The corridor ended in silence.
Not empty silence—waiting silence.
The passage widened into a vast chamber, its ceiling lost in darkness. At the center floated a massive crystalline structure, suspended by chains of glowing runes that pulsed like veins.
The Dungeon Core.
Every hunter stopped.
Mana surged instinctively. Weapons rose. The air grew heavy enough to choke.
"This is wrong," the healer whispered. "A White Gate core shouldn't feel like this."
Kayden felt it too.
The pull in his chest intensified, no longer a tug but a drag, as if something inside him were being called forward.
[CORE ROOM CONFIRMED][PRIMARY DIRECTIVE: PRESERVATION FAILED][SECONDARY DIRECTIVE: SELECTION PROTOCOL INITIATED]
Selection…?
Rovan frowned. "Formation—"
The dungeon moved.
The entrance sealed behind them with a thunderous crash. Runes flared across the walls, lighting the chamber in blinding white.
Then—one by one—the hunters staggered.
"—gh!" The mage dropped to one knee, clutching her head. "My mana—it's draining!"
The shield bearer slammed his shield into the ground to stay upright. "Captain… I can't—"
Mana suppression.
A forbidden phenomenon.
Kayden remained standing.
The realization hit him like ice.
"I'm… fine," he whispered.
Every eye turned to him.
"What?" the rogue snapped. "That's not possible!"
The healer tried to cast—nothing happened. Panic flared in her eyes. "My spells aren't responding!"
The Core pulsed.
Hard.
[MANA-DEPENDENT ENTITIES: RESTRICTED][IRREGULAR USER: EXEMPT]
Kayden cried out as pain ripped through his chest. He dropped to his knees, gasping, fingers digging into stone.
The pressure inside him broke.
Not like mana exploding outward.
But like a lock opening.
The world vanished.
—
Kayden stood somewhere else.
No stone. No dungeon.
Just a vast, endless gate stretching beyond sight—fractured, ancient, layered upon itself like countless realities overlapping.
And before it—
Something watched him.
—You have no mana, the Gate Voice said, no longer a whisper. It echoed through existence itself.—Because mana is borrowed.——And you were not meant to borrow.—
Light poured into Kayden—not energy, not magic, but connection.
Understanding.
Rules.
He saw the dungeon.
Not as walls and monsters—but as a system. A structure. A test.
And he reached out.
—
Reality snapped back.
Kayden screamed.
Runes ignited across his skin—jagged symbols unlike any awakening mark ever recorded. They weren't glowing with mana.
They were rewriting themselves.
The Core reacted violently.
Chains shattered.
Alarms—real alarms, system alarms—blared across the chamber.
[ERROR] [ERROR] [ERROR][AWAKENING TYPE: UNREGISTERED][AUTHORITY CONFLICT DETECTED]
The hunters stared.
No one laughed.
No one breathed.
Kayden rose slowly to his feet, eyes reflecting the runes burning across the walls.
The dungeon bowed.
Stone cracked and lowered, forming pathways at his feet. The Core dimmed, its hostile pressure evaporating into submission.
Mana suppression lifted—for everyone except Kayden.
He didn't need it.
Rovan took a step back, voice shaking."Kayden… what did you do?"
Kayden looked at his hands.
He felt the dungeon respond to his thoughts.
"I didn't awaken magic," he said quietly. "I awakened… access."
The system spoke one final time, this time audible—to everyone.
A cold, neutral voice that echoed through the chamber and beyond the Gate itself.
[ANNOUNCEMENT][GATE RESONANCE USER CONFIRMED][STATUS: COMPATIBLE][DESIGNATION: GATE-BEARER]
Silence.
Then—
The Gate outside the dungeon flared so brightly that the entire city saw it.
Sensors spiked. Crystals shattered. Observers screamed.
For the first time in recorded history—
A Gate had awakened someone back.
Rovan dropped to one knee without realizing it.
The mage stared in awe and fear. "He… he wasn't weak."
The rogue swallowed. "He was never part of the scale."
Kayden Campbell—the boy with Magic Level 0.3—
stood before the Core, marked not by mana…
…but by the will of the Gates themselves.
And the world had just noticed.