Leon stared incredulously at the elf.

‘Incarnate?’

Clement shook his head, leaning over and whispering to Leon, “He’s a bit cuckoo, but he makes the best Bound weapons, so…”

He went over to the elf. “Hey, Folmar! Have you got his weapon ready?”

The elf nodded his head. “Of course! It’s just for a price…”

Clement nodded. “You know I have too much money anyway. C’mon, give the boy a weapon, while I get some money for you.” With that, he turned to Leon. “I need to get the money, so stay with Folmar here. You should be safe here.”

Leon nodded, a bit tense due to the elf’s mental health.

As soon as Clement left the shop, the elf turned to Leon.

“No, I’m not insane,” he said, rolling his eyes. The elf gestured at the closed door. “I have to act like I’m not a threat. Especially in front of him.”

“Why? Isn’t Clement on our side of the revolution?”

Folmar shook his head. “I read much of human revolutions. Ours is nothing of that sort. You’ll know once you go to the Inner Districts.” He gestured to Leon to follow him. “I’ll get you a Bound weapon. I assume you have a Skill Tree?”

When Leon nodded, he continued. “A Bound weapon is a weapon that grows with you, and also grows weaker with you. We Bind it to your mana core, which gives it access to become almost like a part of you.”

‘Mana core? Could this man know something about the part Leon was missing from developing a channel?’

“What exactly is a mana core?”

Folmar and Leon went past the outside area of the shop and entered the backside.

“A mana core is the part of the body where all the branches of your mana channels spread out from. It's like roots spreading from a seed.”

“Do I need it to develop mana channels?”

Folmar stared at Leon in shock. “You don’t have mana channels?”

“Nope,” said Leon, sighing sadly.

Folmar shook his head in hopelessness. “What’ll humanity do when-”

“When what?”

“Never mind.” He guided Leon to a small room, which was filled to the brim with weapons of all sorts.

“By the way, aren’t you afraid that I’ll tell your truth to Clement?”

The elf laughed, a ringing, scratchy sound. “Boy, even if you tell him that, he won’t believe it. After all, I’ve known that kid since birth.”

Now Leon was even more confused. “If you known him since birth, why can’t he know?”

‘Also, how old is this elf?’

Folmar shook his head sadly. “Ah, I wish I could trust him, but I can’t trust the son of one of the Barons. And it doesn’t help that he used to be a general of the King’s Army.”

‘Is Clement that involved with the people we're fighting against?‘

“Why are you guys doing a revolution anyway? What’s the problem?”

The elf laughed again. “You don’t need to know that. Focus on humanity’s problems first.”

‘I wish. But I can’t even go back home.’

Folmar walked over to a set of weapons, all nestled nicely on the wall. Their metals gleamed with polish, and each looked extraordinarily sharp.

“You can choose anything you like. But you can only choose once. Hurry up, I don’t have that much time.”

Leon walked over to the weapons. There were a total of 20 weapons, all ranging from melee to long-range.

His mind began running, thinking all about the benefits and cons of choosing a certain weapon. After all, this could potentially save his life, and also help him get revenge on those that had killed his family.

He shouldn’t pick long-range weapons, as his Cosmos Skill Tree didn’t support long-range weapons as much.

Although it would be good to pick a regular single-handed sword, Leon wanted a weapon that could give him hidden advantages.

A weapon that not that many people paid attention to.

Reaching out he grasped the handle of a falchion, smiling at the sharpness of its blade.

Folmar appeared next to him, surveying the weapon that he had chosen.

“A falchion? Nice choice. It has the power of an ax and the versatility of a sword.”

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He took the weapon from Leon, positioning it in front of Leon's arm. “Now, I need to prick you with it.”

Leon winced as he felt the cold metal pierce him, blood dribbling down.

And then, he felt something stirring in his soul.

Like something was connecting itself to him.

[You have gained a Bound weapon!]

[The Abyssal Shard]

[Rank: Monarch]

Seeing the notification, he smiled.

“Folmar, by the way… what’s a rank?”

Folmar looked up at him, his face twisting into even more confusion. “You.. don’t know?” He sighed heavily, “Ranks are the ladder of power. For demons, we have Kings, Archdukes, Dukes, Archlords, Lords, and the Lost. I assume you humans are quite different.”

“Okay. Thanks.” Hearing the door of the shop open, Leon followed Folmar out, expecting to see Clement, but instead spotting a petite girl his age holding a sack.

“Oh! Liala! C’mon, hand it over!” Folmar shouted, his face breaking into a grin.

Liala smiled, shaking her head. “Give me the money first. Kings know you’ll try and run with the food like last time.”

Folmar pouted, not exactly a cute sight as his face looked even more deformed. “C’mon… you know I won’t do that.”

She sighed, handing over the sack in exchange for some coins.

She turned to Leon. “Hello. Who are you?”

Leon remained silent, loving the fact that he had a mask on.

‘I don’t need to converse with anyone! They’ll just think I’m some mysterious edgelord.’

Silently staring at her for a second, he went and took a seat, pulling out his sword.

He surveyed the sleek metal, liking that the color of the edges seemed to be slowly fading into darkness.

‘Now it feels like I’ve become a Reborn.”

Once again, the door of the shop opened, this time letting Clement in.

Groaning, Leon stood up, pulling the sword with him.

