Ryn reached for the first book—the one drawn from the forest gem's chest. If his hypothesis was correct, this was the one Rora had accessed in his first life.

The moment his fingers brushed the cover, he felt an immediate prickling tension beneath his skin.

Ryn lifted it from the chest and stepped back, the shed falling quiet around him. Jay lingered near the doorway, sensing instinctively that this wasn't something to interrupt.

Ryn already knew what this Technique did.

He'd seen Rora use it countless times—vanishing and reappearing in jagged bursts, marking three enemies by touch before tearing through them in rapid succession.

He finally opened the first book.

Light spilled outward, threading along his arm, sinking beneath skin and bone until he had absorbed it fully.

Ryn staggered a half-step as the sensation snapped back into place, heart pounding.

The knowledge was already there.

A familiar system message surfaced at the edge of his awareness to confirm it.

Skill Acquired: [Path]

Ryn exhaled slowly.

So this was it.

The first step Asteris had left behind.

Jay finally spoke, voice low. "…You alright?"

Ryn closed the book. The pages were blank again, ordinary as any other.

"…Yeah," he said. "I just confirmed something."

He glanced at the remaining chests.

Ryn's gaze lingered on the remaining chests for only a moment before he reached for the second.

This one felt familiar, extremely similar to the first book he just held, but more…elegant, in a sense.

Jay straightened slightly but stayed silent.

Ryn opened it.

This time, the light didn't rush him.

It spread.

A quiet pressure bloomed in his chest, like something spreading in his chest that was already there.

Ryn's breath caught.

The sensation was subtle, but unmistakable.

His knees buckled slightly as the feeling completed itself, and then—

Stillness.

Then, the system responded.

Technique Updated: [Path] → [Star's Path]

Ryn stood there for a long second, processing the absence as much as the presence.

Technique evolutions were rare. Not unheard of, but rare enough that most people never saw one. Masters who sealed their Techniques into books tend to do so at the peak of their understanding.

Very few ever improved beyond that point.

And fewer still left behind a method that could improve after being inherited.

Ryn exhaled slowly.

Speculation wouldn't get him anywhere, the one definitive he could always rely on was his panel.

Skill: [Star's Path]

Type: Active

Description: Allows the user to traverse between marked targets along a Path.

- Each mark consumes 10 MP. To mark a target, the user has to make physical contact.

Ryn's gaze sharpened.

"…Interesting."

Jay glanced at him. "That good or bad?"

Ryn didn't answer. His attention was fully on the book.

He didn't need to think it all through right now.

The wording was careful. And experience had taught him that when Techniques were written like that, loopholes always existed.

He'd test them later.

For now, Ryn knew one thing clearly: this Technique had the potential to contest with the likes of those who were truly strong in this world.

And the world, he knew better than most, was far bigger than just the Evernight.

Ryn's attention shifted to the final chest.

Unlike the others, which were Technique Books…this one was a Blessing Tome.

His breath caught as a familiar sheen drew his gaze. A symbol, one that the majority of the world would recognize instantly.

An open palm.

Jay had announced it before Ryn could even peep a word.

"No way. That's Rhea's symbol."

Ryn's thoughts surged all at once.

Why would a Blessing tome be sealed alongside the First Hero's Legacy?

His grip tightened around the tome.

Did Asteris have some sort of connection with the gods?

…Or had he done something that forced their hand?

Ryn lifted the tome carefully.

It was lighter than he expected, yet his hands felt heavier the moment he did.

Regression had taught him one crucial truth.

The world he thought he understood had never been complete. There were too many rules he'd accepted simply because they had never been challenged—too many assumptions built atop partial truths and convenient lies.

Blessings were one of them.

He'd once believed they could only be given once in a lifetime.

Yet he'd received more.

The Constellation Tome.

His past life's Blessing.

Even something as minor as [Poison Resistance], when he'd needed it most.

Each one had quietly violated the laws he'd thought defined the world.

Ryn stared down at the open palm etched into the cover.

If those rules had been wrong before…

Then there was no telling what this tome was about to overturn.

Ryn exhaled slowly.

There was no more information to gain by hesitating.

He opened the tome.

There was no light this time. The pages turned blank the instant they were exposed, as if whatever had been written there had already moved on.

The system responded.

[Blessing Acquired: ??? (S-Rank)]

Ryn stared at the message.

That was it.

He pulled up his status instinctively. Checking for any changes.

[Name: Ryn Eden Arctis]

[Title: The Constellation's Blade (Unique)]

[HP: 150/150]

[MP: 173 / 173]

[Essence: 63]

[Essence Rank: High-Trainee]

[Techniques: Frost Bloom, Essence Burst, Star's Path]

[Blessings: Aquila (S-Rank), Orion (S-Rank), Enhanced Senses (B-Rank), Poison Resistance (C-Rank), ??? (S-Rank)]

The Blessing was there, everything seemed to function normally. The only thing he noticed increasing…was his MP.

However, the increase wasn't clean. Blessings that granted fixed benefits were always precise, unless…it wasn't a fixed increase.

His attention drifted, unbidden, to his Essence.

It added up. His old value of 110 combined with his Essence of 63, made up his new MP value.

Something about it bothered him.

Blessings and Techniques had always been separated for a reason. That much was universally understood. Blessings belonged to the gods, authority granted from above. They were always fixed.

Techniques and Essence were different. Mortal constructs. Things refined through effort, repetition, and understanding.

The two domains never overlapped. Fundamentally, they weren't meant to.

And yet—

Ryn's gaze drifted back to his new MP value.

If this truly tied divine power to mortal progression, then it wasn't just bending the rules. It was cooperation.

Asteris hadn't simply fought the Evernight.

He'd planned with the gods.

That realization settled heavily in Ryn's chest.

Whatever the Evernight was, it required both man and divine to repel, not even destroy.

Ryn swallowed, a horrifying fact suddenly surfaced.

The Evernight in his first life…humanity had just fallen from the beginning of the end.

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