Chapter 39: Earth Resonance

Kren found himself a corner within the wreckage to sit with. He needed a moment to think, to plan, and to put his banked Sovereign Points to use. Whatever had just flared up between Fima and Pina was clearly because of him somehow, but now wasn’t the time or place to untangle that obvious mystery. He had points he’d been sitting on for too long, and it was time to spend them properly — because the threats that waited beyond this hideout would demand every scrap of strength he could put together.

[You Have Spent 10,000 Sovereign Points! Your Art, True Earth Resonance, Has Reached Mid Grade. Second Stage Unlocked — Earth Resonance. You Can Now Empower Yourself Using the Vibrations Gathered Through Earth Sense.]

Aura rippled through him, starting at the center of his chest and spreading outward in slow, oscillating waves that matched the rhythm of his own heartbeat. His Earth Sense expanded with it, blanketing the entire wreck in a single pulse before pushing further still — through the surrounding rock, and into the cavern beyond.

His range under the art had grown dramatically, now stretching well past a hundred meters in every direction. Every vibration, every shifting weight within that radius fed back into him in a steady, humming undercurrent — not quite awareness, something closer to a constant buzz pressed against the inside of his skull. His whole body shook under the sheer volume of information pouring in.

Kren coughed, a mouthful of blood splattering against the wreck’s floor as he fought to wrestle the art back under his control. Reaching the second stage should have meant his body and Aura had already acclimated gradually, through months of lived experience. But the Sovereign Beast System skipped straight past all of that — granting raw power without the years of grinding familiarity that should have come attached to it.

As much as he hated admitting it, his command over half the tools in his arsenal was dangerously shallow. He needed real battlefield experience, real repetition — not just raw power, but a level of finesse that turned the art into something genuinely lethal. If he was honest, he’d half-hoped leveling the art would unlock its third stage outright — ResonanceReversal. Watching what the second stage alone did to his body made him grateful it hadn’t. He was still only First Awakening. Maybe a little more patience with mastery wouldn’t have hurt.

The vibrations finally settled into something manageable, though the passive awareness underneath remained far stronger than before. He’d need to find a way to tune it down eventually, or it would render him useless the moment real combat started.

[You Have Spent 10,000 Sovereign Points. Your Physique and Mind Attributes Have Increased to First Awakening High Grade.]

Kren’s spine snapped backward, mouth stretching open in a silent scream as Aura tore through him violently. Everyone present saw it happen, though he’d already asked them not to interfere, leaning on the same cover story he’d given earlier — some rare training method unique to the forest. His mind expanded, senses sharpening in a single qualitative leap. The feedback from Earth Resonance grew noticeably quieter, his body finally catching up enough that the low hum settled into something closer to background noise.

It was somewhere around this point that Kren finally began to understand how all of it actually worked together — how his stats synergized with his arts and his Aura as a whole. The stronger his body and mind grew, the more arts and spells he could absorb, and the less each one cost him physically to wield. The same logic applied to his Aura pool. But with all of this spent, he sat at fifteen thousand points remaining, and the question now was where the rest should go.

His options narrowed down to upgrading Sinful Mane — the one spell in his arsenal he hadn’t tested once in actual combat. Walking into this fight relying on an untested spell felt reckless, especially without knowing the full shape of what waited for him. Which left his Aura pool as the obvious next investment, same logic as before. His Aura was already substantial; pushing it further wouldn’t necessarily let him land a single devastating blow, but it would let him grind an enemy down through sheer accumulated damage. Death by a thousand cuts, more or less.

[You Have Used 10,000 Sovereign Points! Your Aura Attribute Has Reached First Awakening Peak Grade! The Purity, Potency, and Volume of Your Aura Has Increased!]

Kren tried to hold it in. He should have known better by now. His Aura exploded outward, violent enough that the windows lining the wreck — the only thing keeping them hidden from the Lyndwyrms beyond — shattered inward with a sound that echoed deep into the cavern. The Lyndwyrms answered instantly, startled shrieks tearing through the air.

"Damn it!" Pina cursed, throwing one glance through the broken window before sprinting toward her weapon rack at the far end of the chamber. Kren winced, his Aura billowing off him in rolling clouds of green, black, and soft earthen gold, spiraling tight around his frame before finally sinking back into his skin, settling deep into veins, organs, bone. Somewhere in the dark corner of his own mind, his inner beast stirred — the promise of the hunt ahead waking it fully, those baleful golden eyes fixed on him from somewhere just past conscious thought. He gave his updated status page a quick glance.

