The dungeon stank of rot and iron.
I pressed my back against the crumbling stone wall, chest heaving, fingers slick with blood around the hilt of my borrowed sword. Three corpses lay scattered across the moss-covered floor—other commoners like me, conscripted into Lord Corvith's "salvage expedition."
Expendable bait, more like.
"Kael! Get your ass over here!"
That would be Young Master Darian Corvith, the spoiled shit who'd dragged twenty of us into these ruins. I could see him thirty feet ahead, standing at the entrance to a larger chamber, his enchanted armor gleaming with protective runes I'd never afford in ten lifetimes.
System users. The nobles who'd been "blessed" by the Great Awakening ten years ago.
The rest of us just bled.
I pushed off the wall, boots splashing through puddles of something I didn't want to identify. My arms ached from swinging a sword I barely knew how to use. I was a blacksmith's apprentice, for fuck's sake. I forged weapons, I didn't use them.
"Move faster, commoner!" Darian's voice cracked like a whip. "The dungeon core is just ahead. You're going in first."
Of course I was.
I stumbled into the chamber, and my breath caught.
The room was massive, cathedral-like, with a pulsing crystal suspended in the center—deep crimson, veined with black. A dungeon core. Even I knew what that meant. Destroy it, and the dungeon collapsed. Claim it, and you could harvest its power for System enhancement.
Worth a fortune to nobles.
Worth a death sentence for commoners caught near one.
"Well?" Darian shoved me forward. "Go touch it. Make sure it's not trapped."
I turned to look at him. At his smug face, at the six other noble brats flanking him, all wearing System-granted armor and weapons that cost more than my entire district.
"You want me to—"
"Did I stutter?" His hand went to his sword. "Touch. The. Core."
Behind him, I caught the eyes of Mira, another conscript. She was shaking her head slowly, tears streaming down her dirt-smeared face.
I looked back at the core.
Then at Darian.
Then I did the math.
If it was trapped and I died, Darian's "expedition" had one less mouth to feed. If it wasn't trapped, he'd kill me anyway so there were no witnesses to him stealing a dungeon core from Crown territory.
Either way, I was dead.
"Fuck it," I muttered, and walked toward the crystal.
Each step felt like walking to the gallows. My heart hammered against my ribs. The core's pulsing intensified, bathing the chamber in bloody light. Ten feet away. Five feet.
I reached out.
My fingers brushed the surface—
Pain.
Blinding, absolute, scorching pain erupted through my chest. I looked down, saw the sword point jutting from between my ribs, slick and red.
"Nothing personal, Kael," Darian's voice came from behind me, casual, like he was discussing the weather. "But commoners who see noble business have a habit of... disappearing."
He twisted the blade.
I screamed. Tried to scream. Blood filled my mouth instead.
The world tilted. I fell, fingers scraping against the dungeon core as I collapsed. My vision blurred, darkness creeping in from the edges.
So this is how I die.
Murdered by a noble.
Just another commoner corpse.
The rage came then. Not hot, but cold. Crystalline. Pure.
I refuse.
My hand, still touching the core, clenched.
And something answered.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
CRITICAL CONDITION DETECTED
INITIATING EMERGENCY PROTOCOL
SCANNING FOR COMPATIBLE ESSENCE...
Words burned across my dying vision. Not spoken, but known, carved directly into my consciousness.
[UNIQUE SKILL DETECTED]
[PRIMORDIAL SYSTEM: DEVOURER'S FRACTURE]
AWAKENING...
Darian's voice, distant now: "Is it glowing? Why is the commoner glowing?"
[ABSORPTION PROCESS INITIATED]
TARGET: DUNGEON CORE (RANK C)
CONFIRM CONSUMPTION? Y/N
'Yes.'
The core shattered.
Crimson energy exploded outward, but instead of destroying me, it poured into the wound in my chest. Into my mouth. Into every pore. The pain vanished, replaced by something else—
Power.
Raw, intoxicating, infinite power.
My eyes snapped open.
I stood. The sword clattered from my chest, the wound sealing shut in seconds, tissue knitting together with a sound like tearing silk.
Darian stumbled back. "What—that's not possible! You're a commoner! You can't—"
I looked at my hands. They were glowing. Crimson energy crackled between my fingers like lightning.
[ABSORPTION COMPLETE]
RANK: F → E
ACQUIRED SKILLS:
- ESSENCE DRAIN (ACTIVE)
- MINOR REGENERATION (PASSIVE)
- DEVOURER'S MARK (UNIQUE)
More words. A... status window? Like the ones nobles bragged about?
"Kill him!" Darian shrieked. "Kill the Aberration! NOW!"
The six noble guards drew weapons, System-enhanced blades igniting with elemental magic. Fire. Ice. Lightning.
They rushed me.
And I smiled.
My hand shot out, fingers closing around the first guard's throat. He screamed as crimson energy erupted from my palm, and I felt it—his System, his power, his very essence being pulled into me like water down a drain.
[ABSORPTION INITIATED]
TARGET: SYSTEM USER (RANK E)
CONSUMING...
