Lucas sat cross-legged on the cold floor as dawn light filtered through the mana glass. The air hummed faintly with System energy.
[Status Menu — User Profile]
Name: Lucas Hayes
Class: Systemless (Divine Variant)
Rarity: Divine
Level: 3
Unspent Stat Points: 6
Stats:
Strength: 1
Agility: 1
Endurance: 1
Vitality: 1
Intelligence: 1
Perception: 1
Luck: 1
[Rule Update: Each level grants 3 Stat Points. Luck cannot be increased manually.]
He studied the display. "Six points. No guide. No idea what matters most."
He thought back to the Wraiths, to the burning air in his lungs, and decided speed and awareness kept him alive more than brute strength ever did.
He pushed all six points into Agility, Perception, and Vitality evenly.
[Stat distribution confirmed.]
[Derived modifiers updated.]
His vision sharpened instantly — edges cleaner, motion easier to track.
Then came the chime.
[Ascendant Trial — Initiation Sequence in 5 minutes.]
Rena met him at the entrance, arms folded. Her confident smirk was gone. "Remember: the Trial adapts. If you go in cocky, it'll kill you."
He tried to smile. "Reassuring."
The walls around them shimmered, reality peeling away into light.
He blinked — and the world re-formed into a dead battlefield.
Charred ground. Broken towers. A violet sun hanging low in the sky.
[Simulation Type: Combat Evaluation — Resonance Test]
[Objective: Survive for 10 minutes or eliminate all hostiles.]
Dozens of armored shapes crawled out from the haze — knights with cracked masks and blue flame eyes.
Lucas drew his Uzis. "Alright, System. Let's see what you've got."
The first wave was easy. Predictable. He dodged, strafed, shot clean bursts — energy rounds tearing through phantom armor.
[Target defeated. +35 EXP.]
[Target defeated. +31 EXP.]
The numbers flashed quickly — then stacked.
[Level Up! → 4]
[3 Stat Points earned.]
"Mid-fight upgrades? I could get used to this."
He flicked open his stat panel, sweating, and jammed the points into Agility again — just in time to vault over an incoming spear.
But the enemies changed.
Their movements synced — learning his rhythm.
[Simulation adapting.]
One lunged just as he landed; another flanked right.
He barely rolled aside as a blade nicked his arm. Blood. Real pain.
"Okay," he hissed, "not a game."
He activated Skystep Soles, double-jumping off an invisible platform and unloading a rain of energy bolts.
[Critical hit!]
[EXP +57]
[EXP +62]
[Level Up! → 5]
[3 Stat Points earned.]
He opened his panel with a grunt, slamming the points into Endurance and Vitality before the next wave could spawn. His vision blurred for a second — then sharpened again.
"Come on," he muttered. "Show me what's next."
The fog stirred.
A shape stepped out — calm, silent, familiar.
Same jacket. Same weapons. Same faint glow in the eyes.
[New Hostile Type Detected.]
[Echo Construct: Subject L-17-D]
Lucas froze.
It was him.
The Echo raised its Uzis in perfect synchronization.
They fired at the same time.
The first exchange was chaos — identical trajectories, identical dodges. Each shot collided midair in bursts of gold and blue. Lucas dove left, but the Echo mirrored right, moving with perfect rhythm.
He rolled behind cover, cursing under his breath. "You've got to be kidding me. It's reading me like code."
[Analysis: Adaptive Protocol vs Adaptive Protocol]
[Prediction Accuracy: 50% → 68% → 81%]
The System's cold text scrolled across his HUD.
The Echo was learning faster than him.
Lucas jumped to a higher ledge using Skystep Soles, firing down — but the Echo mirrored the jump, landing on an opposite platform.
They both stopped for a heartbeat, staring at each other.
The same wounds. The same stance. Even the same tired breathing.
Lucas whispered, "If you're me… then you'll think like me."
He holstered one gun and dashed forward, zigzagging erratically.
The Echo matched him step for step — until Lucas threw his last energy clip directly at it.
The Echo fired instantly, detonating the clip midair.
A blinding explosion ripped through both of them.
Lucas hit the ground hard, ears ringing. His health bar flickered red.
[HP: 17%]
He gasped, tasting iron. "Alright. Guess we're improvising."
The Echo dropped down through the smoke, half its coat burned away, movements glitching but precise.
It raised one Uzi — and for the first time, hesitated.
[Behavioral Desync Detected.]
Lucas noticed the delay — milliseconds, but enough.
He lunged forward, slamming into his copy, knocking one weapon free.
They grappled, hands locked, both trying to turn the gun on the other.
"C'mon," Lucas growled through his teeth. "If you're my copy… you don't want to kill me, do you?"
The Echo's expression flickered — pain, confusion, nothing.
Then it spoke, voice flat but human enough to make Lucas's skin crawl.
"Survival is progression."
"Yeah?" Lucas said, forcing the barrel down. "Then evolve this."
He fired point-blank.
The shot tore through the Echo's core. Its body convulsed, light spilling from the wound like liquid gold.
But instead of dying, it laughed — distorted, broken.
"Adaptation achieved… temporary."
It reached forward, grabbing Lucas's wrist — and data lines spread from its fingers into his arm.
[Warning: System interference detected!]
[Unauthorized code transfer in progress!]
Lucas screamed as the HUD went white — System data surging into him, wild, uncontrolled.
The Echo shattered, fragments dissolving into his skin.
[Adaptive Protocol — Resonance increased.]
[Skill evolution pending…]
[Trial complete.]
He collapsed to one knee, shaking, eyes burning gold for a heartbeat before fading back to normal.
The battlefield dissolved into light.
When he opened his eyes, Rena was crouched beside him, concern breaking through her usual smirk.
"Hey," she said, "you still breathing?"
He nodded weakly. "Define 'breathing.'"
Her gaze flicked to his wrist display. "Whatever you did in there— it wasn't normal. The System just flagged your data for restricted access."
"Good," Lucas muttered. "Means I got its attention."
"Lucas…" she started, then stopped. "Just… be careful. You're not the only one it's watching."
Later, back in his quarters, he scrolled through his updated stats.
Level: 6
Unspent Points: 3
New Skill: Adaptive Protocol (Lv.3 — Evolved: Resonance Shift)
He didn't know what the evolution meant yet — but he could feel it, humming under his skin.
Then the encrypted message arrived.
"The System's studying you. Be careful."
He exhaled slowly. "Yeah," he whispered. "I think it just introduced itself."
Outside, the fake night sky glitched — stars flickering out for a fraction of a second before the System reset them again.