Chapter 348: Ten Thousand a Life

Glitch’s avatar stood in the familiar clearing, turning its new head as Jin opened the Engine.

The change was harder to take in on a screen. In the stall, Glitch was warm armor, a tail in the way, a nose searching Jin’s pockets. Here, the whole drake fit beneath his thumb: broad shoulders, dark overlapping plates, horns curving outward at the tips.

A notice covered the upper part of the image.

[Bound Beast: Glitch — real-body evolution detected]

[Avatar form updated to match: Armored Ground Drake]

[Real-body status: Gold (Low) — Rank 2, 1-Star]

[Banked development: retained. No Sync performed.]

Jin checked the stored growth before dismissing the notice. The breakthrough had updated Glitch’s avatar without emptying the bank into his real body. He could still choose what to transfer and when.

His thumb moved toward the dungeon list, then stopped.

At the edge of the screen was a small heart-shaped icon. He hadn’t seen it beside the profile during the awakening, when he’d barely looked beyond Gold.

[Life: 0]

He tapped it.

[Life System — unlocked]

[Unlock condition: Tamer Bond Core formation (Rank 2)]

The next page led into the shop. One new entry sat at the top.

[Life ×1 — 10,000 Coins]

Jin leaned closer.

Ten thousand for one?

The fruit that had changed Glitch’s foundation had cost forty-two thousand to manifest. This was nearly a quarter of that amount for something the shop hadn’t bothered to explain on the listing.

He opened the description.

[One Life covers the respawn cost of one avatar death.]

[Lives are shared. They may be used for any bound avatar.]

[Each avatar death consumes one Life. Multiple deaths in a single run consume multiple Lives.]

[If no Lives remain, respawn proceeds normally. The respawn cost is drawn from the Tamer’s body.]

[Note: This cost has always applied. Rank 2 unlocks the option to purchase Lives in its place.]

For a while, Jin held the phone without touching it.

He had experienced enough to suspect a physical cost. The earlier blood-consumption episodes had stayed with him through Highmarch and the weeks afterward. He hadn’t forgotten them simply because familiar routes became easier.

But the description gave the connection a certainty his own guesses had lacked. It applied to respawning itself, and the alternative had been locked behind a Bond Core he hadn’t possessed.

Jin set the phone beside him and rubbed both hands over his face.

He thought of the gravity ape. So many attempts, each one meant to teach him something that would make the next work. He could remember being furious about a missed timing window, then immediately preparing another run.

The mistakes still mattered. Now there was a price he could actually read.

He picked the phone up and checked the description again, hoping for a detail about how much each unprotected death took. There was nothing about recovery, nothing about whether a stronger avatar cost more, and nothing that made him want to test it himself.

You could have shown me this earlier.

The counter remained at zero.

Relief came slowly. There was a way to pay with something he could earn and save. Then he looked at the price again and felt irritated all over.

Glitch and Flicker dying together would cost twenty thousand Coins.

He had done plenty of things in games because a wipe only wasted time. Even after learning that the Engine could strain him, he had never been able to put a clear alternative beside that risk.

Now he could, and it was expensive.

Jin opened the record from Highmarch before letting himself draw another conclusion.

The semifinal had involved the emergency Sync, Glitch’s breakthrough in combat, and the temporary Imitation Draconic Heart. The Engine had recorded an abnormal surge of strain through the bond. None of that entry identified an avatar death as the cause.

He couldn’t connect the two simply because both had hurt him.

The Life description covered respawning. It said nothing about protecting him when an emergency transfer met an already overburdened bond, or when Glitch sustained a combination that his body could barely bear.

Jin closed the record. Buying a Life would not make that combination safe to repeat.

In his notes, he wrote a new heading: Life reserve.

The first purchase would be one. Once he could maintain more, he would. For now, he wanted to compare the cost against what a reliable run actually earned after Glitch’s advancement, before choosing any difficult new target.

The price made the decision feel different from buying a useful material. A material stayed useful. One bad dodge could spend a Life before he had learned anything worth ten thousand Coins.

He returned to the dungeon list and passed the queen-chamber route. That objective and its fruit were behind him. Farther down lay Third Descent and the side chamber where they had finally defeated the gravity ape.

There was room to explore beyond those cleared sections. First, though, Jin needed to see how the new avatar handled on ground he knew.

He chose a short run with both beasts and kept the withdrawal route in view.

Glitch’s greater reach was immediately noticeable. At the familiar two-patrol junction, Jin had Flicker draw one formation away while Glitch engaged the other, using the separation that had worked before.

The first mantis struck his shoulder plating and slid off.

Jin almost sent the counter too late because he was watching the hit. Glitch recovered his stance, drove forward, and forced the creature back into its companion. The pair went down before Flicker needed to turn for another pass.

Previously, that timing had been tight.

Jin brought her back while Glitch finished, then let both avatars rest at the junction. The stronger body helped, but it also covered more ground with each step. He adjusted his estimate of the space Glitch needed before continuing.

Past the cleared side chamber, the main passage narrowed between shelves of pale stone. Jin advanced only far enough to reveal the next bend.

Two soldier mantises waited beyond it.

He drew Glitch back into the wider section and sent Flicker forward along the wall. She darted into view, turned beneath a projecting shelf, and came back with the front mantis following.

The second moved after it.

Jin waited until the leader stepped off the narrow shelf beside the bend. Glitch’s Gravity Press struck the ground beneath its landing, forcing its forelegs low before it could raise its scythes.

Glitch met it shoulder-first.

The mantis folded against the wall. Its companion slashed across Glitch’s flank, leaving a shallow mark between plates before Jin pulled him around to face it.

A second exchange might have let Glitch crush it immediately. It would also have put Flicker’s returning path between the scythes.

Jin moved her clear first.

The delay cost Glitch another glancing hit, but when he drove forward again, nothing was in his way. His new weight carried the mantis backward, and a close bite ended the fight.

Jin exhaled and looked at the avatars’ condition. They could continue, though the scratches reminded him how quickly a supposedly manageable encounter could become costly.

Farther along, another pair shifted in the dark.

He watched their approach instead of rushing to meet them. This time, he brought Glitch back to the bend and used the narrow passage to keep the pair from attacking together. Flicker stayed behind his shoulder until there was room to pass.

The fight took longer, but the mantises went down with less damage done.

[Guard Corridor — cleared]

Beyond the final pair, the passage opened into a space Jin hadn’t explored. Movement stirred at the edge of the visible area. His thumb hovered over the command to advance.

Then he checked Flicker, checked Glitch, and looked at the heart in the corner.

[Life: 0]

He withdrew along the cleared route.

Only when both avatars were out did he open the run’s rewards and compare them with the shop price. The new section was reachable. Glitch could handle its guards, provided Jin stopped treating extra armor as permission to be careless.

He saved the route, then bookmarked the Life listing.

The next time he went beyond that corridor, he wanted something beside the heart other than zero.

[Author: I want to thank everyone for all the love and support up until now.

Just reading my story is more than enough for me.]