Rem looked up. Iru’s eye was fixed on him.
“What do you mean…”
The rest caught in his throat as system text overlaid his vision.
Your deeds have been observed by higher powers. Observants from the Keluthan Veil, the Aurelian Synod, and the Shroud of Shurathi have sponsored your entry into the Path of the Unseen.
To walk the Path of the Unseen, you must remain silent about all unseen truths—any action, detail, or knowledge concealed by this path. Speak any unseen truth and this path closes to you permanently. This path’s binding grants you the skill: Unseen. This path is always unseen.
Unseen
You gain a false system status. Attempts to access your information reveals your false, constructed, details. Your true information remains unseen. This skill is always unseen.
Rem’s brows rose. That wasn’t supposed to be possible.
The union kept its privacy rules airtight. If this message existed, someone had stepped past them without leaving a trace. Some higher class, some hidden tool. Something that could reach where you never meant to be reached.
Would Unseen block that?
He read the text again. The questions crowded in.
“Path, binding, observants, Keluthan… I’ve never heard of half this stuff.”
“To be expected. You are a low level ascender in an emerging world. You will be learning for a while, I think.”
Iru’s voice rattled on the hard workshop table. Rem slid the device onto one of the linen wraps. The muffled sound eased the noise but not the pressure sitting under his ribs.
“And these higher powers just give out paths like this? What do they get from it?”
“Ascender Rembrandt, I regret to inform you that I am not at liberty to provide information beyond the narrow band of my approved function.”
“Huh.” A short breath left him. Not surprise—just confirmation.
The Path fit him too well. That alone made him wary.
After a few false starts with the interface, he pulled up his false challenge records. They matched his real status line for line.
Challenge Records
Level 1: 17 minutes (World Record)
Level 2: 4 minutes (Union Record)
Level 3: Completed Hidden Objective
He focused on the Level 1 record. Held the time in his mind. Replaced it. The system hesitated. He tried again and again until the change settled. He moved through the rest the same way, steady and careful. When he checked the result, the page looked different.
Challenge Records
Level 1: 47 minutes
Level 2: 92 minutes
Level 3: 3 Surges
Plain. Ordinary. His shoulders eased a fraction, then held.
He doubted his leaderboard marks would shift from any of this. They shouldn’t. If his Level 3 hidden objective leaked, Unseen was pointless.
What else can I do with this?
He opened the full false status and started working. He cleared the class error, swapped his race flag, added harmless skills, nudged numbers until nothing stood out. When he finished, he read it through.
Rembrandt de Vries
Race: Human
License: Provisional
Level: 4?Experience: 0 / 800
Class: Mystic Alchemist
Challenge Passes: 1
Status
Health: 1344 / 1344 (Stable)
Energy: 146 / 146 (Normal)
Focus: 180 / 180 (Clear)
Attributes
Strength: 10
Agility: 13
Vitality: 10
Intelligence: 12
Perception: 12
Essence Control: 12
Class Skills and Abilities
Arcane Equivalence [Rank II]: Substitute a missing ingredient by offering equivalent XP, converting personal growth into the reagent’s essence.
Reagent Transmutation [Rank II]: Use XP to alter an ingredient’s essence, adding new properties through controlled metamorphosis.
Identify Ingredients [Rank III]: Identify the essence of ingredients. Learn potential traits and reactive properties.
General Skills and Abilities
Inspect: View system-registered item details (interface only, Thrive-enabled regions).
Titles and Achievements
Alchemical Prodigy: Awarded for achieving Journeyman or higher rank before Level 10. +15% Alchemy progression.
Profession: Alchemy
Rank 3 · Novice Initiate
Alchemy XP: 124 / 400
Trait: Alchemy Prodigy (+15% growth)
Tracked Formulas: 3 / 5
Formulas
Health Potion · Lv 5 (300 / 1600)
Restoration Potion · Lv 4 (79 / 800)
Recovery Potion · Lv 4 (30 / 800)
Challenge Records
Level 1: 47 minutes
Level 2: 92 minutes
Level 3: 3 Surges
It all looked settled. Safe enough. Normal.
