Gale sat cross legged on the concrete floor of the warehouse. His fingers hovered over the new text of the system.

[First Codex Entry Chest]

That’s what it said. Just like everything in life, this goddamn system never gave him a clue on how to use anything. Might as well just find out. He tapped the text.

A wooden chest materialized in front of him, floating just at the height of his waist. Its surface bore the same intricate patterns and shape that the walls of the ship had, except in a rearranged pattern. Definitely had the same shapes and design in it though.

Touching the lid of the chest, it creaked open. A transparent orb, much more transparent than glass, rose into the air to his eye level. Blue light pulsed from its inside, timed exactly the same as his heartbeat.

[Analyze]

The familiar system interface of Analysis overlaid his vision.

[Vianne’s Express Amazing Store]

[Object Type: Origin Artifact]

[Description: Additional function to the Dainv OS created by Vianne. Who knows what’s inside?]

[Install: Y/N]

Gale shook his head. Who knows what’s inside? Vianne’s childish smile popped up in his head just for a second. This whole thing was a joke to her, right? Not even telling your nephew what this is. This can’t be real.

“What’s the worst that could happen?” he said to the empty warehouse. His finger tapped the Y.

His legs suddenly buckled, ragdolling his body onto the floor. Vision became black. No feeling anywhere, and he could no longer hear his breathing. Every nerve of his body shut down. It was complete sensory isolation. He was conscious but separated from his body.

Slowly, the feeling of his body came back. Vision slowly came back, and the image of the warehouse faded in from black.

A status screen overlaid in his vision:

[New Dainv OS Functionality: Vianne’s Express Amazing Store opened.]

All of his senses came back as quickly as they had disappeared. Gale pushed himself up, stretching his fingers. He can open and close it, grip is still as strong as before. Check. Tendrils of his passive spread outwards, revealing to him the size of the warehouse. Skills still work. Check. At least nothing bad happened.

Note to self, do not install anything without clearing the area first.

“Open store,” he whispered, willing the new function to activate.

The system interface popped up in his vision. Row after row of items filled the window.

[Essence Optimization Core Part – 5000 points]

[Phantom Edge Skill Lv. 1 – 8000 points]

[Basic Military Issue Sword – 1000 points]

[Skill Point Potion – 10000 points]

One item caught his eye. Imaginary drool ran down his lips. A skill potion. If that’s what he thought it was, then it probably could increase a skill by a level without needing to train. But a price tag of 10,000 points sounded like a lot. At the right side of his hud, it showed his total points.

[Available Points: 500]

Gale laid down onto the cool concrete. More bullet holes on the ceiling made the moonlight cast a ray along the dust. At least it wasn’t blue. Earth’s moon cast a soft white instead. He sighed, then scrolled through the cheaper options, searching for anything useful…

[The Guide by the Amazing Vianne Module – 300 points]

[Spatial Storage – 200 points]

[Vit Vial – 100 points]

[Ess Vial – 100 points]

[Eff Vial – 100 points]

Tapping on the Vit Vial showed its description.

[Vit Vial]

[Description: A vial of vitality essence]

[Consumable]

[Effects: restores 20% vitality of self or target, max amount: 200 vitality points]

[Confirm Purchase: Y/N]

Gale immediately pressed ‘N’. He tapped on the other vials as well. Ess Vial would restore 20% of his max essence with a max amount restored of 200. Only the efficiency was different.

[Eff Vial]

[Description: A vial of efficiency]

[Consumable]

[Effects: increases efficiency rating by 50 points]

Most of these vials were useless for now in this safe haven of Earth. On the other hand, the two other items were not just consumable potions.

[The Guide by the Amazing Vianne]

[Description: Guide will be installed in the host’s Origin. The guide will assist the host to complete missions, learn his abilities and adapt in combat.]

[Installable Module]

[Function: Offloading real-time thought processes for optimal decision trees, combat analysis, and strategic predictions into a containerized process.]

