The forest did not breathe.

  That was the first thing Bellamy noticed.

  Rain fell. Leaves shifted. Wind moved through branches in thin, whispering strokes. But beneath it all, there was a stillness that didn’t belong to living places. No insects hummed. No small animals rustled. The silence felt curated, like the world had muted itself in anticipation.

  Ellery noticed it too.

  She crouched low, fingers brushing damp soil, silver-gray eyes unfocused as if she were listening to something beneath sound. Marceline stood slightly ahead of them, boots planted, posture relaxed but coiled. The faint shimmer of her system interface reflected in her steel gaze for a moment before fading.

  Bellamy flexed his fingers and summoned his weapon.

  Light gathered between his palms, condensing into a slender spear of pale gold. It felt different from anything he’d held in his previous life—not weightless, not heavy, but balanced in a way that suggested it wanted to be used. A quiet hum vibrated along the haft.

  Radiant Spear — Rank E.

  Low. Basic. Constrained.

  Restricted.

  He exhaled.

  “So,” Ellery murmured, rising to her feet, “tutorial.”

  Marceline didn’t look back. “Feels like it.”

  Bellamy’s system panel flickered again.

  SYSTEM NOTICE:Tutorial encounter imminent.Survive. Adapt. Demonstrate compatibility.Failure will not terminate user.Failure will be recorded.

  Ellery huffed. “That’s encouraging.”

  The air shifted.

  The temperature dropped—not dramatically, but enough that Bellamy felt goosebumps climb his arms.

  And then the trees bent inward.

  Not from wind.

  From attention.

  Between the trunks ahead, darkness thickened into a shape that did not belong to anatomy. It unfolded itself like a thought taking form—too tall, too thin, limbs jointed wrong, fingers trailing like smoke.

  Its “face” was an absence.

  A hole in reality shaped like a head.

  System text pulsed faintly in the corner of Bellamy’s vision.

  ENTITY DETECTED:Classification: Tutorial NightmareTier: FLevel: 3Alignment: HostileBehavior: Adaptive

  Bellamy swallowed.

  Level three.

  They were level one.

  Ellery’s lips curved faintly.

  “Oh good,” she whispered. “It wants to play.”

  The creature stepped forward without disturbing the grass.

  Marceline moved first.

  No hesitation.

  She stepped between it and the others, shield manifesting in her left arm in a cascade of stony light. It was smaller than what Bellamy remembered from her class description—no massive fortress shield yet—but it radiated solidity.

  “On me,” she said.

  The nightmare lunged.

  It didn’t run. It simply compressed the space between them and appeared in striking range, its elongated arm slicing downward.

  Marceline raised her shield.

  Impact detonated like thunder.

  Bellamy flinched as a shockwave rippled outward, flattening wet grass. Marceline’s boots dug trenches into the mud, but she held.

  HP bars appeared above them instinctively.

  Marceline: 220 / 220 → 194 / 220.

  Bellamy’s breath caught.

  That was one hit.

  The creature pulled back and twisted, its limb bending too far before snapping forward again, aiming for her exposed side.

  Ellery vanished.

  Shade Step — Rank E.

  She reappeared behind the entity mid-motion, daggers forming in her hands as if conjured from shadow itself.

  “Try me,” she breathed.

  Umbra Fang — Rank E.

  First strike: a clean slash across its elongated torso.

  The blade passed through it as if through smoke, but the entity recoiled anyway, its form rippling.

  Second strike: deeper, aimed at where a spine might have been.

  The air cracked.

  The creature’s arm jerked sideways mid-swing.

  Marceline used the opening.

  Stonecut Swing — Rank E.

  Her sword cut through the entity’s lower limb, and this time something resisted. Dark matter split, leaking threads of black vapor that hissed where they touched rain.

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  The nightmare screamed—not audibly, but inside Bellamy’s skull.

  His knees buckled for half a heartbeat.

  Dread Whisper — Rank E.

  Ellery’s eyes flashed faint violet as a wave of subtle distortion pulsed outward from her.

  The scream faltered.

  The entity’s movements stuttered.

  Bellamy forced himself to move.

  Minor Mend — Rank E.

  He thrust his spear into the ground, channeling golden light through the rain-slick earth. It radiated outward in a small circle, brushing Marceline’s boots.

  Marceline: 194 / 220 → 210 / 220.

  The glow was weak.

  Slow.

  Insufficient.

  The creature turned its hollow face toward Bellamy.

  And in that nothingness, Bellamy felt recognition.

  It flickered.

  Not in shape.

  In intent.

  Then it moved.

  Faster.

  It bypassed Marceline in a blur of distortion, its body phasing partially through her shield like smoke through stone.

  Bellamy’s heart slammed.

  “Bell!” Marceline shouted.

  Ellery shifted again, but she was half a second too late.

  The nightmare’s elongated hand pierced Bellamy’s chest.

  Pain didn’t explode.

  It erased.

  HP: 120 / 120 → 54 / 120.

  Bellamy gasped.

  Cold flooded his veins.

  The entity’s limb wasn’t solid, but it was anchored inside him, and something in his mind was unraveling—threads being tugged loose.

  He felt it probing.

  Measuring.

  Marceline roared.

  Earthpulse — Rank E.

  She slammed her shield into the ground, and a radial shockwave of fractured soil erupted outward.

  The nightmare’s lower half destabilized, forcing it to retract its limb from Bellamy’s chest.

  Ellery reappeared directly above it midair.

  Void Shard — Rank E.

  Five dark projectiles formed around her hands and launched downward in a spiral.

  Three passed through harmlessly.

