The ceiling of the clinic was cracked.
I'd been staring at it for what felt like hours, tracing the same fissure from the light fixture to the corner, watching dust motes drift through the pale morning light. My body ached everywhere—a deep, bone-level soreness that reminded me of every claw, every rock, every moment that should have been my last.
Two days. I'd been unconscious for two days.
Kael sat in a wooden chair by the window, one leg crossed over the other, flipping through a magazine he'd found somewhere. He'd swapped his armor for a simple black sweater and dark jeans. Without the helmet, he looked... normal. Handsome, sure—sharp jaw, high cheekbones, dark hair with silver streaks at the temples—but normal. Like a guy you'd see at a coffee shop.
Except for the eyes. Those golden eyes still burned with something ancient.
"You're staring," he said without looking up from the magazine.
"Sorry."
"Don't be. I'm gorgeous." He turned a page. "But seriously, you've been awake for twenty minutes and you haven't said a word. You okay?"
I blinked. This wasn't the formal, ancient knight from the dungeon. This guy sounded like... a friend. A sarcastic one, but still.
"I feel like I got run over by a truck."
"Close enough. Wyvern tail. Cracked three ribs, ruptured spleen, some internal bleeding." He finally looked up, his expression softening. "You almost died, Arlen. Like, really almost died. The healer here said she didn't think you'd make it through the first night."
"But I did."
"Yeah." He set the magazine down. "You did. And honestly? I wasn't sure you would. When I felt the summoning pull, I thought I was getting some legendary warrior or something. Then I showed up and found a half-dead kid with no muscles and a death wish."
I laughed. It hurt. "Thanks for the honesty."
"Always." He leaned back in his chair. "So. How are you feeling? For real."
"Like someone put me through a blender."
"That's the ribs. They'll take another week or two to fully heal. The healer did what she could, but she's not a miracle worker." He paused. "You hungry? There's soup. It's terrible, but it's warm."
"Maybe later." I looked around the room. It was small, maybe three meters by four. White walls, peeling wallpaper near the window. A wooden chair. A small table with a water pitcher. The bed I was in. "Where are we, exactly?"
"Small clinic on the outskirts. The healer's name is Mrs. Park. She's seventy-two years old, retired from the Association, and she doesn't ask questions as long as you pay in cash." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small gold coin, flipping it in the air. "Good thing I brought my savings."
"You carry gold coins around?"
"You'd be surprised how often they come in handy." He tucked the coin away. "Anyway, she patched you up, changed your bandages, and told me to wake her if your fever came back. So far, so good."
I pushed myself up against the headboard. Pain shot through my ribs, but it was duller now. Manageable.
"So what now?"
Kael shrugged. "That's up to you. You've got a System now. A fancy one, apparently—belonged to a defeated god and everything. I'd start by figuring out how it works."
"The System." I'd almost forgotten. In the chaos of the dungeon, in the pain of the last two days, the blue screens had slipped to the back of my mind.
"Yeah. Try opening it."
I closed my eyes and concentrated. Nothing happened.
"Relax," Kael said. "Don't force it. Just... think about it. Like checking your phone."
I tried again. This time, a blue screen flickered to life in front of my face.
---
[SYSTEM ONLINE]
User: Arlen Vale
Class: Summoner
Rank: E (provisional)
Level: 1
---
"There it is," Kael said, leaning over to look. "E-rank, provisional. That's cute."
"Cute?"
"It means the System doesn't trust you yet. You're on probation." He grinned. "Don't worry, I was provisional once too. A few thousand years ago."
"A few thousand?"
"I'm older than I look." He tapped the screen. "Scroll down. There should be more."
I focused on the screen, and it expanded.
---
[NOTIFICATIONS (2 UNREAD)]
---
"Open the notifications," Kael said.
I did.
---
[NOTIFICATION 1]
[Defeated: A-rank Wyvern]
[Experience gained: 2,500 EXP]
[Level up! Level 1 → Level 12]
[Rank: E → D]
---
I stared at the screen. "Level 12? D-rank? From one kill?"
