Zeph was halfway to the newly opened corridor when the familiar chime of system notifications filled the air around him.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[First Dungeon Kill Achievement Unlocked!]
[Reward: Skill - Force (Rank F)]
[Bonus: 50 EXP, 2000 Skill Points]
He stopped dead in his tracks, eyes widening as the messages hung in the air before him. His first skill. His actual, honest-to-god System-granted ability.
'Finally,' he thought, barely containing his excitement. 'Time to see what passes for supernatural powers in this world.'
He pulled up his status window, navigating to the newly appeared Skills section with the eager anticipation of a kid unwrapping presents on Christmas morning.
[SKILL: FORCE - RANK F]
[Type: Enhancement]
[Description: Channel internal energy to coat body or weapons, enhancing their properties by 20%. Duration: 30 seconds. Cooldown: 2 minutes. Cost: 5 MP per activation.]
Zeph studied the description of the skill carefully. It was beautifully simple and devastatingly versatile.
Twenty percent enhancement to anything he applied it to. His speed, his strength, his weapon's cutting power, even his defensive capabilities if he coated his skin. The applications were endless.
It was a true starter pack sort of a reward.
'If I coat myself completely, my Agility jumps from 9 to nearly 11. That's already superhuman levels of speed.'
But more importantly, this was his chance to test whether his cheat actually worked.
His PP counter had climbed to 1,943 points during the gorilla fight—more than enough to attempt an upgrade. According to his Primordial Architect interface, 1,000 PP could function as a direct replacement for Skill Points.
Which meant he could upgrade Force from F-rank to E-rank right now.
'Mental command it is,' he thought, focusing his intention on the Primordial Architect interface. 'Upgrade Force skill using 1,000 Primordial Points.'
The response was immediate.
[PRIMORDIAL ARCHITECT ACTIVE]
[Upgrading: Force (F → E)]
[Cost: 1000 PP]
[Confirmed]
Power flooded through him like liquid lightning. Not painful, but intense enough to make every nerve ending sing with sudden energy. The sensation lasted exactly three seconds, then faded to a warm afterglow that settled in his bones.
His PP counter dropped to 943.
With trembling fingers, he pulled up his skill description again.
[SKILL: FORCE - RANK E]
[Type: Enhancement]
[Description: Channel internal energy to coat body or weapons, enhancing their properties by 50%. Duration: 45 seconds. Cooldown: 90 seconds. Cost: 8 MP per activation.]
'Holy shit. It worked!'
Fifty percent enhancement. His theoretical Agility would jump from 9 to 13.5 when the skill was active. That wasn't just superhuman, that was approaching the lower bounds of what awakened humans considered truly exceptional speed for a level 2!
And this was just the beginning.
'E-rank to D-rank costs 2,500 PP,' he thought, doing quick mental calculations. 'That's barely three hours of normal breathing without counting the bonus points I got from the system. D-rank to C-rank is 5,000 PP—maybe six hours. By the time I finish this tutorial dungeon, I could probably push Force all the way to C-rank or higher.'
The implications were staggering. While other awakened spent weeks or months grinding for the Skill Points needed to upgrade their abilities, he could achieve the same progression in a single day!
And that was just with passive breathing. If he ever learned advanced meditation techniques...
'I'm going to be absolutely broken,' he realized, a savage grin spreading across his face. 'Not just strong, completely outside the normal progression curve.'
He activated Force for the first time, channeling the energy throughout his entire body.
The effect was immediate and intoxicating. Strength flooded his muscles, making him 'feel' like he could punch through concrete.
His reflexes sharpened to the point where he could almost see individual dust motes floating through the air. Even his thoughts seemed to move faster, processing information with crystal clarity.
This was power. Real, tangible, game-changing power!
'And this is just E-rank,' he thought, flexing his fingers and watching them move with inhuman precision. 'What happens when I hit A-rank? S-rank? What's the upper limit on this skill?'
The questions would have to wait. The Force enhancement would only last 45 seconds, and he had a dungeon to clear.
Zeph sprinted toward the open corridor, his enhanced speed carrying him forward in ground-eating strides that ate up distance like he was riding a motorcycle.
The stone walls blurred past him as he navigated turns and passages with reflexes that bordered on precognitive.
Somewhere ahead, another challenge was waiting. Another test of his abilities, another opportunity to earn experience and achievements.
Another chance to prove that his cheat system was going to reshape this entire world!
'Let's see what else this tutorial has to offer,' he thought, his grip tightening on Phantom's hilt as he raced deeper into the temple complex.
