The sound of wood clashing against wood cracked through the air.
Ethan Kaelrin exhaled, his breath steady as the shinai whistled through his grip. The tip struck his opponent's shoulder armor with a snap, enough to sting through the padding. The other man flinched.
"Point," Ethan said calmly.
His opponent groaned, lowering his sword. Around them, the kendo dojo was bathed in soft morning light — the scent of polished wood, sweat, and focus filling the air. The usual rhythm. Training, teaching, repetition.
Ethan removed his mask, running a gloved hand through short black hair damp with sweat. His reflection caught in the wall mirror — steady brown eyes, strong jaw, calm face. He was built like someone who never stopped training, even when no one was watching.
"Still too slow on the recovery," Ethan said, offering a nod. "Don't think about the hit. Think about the next move."
His student chuckled weakly. "Easy for you to say, sensei."
Ethan almost smiled. "I say it because I learned it the hard way."
He turned back toward the window — and paused.
The sky outside had shifted.
It wasn't blue anymore.
It rippled, like a monitor glitching. The morning sun fractured into faint, geometric distortions — hexagonal shapes spreading through the air, humming faintly as if reality itself were processing data.
"What the hell…?"
The sound hit next — a low, mechanical chime that didn't come from any phone or speaker.
It came from everywhere.
[System Initialization in Progress…]
[Loading Database… Establishing Parameters… Synchronizing Classes… Complete.]
A translucent blue window appeared in front of Ethan's face, suspended midair. Its faint hum reverberated in his skull, as if his brain recognized it before his eyes did.
Gasps filled the dojo. Some of his students reached for their phones instinctively — none worked. Others stepped back, waving their hands through the air as the glowing interfaces followed them.
"What is this, some kind of AR thing?" someone muttered.
Then the next line appeared.
[Assigning Class… Randomized Allocation Process… Complete.]
[Class: Death Knight]
[Level: 1]
[Weapon Proficiency: Two-Handed Blades]
[Primary Attributes: Strength, Stamina, Mastery]
[Core Ability Unlocked: Raise Dead (Rank 1)]
The world outside screamed.
A thunderous crack split the air — glass exploded inward as a car alarm wailed outside. Ethan spun, instinct sharp, as the dojo windows shattered and a gust of freezing air poured in.
He stepped over the shards carefully, scanning the street beyond.
Fog. Frost. The pavement was spiderwebbed with ice, spreading outward in a circular pattern from a sinkhole in the middle of the parking lot.
Something moved inside that hole.
A gloved hand — skeletal, gray, flesh half-rotted — clawed its way out. Then another.
A body followed, wrapped in tattered armor, eyes glowing with ghostly blue fire. A stench of rot and iron filled the air.
Someone screamed behind him.
[New Quest Assigned: Survive the Awakening]
[Objective: Eliminate Hostile Entity (0/1)]
[Reward: +100 EXP | +1 Skill Point]
Ethan didn't question it. Years of discipline had taught him that panic killed faster than anything. He snatched a shinai off the wall — the bamboo sword wasn't real steel, but it was all he had.
The undead soldier crawled from the ice, dragging a rusted sword behind it, each movement stiff and jerky like a puppet. Its armor was corroded, medieval in design — nothing that belonged to Earth. Frost crawled up its limbs, forming a white mist that poured from its mouth.
"Stay back!" Ethan shouted, stepping in front of his students. "Everyone get behind the lockers — now!"
The thing's head snapped toward him. It hissed, exhaling cold vapor.
[Entity Identified: Frost Revenant — Level 2]
A red bar appeared above its head.
Ethan's grip tightened.
Alright. Either I'm hallucinating… or the world just broke.
He moved first. Years of reflex training took over — precise footwork, quick advance, a clean diagonal strike aimed for the neck.
The shinai cracked across the Revenant's jaw — a sharp pop of frost and dead flesh. The creature barely flinched.
It countered. The rusted blade came down in a brutal overhead slash. Ethan twisted aside, the metal kissing his shoulder and slicing through his jacket. The impact slammed him against the wall, rattling his breath.
The cut burned cold — not sharp pain, but freezing.
[Status Effect Applied: Frostbite — Minor]
"Ethan!" someone screamed.
He ignored it. Focus. Breathe. Next move.