"Yeah, that wyvern was way above your pay grade. The System rewards risk." Kael crossed his arms. "You survived something that should've killed you. That's worth a lot of points."
"But you did all the work."
"The System doesn't care who swung the sword. You summoned me. Your will brought me here. The kill counts as yours." He paused. "Well, mostly yours. Look at the second notification."
I opened it.
---
[NOTIFICATION 2]
[Summon: Kael contributed 100% of damage]
[Experience distribution adjusted: Summoner receives 50% of summon's kill EXP]
[Final EXP: 1,250]
---
"Fifty percent?" I said. "That's it?"
"Hey, be grateful. Some Systems only give ten. You got a generous one." He sat back down. "Besides, you're D-rank now. That's huge. Most hunters take years to get there."
"Most hunters don't have a universal-tier knight doing their dirty work."
"Fair point." He grinned. "But still. Celebrate the small wins."
I scrolled further. A third notification appeared.
---
[NOTIFICATION 3]
[New quest available: Daily Training Regimen]
---
"Daily Training Regimen?" I read aloud. "What's that?"
"Open it and find out."
I focused on the notification. A new window appeared.
---
[DAILY TRAINING REGIMEN]
Objective: Complete the following before 11:59 PM today.
· 20km run
· 1,000 pushups
· 1,000 squats
Reward: +5 to all stats, Skill: Endurance (Passive)
Penalty for failure: A survival quest will be issued.
Time remaining: 14 hours 32 minutes
---
I read it three times. Then I looked at Kael.
"You're joking."
"Nope."
"Twenty kilometers? One thousand pushups? One thousand squats?" I gestured at my bandaged body. "I have three cracked ribs. I can barely sit up."
"Yeah, that's gonna be a problem." Kael scratched his chin. "The System doesn't really care about your physical condition. It just... gives you a task and expects you to do it."
"That's insane."
"Welcome to having a god's power. It comes with god-sized expectations." He shrugged. "You could try to do it. Or you could not. But the penalty is... unpleasant."
"How unpleasant?"
"Survival quest. Means the System generates threats—monsters, traps, environmental hazards—and drops them on your head until you either survive twenty-four hours or die." He said it casually, like he was describing the weather. "I went through a few of those back in the day. Not fun."
I closed the notification. "I'm not doing it. I'm in a hospital bed. I can barely walk to the bathroom."
"Your choice." Kael leaned back. "But fair warning—the System doesn't forget. If you fail, it'll penalize you. And the penalties stack."
"Stack?"
"Skip one day, you get a survival quest. Skip two days in a row, you get a harder survival quest. Skip three..." He made a throat-slitting gesture. "You get the idea."
I lay back against the pillow. "This is insane."
"Probably." He picked up his magazine again. "But you'll figure it out. You seem like the type who figures things out."
I stared at the ceiling.
"I should've stayed an orphan."
Kael laughed. "Yeah, probably. But here we are."
---
The day passed slowly.
I ate the soup—Kael was right, it was terrible. I slept. I stared at the ceiling. I thought about Dorian. About Bianca's guilty face. About Jun, who wouldn't look at me as they ran.
I ignored the quest notification.
Every few hours, Kael would check on me. He brought water. He adjusted my pillows. He told me stupid jokes that made my ribs hurt from laughing.
"You're not what I expected," I said at one point.
"What did you expect?"
"I don't know. Something more... formal. Ancient. 'I am Kael, the Black Flame Knight, fear me.'"
He snorted. "I did that in the dungeon because you were dying and I needed to look impressive. The reality is, I've been alone in the void between dimensions for centuries. I'm starved for conversation." He tossed me an apple he'd stolen from somewhere. "You're stuck with me, Arlen. Might as well be friends."
"Friends?"
"Yeah. You got a problem with that?"
