The empty bowl sat in front of him, scraped almost clean. A few pale streaks of porridge clung to the bottom. The spoon rested across the rim. Beside it, a wooden cup held the last mouthful of water.
Boran sat alone at a small table near the wall of the Endless Tavern.
Morning had settled into the hall properly now. Not the loud, drunken kind of life the Tavern had carried last night, but the low working rhythm of people preparing for another day. Boots scraped against the floor. Bowls clinked.
He looked down at the empty bowl again.
The breakfast had cost one gold.
[Current Balance: 22 gold]
The porridge had been warm. That was the best thing about it. It had tasted like wet paper, but it was food.
Boran leaned back carefully. His ribs still hurt when he breathed too deeply, but the pain was duller than last night. Sleep, stew, a shower, and a real bed had done their part.
He opened his status.
[HP: 31/75]
[Level: 2]
[XP: 215/2000 toward Level 3]
[Current Balance: 22 gold]
[Level Rewards Available]
He exhaled slowly.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let's see what I got."
"Show me the rewards," Boran thought.
The interface expanded.
[Rewards pending:]
5 Unallocated Stat Points
1 Skill Point
Class Equipment Reward
Boran stopped with the spoon halfway to his mouth.
"Class equipment?"
The panel shifted.
[CLASS EQUIPMENT REWARD: ADAPTIVE SHIELD]
[Reward generated based on class, combat history, equipment loss, and beta compatibility profile.]
[Accept reward?]
He selected yes.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then something appeared on the table beside his bowl.
It was a shield.
At least, Boran thought it was supposed to be a shield.
It had the right shape: broad, slightly curved, large enough to cover most of his torso if held properly. But everything else about it looked unfinished. It was pure white, not bright like polished metal or clean cloth, but blank. Featureless. Smooth. Even its surface seemed wrong, like someone had forgotten to put the texture on it.
A man at the next table glanced over, saw the blank white shield, blinked twice, then looked away as if deciding it was none of his business.
Boran touched the shield.
The surface was cool and strangely soft, but not flexible. It felt like touching a thing that had not yet decided what it wanted to be.
A panel opened.
[Adaptive Shield]
Type: Tank Equipment
Quality: Unformed
Durability: ∞
Current Form: Blank Form
Physical Defense Bonus: +1
Special Effect: None
Description: A Tank class bound adaptive shield generated through beta equipment protocols. The shield has no fixed material identity. Combine with compatible materials to unlock shield forms.
Another panel opened beneath the first.
[ADAPTIVE FORM SYSTEM UNLOCKED]
[The Adaptive Shield can absorb compatible material bundles to unlock basic forms.]
[Unlocked forms can be selected and switched at any time from the Shield Form Registry.]
[Only one form may be active at a time.]
Then came the examples.
[Known Basic Form Examples:]
Wooden Shield Form: Wood x20
Stone Shield Form: Stone Fragment x20
Hide Shield Form: Beast Hide x10
Bone Shield Form: Bone Fragment x15
Root Shield Form: Root Fiber x15
Boran leaned closer despite himself.
Now that was interesting.
They were examples, not a full list. The System was not telling him every shield form that existed. It was showing him a few simple things the Adaptive Shield could probably become if he found the right materials.
A blank shield waiting to be built.
"That is..." Boran stopped. “Good? I guess…”
Another notification appeared.
[Bound Equipment Notice]
[Adaptive Shield is bound to the user.]
[It cannot be sold, traded, stolen, or destroyed.]
[If dismissed, the shield returns to inventory.]
[If forcefully separated, the shield may be recalled after a short delay.]
Boran's fingers tightened around the edge of the blank shield.
Could not be destroyed.
He did laugh then, but it came out quiet and tired.
"Where were you two days ago?"
Boran dismissed the. The blank white shape dissolved into small squares of light and vanished into his inventory.
"Stats," he said.
The reward panel shifted again.
[Unallocated Stat Points: 5]
His current stats appeared beneath it.
Strength: 7
Agility: 4
Constitution: 15
Intelligence: 1
Wisdom: 2
Charisma: 4
Five points.