He shifted stance, let the Revenant overextend — then stepped in, jabbing the shinai into its throat and forcing it back. The weapon splintered, bamboo fibers snapping as the undead stumbled.
[Weapon Durability: 3%]
The window flickered again. Ethan didn't have time to think — instinct screamed finish it.
His hand tingled. A cold pulse shot up his arm — power, raw and biting, like inhaling winter. He raised his palm without knowing why.
[Skill Activation: Soulrend (Rank 1)]
A surge of black frost exploded from his hand. The air rippled as a sphere of icy-blue energy slammed into the Revenant's chest, blowing it backward into the cracked asphalt. Its body hit the ground, froze solid, then shattered into a thousand crystalline fragments.
Silence.
Only the sound of Ethan's breathing filled the room.
[Quest Complete: Eliminate Hostile Entity (1/1)]
[Reward Granted: +100 EXP | +1 Skill Point]
[New Ability Unlocked: Frost Aura (Passive)]
The message faded.
Outside, more sinkholes were opening in the streets. Distant screams echoed through the fog — and above, the faint shimmer of blue windows filled the horizon.
[Dungeons Generating… Global Calibration: 14%]
[Warning: Zone Instability Detected.]
Ethan turned back to his terrified students. His expression stayed calm — but his voice dropped low, serious.
"Everyone get your things. We're leaving the city."
"Leave? Ethan, what's happening?"
He didn't have an answer. Only instinct — and the quiet certainty that whatever this was, it wasn't ending soon.
He looked down at his hand. The faint glow of blue frost pulsed beneath his skin, marking him with a sigil — a jagged rune, cold and sharp.
[Class: Death Knight]
Ethan exhaled, the mist of his breath curling in the air.
The world had changed.
And he would have to change with it
The air outside was filled with sound now—sirens, shattering glass, the low thunder of something heavy moving across pavement.
The fog wasn't natural; it coiled like breath from the earth itself, glowing faintly blue. Across the street, a bus lay tilted into a cracked section of asphalt, its windows spiderwebbed with frost.
Ethan's instincts screamed move.
He motioned to the others. "Get your gear bags. No arguments. We head west—away from downtown."
One of his students, a college sophomore named Mason, was shaking. "My sister's at home—I have to—"
Ethan grabbed him by the shoulder. "You'll help her by surviving first. We go together."
The boy swallowed and nodded.
They left the dojo cautiously. The cold was biting now—each breath hung like smoke. A heavy silence pressed over the city, broken only by the occasional echo of something metallic scraping across stone.
The streets were almost unrecognizable. Storefronts flickered with electrical bursts. Cars had frozen mid-traffic, coated in ice as if time itself had slowed around them.
And through the fog—shadows moved.
[Zone Instability: Active]
[Warning: Monster Spawning Detected.]
The interface pulsed faintly in Ethan's vision like a HUD overlay. For every step they took, faint blue runes followed in his peripheral vision, flickering at the edge of sight.
"Sensei…" Mason whispered. "There's something ahead."
Ethan raised a hand. He moved forward slowly, blade at his side, eyes adjusting to the haze.
A humanoid figure was crouched over a motionless body near the curb. For a heartbeat, Ethan thought it was a survivor trying to help someone. Then it moved wrong—its spine arched backward too far, its head twitching like a broken machine.
The thing turned.
Its mouth was smeared with blood, eyes glowing the same pale blue as the frost. Its lower jaw hung loose, skin tearing at the hinges.
[Entity Identified: Ghoul — Level 1]
It hissed and lunged.
Ethan moved. The bamboo sword came up in a clean parry, deflecting the first swipe, but the second slammed into his chest, knocking him into a parked car. The impact sent a shock of pain through his ribs.
He gasped—and then the interface flickered again.
[Skill Available: Gravemind's Call (Rank 1)]
He didn't think. He just reacted.
He thrust out a hand, and tendrils of shadow exploded from his palm—like streams of frost and smoke interwoven. They coiled around the ghoul's body mid-leap, dragging it backward through the air as if an invisible chain had yanked it.
The creature screamed, thrashing as it was pulled directly into his reach.
Ethan pivoted, bringing the shinai down in a two-handed strike. The bamboo cracked through the ghoul's skull with a wet crunch. The body collapsed in a heap of frost and ichor.
[Enemy Defeated: +45 EXP]
[Corrupted Core Obtained.]
