The Wheels of Fate spun.
Not visible.
Not summoned.
But turning somewhere deep in the world
the moment the forest went silent.
Kang and Kwon stood side by side as the tree stared at them.
Alive.
Breathing.
Waiting.
Kwon raised her katana, the tip aimed straight at its glowing scarlet core.
Kang tightened his grip around the carrot sword—
hands trembling slightly, breath unsteady.
His past replayed in one brutal flash.
The stairwell.
The knife.
The landlord's shaking hands.
His body dropping to the floor.
If I don't improve…
"I die."
He whispered it to himself.
Kwon turned.
"Hey Kang get read—"
The sentence broke.
Stopped.
Her breath caught halfway out of her lungs
as she stared at his face.
He didn't look panicked.
Didn't look confused.
Didn't look lost.
Something in him had shifted.
Quietly.
Sharply.
Completely.
His shoulders dropped.
His grip steadied.
His breathing slowed to a tight, focused rhythm.
And his eyes—
glowing faint gold—
locked onto the monster with a weight she hadn't seen from him before.
Kwon's stomach tightened without warning.
She didn't know what she was looking at.
She only knew one thing:
Was this even the same person?
Her fingers tightened slightly on the katana's hilt.
Not out of fear.
But out of something she didn't have a name for.
Kang swallowed, sweat sliding slow down his cheek—
drip.
The droplet hit the moss.
CRACK—!!
The tree detonated.
Its entire body ruptured into thousands of splinters, exploding outward in a violent burst.
Roots tore upward.
Branches whipped apart.
Leaves spiraled through the air as the ground trembled beneath them.
Kwon lifted an arm to shield herself—
hair whipping behind her as the shockwave pushed through the forest.
Kang didn't move.
The splinters hovered—
frozen mid-air.
Then whipped inward.
Spinning.
Twisting.
Merging violently into a dense core as the entire creature folded in on itself.
A sphere formed.
Perfect.
Massive.
Breathing.
A living wooden boulder pulsing with crimson light.
It hovered—
Then dropped.
THUD—!
The forest floor shook.
Kwon raised her katana again.
Kang lowered into his stance, carrot sword angled forward.
Side by side.
The boulder stared at them
with its single, burning scarlet core.
This was their first real battle.
And it had finally begun.
Kwon held her katana.
Sharp.
Long.
Perfect.
She exhaled slowly as the wooden boulder rushed toward her, tearing the ground apart with each heavy roll.
She stepped forward—
One clean motion—
SLICE.
A perfect cross-section.
The boulder split in half as if it were butter under her blade.
Sap sprayed in a thin arc.
Moss fluttered from the shockwave.
Kwon wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her wrist, turning sharply—
But something was wrong.
The halves twitched.
Shifted.
And split again.
Into four.
Four massive wooden spheres launched outward like living cannonballs—one of them barreling straight toward Kang.
Kwon's breath caught.
"Kang—!"
But he didn't move.
Feet planted.
Body neutral.
Eyes half-lidded yet strangely sharp.
Breathing calm, slow, steady—
as if death wasn't rushing at him but politely approaching from a distance.
He muttered—
so quietly it should've been inaudible.
Yet the entire forest heard him.
"Come."
And the world lost its colour.
Sound vanished.
Leaves froze mid-air.
Kwon's hair halted mid-turn.
The wooden spheres paused in place, a second away from crushing him—
but they didn't move.
Everything inverted
in pale monochrome.
Time itself
held its breath.
Kang turned around slowly.
His own breath was calm.
Controlled.
Almost peaceful.
Behind him—
WHHRRRRRR—
The Wheel of Fate manifested.
Not violently.
Not chaotically.
Silently.
Like it had always been there.
And the moment the wheel fully formed—
Time resumed.
The forest snapped back into motion just as four boulders collided with an impossible force—
FLOOM—!!
A violent burst of wind roared outward, so loud even the ground seemed to gasp.
The boulders were thrown back instantly—
sent flying in four different directions, ripping trenches through the moss and soil as they were hurled across the forest like scraps of wood caught in a hurricane.