Constitution had saved him. There was no question. More health meant more room for mistakes before death. He didn’t have any ability that used stamina, but increasing it would still help—ml increase
Strength mattered too. The Burrowguard Shield was heavy. If he kept using shields, especially heavier material forms, he needed the strength to handle them. And if heavy armor required high Strength, that would matter as well. Either way, it was useful.
Agility was still low. Too low. Small enemies did not care how tough he was if they could get under his shield, around his shield, behind his shield.
Intelligence was pathetic, and mana was a problem. Ten mana meant every skill use mattered too much. Fortify cost five. Taunt cost five. Shield Slam cost two. Defensive Stance drained him by the second. One bad decision emptied him.
Wisdom helped perception. He hated admitting it, but perception might keep him alive more often than raw toughness. Seeing danger early was better than blocking it late.
Charisma...
Boran frowned.
Charisma had helped him exactly zero times in a fight. But asking for help had gotten him a shield. Talking to the Greenleaf Exchange had gotten him fair money. Listening to the receptionist had taught him how the Hub actually worked. People mattered. He just did not know how to put a number on that yet.
"Five points," he muttered.
If he put all five into Constitution, he would be safer.
If he put them into Strength, the shield would feel lighter.
If he put them into Intelligence, he could actually use his skills more than twice.
He looked at the blank white shield icon in his inventory.
Adaptive Shield.
A shield that could become different things if he had the materials.
That meant he would need to gather. Mine. scavenge. Carry. Survive. Choose. Maybe fight in different ways depending on what he had.
A normal Tank could just buy better gear.
Boran could not.
So he needed to become the kind of Tank who could make bad situations work.
He allocated the points.
[+2 Constitution]
[+1 Strength]
[+1 Intelligence]
[+1 Wisdom]
The final stats appeared.
[UPDATED STATISTICS]
Strength: 8
Agility: 4
Constitution: 17
Intelligence: 2
Wisdom: 3
Charisma: 4
[Derived attributes recalculated]
Health Points: 85
Mana Points: 20
Stamina: 34
Boran stared at the mana number.
Twenty.
Still low compared to anyone with real magic. But to him, it looked enormous. Twice what he had before. Fortify no longer meant losing half his mana in one breath.
He confirmed the allocation before he could second-guess himself.
Energy moved through his body.
It was less dramatic than class selection. No huge transformation. His mind felt a little clearer, like someone had cleaned a dirty window.
Boran flexed his fingers.
The final reward waited.
[Skill Point Available: 1]
[Skill points may be used to upgrade an existing skill or unlock a new compatible skill.]
A list opened.
[Available Skill Upgrades:]
Fortify I → Fortify II
Taunt I → Taunt II
Shield Slam I → Shield Slam II
Defensive Stance I → Defensive Stance II
Gathering F → Gathering F+
Botanist F → Botanist F+
Survival FF → Survival F
Then another section appeared.
[New Compatible Skills Available]
Brace
Shield Recall
Material Sense
Boran tapped the descriptions one by one.
[Brace]
Type: Defensive Reaction
Effect: Planting feet and raising a shield before impact reduces the next incoming hit by 5.
Mana Cost: 2
Cooldown: 5 seconds
Useful. Very useful.
[Shield Recall]
Type: Equipment Utility
Effect: Recalls the Adaptive Shield to the user's hand from short range.
Mana Cost: 1
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Requirement: Adaptive Shield equipped.
Kind of useful if he wants to become Captain America.
[Material Sense]
Type: Utility / Adaptive Equipment Support
Effect: Detects nearby materials compatible with Adaptive Shield form creation within a short range.
Current Range: 5 meters
Boran leaned back in his chair.
That one was tempting.
If the examples were things the shield could become, then he would need materials sooner or later. Wood. Stone. Hide. Bone. Roots. Anything that matched one of those simple forms.
A skill that could sense useful materials would make that easier.
But his last two missions had almost killed him because he could not defend himself well enough when things went wrong.
Brace would keep him alive.
Shield Recall sounded convenient, but the Adaptive Shield already returned if separated. Recall was probably for combat tricks later. Not now.
Defensive Stance II also tempted him. It had saved his life in the explosion. Upgrading it might make him harder to kill. But Defensive Stance locked him in place. If he used it wrong, he became a statue waiting to die.
