December 14, 3:18 PM JST / 10:18 PM ES (Eldora Standard)
“When you spend long enough chasing shadows, do not be surprised when one of them learns how to bite back.”
The world was still trying to catch up with what he had just done.
The green spirit flames at the center of the New Covenant camp had been swallowed whole by the spell. The triangle he had carved into the dirt was now blackened dust and rubble sitting where the gas had been thickest. The tent was a burned-out rib cage, canvas and poles fused into charcoal around a hollow that no longer held anything living.
A system window floated at the edge of his vision, patient and brutal.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION]
Due to the caster being under the required level to use this tier spell: [Ancient Boneflame Barrage], they have received the debuff [Mana Sickness] for 4 hours.
Effect: No mana generation during this period.
Rin stared at the notification, one hand clamped to his stomach and the other pressed over his mouth as the fatigue finally crashed over him. His mana bar sat at a brutal zero, an empty blue line at the bottom of his HUD that made his skin crawl.
Sweat rolled down his temple and into his collar. Mana sickness surged through his body, leaving his head light and his legs loose, like he had stumbled off one of those weird roller coasters from old TV ads and the ground had not finished catching him yet.
“Dammit…” he muttered.
His voice sounded thin in his own ears. His gut twisted, caught between wanting to throw up and wanting to drop. Every breath tasted like smoke and metal.
“I have to be careful using spells that I can’t handle,” he added, forcing his eyes off the HUD and back to the ruined camp so he did not spiral on the numbers.
His heart finally registered that the cast was over and did its best to slam out of his chest. His hands shook. Not badly, just enough that when he flexed his fingers he could feel the tremor travel through his knuckles, up his forearms, and into the bone necklace hanging over his sternum. The Call of the Bones necklace gently moved with each shallow breath.
In the back of his mind, the system kept replaying the last few seconds in sharp little flashes: the runes along the triangle flaring to life, the poison gas thickening into something wet and choking, the instant the ancient spell detonated and turned four players into bone and light.
A spell tag hovered at the bottom of his HUD like a judge’s stamp.
[ ANCIENT BONEFLAME BARRAGE]
Tier: 6 (Bound)
Mode: Rune Triangle – Controlled Kill Zone
Synergy Bonus: Toxic Field Infusion (Spirit Arts)
“That should not have worked,” Rin thought, throat tight and dry. “But it did. I survived.”
“I fucking survived,” Rin said aloud before he realized it, face tilted up toward the dark sky as the stream still aired every breath. His goblin allies were watching him from the rim of the circle, but he did not care. This was the first time in a long time he had actually won something that mattered, and the feeling sat heavy and hot in his chest.
A soft chime rippled across the top of his vision.
The stream overlay slid back into focus, HUD tabs pulsing. During the cast, the combat rush had been loud enough to drown it out. Now the chat scroll snapped into clarity in the corner of his view like someone had grabbed a volume knob and cranked it.
[LIVE CHAT]
Messages were already stacked, crawling as fast as his eyes could track.
[ArcLine22]: HE DRAGGED THEM OUT AND TEAM KILLED, THAT WAS DISGUSTING
[Haruto7]: tracked their stacks, timed their exit, held a finisher art. imagine if certain captains could do this lol
[Aria_Loop]: he really just said “i fucking survived” lol respect
[@Eren_HGO]: Haruto… I carried games as well man, stop trash talking. you will see at Winter Bash….
The viewer counter in the top-right ticked like a broken meter.
[VIEWERS: 89 → 163 → 241 → 389 → 512]
Followers spiked along with it.
[FOLLOWERS: 21 → 47 → 103 → 131]
New names slid into the “watching” tag column.
[@WattsUpCo]
[@Yuna_N9]
[@PK_Wraith]
One message appeared under the rest, clean and quiet.
[@PK_Wraith]: enjoy your little moment. we will be heading that way.
favorite]
Rin swallowed. His throat felt like he had been breathing sand instead of smoke.
