GLOBAL AWAKENING: My 10,000x Exp Multiplier-Chapter 5: []EXP Infusion, The Soul-Bound Shadow Blade

Vahn stepped down. His expression was completely blank. He didn’t offer an excuse. He didn’t display an ounce of shame.

He simply nodded once and walked away. He slipped quietly into the shadows of the academy’s grand pillars.

"Defective asset," someone whispered as he passed.

Vahn’s lips twitched into a tiny smile. His deep purple eyes briefly glowed with faint azure circuits.

The disguise was flawless!

The military had officially categorized him as a ghost. He was entirely off their radar. He was free from their control and unbound by their regulations.

The fools thought they had just discarded a piece of trash. They didn’t realize they had just given the System Administrator the keys to the entire universe!

He didn’t return to classes. He didn’t linger to watch the rest of the evaluations. He walked straight out of the academy gates.

His mind was already calculating the best path to the nearest VR cafe. The real world was secure for now. It was time to return to Aetheria.

It was time to forge a weapon capable of killing gods.

The central plaza of the Beginner Village was incredibly crowded. Thousands of players rushed between the cobblestone streets. Their voices overlapped in a loud noise of trade requests, party recruitment, and general awe at the realism of Aetheria.

Blacksmiths hammered glowing iron. Alchemists shouted the prices of minor health potions. Armored warriors flexed their newly acquired gear for anyone willing to watch.

Vahn Ryker materialized at the central spawn point. His avatar was completely unchanged. He still wore the coarse brown tunic of a starting commoner.

In his inventory sat the ruined remains of his wooden practice sword. It was the casualty of driving it through the Ironback Behemoth’s skull.

He stepped out of the spawn circle. He moved with a fluid and terrifying grace that only fifty Agility could afford.

He didn’t sprint. He simply flowed through the dense crowd. He slipped through incredibly narrow gaps between players without a single brush of physical contact.

"Vahn! Wait!"

A soft voice called out over the loud crowd. Vahn paused and pivoted perfectly on his heel.

Aria was pushing her way through a group of heavily armored knights. Her pink-gold hair caught the sunlight. Her emerald eyes locked onto him with a mixture of relief and intense curiosity.

She wore the clean white robes of a Priestess. Her delicate and beautiful features drew the stares of every male player around her.

She jogged up to him, but her breath caught slightly. In her haste, her foot caught on the edge of a raised cobblestone.

She pitched forward and a startled gasp escaped her lips as gravity took hold. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

She braced for the impact of the hard stone. But it never came!

Vahn moved. It wasn’t a dash. It was a sudden deletion of the space between them. His arm shot out. His hand gripped her forearm with iron stability and halted her fall instantly.

He pulled her upright in a single effortless motion. She stumbled straight into his chest. Her hands rested flat against his tunic.

Aria gasped. Her face flushed crimson as she stared up into his deep purple eyes. Her heart hammered wildly against her ribs.

The physical contact was shocking. She opened her mouth to speak to thank him and apologize for being clumsy. But Vahn spoke first.

"Your center of gravity is misaligned," Vahn stated. His voice was flat and clinical.

He didn’t step back. His gaze dropped to her hands which were still gripping her basic wooden staff.

"You hold your staff too high on the shaft. It creates an imbalance in your forward momentum. Shift your grip down by four centimeters. It will correct your posture and optimize your mana channeling by at least three percent."

Aria blinked. She was utterly stunned. The romantic tension shattered instantly!

"My... my grip?" she stammered as she looked down at her staff.

"Yes," Vahn said. He released her arm and finally took a step back.

"Don’t run in crowded zones. You’re a Healer... damage to you is damage to your whole party." Good day, Priestess."

Without another word, Vahn turned and walked away. He disappeared into the bustling crowd.

Aria stood frozen in the middle of the plaza. Her cheeks were burning hot. She tightened her grip on her staff and moved her hand down exactly four centimeters. She let out an exasperated sigh as a small smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

Vahn navigated his way to the slum district of the beginner village. He bypassed the flashy player-run stalls and the grand NPC armories.

He stopped in front of a dilapidated shack. A cynical one-eyed NPC merchant sat there whittling a piece of wood.

"I require a blade," Vahn said. "Lightweight. No base Strength requirements."

The NPC grunted and tossed a rusted bronze dagger onto the wooden counter.

"Two coppers. It will break after ten hits. Take it or leave it, noob."

Vahn placed two copper coins on the table. He picked up the bronze dagger and walked away.

A group of passing players pointed and laughed. They were mocking the poor commoner buying literal garbage.

Vahn ignored them completely. He didn’t need a legendary weapon from a boss drop. He was the Architect. He would build his own!

He walked into a dense and quiet section of the tutorial forest. It was far from the grinding zones. The canopy above blocked out the sun and cast the clearing in deep shadows.

Vahn stopped. He held the pathetic bronze dagger in his right hand.

"System," Vahn commanded. The air around him dropped in temperature as his authority overrode the basic game engine. "Open the EXP Converter."

A massive holographic screen materialized before him. It was filled with sliders, data nodes, and conversion ratios. He looked at his EXP reservoir. He had exactly 4,500,000 EXP remaining.

"Select target: Bronze Dagger," Vahn dictated. "Commence raw data infusion. Inject 1,000,000 Experience Points into the item’s core architecture."

[System Warning]

↳ User is attempting to infuse raw EXP into a Tier-0 inanimate object.

↳ This action violates standard progression pathways.

↳ Overload imminent. Item destruction probability: 99.9%.

"Override," Vahn said flatly. "Designation: Theory-Crafter Delta-Nine. Force the injection."

[Processing...]

The world seemed to hold its breath. A blinding surge of golden code erupted from Vahn’s hand.

The EXP aggressively invaded the item’s digital structure. It violently tore apart the base code of the bronze metal and rewrote it from the atomic level up!

Vahn’s eyes glowed with intense azure circuits as he watched the data mutate. The rusted bronze blackened. It turned into a material that seemed to swallow the light around it.

The blade elongated slightly and curved into a wicked predatory shape. The hilt wrapped itself in a dark leather that perfectly contoured to Vahn’s grip.

The violent golden light shattered. It faded into a wisp of dark smoke that coiled lazily around the new blade.

[Item Mutated: Soul-Bound Shadow Blade]

↳ Tier: Legendary (Growth)

↳ Attributes: Base Damage scales with user’s Agility. Ignores all Strength requirements. Armor Penetration +40%.

↳ Special Effect: Soul Siphon. Absorbs the Item Soul EXP of slain enemies to evolve.

Vahn raised the blade. It weighed absolutely nothing in his hand. It was an extension of his will.

He didn’t swing it like a normal player. He simply flicked his wrist.

Whoosh.

A localized vacuum formed as the blade sliced through the air. It completely severed a thick oak branch three feet away through sheer air pressure. The branch fell to the forest floor with a heavy thud.

Vahn rubbed his temples. A cold satisfaction settled in his chest. A normal player would have to raid dungeons for months to find a weapon of this caliber.

He had built it in an afternoon out of garbage and mathematics!

He sheathed the Shadow Blade at his hip. The preliminary preparations were complete. It was time to harvest.