Brace was active, cheap, simple, and worked with what he already did.
Plant feet. Raise shield. Survive hit.
Boran selected it.
[Skill Point spent]
[New Skill Acquired: Brace]
For a moment, knowledge settled into his body.
How to lower his center of gravity. How to angle the shield before impact. How to breathe before something hit. How not to meet force straight on when a slight angle could turn death into pain. It made sense now.
He raised one hand under the table, palm open, and imagined holding a shield.
The blank white shield appeared silently on his arm.
It looked ridiculous against the table. Smooth, white, unfinished. Like a practice object made for children.
Boran dismissed the shield.
He finished the porridge before it could get any colder.
When the bowl was empty, he opened the Adaptive Shield registry again.
[SHIELD FORM REGISTRY]
[Current: Blank Form]
[Unknown Forms: Discover compatible materials to reveal requirements]
He had no materials.
He had an evolving shield and nothing to evolve it with.
Yesterday, his problem had been simple: he needed to survive with whatever trash shield someone pitied him enough to give.
Today, his problem was different.
He needed materials.
That was a problem he could solve.
His boot pressed into soft soil.
Warm air touched his face.
Boran opened his eyes.
Sunfield Grove stretched around him in bright, gentle colors. The sky above was pale blue with slow white clouds. Tall grass covered rolling fields, broken by patches of yellow flowers and clusters of short trees with silver-gray bark.
The light here was warmer; it made everything look soft. Bees, or something like bees drifted over the flowers. Small winged insects flashed gold in the air.
The grove itself began maybe fifty meters ahead. Not a dense forest. More like scattered trees growing in loose groups, their branches low and wide. Fallen limbs rested under some of them. Dry bark peeled from trunks in curling strips.
A notification appeared.
[MISSION ZONE ENTERED: SUNFIELD GROVE]
[MISSION: SWEETROOT HARVEST]
[Rank: FF]
[Threat Level: Almost None]
[Objective: Harvest 25 Sweetroot bundles from designated field markers.]
[Reward: 4 Gold, 10 XP]
Almost no threat. That was why he had chosen it.
Not because the reward was good. Four gold was barely anything. Ten XP was also nothing compared to what he needed for the next level. If this was only about money, he would have picked something better. If this was about XP, he would have been stupid enough to choose another combat mission.
He was not doing that. He needed materials.
The Adaptive Shield sat in his inventory. He wanted to test it, but it wouldn’t be smart to use it as his main shield. The Blank Form only gave one defense. The Burrowguard Shield gave five.
Boran looked toward the grove. Branches lay under the trees. Bark peeled from pale trunks. Fallen limbs rested in the grass.
He remembered the examples from breakfast. They were just possible first forms, simple enough for someone like him to understand.
Wooden. Stone. Hide. Bone. Root.
Out of all of them, wood looked easiest.
Stone would mean finding proper “fragments,” so he’d probably need a pickaxe. Hide and bone meant fighting something, and he had no interest in fighting anything today. Root fiber might work, but he didn’t even know what counted as proper root fiber yet.
Wood was right there.
Twenty pieces of wood was the real mission in Boran’s head.
The Sweetroot job was just the excuse that got him into the portal. He would still finish it. But once the required roots were gathered, he could search the grove properly.
If he found extra herbs or other materials that looked valuable, he would gather those too.
The System marker pointed toward the first field cluster.
Boran looked around one more time, checking for movement. Nothing dangerous. Just grass moving in the wind and a few round animals in the distance that looked like sheep with too many ears. They chewed grass and ignored him completely.
He still kept the Burrowguard Shield on his arm.
"Mission first," he said.
If he finished the objective quickly, then he could spend the rest of the timer gathering whatever else he wanted. He did not want to get distracted and fail the one thing he had actually accepted.
The Sweetroot plants were easy to find once he reached the marked area. They grew in small clusters near stones, with three wide leaves and yellow cup-shaped flowers. His Botanist skill gave him the method, and after ruining the first root by pulling too hard, Boran slowed down.
The rest was boring work.
It took a little under two hours to finish. His knees hurt, his hands were dirty, and his ribs complained whenever he bent too fast, but nothing attacked him.
