Jace stood at the edge of a shattered overpass, wind tugging at his coat, eyes scanning the twisted ruins that stretched below. The city had once been a technological marvel, but now Zone 5W was nothing but a graveyard of steel and bone.
His breath misted in the air. A low haze rolled across the broken buildings, muffling sound and light. Somewhere beneath that fog was the beast the system had warned him about—C-tier, shard-horned, dangerous.
His fingers twitched at his side, hovering near the hilt of his salvaged blade. It felt woefully inadequate. He was alone, undergeared, and had no backup.
> [Objective: Slay a C-tier Beast or higher. Claim its core.]
> [Time Remaining: 69 hours 42 minutes]
The countdown ticked on mercilessly, but Jace didn't move just yet.
He crouched and pressed his hand to the crumbling concrete, letting the strange pulse in his chest settle. The new system had changed him. He could feel it. Not just physically—though his stamina and strength were subtly enhanced—but in how the world felt. Everything was sharper. The air hummed with invisible threads. Movement carried echoes. Emotion left residue.
He breathed in.
And then the beast screamed.
A deep, bone-shaking roar erupted from the fog, somewhere to the south. Birds scattered from ruined rooftops, and dust plumed into the sky.
Jace rose, heart hammering, and ran.
His boots pounded over metal and rock. He leapt over collapsed signage and ducked through a crumbled underpass. The system pulsed at the edge of his mind, mapping the environment with eerie precision.
> [Echo Sight Active: 5 Seconds]
Crimson trails lit the air.
The beast's path blazed like fire across the ruins—a streak of destruction that tore through wreckage like paper. He slowed near the remnants of a pharmacy. Inside, shelves were overturned, walls shredded. And in the center lay a corpse.
Jace froze.
It was another student.
Their badge still flickered weakly—an emblem from the northern academy. Their body was torn nearly in half, and the core embedded in their chest was shattered.
He swallowed hard.
"Damn... I'm not the only one taking this trial."
Was it a coincidence? Or were others being drawn to the ruins by the same system?
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of scraping stone.
He whirled.
The beast emerged.
It was massive—nearly three meters tall at the shoulder. A quadruped covered in obsidian plates with glowing blue veins. Its most distinct feature was the spiral horn made entirely of shard crystal protruding from its brow like a jagged spear.
It saw him.
And it charged.
Jace dove sideways as concrete exploded behind him. The creature struck the ground like a meteor, horn buried in stone. He scrambled to his feet and bolted into the ruined pharmacy.
The beast gave chase, smashing through walls.
"Okay, think, think!"
He ducked behind a beam and activated the system again.
> [Analyzing Threat... Complete.]
[Weak Point: Rear leg joint. Underside is unarmored. Patterned charge attack with three-second cooldown.]
Jace gritted his teeth.
"Thanks, now how do I hit that without dying?"
The beast roared again and charged.
Jace sprinted into a side room, grabbing a metal support rod from the floor. He waited. The horn punched through the wall, missing his head by inches.
He jammed the rod into the gap between plates in the beast's neck and twisted.
The creature shrieked and threw him across the room.
Pain exploded in his back. He rolled, coughing blood, but forced himself up. His blade was gone.
The beast turned slowly, its eyes glowing.
And then, something in Jace snapped.
A surge of red energy flooded his limbs. His vision sharpened. His breathing slowed. And in the center of his chest, the system awakened a new skill.
> [New Skill: Blood Instinct – Active]
[Effect: Increases reflex speed, pain resistance, and momentary prediction by 20% for 10 seconds.]
Jace roared.
He rushed the beast, using its blind spot to roll beneath its belly. With his short blade recovered, he slashed upward.
Metal sang. Blood sprayed.
The beast screamed, bucking violently. It smashed into a support pillar, collapsing part of the ceiling. Jace dodged the debris and jumped onto its back, stabbing again—this time just behind the neck joint.
The shardhorn staggered.
Its horn crackled with energy. A blast of blue light fired from its core, blowing a crater in the pharmacy wall.
Jace held on, driving the blade deeper until the weapon snapped in half.
The beast collapsed with a final howl.
Silence.
Jace rolled off its back, panting, bloodied, barely conscious.
The system chimed softly.
> [C-Tier Beast Defeated] [+360 XP]
[Core Retrieved: Shardhorn Strider – Grade C]
[Trial Completion: 100%]
> [New Feature Unlocked: System Vault – Fragmentary Archive Access Opened]
A glowing red window appeared before him.
> [Vault Archive Alpha – 1 Key Earned]
[Choose Reward:
A) Weapon Upgrade – Crimson Boneblade
B) Armor Set – Reactive Carapace
C) Utility Skill – Shadow Blink Lv.1]
Jace blinked, groaning. His body wanted to collapse, but this… this was more than he ever imagined.
He hovered his hand over the options.
"Not dying again sounds good."
He tapped C) Shadow Blink.
> [Confirmed. Skill Acquired.]
