The gray sky hung over the Ancient Valley like a heavy blanket. As Aris walked through the bone-dry dust that reached his knees, he felt the silent scream of the earth with every step. This place was once known as the "Fertile Belt"; now, it was merely a graveyard whose marrow had been sucked dry to feed the Empire's endless war machine.
On the day he turned eighteen, Aris had opened the sealed cellar behind the cabin with the old, rusty key left by his father. Everyone expected him to go to the city and become a mercenary or a craftsman's apprentice. But inside Aris, there was an attraction that no one could understand: a sense of belonging to the earth.
In the damp darkness of the cellar, there was only one thing inside a wooden box: a handful of dull, lusterless seeds and a tattered diary. On the first page of the diary, only this sentence was written: "The world is not sleeping, it is just holding its breath."
Aris took one of the seeds from the box and went out to the neglected field in front of the cabin. The sun was about to set. The sounds of iron forging coming from the other end of the village were harbingers of the approaching war preparations. Aris knelt down and scratched the earth with his fingers. The soil was so lifeless that it crumbled like flour in his palm.
"Come on," Aris whispered. "Just give me a sign."
He closed his eyes and began to practice the old breathing technique his father had taught him. His spiritual power circulated through his body like a thin ache. Most people used this power to throw fireballs or enchant their swords. Aris pushed this weak current from his fingertips into the soil, toward that dull seed.
Minutes passed. A drop of sweat dripped from his forehead and fell onto the ground. At that exact moment, he heard a "click" deep in his mind.
[System Interface Initializing...]
[User: Aris]
[Class: Spirit Farmer (Level 1)]
[Skill: Earth Bonding (Passive)]
He flinched at the faint blue letters appearing before his eyes. But the real miracle was below. The dull seed between his fingers suddenly flickered with a weak green light. The soil tightened around the seed as if pulled by a magnet.
[Quest Issued: The First Breath of Life] [Objective: Sprout a 'Spirit Grass'.]
[Reward: Basic Watering Technique & 10 Experience Points]
Aris held his breath. A thin, white root emerging from the seed pierced the hardened soil like a needle and went deep. Aris felt the tiny root's search for moisture beneath the ground in his own veins. This was not a farming process; this was a soul's first meeting with another soul.
However, this small miracle brought a price with it. From the forest at the edge of the village, a stifling and hungry howl rose, one that was normally never heard. It was as if this faint sign of life in the field had awakened someone waiting in the dark.
When Aris stood up, he saw the shadow appearing at the edge of the field. Its eyes were blood red.