[OBJECTIVE COMPLETE: SWEETROOT HARVEST]
[PROGRESS: 25/25]
Boran sat back and wiped his hands on the grass.
He still had plenty of time.
Now came the real reason he was here.
Boran already had a place to start. The System had shown possible basic forms earlier, and the easiest one for this place was obvious.
Wood.
For the next while, Boran gathered what he could. Fallen branches. Thick bark slabs. Dry rootwood. A few pieces of driftwood from a shallow stream. He ignored rotten pieces, anything crawling with insects, and branches too thin to feel useful.
He also picked up a few things that looked like they might sell.
[Sun Grass x8]
[Warmleaf x3]
[Common Wood Piece x19]
Boran stopped when he found the last piece.
It was just another fallen branch, thick enough to count and dry enough to use.
[Dry Wood Piece]
[Common wood material.]
Adaptive Shield Compatibility: Confirmed
"Good enough."
He kept searching around the grove and gathered more of the same kind of wood. When he finally had twenty usable pieces stacked beside him, he sat down in the grass.
Only then did he dismiss the Burrowguard Shield and summon the Adaptive Shield.
The blank white shield appeared on his arm.
Boran picked up the first wood piece and touched it to the surface.
"Absorb."
A soft white light spread from the shield and covered the wood. The branch trembled, then dissolved into glowing dust. The particles sank into the shield like water into dry soil.
Notifications appeared.
[Material accepted: Dry Wood Piece]
[Material category registered: Wood]
[Known example matched: Wooden Shield Form]
[Wooden Shield Form progress: 1/20]
He fed them one by one.
Each piece vanished into the same white light.
[Wooden Shield Form progress: 5/20]
[Wooden Shield Form progress: 10/20]
[Wooden Shield Form progress: 15/20]
By the time he picked up the last piece, his hands were covered in dirt and wood dust.
He pressed it against the shield.
The white light ate it.
[Material accepted: Dry Wood Piece]
[Wooden Shield Form progress: 20/20]
Then the shield pulsed against his arm. The glow covered the whole shield, almost too bright to look at directly.
Boran held his arm still and watched.
The shape changed under the light. The smooth white surface pulled inward, then spread again. Thin brown lines appeared across it like grain in cut wood. The blank material hardened, layered, and settled into fitted wooden boards. A simple round boss formed in the center, and the edges thickened with darker bark-like reinforcement.
Then the glow faded.
The shield was wooden now.
[New Shield Form unlocked: Wooden Shield Form]
[Adaptive Shield registry updated]
[Form: Wooden Shield]
[Durability: 20/20]
[Physical Defense Bonus: +2]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: Wood Gatherer I]
[Effect: Medium chance to obtain +1 Common Wood Piece when gathering common wood materials.]
The shield settled back onto Boran's arm.
It was heavier than the blank form, but not too heavy. It felt real in a way the white version had not. The wooden surface was warm under his fingers. The edge was not metal, but the bark-like reinforcement felt dense and stubborn.
It was not amazing. He knew that. And the Burrowguard Shield was still better in a fight.
He liked the Wooden Shield. It was his. He had made it, or at least fed the materials that made it. That mattered.
He dismissed the Adaptive Shield. The wooden form dissolved into small squares of light and returned to his inventory. Then he summoned the Burrowguard Shield again.
Boran looked at the mission timer, then at the open field.
The mission was complete. The Wooden Shield was unlocked.
He could leave now.
But there were still herbs in the field, bark under the trees, and maybe more materials.
Boran adjusted the Burrowguard Shield on his arm and started walking back toward the Sweetroot field.
“One step at a time.”
Time passed after that.
Whenever he found fallen branches or dry bark, he switched to the Wooden Shield long enough to test the new passive. It was not some huge miracle. Most of the time it didn’t even work.
But sometimes, when he pulled apart a dry branch or broke loose a piece of bark, the System gave him one extra piece.
After that, he searched for roots.
Root Shield Form had been one of the examples too. Root Fiber x15. He had not known exactly what counted as root fiber at first, so he wasted some time pulling at the wrong things. Living roots did not work. Thick roots still attached to trees did not work. Rotten roots did not work either.
But dry root strands near fallen trees did.
