Grey sat on the cracked stone ground, his back leaning against the corpse of the monster he had just slain. Blood pooled around him like ink from a spilled well. The two moons stared down at him menacingly.
His body had taken quite a bit of damage during the fight.
But he didn't feel any pain.
No—more accurately, he didn't feel anything at all.
He raised a healing potion to his lips and drank. The liquid slid down his throat. He knew it did. The taste lingered—a faint bitterness laced with iron and herbs—but no warmth spread through his chest. No relief followed.
His tongue could still recognize taste, but everything else had been sacrificed.
Touch. Pain. Smell.
Three of the five fundamental senses—gone.
That was the price of using the fire rune.
In his previous life, Grey had fought countless battles. He had faced soldiers, kings, and beasts. His blade had reaped hundreds of thousands of lives. His hands had crushed resistance like dry leaves underfoot.
Experience? He had enough to fill a library.
And yet, this world—this new world—taught him things he had never once considered.
"The body... as a warrior, I always knew how important a fit body was," Grey mused silently.
"I also knew how crucial the senses are in battle. A blind man can't be a soldier. In the military, there are strict tests. Any form of disability, and you're thrown out."
He knew all of this. Yet…
He closed his eyes—not out of exhaustion, but calculation.
In the month since gaining this strange power called "runes," Grey had learned a lot.
He had experimented with many things. He had sacrificed many things.
His body.
His emotions.
His senses.
His memory.
And scary as it may sound he can even scarifies his time..
Scarifies one time what does it mean?
it can be only one thing life span....
In his pervious fight against the monster grey choose to scarifies his senses...
There were five major senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. The foundation of human perception. A truth so basic that most people never even think about it.
But the fire rune demanded sacrifice.
And in this world, sacrifice wasn't just a condition.It was the foundation of power.
The principle was simple:The more you gave, the more you got.
Not as a metaphor.Literally.
Sacrifice something, and gain power in return.
It could be temporary or permanent.
The rune didn't care.
As long as what you gave truly belonged to you, it would take it—and give something back.
That was the only rule.
When Elsa once asked him, "What truly belongs to you?", Grey had thought it was a trick question.
At first, he considered:"Can I give up money? My rune? A weapon? Maybe even sacrifice another person?"
That would've been easy.
But that's not how the rune worked.
You can't sacrifice things that can be taken away from you.You can't offer what you've borrowed.You can't give what isn't really yours.
The rune only accepted something that was truly part of you.
That's when Grey realized:
In this world, humans don't really own anything.Not forever.
Money, weapons, even people—they can all be lost.Even your name, your title, your reputation—those things can change.
They aren't truly "yours."
So what is?
Only one thing.
Yourself.
Your body.Your emotions.Your time.Your memories.
These are the only things that belong to you—and even they only stay until you die.
For now, this body was his.For now, this life was his.
And so, if Grey wanted power, the only thing he could offer… was himself.
Nothing else.
That was the rule.
In the last battle, he had chosen to sacrifice pain, smell, and touch.And in return, the fire had surged through him like molten steel.He could summon flames, coat his weapons in heat, even launch destructive bursts.
His strength, speed, and endurance had all increased.Even in his current weak body, the rune had elevated him into something terrifying—if only for a moment.
But everything had a cost.
Always.
The rune allowed two types of sacrifice.
Permanent Or Temporary.
A permanent sacrifice might grant him eternal control over fire. But he didn't even consider it.
What kind of fool trades their senses forever… for just one victory?
He had died once already. And it hadn't felt good.
He wasn't about to throw his life away again.
Besides, this world was… interesting. It had mana. It had mystery. It had things worth exploring.
And the rune—he wanted to understand it fully.
Right now, the only method he was willing to use… was temporary sacrifice.
The power scale was simple.
The longer you gave something up, the more fire you could use. The stronger it became. The longer it lasted.
But there was a conversion ratio.
"One-tenth."
For every ten minutes of sacrifice, he gained one minute of fire.
If he gave up touch for ten minutes, he could wield fire for one.If he gave up smell for a month, he could maintain flame for three days.
The rune didn't increase the quantity of fire.Only its intensity and duration.
And that difference mattered.
Even now, the fire had faded.
But the price hadn't.
He couldn't feel the ground under him.Couldn't sense the breeze on his face.
He only knew he was alive because the taste of the potion still lingered on his tongue.
A cursed kind of awareness.
His body screamed in silence.His wounds bled.Muscles tore with every twitch.
But he didn't feel anything.
But his mind was calm—surgical in its clarity.
There was no pain.But there was also no warmth. no life.
He glanced at his hands—burnt, cracked, still trembling slightly.
"It's quite the ability. If I use it right, I might even stand a chance against Elsa…"
The thought passed through him like a flicker of flame.
But of course, he couldn't even imagine what kind of sacrifice he'd need to make to fight someone like her.
This rune of his…It wasn't just a tool.
It was a temptation.
Every sense was a currency.Every moment of strength came with invisible chains.
In the past, he had slaughtered more people than he could count.
But now?
Now, in this world of mana and magic…
He had to borrow power from his own humanity.
And every time he used it…
He wanted more.