He closed the screen—
—and stopped.
A pressure gathered inside his chest. Something in the earlier message pulled at him. He thought back, reviewed it again, slower this time.
To walk the Path of the Unseen, you must remain silent about all unseen truths—any action, detail, or knowledge concealed by this Path. Speak any unseen truth and this Path closes to you permanently.
Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.
His breath stalled. His jaw tightened.
He had already changed half a dozen things. The class. The race. The records. All of it buried under Unseen. If he talked about any of those again—if he slipped even once—he’d lose the path on the spot.
He leaned forward, one hand braced on the workbench.
“Idiot,” he muttered. “You almost locked yourself out for nothing.”
He pulled up the false status again. The clean, finished screen looked wrong now. Too quick. Too loose.
He took a slow breath and worked through the sheet again. Line by line. Anything he might someday explain stayed real. Anything he meant to reveal stayed real. Anything he knew he’d never discuss stayed hidden. He stripped back edits he’d made out of convenience. Removed a detail he had no reason to bury. Left the rest.
When he finished, the false status didn’t look as plain or as safe—but it fit the rules he had to live under. Nothing on it forced him into silence he didn’t mean to keep.
He studied it a moment longer. Shoulders held tight. Breath small.
This path wasn’t a toy. Every change carried a cost. Every silence, a line he couldn’t cross.
He closed the screen with more care this time. The tension eased, but not by much.
“Very nice,” Rem said. His voice stayed steady, though nothing inside him had softened. “You did great, Iru.”
“Glad to be of service sir.” Iru’s voice purred with pride. “Do I have leave to continue? My experience tells me there are additional rewards available to you.”
“It’s all anonymous right? Just confirming.”
“Yes sir.”
“These rewards seem to come with strings attached, but it can’t hurt to check. Go ahead.”
Famous last words.
“Excellent, I’ll get started right away,” Iru said. The glowing eye rotated down and settled, pointed toward his own casing.
Rem frowned. He looked at the small cube with its glowing sphere, then around his laboratory. A prickle moved across his skin. Someone could be watching. The room felt too open, too exposed.
He glanced at his duplicating gear. His stacks of wands. The cores scattered across his workbench. The sight tightened something low in his chest. What if his workshop wasn’t secured the way his storage locker was? The question lingered.
He drew a long breath, trying to steady himself, but the tension stayed.
He moved quickly. Gathered the duplication gear, the loose cores, Iru, anything that didn’t belong in an alchemy room. His hands weren’t steady, but they worked fast. With his arms full, he blinked back into his storage locker. He set everything down in orderly rows, making space, putting each piece where it couldn’t be seen by anyone but him.
Even then, the unsettled feeling in his gut wouldn’t move.
He pulled a few wands, chose a handful of other pieces he trusted, then added his journal. Each item went into his satchel with deliberate care. When he had everything, he checked it once more, breath held tight.
At last he stepped out of the storage locker into Oldetown.
It was late morning. Tuesday. Rem shivered as the cool air pressed around him. At least there was no academy today. He stepped clear of the arch—Level Four. He’d finally caught up with most of his peers.
He took in the street, eyes moving across faces, corners, the line of lockers. The unease from earlier hadn’t fully left him, but he kept his pace steady as he headed toward the connection booths. With no ware and no way to carry tech through the glyphs, someone sharp had built services right outside the arch exit. Lockers lined one wall, rented out by the hour. Nearly as busy were the communication booths. For a low-level core, you got a token that let you place a call.
Rem exchanged a core for a token and walked to an open booth.
The door swung in on old hinges. The booth looked like a timber room—rough-cut planks, a narrow bench, a small shuttered window. The air even held a dust scent, as if the wood had been sitting in sunlight for years.
But once he stepped inside, the truth showed in the seams. The boards were too perfect. The grain repeated where it shouldn’t. The wall gave a faint hum under his palm, steady and mechanical. A small bronze plate waited where a person might rest their hand.
Oldetown on the outside. Modern interface underneath.
He sat, dropped the token into the slot, and felt the booth come alive around him.
