Chapter 39: The First Step of the Weak
Chapter 39: The First Step of the Weak
The harsh wind whistled through the narrow gap between the brick buildings, kicking up filthy soot and scraps of dried parchment. Fourteen-year-old Sigrid Aethelgard stood in place, his thin worn coat doing little to shield him from the biting wind. Beside him, his thirteen-year-old sister, Aurelia.
Grumble...
A loud, painful sound echoed from Aurelia's stomach. She placed both hands over her midsection, her small face twisting into a pained scowl as she looked up at her older brother.
"Brother... I'm so hungry," Aurelia whimpered softly, her voice trembling. She looked at the strange objects resting in Sigrid's hands, then down at the orb and rolled parchment she held in her own pockets. "Why didn't that mister give us food instead? Why did he give us these strange toys, Sigrid?"
Sigrid lowered his gaze to the object resting in his palm. It was the [Novice Cube] a perfectly smooth, obsidian-like box, covered in microscopic glowing blue lines that pulsated like a steady heartbeat.
Sigrid raised a hand and gently stroked his sister’s messy brown hair, offering her a faint, comforting smile despite the hollow ache in his own stomach.
"Don't say that, Aurelia," Sigrid said softly, his voice carrying a maturity far beyond his fourteen years. "I don't fully understand who that mister was... but I'm sure he knew what he was doing. If he gave us a loaf of bread, we would eat it, feel full for a few hours, and then starve again tomorrow. But by giving us these... I think he wants us to find a way to get our own food. He gave us a chance to survive."
Sigrid looked down at his own fingers. They were thin, calloused, and frail the hands of a poor, malnourished street urchin, not a warrior or an adventurer.
He closed his eyes for a brief second, the painful ghosts of his past flooding his mind.
Just a year ago, their lives had been entirely different. Their father had been a humble, hardworking tailor in the lower district, spending his nights under the dim light of an oil lamp, stitching clothes for commoners. Their mother had been a gentle woman who sold fresh lavender and wild roses in the square to help pay for their meals. They had been poor, barely earning enough to put hot stew on the table each night, but their small wooden home had been filled with warmth, laughter, and love.
Then, the sickness hit the city. Their mother fell ill, and in a desperate attempt to buy expensive medicines, their father borrowed money from the local merchant syndicate's corrupt debt collectors.
The medicine failed. Their mother passed away, and shortly after, the debt collectors returned with iron batons and forged contracts. They seized the tailor shop, beat their father within an inch of his life when he tried to protest, and left him to die in the freezing rain as us if mister didn’t help us maybe our fate will be the same as our parent.
Sigrid and Aurelia had lost everything. They were cast out a week ago onto the streets because have no money for the rent, forced to beg, dig through garbage, and run from street thugs just to keep breath in their lungs.
Sigrid opened his eyes, a sharp spark of determination igniting within his brown irises. He grabbed Aurelia’s hand, squeezing it reassuringly.
"Don't worry, sister," Sigrid promised, his tone firm. "I will make things better. I won't let us die in this alley."
Aurelia looked at him nervously, her fingers tightening around his coat. "But... the mister said we should only use these items if we are in a true pinch..."
Sigrid looked around at the filthy stone walls, the mud, and his sister's pale, starving face. A bitter smile touched his lips.
"Yeah... I know," Sigrid murmured. "And right now... we are at the absolute limit. We are in a pinch."
Sigrid turned the obsidian cube in his hand, searching its seamless metallic surface until his thumb felt a tiny, raised rectangular groove on the side. Taking a deep breath, he pressed down firmly on the button.
CLICK.
In an instant, the world went dead silent.
The distant chatter of the main street vanished. The howling wind cut off mid-gust.
"What...?" Sigrid blinked, looking around in confusion. "Nothing happened?"
He turned back toward his sister to check on her. "Aurelia, I don't think this item gave me any surge of power or-"
Sigrid froze mid-sentence.
Aurelia was standing completely motionless. A single tear that had been rolling down her cold cheek was suspended dead in mid-air. A stray sparrow flying above the alley hung motionless in the sky, its wings locked in mid-beat.
Time itself had completely stopped!
"W-What?!" Sigrid gasped, stepping back in sheer panic. "Hey! Aurelia! Aurelia!"