Down the slope, the last of the white respawn beams faded out of the hollow, leaving nothing but scorched earth, cracked bone, and hanging smoke where the four-man New Covenant squad had been.
Boots thudded down the slope behind him. Mud slid. Armor creaked.
Krok hit the edge of the hollow first, riding the last few feet like it was his personal slide. He took in the wrecked tent, the burned triangle, the ragged bone pillars, and the smoke still crawling along the ground. His eyes tracked across the ruin, then locked onto Rin.
Krok barked out a laugh that shook his whole chest.
“Kaiseki!” Krok roared.
Rin’s legs absolutely wanted to wobble. Rin set his feet wide in the churned mud and forced them to hold as Krok stomped through the ash, grabbed him by both shoulders, and hauled him half a step off his feet like he weighed nothing. Krok’s hands were rough and hot through the armor. He still smelled awful, gas seeping from his body in heavy bursts that reeked like rotten eggs and victory.
“That was a big boom,” Krok said.
His tusks flashed in a grin that looked half admiration, half hunger.
“You make booms like that again, I want in. You made those bastards puke in their own boots before they died.”
He chuckled to himself, shoulders shaking, like replaying the kill was better than any highlight reel.
Rin’s cheeks went hot under goblin skin. The sweat and adrenaline only made the flush worse.
“Do not short yourself,” Rin said, forcing the words past the tightness in his throat. “You and Muzzle laid the groundwork. Tikka did her part. Drosh and I finished. I love the energy, big guy, but please put me down before my knees do it for you.”
Krok snorted, a pleased, ugly sound.
“Fair,” he said.
He set Rin back down with exaggerated care, big hands lingering on Rin’s shoulders for a half-second like he was checking the goblin’s weight for himself before letting go.
Blue text chimed across Rin’s vision.
[XP GAINED: +2,400]
[WORLD QUEST BONUS: +1,200]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 3 → 8]
Stat Points available: 25
Skill Points available: 5
Level eight. The number floated above his bar like it belonged on someone else’s character sheet.
“That was almost seven days gone for me,” he thought, stomach twisting. “And seven days of lock for them. They still got the worse end.”
Muzzle had dragged himself back behind Rin, one hand braced on his knee. Their HP bars were solid now, but their stamina bars had only just crawled out of red. Their breathing came out in heavy, uneven pulls. Each inhale was a small hitch, each exhale a faint wheeze that fogged in the cooling night air.
Krok stared down at the blackened triangle again, then up toward the rally beyond the trees. His shoulders shook with contained laughter, his armor creaking with each breath.
Tikka punched her fists up once in a little hop, her ponytails bouncing. Ash puffed around her boots. She immediately clapped both hands over her nose with a coughing laugh, eyes watering from the lingering fumes.
“We made them run into our breath,” she said, her voice caught between delight and disgust. “They did not even see us until they were gagging. That is nasty. I like it.”
Muzzle held his ribs with one arm, chest still rising and falling a little too fast. His eyes shone bright in the dim light, a tired grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“First time in years my breath felt useful,” he said dryly. He winced when a chuckle tugged at his side. “I will forgive the burning.”
Drosh stood a step inside the edge of the burned triangle, spear haft grounded in the mud. Ash dusted his red skin and armor, dulling the markings across his shoulders. The tip of his weapon still glistened dark, every slow drip hissing where it hit scorched earth. He had been the last link in the trap, the one waiting in silence for the straggler who thought he could slip the side
He watched the ruined camp with a calm that felt too steady for most goblins, as if he was memorizing every detail for later. When his gaze slid to Rin, there was no wild grin, only a small nod, the kind a soldier gave a commander who had actually earned it.
Rin opened his mouth, intending to say something casual.
What came out instead was a broken little laugh that scraped his throat raw.
The HUD blinked again.
[DONATION RECEIVED]
From: WattsUp Corporation (@WattsUpCo)
Amount: +2,000 HGO Gold Coins
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
Current HGO Gold Coins: 0 → 2,000
For a heartbeat he thought it was a visual bug. Or a scam. Or some test UI event he had not read a patch note for.