A thin square of light snapped into place in front of him, steady and full color. The booth muted the street noise the moment it activated. A simple menu hovered there: Directory, Token Balance, Place Call.
Rem tapped Directory. He searched for Finn. When he found the entry, he pressed and held it until the call prompt formed beneath it.
He tapped Call.
The screen pulsed, then rang.
Finn’s face came into view. He looked better—steady, almost back to normal. His eyes sharpened when he saw Rem.
“Rem. I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday.”
“I was in Challenge Three,” Rem said, straightening. “Finally leveled.”
Finn shifted his grip. His focus flicked sideways, then back. “Eva and Mara both called me about the Zelfstryf book. They have questions. After reading it, I understand why.”
“Why? What’s it say?”
“The method for Level One,” Finn said. “A bucket. Stabbing slimes. Same as you. They’re convinced it’s you.”
“So someone else tried something that works. Good. I knew the method wasn’t nonsense.”
Finn studied him a beat longer than needed, then set his jaw. “We’re planning a run at one o’clock. Will you be ready?”
“Yeah. I need to sell some potions and buy food, but I’ll be ready. Wouldn’t miss my first team challenge.”
“Okay. Meet at one, in front of the lockers. The new ones by the arch?”
“Yeah, I’m looking at them,” Rem said, glancing through the open window toward the wall of lockers.
“Good. Those two have been on me all week. I wouldn’t last much longer alone.”
“You make it sound appealing. Can’t be that bad.”
“Tiresome, mostly,” Finn said. “With the two of us, it’ll be better. See you soon.”
Finn hung up. The call blinked off. The projection dissolved. Street noise slipped back in as the booth powered down.
Rem stayed seated a moment, letting his breath settle. Then he stepped out into Oldetown and adjusted the strap on his satchel.
He went home first. Showered. Then changed into clean clothes and packed his backpack with the basics—a bedroll, a spare shirt, his first-aid kit. Back in Oldetown, he headed straight to the Authorized Retort, sold the potions he’d prepared, then cut across the midway to buy three portable meals wrapped in wax paper.
On the way out, he checked two nearby stalls for the fried donuts he’d had the other day. Both had already shut down their griddles; they stopped serving at noon. Hunger still pushed at him, so he bought skewered meat and mushrooms from a corner stand and ate as he walked back toward the arch.
He spotted Mara first—tall, athletic, her bright blond hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She labored under a large backpack. No bow. No daggers. None of her usual gear.
Rem waved from across the plaza, but she didn’t see him. It wasn’t until he reached the lockers that he heard Eva calling his name.
“Finally.” Eva stepped beside him. Her backpack was just as large, and she wore a heavy coat and mittens. “Congrats on leveling. We’re finally the same level.”
“Yeah.” Rem swallowed his bite.
“Statistically he’s above average now,” Finn said, stepping out from behind Mara. His gear was lighter, but he was dressed for winter too. “I’m not saying you didn’t take longer than average to clear Three, it’s just that a lot of people don’t clear it. Ever.”
Rem felt the hit—quick, sharp—the memory of Noah pushing up before he could block it. His mouth tightened.
“Sorry,” Finn said at once. “I don’t know why I said that.”
“It’s okay,” Rem said. “You’re not wrong.”
“Alright. Store your tech.” Mara issued the command as she pulled off her ear-com. Eva dropped her headband into the locker, Finn his tablet. Then they looked at Rem.
“Haven’t had time to get any tech yet.” He shrugged.
With everything inside, Mara entered her passkey and locked the device.
Mara Jansen would like to form a party with you. She is the party leader.
Do you accept?
Yes / No
Rem accepted.
You are now in a party with Mara Jansen, Eva Smit, and Finn van Dijk. Mara is the party leader.
His first challenge with a team.
He fell in behind Eva as they lined up for the arch. The line was short.
“I’ve got some questions for you,” Eva whispered.
“Save it for inside,” Mara said. “Where we have privacy.”
“I know.”
The energy vortex swirled in a slow roll. The four of them stepped forward and disappeared in a flash.