He waved his hand frantically in front of his sister’s face, but her eyes didn't blink. She was frozen like a wax statue in a museum.
Before Sigrid’s heart could burst out of his chest from fright, a bright, translucent blue rectangle materialized in the empty air directly in front of his face!
"Whaa!" Sigrid yelped, falling backward onto his rear.
The glowing blue screen floated silently above him, displaying strange, glowing white text in a language he could somehow instinctively read:
[Scanning User...][Scan Complete.][Requirement Met: Non-Player Entity Detected.][Instanced Training Domain: Constructed.][Basic Combat Entities: Populated.]
[Are you ready to enter the training space?][ YES ] / [ NO ]
Sigrid sat on the dirt, staring up at the floating light with wide, bewildered eyes. He cautiously reached out a trembling finger, attempting to touch the glowing square. His hand passed straight through the light as if it were nothing more than colored smoke.
"Woah..." Sigrid whispered, awe washing over his fear. "What is this magical artifact? Was that mister a high-level Grand Archmage who forged this divine device?"
He scrambled to his feet, leaning closer to read the text.
Are you ready to enter? YES or NO?
Sigrid scratched his head, his mind racing. (What does it mean by 'ready'? Is this the decision to receive the power the mister talked about? But if I accept it right now, without knowing what will happen... what if it endangers Aurelia? The text gives me an option. It means I can gain this power whenever I am properly prepared. Maybe... I should choose NO first to figure out how this works.)
Sigrid hesitantly extended his hand, touching the translucent blue [ NO ] icon.
SWOOSH!
The blue screen shattered into tiny light particles and dissolved.
In the exact same microsecond, the world snapped back to life! The howling wind roared down the alley, the sparrow flapped its wings and flew away.
Aurelia blinked, looking at her brother with a worried, confused expression.
"Brother? Are you okay?" Aurelia asked, looking at his hands. "Did... did you gain any power? You've just been standing there staring into space."
Sigrid stood entirely paralyzed, staring at his sister in absolute disbelief.
"D-Did you... did you not see that?!" Sigrid blurted out, his voice cracking with excitement.
Aurelia tilted her head, thoroughly bewildered. "See what, brother? I was just looking at you. Only a single second passed!"
Sigrid touched his chin, his mind blown by the incomprehensible reality of what had just occurred.
(A second?!) Sigrid thought, his eyes wide with profound reverence. (It really is a divine artifact! The moment I pressed that button, the entire world stopped moving! Time itself froze while I was looking at that screen!)
He looked down at the [Novice Cube] in his palm. The tiny blue lines were still pulsating calmly.
Seeing his sister looking at him with deep concern, Sigrid offered her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Aurelia. But I need to try one more thing. Please stay right here!"
Before Aurelia could protest, Sigrid pressed his thumb firmly against the cube's button once again!
CLICK.
Silence descended instantly. The wind died, the sound of the city vanished, and Aurelia froze into a statue once more. The translucent blue screen materialized instantly before his eyes:
[Are you ready to enter the training space?][ YES ] / [ NO ]
This time, Sigrid didn't panic. Instead, he decided to test his boundaries. He turned his body and tried to walk out of the alley toward the main street to see if he could freely explore the city while time was frozen.
However, the moment he took five steps away from where Aurelia stood, his foot bumped into an invisible, solid wall!
RIPPLE!
A faint, translucent blue grid rippled through the empty air, completely blocking the alley exit.
[Notice: Preparation Boundary Exceeded.][User cannot move further than 5 meters from initiation point during temporal pause.]
Sigrid bumped his shoulder against the invisible barrier. "What? So I can't wander far away, huh?"
He turned around, looking back at his frozen sister, then at the floating blue screen hovering in the center of the alley.
He realized that this magical artifact wasn't a trick, nor was it a simple spell. It was an absolute, divine system designed specifically to train someone from scratch. The mystery mister hadn't given him fish he had handed him a fishing rod.
(I can't afford to be a coward anymore,) Sigrid thought, clenching his small fists until his knuckles turned white. (If I keep hiding, Aurelia and I will starve to death in this alley within a week. I have to take this chance!)
Sigrid walked back to the center of the alley, stood in front of the blue screen, and firmly pressed his hand against the [ YES ] icon.
FLASH!
In an instant, the alleyway, the brick walls, and his sister vanished!