Two thousand.
Two thousand coins meant two million yen at the current rate. His thoughts tripped over the number, doubled back, and still failed to land anywhere sane.
“What the hell,” Rin thought. “What. What.”
Chat detonated.
[@WattsUpCo]: ?? keep up the good work. we are watching.
Gato’s face flashed in his head. The old man’s tired eyes behind the counter, the stupid pun logo half peeling off the front of the station window, the way Rin had handed his vest over with both hands and said he needed to try one more thing before life closed in for good.
You watched me walk out, Rin thought, half hysterical. You might not know it is me. You might not even be the one pushing the button. But…
He felt his mouth twitch into a smile and forced his face back under control, jaw tight. Too many eyes were on him to fall apart now.
He was too flustered to read the rest of chat.
Bootsteps crunched behind him again, heavier this time. More of them, like an entire squad was coming down.
Rin turned fast, the motion sharper than his mana-sick body liked. The world tilted for a second and then snapped back into place.
Wyx and Sevish were already halfway down the hill with a wedge of goblins behind them.
Wyx moved like the slope belonged to her, fur collar catching stray ash sparks without care. Sevish just walked straight, bone greatsword resting on his shoulder, each slow step making the earth give a little. His nameplate burned bright.
[Sevish – Goblin Warchief – Lvl 80, Thrash Clan]
They had been ready to come down swinging.
Instead, they were walking into a hollow already full of corpses and fading light beams.
Wyx’s lips curled into a slow, sharp grin.
“Well,” Wyx said. “I did not hear screaming from our side, so I am guessing you did something entertaining.”
Rin’s legs still felt shaky. He forced them to hold.
He jerked his chin toward the wrecked tent.
“New Covenant,” Rin said. His voice came out rough but steady. “We handled them as ordered and did not lose anyone.”
One of Wyx’s brows climbed.
“Interesting,” she said. Her tone held no disapproval, just interest. “Handling them with a small squad, even though they were able to best fifteen of our people previously without losing anyone, is a job worth noticing.”
Rin shook his head once.
“Unfortunately, I do not think we have much time to enjoy it,” he said. “A squad like that goes missing, their leaders will notice. They will come back, and they will not be as easy to handle next time. We were lucky we caught this group very underprepared.”
Sevish stepped closer, the point of his bone greatsword resting in the dirt. Goblin noise dropped half a notch just because he moved. The warmth from the smoldering pit painted hard lines across his face.
His gaze passed over Rin in a slow drag.
For a second, his lips twitched. Not quite a smile, but something close.
“I told you to prove to Thrash you either stand with us or stand as our enemy,” Sevish said. His voice was deep and rough, like gravel under boots. “You just did something only I or Wyx could have pulled off with a squad this small.”
Rin’s throat worked.
“Yes,” he said. “But it was a well-executed ambush. I do not think we will have the element of surprise, or the luck to escape, if we fight them on their terms.”
Sevish’s eyes narrowed not in anger, but in consideration. The corner of his mouth lifted.
“You are not wrong,” he said. “Caution is not weakness. It means you plan to live long enough to win.”
His teeth showed, a small, sharp grin.
“I see,” he added. “Then we should head back to camp and prepare. I have been itching for a fight that is not just bait.”
The air pressure shifted, subtle and heavy.
“Kaiseki,” Sevish said. “You said you were one of us before you came down here. Your actions back it. If that clan returns, I will lend our support fully. It is also in our clan’s best interest to keep the Descendant of Shiv alive.”
The system chimed.
[FACTION NOTICE]
Warchief Sevish of Thrash Clan has registered:
Guild [New Covenant] → ENEMY.
[CLAN STATUS UPDATED]
Enemy Faction: New Covenant (NC).
Reason: Assault on Thrash forces.
Chat blew up again at the edge of Rin’s vision.
