Emotion Hunter: System Awakening.

[Riven's POV]

It was already the third day in the 'training camp'.

And also the third morning without Marcus.....it all felt like waking up in someone else's life.

Riven stared at the empty bed across from him, where Marcus should have been complaining about the Guild's early wake-up calls or making stupid jokes to lighten the mood.

Instead, there was just regulation gray sheets pulled tight with military precision...he was rotated.

The other trainees in the dormitory moved around him like he had some kind of contagious disease.

No one made eye contact, no one spoke unless absolutely necessary. The message was clear: getting close to people here was dangerous.

"Morning, Mr. Duke," Cross said, appearing in the doorway with that calculating smile that made Riven's skin crawl. "Ready for today's equipment readiness assessment?"

Riven sat up, immediately alert.

Cross never called anything by simple names. "Equipment readiness assessment" meant something else entirely.

"What kind of assessment?"

"It's a Variable System Training. We need to understand how well you adapt when your abilities experience... technical difficulties." Cross consulted his tablet. "Real field conditions aren't always optimal, after all."

*Technical difficulties.* Right.

Cross led him through corridors he hadn't seen before, past training rooms where other mentors were putting their trainees through various forms of controlled suffering.

In one room, Riven glimpsed someone trying to use what looked like a speed enhancement system while running on a treadmill that kept changing speeds randomly.

They stopped at a briefing room where a girl about his age sat reviewing equipment.

She was small, maybe five-foot-four, with dark hair pulled back in a ponytail....with a kind of careful posture.

"Mr. Duke, meet your training partner, Elena Vasquez. Elena, this is the recruit I mentioned."

Elena looked up and Riven immediately noticed two things: her brown eyes held the same haunted quality he'd seen in some of the longer-term trainees...kinda hollow, and she flinched slightly when Cross spoke her name.

"She has a Fire manipulation system," Cross continued. "Elena's been with us for four months, so she can help guide you through today's exercise."

"Hi," Elena said quietly, then returned to checking her gear with movements that seemed deliberately slow and clumsy.

As Cross stepped away to speak with another trainer, Elena leaned closer to Riven and whispered, "Don't try to save me. It just makes Cross more interested."

Before Riven could ask what she meant, Cross returned with their mission briefing.

"Your training will be a Gray Veil scenario, Sector 7. A normal Standard goblin nest clearance. You'll have basic combat gear and limited system dampening." Cross's smile widened slightly. "Should be routine for trainees of your experience levels."

*'Routine'...Sure.* Riven glanced at Elena as they left the training room.

---

The Veil entry point was in the facility's basement, there's a gray tear in reality about eight feet tall. Unlike the wild Veils Riven had entered before, this one was controlled.... artificial.

The air around it didn't carry the same chaotic energy.

"We'll do a Standard formation," Elena said as they approached. "I'll provide fire support, you handle close combat with your abilities."

She demonstrated her fire manipulation, creating a small flame in her palm.

It flickered weakly, much smaller than what Riven would have expected from someone with four months of training.

"Dampeners?" he asked.

"Always," she replied. "You'll get used to it."

They stepped through together.

The environment beyond was familiar: rocky terrain, dim lighting, the distant sounds of goblin chatter. But something felt different about this Veil space.

More... structured. Like a training ground rather than a natural dimensional rift....the rocks don't even look right.

"The Nest should be about two hundred meters northeast," Elena said, checking a compass. Her movements were competent but careful, like someone who'd learned to be methodical through experience.

They moved through the rocky landscape, and Riven tried to access his emotion looting system.

But the dampeners made everything feel muted, but he could still draw on his own anxiety and convert it to enhanced alertness.

The first goblins appeared as they reached a small ridge...they were almost as big as a human being.

"Wow, those goblins have to be more than F ranked right?" Riven couldn't help but ask.

"Maybe" Elena answered absent minded.

They were five of them, armed with crude weapons, guarding what looked like a cave entrance.

"I'll hit them with flame bursts, you move in with close combat," Elena said, raising her hands.

Fire bloomed from her palms, arcing toward the goblin formation. For a moment, everything went according to plan.

The goblins scattered, screaming, two of them already burning.

Then Elena's fire cut out completely.

One second she was projecting controlled flames, the next she was staring at her hands in apparent confusion as nothing happened.

"System failure," she said flatly, as if this was routine. "You're on your own now."

The remaining three goblins, realizing the fire threat was gone, immediately regrouped and charged toward Elena's position.

