Ren sat alone in the quiet comfort of his room at the inn, the flickering light of the enchanted lamp casting long shadows across the desk. The ancient tome lay open before him—its cracked leather cover and worn edges a testament to its long journey through time. Despite its fragile condition, the glyphs etched into its pages still shimmered faintly with dormant power, like starlight waiting to be stirred.
He turned each page carefully, absorbing the depictions of the ancient sword forms—fluid arcs, leaping slashes, and sharp plunges that mimicked the fall of comets. It was beautiful. Aggressive. A style born of momentum, not hesitation. However, his progress came to an abrupt halt.
"Pages are missing…" he murmured, frowning.
Whole sequences cut off, transitions left unexplained. It was as though someone had torn away pieces of history mid-thought. He closed the book and leaned back with a sigh, one hand resting on the pommel of his blade.
"Seraphina, even I can't fully decipher this style. Something's missing."
"Not your fault," her calm voice echoed in his mind. "Even legendary techniques can be lost to time. But perhaps you don't need to find it—you can rebuild it."
Ren stood and stepped into the Still World, the world between time where training was endless and uninterrupted. There, he opened the book again and began practicing the fragments he did understand. He followed the motions—slashes wide as crashing waves, sudden thrusts as quick as falling stars—but every time he reached a transition point, the flow faltered.
"It's like dancing without hearing the rhythm," he muttered.
Then, an idea sparked.
"If I can't restore the lost pages… what if I substitute them?"
He opened the Skill Shop in his mind, eyes scanning through dozens of sword styles. Most were too defensive, too reactionary. What he needed was something that matched the flow of the Falling Star—reckless yet precise, overwhelming but controlled.
There.
[Skill Acquired: Crimson Fang Sword Style – Aggressive Type]
It cost nearly all his remaining skill points, but the moment the knowledge downloaded into his mind, he felt it—the pressure behind each strike, the heavy but elegant transitions. It wasn't the Falling Star Form, but it resonated with it.
"Good," he whispered. "Now let's try this again."
"Before you begin," Seraphina said smoothly, "consider purchasing this."
A new prompt opened.
[Insight Gaze – Passive Skill. Grants the ability to perceive intent, flaws, and flow of techniques and skills. Recommended for technique fusion.]
He hesitated only a moment before accepting. When the skill activated, the world shifted. His perception sharpened. He could now see more than movements—he saw their intent. Every swing, even the ones sketched on the page, left behind phantom trails of purpose. He could trace them, feel where the missing pieces should connect.
And with that, he began anew.
Hour after hour passed in the Still World. He danced between Falling Star and Crimson Fang, bridging broken patterns with aggressive footwork, piercing angles, and momentum-driven force. The sword blurred in his hands, slashing through the silence with unrelenting tempo.
Mistake. Correction. Breakthrough.
Again.
And again.
Until finally—a flash of resonance.
His body moved instinctively, completing the final sequence. The blade cut through the air in an arc of light, swift and elegant, a rebirth of a technique long forgotten.
A system prompt appeared before him.
[New Skill Created: Reforged Starfall – Hybrid Sword Technique]
Tier: Legendary (Evolving)
Description: A reborn art combining an ancient forgotten sword form with Crimson Fang. Focused on overwhelming speed, striking momentum, and piercing power. Contains the essence of celestial aggression.
Effect: Damage increases with movement speed. Critical strike chance increases during chained attacks. Can evolve when fully mastered.
Ren collapsed to one knee, breath ragged, sweat clinging to his brow—even in the Still World.
But he grinned.
"It's not perfect… but it's mine."
"And it's beautiful," Seraphina said softly. "This is what it means to shape the world, Ren."
He nodded and sheathed his sword. Tomorrow, the city would wake to another day.
But in this moment, beneath still stars, Ren Arclight had reforged the stars themselves.
The Still World once again shimmered in its timeless hush, the very air pulsing with quiet anticipation. Ren stood alone upon the cracked, scorched plains—evidence of his repeated spell testing littering the space around him. And yet, the gleam in his eyes said he was just beginning.
With his mastery of elemental magic and forging nearing the level of artistry, it was only a matter of time before Ren began to walk the path of fusion—not just of spells, but of purpose. A new concept burned in his thoughts: sword techniques merged with high-intensity elemental magic, refined into devastating singular strikes. These would be no ordinary skills. They were finishing blows. Trump cards. Death sentences.
He would name them accordingly.
The Divine Heavens Sword Techniques.
The first was already carved into his memory—the technique that had split the Guardian Boss in half with a single blow.