[ArcLine22]: THRASH JUST FLAGGED NC ENEMY, NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE
[@Yuna_N9]: “Descendant of Shiv?” is that new, or did i miss a patch note??
Rin wrapped his fingers around the Call of the Bones necklace. It was hot, a steady heat against his sternum, like it approved.
The system chimed again.
[WORLD QUEST UPDATE]
Defend the Rally: COMPLETE.
[XP GAINED: +1,800]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[CURRENT LEVEL: 8 → 10]
Stat Points available: 35
Skill Points available: 7.
New Objective: Meet Warchief Sevish and Wyx at the Thrash war tent in the northern block of the rally.
Level ten.
Rin glanced over his HUD once more before tabbing into his settings, forcing himself to speak to the chat, even though there was no camera and they only saw what he did, not his face.
“All right,” he said quietly. “I will see you all later. Thanks for watching. Before I take any more world quest steps, I will go live again.”
The words felt clumsy in his mouth, too small for what the last ten minutes had done to his life. Two million yen. New enemies. A clan. A title he did not understand yet.
He hesitated, then pushed through it.
“I… I will also see you at Winter Bash,” he added.
Chat spat out a last rush of messages.
He flicked his settings.
[STREAM: OFFLINE]
The overlay vanished. Chat cut mid scroll. The world dropped back down to the faint hiss of cooling ash, the distant clicking of night insects in the reeds, Krok’s slightly wheezy breathing.
Without the stream noise, the silence felt heavier.
Rin moved fully into the hollow.
Up close, the heat from the fading pit still washed over his face in sluggish waves, making his eyes water. The air tasted burned and greasy.
His toes slipped on melted bedroll fabric fused to dirt. It tore with a sticky rip when he shifted his weight.
Rian’s body had already gone, but his last position was marked by a scorch outline and a glowing bag hovering in the air, its light pulsing faintly.
Rin crouched. His knees ached, cold mud clinging to his skin. He tapped the bag.
It chimed and burst.
[LOOT ACQUIRED]
Ironbreaker’s Sturdy Greaves (Rare)
Physical Defense up.
Bonus: Improved block against melee attacks.
Royal City of Lunaris Map x1.
“Good,” Rin thought, sliding the loot away. “I needed directions. And something to sell.”
Spellweaver_Lyn’s bag gave him a scorched spell focus scarf, still faintly smelling of lavender through the smoke, and two intact mana potions, cool against his fingers.
Joss’s bag held reinforced arrowheads and a small trinket that hummed quietly in his palm without showing a tooltip yet.
Talo’s bag coughed up cooked rations now smelling mostly of flame and a half-melted necklace with a stubborn little pulse of light left in its cracked gem.
At the center of the circle, buried half in charred mud, his hand closed around something heavier.
Lyn’s staff.
[ITEM ACQUIRED: COVENANT EMBER STAFF]
Type: Magic Weapon (Unique)
Requirement: Lvl 6, Magic class.
Magic Power up.
Spirit Affinity up.
Passive – Channel Stability: All fire-based spells take 50% less mana to cast.
Passive – Hellfire Ward: When active, surrounds the caster in a ring of hellfire that neutralizes one incoming magic attack.
(Can currently block Tier 4 spells. Increases with upgrades.)
Tag: Guild Property – New Covenant.
The wood was dark and dense, faint blue veins pulsing inside it like a slow heartbeat. The metal bands at the top had blackened, but the focus crystal still glowed, stubborn as hell.
Rin turned it in his hands. The weight was right. Too right.
“Sorry, Wraith,” he thought. “I wonder what this will sell for.” A unique item should fetch decent money
He shrugged.
Tikka drifted back toward him without thinking about it, ending up at his side again. Drosh stood just behind them, the quiet spine of the formation. Krok loomed on the other flank, hammer now resting easily on his shoulder. Muzzle was there too, a step off, one hand still on his ribs, the other already checking gear.
“We should move toward camp,” Rin said.