Sigrid felt a strange, weightless sensation wash over his entire body, as if he were falling through a sea of warm light. When he opened his eyes again, he was no longer in the filthy alley.
He was standing in a vast, infinite white void. The floor beneath his worn boots looked like polished white glass, stretched out endlessly toward a seamless horizon.
Before he could process the sheer scale of the dimension, three massive blue holographic panels manifested in front of him:
[Welcome to the Beginner Leveling Dimension.]
[Notice: Entity is not identified as a registered 'Player'.]
[Adjusting system parameters for native mortal conversion...]
[Adjustment Complete.]
[Please select your starting combat specialization:]
[ SWORDSMAN ]
[ MAGE ]
[ RANGER ]
Sigrid stared at the three choices hovering in the air.
"A combat specialization...?" Sigrid murmured, his heart beating wildly against his ribs.
He looked at the option for [ MAGE ]. Magic was the supreme domain of nobles and high-tier scholars beings who could summon firestorms and crush armies. But Sigrid had no knowledge of spellcraft, mana circulation, or ancient runes. If he chose Mage, would he even understand how to cast a spell?
He looked at [ RANGER ]. Archery required immense hand-eye coordination, steady posture, and years of hunting practice things a city tailor's son had never learned.
Finally, his eyes locked onto [ SWORDSMAN ].
A sword was direct. It was honorable. It was a physical blade he could hold in his hands to protect his sister with his own strength.
"I want to be a swordsman!" Sigrid declared loudly, his voice echoing across the white void as he pressed his palm against [ SWORDSMAN ].
DING!
[Class Selected: Swordsman.]
[Stat growth curve and physical attributes will be adjusted according to your selection upon leveling up.]
SWOOSH!
Five meters directly in front of Sigrid, a swirl of dark, pixelated smoke erupted from the glass floor!
Sigrid gasped, stumbling back a step as the smoke dissolved to reveal a hideous, hunchbacked creature. It stood barely four feet tall, with mottled green skin, long pointed ears, bloodshot yellow eyes, and sharp, filthy fangs protruding from its lower jaw. It wore rag wraps around its waist and held a crude, heavy wooden club studded with sharp stones.
A Goblin!
Sigrid's breath caught in his throat. His entire body trembled violently. He was a teenager who had spent his life folding cloth, cutting thread, and fleeing from danger. He had never fought a wild monster in his entire life!
A new blue prompt flickered above the monster's head:
[Trial 1: Slay 1x Lesser Goblin to obtain your first Level.]
[Are you ready to commence combat?][ YES ] / [ NO ]
SHING!
With a sharp metallic ringing sound, a simple, unadorned iron arming sword materialized out of thin air, floating horizontally right in front of Sigrid's chest. Its leather-wrapped hilt gleamed softly under the white light of the dimension.
Sigrid stared at the blade, then at the menacing green monster glaring at him from five meters away. His legs felt like lead, and cold sweat dripped down his neck.
(I'm terrified...) Sigrid thought, his heart pounding like a war drum inside his chest. (I've never killed anything... I've never held a sword... I'm just a weak, useless child...)
Then, the image of Aurelia's pale, starving face flashed across his mind. He remembered her stomach rumbling in the windy alley. He remembered the cold corpses of his parents lying in the rain because his father was too weak to fight back against the debt collectors.
Sigrid set his jaw, a fierce, burning resolve washing away his terror.
(If I remain weak... Aurelia will die. If I don't fight... no one is coming to save us! Our savior already give us a hope and I don’t want to waste it!)
Sigrid reached out both hands and gripped the leather hilt of the iron sword!
The weapon felt surprisingly light and perfectly balanced in his hands, as if the mysterious system had custom-tailored the weight to match his frail physical strength.
Raising the blade with trembling yet unyielding hands, Sigrid pressed the [ YES ] icon!
DING!
The green light hovering over the Goblin snapped to a dark, blood-red hue!
The monster's yellow eyes locked onto Sigrid with feral, bloodthirsty rage. It tightened its grip on its spiked wooden club, reared its head back, and let out a ear-splitting, guttural screech!
"GRAAAAAH!!!"
The Goblin charged forward, its clawed feet slapping violently against the floor as it raised its heavy club to crush the boy's skull!
Sigrid planted his feet, grit his teeth, and swung his sword forward into the storm.