Ryn reached for the first book—the one drawn from the forest gem's chest. If his hypothesis was correct, this was the one Rora had accessed in his first life.
The moment his fingers brushed the cover, he felt an immediate prickling tension beneath his skin.
Ryn lifted it from the chest and stepped back, the shed falling quiet around him. Jay lingered near the doorway, sensing instinctively that this wasn't something to interrupt.
Ryn already knew what this Technique did.
He'd seen Rora use it countless times—vanishing and reappearing in jagged bursts, marking three enemies by touch before tearing through them in rapid succession.
He finally opened the first book.
Light spilled outward, threading along his arm, sinking beneath skin and bone until he had absorbed it fully.
Ryn staggered a half-step as the sensation snapped back into place, heart pounding.
The knowledge was already there.
A familiar system message surfaced at the edge of his awareness to confirm it.