I bit into the apple. "No. No problem."
"Good." He grinned. "Now eat your apple and rest. You've got a long recovery ahead."
---
The timer ticked down.
10:15:44
05:02:19
01:30:00
At 00:15:03, the System screen flashed red
---
[WARNING]
[Daily Training Regimen: FAILED]
[Initiating penalty...]
[Survival Quest generated.]
---
A new window appeared. But before I could read it, the world twisted.
Not like the dungeon gate—that had been a door. This was like someone grabbed the fabric of reality and yanked. The clinic room blurred. Kael's face shifted from relaxed to alarmed.
"Arlen—"
His voice cut off.
The world went white.
---
I landed on cold stone.
The impact knocked the air out of my lungs. I gasped, rolled onto my side, and forced myself to look up.
I was no longer in the clinic.
The place I was in looked like a maze—grey stone walls stretching up into darkness, narrow corridors branching in every direction. The air was damp and cold. Somewhere in the distance, water dripped.
And I was alone.
"Kael?" My voice echoed off the walls. "Kael!"
No response.
I couldn't feel him. The bond was still there—I could sense it, faintly, like a thread connecting me to somewhere far away—but he wasn't here. I was completely, utterly alone.
The System screen flickered to life in front of my face.
---
[SURVIVAL QUEST: THE MAZE]
Objective: Survive for 60 minutes.
Location: The Shifting Maze (D-rank zone)
Conditions:
· Summons cannot enter this zone.
· Physical skills only. Magic is restricted.
· A hunter is hunting you.
Reward: Survival. Skill Borrowing Level Up.
Failure: Death.
Time remaining: 59:58
---
"A hunter is hunting me?"
As if in answer, I heard it.
Footsteps. Heavy. Slow. Coming from somewhere to my left.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
Not running. Walking. Whoever—whatever—it was, it wasn't in a hurry. It knew I was here. It knew I had nowhere to go.
I ran.
---
The maze was a nightmare.
Every corridor looked the same—grey stone, damp floors, flickering torchlight that cast more shadows than light. I turned left. Then right. Then left again. The footsteps followed, never getting closer, never getting farther.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
My ribs screamed with every step. My lungs burned. I hadn't fully healed—I was still weak, still broken, still bandaged.
But I kept running.
Twenty kilometers, I thought. I couldn't run twenty kilometers this morning. But I can run now. I have to run now.
The System had given me a quest I couldn't complete. Now it was punishing me.
And I was going to die unless I figured out how to survive.
---
Ten minutes passed.
Fifteen.
My legs were shaking. My vision was blurry at the edges. I'd lost the footsteps somewhere around the twelfth minute, but I didn't stop. I couldn't stop.
Keep moving. Keep moving. Keep—
I rounded a corner and skidded to a halt.
The corridor ended in a dead end.
"No, no, no—"
I turned to go back.
He was standing at the other end of the corridor.
---
The hunter was tall—easily two meters—with skin the color of ash and eyes that were completely black. No pupils. No irises. Just voids in his face. He wore tattered leather armor and carried a rusted short sword. His mouth was curved into a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Lost, little rabbit?"
His voice was dry. Rusty. Like he hadn't spoken in years.
I backed up against the dead-end wall. "Stay back."
"The System said to hunt you. So I hunt." He took a step forward. "Don't worry. It will be quick."
He lunged.
---
I dodged.
I don't know how. My body moved before my brain caught up. The sword scraped past my arm, tearing my sleeve but missing flesh. I ducked under his follow-up swing, scrambled past him, and ran.
"Running won't help!" he called after me. "The maze always brings you back to me!"
I didn't look back.
---
Twenty minutes.
Thirty.
The hunter was right—the maze did keep bringing me back to him. No matter which way I ran, no matter how many turns I took, I'd eventually find myself in the same corridor, the same dead end, the same ashen-faced monster waiting for me.
But I was learning.
