Nix was woken up by a hint of early sunlight that pierced through the window on his left side. The slight chill that was slowly creeping up also played a part in pulling him out of his dreamland. He dreamt of nothing, just another pitch-black dream like any other day, perhaps because of the almost empty wine bottle that he so passionately made love to last night, an attempt to drown the lingering sorrow and the impending doom of the future.

He hadn't retreated to his chamber but had spent the night in his study room. The fireplace had gone cold, and the candle had long melted. This, coupled with the approaching winter, made the room felt unwelcoming, urging him to sober up and leave.

"It's almost winter, and winter has never been kind to this land," he thought. Not that it mattered, as he was convinced he would not live to see the season.

Just before he stood up to leave, his eyes fell on a long rectangular box. Mixed emotions surged within him—not because of the box itself, but because of the item it contained. He decided to push aside the urge to leave the cold, unwelcoming room and focused his attention on the box.

He slowly opened the box and was greeted by the familiar sight of the gold chain and purple pendant. Grasping the pendant, he channeled his mana into it. In this world, mana functioned similarly to DNA from his previous world. He had learned that neutral mana from the environment, once absorbed, stored, and channeled through the gate, transformed into mana with a unique identity for each individual. This unique nature of mana enabled many convenient devices, one of which was the pendant he currently held. The pendant easily absorbed the provided mana, indicating it was being used for the first time, and almost instantly, a series of words and numbers in green appeared before him.

Divine Path: None

Divine Anchor: Universal Archway, Branch 5 (Vertex 305)

Affinity: None

Harmonization: None

Might : 10(77)

Wisdom : 10(76)

Dexterity : 10(76)

Endurance : 10(76)

Archway 1 : Universal

He briefly scanned the information, then let out a sigh of defeat. He had only used a divine stone once before, when his father had bought a service to see if he had any affinity or potential. Now, using it again, he somehow harbored an unreasonable hope that something would change—something that would make the whole kingdom's eyes turn to him and make the king recall the royal decree. But alas, the divine was truly ruthless.

'My manual tally of the divine path was pretty accurate,' he thought while focusing on the divine anchor, most widely known as the first archway, the universal archway. This archway was unique from the other subsequent ones. Treading the divine could be divided into two main categories: the first was the divine anchor progression, and the second was the divine path progression.

The divine path started from the second archway up to the rumored fifth archway. The fifth archway was almost like a myth because the progression got exponentially harder the higher the gate was. For instance, the second archway contained one to five branches, and the third archway contained seven to nine branches. At the end of each of these branches was what people called a Vertex. This Vertex was almost like a node that gave people one stat point for each Vertex completed. The troublesome part was that the Vertexes on branches increased in an exponential or factorial manner, meaning that the first branch had one Vertex, the fifth branch had 120, the eighth branch had over forty thousand Vertexes, and so on.

This exponential increase in Vertexes was only the first problem in treading the divine path because, with each Ascension, a person had to literally make a leap. Ascending from the second to the third archway required a person to make a leap from the fifth branch to the seventh branch, meaning that the sixth branch, or 720 Vertexes, had to be completed in one go. He couldn't even begin to imagine the herculean effort needed to ascend from the third archway to the fourth archway.

His inability to tread the divine path made him only know the general knowledge about it. He was pretty sure there was more to it, but he just couldn't spend his time studying something that was pretty much useless for him. He did, however, know a few things about the divine anchor since it was the only thing he could mingle with.

The divine anchor was just like its name—an anchor for the divine path. The anchor's branches progressed in a similar factorial manner as the divine path, but unlike the divine path, the vertexes or nodes at the end of each branch did not provide a stat point. The divine anchor's vertexes acted as containers for the stat points from the divine path. This container was mainly filled with the stats acquired from the divine path, but it was not uncommon for people to use potions or equipment to temporarily boost their stats.

There were also divine treasures that, when consumed, would permanently boost the stats, but such things were very rare and expensive. He himself usually relied on equipment to boost his stats. The 10s in his stats were from such equipment—a ring, a gift from his late mother when he had turned 10. The pendant in his grasp should have given a good amount of stat points if he was not mistaken; an epic treasure always did. He put a halt to wearing the pendant, however, as he still did not know how to feel about the item.

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After a brief examination of his divine path, he carefully placed the pendant back into its box and secured it in his personal vault, hidden behind a family painting. With the pendant safely stored, he left the cold, dim room and walked down the hallway with a singular purpose: to bid a proper farewell to his little sister.

'I can't postpone this any longer.' Ever since his sister knew about the royal envoy and the family decision, she had been very distant, almost evading him, which he hated to admit was a relief in some corner of his heart. He hated to say farewell to his sister, knowing he would never come back. He hated that he had to lie that he would be back.

He treaded the hallways with a heavy heart, the gears in his mind spinning at full speed, arranging words that would make the sentences a little bit easier to say. Without realizing it, he arrived in front of his little sister's room. He took a deep breath and was about to knock, but before the knocking sound could ring through the hallways, the door opened, and he was greeted by a familiar woman in her forties wearing a black and white maid uniform.

