Blood soaked the earth before Aron understood what he was seeing.
The creature towering before them was no goblin.
It stood taller than the surrounding trees, its scaled body thick with hardened muscle and scarred plates of
yellow-green armor. A massive tail crushed stone and roots alike as it dragged behind the monster, leaving
furrows in the ground. Its eyes—cold, calculating—burned with a cruel intelligence.
An S-Class Lizard Tyrant.
The adventurers who had challenged it were already dead.
Broken bodies lay scattered across the clearing, twisted at unnatural angles, weapons snapped like toys
beside them. Blood steamed faintly where it touched the monster's lingering mana.
Only Ayesha still stood.
Her sword trembled in her grip—not from fear, but exhaustion. Her breath came in ragged gasps, each
inhale scraping against cracked ribs. Blood dripped steadily from the deep gash across her side, soaking
into armor that had long since lost its shine.
Her proficiency had reached Master.
Something many warriors never achieved in a lifetime.
It was not enough.
"Aron," she said quietly, never taking her eyes off the monster.
"Stay behind me."
He wanted to obey.
Truly, desperately wanted to.
But his legs moved before his mind could stop them.
"Sister—!"
The Lizard Tyrant noticed him instantly.
Its pupils narrowed.
A smile—ugly and knowing—curled across its scaled face.
A weakling.
Its tail lashed out.
The world exploded.
Ayesha moved without hesitation.
Steel met flesh with a sound like tearing metal. The impact sent her flying. She crashed into a tree hard
enough to splinter bark and shake leaves loose from the canopy. Her body slid down the trunk and
collapsed to its base.
Aron screamed her name.
Blood poured from her back where the monster's claws had torn through armor and bone. Yet even as she
struggled to breathe, she smiled.
That gentle, familiar smile.
"Why… did you come here?" she asked softly. "Didn't I tell you to trust me?"
Aron fell beside her, hands shaking as he pressed uselessly against the wound. His mind screamed for
answers—for power—for anything.
"I—I can help," he whispered. "Please… just hold on."
The world froze.
A cold, mechanical sound echoed through reality.
SYSTEM NOTIFICATION
Class Awakening Detected
Subject: Aron
Condition Met: Extreme Emotional Stress / Protective Obsession
Pain exploded through his chest.
Not physical pain—something deeper. As if invisible hands had reached into his soul and torn something
open without asking permission. Information flooded his mind.
Circulation.
Growth.
Regeneration.
Life drawn from life.
Class Granted: Healer (Rare)
Attribute Assigned: Plant (Anomalous)
Without understanding how, Aron's hands began to glow a soft green. The ground beneath them cracked as
vines burst forth, wrapping around Ayesha's wounds. They dug into flesh and bone, stitching her body
together inch by agonizing inch.
She gasped.
"…Aron?"
"I won't let you die," he said, tears spilling freely. "I don't care what it costs."
The healing worked.
And Aron felt it immediately.
A drain.
A hollowing pull inside his chest, as if something unseen had opened its eye and begun to watch him
closely.
The Lizard Tyrant roared in fury.
Ayesha forced herself upright, sword trembling as she raised it once more. Her body screamed in protest,
muscles tearing as she pushed past what should have been her limit.
"Practice like you never won," she murmured.
"Perform like you never lose."
With a final, desperate exchange, she drove the monster back—just enough.
They ran.
That night, Aron collapsed from exhaustion beside a dying campfire. As darkness swallowed him, the
system recorded silently.
SYSTEM LOG
Subject: Aron
Growth Pattern: Deviates from Standard Parameters
Classification: Irregular
The system had not granted him power out of kindness.
It had planted a seed.
And seeds, given time, could devour entire worlds.