First BreathArc I — Zero GroundsPOV: Nara
Nara stayed hidden behind the roots for another long minute, grey life bar mocking her from the edge of her vision. The manual lay closed in her lap, its final note about undead physiology still burning behind her eyes. She had read every accessible page. She had tested the Moonvein potion on herself. Nothing worked. The grey refused to move.
She needed to do something. Anything. Sitting still invited thoughts that led nowhere useful.
Her gaze returned to the goblin corpse in the clearing. Small. Weak. Already dead once tonight. The faint green glow of its soul gem still pulsed inside the open chest wound like a dying coal. The manual had called revival a theoretical footnote. Theoretical was better than nothing.
She stood slowly, slinging the heavy satchel over her shoulder. Bare feet made almost no sound on the moss as she crossed the distance. The goblin looked even smaller up close—scrawny limbs, jagged bone knife still clutched in one severed hand, black blood matting its chest fur. She crouched beside it, the useless Moonvein potion still warm in the metal cup.
Frustration pushed her forward more than hope. She had nothing else to test.
She tilted the cup and poured the bitter liquid directly into the deep sword wound. The potion soaked into torn flesh and pooled in the cavity around the glowing soul gem. For several heartbeats, nothing happened. Just wet sounds and the faint smell of crushed herbs mixing with goblin blood.
Then the soul gem flared brighter.
The goblin's eyelids snapped open.
Yellow eyes with slit pupils locked onto hers. No rage. No immediate lunge for her throat. The creature simply stared, chest rising and falling in shallow, ragged breaths that should not have been possible. Its severed arm twitched once, then lay still.
Achievement Unlocked: Necromancy — Glitch Class ActivatedUndead Ally Created: Goblin Scout, Level 1Bond Established: Primary Authority – Nara (Unregistered)
The notifications exploded across her vision in bright, jagged letters she had never seen before. The usual clean System font looked corrupted—edges flickering like bad code. Glitch Class. The words sat there, impossible and undeniable.
Nara froze.
The goblin continued staring up at her, eyes unblinking. It made no move to attack. Instead, it pushed itself into a sitting position with its remaining arm, the chest wound already closing around the embedded soul gem. Black blood stopped flowing. The creature tilted its head, waiting.
She snatched the manual back open, flipping frantically through the pages. Monster taming. Summoning rituals. Pet contracts. Nothing. She checked the index twice. No entry for Necromancer. No mention of Glitch Classes. No section on undead allies or corrupted revival. The Grimoire Field Guide—supposedly the most complete reference a Traveller could carry—had zero records of what had just happened.
The goblin made a low, clicking sound in its throat. Not threatening. Almost questioning.
Nara closed the book with a snap. Her grey life bar remained unchanged at twenty-three percent, but a new line had appeared beneath it:
Active Minion: Goblin Scout (Lv.1) – BoundLoyalty: 100% (Primary Authority)
She stared at the goblin. It stared back. The creature looked exactly like any other Level 1 scavenger—matted green skin, pointed ears, sharp teeth—except its eyes now carried a faint grey sheen that matched her own life bar. It did not breathe like a living thing. It existed.
A glitch.
Her glitch.
She tested the bond with a single mental command, the same way she had once tested digging rates in the tunnels.
Stand.
The goblin rose immediately, swaying slightly on weak legs. It picked up its severed arm from the ground, looked at it for a moment, then dropped it again as if deciding it was no longer useful. The creature waited for another order, patient in a way no living goblin had any right to be.
Nara exhaled slowly. Calculations spun in her head, dry and rapid. A minion. An undead ally created through a corrupted revival. The manual had warned about risks, but this outcome sat outside every documented possibility. She had poured a useless healing potion on a corpse and accidentally triggered something the System itself labeled a glitch.
Useful. Extremely useful.
She reached out and touched the goblin's shoulder. Cold skin. No pulse. The creature did not flinch. Instead, it leaned slightly into the contact, like a dog recognizing its owner.
Minion Status UpdatedGoblin Scout (Lv.1) – Passive Regeneration ActiveAbilities: Minor Stealth, Basic Scouting, Undead Resilience
The notifications kept coming, each one carrying that same corrupted flicker at the edges. She was building something the world had no record of. That thought sent a sharp, spiteful satisfaction through her chest. For once, the System was reacting to her instead of dictating terms.
She stood, testing her own legs. The satchel felt heavier now that she carried both it and the weight of whatever she had just become. Undead. Glitch Class. Necromancy. The words felt like new tools rather than curses.
The goblin waited at her side, head tilted, ready.
She gave another silent command.
Follow. Stay hidden.
The creature melted into the underbrush with surprising grace for something freshly revived. Only its eyes remained visible—two faint grey points tracking her movements.
Nara adjusted the satchel strap and started walking deeper into the woods, choosing a direction away from the warrior's trail. Every step took her farther from Zone 0. Farther from the shed. Farther from Kael and Grelt and the endless berry rows.
Behind her, the goblin scout moved like a shadow, silent and obedient.
She had crossed the barrier. She had created something that should not exist. The cage had a hole, and she was already widening it.
Far away, in a place where the trees gave way to jagged mountains and ancient stone, a solitary tower rose from the mist-shrouded peak. Its black spires pierced the night sky like broken fingers. No lights had burned in its narrow windows for five centuries. No banners flew. No messengers came or went.
Inside the highest chamber, dust coated every surface. A massive obsidian pedestal stood in the center, its surface etched with runes long forgotten by most of Erathis. Atop the pedestal rested a single crystal orb, dark and lifeless for longer than most kingdoms had existed.
Suddenly, the orb flickered.
Just once.
A single pulse of sickly grey light bloomed at its core, then vanished. The runes around the pedestal glowed faintly in response before fading back into darkness.
The tower remained silent.
But something inside it had noticed the ping.
A Glitch Achievement had registered in the System logs.
And whatever slept in that tower had just stirred.