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LOCATION: UNKNOWN
CITY: UNKNOWN
TIME: ??? | DATE: MORNING
Vanessa continued along the northern road with everyone else, watching her map. Eventually, she noticed a footpath leading through a pass between two large hills to the east. She wished the others good luck and started down the path alone.
On the other side of the pass, a forest stretched before her. The trail remained clear, and her map overlay showed the way without deviation, so she pressed forward. After about an hour, the forest opened into a clearing where a small house sat, quiet and unassuming.
In front of the hut stood several straw archery targets, with wooden markers set far back to designate shooting points.
Her body stiffened. Horror washed over her like ice.
This place. These targets. That door—
The same door from her worst nightmares creaked open.
A middle-aged Korean man stepped outside, his expression hard and familiar. Vanessa froze, fists clenched so tight that blood welled from her palms. Sweat broke across her skin, and her breath came shallow.
Choi Do-seok.
The archery instructor her family had hired when she was a child to prepare her for the Olympics. He had molded her into a formidable archer—but through cruelty, not care. He wielded a thin black lacquered baton of punishing hardwood, about ten inches long. He used it to strike her back to correct her posture, her hands to fix her grip, or her knuckles to enforce bowstring alignment. He called it a Chukbang—a “correction rod”—and he kept it in a leather holster on his belt like a badge of pride.
When Vanessa was fifteen, in the final stages of training for the South Korean Olympic archery team, she had practiced under his watchful, volatile eye. Three other boys trained with her, but for reasons she never understood, Choi's rage had always centered on her.
She remembered that day.
Drawing her bow for a long shot, she had sensed him behind her—drunk again, breath heavy with soju, his gait unsteady. Just as she was about to loose the arrow, he screamed into her ear and brought the Chukbang down on her right hand with a sickening crack.
The arrow veered wildly and struck one of the boys in the neck. It didn’t kill him, but had it flown a few millimeters to the left, it would have severed his carotid artery.
An investigation followed, but Choi’s powerful and political connections shielded him. Vanessa, however, was never the same. The damage to her fingers—deliberate, irreversible—had robbed her of the strength to draw a bowstring.
And so, the thing she once loved more than anything was quietly set down.
She never touched a bow again.
“You…” she stammered, voice shaking.
Choi interrupted her with a sneer. “Always the insolent one. Have you learned nothing in all these years? Show respect for you betters, girl.”
His arrogance stunned her. Vitalyx and Rejuvenex had long since repaired the damage to her hand—but the damage to her life, her dreams? That still burned.
Then, a System notification cut through her fury.
---
System Message
Make a perfect shot under stressful conditions.
---
That’s it? What the fuck…
Choi gestured toward the range. “Pick up your bow. Show me the years I spent training you weren’t wasted.”
Rage threatened to overwhelm her, but she bent down and picked up the bow—her first time touching one in over twenty years. It felt right in her hands. Long overdue.
Choi threw a single wooden arrow onto the ground in front of her and stepped back, taking a drink of soju from an old, dusty bottle and setting it back down on the porch.
She nocked the arrow and drew the string. But in the corner of her eye, she saw it.
He was reaching for the Chukbang again, preparing to strike her fingers.
Oh no, you don’t, motherfucker…
In one fluid motion, Vanessa dropped the bow, tore the Chukbang from his grip mid-swing, and slammed it down onto the crown of his head. Hard.
“You will not be hitting or correcting me again,” she hissed. “Now sit on the porch and watch. Or I’ll shoot this arrow at you.”
Blood covered his hand, shock in his eyes, Choi staggered to the porch and sat.
Vanessa picked up the bow, nocked the arrow again, and loosed it, all in a single fluid motion. The shaft sailed straight and true—dead center in the farthest target.
A ding echoed softly in her mind. She ignored it for now.
She retrieved the Chukbang, turned to face him one last time.
“I’m keeping this—so you can never torture another child again. Goodbye. Good riddance. And fuck off out of my life forever.”
She turned away. As she disappeared into the woods, she looked back once.
A faint smile touched the corners of Choi’s mouth—
And then he vanished, like a mist blowing away into the wind.
Vanessa followed the pulsing dot on her interface map, refusing to check the notification until she was well away from that house—and from him.
She thought she’d seen him disappear, fading just as she reentered the forest, but she wasn’t taking any chances. Her hands were still trembling from adrenaline, yet somehow… a small smile tugged at her lips.
Choi had haunted her dreams for so long that it was hard to remember the years when he hadn’t been there. But now, she could feel the smooth lacquered wood of the Chukbang—hers now—resting solidly in her grip. Taking it had closed a chapter she hadn’t even realized was still open.