So did the tangled brown fibers under old bark where the roots had cracked through the soil.
The work was slow, dirty, and annoying. Boran had no knife, no proper tool, and no patience left for pretending this was fun. He used his hands, a sharp stone, and sometimes the edge of the Burrowguard Shield to pry roots loose without breaking them too badly.
By the time he had enough, the sky above Sunfield Grove had started turning orange.
His inventory looked better than it had in the morning.
[Sun Grass x14]
[Warmleaf x7]
[Common Wood Piece x9]
[Dry Root Fiber x15]
Boran sat under one of the short silver-barked trees and looked at the root fibers in front of him.
He dismissed the Burrowguard Shield and summoned the Adaptive Shield again. He focused on the registry and switched it back to Blank Form.
The wood faded into smooth white.
Boran picked up the first bundle of root fiber and pressed it against the shield.
“Absorb.”
[Material accepted: Dry Root Fiber]
[Material category registered: Root Fiber]
[Known example matched: Root Shield Form]
[Root Shield Form progress: 1/15]
Boran fed the rest without making a big thing of it.
One bundle after another.
The shield ate them all.
[Root Shield Form progress: 5/15]
[Root Shield Form progress: 10/15]
[Root Shield Form progress: 15/15]
The shield pulsed against his arm.
The shape changed slowly. The smooth blank face tightened and roughened. Pale roots twisted together across the front, weaving into a shield shape. Some parts stayed hard and flat, but others looked like bundled root cords pulled tight around the frame.
Then the glow faded.
The shield looked like it had been made from roots wrapped around old wood.
[New Shield Form unlocked: Root Shield Form]
[Adaptive Shield registry updated]
[Form: Root Shield]
[Durability: 15/18]
[Physical Defense Bonus: +2]
[Ability Unlocked: Root Anchor I]
[Effect: Creates a sturdy root anchor in soil or any ground where plants can grow.]
[Load Limit: 200 kg]
[Condition: Root Shield Form active. Requires natural ground within 2 meters. Only 1 root can remain active.]
[Description: A basic root-woven form. Flexible, rough, and useful for anchoring rope or securing weight on natural ground.]
That was actually useful.
Not because it would win a fight by itself. It was just a root. But a root that could hold two hundred kilos was different.
If he had rope, he could tie it to the anchor. He could secure a bundle. He could hold something in place. Maybe even stop himself from sliding if the ground was bad enough.
He looked at the soil near his boot and raised the Root Shield slightly.
“Root Anchor.”
A thick root pushed out of the ground with a quiet crackle. It twisted once, dug itself deeper, and stopped there like a rough wooden stake.
Boran crouched and pulled it with both hands.
It did not move.
“Okay,” he said. “That one’s good.”
The sun was already low when Boran finally decided to stop.
He could have gathered more. There were still herbs in the field and fallen branches under the trees. The System had not forced him out yet.
But his hands hurt. His back hurt. And for once, his clothes were still mostly intact.
That was new.
They were dirty, yes. Grass stains marked his knees. Mud streaked the cuffs. Bits of bark dust clung to his sleeves. But there were no fresh tears. No blood soaking through the fabric.
Then he opened the exit prompt.
[Mission complete.]
[Exit mission zone?]
Boran selected yes.
A portal opened in front of him, its surface turning gray-white as it pulled the air inward.
A second later, his boots hit the hard floor outside.
The Hub returned around him.
Noise. Voices. Lantern light. The smell of food, sweat, and too many people. The portal behind him shimmered once, then settled.
It was evening, so he did not waste time.
Boran sold everything he had gathered for thirty gold, then went straight to the Endless Tavern and claimed the mission reward.
[Mission reward received: 4 gold, 10 XP]
The next two days passed almost the same way.
Boran did not take anything dangerous. Nothing with a real fight waiting inside it.
He picked the fastest gathering missions he could find, entered the portal, finished the objective in about two hours, sold whatever extra materials he gathered, then came back to the Tavern for the reward.
Again and again.
By the end of the second day, the penalty was gone.
[Mission Penalty Cleared]
He earned some gold.
[Gold Earned: 100]
And experience.
[XP Gained: 200]
Now he can look for a team and grind like a real Awakened.