Chapter 29:

CH 23 YOUR LOCATION

The Wildworld

The world opened beneath me like a dying star, and then I was falling.

Fast, pulling at my clothes and spinning wildly.

Air punched at my face in ragged, freezing gusts then my stomach shot into my ribs. Even my eyes watered, but I blinked hard, forcing them open.

Are… those people?

At first they were just dots scattered in the twilight. Then they moved—arms flailing, silhouettes tumbling through the sky. As my vision adjusted, a faint, distant glow came into focus: a vague blue shimmer far below us, like a field of stars turned upside down.

I wasn't falling alone.

I tore my gaze forward, trying to stabilize my breath long enough to use that side of mana; the symbolism. My fingers snapped through the signs on muscle memory.

A pale blue light coiled around my hands.

Then—

flicker—

it died.

“Come on—come on—” I forced another set, voice shredded by rushing wind.

100 feet.

The light sparked—then shattered again, spraying motes that vanished instantly into the gloom.

“Again!” I snarled through chattering teeth.

I tried a chant—too rushed, sloppy—the sigil cracked apart before it even formed. The wind pressure ripped the light apart.

“Hahaha!” Lyra’s voice cut through the fall, wild and delighted, drifting from somewhere above me. Of course she was laughing. She was born for chaos like this.

I bit down on my lip hard enough to taste iron and forced my hands into another sequence. The blue light flickered weakly—

—and then the world slammed into me.

A tree branch exploded across my back, flipping me sideways. Another branch whipped against my skull. My body ricocheted through leaves, limbs snapping against wood, until finally—

BOOM.

I hit the ground and bounced. Rolled. Slammed into dirt hard enough to leave a crater. Everything went white for a second.

My breath came back in stabs.

I coughed—hard—something hot and metallic splattering out of my mouth.

When the ringing eased, I stared at the faint blue sphere around me—hairline cracks running across its surface like a shattered dome.

“…My feet hit stone. Knees bent. The sphere had saved me, barely.

“What the fu—”

A wet sound slapped the ground beside me.

I turned just in time to see a shape hit the dirt—someone who hadn’t built a sphere in time. The body landed wrong. Folded wrong. And then—

It turned to pulp.

My stomach revolted instantly. I twisted away and vomited onto the ground, choking, gagging. The smell hit me harder and I heaved again, knees buckling.

When I tried to stand, my legs shook.

I bent over and vomited a second time.

My boots squelched in something wet.

I didn’t want to look.

But I already knew what it was.

I swallowed hard and forced myself to step closer. My vision shook—literally shook—and I bent down, fingers trembling, brushing through leaves until I found the bent metal frame of my glasses.

I closed my eyes.

Just for one second.

Just one.

My breath stuttered in my chest.

This… this had to be the Watcher.

I shoved the glasses back onto my face even though one lens was cracked, warping the world into a broken oval.

My throat tightened as I finally forced myself to look at the mess smeared across the roots of the tree.

It wasn’t a body.

Not anymore.

My vision blurred again—this time from tears I tried to blink away. My hands shook against my knees, breath slipping too fast.

These people… these people are letting children die.

A cold chime echoed inside my skull.

---

SYSTEM LOG — WATCHER NETWORK / AUX BANDWIDTH

Fallen Trainee Watcher detected.

Residual Mesh Signature located.

Name: Sigrid Halvstad

Origin: Harmont — Northern Continental Union

Race: Dirt-blood (Human / 4th-Gen Elf Lineage)

Age: 16

Would you like to claim unbound Mesh Bandwidth?

(WARNING: Claiming requires direct proximity to biological remains.)

---

A sharp breath tore out of me.

Sixteen.

She was sixteen.

My stomach twisted. I staggered back a step.

“No,” I whispered. “No—I’m not doing that. I’m not—”

“Aiden!” Lyra’s voice cracked through my mind like a whip. “Move! You need to stand in it now before the Mesh disperses!”

“I’m not stepping in—this is—this is a kid, Lyra!”

"DO IT!”

The world tilted again. My legs were barely working, but I forced myself forward, every step like wading into ice. The logical conclusion from all that had been happening since I had gotten this system would be to enter this cause the system had only been making me stronger.

The smell hit me first, metallic and sour. By the time I stepped within the faint circle the system highlighted, my throat had closed entirely.

The air hummed.

---

PROCESSING CLAIM…

Syncing residual consciousness threads…

Anchoring unclaimed Watcher mesh…

Bandwidth transfer 37%… 54%… 82%…

Complete.

---

The blood on the ground twitched.

For a horrifying moment, I thought it was moving on its own—but then I saw it: a tiny device, a watch, just like mine rising from the gore like someone was pulling it upward with invisible strings.

I stepped back, eyes wide.

The watch rotated once—then shot into the sky like a launched flare, disappearing into the canopy with a high-pitched hum.

For a heartbeat, the forest went still.

Then faint blue particles drifted down from where the watch had vanished—soft, ember-like motes swirling through the branches before dissolving into my skin. I flinched as a cold shiver crawled down my spine.

A new system pane unfolded in front of me.

---

SYSTEM UPDATE — WATCHER MESH PROTOCOL

Residual Bandwidth anchored.

You may now absorb a random percentage of attributes from any lifeform that dies within your proximity.

Direct kills yield higher attribute conversion.

---

“What…?” My voice came out thin.

A light pulsed over my hands.

Not bright—just a soft, eerie glow that outlined my fingers like blue firefly-light. I stared as it crawled up my arms in thin streams, sinking into my chest.

Another message blinked open.

---

MANA GRID — SYMBOLISM NODE

Out of your 12 dormant Mana Sides…

SYMBOLISM has been identified as the nearest compatible thread.

Conversion complete: +0.001% Symbolism affinity gained.

All Symbolism-based casting procedures

(hand signs, chants, codes, spells, sequences)

will now require slightly less time until deployment.

---

A third pane unfolded immediately afterward.

---

ATTRIBUTE DELTA

Strength: +1

Speed: +1

Vitality: +1

Perception: +1

Mental Resistance: +0.2

---

My shirt—already torn from the fall—shifted against my skin. Not dramatically. Just… tighter in some places, looser in others. For a second I swore my small, round belly dipped inward—the faintest smoothing of weight, like my body was correcting itself in real time.

I blinked hard.

“Did that… actually—?”

But the glow slowly faded from my hands, leaving only a thin tingling under my skin

“What the—”

Movement flashed at the very edge of my vision.

I turned just as something small and green ducked behind a tree—yellow eyes glaring, bowstring pulled taut.

A goblin.

Its fingers released.

The arrow shrieked through the air.

I barely threw myself sideways in time—

the shaft grazed my cheek and buried itself into the trunk behind me with a violent thunk.

Heart hammering, I whipped my head toward it—