Dimensional Slash.
It was a fusion of space magic and his mid-tier sword skill, Stormveil Crescent. The technique took the compressed potential of spatial disruption and fed it into a singular arc of his katana. The blade would cleave not just flesh, but the very space the enemy occupied. With a clean motion, he had split both body and core in perfect silence.
But now, he set out to craft more.
Ren focused on a new element.
Lightning.
His body hummed with electric tension as he wrapped his limbs in chained spells—Lightning Vein, Dash, Wind Step. Then he layered them, amplifying the movement speed until he could no longer be seen with the naked eye.
The second sword technique would pierce through all defenses, a strike faster than reaction, deadlier than thought.
The foundation came from memory—Gatotsu, the lethal thrust of the swordsman Saito Hajime. A stab powered by complete commitment, straight and absolute.
Ren adapted it with his own skills, transforming it into something greater.
He cast lightning into his blade, wrapped wind around his limbs, and drew his sword back into a tight, low stance. The moment he initiated movement, the entire world blurred.
With one explosive thrust, the technique fired forward—a straight line of raw, focused lightning energy erupted from his blade, like a railgun of death.
The ground melted. Air cracked. A deep scar was carved into the earth for over a hundred meters.
[New Technique Acquired: Divine Heaven Second Style – Sky Piercer]
An instantaneous thrust technique powered by lightning and wind. Projects a piercing beam of destructive force for extreme ranged damage. Unblockable unless countered by dimensional or divine-class defenses.
Mana Cost: 260
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Ren exhaled, shoulders quivering from the aftershock. "It worked…"
But it was the third technique that consumed his mind most of all.
The idea came to him like a fever dream.
A technique that did not seek elegance or finality. Instead, it was chaos. An overwhelming, endless barrage. He envisioned the entire field flooded by versions of himself—all casting one relentless technique in unison until the enemy was simply erased by sheer quantity.
He named it:
Life Sprinkler.
Its foundation was built around his Starfall Blade technique—an aerial sword skill that let him dash mid-air while raining down blade strikes like shooting stars. But this time, the sword falls wouldn't come from just one Ren. He would create clones—mirages formed from mana and space magic. Then those clones would create more clones, each using Starfall, casting in cycles. It wouldn't stop until his mana ran dry.
And once the enemy was disoriented, buried under a sky of swords and phantom attackers…
Ren would retreat, channeling a massive AOE spell—Infernal Rain—to rain down destruction as the final punctuation.
He visualized it all, mouth drawn in a quiet, almost unsettling grin. He called out to Seraphina.
"Is this even possible…?"
Her voice answered softly, intrigued. "It is... barely. But it is not a sword technique—it is a symphony of death. You'll need perfect control of clone magic, real-time coordination of their actions, and enough mana efficiency to delay exhaustion."
"I'll find a way," Ren whispered. "Even if I can't cast it now… I'll build toward it."
[Conceptual Technique: Divine Heaven Third Style – Life Sprinkler]
Status: Unlocked – Conceptual Only
Description: A recursive, clone-based barrage technique using the sword art 'Starfall.' Clones replicate themselves and chain sword attacks in overlapping waves, culminating in a massive AOE finisher.
Mana Cost: Varies – Scales with clone count and duration
Requirements: Clone Casting, Mana Regeneration, Starfall Blade Mastery, Spell Synchronization
Final Form: Locked
Sweat dripped from Ren's brow as he stood in the center of the Still World.
Even without unleashing it fully, he could feel the weight of this future technique—its scale, its potential.
Seraphina's voice came again. "Three techniques. Three answers. One decisive path. When wielded with conviction, they will be spoken of in legend."
Ren sheathed his blade.
"Then I'll make them fear the name Divine Heaven."
The afternoon sun bathed the streets of Veltharn in warm amber, casting long shadows from tiled rooftops and bustling merchants. Ren stood on a stone balcony just outside his inn room, the wind tugging at his coat as he flipped through a leather-bound dossier—the one handed to him personally by Guildmaster Garron Thorne. Each page detailed critical notes: terrain structure, monster hierarchy, elemental hazards, and key points of interest. In the center was a hand-drawn sketch of a towering ruin with spiraling pathways curling toward the sky—Hollow Spire.
"A mid-tier dungeon," Ren murmured, eyes scanning line after line. "Five floors, each with shifting elemental affinities. Not many have cleared it… no one solo."
He closed the dossier, eyes burning with purpose.
"That's what makes it perfect."
