The cobbled streets of Noctera echoed with hooves and hushed deals. Stone buildings loomed on both sides, jagged edges crowned with moss and iron balconies. Above, the sky was pale—gray, as if the sun had forgotten how to shine here.
In the shadows of this place, a child moved.
He wasn't tall. He wasn't loud. He didn't smile. But he watched—always watching—with crimson eyes that saw far too much for someone so small. His black hair fell across his face like a curtain, and his tattered clothes made him look like a beggar.
His name was Kev.
He didn't belong in the light. Not anymore.
Neighbors called him cursed. Forgotten. But Kev never answered. He simply existed in the cracks of Noctera, like dust behind the stones, like a secret never told. His mother had vanished after giving birth to a girl he barely remembered. His father and stepbrother? Gone. Left for a softer world, a richer woman. He had never heard from them again.
At six years old, most children in Noctera dreamed of becoming warriors or mages. Kev… dreamed of nothing.
Until the day the mark appeared.
He sat alone behind the old stable, knees drawn to his chest, when his right hand burned. Ahhh! He gasped, staring at the faint circular pattern glowing beneath his skin, pulsing like a heartbeat.
[SYSTEM RECOGNIZED: USER "KEV"]
[PATH SELECTION INITIATED]
[AVAILABLE PATHS DISPLAYED BASED ON COMPATIBILITY]
Five ancient symbols spun before him. He couldn't read them—but something pulled.
[WARRIOR PATH]
[MAGNUS PATH]
[ADVENTURER PATH]
[HUNTER PATH]
He knew what they meant. The Adventurer Path was the deadliest. But Kev had no choice. No family. No money. No future. A boy with a death wish chose the path of wanderers.
[PATH SELECTED: ADVENTURER] [WARNING: RACE: ?????] [FORCED REALM RELOCATION INITIATED] [REALM: UNREGISTERED]
His world shattered. Light bled through stone. The street collapsed beneath him like paper, and Kev fell—not just down, but away.
He didn't scream. He only stared, wide‑eyed, at the system etched into his palm. Race: ???. He muttered, "It must be a bug."
When Kev awoke, he was no longer in Noctera.
The air was colder. Heavy. Every breath tasted of smoke and metal. The sky overhead wasn't a sky at all, but a yawning void of green. Floating mountains drifted in the distance, crackling with violet arcs of energy. Rivers of shadow bled down their sides, pooling into black lakes that shimmered without light.
He stood on obsidian sand. Alone.
Then his hand burned again.
[YOU HAVE ENTERED: THE SIXTH ABYSSAL REALM]
No explanation. No warning. Just that.
And then… they appeared.
Shadows. Not flickers, not tricks of the eye—but figures. A million of them, rising from the ground, shaping themselves like broken people without faces. They stretched across the endless black plain, surrounding him.
Voices followed.
"THE BOY WHO FELL TOO EARLY."
"A SOUL TOO YOUNG FOR THIS PLACE."
"FLESH, MIND, AND SPIRIT — OURS."
Kev fell to his knees, clutching his head. Ahhh! The pressure was unbearable. Thoughts weren't his anymore. Languages clawed against his sanity.
Anger rose. Hot, sharp, undeniable. His family had left him. His life had been nothing but suffering. Why must he pay again?
The shadows recoiled. "WHOA… WHAT FRESH ANGER."
It was the first time he had heard such a language, yet he understood it as if he had always known. The voices pressed harder, a million speaking at once.
Kev forced himself to stand, crimson eyes burning. "…Let's make a deal."
The voices froze. "…A DEAL?"
He stood taller, his ragged clothes whispering — swish. "You don't want to be here. You were sealed. I'll free you, one way or another, if you train me. I chose the Adventurer Path. That means I'll grow stronger the farther I explore realms."
The shadows didn't understand his words, but they believed his look.
"WHAT A LOVELY LOOK," they whispered.
Kev's voice was steady. "I'll survive. I'll learn. I'll become something even this abyss fears. In return, you don't break me."
Silence. Endless silence.
Then, together— "ACCEPTED."
[CONTRACT FORMED: KEV — BEARER OF THE SIXTH ABYSS]
Time passed differently for Adventurers. Seven to fifteen years in a realm before being forced onward. Kev had endured eight.
He no longer walked. He hunted. He no longer feared. He commanded. He spoke the tongue of shadows, crossed broken void‑bridges, and touched secrets buried before time itself.
One by one, he trapped the shadows—not outside, but within. Inside his own cells, using something ancient.
Though he had explored only three percent of the realm, his strength was immense. Wanderers grew with the percentage of realm explored, and the Sixth Abyss was no ordinary place.
Atop a cliff of obsidian, millions of shadow‑creatures bound within him, the system returned.
[NAME: KEV]
[TITLE: BEARER OF THE SIXTH ABYSS]
[RACE: ???]
[UNIQUE SKILL: CELL MANIPULATION (Rare)]
[SKILLS: SHADOW MOVEMENT (Extraordinary), SHADOW EYE (Magic), CELL CONTROL (Force)]
[LEVEL: PEAK SOLDIER]
[ARTIFACT COMPATIBILITY: SHADOWBOUND]
Kev exhaled — sighhh. He knew he had brought something dangerous out of the abyss. But he didn't care.