Wind tore through the battlefield.
Trees bent until their branches kissed the dirt.
Leaves spiraled violently upward.
Dust shot across the floor like a tidal wave.
Kwon stabbed her katana into the ground, gripping the handle with both hands to anchor herself as the gale screamed past her body.
Kang stood perfectly still.
Unmoved.
Unshaken.
The wooden spirit was launched far into the distance—
until the forest grew quiet again…
…only for the splinters to begin crawling back together.
Merging.
Twisting.
Reforming into a towering shape.
A large humanoid form grew from the wooden fragments, sap glowing like molten gold between the cracks of its bark.
As the last piece locked into place—
The winds stopped.
A soft, warm breeze brushed past them.
And then—
A voice echoed gently through the trees.
"Welcome, mortal."
A figure stepped forward from the wind itself.
"I am Elise, the Great Wind."
The Wheel behind Kang shifted—
its symbols spinning—
until it landed on the emblem of wind.
A soft green glow washed over the battlefield.
Elise stood before them.
Short, yet divine.
Clothed in pure white garments that fluttered like silk caught in a gentle storm.
Her hair thick, long, impossibly green—
flowing like vines in a sacred breeze, yet so perfectly groomed it looked unreal.
She appeared young.
Ageless.
Ethereal.
Kang's inner voice tightened.
…Another god?
First the God of Love—
who crushed Henry the Brute like he weighed nothing.
Then the God of Thunder—
Aurelion—
whose power carried him through the fight with Azware, the Star Wolf.
Now this.
Another presence.
Another deity.
Another Wheel activation.
He exhaled softly—
And Elise opened her eyes.
They shimmered with the colour of fresh spring winds.
"Mortal Kang," she said quietly,
her voice calm yet carrying the full weight of a storm.
"You called."
Kwon turned fully, eyes narrowed in confusion as the small divine girl stood in the clearing.
"Who are you…?" she whispered.
Elise didn't answer her.
She didn't even look at her.
Her attention was focused entirely on Kang.
Behind them, the wooden giant moved.
Slowly.
Painfully slowly.
The forest trembled with each creaking motion as its massive arm lifted—
branches twisting, roots fusing, bark tightening like hardened muscle.
The limb reshaped itself…
Into a hammer.
A hammer so enormous it cast a shadow over the entire clearing.
A hammer big enough to level a kingdom.
To flatten mountains.
To erase everything with a single strike.
Kwon's breath hitched.
Kang nodded once.
Steady.
Ready.
Unmoving.
Elise closed her eyes softly.
"Very well."
She snapped her fingers.
A tiny sound.
Soft.
Gentle.
And the goddess vanished.
As quickly as she appeared—
gone like a breeze that never existed.
Kwon pivoted back toward Kang—
And froze.
Her jaw dropped open.
"What… what happened to you…?"
Kang stood where he was, planted firmly in the ground—
But his entire body was now engulfed in wind.
Not a light breeze.
Not a gentle swirl.
A storm.
Thick, violent, roaring gusts spiraled around him—
circling him like the eye of a cosmic hurricane.
The winds tore grass from the soil.
Shredded leaves in mid-air.
Bent entire trees away from him.
The force was so intense it looked like the raging tempests on Jupiter—
a storm that never ended,
never weakened,
never paused.
And yet—
None of it touched him.
Inside the chaos, his clothes didn't move.
His hair didn't shift.
His stance didn't sway.
It was as if he stood in perfect stillness,
while the rest of the world was being pushed violently away.
Like the storm belonged to him.
Not the other way around.
Kwon stared, breath caught in her throat.
"…Kang…?" she whispered.
The forest hammered its arm down—
but the wind around him twisted.
Curled.
Gathered.
Prepared to answer.
And Kang simply exhaled.
Calm.
Quiet.
Focused.
Ready.
SLAM.
The world shook.
Not just the forest.
Not just the floor.
But everything.
The vibration tore through the ground, through the roots, through the mountains—
a tremor that could be felt across the entire kingdom.