[Skill Added: Shadow Blink – Lv.1]
[Effect: Teleport up to 8 meters within line of sight. Cooldown: 15 seconds.]
Jace sat back, laughing.
It was real. All of it.
And this was only the beginning.
The sound of footsteps echoed in the distance.
Jace's laughter died.
He scrambled to his feet and hid behind a fallen beam.
Two figures approached the corpse of the beast—wearing Federation scout gear. Not academy students. Older. Armed.
"Another one?" one muttered. "This is the fourth kill site we've found with the same pattern."
"Look at the energy residue," the other said, scanning the area. "It's not Federation. Not vampiric. Something else."
Jace stayed silent, heart pounding.
Then one of the men looked directly toward his hiding place.
"Who's there?"
Jace hesitated.
And then used Shadow Blink for the first time.
He vanished into mist.
Jace reappeared in the shadow of a shattered wall eight meters away, heart hammering in his chest. The teleportation left a strange tingling in his skin, like electricity dancing beneath his veins. His legs buckled as he caught his balance, gasping for air.
"Holy crap," he muttered. "That actually worked."
The skill was real. The system was real. And more importantly—so were the people looking for him.
He crouched low and peeked around the corner. The two scouts were still scanning the area, cautiously approaching the corpse of the shardhorn. One of them reached into a pouch and pulled out a cube-shaped sensor. It lit up with pulsing crimson lights.
> [Warning: Adaptive Sensor Detected. Camouflage Not Active.]
Jace swore under his breath and retreated behind the wall. The system was giving him all this power, but it hadn't given him a way to go invisible—yet. If they kept scanning, they'd find him. And worse, he couldn't afford to get caught. Not now. Not before he understood what he had.
He took off at a low sprint, sticking to the alleyways, ducking under fallen beams and darting through the maze of ruins. Every few steps he activated Echo Sight, mapping nearby energy trails to avoid other scouts or beasts. The city was alive with hidden threats, but for now, he managed to slip through unnoticed.
After nearly twenty minutes of evasion, he collapsed beneath the remains of an old subway entrance. The air was cooler here. A soft breeze drifted up from the underground.
He wiped sweat from his brow and checked the system.
> [Core Absorbed: Shardhorn Strider – Grade C]
[New Passive Ability Available: Crystal Hide Lv.1]
[Would you like to Integrate this passive ability? Y/N]
He hesitated. Every integration made the system stronger—and bound it more tightly to him. But in this world, power was the only protection he had.
He pressed Yes.
> [Integration Complete.]
[Crystal Hide Lv.1 – Passive: Minor damage resistance to physical impact. Visual shimmer when hit.]
As the message disappeared, Jace felt something ripple across his skin. A subtle rigidity settled into his limbs—like a barely-there layer of armor beneath the flesh. He tapped his forearm and heard a faint, crystalline tone.
It was working.
He leaned back against the cold wall and let out a long breath. His first real battle, his first kill, and his first step on a path that no one had prepared him for.
He wasn't just some weak, low-tier ability user anymore.
He was evolving.
---
Far above, in a control tower beyond the walls of Zone 5W, a panel of monitors displayed live feeds from various drones and sensors. A sharp-eyed woman in a navy uniform crossed her arms, watching a particular heat signature blink in and out of view.
"Same anomaly again," she said to the man beside her. "It keeps triggering localized interference. And now another shardhorn corpse—killed solo. That's five reports in three days."
"Another unstable system?" the man asked.
"Maybe. But this one's different."
The woman leaned closer, narrowing her eyes.
"It's adapting too quickly."
---
Back in the ruins, Jace finally rose and explored the subway tunnel. He moved cautiously down the steps, his flashlight revealing shattered glass, collapsed metal, and long-forgotten posters of a world that no longer existed.
He passed rusted vending machines and broken ticket terminals. The platform below was cracked but intact. Near the far wall, an emergency hatch flickered with a green light—something still powered.
> [System Alert: Hidden Vault Signature Detected.]
Jace's breath caught.
Could it be another relic like the book? Another system-bound artifact?
He approached slowly. As he neared, symbols etched in the door lit up—red, white, and black. The same colors as the eye from the tomb. His pulse quickened.
A voice spoke in his head—not the system's. This was different.
"You've passed the first trial. But to ascend, blood alone will not be enough."
Jace backed away instinctively.
> [Warning: Vault Guardian Signature Detected. Rank Unknown.]
The hatch creaked open.
Inside, shadows pooled like water, and a shape emerged—tall, cloaked, with eyes like twin moons glowing red.
Jace raised his weapon. "What are you?"
The figure didn't move. It raised a hand and pointed at Jace's chest.
"You carry the Archive. Prove your worth—or be consumed by it."
Suddenly, the air thickened. The chamber rumbled.
> [New Challenge Initiated: Vault Guardian Trial – Survive 3 Minutes]
[Reward: ???]
[Failure: System Lockdown – 48 Hours]
Jace's blade ignited with crimson light. The ground cracked beneath him as the Guardian stepped forward, and Jace, despite the odds, smiled.
"Alright. Round two."