After the investigation, after giving up archery, she had made a choice. On her seventeenth birthday, she applied to several universities in the United States. Her parents had resisted—strongly—but they’d ultimately relented when she was accepted to MIT on a small scholarship in mechanical engineering. Just enough to erase the international tuition penalty.
That had been the start of a new life for Vanessa.
Despite everything, she’d built something for herself. Something strong. And now, as she moved through the forest toward a new horizon, the old wounds felt… quieter.
Up ahead, a soft light shimmered through the trees.
Vanessa slowed, pausing at the forest’s edge.
A modern-looking town stood beyond the tree line, nestled against the woods as if it had always been there. Cautious, she stayed under cover, crouching low in the brush. Only when she was certain she was alone did she pull up the System notification still blinking patiently in her vision.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
---
System Message
Congratulations on your successful shot.
You have been awarded +1 Dexterity and +1 Perception for keeping your calm under pressure. Proceed to the town on the edge of the forest and find your objective.
---
Not exactly helpful… but clear enough, she thought.
Keeping to the shadows, Vanessa slipped through a narrow break in a crumbling cinder block wall that marked the town’s edge. The sun was still high, but she moved like it was midnight—silent, deliberate, alert.
She passed an intersection where small shops lined the streets, their faded signs hanging over shuttered windows. Two stories of apartments stood above them, dark and empty.
At the next corner, something caught her eye—a small, triangular yellow sticker on a streetlight pole, just low enough to almost be missed. An arrow. Pointing right. Almost lost amidst the random stickers littering the pole, but she had spotted it.
It was the only sign of direction, so she followed.
The next arrow was smaller. Then another. Each one more subtle than the last. She followed five in total, the trail leading her deeper into the ghost town until she reached a dingy shop at the end of a block.
There, in the lower corner of the door, was the last mark.
Not an arrow.
A dot.
A single, brown period nearly lost against the weathered door.
Finality.
Her search had ended.
“I guess this is where we find out what this is all about,” she murmured.
She pushed open the door and stepped cautiously inside.
Dust swirled in the stale air. Sunlight filtered in weakly through the cracked glass. Shelves sat abandoned. Everything was quiet—too quiet.
Vanessa crept forward until she saw another door at the back of the shop. This one was different. Spotless. Untouched.
Out of place.
She turned the knob and stepped through.
The room beyond had no windows, no exits aside from the one behind her. It was dim, yet strangely, she could see everything clearly.
A woman sat on a table in the center of the room.
Her body shimmered like moonlight on water—semi-transparent, ethereal.
A ghost.
Vanessa’s breath caught.
The woman rose and drifted forward, not quite touching the ground. She circled Vanessa slowly, silently, studying her from every angle.
Yet Vanessa felt no fear.
She stood still, letting herself be inspected.
Then, finally, the ghost spoke—her voice velvety, sensual, and hauntingly familiar.
“Vanessa, darling. It is so good to finally meet you. How has your trial gone so far? I hope it wasn’t too much for you…”
There was no mockery in her tone. Only warmth.
And something else.
Admiration?
Vanessa blinked. “I’ll admit I was surprised to see that bastard again. But I made the shot.”
The specter laughed lightly. It was like the sound of silk falling to stone.
“Ah, yes. I saw. And I must say—claiming that infernal correction rod? That was a masterstroke. Even I didn’t see it coming. Bravo.”
Vanessa absently pulled the Chukbang from her belt, running her fingers along its smooth surface. It no longer stirred rage. Instead… it felt like hers. Power reclaimed.
“It can no longer harm you,” the ghost said gently. “Fear not. I will be joining you now—if you’ll have me. And that rod… well, it deserves a new name. Wraithwood, perhaps? You’ll understand why soon.”
Vanessa’s brows lifted. “Speaking of names, may I know yours?”
A sly smile spread across the ghost’s lips. “Nyssara. And yes, I feel familiar because… we’ve known each other for a very long time. You just don’t remember yet. That’s part of the journey.”
Vanessa swallowed. A ghost. A guide. A thread from her past, woven into her future.
“I’ve been watching you,” Nyssara continued, her voice like velvet. “And I could not be more proud. Now—there’s something you must do. Focus on your status. But before you do, you should sit.”
She gestured toward a chair near the table.
Vanessa sat.
She thought: STATUS—
—and the world went black.
She came to slowly. A new System message hovered before her eyes, glowing faintly.
---
System Message
Critical path alignment detected for:
Vanessa Cho
Class upgrade in progress…
…
…
Base Class: [Skirmisher]
New Class: [Spectral Huntress] (Rare)
The Spectral Huntress works stealthily at the edges of battle, leveraging every advantage she can muster to always come out victorious, often without anyone knowing she was even there.
Stats per level:
+3 DEX
+3 PER
+2 END
+2 VIT
+5 Free Points
New skills unlocked:
Wraithbind (Active):
- Touch a target with Wraithwood, freezing them in place for 3 seconds.