Apart from the ‘amazing’ part of the name of the item, it seemed to be more useful than the rest of the items. The other one was spatial storage, though he already had a storage box. No point in getting something redundant for 200 points. It hadn’t even been filled up yet.

The Guide Module made more sense. He’d read enough sci-fi books to know the value of a good guiding system where a boy named Andrew had completely disregarded his own AI and broke his own relationship with the AI, and then the AI just became less useful after that, but more pragmatic, though the flavour of their relationship became quite stale after that even though Andrew was still the master of the AI.

Gale pinched his own thigh, snapping himself out of the intrusive thoughts. Besides, that was beside the point. Point was, it might help him track down more of Vianne’s fragments. Without Analysis, he probably wouldn’t even be back on Earth, fighting against deeper evils called ‘Bureaucracy’.

His finger hovered over the purchase button for the Guide Module. The remaining 200 points could come in handy later.

“Guide Module,” he decided, tapping the purchase button. The interface flashed, confirming his choice. His point total dropped to 200.

The interface remained closed. Suddenly, a transparent orb similar to what appeared from the chest materialized in front of him.

[The Guide by the Amazing Vianne Module]

[Object Type: Origin Artifact]

[Description: Guide will be installed in the host’s Origin. The guide will guide the host to complete missions and learn his abilities and adapt in combat.]

[Install: Y/N]

The screen looked familiar. Literally, it had just happened 5 minutes ago. Just in case, Gale spread out the tendrils of Void’s breath to check for any movement or hostile life forms.

None.

With one tap, Gale pressed the “Y” button. Immediately, his body fell onto the floor again. All of his senses were blocked from surfacing.

The feeling returned soon enough, and he stood up immediately. There was no change in the status screen other than the addition of one passive.

[Guide Lv. Max]

He started to feel around his body, wondering if anything changed. It did say that it was installed into him, specifically him being the host and it being a parasite or something else he didn’t know.

However, nothing interesting seemed to have happened other than a water droplet from across the empty space echoing. His head snapped to it, Weber blade already out. Fighting beasts, thralls, and zombies felt real. Ghosts were something different.

For five whole minutes, he remained still, waiting for anything to come out at the corner of the shipping container.

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He sighed. Must be just the wind. Or condensation. Something science can explain.

Looking back at the system interface, he stared at the guide element on his status screen.

“What is this… guide?” Gale whispered to himself.

[Host acknowledged. Guide activation sequence initiated.]

Gale jumped back, his head snapping around the empty warehouse. The voice had come from nowhere and everywhere, like a thought that wasn’t his own. “What the!”

[Designation: Strategic Analysis and Guidance Entity. Primary function: host optimization and mission support.]

“Jesus!” Gale dashed in a random direction, nearly crashing into a shipping container. The voice in his head spoke with an androgynous voice–human but sounding more like a robot at the same time.

[Physical stability recommended. Current essence reserves: insufficient for combat scenarios.]

Gale steadied himself against the external wall of the container. His heart hammered against his ribs. Relax. It’s not a ghost.

“You’re… inside my head?”

[Incorrect. Integration complete with host Origin Core. Direct Origin Core interface established.]

“That’s not better!” Gale ran his hands through his hair. “So you’re like… what, my personal assistant now?”

[Incorrect. Primary objectives include tactical analysis, combat optimization, and mission guidance.]

A weak laugh escaped Gale.

“Well, Guide, since you’re all about guidance…” He paused, a grin spreading across his face. “How about a guide to get stronger?”

The silence that followed his attempted joke stretched long enough to make him uncomfortable.

[Acknowledged. Current physical and essence parameters below optimal levels. Immediate recommendation: essence recovery.]

“Right.” Gale slumped against the shipping container. “Any suggestions for that?”

[Multiple recovery methods available. Option one: meditation focusing on essence flow patterns. Option two: regulated breathing exercises synchronized with natural essence currents.]

“Those sound… complicated.”

[Complexity level: moderate. Success rate increases with practice. Beginning instruction sequence.]

Without warning, Gale’s body moved on its own, shifting into a cross-legged position. His spine straightened, shoulders rolling back.

