The Forest of the Dead opened before us into a wide grassfield bathed in soft amber sunlight.
Tall golden stalks danced in the breeze. Wildflowers stretched lazily under open sky, and distant hilltops shimmered like melted glass.
After everything that happened before, it felt like stepping into another world entirely.
I took one breath.
Just one.
And realized how long I'd been holding it.
Then—
"We are finally out! Les go, baby!"
Nyx's voice cracked the silence like a firework, echoing across the field as he leapt from my shadow and ran circles around me.
I blinked.
He was actually skipping.
"Is that… tail wagging?" I asked aloud as he pounced into the grass like a drunk deer.
"I am never going back in there," he shouted, flopping onto his side with a groan and stretching all four paws in the air.
I raised a brow and asked him with a mischievous smile.
"Not even for a spirit banquet with that sexy ghost you were blushing over earlier?"
Nyx hissed, eyes still closed. "Don't joke about it. It offered food to me with a wink. But it turned out to be a he, sob."
"Right," I muttered, looking back at the treeline. "Guess the trauma's real."
He didn't respond. Just curled into a ball and sighed so dramatically that I almost applauded.
I let him rest. He had earned it.
We both had.
I sat beside Nyx.
I still needed to check the new ability card that I had gained.
Placing my hand on my heart, I called forth the Golden Grimoire. It appeared before me with a radiant glow as usual.
It was time to check what I had gotten. I had somewhat of an idea.
Going through those clues I read in the novel over and over had already given me some idea of what I might need to face inside that temple.
Turned out I was right. I didn't need to fight much, but I had lost something greater in exchange.
Thinking about it, I clenched my fist.
Sigh~
A quiet sigh slipped past my lips.
Still… that was the only way.
The only way to hide my second heart.
I flipped the book open, and a single page came into my view.
On the left side, nestled in the center, lay the spirit card of Enkidu. Beneath it lay an ability card. The one I had just obtained.
I willed to see the information about Enkidu. The grimoire obeyed my will, and the page beside it started filling up with information one after another.
***
Grimoire Type: Weapon
Element: Divine Light
Base Form:Enkidu, Chains of the Broken Heaven
Max Ring Potential: 7 Rings
Current Ring: 2nd (Initial)
Mastery: 10.05%
Inherited Skill: —
Ability Card:
→ Card of Heavenly Vow
→ [Empty]
***
I scanned the information from top to bottom, looking for anything that had changed, and I found it.
The type of the grimoire—Divine Light.
My heart skipped a beat.
Grimoire types weren't just for flair. They were elemental alignments, dictating what kind of spirit and ability cards you could bond with. You couldn't just jam a lightning card into an air-aligned grimoire, no matter how much of a genius or lunatic you were.
Normally, more elements got unlocked as a user grew stronger and deepened their connection with the grimoire.
But this? This was different.
My element itself had changed.
That… wasn't supposed to happen.
I had never read about anything like that in the novel.
How did the change occur?
Another question I didn't have the answer to.
I shook the thought off and focused on the next part.
In this world, every class got stronger in different ways. But the basics were the same for everyone.
It all started with Mana Breathing.
When someone awakened their grimoire, they also received an origin spirit card—the very first one, and the most important.
The novel never explained how it was chosen. Some said it was based on compatibility. Others said it was just random luck.
But one thing was clear:
Your grimoire's entire growth depended on that origin card.
The more powerful the card became, the stronger your grimoire got.
Both had the same number of rings and always grew together. My weapon grimoire had seven rings as the limit, as both my grimoire and origin card had their potential capped at the seventh ring.
And I was on the second ring currently because my origin card [Enkidu] had given me two rings at the time of bonding. Only some of the most powerful cards were capable of skipping rings at the time of awakening, and Enkidu was one of them.
To reach the next ring, you needed two things.
First was Mana Breathing.
You had to absorb mana from the world around you, circulate it through your body, and purify it. That purified mana was stored in a small space below your navel. Most people called it the furnace or the lower core.
That's where your mana was forged and kept.
But that wasn't where your growth showed.
It showed around your heart where the rings were formed. Not because the heart stored mana.
But because it held something even deeper:
Your will. Your resolve. Your sense of self.
Each ring around it was proof that your soul had grown stronger. That you could carry more weight. That you were ready for more power.
The second thing you needed to break through to the next ring depended on your class:
Integration types had to increase their synchronization with their spirit card. Every 10% increase in synchronization meant another ring.
Summoning types had to build a strong bond with their spirit beasts. Even the beasts had to train and breathe mana themselves, usually with the help of their tamers. Every 10% increase in bonding meant another ring.
And for weapon types like me… it was all about mastery.
The better you fought with your weapon spirit, the more your mastery rose. Every 10% increase in mastery meant another ring.
Right now, my mastery is 10.05%. Just enough to barely enter the second ring. And since Enkidu was a seventh ring potential card, the maximum mastery I could reach with it was seventy percent.