Whispers in the Dark

Kyle's breath came slow and steady, but his mind was anything but calm. The moment he accepted The Forgotten's Path, something in the world shifted. The air around him felt denser, heavier, as if unseen eyes now lingered on his every movement. He gritted his teeth, tightening his grip on the worn leather book.

The last words from the journal rang in his mind.

"Power is not given. It is taken."

A soft sound, like wind passing through broken stone, whispered from the depths of the ruined tower. Kyle's instincts screamed at him—something else was here.

He forced himself to move carefully, stepping over rubble as he ventured further inside. The tower was larger than he had expected. The walls, though cracked, still carried the remnants of ancient carvings, faded sigils etched into the stone. Whatever this place had once been, it had power.

And power always attracted danger.

A flicker of movement at the edge of his vision made him freeze. He turned sharply, sword raised, but nothing was there.

Then the whispering started.

It wasn't the wind. It wasn't natural.

The voices slithered through the darkness, layered upon one another in a chorus of barely understood words. Some spoke in tongues he didn't recognize, others in distorted echoes of his own thoughts.

"Marked… Chosen… Forsaken…"

Kyle clenched his jaw. "Show yourselves."

The whispers laughed.

Then the darkness moved.

Shadows pooled together at the far end of the chamber, forming into a shifting, formless mass. Two pinpricks of crimson light flared to life within it. A shape began to emerge—a cloaked figure, its form flickering between reality and nightmare, as if it didn't fully exist in this world.

A notification appeared.

??? Identified: Wraith of the Forgotten

Level: ???

Threat Level: Lethal

Kyle's stomach dropped.

This wasn't a goblin. This wasn't a warg.

This was something far worse.

The wraith drifted closer, its movements smooth, unnatural. Despite its lack of a face, Kyle felt its gaze burrowing into him.

"Another one walks the path… another fool seeks the power of the dead."

The voice didn't come from the wraith itself. It came from inside Kyle's mind.

A sharp pain stabbed through his skull, forcing him to his knees. His vision blurred, his thoughts tangled like vines. The pressure was overwhelming.

Resist or Submit?

Kyle growled through gritted teeth. "Resist!"

The pressure in his mind doubled.

He felt his body weaken, his strength draining away. The wraith wasn't attacking him physically—it was trying to consume him.

A flash of heat erupted through his veins.

Blood Reclamation Activated.

System Override: Evolutionary Growth Engaged.

Resistance Check… SUCCESS.

The force pressing down on Kyle suddenly snapped. He gasped as the weight lifted, his strength returning in a surge of power.

The wraith hesitated.

Kyle didn't.

With a roar, he moved.

His sword cleaved through the air, but the blade passed harmlessly through the wraith's ethereal form.

The creature laughed.

"Flesh is weak. Steel is useless."

Kyle barely dodged as the wraith's arm lashed out. It wasn't solid, but the air around it warped, and where it passed, the stone cracked as if something was tearing reality apart.

He needed another plan.

The system had given him Blood Reclamation. It had given him Evolutionary Growth. But against something that wasn't alive, neither ability would help.

Think.

The book.

The Forgotten's journal had spoken of those who had walked this path before. What had it said?

"The system is a chain… Break it."

Kyle's eyes widened.

He had been treating the system as a crutch. But if this path was different—if he wasn't bound by the system's limitations—then maybe the same rules that governed this world didn't apply to him anymore.

He took a deep breath, focusing on the power inside him. The system had called it Evolutionary Growth. If that meant what he thought it did…

He could force himself to adapt.

Kyle gritted his teeth and willed the change into existence.

A new notification appeared.

Evolutionary Adaptation Engaged.

New Skill Acquired: Spectral Rend (Lv. 1)

You can now harm entities beyond the material realm.

Kyle grinned.

The wraith hissed.

"Impossible…"

Kyle lunged.

This time, when his sword met the wraith's body, it connected.

The creature let out an unnatural screech as the blade tore through its form. Dark mist poured from the wound like blood, writhing in the air before vanishing.

The wraith lashed out in desperation, but Kyle ducked beneath the attack, bringing his sword around in a wide arc. His blade burned with a pale glow, the system's adaptation still at work.

Another strike. Another wound.

The wraith staggered.

Kyle saw his chance.

He drove the blade forward, piercing through the wraith's core.

A final, shuddering screech echoed through the ruins as the wraith convulsed. Its form fractured, breaking apart into ribbons of shadow before dissipating into nothing.

The silence that followed was deafening.

A new notification flickered.

Congratulations! You have slain a Wraith of the Forgotten.

Title Acquired: "Defier of Fate"

+5 Strength, +4 Intelligence, +3 Constitution

Kyle exhaled, lowering his sword. His body ached, his mind reeled from the encounter, but he had done it.

He had won.

But the battle had left him with more questions than answers.

The wraith had spoken as if it knew what he was. As if it had seen others like him before. And the journal's words—the system is not a gift, it is a chain—now felt more real than ever.

Kyle clenched his fists.

This world had rules. But he was beginning to realize…

Rules could be broken.