The simulation dungeon smelled like blood and ozone, an artificial combination that still managed to trigger Ryu's survival instincts. Around him, the entrance examination's first wave of candidates spread out across the starting chamber—some confidently, others hesitantly, but all with more certainty than he felt.
"Candidates, your objective is simple," the proctor's voice echoed through the space via magic amplification. "Survive one hour in the E-rank simulation. Accumulate points by defeating monsters or finding hidden objectives. Your performance determines your initial academy ranking. Begin."
The stone doors groaned open, revealing branching corridors lit by luminescent moss. The crowd surged forward, and Ryu found himself swept along with the tide before being deposited in a side passage as groups naturally formed around the more promising candidates.
He ended up alone. Story of his life.
Ryu pressed his hand against his chest, feeling the faint, irregular pulse of his mana core. Defective, the healers had called it. A core that cracked during awakening, capable of holding maybe a tenth of what a normal F-rank could manage. Enough to cast a basic enhancement spell for thirty seconds before exhausting himself completely.
Thirty seconds to prove he deserved to be here.
"Right," he muttered, drawing his practice sword—barely better than sharpened metal, but it was what the academy provided to those who couldn't afford enchanted weapons. "Just survive. Don't need to be impressive. Just... don't die."
The corridor opened into a small chamber. Three goblins materialized from the simulation magic, their crude weapons raised and eyes glowing with programmed aggression. E-rank monsters, the absolute bottom of the threat scale. Most candidates would breeze through a dozen of them.
Ryu activated his enhancement spell.
Warmth flooded his limbs as his pathetic mana reserves channeled into his muscles. The world sharpened, time seeming to slow as his perception increased. He had maybe forty seconds if he pushed it—then he'd be dead weight.
The first goblin lunged. Ryu sidestepped, his enhanced speed just enough to avoid the rusty blade, and brought his sword down on its neck. The creature dissolved into particles, the simulation registering the kill.
One down.
The other two attacked in tandem. Ryu parried the first strike, felt the jarring impact travel up his arms, then kicked out at the second goblin's knee. It stumbled, giving him an opening to thrust his blade through its chest.
Two down.
Twenty seconds left.
The last goblin hesitated, its programming recognizing the threat. Then it charged with a shriek. Ryu met it head-on, traded a blow that left a shallow cut across his ribs, and ended it with a horizontal slash.
Three down.
His enhancement spell sputtered out. The exhaustion hit immediately—knees weak, vision swimming, lungs burning. Ryu stumbled to the wall and slid down, pressing his hand against the bleeding wound on his side. Not deep, but enough to hurt.
"Thirty... points," he panted, checking his wrist terminal where his score displayed. The simulation awarded ten points per E-rank kill. "Need... two hundred... minimum to qualify..."
He'd need to kill seventeen more goblins. At three per fight, with ten minutes of recovery between each use of his enhancement spell...
The math didn't work out. Not even close.
Ryu laughed bitterly. "Guess that's it then. One hour to prove myself, and I'll manage maybe six kills before time runs out."
He should move. Search for hidden objectives, try to find abandoned points from other candidates. But his body felt like lead, and the hopelessness of his situation pressed down on him like a physical weight.
You're pathetic, a voice whispered in his mind—his own voice, the one that spoke up during dark nights. Your parents died heroes, and their son can't even pass an entrance exam. Maybe you should have burned with them. At least then you'd be remembered as a tragedy, not a failure.
"Shut up," Ryu muttered, but without conviction.
A sound echoed from deeper in the corridor. Heavy footsteps. Wrong weight distribution for goblins—something bigger. The simulation must have irregular spawn points, higher-rank monsters appearing randomly to test adaptability.
Ryu forced himself upright, sword raised despite his trembling arms. If this was a D-rank monster, he was dead. Simple as that.
The creature that emerged from the darkness stood seven feet tall, with gray skin, a protruding jaw, and a club the size of Ryu's torso. An orc. Low D-rank, far beyond what entrance candidates should face.
The simulation had malfunctioned.
Or worse.
this was intentional. A culling mechanism for the truly weak.
The orc's eyes locked onto Ryu. It grinned, revealing yellowed tusks, and raised its club.
Ryu's mind went blank with fear. No mana left. No strength left. Nowhere to run in the narrow corridor.
This is it, he thought with strange clarity. I'm going to die in a practice dungeon. They'll reset the simulation and find my body and—
The orc swung.
Ryu dove forward, under the strike rather than away from it. Pure survival instinct, no skill involved. The club smashed into the stone where he'd been standing, sending cracks spider-webbing across the wall.
He came up inside the orc's guard and thrust his sword at its abdomen. The blade skittered off thick skin, barely drawing blood. The orc backhanded him casually, and Ryu flew across the chamber, slamming into the opposite wall hard enough to crack ribs.