Kwon staggered backward, nearly losing her balance as the hammer smashed into the earth beside them.
The impact crater swallowed half the clearing, dust exploding into the sky.
If Kang had been one step closer, he would've been erased.
But he didn't step back.
He didn't flinch.
He simply lifted his hand—
fingers curling into a claw—
as if grasping something invisible.
The winds raged harder around him, spiraling into a violent cyclone.
His voice slipped out, quiet but absolute.
"Great… storm."
He clenched his hand.
SHHHHHK—
The world blinked.
One frame, Kang was standing still.
The next—
the wooden monstrosity was impaled.
A colossal spear of wind—
no, a storm condensed into a blade—
tore straight through its chest.
A roaring vortex, sharp enough to shred metal
yet precise enough to split a soul.
The spirit froze.
Wind howled violently through the hole in its torso, splinters flying in every direction.
Kwon's eyes widened.
The storm condensed again—
shrinking, reshaping, tightening.
Until it wasn't a spear anymore.
It took form—
A sword.
Long.
Violent.
Spiraling with razor-sharp gusts,
screaming like a hurricane forced into steel.
A sword that didn't cut the body—
It cut the soul.
The wooden giant lurched, cracking from the inside out as the storm-sword pierced deeper, eating through every spiritual fiber it had.
Kang's eyes glowed gold through the raging winds.
And he whispered—
"Burst."
The storm obeyed.
CRACK…
crack…
crack…
Kwon slowly lowered her katana as she stared at the wooden spirit.
Its insides were collapsing.
Twisting inward.
Crushing in on themselves.
Like a fragile shell
being swallowed by a black hole.
And then—
BURST.
The spirit exploded.
A violent splash of splintered bark and spiritual wood scattered across the clearing like shrapnel.
The aftermath was brutal.
Trees bent under the pressure.
Animals sprinted out of the forest, terrified.
Clouds thickened overhead.
Wind howled like a wounded beast.
Rain began to fall—heavy, messy, soaking into the torn soil.
The ground turned to mud instantly.
Kang watched it quietly.
He muttered under his breath:
"I guess it's over."
He lifted his hand.
The UI flickered into his vision.
System Notification
Warning
Mana: 0 / 400
Kang's inner voice sank.
…I guess I used it all.
Beside him, Kwon was trembling—not from fear, not from exhaustion—
but because she had no idea what the hell to say.
What to ask.
What she even just witnessed.
But she didn't get to speak.
RUMBLE…
The ground shook.
"Kang—!" she snapped, stepping back.
"What now?!" she shouted over the trembling earth, gritting her teeth.
Kang stumbled—
then outright fell onto his back, wind aura gone completely.
"What the hell…?"
It was jarring.
The Kang from a second ago—
the storm-wielding, golden-eyed warrior—
vanished.
Replaced instantly
by the confused, overwhelmed Adam Joel inside him.
The ground split open.
Roots surged upward—
twisting—
braiding—
merging—
forming a massive shape.
A chest.
Arms.
A head.
A golem.
Towering.
Breathing.
Heavy as a bear made of pure earth and ancient roots.
It stood upright, mud dripping from its body, eyes glowing faint gold.
System Notification
Phase 2 Activated
Good luck.
Boss: World Tree
Floor 5 / 100
The golem roared—
And the second round began.
The golem roared—
a deep, ancient sound that rattled Kwon's bones and drowned the rain.
Kang dragged himself up onto one knee, breath ragged.
No mana.
No god.
No storm.
Just his body.
Just the carrot sword.
Just whatever was left of him.
Kwon stepped in front of him, katana raised.
Her voice shook—not from fear, but from adrenaline.
"Kang… stay behind me."
The golem lowered its massive arm.
Roots coiled like a whip.
Mud cracked under its weight.
And then—
It charged.
A wall of roots.
A storm of mud.
A monster of earth.
It tore through the rain with enough force to shatter bone on contact.
Kwon braced herself, katana raised.
Kang forced himself up—
barely—
body shaking, breath weak, the storm long gone.
And just before impact—
System Notification
Quest Updated
Objective: Survive.