Morning haze rolled across the city like slow smoke.
The rebuilt districts of Seoul still carried the texture of the old war—mana scars tracing the pavement, the faint hum of wards buried under concrete.
For seventeen-year-old Han Jiwoo, the streets were ordinary; the stories about Monarchs were things adults mumbled after too much drink.
All that mattered today was the test.
Every year, the Korean Hero Association held public awakenings for citizens who had reached seventeen.
Most left unchanged.
A few found power and dreamed to become a Hero.
But until now, many years after the war, there's still no heroe candidate.
The thought made Jiwoo's stomach tighten.
Heroes—people who fought beasts and rifts that still leaked mana from the old portals.
He wasn't sure he wanted that life, but he couldn't pretend he didn't dream about it either.
He tightened the strap of his training bag and joined the stream of candidates climbing the marble steps of the Association Hall.
The building was old, built over an abandoned dungeon. The faint blue glow between its stones pulsed like a heartbeat.
Inside, the air smelled of cold metal and mana dust. Technicians in grey coats moved briskly, guiding students toward a ring of reinforced doors marked Resonance Chamber.
Hushed excitement mingled with fear; nervous laughter bounced off the marble walls.
A boy beside Jiwoo whispered to his friend,
"My brother awakened B-Rank last year. If I get C, I'll join his guild."
"You? You'll be lucky to light the crystal," his friend snickered.
Jiwoo managed a small smile. He wasn't much for conversation, and the noise only made his pulse louder in his ears.
He found his number on the list—#42.
The waiting seats trembled each time another candidate finished; the faint vibration of mana surging through the walls reminded everyone what was at stake.
His turn came faster than expected.
"Next, Han Jiwoo," a woman in a grey coat called. "Chamber Seven."
Resonance Chamber 7
The room was circular, the air cold enough to bite. Runes glowed faint blue across the walls, pulsing in rhythm with the low hum of machinery.
At the center hovered a crystalline sphere—the Resonance Stone—a relic core recovered from the ruins of the old war.
Cables snaked from its base into humming stabilizers that filled the silence with a faint vibration.
The examiner didn't even look up from his clipboard.
"Step inside," he said, voice practiced, bored. "Place your hand on the stone and focus on breathing. Don't resist the flow."
Jiwoo swallowed hard and stepped forward. Every sound amplified—the scrape of his shoes, the click of the door sealing behind him.
He placed his hand on the cool surface of the crystal.
It was smoother than glass, yet felt alive, as if something within it stirred.
At first, a faint warmth spread through his palm.
Then—pressure.
A pulse thudded in his chest, matching the rhythm of the crystal's light.
The glow brightened from pale blue to white… then deepened into violet streaked with gold.
The examiner finally looked up, frowning.
"Hold on—regulator three, check output!"
A second technician glanced at the monitor.
"Sir, the readings are spiking—mana wavelength split detected!"
"What? That can't—"
Before anyone could answer, the hum turned into a roar.
The stabilizers flashed red; runes across the floor blazed to life, burning with wild light.
The air thickened, pressing against Jiwoo's chest until it hurt to breathe.
"Shut it down!"
"I'm trying—it's not responding!"
The crystal's glow broke apart, cracks forming in slow, deliberate patterns that pulsed with light.
Outside the glass, students shrieked, their faces lit by the storm of color swirling within the chamber.
A vibration shot up Jiwoo's arm; the warmth became fire, then cold.
The crystal burst in a blinding flare.
For a moment there was no light, no sound—only weightlessness.
Then the brilliance collapsed inward, drawn into Jiwoo's chest with a thunderous silence, as though the world itself had taken a breath.
When the smoke cleared, he was on his knees, one hand braced against the floor.
His body trembled. The air shimmered with residual mana, golden motes swirling like fireflies before fading.
Technicians rushed in, voices overlapping.
"Subject #42—stable?"
"Heart rate normal… mana flow irregular!"
"Get me that reading!"
On the monitor, lines of data flickered and froze.
[Resonance Result]
Primary Attribute : Combat Class
Secondary Attribute : Unknown
Mana Output : —Error—
Dual-Core Reaction Detected
Status : Unclassified
The examiner stared at the display, throat dry.
"This… shouldn't be possible."
Students pressed against the observation glass outside, whispering.
"What happened in there?"
"Did he break the stone?"
"No way, that's an artifact can even withstand heroes!"
Jiwoo's ears rang. The world felt distant, muffled.
He looked at his hand; faint black lines pulsed beneath the skin, then vanished as quickly as they came.
They helped him to his feet and escorted him down the corridor.
He caught fragments of their murmured conversation:
"We'll need to classify this."
"File it as an anomaly—level C until further notice."
"Make sure the report goes to Central."
The examiner tried to smile but it didn't reach his eyes.
"You've… awakened, Mr. Han. C Rank, Combat Class. Congratulations."
Outside, the sky had turned the color of dying embers.
The cold air hit his face like water, and for the first time since morning, Jiwoo realized he was shaking.
The streets glowed with mana lamps; other candidates laughed and compared results.
He walked past them in silence, the city's lights bending faintly around his vision.
Dual-class, he thought. Combat and… something unknown.
It didn't feel real. His chest still pulsed with heat, a faint rhythm that wasn't entirely his own.
That night, in his small apartment overlooking the river, Jiwoo sat on his bed replaying the moment over and over—the split light, the silence that followed, the faces staring through the glass.
He pressed a hand to his chest. Still warm.
Then, faintly, a whisper brushed the edge of his thoughts—
not a voice, exactly, more like memory remembering itself.
"So quiet… after all this time.
He froze.
The room was empty, the only sound the low hum of the city through the cracked window.
After a long moment, he laughed under his breath.
"Nerves. That's all."
He turned off the lamp and tried to sleep.
Sometime later, Jiwoo's phone buzzed on his desk.
He rubbed his eyes and answered; the screen lit up with his mother's face, faint static running through the call from overseas.
"Jiwoo! How did it go?"
"I… awakened," he said. "They classified me as C Rank—dual-class. Combat, and… something unknown."
"Unknown?" She paused, then smiled gently. "That's rare—but well done, Jiwoo. Your father and I are proud of you."
He smiled faintly.
"Tell Dad I said hi."
"Of course. Get some rest, okay? We'll talk soon."
The call ended, leaving only the quiet hum of the city through his window.
Half a world away, in a private research lab under the Hero Association's jurisdiction,
Dr. Lee Mirae turned from her monitor to Han Seojin.
The Association's database projection hovered above the desk—Resonance Record #42 — Han Jiwoo.
"The request came through," Mirae murmured. "Here's the resonance data."
Twin mana wavelengths shimmered on the screen, intertwining in a pattern both beautiful and terrifyingly familiar.
Her expression hardened.
"Seojin… this energy signature—it matches the Monarch of Oblivion's core."
Seojin's eyes narrowed. "That's impossible. The core was destroyed few years ago after he was born."
"Maybe not destroyed," Mirae said softly. "Look at the flow rate. It's stabilized—completely integrated."
"You mean…"
"I think it became his power," she whispered. "Not a fragment, not possession—just… his."
For a moment, neither spoke. The hum of mana stabilizers filled the room.
"Still," Seojin said finally, "if that's true, we can't ignore it. Contact Kain. Make sure Jiwoo gets into his academy. We'll monitor him quietly."
"And if the energy resurfaces?"
Mirae exhaled, eyes still on the twin spirals glowing on-screen.
"Then let's hope he's strong enough to control it… before anyone else notices."