- During this time, the target experiences a vivid replay of a haunting decision from their past.
- Melee range only. Cooldown: 1 hour.
Nyssara’s Waltz (Active):
- Summon a Nyssara in your place while you silently reposition.
- For the next five attacks, your arrows will appear to originate from the decoy’s location.
- +15% damage against misdirected or unaware enemies.
Mark of the Huntress (active):
- Designate a target for silent execution.
- The marked target remains unaware of their status.
- You can sense their location at all times.
- Mark expires upon target death or removal.
- +10% damage against marked targets.
---
Vanessa blinked. Her breath caught.
She wasn’t just a skirmisher anymore.
She was something else. Something more.
“Nyssara…” she whispered. “Thank you. I don’t know what to say.”
The ghost floated closer, her smile indulgent and full of mischief.
“Oh, darling,” she purred, brushing her fingers along Vanessa’s cheek with a chill like midnight fog. “You don’t need to say anything. But I do hope you’re ready, because we’re going to have so much fun together.”
She twirled midair, her presence radiant and giddy as she waved a hand toward the table.
A bow appeared. And beside it—a matched set of curved daggers, beautifully forged.
Vanessa reached for the daggers first, admiring their balance, the elegant weight. Before she could claim the bow, Nyssara spoke again.
“Oh! One last thing—your armor. You’re going to love it.”
With another wave, a folded set of matte-gray leather appeared, embroidered with delicate, stitching and reinforced at key joints. Vanessa ran her fingers over the material. It felt soft, warm—like it remembered her already.
She changed quickly, donning the armor piece by piece. Finally, she slid the hood up over her head and looked down at herself.
“So?” she asked, half smiling.
Nyssara floated back with an audible gasp.
“Oh, Vanessa… you look positively delectable. It’s like it was made for you. Well… it was.”
She practically clapped her hands. “Now then—Nightweaver. Our new companion. Let’s see how she feels in your grip.”
Vanessa reached for the bow.
The moment her fingers touched the smooth arc of the weapon, something clicked deep inside her—like finding a piece of her soul that had been missing.
A new message appeared.
---
System Message
Congratulations. You have bound “Nightweaver” and “Wraithwood.”
These items are yours. They cannot be disarmed or stolen.
You will always know their location.
These are echo weapons—functional within the Tutorial.
To wield them in the real world, you must forge them.
A quest will appear after your return.
The journey will be long—but rewarding.
Good luck, Spectral Huntress.
---
Vanessa focused on Chukb—no, Wraithwood, and to her surprise, another system message came up.
---
System Message
You have named your weapon: Wraithwood.
This lacquered rod, once a symbol and instrument of abuse and cruelty, has been claimed and remade through your will.
Bound to Vanessa Cho.
Effect: Grants the skill Wraithbind
Effect: Allows the Spectral Huntress to summon Nyssara in incorporeal form
---
She focused on Nightweaver and was pleased to see another description enter her mind.
---
System Message
You have named your weapon: Nightweaver.
This longbow, forged from an ancient flexible wood that is virtually unbreakable under any strain or stress, is your primary instrument of silent judgment.
Bound to Vanessa Cho.
Effect: Fires spectral arrows visible only to the Spectral Huntress and her companion.
Effect: Once target is eliminated, spectral arrows dissolve and return to the Huntress’s quiver.
---
Before she could respond, Nyssara leaned in, her tone softer now.
“I’ll be traveling with you from now on. My spirit is bound to Wraithwood. You can call me forth whenever you like. Others won’t be able to see or hear me—except when you use my Waltz, of course.”
She winked. “Now come on. Let’s go paint the world with shadows. And—when necessary—blood.”
With a final swirl, Nyssara dissolved into smoke and flowed into the black baton now resting in the leather sheath on Vanessa’s belt.
Vanessa holstered the two daggers, slung Nightweaver across her back, and stepped toward the door.
Before leaving the shop, she called up her status one last time.
---
System Interface
Character Status
Name: Vanessa Cho
Age: 38 years
Level: 1
Race: Homo Sapiens—Augmented
Class: Spectral Huntress (Rare)
Profession: N/A
Titles:
Trailblazer
Core Attributes:
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 34
Endurance: 21
Vitality: 17
Intelligence: 19
Wisdom: 17
Charisma: 21
Perception: 32
Free Points: 5
Health: 315 / 315
Stamina: 210 / 210
Mana: 204 / 204
---
She allocated three points into Vitality, bringing it to a clean 20, and two into Strength to bring it up to 15.
And then she stepped into the daylight, gray cloak brushing behind her, face set in a quiet smile that walked the line between ferocity and freedom.
Grimwatch awaited.