Noctis felt the fog in his vision slowly dissipate. The shapes ceased to be distorted blurs and regained their defined contours. However, the unpleasant sensation—that invisible pressure at the back of his skull—did not disappear entirely.
With one hand resting on his temple, he frowned and looked around him.
Old bricks, so dark that they seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. The floor was smooth stone, damp and cold beneath his fingers. In front of him, blackened iron bars.
A cell.
Beyond that, a narrow corridor stretched in both directions, bathed in an unnatural green light that did not seem to come from any torch or crystal. The lighting simply... existed.
Noctis took a step back, and the first thing he did was open his status runes.
And several obscure inscriptions emerged as if they were engraved directly onto reality.
Name: Noctis Vale.
Race: Human.
Class: Classless [None].
Rank: F
Level: 0
Items: —
Strength: 8 | Dexterity: 7 | Constitution: 8 | Mana: 5
Attribute Points: 0
Skill: [Skill Creation].
Skill Description: [When you defeat a Remnant, you obtain a Core. Cores contain the essence and affinity of the defeated Remnant. By consuming two or more Cores, you can create a completely new skill].
Skill Slot: 0/3
Flaw: —
Noctis froze as he read the runes, and for a moment, his mind short-circuited. Even his hands trembled slightly.
He had a skill... He had a damn skill! That didn't make sense. The Abyss system should be completely incompatible with him, since he is Classless.
...But he had an ability, something impossible, as far as he knew.
Noctis checked the rune again, and the description of the ability hadn't changed; it was still the same.
What's more, there was no flaw.
His pupils contracted slightly.
The Law of the Chain.
Every Class has an absolute weakness—a flaw engraved on the soul.
But he had Classless. So... did he have no chain either?
A heavy silence settled in his chest.
Were all the Classless like this? Or... just him? He had no answers. But one thing was clear.
He had a way to become stronger.
A slow, dark smile curved his lips.
"Heh~"
Noctis clenched his fists tightly as he thought of his family; a tear ran down his face... it was not a flaw.
Suddenly, his body shuddered violently as he felt a cold breeze caressing him under the gaze. And he was just as he came into the world, naked.
He clicked his tongue in irritation and wiped his face.
This was no time for sentimentality.
He looked again at the description of his ability and muttered under his breath:
"Two Remnants..."
He had to kill at least two.
He approached the bars cautiously. The corridor stretched in both directions, flanked by identical cells. Most were empty, their doors hanging open on rusty hinges.
But some were not empty.
In the cell directly opposite his, something moved.
A figure. Humanoid. It wore what could have been a prison uniform. Its skin was gray and paper-like, stretched too tightly over elongated bones. Where its eyes should have been, there were only empty sockets.
However, he turned his head toward him with terrifying precision.
A Remnant.
The creature's mouth opened, emitting a sound like a grinding stone. Its hands—too long, with fingers bent at odd angles—clung to the bars of its own cell.
Then, slowly, he began to pull.
The ancient iron groaned.
The Remnant broke the bars as if they were made of rust and nothing else; then he stepped out into the hallway.
He turned toward Noctis' cell.
He began to walk.
'No, no, no, no...'
Noctis grabbed his own bars and pulled.
They didn't budge.
He pulled harder, and panic rose in his throat.
The Remnant was ten meters away.
Five meters.
Noctis looked around frantically. The cell was empty except...
There. In the corner. Something metallic glinted in the green light.
He ran toward it and found a bar... Or what was left of one.
He grabbed it just as the Rank I Remnant reached his cell.
For a moment, the creature stood there, its head tilted, as if observing him. Then its fingers, which were too long, became entangled in the bars.
Noctis pressed himself against the back wall, holding the bar with both hands, his heart beating so hard it hurt.
The Remnant passed through the bars as if they were paper.
Noctis didn't think twice and lunged forward.
The bar struck the Remnant in the chest, or where it should have been. The creature was so thin that the bar passed through it with hardly any resistance.
The Remnant didn't react.
His hand came down and struck Noctis in the face.
Pain shot through his skull. He hit the cell wall so hard he saw stars, and the bar slipped from his hands.
The Remnant advanced with that same screeching sound emanating from its throat.
Noctis's hand found the bar. His vision was double, and his ears were ringing, but his fingers closed tightly around it.
The Remnant approached him.
Noctis lunged forward.
The bar struck the creature's wrist. This time, he felt resistance—not flesh, but something like dry leather over bone. The impact sent vibrations through his arm.
The Remnant's hand fell, severed. The remaining hand grabbed Noctis by the throat and lifted him.
His feet left the ground. The grip was ironclad, crushing his windpipe. Black spots danced before his eyes.
With the last of his strength, Noctis raised the bar and drove it into the creature's skull.
The screeching stopped abruptly.
The Remnant's grip loosened.
Noctis fell back, gasping for breath, as the creature staggered backward.
It reached out with its remaining hand and touched the bar protruding from its head, as if puzzled.
Then it collapsed.
The body fell to the stone floor and immediately stopped moving.
And the sweet voice of the Abyss echoed in his mind:
[You have killed a Corrupt Spawn, Hollow]
[You have obtained an item]
"Haha, I survived..."
Noctis lay on the cold stone, naked, his chest heaving, his throat burning, and his vision still blurred.
He had survived.
Barely.
Against the weakest type of Remnant that existed.
And it almost killed him.
That was what the Abyss was like for someone without Class. That was why 99% of the Classless died within the first six hours.
After his breathing stabilized, he sat up and looked at the Remnant with the bar stuck in its head. And he stripped the Remnant's corpse of its clothes, his expression dark.
After covering her naked body, Noctis moved on to the next step: dissecting the Remnant.
He bent down.
His fingers did not tremble.
That displeased him more than the creature itself.
With precise movements, he turned the body. The texture beneath his hands was not flesh, nor entirely bone. It was something in between. Fragile. Hollow.
He remembered his former instructor's voice.
"Don't dissect with disgust. Dissect with intention."
A bitter smile crossed his face.
How useful the Vale Clan training had been.
He inserted his fingers into the open wound and pulled apart the dry tissue with cold mechanical precision. The sound was faint, like tearing old parchment.
He searched the center of the torso, where the heart should be. There, something pulsed faintly.
A gray glow.
He extracted it carefully.
An irregular, opaque crystal, beating with a dim light. Like a dying star trapped in stone.
And then the voice of the Abyss whispered in his mind:
[You have obtained a Core from a Corrupt Spawn, Hollow]
Noctis did not look away from the crystal.
"So this is what remains when you die here..."
He returned to his cell, opened the skill rune, and looked at the description of what he had just obtained.
[Corrupt Spawn Core]
Rank: I
Affinity: Shadow
Noctis moved on to the next rune, and the following description appeared.
[Tear-Stained Blade]
Rank: I
Type: Weapon
Description: [Belonged to Captain Dravos. The blade is rusted not by time, but by tears. Dravos wept over the blade after executing his best friend.]
Noctis summoned the item, and a broken sword appeared in his hand. The blade was ancient, covered in rust and damage. The leather on the hilt was worn from countless hands.
He sighed and gripped the worn handle.
"At least with this, I have something to defend myself with."
Without saying another word, now dressed and armed, Noctis ventured further down the hallway.