In a dim, cavernous underground laboratory.

A woman in a thin shirt and breeches hung by chained wrists, body pitched forward, already unconscious.

Candles flickered all around. Six ancient, eerie golems—almost comical in shape—stood at the six points of a hexagon. Behind each golem, an ugly hooded creature in a standard black robe worked the controls. Their faces were gloomy, ashen green. Male or female, all were hideous. Each wore shackles on wrists and ankles.

Behind a stone window on the dungeon’s upper level, a square-faced man sat on a stone chair. He wore a red knight’s cuirass. Blond crew cut. Gray-green eyes. Freckles all over his face. He lounged with one leg crossed over the other, the corner of his mouth slightly upturned.

“Your Highness Rugani, looks like she won’t do either. She can’t handle even third-rank ordinary Dark Power, let alone the Hero-grade Dark Power we need,” said a middle-aged man with a hooked nose. He wore studded black leather and had slicked-back gold hair, standing beside the young knight.

The young knight shook his head. “Forget it. Terminate the experiment.”

“Your Highness, how do we dispose of the woman?”

“Griffin, do you have to ask? As usual.”

Griffin’s face darkened. “Your Highness, this apprentice Holy Maiden from another world—her phantasmal spirit got ruined by the experiment, sure. But as a woman, she’s not bad-looking. We could sell her to a black market brothel. High price for sure. Our experiments have been costly lately.”

“Griffin.” Rugani’s eyes were clear but deep. “I’m a Radiant Knight. How could I stoop to that? We keep our word and our rules. That’s how we operate.”

His gaze slid over the woman’s figure below. It was cold, as if he were looking at a failed specimen. “She came here from another world chasing what she wanted. If the experiment had worked, she’d be our chief Holy Maiden. If it failed, whether she can keep training, or ends up on the streets, gets violated by vagrants, dies in some alley, or gets seized by the black market and sold as a prostitute—that’s her business. It’s not ours. What we must not do is be the ones to make it happen. Right, Griffin?”

“Yes. Understood.” Griffin stepped back, saluted, and turned to leave.

“Wait.”

“Your Highness, further orders?”

He sighed. “It’s really not easy to train a Holy Maiden who can withstand Hero-grade Dark Power. Griffin, gather more intel. Otherworlders are showing up more and more lately. They often carry powers beyond belief. We should focus on those women from other worlds who still hold on to their dreams.”

“Understood, Your Highness.”

A short while later, on the back street behind the castle—a narrow, chaotic, filthy lane—two burly men in black hoods dragged an unconscious woman out through a wooden door set at the base of a high wall.

Splash! They tossed her onto the muddy roadside like garbage.

…

Meanwhile, a thousand miles away, in a forest camp—

A fierce, brutish surge of air burst from a tall, broad-shouldered boy kneeling on the ground. The scorching gust made the classmates around him screw their eyes shut.

“Hahahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahaha!” When the pressure faded, the boy sprang to his feet. He seemed bigger and more imposing than before.

“I, Jiang Xiang, awakened! I goddamn awakened! Hahahahaha! Hahahahahaha!” Jiang Xiang’s thick muscles swelled, almost splitting his clothes. His skin flushed hot red, as if brimming with power far beyond the ordinary.

Jiang Xiang, Spark Level One, Barbarian Warrior.