Blood filled his mouth. His sword clattered away, out of reach. The orc approached slowly, taking its time, enjoying the fear.
Move. Get up. MOVE.
His body wouldn't obey. Broken bones ground against each other with every breath. The orc raised its club for the finishing blow—
Pain exploded across Ryu's chest, but not from the orc. Something *inside* him tore open, like a wound that had been sealed too long. His cracked mana core pulsed once, twice, then shattered completely.
He should have died instantly. Core death was always fatal.
Instead, crimson light erupted from his chest.
[CRITICAL CONDITION DETECTED]
[SUITABLE HOST IDENTIFIED]
[INITIATING CRIMSON SYSTEM INTEGRATION]
Words appeared in his vision, glowing red letters that seemed to burn themselves into his retinas. The orc hesitated, its club hovering mid-swing, as if sensing something fundamentally wrong about what was happening.
[WARNING: INTEGRATION WILL PERMANENTLY ALTER HOST PHYSIOLOGY]
[SURVIVAL PROBABILITY WITHOUT INTEGRATION: 0.01%]
[SURVIVAL PROBABILITY WITH INTEGRATION: 73%]
[ACCEPT CRIMSON SYSTEM? Y/N]
Ryu tried to speak, but only blood came out. His vision darkened at the edges. The orc seemed to shake off its hesitation and began its downward swing.
With the last of his strength, Ryu thought: Yes. Anything. I don't want to die.
[INTEGRATION CONFIRMED]
[RECONSTRUCTING HOST CORE...]
[INSTALLING CRIMSON PROTOCOLS...]
[WELCOME TO THE CRIMSON SYSTEM, RYU KAELEN]
The pain should have been unbearable—his core rebuilding itself from fragments, foreign energy flooding his channels, something ancient and vast forcing itself into his soul. But instead, Ryu felt power.
Real power, for the first time in his life.
His eyes snapped open, glowing crimson. The orc's club descended. Ryu raised his hand, and crimson energy solidified into a barrier. The club struck the barrier and shattered, splinters exploding outward.
The orc stumbled back, confused. Ryu stood, his broken ribs knitting themselves together with audible cracks, his wounds sealing, his exhaustion burning away in crimson fire.
"What..." he whispered, staring at his hands. Red energy crackled around them like lightning. "What is this?"
[CRIMSON SYSTEM - BASIC INTERFACE]
[HOST: RYU KAELEN]
[LEVEL: 1]
[BONDS FORMED: 0/7]
[CURRENT STATUS: INTEGRATION PHASE - TEMPORARY POWER BOOST ACTIVE]
[WARNING: POWER BOOST EXPIRES IN 3 MINUTES]
[DEFEAT THREAT TO STABILIZE INTEGRATION]
Ryu looked at the orc. It had recovered from its shock and was now charging, no weapon but plenty of rage. Three minutes of borrowed power. He could work with that.
He moved, and the world blurred. His speed eclipsed anything his enhancement spell had ever granted. He reached his dropped sword, scooped it up, and met the orc mid-charge. The blade, now wreathed in crimson energy, cut through gray flesh like paper.
The orc's head hit the ground before its body realized it was dead.
[D-RANK MONSTER DEFEATED]
[+100 POINTS]
[CRIMSON SYSTEM INTEGRATION: 15% COMPLETE]
[STABILIZING HOST CORE...]
Ryu staggered, the crimson energy flickering. The temporary boost was fading, but something remained—a warmth in his chest where his shattered core had been. Not the broken, pathetic thing he'd lived with for years. Something new. Something whole.
More notifications appeared:
[CORE RECONSTRUCTION COMPLETE]
[NEW CORE TYPE: CRIMSON RESONANCE CORE]
[MANA CAPACITY: E-RANK (GROWTH POTENTIAL: LIMITLESS)]
[UNIQUE ABILITY UNLOCKED: BOND FORMATION]
[TO PROGRESS FURTHER, FORM YOUR FIRST BOND]
[SEARCH FOR COMPATIBLE RESONANCE...]
Ryu collapsed to his knees, sword clattering beside him. His hands were shaking—not from exhaustion this time, but from the impossibility of what just happened. He'd been dying. Now he was... what? Healed? Stronger? Changed?
"What the hell is a Crimson System?" he asked the empty chamber.
The system didn't answer. But somewhere in his mind, deeper than thought, he felt hunger. Not his own hunger. Something else's. Something that had been waiting a very long time for a new host.
And far below the simulation dungeon, past layers of stone and seal and ancient magic, something stirred in recognition.
Another one, it thought, tasting the signature of new crimson energy in the world above. How delicious. How wonderfully tragic.
Let's see how long this one lasts.