He wrapped his fingers around the Call of the Bones necklace and straightened.
Sevish had already turned back toward the slope, barking orders to his clan. Thrash goblins were moving, breaking down outer palisade pieces, packing, readying to shift the rally uphill toward thicker cover.
Wyx lingered near Rin, watching him more closely.
She stepped into his space, close enough that he could see the faint scars along the edge of her ear and the tiny chips in her earrings.
“You have sparked my interest since your arrival,” Wyx said. “I hope you do not die too soon, not before we have a chance to talk in Myrrwood.”
A faint system ping slid into the corner of his UI.
[COMPANION QUEST: Meet with Wyx when you return to Myrrwood.]
Rin’s cheeks went hot. He had not expected that kind of advance in front of half a clan, but he did not let his face crumble.
“No worries,” he said. “Dying early was not on my bingo card.”
Wyx smiled, sharp and pleased.
“Then when you finish your business with my brother and we are back, we will have some time to chat,” she said.
She tapped a finger under his jaw, a lazy little lift that felt half like a test and half like a promise. It was the kind of move he had only ever seen from dangerous heroines on screens, the ones who smiled right before the big fight.
“I will talk to you later,” Wyx added. “After the council meeting. You have some time before we break things down. Do what you want, but do not vanish without speaking.”
She turned away, fur collar brushing his shoulder as she passed, like she had not just dropped a social landmine in his lap.
Rin stared after her for half a second, then noticed Krok smirking from farther up the slope, Tikka trying very hard not to squeal right beside him, and Grug grinning like he had just watched the first half of his favorite drama.
“Do not,” Rin said flatly.
Tikka failed immediately, snickering into her hands.
He blew out a breath and forced his focus back to the work.
“Sevish wants us back up the hill,” Rin said. “Council meeting at the war tent. You all head there. I will sweep the road first before heading back up.”
A small UI ping appeared at the edge of his vision.
[PARTY STATUS: Disbanded.]
“We follow your orders,” Drosh said.
Krok rolled his shoulders, armor creaking, still standing a few paces upslope with Muzzle.
“And when you are done scouting,” Krok said, grinning, “you owe us a proper celebration, boss. I have never killed that many in one breath.”
Rin’s chest loosened a fraction.
“Yeah,” he said. “We will get our celebration. After we move. I would rather not plan funerals for anyone on our side, and staying here is how that happens.”
He glanced once more at the ruined tent. The goblins took that as a command and slowly left Rin as they followed the rest of the rally uphill to break camp and prepare for the council meeting.
“They are going to learn my name either way,” he thought. “Might as well choose the story they hear first.”
The mist over the northern Lunarest border shifted. For a second, the night air carried the dry, faint smell of bone dust and old ash, like Shiv himself had leaned in close enough to laugh.
Rin rolled his shoulders, feeling the weight of the new levels, the new coins, the new enemies.
“Small break,” he thought. “Then back uphill.”
He walked over to a nearby tree at the edge of the camp, away from the worst of the smoke. One by one, the goblins peeled away toward the rally, their markers fading from his immediate vision as they climbed the slope.
Rin sank down to his knees in the cool dirt. He let his hands rest on his thighs, breathing slow, letting the night sounds of the game’s woods creep back in distant insects, rustling leaves, the soft drip of condensation off branches.
His UI flickered.
A translucent menu window opened in front of him, clean and familiar in a way nothing else in Eldora was.
He scrolled until his cursor hovered over the button that had started all of this.
[LOG OUT]
“One step away,” he thought.
He watched the button pulse under his cursor, the soft glow painting his goblin fingers in pale light.
“I cannot stay buried here,” Rin thought. “Not if I am going to change anything out there.”
His finger trembled above the confirm prompt.
END CHAPTER 12: CHASING THE SHADOWS (PART V)
CHAPTER 13 – CHASING THE SHADOWS II (PART VII)
“When you spend long enough chasing shadows, do not be surprised when one of them bites back.”