The morning sun pierced the floating towers of Arveon, glinting off the crystalline streets below. The other students were already moving, practicing spells, hailing summoned swords, or mounting mechanical beasts.
Kael Arclight, however, sat alone on a jagged stone platform, his hands trembling slightly. His chest still ached from yesterday's summoning failure. Numbers and error codes haunted his vision, lingering like scars on reality itself.
"Dead weight... discarded..."
He flinched at the whispers echoing in his mind—voices of every teacher, every classmate, every system that had deemed him worthless.
Then a sudden shimmer caught his eye. A faint pulse of mana from the nearby forest.
The dungeon.
It had appeared overnight, like a jagged wound in the rolling hills. Black smoke swirled from the opening, cold air pressing against the world as though reality itself feared what lay within.
Kael's instincts screamed, even before his mind caught up. "Go... survive..."
He rose, legs shaking but determined. A translucent menu flickered in front of him, one that only he could see:
[Omni-System Core Detected]
[Host Compatibility: ABSOLUTE]
[Evolution: INACTIVE – Trigger: Near-Death]
[Subspace Inventory: Empty]
The Core was silent... for now.
⸻
Stepping closer to the dungeon, Kael saw movement: a creature, humanoid yet wrong. Its arms were elongated, claws curved like scythes, eyes like molten gold. Every breath it drew seemed to twist the air into jagged black lightning.
He reached for his sword—but nothing. No weapon appeared. The system had not responded.
The monster noticed him.
"GRAAAHHH—!"
It lunged.
Kael flinched and rolled to the side. Claws tore the dirt where he had stood moments ago. The smell of ozone and blood filled the air.
"So this is the first step..." Kael muttered, more to himself than anyone else.
He didn't run. He couldn't. Not when some spark deep inside him hummed—a power the world had forgotten.
⸻
First Glimpse of Power
As the monster reared to strike again, Kael's vision split into gold and crimson halves. Numbers, symbols, and mana flows wrapped around his perception like a lattice of light and shadow.
"SYSTEM OVERRIDE... DETECTED."
The ground beneath him trembled. The claws that would have ended him stopped mid-air.
Kael's hands clenched. He didn't know what he was doing, didn't understand the Core, didn't even know his limits.
But the power flowed.
A faint echo of a voice—Lyra's voice?—whispered inside him:
"They will regret underestimating us."
Gold and crimson light flared from his eyes, illuminating the dark forest. The claws froze, then shattered silently, the monster's body dissolving into black particles that hissed and vanished.
Kael blinked.
[Experience Gained: +5]
[XP Multiplier Active: 1.1x]
[Bloodline Resonance: Detected]
[Omni-System Core: Partial Activation]
He stumbled back, heart racing. His first kill. And yet... it felt almost empty.
Something deeper inside him stirred. Something ancient, something infinite.
Kael's voice was barely a whisper as he looked at the dark dungeon portal.
"Alright... I get it now. This world isn't going to make it easy. But neither am I."
And for the first time, he smiled.