[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-i-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities":3,"chapter-i-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities-i-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities-chapter-2":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","I Copy the Authorities of the Four Calamities",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1333454,1775,"Chapter 2: The Frog’s Sky","i-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities-chapter-2",2,"\u003Cp>The exhilaration of the fight faded the moment Vane crossed the threshold of the mansion’s east wing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The air here did not smell of mud or ozone. It smelled of lavender, boiled cabbage, and the sickly sweet cloying scent of a body that was slowly giving up on the concept of living.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane stopped at a heavy oak door. He took a breath, adjusted his leather jacket to hide the blood spatters from the morning’s work, and pushed it open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The room was dim. Heavy velvet curtains blocked out the grey morning light. In the center of the room, seated in a wheelchair that faced the window, was a woman who looked less like a human and more like a collection of sharp angles wrapped in parchment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You are late,\" a voice rasped. It sounded like dry leaves skittering over stone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I had business, Mother,\" Vane said softly. He walked to the bedside table where a collection of expensive glass vials caught the candlelight. \"Rent collection.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thuggery,\" Helena corrected. She did not turn around. She kept watching the street below. \"You were out playing King of the Rats again. I heard the screaming.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane did not argue. He picked up a spoon and a bowl of broth he had left earlier. He tapped the bowl with a finger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Skill Activated: Thermal Equilibrium (Grade F)]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He poured a tiny amount of mana into the soup, warming it to the exact temperature of a human mouth. It was a domestic use for a skill he had copied from a baker’s daughter, but Vane did not care about the mana cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Eat,\" he said, holding the spoon near her shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Helena turned her head. She was beautiful once, in the way a ruin is beautiful. You could see the structure of what had been there before the world had taken a hammer to it. Her eyes were the same shade of grey as Vane’s, but where his were predatory, hers were tired. Infinitely, exhaustingly tired.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I do not want your stolen soup, Vane.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It is chicken,\" Vane said patiently. \"Geryon made it. No fingernails this time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You are wasting your life,\" she wheezed, a cough rattling her thin frame. She looked at his nose where a faint trace of dried blood remained from the morning’s copy. \"You did it again. You are eating other people’s memories, Vane. Eventually you will forget who you are.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane lowered the spoon. The irritation flared, hot and familiar.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This skill keeps the soup warm,\" he said. \"The gold I stole buys the medicine that keeps your lungs working. It is an economic nuance.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It is a cage,\" she hissed. \"Eighteen years old. You possess a mind sharp enough to cut glass, and you use it to extort penny-ante merchants in a mud puddle.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I am the King of this puddle,\" Vane countered, his voice hardening. \"I am Rank 3. Do you know what that means out here? It means I am a god. No one in the borderlands can touch me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"And that,\" she whispered, \"is the saddest thing I have ever heard.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane froze. The spoon trembled slightly in his hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You think you are a giant,\" Helena said, her voice gaining a sudden, sharp strength. \"But you are just a frog in a well, Vane. You look up at the circle of sky above your head and you think it is the whole universe.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I am safe here,\" Vane snapped. He set the bowl down with a clatter. \"We are safe. I built this walls. I bought the guards. I control the trade.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You control nothing!\" she coughed violently, spots of red appearing on her lips. \"You are just waiting for a boot to come down. You think because you are the strongest rat in the sewer that the hawk won’t eat you.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"There are no hawks here,\" Vane said. \"Only crows. And I clip their wings.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Helena looked at him. Her expression was not angry anymore. It was grieving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You have the golden letter,\" she said. It was not a question. \"You have a ticket to the ocean. To the place where power actually matters. But you hide it in a drawer because you are afraid that if you leave this puddle, you will just be a minnow again.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane stood up, turning his back to her. He walked to the window and looked out at the grey sky.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’She does not understand,’ he thought. ’She sees a cage. I see a fortress. I am Rank 3. I have forty-three skills. I am not a minnow.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He opened his mouth to tell her that he was not leaving, that Oakhaven was enough. That he was the big fish and he would never be anything else.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then, the air changed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was not a gradual shift. It was instantaneous. The sounds of Oakhaven, the shouting merchants, the barking dogs, the squelching boots, were severed. A silence fell over the mansion so heavy it felt like physical pressure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane froze. The hairs on his arms stood on end. His mana sensed it before his eyes did.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A density.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A presence massive enough to distort the atmosphere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Vane?\" Helena called out from the bed, her voice trembling. \"What is it? What is that feeling?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane did not answer. He stared down into the courtyard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The iron gates were gone. They had not been blown open. They had been melted. Puddles of glowing slag hissed in the mud.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Walking through the breach was a single figure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He wore full plate armor of white steel, polished to a moral high ground that seemed to repel the filth of the town. A white cloak drifted behind him, unstained. He did not walk with the swagger of a bandit or the caution of a soldier. He walked with the terrifying indifference of a glacier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane’s heart hammered a frantic rhythm against his ribs. He tapped his temple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>[Target Analysis]\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Name: Gareth\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rank: 4 (Sentinel)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Danger: Fatal\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Authority: None\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rank 4.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane stopped breathing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gap between Rank 2 and Rank 3 was a wall. The gap between Rank 3 and Rank 4 was a canyon. A Sentinel had condensed their mana into a liquid state within their core. They did not just cast spells; they exuded power.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Knight stopped in the center of the courtyard. He looked up at the window. The T-visor of his helmet revealed nothing, but Vane felt the gaze like a physical touch.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’The boot,’ Vane thought, a cold knot forming in his stomach. ’The hawk.’\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Vane gripped his daggers. His knuckles turned white.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Stay here, Mother,\" Vane said softly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He vaulted over the windowsill, activating [Featherfall (Grade F)]. He landed softly in the mud, ten meters from the Knight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was the King of Oakhaven. He was Rank 3. He had forty-three skills.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He prayed it was enough.\u003C\u002Fp>",1144,"2026-06-05T19:55:04.829Z",1,"novelbin.me","a40e4ed9d9f76554dd441a382786dbe1a84514c33942b538772d390c3ddee6df","i-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities-chapter-3","i-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities-chapter-1",392,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fi-copy-the-authorities-of-the-four-calamities-cover.jpg"]