Kenji stared at the faint scorch mark on his basement wall. It was perfectly circular, roughly the size of his fist.
He achieved this after three tough hours of fine-tuning his Dark Slash output. He wanted it to sizzle, not to explode.
"Finally," he muttered, wiping sweat from his brow.
"A perfectly controlled burst of destructive energy. Now, if only I had something useful to use it on, like a stubborn jar lid, instead of my own property."
He sighed, already imagining the repair work.
"Maybe I should invest in a target dummy. Or just, you know, not hit my walls."
In afternoons were for skill mastery. He'd mapped out his basement into a makeshift training arena. He'd practised Shadow Step, not just for distance, but for precision.
He'd visualised a specific dust mote on the floor, then tried to appear exactly beside it. He'd managed to reduce his clumsy landings to mere stumbles.
"Okay, furnace to workbench, five feet, silent," he'd whispered to himself, focusing.
Whoosh!
He'd reappear, knees bent, a barely audible thump! as his feet landed.
"Yes! Getting there. Thankfully, I stopped tripping over all the places."
He even dared to experiment with Aura of Despair, activating it briefly. A slight chill filled the basement.
The few potted plants he saved from the yard drooped for a moment. His MP would drain slowly, a subtle current.
It was a terrifying yet fascinating power.
"So, I can make things… kill? Or just… less alive?" He deactivated it quickly, not wanting to gamble with his life.
But the most critical part of his training was the journal. Grima's meticulous handwriting was slowly yielding its secrets.
Kenji had finally learned enough of the Aethelgard language to make real progress.
"The corruption spreads like a blight.
"It infects the land's essence, turning light to shadow and life into lifeless," Kenji read aloud, following the words with his finger.
His brow furrowed. "So it's not just a physical thing. It's… pervasive."
Grima explained how the corruption changed the game world. It turned peaceful creatures into monstrous aberrations and friendly NPCs into empty shells.
It talked about the "Veiled Sovereignty."
This faction came from the darkest parts of the Corruption. It is led by a strong and mysterious leader called Noxius.
"Noxius cares only for the spread of the corruption, for ultimate dominion over all that was light. Shadowbane stood alone. He was a shield of darkness facing the true void."
Kenji read on. He paused, a strange resonance in his chest.
So Shadowbane wasn't just a Dark Knight. He was… an anti-hero or something? Fighting darkness with darkness?
The thought was both unsettling and incredibly compelling.
He found entries that detailed Shadowbane's fights with Noxius. Each battle was desperate and high-stakes.
The Quests tab in his system, which he can access easily now, is
[Quest: Seek the Heart of the Eclipse (Incomplete)] now includes sub-objectives. These hint at places in Aethelgard that appear to match real-world locations.
"The Sunken Spire of Eldoria... The Whispering Mire... They seem like secret spots in the city's old parts or in the wild beyond," he thought.
A grim thought settled in his mind. "This wasn't just a game quest. This was a war. A war that might still be happening."
He decided he needed a field test, something beyond the confines of his basement. He'd heard whispers during his deliveries about a nuisance.
Not a major threat, just something the low-tier Awakeners were struggling to contain.
"The Gutter Crawlers in Sector Seven," he muttered, remembering a vendor's complaint.
"Small, insect-like creatures, but they multiply quickly. And they're tough enough to give an Awakener a bloody nose."
"Perfect. Low risk, high reward," he sighed with relief.
That evening, as twilight settled over the city, Kenji headed to Sector Seven. It was an empty industrial area, with broken warehouses and tangled, overgrown alleys.
The air hung thick with the smell of damp concrete and decay. He pulled his hood low, melting into the deepening shadows.
Alright, Kenji. This isn't about being flashy. This is about being efficient. And discreet.
He moved with an ease he hadn't possessed weeks ago, his enhanced DEX making his footsteps almost silent. The Shadow Brand on his palm pulsed with a faint, comforting warmth.
He quickly found the source of the problem: a crumbling loading bay full of strange, chitin-covered creatures.
They were about the size of a house cat but had multiple eyes and sharp, jagged claws. They skittered about, gnawing on discarded debris. They weren't powerful, but their numbers were unsettling.
"Ugh, nasty," Kenji whispered. He saw faint, shimmering traces of weak energy attacks on the concrete.
This showed the frustration of the Awakeners.
He focused.
Shadow Step.
He flickered into the deeper shadows behind a stack of rusted barrels. The shift was smooth, effortless. A tiny victory.
He picked out a target, a lone Gutter Crawler gnawing on a discarded tyre. He extended his hand, channelling a small amount of MP. Void Bolt.
A small, purple orb of energy coalesced, no bigger than a marble. He flicked his wrist. The bolt shot forward, silent and swift, impacting the creature with a soft Thwack!.
The Gutter Crawler shuddered, then went limp. No explosion, no dramatic effect. Just a silent, efficient kill.
[Gutter Crawler (Lv. 5) defeated! EXP gained: 10]
Kenji grinned. "Perfect. Clean. No fuss." He felt a surge of satisfaction.
He spent the next hour systematically clearing the loading bay. He used Shadow Step to move unseen, positioning himself for optimal angles.
He used silent Void Bolts for long-range takedowns. For close targets, he switched to quick Dark Slashes. He learned to conserve his MP, picking his shots.
He even tried his first combo: a quick Shadow Step to get behind a group of creatures. Then, he used a swift Dark Slash that took out three at once, without harming the area around them.
He felt the adrenaline pumping, a wild, exhilarating rush he'd never known. This wasn't training anymore. This was combat. And he was good at it. Terrifyingly good.
He easily defeated creatures that troubled other powerful people. This showed just how strong he really was.
Once the last Gutter Crawler was taken care of, Kenji felt a nice weariness, not tiredness. His MP bar was still healthy.
He surveyed the quiet loading bay, now free of the skittering pests. No one had seen him. No one knew.
He looked at the small pile of dust where the creatures had disintegrated.
"Too easy," he muttered, a hint of something cold in his voice.
"They have no idea what they've got to face out here."
He pictured the Game Borns walking boldly through the city, claiming their spot at the top.
They were powerful, yes, but were they trained? Did they understand strategy beyond brute force?
As he walked home through the dark alleys, his secret felt less like a burden. It felt more like a sharp blade.
He looked at the Shadow Brand on his hand. It was nearly hidden in the dark but still gave off a soft, comforting warmth.
He was Kenji, the powerless. But he was also Shadowbane, the Dark Knight. The two identities, once disparate, were slowly beginning to merge.
He reached the safety of his basement and took out Grima's Journal.
He flipped to the part about Noxius and the Veiled Sovereignty.
"The Corruption... It's still out there,"
He murmured, his eyes scanning the ancient text.
"And it seems like Shadowbane was the only one who truly understood its danger. Everyone else thinks the 'game' is over."
He closed the journal, placing it carefully on his workbench. He stared at the big hole in his wall. It reminded him of his clumsiness and the great power he held.
"They thought the war had ended when the game servers crashed."
He whispered, his voice steady in the empty basement.
"They're wrong. The blight is still here. And Noxius... if he's still out there, he's a threat.
And I'm going to be the one to finish what Shadowbane started. I'm going to rid this world of the Corruption, once and for all. No one else knows. No one else can. This is my war now."