Caius had been here for seven whole days… locked in his room… he had avoided everyone and perhaps if he was a regular Child Of War then his brothers or his father would have given him more time of day but he was a failure so no.
House Draxos was not a place that nurtured the weak or coddled the grieving; it was a militaristic meat grinder that only respected strength, blood and the terrifying martial aura of their patron deity.
By choosing to hide away in his chambers, subsisting on whatever meager rations the maids quietly left at his door, Caius had essentially declared himself a ghost.
If he had possessed a raging crimson core like his older brothers, they might have kicked his door down and dragged him out to the training yards to beat some sense into him but because he was a cripple burdened with a dying Ash contract, his absence was simply treated as a blessing.
They were ignoring him, waiting for him to either fade away entirely or gather the courage to accept his eventual exile.
And after all those days of agonizing wait, after a full week of staring at the vaulted ceiling and dreading the inevitable arrival of the reincarnated God of Light, he finally had this screen in front of him.
The glowing blue interface was completely alien to the grim magical aesthetic of Ur, casting a cold light across his pale face.
It was simply amazing to awaken a System.
He had read enough web novels in his past life to know exactly what this was, but seeing it manifest in reality, feeling the weight it carried was an entirely different experience.
Perhaps if he was a normal reincarnator, a spoiled protagonist who expected the world to be handed to him on a silver platter, he would have complained about the System not coming earlier.
He would have cursed it for leaving him to suffer in terrified isolation for seven days.
‘But I’m just grateful it came at all…’ Caius thought as he looked at the blue screen in front of him.
Caius slowly raised his eyes, squinting against the fading blue light, and his breath completely hitched in his throat.
“A Grimoire?” he whispered, his eyes widening in shock.
Hovering gently in the air was a small incredibly ancient-looking book.
Its cover was bound in thick cracked leather that looked as though it had been carved directly from the scales of a mythical beast.
Caius scrambled forward on his knees and brought his hands up, reverently receiving the book in his palms.
It was surprisingly heavy for its size, packed with an immense number of pages.
In the world of Ur, Grimoires were legendary artifacts.
They were ancient, highly coveted books that had spells or complex martial skills permanently stored inside them by the most powerful Blessed of past eras.
Caius practically kissed the ancient leather cover, pressing it against his forehead as a wild euphoric laugh tore its way out of his throat.
“I’m overpowered,” He gasped.
“I finally have something. The ability to emulate is absolutely amazing… I can actually survive this.”
The Grimoire suddenly flared with a piercing ethereal blue light, and before his eyes, the physical book dissolved into pure energy.
The light sank directly into the palm of his hand, leaving behind a faint, tingling warmth.
He flexed his fingers, realizing that the artifact had bound itself to his very soul; he felt an innate profound connection to it, knowing instinctively that he could summon the Grimoire back into his hand immediately with just a single thought.
As he basked in the euphoric high of securing an SSS-Rank artifact, the system screen chimed again, drawing his attention back to the glowing blue interface floating in the center of the room.
[You are now receiving your Second Reward!]