[Position adjusted for optimal essence flow. Initiating breathing pattern guidance.]

“Wait, you can control my body?” Gale tried to resist, but his hands settled onto his knees as if guided by invisible strings.

[Limited motor control available for training purposes. Resistance counter productive to current objective.]

His breathing slowed. The Guide even controlled the muscles in his diaphragm, allowing him to feel the exact rhythm he needed. The chill of the night faded. Warmth spread through his limbs in the familiar pathways that he used for essence flow. It was similar to when Origin was extracted from prey, but much slower.

The pathways reacted to his breathing, contracting and expanding at an even interval. It felt like his whole body was breathing not just for his lungs, but through something deeper that was in him before. And then it lit up, inside his mind, he saw the pathways drawn to him by the Guide.

A large concentration of essence moved down the path from the base of his skull to the bottom of his spine. That was the main path with an uncountable amount of lines. From that main path, billions of capillaries weaved out that extended to each of his limbs.

[Essence circulation improving. Current recovery rate: suboptimal, stable.]

Breath of the Void still actively fed him images of his surroundings. The clouds through the ceiling of the warehouse moved faster than usual, yet everything felt slow, just like his breathing. Was time passing by fast or was he just thinking slowly?

[Host attention wandering. Refocus recommended on essence paths.]

“Sorry,” Gale muttered.

[Continue breathing sequence.]

His essence reserves ticked up slowly: 80, 81, 82. The Guide provided him some structure into becoming stronger at least, even though it was another nagging thing now he had to live with. A different kind of Ms. Molly. Although having a voice in his head was going to be something he needed to get used to.

[Current progress: acceptable. Estimated time to full recovery: excessive. Alternative methods available.]

“Such as?” Gale opened one eye, curious despite himself.

[Combat scenario practice increases essence regeneration rate by a factor of three. Multiple low-level targets detected within a two kilometer radius.]

“No.” Gale shook his head firmly. “No fighting. I just want to recover and figure out what exactly I’ve gotten myself into.”

[Tactical assessment confirmed. Current location secure. Continuing recovery sequence.]

“If combat scenarios can help me, what about movement drills like Dainv Sword Arts… maybe?”

[Command accepted. Analyzing potential combat forms. Processing optimal routes.]

The voice in his head spoke with its usual tone. Preparing for the drills, he put his left hand in his pocket where he kept the storage box and tapped on the Weber blade. The sword materialized into the grip of his right hand again.

Why is it called a blade when it clearly looks like a sword? Gale shook his head.

His muscles still remembered the fight with the knight. Had the knight been in top shape without all that insanity, the outcome would’ve been different. The masterful execution of isolating him and controlling the whole meadow was something even he didn’t think would be possible. Dad probably wouldn’t’ve been able to do that.

[Integration of weapon arts recommended. Current skill levels permit basic combinations.]

“What do you mean combinations?” Gale shifted into an offensive stance.

[Demonstration initiated. Prepare for motor control guidance.]

His body suddenly moved, blade extended in his grip. The familiar pattern of essence activated Alter flowed through his arms.

[Weapon length modification enables tactical advantages. Observe.]

The Guide directed his movements through a series of forms. His arms swept the lengthened blade in wide arcs, then shortened it for quick thrusts. The thrusts then transitioned into a spear spin through which the blade was lengthened mid motion. Each motion flowed into the next as the weapon shifted between sword and spear lengths.

“This feels… different,” Gale said, watching himself perform feats he didn’t know yet.

[Current limitation: Alter level restricts transformation speed. Additional forms locked behind level requirements.]

The Guide led him through another sequence. Long reach, sweep, contract, thrust. Only his breathing and movements could be heard as the sword sliced through the air cleanly without a sound.

[Combat effectiveness increases by a factor of three when utilizing variable weapon lengths. Current form: basic rotation set.]

Sweep, contract, rush, upward, and finally thrust. Each movement followed a different length. It was like learning to juggle two martial arts while juggling two different weapons.

