The house had gone quiet. My sister was asleep again, curled under the blanket she refused to share. My mother coughed softly in the next room, a tired sound that made my chest ache in ways no monster's claws ever had.
I sat alone by the lantern, staring at the screen hovering before me.
No one else could see it. No one else could touch it.
System of the Nameless God.
Unlike the guilds' neat, polished interfaces, mine was jagged — lightning-shaped lines flickering around the edges, unstable yet alive. Where their systems showed rankings and class titles, mine spat out half-truths and riddles.
[Status: Undefined]
Name: Ashura Bellet
Class: ???
Level: 21
Health: Stable
Mana: Surging
Attributes:
Strength: 35
Speed: 35
Endurance: 35
Intelligence: 35
Willpower: 35
Evolution Progress: Locked
Next Threshold: 50 across all stats
Abilities Unlocked:
Storm Veins: Body channels lightning naturally, enhancing speed and power temporarily. Aether Conduction: Can absorb certain elemental attacks and redirect them. Judgment Spark: A focused burst of purple lightning capable of piercing defensive abilities.
System Reward: Dungeon Keys x3
The words glowed at me, taunting and promising all at once.
Dungeon Keys. Not the kind given by gods to their chosen, not the kind bartered for at guild auctions. These were jagged shards of violet crystal, materializing in my hand as I willed it. They pulsed faintly, almost alive.
[Dungeon Key: Storm-Hollow Cavern]
[Dungeon Key: The Glass Plains]
[Dungeon Key: Tower of the Howling Sky]
Each one whispered at the edge of my mind, daring me to turn the lock.
A bitter laugh escaped me.
Others needed parties — tanks, healers, mages, and blades to cover each other's backs. I had nothing like that.
But I didn't need them to fight.
No… what I needed were people who could open the doors, hold the maps, keep the guilds off my back while I cut down the monsters myself.
Warm bodies, not comrades.
That thought should have made me sick. Once, it would have. But after the dungeon, after Asterion, after clawing my way through storms that erased entire squads in seconds… I couldn't bring myself to care.
I leaned back, staring at the cracked ceiling.
"I'll clear them all," I murmured to the empty room. "Every key you give me, I'll turn. Every storm you throw, I'll endure. You want a piece on the board?"
The purple sparks danced across my hand, trailing into the air like restless serpents.
"Then I'll play your game. Alone, if I have to."
In the quiet of that night, I set my first true plan into motion.
Not for the guilds. Not for fame. Not even for the arrogant thrill that came with standing over a slain monster.
For my mother's medicine. For my sister's school. For a roof that didn't leak when it rained.
If the Nameless God wanted to use me, then fine — I'd use him right back.
But outside, far from the tiny home lit by one flickering lantern, rumors of the boy with blank stats spread like wildfire.
And already, unseen hands were moving.