The guard's scream cut off. His eyes went blank. His body crumpled, nothing but a dried husk.
And I felt stronger.
"What the fuck is he?!" one of the others yelled.
I turned to them, wiping blood from my mouth.
"I'm what you nobles created when you decided commoners were disposable," I said, my voice strange even to my own ears—layered, resonant, like a dozen voices speaking as one. "I'm your worst fucking nightmare."
I moved.
Faster than I'd ever moved in my life. My fist caught the second guard in the chest, and the Essence Drain activated automatically. He had time for one breathless gasp before he joined his friend on the floor.
[LEVEL UP!]
RANK E → RANK E+
NEW SKILL ACQUIRED: COMBAT INSTINCT (PASSIVE)
The remaining four guards attacked together, coordinated, trained.
It didn't matter.
My body moved like I'd trained for years. Dodge. Counter. Drain. Another body hit the floor. The power flooding into me was intoxicating, addictive. Each System I absorbed made me faster, stronger, more.
Ten seconds.
That's all it took.
Six System-enhanced noble guards, dead. Their power now mine.
I stood in the center of the chamber, breathing hard, covered in blood that wasn't my own, feeling power coursing through my veins like molten gold.
Only Darian remained, pressed against the wall, his perfect face twisted in terror.
"Please," he whimpered. "I'm sorry. I didn't—my father is Lord Corvith! He'll pay you! Anything you want!"
I walked toward him slowly, savoring the fear in his eyes.
"What I want," I said softly, "is your System."
His eyes went wide. "No. No, you can't! It's bonded to my bloodline! The World System doesn't allow—"
I grabbed his throat.
[ABSORPTION INITIATED]
TARGET: SYSTEM USER (RANK D - BLOODLINE LOCKED)
WARNING: TARGET CONTAINS NOBLE SYSTEM
OVERRIDE PROTOCOL REQUIRED
DEVOURER'S FRACTURE ACTIVATING...
BLOODLINE LOCK... BYPASSED
CONSUMING...
Darian screamed.
And I drank.
His System poured into me—skills, stats, knowledge, everything. I saw his entire Status Window unravel before my eyes, each ability being ripped away and integrated into my own.
[ABSORPTION COMPLETE]
RANK E+ → RANK D
ACQUIRED BLOODLINE SYSTEM: CORVITH HOUSE (DEGRADED)
NEW SKILLS:
- NOBLE'S AUTHORITY (ACTIVE)
- FLAME BLADE (ACTIVE)
- ENHANCED STRENGTH (PASSIVE)
- COMBAT MASTERY: SWORDS (PASSIVE)
Darian's body fell, lifeless.
I stood there, chest heaving, staring at my hands.
I'd just killed a noble.
Absorbed his System.
Committed the highest crime in the Valorian Empire.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
COMMONER DETECTED WITH NOBLE SYSTEM SIGNATURE
CLASSIFICATION: ABERRATION
IMPERIAL NOTICE DISPATCHED
HUNTERS WILL ARRIVE IN: 47 HOURS
"Shit."
Behind me, a whimper. I spun, hand raised—
Mira. The other conscript. She was still alive, pressed against the far wall, staring at me with eyes wide as moons.
"Please," she whispered. "Please don't kill me."
I lowered my hand. "Run. Go back to the city. Tell them... tell them Darian's expedition was wiped out by dungeon monsters."
"They won't believe me. They'll execute me for surviving when nobles died."
Damn. She was right.
I looked at the carnage around us. At what I'd become in the span of five minutes.
An Aberration.
A System thief.
A walking death sentence.
[QUEST RECEIVED]
THE HUNT BEGINS
OBJECTIVE: SURVIVE THE CULLING
REWARD: ???
FAILURE PENALTY: DEATH
I met Mira's terrified gaze.
"Then I guess we're both dead," I said. "Unless—"
The chamber shook.
Stone cracked overhead. Dust rained down. The dungeon was collapsing—the core's destruction had destabilized the entire structure.
"Move!" I grabbed Mira's arm and ran.
Behind us, the ceiling caved in with a sound like the world ending.
We burst from the dungeon entrance just as the ruins collapsed inward, sealing the chamber—and all evidence of what I'd done—under tons of rubble.
I fell to my knees in the grass, gasping, Mira beside me.
"What now?" she asked.
I pulled up my Status Window. Looked at my rank. At my Unique System.
[DEVOURER'S FRACTURE]
A System that could steal other Systems.
In a world where nobles ruled through System supremacy, I'd just become the most dangerous person alive.
"Now?" I stood, staring at the distant lights of the capital city, where hundreds of noble houses ruled over millions of commoners.
Where Lord Corvith would soon discover his son was dead.
Where Imperial Hunters would come for me.
I clenched my fists, feeling the stolen power thrumming beneath my skin.
"Now I take everything from them."
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[CHAPTER 1 COMPLETE]
[NEW TITLE ACQUIRED: SYSTEM DEVOURER]
[BOUNTY PLACED: 10,000 GOLD CROWNS - DEAD OR ALIVE]
[WANTED POSTER GENERATING...]
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[TO BE CONTINUED......]