Gift-ll
Lily Rest – Room No. 12
06:00 AM
The room was silent except for the faint hum of morning outside the inn's thin walls. Liam lay sprawled across the soaked sheets, his chest heaving, every breath ragged and damp with the remnants of a nightmare that felt far too real. His entire body glistened with sweat, dark strands of ash-grey hair plastered against his forehead.
A sudden gasp tore from his lungs. He shot upright, his hands gripping the sheets like a drowning man clawing for air. His eyes darted across the familiar corners of the small room. The warped wooden table. The half-drawn curtains. The faint smell of stale ale drifting from the hall below.
It was over.
The void was gone. The colossal eye was gone.
A long, shaky breath escaped his lips.
"...Sigh."
For a moment, Liam simply sat there, letting his pulse settle, until an odd sensation pulled his attention downward. His hands.
He raised them slowly. The fingers looked the same, pale, long, calloused from his sword training, but his perception of them was different. Sharper. As though every line, every scar, every uneven ridge in his nails stood out in unnatural clarity. The texture of his skin, the glint of faint morning light on his damp knuckles, everything appeared more vivid than he had ever experienced.
'Not normal.'
He turned his gaze to the sheets beneath him. The sheen of sweat on the crumpled fabric seemed magnified, and even the wooden grains on the floor felt distinct, each etched line calling attention to itself.
Liam pushed off the bed in a single movement, his bare feet touching the cool wood as he strode to the window. Fingers gripped the latch, and with a firm tug, the shutters creaked open.
Cold morning air washed over him.
His eyes swept over Thornmere's main street, still quiet, the fog curling lazily between the eaves. A baker lit his first oven. A drunk staggered home from the tavern. Liam didn't just see but could see and read through them. The twitch in the baker's hand inside the backery. The stagger of the drunk's left foot. Details that should have been invisible from this distance were now painfully clear.
He narrowed his eyes at the horizon. Even the distant treeline two kilometers away seemed close enough to touch.
'This… is different.'
Without a word, he called up the glowing blue interface in his mind. The status window shimmered ifront of his eyes.
---
Name: Liam Ashborn
Age: 14
Grade: E-
Attributes:
STR: E-
INT: E
CON: E-
DEX: E
MAG: E
DEF: E
Skills:
[God-Given Luck: SSS]
[Sword Mastery: C]
Gift:
[Domain]
[Blood Crimson Eye]
"Weaker than the rats my pet cat hunted in the garden."
(Note: He can't fight. He can't act. But somehow, the world refuses to let him die.)
---
Liam's brows twitched at the jab, but he ignored it. Instead, his focus moved to the two newly revealed gifts. He selected the first.
---
[Domain]
Description:
A personal territory that overlaps reality. Everything within this radius becomes visible to the user, regardless of obstacles or concealment. While active, user stats increase by 100%, while enemy stats decrease by 30%.
Range: 2 km
Duration: Up to 1 hour or until deactivated
Mana Cost: Lower than a single Fireball spell
---
Liam stared at the description, his heartbeat steadying as he absorbed the implications. A two, kilometer range. Complete vision. Double stats. Minimal mana cost.
His finger moved to the second.
---
[Blood Crimson Eye]
Description:
Each kill consumes and assimilates the bloodlust of the fallen into the user's eyes, amplifying their power. As accumulated bloodlust grows, vision sharpens and dynamic perception improves beyond human limits.
Passive Effect: Induces terror in opponents, decreasing their stats by 50% and applying status abnormality [Fear] when exposed to the user's gaze.
Growth: Increases with every kill.
---
Liam exhaled slowly, his reflection flickering faintly in the glass pane before him.
It didn't take him long to realize the truth. The Domain… it's still active.
That explained the unnatural clarity. He took a slow breath, closed his eyes, and focused inward. He could feel it, the invisible boundary of his Domain stretching out like an ocean around him. He willed it to shrink.
Gradually, the overwhelming awareness began to fade. The vast field that covered the hamlet receded, becoming smaller and smaller until it finally disappeared, leaving only darkness behind his closed eyes.
When he opened them again, the world had returned to normal.
Liam let out a quiet breath.
"…Good. I can control it."
With that thought, he turned from the window. His body was still drenched in sweat from the nightmare and the strange awakening. The sheets were soaked. His clothes clung uncomfortably to his skin.
First things first.
He needed a bath.