He blinked. A faint glow shimmered inside the corpse's chest—something like a small, crystalline orb pulsing with pale light. Instinct told him to pick it up.
The moment his fingers brushed it, the world darkened around him.
Cold energy shot up his arm, a whisper in his mind like distant voices speaking in a language he couldn't understand.
[Core Absorbed.]
[+1 Death Energy Acquired.]
He stumbled back, exhaling hard. His breath crystallized midair.
Behind him, Mason was pale. "What did you just do?"
"I don't know," Ethan said honestly. "But we need to move."
They continued west, keeping to alleyways. Each block revealed new horrors—monsters prowling the streets, people screaming as they fought or fled. Some had windows over their heads, flashing with different colors:
[Class: Ranger]
[Class: Pyromancer]
[Class: Cleric]
Some were already fighting back. A man in torn gym clothes hurled a ball of fire from his hands, setting a lurching beast ablaze. Another slammed a glowing hammer into the pavement, sending cracks of light through the ground.
The world had gone insane.
Ethan watched them for a moment, breath steady, analyzing. The ones fighting looked like amateurs—strong, but sloppy. Raw power without discipline.
He glanced at his faint reflection in a car window. His eyes glowed faintly blue now—just enough to notice.
[Class: Death Knight]
The title hovered quietly above his name.
He didn't know what it meant yet, but every instinct told him it wasn't something the others would understand—or trust.
By the time they reached the edge of the city park, the fog had thickened to a wall of blue-white haze. The temperature had dropped again.
Ethan halted, raising a hand.
Ahead, something massive was moving through the mist. The ground trembled beneath each step.
[Entity Detected: ??? — Level ???]
[Warning: Lethal Zone — Evacuate Immediately.]
"Back," Ethan whispered. "Now."
The creature came into view—a towering shape of frost and stone, half humanoid, half glacier. Its chest glowed with veins of cold light. When it moved, shards of ice fell from its limbs like broken glass.
It was easily three stories tall.
"God… what is that?" Mason breathed.
Ethan stared for a long moment, calculating distance and terrain. The thing was slow but colossal—unbeatable for now.
"Not our fight," he said quietly. "Stay low. Don't draw attention."
They slipped through the park's edge, keeping behind the trees. The cold deepened. Ethan could feel the ache in his bones now, the faint hum of magic resonating through his veins.
Each step triggered another flicker in his interface—small notifications he barely read:
[Passive Skill Progression: Frost Aura +1%]
[Corruption Resistance +2%]
By the time they reached the freeway overpass, exhaustion was setting in. Mason and the others huddled near an overturned truck, their breaths fogging in the air.
Ethan stood watch, scanning the horizon.
In the distance, the sky itself seemed torn. A massive pillar of light—blue and white, shifting with strange glyphs—pierced the clouds where downtown used to be. Around it, black shapes moved in the air, circling like vultures.
[Dungeon Core Detected: Tier I]
[Estimated Radius: 4.2 km]
So that was it. The first dungeon.
And it had spawned right in the heart of the city.
Ethan watched silently, his hands tightening around the broken shinai. A faint mist curled around his boots, forming skeletal fingers in the frost before dissipating.
He didn't know what he was becoming. But he knew this much—whatever the System wanted, it wasn't done.
He could feel it, pulsing faintly beneath his skin like a heartbeat not his own.
[Level: 2]
[Skill Point Available.]
He stared at the message for a long moment before the wind carried another distant scream through the cold.
And he turned toward it.
Because even if he didn't understand this new world yet—someone had to.
And if no one else could stand against what was coming, he would
The scream came from the next street over.
High-pitched. Desperate.
It wasn't far.
Ethan didn't hesitate. He turned, motioning for Mason and the others to stay behind.
"Keep out of sight. Don't move until I'm back."
"Sensei, wait—!"
But he was already gone, boots crunching through the frost-coated street.
The fog thickened as he approached, swallowing sound and distance alike. The temperature dropped with every step until his breath came in visible plumes. A faint hum resonated through the ground—like something whispering beneath the ice.
The scream came again—shorter this time, cut off halfway.
Ethan rounded the corner, his sword drawn.
Two figures were pinned against a car—a woman and a child—cornered by three of those ghouls. Their claws scraped across the vehicle's doors, leaving gouges in the metal. Their eyes burned blue in the dim light.