"Morning, Margaret. Has my sister woken up?"

"Good morning, young master. Ms. Lilyana has woken up and just left some moments ago to tend to her garden," the maid replied while performing a small bow.

"I see. I'll just meet her in the garden then. Thank you."

The garden in question was located just outside the manor's left wing. It had originally been a normal garden but had been repurposed into a magical garden since his little sister had grown interested in alchemy and gardening. It took him only a couple of minutes to reach the garden, and instantly he felt a refreshing breeze assault his face, followed by a herbal scent.

It did not take him long to find his little sister, courtesy of the small size of the garden. Maintaining even a small magic garden was not easy nor cheap, but even then, the decision to create one had been fairly easy since the benefits it brought far outweighed its costs. His little sister was already in her early fourth branch at only twelve years old. That achievement alone could already be considered exceptional in the kingdom of Dracoria. She could easily have enrolled in the infamous Royal Divine Academy at the capital.

His sister was currently tending to a specific plant with her two hands, channeling her mana into it in a crouching position with her knees touching the ground. Her slightly wavy hazelnut hair that fell just below her shoulders always reminded him of their late mother. She could clearly see him from the corner of her eyes yet chose to continue her current task, but he could clearly see the light green hue surrounding her hands flickering more frequently the closer he got.

He stopped once he got close enough and waited for his sister to complete the task. It's strange; whenever he saw his little sister, she grew so fast yet in his eyes, she's still the same clumsy little girl that would stumble every twenty steps she took.

After a few minutes, the green hue surrounding her hands faded, signaling she had finished her task. He opened his voice as soon as the humming lights faded and said,

"The Dreambell looks ready to harvest."

"It's not a Dreambell, you doofus. It's its rare variant, Wakinghour. On the lower part, you can clearly tell its lower leaves are bigger than its upper part, meaning the energy circulation is not even. There's also a slight gradation of color caused by the energy differences. But the most glaring sign that it's a variant is the plaque literally placed in front of it that says Wakinghour, if you can read properly, that is," Lily replied without missing a beat.

"How am I supposed to know when you are literally blocking the plaque?" Nix said while shrugging his shoulders.

"That's not my problem, it's your problem," Lily said while crossing her arms and throwing her face to the side.

Her sister's reaction prompted a small and warm smile from him. He loved bickering with his little sister about all of the mundane stuff, but this reemergence realization only made him feel anxious and rushed him to talk about his departure.

"Lily, I'll be gone in a month."

"Well, I thought you'd never say your farewell to me," Lily replied in a nonchalant manner.

"I thought you were the one who would not say your farewell to me, you know, avoiding me and all that stuff."

"You doofus, the one's leaving is the one who should be bidding farewell!"

He wore a warm smile in return, then crouched down and touched one of the flower petals and said,

"What about this one, what is it called? There's no plaque for this one."

"It's called Dawn Tulip. I didn't put a plaque on because it might turn into a variant at any moment."

"It's... beautiful."

"It is," Lily agreed, crouching down and gently brushing one of the petals. "They’re the most beautiful when transforming. But I’m not sure this little one will make it. The chances are very low, and it will die if it fails," she finished with a weak smile and a soft voice.

"Can you do something about it?" Nix asked, turning his head slightly to see his sister's gaze glued to the flower.

"No, not for now at least. I'm not strong enough. I can only silently watch as it tries its luck against the divine," she said while tightly clutching her red dress.

"Don't worry about it, you are very talented. You'll get there someday."

With that, the two just crouched in silence, watching the beautiful flower's soft radiant light humming and changing color every few seconds. There were no words that needed to be said. It was as if they were conversing in silence, finding understanding through it.

"Lily, I might not be back," Nix's voice broke the silence as if thunder arrived on a sunny day.

"The Wakinghour."

"What?"

"The Wakinghour will be ready in six months," Lily said while turning her head, looking Nix straight in his eyes. "Be back here at that time, and I promise I'll make you something very delicious."

"Lily, yo—" Just before he could utter more words, Lily rammed herself into him, hugged him, and buried her face in his chest. He could clearly see her back heaving and heard a muffled sobbing. He gently hugged her in return while resting his cheek on top of her head, his eyes overlooking the Dawn Tulip that continued humming and changing colors as if the world around it did not matter.

"I'll be back," Nix said what he believed to be a lie, breaking the silence for the second time. "At least I'll try my best to come back."

"Promise?" Lily said while pulling her head and looking Nix in the eyes with her blue eyes filled with tears.

"Of course. Now stop crying, it's not very fitting for a beautiful big lady to be crying first thing in the morning," Nix said gently with a warm smile.

"I'm only 11! And I've done a whole lot this morning!" Lily replied in an agitated voice, stomping on one of his feet, catching him off guard. "Jerk!"

"Ouch!" Nix yelped in response. "Hey, that's not how a young lady should act!" Nix screamed at the figure of his little sister that was gradually getting smaller.

"I don't care!" was the last thing he heard before the voice and the figure completely disappeared, leaving him all alone with a sigh of relief that could only be witnessed by the flowers and the divine.