SYSTEM STATUS

Name: Kren N’kora Blackmane

Cultivation: First Awakening — Mid Grade (50,000 SP)

Bloodline: Black Lion — Mid Grade (100,000 SP)

Inner Beast: Royal Black Lion

ATTRIBUTES: First Awakening

• Physique: High Grade (10,000 SP)

• Mind: High Grade (10,000 SP)

• Aura: Peak Grade (20,000 SP)

KNOWLEDGE:

• Military Arts: Low Grade (5,000 SP)

• Agricultural Arts: Low Grade (5,000 SP)

• Crafting Arts: Low Grade (5,000 SP)

• Commerce Arts: Low Grade (5,000 SP)

• Medical Arts: Low Grade (5,000 SP)

• Love Making: Low Grade (5,000 SP)

AFFINITIES

• Wind: Mid Grade (25,000 SP)

• Earth: Mid Grade (25,000 SP)

• Darkness: Mid Grade (25,000 SP)

TECHNIQUES

• Aura Arts:

I. True Earth Resonance — Mid Grade (25,000 SP)

• Aura Spells:

I. Summoning: Spirits of the Wind (North, East, South, West) — Mid Grade (25,000 SP)

II. Sinful Mane: Greed Moon — Low Grade (10,000 SP)

BLOODLINE TRAITS

• Pride Bond: Dormant

• Feline Sovereignty: Active

• Beast Tongue: Active

SOVEREIGN POINTS: 5,500

Kren doubted this would be enough, whatever his plan ended up looking like. It didn’t matter either way. He either marched forward, or he turned tail and ran back down the mountain with nothing to show for it. He pushed himself up and crossed the wreck in quick strides.

"We move, now. We need to draw the alpha out, pull it clear of the cavern, and bring the whole thing down on top of the rest of the clutch." Aki looked at Kren like he’d sprouted a second head on the spot.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that, Your Majesty? You keeping explosives tucked somewhere I don’t know about?" Aki asked, dripping sarcasm. Kren smiled back at him.

"As a matter of fact, I do." He turned to Ruhu. "Tell me you still have those vials safe, head merchant."

The Snow Leopard-kin’s mouth curved into a slow, knowing smile as he pulled his coat aside, revealing a leather satchel strapped beneath it.

"The explosive oil’s intact, Your Majesty. Though it feels like a waste, burning through it like this. Cost me a small fortune convincing those frogmen to part with the recipe at all — the ingredients alone are nearly impossible to source. These ten vials are the only batch left on this side of the empire."

"Uh-huh. Sure." Kren responded absent mindedly as he took the satchel and crossed over to Pina, who was busy stringing a silver bow and fastening an oddly shaped quiver across her back. She eyed the satchel for a long second before accepting it from him.

"These vials are sturdy enough to survive travel, but the glass is treated to amplify both impact and sound on contact. Smash it hard enough against solid stone, and it goes off. I want you using this to bring down the support pillars holding up the cavern roof. Don’t miss. Fire the moment you see the alpha enter the shaft — not before, not after."

"And how exactly are you planning to get it to leave in the first place?" Aki pressed, still visibly unconvinced by any part of this plan. Kren turned toward him, already moving for the tunnel exit.

"It already knows I’m here. It can sense my crest, my bloodline — same as it’s clearly been sensing Pina and Jomin’s bloodlines this whole time, which is probably exactly why it’s been hunting the village so relentlessly. It wants to devour pure blood. I’m going to use my own bloodline’s call, paired with Beast Tongue, to challenge it directly. Drag it out myself." Kren said, checking both muskets to confirm they were fully loaded.

"And once it’s out?" Toa asked, surprising the entire group — the Snake-kin rarely spoke unless directly addressed, keeping mostly to himself.

"We do everything in our power to clip its wings." Kren holstered both pistols, then reached for a single gleaming metal spear mounted on Pina’s weapon rack. He leveled it at Aki briefly, testing its balance, before pulling it back to his side. "After that, we throw it off the mountain. If it’s still breathing by the time it hits the base, we finish the job there." He looked around the group. "Pina and Jomin stay here with Fima and Ruhu. Toa, Aki — you’re both with me."

Fima opened her mouth to protest, but Aki’s hand settled firmly on her shoulder first. "He needs you here to make sure our eagle princess doesn’t decide to get creative with her timing. She fires that arrow the moment the alpha enters the shaft — not a second early, not a second late. If she gets it wrong, you take her head. And her brother’s." Aki held Kren’s gaze for a beat, testing whether he’d override the order.

He didn’t. He’d been about to tell Fima the exact same thing himself.

Kren gave Jomin and Pina one last look before heading for the tunnel. "Guess I’ll see you both at the wedding ceremony. Better be ready — it’s happening tonight."

Then he stepped out into the dark, slipping through the narrow tunnel and out into the open air beyond, already moving toward his hunt.