[Entities Detected: Ghoul x3 — Level 1]
The woman was bleeding from her leg, trying to shield the boy behind her. The boy couldn't have been older than ten.
Ethan's mind went quiet.
No hesitation.
Just movement.
He charged.
The first ghoul turned just in time to take the shinai across the face, splintering the bamboo with the force of the strike. The weapon cracked—but Ethan kept swinging. A second blow caved in its skull. The ghoul dropped instantly.
The other two lunged.
Ethan pivoted, catching one's arm mid-swipe and slamming his knee into its ribs. Bone cracked, and the thing shrieked. He spun with the momentum and drove his boot into the third's chest, sending it sprawling.
He exhaled sharply. Frost rolled from his lips.
[Skill: Soulrend (Rank 1) — Available.]
He raised his left hand instinctively. Energy gathered—cold and pale green, burning through his veins. He unleashed it.
A spiral of frostfire erupted from his palm, slamming into the ghoul's chest. The creature convulsed violently, skin blackening and freezing simultaneously before it crumbled into shards of ice.
[Enemy Defeated. +50 EXP.]
[Level Up.]
The final ghoul was crawling away, dragging its shattered leg behind it. Ethan approached slowly. Its ruined eyes looked up at him, still glowing faintly.
Something inside him twisted. A part of him—the rational, human part—said to end it quickly. But another whisper echoed through his mind, softer… colder.
You can use it.
Make it yours.
He didn't know if the voice came from the System or from himself, but he found his hand rising anyway.
[New Skill Unlocked: Raise Dead (Rank 1)]
[Consume Death Energy? (Y/N)]
He hesitated. The body twitched.
Then—"Yes."
Darkness poured from his palm, threads of black mist coiling into the corpse. Frost spread across the ground, and the air grew still. The ghoul's body jerked violently once… twice… before it rose to its knees.
Its eyes were no longer blue, but a burning violet, faint runes glowing beneath its torn flesh.
[Undead Minion Summoned: Rank F — Ghoul Servant.]
[Control Link Established.]
Ethan staggered back a step, panting. He could feel it—the tether between them. A cold, weightless presence resting just at the edge of his awareness. When he thought stand, the creature obeyed, straightening like a soldier awaiting orders.
The woman and her son stared at him in horror.
"What—what are you?" she whispered.
Ethan's mouth went dry. He looked down at his gloved hands, still faintly steaming with shadow. His reflection glimmered faintly in a shard of ice beside the car. His eyes were no longer blue. They glowed faintly violet—like the minion's.
"I'm… trying to survive," he said quietly.
The woman didn't answer. She just clutched her son tighter.
Ethan motioned to the ghoul. "Protect them," he said.
The creature hissed but turned and took a guarding stance beside the woman. When she flinched away, Ethan looked at her again, his tone softer now. "It won't hurt you."
She nodded weakly, disbelief plain on her face.
Ethan looked east, toward the distant light of the dungeon core. The pillar was brighter now—its radiance painting the clouds in streaks of white and blue. Dozens of smaller flashes dotted the skyline—people fighting, monsters falling, new powers awakening.
It wasn't just chaos. It was evolution.
A new age was being born in frost and blood.
He sheathed what was left of his practice sword, frost curling along the broken wood. "Stay together," he said to the survivors. "Head west. Find shelter. The fog seems weaker that way."
The woman nodded again, her lips trembling.
As Ethan turned to leave, his new minion fell in step behind him silently, its claws scraping lightly across the frozen ground.
He didn't stop it. He didn't dismiss it.
For the first time since the world fell apart, Ethan didn't feel helpless.
Cold wind swept across the ruined street, carrying the faint echo of screams and distant explosions. He adjusted his stance, eyes narrowing at the shifting horizon.
[Class: Death Knight — Level 3]
[Active Minions: 1/3]
[Skill Points: 2 Unspent]
The System's faint hum grew louder in his head, no longer just a machine's voice—something older, colder, whispering from the dark.
"Rise, Death Knight. The age of the living ends in frost and shadow."
Ethan looked down at the glowing runes along his hand. For a moment, they flickered bright enough to illuminate the street. Then they faded, leaving only the cold behind.
He breathed deeply, letting the frost settle into his veins.
And then he started walking toward the city center—toward the pillar of light, toward the unknown—
and toward the destiny he hadn't chosen.