to be carved deep into every awakened Warborn.
"Insane," Kaden muttered, sitting up at the edge of his bed, hands folded beneath his chin. "What kind of trial is that for someone who just awakened?"
His trial sounded simple.
Clear a dungeon.
But reality was far from kind.
The dungeon was located deep in the wilderness. Which meant he'd first have to fight his way through beasts outside the dungeon just to reach the entrance.
And inside?
At least a hundred monsters—plus a boss-class creature at the end.
And this was expected of someone who awakened just three months ago. Someone who hadn't even used his first skill yet.
"This family really is crazy. They didn't even give me any information about the dungeon."
But to the Warborns, that would be an advantage.
And advantages weren't allowed.
Garros, his father, wanted him to go in blind.
To adapt, to survive. To learn through pain and blood.
The only mercy in all this?
No time limit.
...Or so he thought.
Kaden's gaze sharpened as he opened his system interface.
DING!
[You have received a Quest.]
[Quest: First Trial of the Warborns]
[Difficulty: Hard]
[Description:]
As the heir of the Warborns, it is your duty to lead by example. Prove your bloodline's worth. Complete the trial in glory—and show the world what the Child of Blood can do.
[Reward:] Depends on performance.
[Penalty:] -300 Death Coins, -100 Stat Points
[Time Limit:] 1 Month
Kaden scowled.
"Why a time limit? Even my parents didn't give me one!"
The system responded, blunt as ever.
[I am not your parents.]
Kaden's lips twitched.
Of course. Death was as stubborn as always.
But there was no point arguing. He had more important things to do.
"Death. It's time to allocate my stat points."
His departure was scheduled for tomorrow.
Alone.
All he had was a map to guide him through the wilderness. No team. No backup. No delay.
He needed to be in his best possible state.
He had saved up 30 stat points.
"Allocate 10 points to Agility. The remaining—5 each to Strength, Constitution, Mana, and Intelligence."
Agility came first. In the wilderness, speed meant survival. The rest? A hedge against the unknown.
DING!
[Confirmed.]
A rush of heat surged through his body.
His muscles cracked, shifted, strengthened. His legs—from hamstrings to quads to calves—grew denser, harder than stone yet flexible like flowing water.
His mana pool expanded—not just in volume, but in purity. It pulsed now with heavier energy, richer and more refined.
Kaden closed his eyes and felt the transformation.
This—this was what he loved most.
The feeling of becoming stronger. Of evolving.
It wasn't a vague sense of growth—it was real. Physical. Undeniable.
You could see it in your body. Feel it in your bones.
Updated Stats:
• STR: 25 → 30
• AGL: 20 → 30
• CONS: 30 → 35
• MANA: 20 → 25
• INT: 16 → 21
• WILL: 8
He stared at his new attributes, a genuine smile creeping across his face.
But then—
A thought surfaced.
"Is there a limit to how high I can raise my stats?"
"I mean... If this keeps up, I could just become stronger without even doing the evolution quests."
[There is no absolute limit.]
[But if you want a reference: the theoretical cap for an Awakened is 200 points per stat.]
Kaden raised a brow.
"How do they reach that? Just through training?"
[Training, yes. But also by consuming Beast Cores to saturate their Origin.]
[However, very few ever reach the max. Less than 1% of Awakened hit the stat cap.]
[Most stop pushing after their Cores are saturated.]
Kaden nodded slowly.
"So I have an advantage. Unlike them, I can do quests—and get free stat points to allocate."
[Correct.]
Silence followed.
Then—a soft laugh escaped him.
"An advantage, huh?"
He couldn't help it. Because he wouldn't have believed it that someone like him can have an advantage.
Not in his past life.
But now...
Now he had something that could place him among that elite 1% of the whole world.
Kaden's gaze sharpened—his irises glowing a deep, bloody red.
"And I'd be a fool not to use that to its fullest."
As he spoke, Reditha, lying beside him, pulsed in sync—her blade shining with the same red hue.
A perfect reflection.
A warrior and his sword.
A deadly, beautiful duo.
—End of Chapter 10—