Kael took a breath. Regretted it instantly.
The air smelled wrong. Not just bad—broken. Like wet wires and rusted blood and something else that didn't belong in any world. His instincts screamed to leave. But the gate had already sealed behind him.
He was trapped.
"Dren!" he called out. "Can you hear me?!"
Only silence replied.
Then—
CRACK.
The sound of bones snapping. Not from far away. Close.
Kael dropped low, backing against a tree with bark that looked like melting glass. He scanned the mist-choked terrain. The grass shimmered. The sky flickered. The whole dungeon felt like it had been copied wrong—like a corrupted file pretending to be a forest.
> [SYSTEM ALERT]
You are in a glitched zone. Normal abilities may not function.
Proceed with extreme caution.
Kael's hand trembled as he reached into his coat. Just a knife. Cheap and barely sharpened. Not exactly raid gear. But something in him tightened—not fear, but something older. Something… waiting.
The ground rippled.
Kael turned—and froze.
A creature crawled out of the glitch.
It didn't walk. It ticked. Like a broken clock, its limbs snapping into place with a mechanical rhythm. Its skin—or what passed for it—was stretched code, glitching in real time. Rows of jagged teeth grinned from a face that kept reloading.
It locked eyes with Kael.
Then lunged.
Kael didn't think. He moved—sideways, but not with his legs. More like he was yanked by gravity itself, a blue distortion warping the air where he had just stood.
The monster slammed into the tree, splitting it in half.
Kael stumbled back, staring at his hands.
> [Skill Unlocked: VORTEX STEP]
Type: Movement (Forbidden)
Description: Bend local gravity to instantly shift position. Requires no incantation. Limited by physical stamina.
Status: ERROR – Skill not registered in database.
"What… the hell was that?"
The monster shrieked—turning, warping, sprinting again.
Kael's body moved before his brain could catch up. Another Vortex Step—this time behind the thing. His arm whipped out on instinct.
The knife buried itself in the creature's neck. Or, at least, where a neck should be.
The glitch let out a distorted gargle—then collapsed, static crackling from its core before its body pixelated and vanished.
Kael gasped. Not from exhaustion—but from clarity.
The skill—it had come naturally. Like blinking. Like it had always been part of him, hidden under layers of something else.
> [VORTEXBORN Signature Detected.]
[System Reaction Level: 4%]
[World Response Pending…]
"Vortexborn," Kael repeated under his breath. "I really am in the wrong story, huh?"
The forest quieted, but not for long.
He heard movement—this time, voices.
"Dren?" he called out again, moving forward.
The glitching eased with each step. The environment stabilized, barely, like the dungeon was tolerating him now.
He found them in a clearing.
Dren was alive—barely. Bleeding from a gash across his side, face pale, hand glowing with healing light. The edgy girl with the knives stood beside him, tense and on guard. Two others from the group were dead. The last had gone missing.
"Kael?" Dren's voice cracked. "How—how did you get through the collapse?"
Kael didn't answer.
He was staring at something else.
Hovering over the center of the clearing was a pulsing orb of data. Not treasure. Not loot. A system anomaly.
And it was calling to him.
> [Do you wish to absorb the Anomaly?]
Warning: This may permanently alter your Class Path.
Kael hesitated.
Then said, "Yeah. Why not? I was never normal anyway."