I didn't sleep.
Every time I closed my eyes, numbers floated behind my eyelids. XP. Money. Three wraiths.
Near dawn, the system flickered again.
Not loud.
Not dramatic.
Just… present.
[Status interface unlocked.]
I sat up so fast my shoulder screamed.
"Show me" I whispered.
The air in front of me folded, like reality taking a breath.
A translucent panel unfolded.
STATUS
Name: —
Level: 2
Patron: HADES
Contracts completed: 1
Vitals
Physical condition: Worn
Mental state: Unstable (improving)
Attributes
Strength: 11
Agility: 10
Endurance: 12
Perception: 14
Willpower: 13
Unassigned Skill Points: 3
"it's like a game" I muttered.
I remembered when I was younger, playing mmo's...
The numbers didn't explain themselves.
They didn't have to, I knew exactly what each stat meant... And I knew investing in all of them was a waste...
I could take down the wraith easily, when my hit connected...
What I needed was the power to interact with it.
Perception stood out immediately.
Fourteen.
I thought about the alley.
The way the wraith vanished and reappeared.
The residue in the air I almost missed.
"I don't survive this by hitting harder" I thought. The wraith was destroyed so simply. With just one hit. They weren't really powerful... Just scary, eerie and evasive.
Now I had to face three of them.
I focused.
[Perception: 14 → 15]
The room sharpened.
Conceptually, visually, everything was in high definition.
I could feel the space behind the walls.
The hollow places where sound died too fast.
"Again."
[Perception: 15 → 16]
Silence gained texture.
Emotion clung to objects—fear in the mattress, exhaustion soaked into the floorboards.
One point left.
"Again."
[Perception: 16 → 17]
The world clicked.
For a fraction of a second, something far away noticed me noticing it.
I swallowed.
[Skill Points: 0]
The panel expanded instead of fading.
ACTIVE CONTRACT
Objective: Capture or neutralize 3 corrupted wraiths
Difficulty: Low–Moderate
Targets Identified
•3 Lv.2 Wraiths
Dungeon entrance location:
County General Hospital (service corridors, sublevel)
My stomach tightened.
"…You were tracking them already" I whispered.
The system didn't deny it.
[Contract data unlocked via interface access.]
So that was the rule.
Before, I hunted blind.
Now, I was given coordinates.
The locations didn't disappear when I blinked.
They embedded themselves into my mind like pins on a city map.
Hospitals.
Condemned housing.
Crowded places where people broke quietly.
I checked the time.
It was early morning, people were still sleeping, they wouldn't... interfere...
"Okay" I said softly.
My heart wasn't panicking.
It was aligning.
I pulled on my jacket.
The Wraith Crystal in my pocket pulsed, colder now, as if responding to my determination.
The whispers weren't noise anymore.
They pointed.
"This isn't random" I muttered as I reached for the door.
Somewhere far below the foundations of the city—
HADES observed.