She was completely defenseless, standing in the open with no cover and no abilities.

Riven's protective instincts kicked in without conscious thought.

He threw himself between Elena and the charging goblins, trying to loot his own fear for enhanced speed.

But at the crucial moment, the dampeners spiked. His system cut out just like Elena's had, leaving him facing three angry goblins with nothing but basic human reflexes.

The first goblin's bone club caught him across the ribs, sending pain shooting through his chest.

He rolled across the rocky plains with the impact, trying to create distance, but the other two were already flanking him.

*Come on,* he thought desperately, reaching for his emotion looting system. *Work!*

Nothing. The dampeners held his abilities in complete suppression.

Elena, meanwhile, had simply sat down where she stood.

Did not take cover, did not try to help, not even trying to move to a safer position. She was just... waiting.

One of the goblins broke off from attacking Riven and charged toward her, club raised. She didn't even flinch.

"Elena, move!" Riven shouted, dodging another swing from his own opponents.

She looked at him with sad eyes. "Don't."

But he couldn't just watch her get killed.

Riven abandoned his defensive position, leaving himself open to attack, and tackled the goblin heading for Elena.

They went down in a tangle of limbs and crude weapons.

The goblin's claws raked across his back as they fought. Without his system enhancement, Riven was just a college student trying to wrestle a creature designed for violence.

The goblin was stronger, faster, and had natural weapons.

Behind him, he could hear the other two goblins closing in. Elena remained seated, watching the fight with the detached expression of someone who'd seen this all before.

Desperation gave Riven a burst of strength. He managed to get his hands around the goblin's throat and squeeze until it stopped struggling.

By the time he turned around, breathing hard and bleeding from multiple cuts, the other two goblins were almost on top of them.

His system suddenly came back online.

-------

[System online]

[Emotions detected: Fear, anger]

[Does host wish to loot??]

[Y/N]

--------

The system's interface was glitching and even a bit static...

"Hell Yeah!!!" He yelled when he saw the notification.

The emotion looting kicked in like a dam bursting.

All his fear, rage...even the pain was converted into raw speed and strength.

Riven felt the transformation ripple through his body like liquid fire.

His vision sharpened until he could see individual scratches on the goblins' crude weapons.

Time seemed to stretch, each heartbeat thundering in his ears as adrenaline flooded his system.

The nearest goblin lunged with a rusted blade, its snarl revealing it's yellowed fangs.

Riven sidestepped with inhuman grace, the weapon whistling past his ear. His enhanced reflexes made their attacks seem slow and clumsy.....like watching enemies move through thick honey.

He grabbed the goblin's wrist mid-swing and twisted it.

Its Bone snapped with a wet crack. The creature shrieked, dropping its weapon, but Riven was already moving.

His elbow drove upward into its throat, crushing its windpipe. The goblin collapsed, gurgling and clawing at its neck.

The second goblin hesitated, fear flickering in its red eyes. That moment of doubt sealed its fate.

Riven spun low, sweeping the creature's legs. As it tumbled backward, he caught its ankle and yanked it down hard. The goblin's skull cracked against the stone floor with a sound like breaking pottery. It twitched once, then lay still.

But there was no time to celebrate. The third goblin had circled behind him, raising a crude axe overhead.

Riven felt it rather than heard its approach.....the emotion looting had heightened all his senses beyond human limits.

He rolled forward just as the axe bit into the ground where his head had been. Stone chips sprayed across his back.

Without looking, he kicked backward, his boot connecting with the goblin's knee. The joint bent the wrong way with a sickening pop.

The goblin toppled sideways, screaming.

Riven sprang to his feet and spun around. The creature was trying to crawl away, dragging its mangled leg.

Riven grabbed the dropped axe and brought it down in one fluid motion. The screaming stopped.

Silence fell over the plain... broken only by his ragged breathing. Blood splattered the floor like abstract art, and the metallic smell filled his nostrils.

His hands trembled....not from fear, but from the raw energy still coursing through his veins.

The emotion looting was already beginning to fade, leaving behind an odd hollow feeling.

The supernatural speed and strength slowly recede like a retreating tide, and suddenly he felt every bruise, every cut from the earlier battle.

Riven stood over the bodies. "What the hell was that?" he demanded, turning to Elena.

She was finally getting to her feet, brushing dust off her training uniform. "Variable System Training," she said calmly. "They cut our abilities randomly during exercises. Tests our adaptability."

"You could have been killed!"

"Yes," Elena agreed. "That's the point."