  Two embedded into its core region and detonated in bursts of shadowed light.

  The entity convulsed.

  Bellamy stumbled backward, clutching his chest. His HP bled slowly: 54 → 51 → 48.

  Some lingering effect.

  Debuff icon pulsed faintly.

  STATUS:Soul Drain (Minor) — 5 HP / sec.

  “Oh, that’s new,” he muttered through clenched teeth.

  Marceline grabbed him by the collar and physically yanked him behind her.

  Guardian’s Link — Rank E.

  A faint tether of golden light snapped between her chest and his.

  Bellamy felt pressure ease slightly.

  Marceline’s HP ticked down in tandem with his.

  194 → 188 → 182.

  She didn’t flinch.

  Ellery hit the ground and immediately blinked again, reappearing on the nightmare’s flank.

  “Stop playing,” she whispered.

  Cloak Flicker — Rank E.

  She vanished completely.

  The creature twisted, hollow face searching.

  Umbra Fang struck from invisibility, this time deeper, cleaner.

  The nightmare’s torso split vertically.

  It shrieked again inside Bellamy’s skull, and this time the pain felt personal.

  Not rage.

  Frustration.

  It lunged wildly.

  Its limbs elongated grotesquely, sweeping in arcs that forced Marceline to fully brace.

  Three impacts hammered her shield in rapid succession.

  220 → 176 → 142.

  Bellamy’s chest tightened.

  Too fast.

  Too strong.

  He forced himself to stand upright.

  “Ellery!” he called.

  She blinked to his side instantly, eyes sharp. “Yes?”

  “Distract it. Two seconds.”

  She didn’t ask why.

  She nodded once and vanished again.

  Bellamy closed his eyes.

  He didn’t have Fate Denied.

  He didn’t have Divine Rewind.

  He didn’t have anything broken yet.

  He had Rank E healing.

  But he had something else.

  Instinct.

  The memory of watching the world die and wishing he could anchor it.

  The nightmare lunged for Marceline again.

  Ellery reappeared in front of it midair, daggers crossing.

  Void Shard — again.

  Umbra Fang — again.

  She didn’t aim to damage.

  She aimed to pull attention.

  The creature focused entirely on her.

  Bellamy raised his spear.

  Instead of stabbing the ground, he thrust it forward.

  Seraphic Bolt — Rank E.

  A thin lance of golden light shot from the spear tip, striking Marceline square in the back.

  Marceline stiffened.

  Then her HP surged upward in a single pulse.

  142 → 210.

  The system chimed.

  Skill synergy detected.Healing applied during active damage redirection.Efficiency increased.

  The tether between Bellamy and Marceline brightened.

  The nightmare’s next strike hit Marceline full force.

  220 → 190.

  Bellamy’s HP barely dipped.

  The creature twisted, sensing the shift.

  Ellery seized the moment.

  She blinked directly onto its shoulders, daggers crossing through where a neck would be.

  Umbra Fang — full combo.

  First slash.

  Second slash.

  Third—

  She angled the final strike downward instead of backward.

  Instead of a shadow explosion behind it, the energy detonated inside its core.

  The nightmare froze.

  A fracture split down its center like a crack in glass.

  Marceline didn’t waste it.

  Stonecut Swing again, full strength.

  Her blade cleaved through the fracture.

  The entity split apart.

  Not into flesh.

  Into pieces of shadow that unraveled in the rain.

  The scream in Bellamy’s head cut off abruptly.

  Silence returned.

  Then—

  ENEMY DEFEATED.EXP GAINED: 120.Level Up.

  Golden light engulfed all three of them simultaneously.

  Bellamy felt warmth flood his limbs—not healing warmth, but expansion. Muscles tightened. Breath deepened. Something inside his chest clicked into alignment.

  System panels appeared.

  BELLAMY — LEVEL 2HP: 120 → 165MP: 180 → 240STAMINA: 110 → 135

  VIT: 12 → 15STR: 9 → 11AGI: 10 → 12INT: 14 → 18WIS: 18 → 24LUK: 6 → 6 (unstable)

  Bellamy blinked.

  Those jumps were… large.

  Beside him, Ellery frowned at her own panel.

  ELLERY — LEVEL 2HP: 95 → 110MP: 120 → 135STAMINA: 160 → 180

  VIT: 9 → 10STR: 10 → 11AGI: 19 → 21INT: 12 → 13WIS: 11 → 12LUK: 8 → 8

  Marceline’s panel followed.

  MARCELINE — LEVEL 2HP: 220 → 255MP: 70 → 80STAMINA: 140 → 155

  VIT: 22 → 24STR: 18 → 20AGI: 8 → 9INT: 9 → 10WIS: 12 → 13LUK: 5 → 5

  Ellery glanced at Bellamy.

  “Why do you look like you just swallowed a secret?”

  Bellamy’s gaze was locked on another flashing line.

  Skill Upgrade Available.Minor Mend → Rank C.

  He inhaled sharply.

  “What?” Marceline asked.

  Bellamy focused.

  The text expanded.

  Minor Mend (Rank E) → Minor Mend (Rank C)Healing potency increased by 180%.Healing radius increased.Can cleanse minor debuffs.Synergy with Guardian-type abilities enhanced.

  Ellery’s brows rose.

  “We all got level two,” she said slowly. “My skills are still E.”

  Marceline’s jaw tightened. “Mine too.”

  Bellamy swallowed.

  His chest felt warm again, but not from system light.

  From something else.

  Attention.

  He looked up at the unfamiliar stars.

  For just a heartbeat, one of them flickered wrong.

  As if something behind it had blinked.