Down in the Still World, Ren stood alone in his training grounds, testing the rhythm of breath and movement. Starfall Blade sliced through the air, a graceful, spiraling descent of slashes. The earth burned from the trace of his elemental sigils—flames roaring, lightning snapping, the wind slicing through invisible barriers.
Next, he activated Marker Teleportation.
Blink. Drop. Teleport. Strike.
He repeated the sequence over and over, chaining different movement styles—Phantom Step, Wind Dash, and even a partial Sky Piercer thrust to simulate clash scenarios. Every rune mark he placed shimmered faintly with glowing edges—custom-designed per element: jagged bolts for lightning, swirling spirals for wind, deep blue rings for water.
Each mark cost only twenty mana—a negligible cost for the sheer devastation they could unleash.
Explosions. Impalements. Tornado lifts.
When placed on enemies or ground, they transformed the battlefield into Ren's personal trap-laden arena.
"Seraphina," Ren said, standing still at the center of a burned crater, his breath steady. "I want you to observe everything during this dungeon run. Combat transitions, casting efficiency, elemental responses, stamina decay. Everything."
"Of course," her voice answered from his mind. "Would you also like predictive suggestions during battle?"
"Only if I'm not in focus mode. Otherwise, keep silent and record everything."
"Understood."
Ren nodded, his hand drifting to the hilt of his katana. He turned his gaze northward. Beyond Veltharn's stone walls, past the timber-lined roads and misty forest line, Hollow Spire awaited.
A place rumored to shift its floors with elemental instability. Fire, wind, water, earth… each floor demanded a different approach. But Ren didn't just want to adapt—he wanted to dominate.
The following morning, he left early—cloak tightened, equipment secured. His scarf glimmered faintly with arcane threads, amplifying his spell weaving. The Moon Fangs rested at his sides, upgraded and honed to perfection. The katana sheathed across his back radiated power, the elemental crystal embedded in its hilt pulsating with latent energy.
This wasn't just another dungeon dive.
This was a proving ground.
Not for the world.
But for himself.
The road to Hollow Spire was long and winding, flanked by jagged cliffs and scattered ruins overgrown with moss and wildflowers. Ren traveled by foot, the morning sun cresting overhead as the vast silhouette of the Hollow Spire began to take form in the distance.
It loomed like a spear piercing the sky—an impossibly tall tower carved from black stone and laced with glowing runes that pulsed like a heartbeat. Its base, a wide crater rimmed with jagged rocks, was surrounded by tents, stalls, and caravans. This was the outer staging area—a makeshift hub of adventurers, merchants, and fortune seekers. The air buzzed with activity, clinking steel, shouted bargains, and the chatter of parties forming and disbanding.
Ren entered the area quietly, his cloak and scarf fluttering in the breeze, sword and buckler resting against his back. He kept a low profile—his appearance no longer bearing the distinct Alpha Wolf pelt. His simple tailored garb marked him as a traveler, not a noble or high-ranking adventurer.
He passed weapon smiths hawking enchanted blades, potion vendors promising fire resistance and mana boosts, and bulletin boards listing party vacancies.
"Need a frontline tank for Hollow Spire—Floor 3 and up!"
"Looking for a healer! Must have AoE support spells!"
"DPS with fire res needed—serious runs only!"
Ren ignored them all.
He moved with purpose toward the central platform—a massive stone circle inscribed with glowing runes. At its center stood a carved pedestal, the activation stone: the dungeon's teleportation mechanism.
A group of ten adventurers stood before it now, hands extended toward the glyph. With a soft hum, the runes glowed blue, and the party vanished in a gentle pulse of light.
Ren stepped forward next.
The moment he set foot on the platform, several heads turned.
"Hey—someone else's going in."
"Solo?"
"Bold…"
But then, something changed.
As Ren raised his hand and placed it against the rune-carved pedestal, the sigils flared—not blue or gold, but deep crimson. A pulse like a heartbeat shuddered through the stone.
The surrounding crowd went still.
The light intensified—red, thick as blood, wrapping around Ren like a living flame.
Murmurs broke out all around him.
"Red light… that's—"
"Extreme mode!"
"Wait—wasn't that the same glow at the Newvale dungeon?!"
"No one uses extreme mode solo!"
Ren stood tall within the light, expression unreadable.
Seraphina's voice rang gently in his mind.
"Teleportation confirmed. Destination: Hollow Spire, Extreme Difficulty."
As the teleportation completed, the platform flared once more—then Ren vanished, consumed by the red blaze.
The bystanders stood frozen, stunned.
"Who was that guy…?"
"That was the Lone Wolf… wasn't it?"