Behind him, his PP counter continued its relentless climb: 944, 945, 946...
Every breath was making him stronger.
Every second was bringing him closer to true power.
The tutorial dungeon had no idea what was coming for it.
_____
Three floors down, three mini-bosses dead, and Zeph was starting to feel invincible.
The second floor had thrown a pack of stone wolves at him, constructs animated by ancient magic that moved like liquid rock and hit like sledgehammers.
Force-enhanced speed had let him dance between their attacks while his katana, coated in the same energy, carved through their rocky hides like they were made of paper.
The third floor's guardian had been some kind of skeletal warrior wielding a massive two-handed sword. It should have been a challenging opponent, all reach and technique and undead resilience.
Instead, Zeph had closed the distance in a single Force-enhanced leap and taken its skull off before it could complete its first swing.
The fourth floor's crystalline spider had actually managed to surprise him, dropping from the ceiling in an ambush that would have caught any normal challenger off-guard.
But with Force pumping through his system, his reflexes had been fast enough to dodge and counter-attack in the same motion, driving Phantom through the creature's brain before it hit the ground.
'This is almost too easy,' he'd thought after each victory, watching his opponents crumble into dust and light.
But it was after clearing the fourth floor that he'd made his next upgrade, and learned his first hard lesson about power scaling.
Two hours of breathing plus the bonus had generated more than enough to push Force from E-rank to D-rank. The upgrade had felt even more intense than the first, power flooding through his system in waves that left him gasping.
When he'd checked the new description, his excitement had been through the roof.
[SKILL: FORCE - RANK D]
[Type: Enhancement]
[Description: Channel internal energy to coat body or weapons, enhancing their properties by 100%. Duration: 60 seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds. Cost: 10 MP per activation (weapon enhancement) / 10 SP per activation (body enhancement).]
One hundred percent enhancement!
Double his base capabilities across the board. His Agility would jump from 9 to 18 when the skill was active, faster than most level 3 awakeneds could manage even at higher levels.
But then he'd tried to use it.
His MP pool was exactly 10 points. His SP pool was also exactly 10 points.
Which meant he could activate Force exactly once before he was completely tapped out. One activation, whether applied to his weapon or his body, and then he'd have to wait for his resources to regenerate before he could use it again.
'Well, shit.'
The realization had hit him like a bucket of cold water. He'd been so focused on the raw power increase that he'd completely ignored the resource costs. Now he had a skill that was incredibly potent but barely usable.
'Classic noob mistake,' he'd thought bitterly. 'All damage, no sustain. I've built myself into a glass cannon that can only fire one shot!'
It was a humbling reminder that power without the resources to use it was just expensive decoration. He'd have to be much more careful about future upgrades, considering not just the benefits but the practical limitations they imposed.
Still, when he did use Force, the results were absolutely terrifying!
His single activation on the fifth floor had let him blitz through a room full of animated armor suits in under ten seconds, moving so fast that the constructs couldn't even track his movements.
The burst of speed and strength had been overwhelming, like having a sports car's acceleration in a world of bicycles.
But then it was over, and he was back to baseline capabilities until his resources recharged.
'Note to self,' he thought as he approached the entrance to the sixth floor. 'Upgrade resource pools before upgrading resource-hungry skills. Power scaling is useless if you can't afford to scale.'
The lesson was burned into his memory now. Future upgrades would require more strategic thinking, balancing power with sustainability. There was no point having godlike abilities if he could only use them once per fight, or none at all.
The sixth floor's entrance was different from the others. Where the previous tunnels had been simple stone passages, this one was carved with elaborate hieroglyphs that pulsed with deep red light instead of the usual blue.
The air flowing out of the corridor was thick and humid, carrying scents of vegetation and something else.
Zeph stepped through the entrance and found himself in a vast underground chamber that defied the temple's architecture. Instead of worked stone, he was surrounded by twisted trees and hanging vines, all of it growing in soil that shouldn't exist this far underground.
Bioluminescent fungi provided patches of sickly green light, while somewhere in the darkness, he could hear the drip of water and the rustle of unseen movement.
'Great. From ancient temple to jungle dungeon. Because that's not ominous at all.'
He moved forward carefully, Phantom held ready, every sense straining to detect threats in the unnatural forest. His PP counter was climbing steadily but he forced himself to ignore it for now. Whatever was waiting in this overgrown maze, he'd need to face it with his current capabilities.
That's when he saw it.