LOUIE'S POV:
I was alive. The thought was a clean, sharp blade cutting through the fog. My lungs drew in air free of the taste of my own blood. The phantom agony in my chest was gone, replaced by a strange, humming energy. But the silence that followed the goblin's death was heavier than any scream. Across the ruined hallway, the small, still body of my neighbor's son was a testament to my failure.
This new power, this Omega System, had answered my prayer a heartbeat too late. A cold, hollow triumph coiled in my gut, tangled with the bile of regret. I had avenged him, yes. The monster had paid. But vengeance was a poor substitute for a life.
"I can't stay here." The words were a ragged whisper, lost in the echoing silence of the building.
The ghost of my old fear remained, but it was now shoved aside by a chilling, practical dread. Sirens wailed in the distance, a counterpoint to the guttural roars that signaled the Dungeon Break was just beginning. I stumbled back into my apartment, my feet crunching on the debris of a life that no longer felt like mine. My hands shook as I grabbed my backpack, stuffing in the only things that mattered: my laptop, phone, documents, and the last of my parents' savings—the last proof that I had ever been loved. Everything else was just stuff. A ghost who fails to die travels light.
Before I could turn to leave, a roar ripped through the city. It wasn't just a sound; it was a physical force, a pressure wave that slammed into the building and vibrated through the floor into the soles of my feet. My newfound senses, humming with a painful sensitivity, screamed a single, primal word: Danger.
"Louie, you idiot," I snarled at myself, my own voice dripping with contempt. "A single goblin dies and you think you're a hero? You're Level 1. You don't know anything."
As if in answer, a voice cut through the chaos in my head—cold, clinical, and utterly calm.
[EXPLANATION: Omega System is a modified imitation of the first Shaman System, Crimora. As a descendant of a shaman, a true protector of this world, the screen interface is not yet stable. Omega System can provide a screen-based display of the owner's status and skills on command.]
It could talk to me. Explain things. A surge of desperate hope shot through me. I wasn't blind. I could learn. I had to.
"Show me," I commanded, my voice tight with urgency. "Show me my status screen."
A transparent, blue screen shimmered into existence before my eyes, the text glowing with a soft, internal light.
Name: Louie Rosan
Race: Human
Age: 25
Gender: Male (Omega)
Class: Shaman
Title: Descendant of the Fox God, True Protector of the World
CORE STATS
Level: 1
Strength: 30
Agility: 45
Vitality: 100
Intelligence: 100
Wisdom: 100
Luck: 10
Charisma: 100
SKILLS
Temptation (Lvl. 1): Can control up to two individuals with lower intelligence.
Shapeshifting (Lvl. 1): Can copy any appearance for one minute.
Beastification (Lvl. 1): Transform into a nine-tailed human fox for five minutes. All stats are multiplied by 5.
Partial Beastification (Lvl. 1): Transform a specific body part for ten minutes.
Omega Command (Lvl. 0): Can control any alpha monster or human for one second, regardless of level.
PASSIVE SKILLS
Seduction (Lvl. 1): Can control one monster weaker than you.
Fox God Reflexes (Lvl. 1): Agility and Strength are doubled for 5 seconds when in great danger. (Cooldown: 1 hour)
Healing (Lvl. 1): Automatically heal half your vitality when damaged. (Cooldown: 30 minutes)
My breath hitched. My eyes locked on one word: Beastification. All stats multiplied by five. If that stacked with Fox God Reflexes... I could be ten times stronger. They said the weakest Ascendants were ten times stronger than a peak human. A frantic, giddy excitement began to bubble up through the fear. I could do that. I could reach that level.
[EXPLANATION: As the Omega System is an imitation, it can only grant you half the strength of a 1-Star Ascendant in your base human form.]
The clarification was a pinprick to my soaring hope. Only half. But the disappointment was fleeting. I had other advantages.
[EXPLANATION: All your stats over one hundred are equivalent to a mid-level Ascendant. These stats are a reflection of the three great spirits who granted you this power.]
A slow, predatory grin spread across my face. I was weak, but I was also intelligent. Wise. I had potential. I had the power to survive. Maybe, next time, I'd have the power to save someone.
My thoughts were shattered by a stark, urgent notification that blared red in my vision.
[NOTICE: Use Beastification in 3 seconds.]
I didn't question it. The System knew things I didn't. "Beastification!" The command roared from my chest, feeling more natural than my own name.
Agony and ecstasy warred within me. I felt the crack and pop of my bones reshaping, my muscles coiling like overwound springs. A wave of heat washed over me as a coat of pure white fur erupted from my skin. The world exploded into a cacophony of sensation. The distant sirens were now an ear-splitting shriek; the roar of the monster outside was a deafening vibration I could feel in my teeth.
BOOM!
The wall of my apartment atomized. A concussive blast of fire and shrapnel tore through the room, and the ceiling groaned before collapsing inward. But I was already moving. Time seemed to warp, the chunks of falling concrete drifting like ash. I twisted through the chaos with impossible grace, landing silently on the wreckage. Power—raw, clean, and exhilarating—thrummed through me.
Through the settling dust, a hulking High Orc stomped into view, its skin like cracked mud, its yellowed tusks dripping with saliva. It brandished a club that was the entire trunk of a small tree. Its black, beady eyes locked onto me, and it charged with a bellow of pure rage.
The club swung, displacing the air with a deafening whoosh. I didn't just duck; I flowed under it. The world slowed, and I felt the wind of its passage ruffle my new fur. The club slammed into the ground where I'd been standing, and the concrete exploded. The shockwave ripped through the floor, and shrapnel peppered my back. It felt like nothing more than a light rain. My passive Seduction wasn't triggering. This thing was far stronger than me. I had to fight.
[NOTICE: Additional skills are available in Beastification form: Claw Slash, Flame of Purity, Body Double.]
New skills. Good. But my time was running out. I could feel the power in me like a draining battery. This had to end, and it had to end now. I focused on the first skill. Claw Slash.
[EXPLANATION: Claw Slash can be used in both close and long-range combat. Long-range attacks consume Intelligence points as a source of energy.]
"Long-range it is," I whispered, the sound a low growl in my transformed throat. I focused my will, feeling a strange energy gathering from my mind down to my fingertips. I raised a clawed hand, and with a feral snarl, I swiped at the air.
Five arcs of brilliant white energy shot from my claws. They screamed through the dust-filled room and hit the charging Orc with the sound of a giant tree being split by lightning. The monster didn't even have time to register the attack. Its massive body was cleanly bisected into six vertically-sliced pieces that slid apart in a shower of gore. The energy arcs didn't stop. They tore a twenty-meter gouge into the street outside, ripping through the wreckage of a collapsed building as if it were paper.
A wave of vertigo washed over me.
[WARNING: Claw Slash consumed 60 Intelligence points. User will be weakened when Intelligence is depleted. Full recovery in one hour.]
The cost was high, but the result... I looked at my hands, at the pristine white fur covering them. Nine fluffy tails swayed gently behind me. I reached up and touched the pointed, fox-like ears that now sat atop my head. They were real. This power was real. A sense of childlike wonder cut through the adrenaline. It was amazing.
[WARNING: High Orc is regenerating.]
My head snapped up. What? The six pieces of the monster were glowing with a nauseating green light. Tendrils of flesh were writhing from the severed edges, stretching across the gaps, knitting muscle, bone, and skin back together with horrifying speed.
[WARNING: Beastification will end in 20 seconds.]
Panic, cold and sharp, pierced my amazement. The weakness was setting in, and my power was fading. In twenty seconds, I would be a half-drained, barely-human boy facing a monster that couldn't be killed.
How was I supposed to win this?