“Are you done?”

Leon silently nodded, showing him the sword.

Clement surveyed the weapon for a second, and then nodded approvingly. “Here, take this Skill.”

[Charon, the former General of the King’s Army has gifted you a Skill!]

[You have been given the Skill [Dimensional Storage]

“What’s this?” Leon asked, looking at the notifications in front of him.

“Activate it, and then put your sword inside it.”

“Okay.” Activating the Skill, a small portal spawned, crackling tendrils of lighting out of it.

Leon grabbed the heavy sword and then unceremoniously threw it in there.

Shaking his head at the performance, Clement motioned Leon to follow him out of the shop.

“I got more news from the Inner Districts. The revolution is starting for real. We need to get you outfitted and stronger, and then get you there.”

“Oh? Where are we going next?”

Clement sighed, scratching at his head. “I didn’t want to waste money on you, but the revolution is going to be bloodier than we thought. I’m going to buy you some more Resurgence orbs.”

“Resurgence? The ones that boost my Mana recovery by 50%?”

“No, there are many kinds of Resurgence orbs. I’ll probably get you Strength and Mana Improvement.”

Arriving at another shop, which was filled to the brim with demons, Clement bought a couple of opaque orbs, using the strange coins that seemed to be currency in this world.

They soon left the market by another entrance, letting them appear outside, wincing at the crimson sun.

Clement looked up at the sun. “C’mon, it's about noon. You need to get your Mana channels made.”

***

After arriving at the cottage, Leon was again laying on the ground.

He tried again to feel the energy in the soil, wincing as the tingling feeling grew.

This time however, he quickly swallowed a Resurgence orb that would improve his overall Mana amount, gagging again at the metallic taste.

Immediately, he felt a fire start inside his body, pain rattling through him.

“Ukeh…”

Grimacing, Leon tried to direct the fire to his chest, thinking about the conversation with Folmar.

‘I need to make a Mana core.’

Slowly, the fire in his chest grew significantly, as he started to cry out from the pain.

“C’MON!”

And then suddenly, a cold feeling washed over him, extinguishing the pain as he gasped in shock.

[1/7 Mana cores developed]

Leon smiled tiredly at the notification.

‘I… did it.’

And then he closed his eyes, falling asleep on the rough soil.

***

When Leon woke up again, he nearly went back to the grave.

After all, seeing the face of an old man right in front of you is not a pretty sight.

“Eh, sleeping, are we? Guess you're not that concerned about how I might kill you if you don’t get those Mana channels in place.”

Leon scrambled up, head shaking in denial. “No, I made my Mana core. I was really tired after that…”

Now Clement cursed loudly, screaming in frustration. “You didn’t have a Mana core?! What is going on with humanity?! Ugh… I need a drink.”

“You know what, I don’t even care. Just get the Mana channels implanted in time.”

Throwing up his hands in exasperation, he walked back to the cottage.

Leon sat back down, sighing in tiredness.

The sun was slowly sinking, sending dying beams of crimson sunlight into the sky.

‘Now, let's try and make some Mana channels.’

He slowly felt a fire in his chest grow, signaling where his core was. With that, he began sending the feeling down his arms and legs, straining as he tried to make the feeling last as long as possible.

Slowly, Leon could feel it begin to stabilize, making familiar pathways for the Mana to travel. However, his willpower soon broke, sending the feeling back into his core.

‘Guess I’ll just try tomorrow.’

***

The Reborn and the man with the salt-and-pepper hair stood at the peak of a howling mountain.

The ice-filled landscape looked defying and filled with death, but the two men hardly flinched.

Slowly walking, shaping the landscape before them, they walked up to the entrance of a cave.

“Erzhis, ihk osshi hvys durh vors.”

The Unknown language rang through the winds, sparking strange runes on the cave’s mouth.

The runes began to light, sending streams of power into the cave.

The two men began their descent into the cave, arriving at a stone door.

Slowly, a face appeared out of the stone, its twisted features able to kill anyone that was not an Reborn.

Then the face spoke, its screeching, hideous voice scraping out.

“Your eyes are open and I’m there. Close them, and I’m there too. What am I?”

The man with salt-and-pepper spoke.

“The Darkness.”

Then the face screamed, as the door began to scrape open.

Unnerved, the men walked inside, and approached a huge container filled to the brim with a strange murky liquid.

A human was in there, her soft blonde hair floating as she slowly remained suspended, her face serene and calm.

Her name was Olivia Estes.

Her family knew her as Ollie.

However, now she is simply known as Subject-98.

The masked man approached the container. “When will she be ready?”

The man with salt-and-pepper hair shrugged, glancing at the girl. “We've been supplying her with Ichor, but she’s shown interesting responses to Nectar.”

The masked man sighed. “Give her the Nectar. We don’t have a lot of time. The Alliance will be here soon.”

“Okay.”

The other man grabbed a small syringe, filling it with a deep golden liquid. Then he ejected the liquid into a small hole on top of Subject-98’s container.

Slowly, she began to start to thrash, her teeth baring out, muffled screams able to be heard.

And then she suddenly went limp, her body losing all energy.

Then, when she looked about dead, she suddenly brought her head up.

And when she looked at the masked man, he let out a chuckle of happiness.

And he looked as her soft blue eyes began to turn bright gold.