Chapter 39: Second level

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: Second level

Kane’s eyes narrowed, tracking the last traces of essence settling through Jason’s expanded Core.

"Second Level now huh." He said it slowly, like tasting something bitter. "You weren’t Second Level ten minutes ago."

"No," Jason said. "I wasn’t."

Kane’s grip on his sword tightened, and for a long moment neither of them moved.

"I suppose I’ll grant you an explanation," Kane said finally, "given that you’re about to become a corpse either way."

"I’m listening."

"The

"Your clan’s elders sent me here." Kane’s tone stayed flat, clinical, the voice of a man reporting facts.

"They sent me because none of it made sense. A boy with a destroyed Soul Core doesn’t wake up one day and decide to register as a Hunter.

That’s either delusion or you’ve come across some secret worth watching closely."

"So they sent a babysitter."

"More or less." Kane said with a shrug as his eyes flicked briefly toward the crumbled remains of the egg.

"Somehow they caught wind of the fact that your cohort would come here.

I was already stationed here to look for something else entirely so it was a happy coincidence."

He drew back his sleeve just enough to reveal a small, worn compass strapped to his forearm, its needle spinning gently before settling, pointing now at nothing, the thing it had been built to find already gone.

"A dragon-seeking compass," Kane said.

"It’s drawn to terribly dense dragon bloodline densities"

"The clan knew this egg existed. The Association doesn’t, and they never will if I have anything to say about it. I was sent to retrieve it quietly."

His jaw tightened. "I didn’t expect you to find it first."

Jason’s mind raced through the implications even as his body settled into a loose, ready stance.

’They knew about a dragon egg in the heart of a hunter association dungeon that even the association didn’t seem to be aware of.

And now he knows I can cultivate again. That I’m not the broken thing they wrote off sixteen years ago.’

He thought of what that meant, elders who’d once called him unworthy suddenly discovering he’d clawed his way back from nothing, the kind of discovery that wouldn’t inspire pride in a clan like his.

It would inspire curiosity.

The kind that ended with a body on a table and questions carved directly out of flesh.

’They’ll want to know how. They won’t ask nicely. And if they think I might actually be dangerous now, the safer option for them is making sure I never get the chance to remember what they did to me.’

He reached inward, toward the quiet space where the system kept what he wasn’t currently holding, and the Stoneborn Spear materialized into his grip in a single smooth motion, essence knitting itself around the weapon as it solidified.

Kane’s expression shifted instantly, wariness sharpening into something closer to alarm.

"That’s not....." he said, retreating half a step. "Where did you-"

The trepidation in Kane’s eyes was visible now

"Doesn’t matter," Jason said. "You’re not walking out of here to report any of this."

Something in his voice must have carried the full weight of that decision, because Kane’s stance shifted immediately, sword rising, all pretense of a calm conversation abandoned.

"Then we understand each other."

---

They met in the center of the chamber, steel and lightning colliding in a shower of sparks bright enough to throw shadows against the walls.

Clang!

Jason gave ground on the first exchange, testing, feeling out the edges of a strength that felt considerably larger than it had ten minutes ago.

The swing was heavier than it should’ve been.

’This isn’t just the breakthrough.

The egg did something more than raise my level.’

He caught Kane’s next strike on the spear’s shaft and felt the impact travel through his arms without the jarring shock he expected, his body absorbing force that should have staggered him outright.

His endurance too had gone up a lot more than a single stage should account for.

Kane pressed harder, sword weaving through a combination meant to overwhelm, each strike laced with a crackling thread of lightning that mirrored Jason’s own affinity almost perfectly.

Jason matched him blow for blow, lightning meeting lightning in bright, violent flashes, and for several long exchanges neither of them gained meaningful ground.

Then Jason shifted, without warning, fire bleeding into the current along his spear, Crimson Blaze threading unpredictably through his strikes.

Kane’s rhythm broke for half a second, thrown by the sudden change in pattern, and Jason used the opening to drive him back a full step.

"You’re supposed to be a novice," Kane said, breathing harder now. "A First Level novice who got lucky with an egg."

"Apparently I got more than lucky."

"That’s not possible." Something frayed at the edges of Kane’s composure, disbelief bleeding into his voice.

"I’ve held Peak Second Level for six years. Six years, and I still can’t break through. How the fuck are you matching me right now?."

Kane’s expression twisted, something unhinged flickering behind his eyes, and he surged forward with a flurry of strikes faster and more vicious than anything before it, driving Jason backward step by step, sparks raining off the Stoneborn Spear with every parry.

Jason’s back hit stone. He barely got the spear up in time to deflect a strike aimed at his throat.

Kane pulled back half a step, chest heaving, something desperate settling into his expression now.

Then his free hand moved.

A thin needle slid from his sleeve into his palm, and before Jason could process what he was seeing, Kane pressed it against the side of his own neck.

Jason lunged, Piercing Thunder detonating down his legs, world tunneling forward in a blinding burst of speed.

He was half a heartbeat too slow.

Kane’s thumb pressed down.

Essence exploded outward from him in a violent gust, hot and pressurized, slamming into Jason mid-charge and hurling him backward across the chamber.

Jason hit the ground hard, rolling once before catching himself, spear already rising defensively as he scrambled back to his feet.

Across the chamber, Kane straightened slowly, breathing ragged, something dark and unfamiliar now humming beneath his essence signature, stronger, sharper, wrong in a way Jason couldn’t immediately name.

Jason held his ground, wary, spear leveled, watching the sudden, unnatural surge settle into place.

’What did you just do to yourself.’