[Note: Extended real combat duration impossible at current essence levels. Efficiency improvements required.]

“Show me how to make it more efficient,” Gale said, sweat beading on his forehead despite the chill of the night in the open warehouse.

[Adjusting stance. Observe essence flow patterns during transformation sequence.]

His body shifted again. This time, Gale focused on the internal paths of Alter. It took on a unique signature as Guide showed him. Alter flowed through specific pathways rather than the messy river that he usually pushed through.

Each one of his skills used internal paths differently, taking different preferred paths. He had noticed that when he tried to practice the Distort illusion. Skills had their own desired inputs. Just ramming in all the essence into all the paths to try to do something was inefficient.

[Current efficiency: suboptimal. Essence loss detected during length alterations. Correction possible through refined control.]

Gale focused, eyes dilated as he entered into a trance.

For who knows how many hours, Guide led him through the same sequence again, but slower. Gale felt the difference in how the essence moved, how it concentrated in a specific set of thousands of pathways in his arms before flowing into the blade. Each subsequent transformation used less power, though the movements remained just as effective.

Long reach, sweep, contract, thrust.

Sweep, contract, rush, upward, thrust.

Rush, thrust, upward, sweep, downward.

[…]

[Training routine established. Phase one: basic form retention. Phase two: efficiency optimization. Phase three: combat application.]

His arms dropped to his sides, finally free from the Guide’s control. Gale rolled his shoulders, working out the stiffness. “That was intense. But why combine these specific arts?”

[Query accepted. Dainv Combat Mastery requires the combination of at least two different weapon arts.]

“Combat Mastery?”

He attempted to replicate the sequence Guide had shown him. The transformation wasn’t as smooth, but he managed to maintain the basic pattern.

[Affirmative. Skill synergy creates advanced combat capabilities. Current progress: insufficient for mastery acquisition.]

Gale ignored Guide’s comments and continued practicing. With every cycle he finished, his body moved more confidently while focusing on specific pathways.

[Form correction required. Adjust grip tension during transformation.]

His fingers loosened slightly on the handle. The next length change happened faster, smoothing out the pathways. He saw how the small adjustment improved the entire sequence.

[Additional observation: essence conservation possible through predictive transformation timing.]

The Guide showed him how to start the length change before he needed it, letting the transformation complete just as the weapon reached the apex of its curve. It was like a dance where the steps changed mid-motion, but the rhythm stayed a constant change of variations on any given movement.

[Current skill levels: Dainv Sword Arts level 2, Dainv Spear Arts level 1. Mastery threshold: distant.]

“How much more do I need?” Gale asked, maintaining the practice sequence despite his growing fatigue.

[Requirements unclear. Historical data suggests significant skill level advancement necessary.]

His essence reserves dropped below half again, but Gale pushed on. Each repetition felt more natural than the last. All of his thoughts were focused on becoming one with the weapon. It wasn’t a weapon, nor a tool. It was part of himself.

As the pathways became more and more efficient, he could feel those very pathways seep into the sword. It responded to his will as much as his every breath and movement.

[Warning: essence depletion approaching critical threshold. Training cessation recommended.]

“Just a few more minutes,” Gale muttered, focusing on a particularly difficult transition between spear and sword. The blade extended, then contracted in a diagonal pattern he’d seen the Guide demonstrate.

Muscles burned from fatigue, but his arms kept moving. Something was about to click, he just knew it. He couldn’t let go now.

The way the essence flowed during the transformation between spear and sword started to come together. The blade itself had its own pathways; its own inputs where the essence flowed easier.

[Host attention required. Immediate training termination advised.]

“I almost have this sequence down,” Gale said, starting another repetition. The blade extended and lengthened smoothly, but halfway through the transformation, his wrist buckled.

The weapon shuddered in his grip, his wrist could no longer hold on to the hilt. Gale released Alter immediately. His chest heaved as he caught his breath, smiling while looking up at the ceiling.

[Analysis complete. Training session results: multiple form improvements noted. Efficiency optimization: partial success. Combat readiness: requires further practice.]

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