Rothveil's lower streets always felt like they were listening.
Lucen crouched next to the corpse of the bounty hound. His fingers moved over the cold metal around its throat, avoiding the glowing glyphs etched into its skin. The beast was dead, but the magic inside it still sparked faintly.
New Passive Acquired: Tracker's Pulse
Effect: Senses nearby soulprint users or hostile targets within 20 meters
Strain: Low (scales with INT)
Weakness: Can be blocked by advanced masking or corruption zones
Lucen wasn't focused on the skill right now.
What mattered was what it meant.
Someone had sent this thing after him.
Someone knew where he was.
Someone knew he had killed Grask.
And they reacted quickly, within two days.
Too fast. Too exact.
His eyes fell on a small mark carved into the beast's broken jaw:
"6K."
Lucen stared at it.
Was it a kill count? A code? A tag?
He didn't know yet. But he knew one thing for sure:
He was being watched.
.........
By the time he returned to his hideout, a narrow, rooftop-access room inside a forgotten tower, Lucen's coat was smudged with grime and oil. He laid his weapons on a rusted table and triggered the Soul Ledger with a thought.
.........
Lucen Vale – Soul Ledger v2.0
HP: 83 / 132
STR: 12
AGI: 15
DEX: 14
INT: 19
WILL: 21
SYNC: 10
COR: [LOCKED]
Unspent Soul Points: 6
Equipped Soulprints:
• Crimson Threadfire (Tier II)
• Stone Skin (Tier I, Damaged)
• Ashbreaker Knuckles (Tier II)
• Tracker's Pulse (Passive, Tier I)
.........
He closed it.
Too soon to spend points. Too risky to repair Stone Skin with junk data. And definitely too dangerous to activate new skills while he was still being hunted.
Lucen stood still.
Letting silence stretch.
He had learned long ago that some truths could only be heard when nothing else was making noise.
His hand went to the wall. He tapped it twice.
Faint echo. Normal.
He tapped again.
Another echo, fainter, hollow.
The third room over had been cleared.
He flicked the Ledger open again, silently activating Tracker's Pulse.
Hostile Soulprint Emission Detected
Range: 16 meters
Status: Static Masked, Minor Leakage Present
Grade: Suppressed Tier II
He was right.
Someone was already here.
.........
Lucen didn't panic.
He moved like fog, slipping through the broken frame of a side window, scaling the rusted pipe system, and descending silently two floors.
His coat caught the wind. His boots barely made a sound.
The third room was dark. Windows covered. Candles burned inside, flickering blue.
A figure sat cross-legged on the floor. Hooded. Still.
Lucen watched for a full minute.
Then the figure moved.
"Didn't expect you to circle," the voice said. Smooth. Female. Sharp.
Lucen didn't answer.
"You've made someone nervous," she continued. "Three kills in two days. One a lieutenant. The last, a soulhound."
Still no reply.
"You're fast," she added. "But if I'd wanted you dead, you'd be dead."
Lucen stepped into view.
"You're with the Church?" he asked.
A faint smirk.
"Used to be. Now I just... watch."
.........
Her name was Seraine.
She wasn't a threat.
Not yet.
She claimed to track soulprint corruption on the rise across Rothveil, claimed the Coaljaw Syndicate had started using unrefined Echo steals, forcibly ripping prints before death, speeding up rot and soul instability.
Lucen listened.
Weighed every word.
She didn't ask his name. Didn't offer hers until the very end.
"You'll need allies eventually," she said, before vanishing into the smoke.
He watched the window long after she left.
.........
Lucen Vale – Soul Ledger v2.0
New Entry:
Observation Log: Seraine – Unknown Affiliation
• Soulprint Unreadable (Blocked by Masking Glyphs)
• Speech Pattern: Confident, detached
• Possible Threat: Moderate
• Immediate Danger: None
.........
He wasn't sure if she was lying.
But he was certain of one thing...
There were no more accidental encounters.
Not in Rothveil.
Not for someone like him.
.........