He was fast, but he telegraphed his swings. He was strong, but he was predictable. And he couldn't run—he only walked. Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
So I ran. And I ran. And I ran.
Every time he cornered me, I dodged. Every time he swung, I ducked. I wasn't fighting him. I was surviving him.
Just keep moving, I told myself. Just keep—
His sword caught my leg.
---
Pain exploded through my calf. I stumbled, hit the ground, and rolled. The hunter stood over me, his black eyes staring down, his sword raised for the final blow.
"You lasted longer than most," he said. "But all rabbits tire eventually."
I looked up at him. At the sword. At the dark ceiling above.
I don't want to die.
I DON'T WANT TO DIE.
The System screen flashed.
---
[Skill Borrowing – Activate?]
[Available skill: Predator's Focus (Kael)]
[Warning: Physical strain. Duration: 10 seconds maximum.]
---
I didn't hesitate.
[ACTIVATE]
---
Time slowed.
The hunter's sword descended like it was moving through honey. I could see every detail—the rust on the blade, the cracks in his leather armor, the empty black voids of his eyes.
I rolled to the side.
The sword struck the stone floor where my head had been. Sparks flew.
I pushed myself up. My leg screamed. My ribs screamed. Everything screamed.
But I was moving.
I limped past the hunter, down the corridor, around the corner. The skill lasted eight seconds—just enough to put distance between us.
When time returned to normal, I was alone again.
And the hunter's footsteps were far behind me.
---
Forty minutes.
Fifty.
My leg was bleeding badly. I'd torn my shirt and wrapped it around the wound, but the fabric was already soaked through. Every step left a smear of blood on the stone floor.
He'll follow the blood, I realized. I need to hide.
I found a small alcove—barely a meter deep, hidden behind a loose stone in the wall. I squeezed inside, pulled the stone back into place, and held my breath.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
The footsteps grew louder.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
They stopped right outside my hiding spot.
I could see him through a crack in the stone. His black eyes scanned the corridor. He sniffed the air—actually sniffed, like an animal tracking prey.
"Where did you go, little rabbit?"
He stood there for what felt like forever.
Then he walked away.
---
Fifty-five minutes.
I stayed in the alcove, barely breathing, my hand clamped over my mouth. The wound on my leg had stopped bleeding as much, but I was getting lightheaded. Cold. Shaky.
Don't pass out, I told myself. Don't—
The System screen appeared.
---
[TIME REMAINING: 00:04:12]
[Survival quest complete in 4 minutes.]
---
Four minutes.
I could do four minutes.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
The footsteps were coming back.
---
Fifty-seven minutes.
He found me.
I don't know how—maybe the blood, maybe my heartbeat, maybe the maze just hated me. But the stone covering the alcove was ripped away, and the hunter's black eyes stared down at me.
"There you are."
His sword came down.
I rolled out of the alcove, scrambled to my feet, and ran. My leg gave out after three steps. I fell, caught myself on my hands, and crawled.
Clomp. Clomp. Clomp.
He was right behind me.
---
Fifty-eight minutes.
I reached a dead end.
Not a corridor this time—a real dead end. A solid stone wall with nowhere to go, nowhere to hide.
I turned to face him.
He stood at the entrance to the dead end, blocking the only exit. His sword was raised. His black eyes were hungry.
"Time's up, rabbit."
I looked at the System screen.
[TIME REMAINING: 00:01:23]
"One minute," I said.
"One minute is a lifetime." He stepped forward. "I've killed hundreds. You're no different."
He swung.
---
Fifty-nine minutes.
I dodged.
Not well—the sword caught my shoulder, opening a fresh gash—but I dodged. I ducked under his follow-up, rolled past him, and ran back down the corridor.
He was faster now. Angry. His footsteps weren't slow anymore—they were pounding, echoing, right behind me.
"Stop running!"
"No!"
---
Sixty minutes.
I collapsed.
Not because he caught me—because my body gave out. My leg wouldn't move. My arms wouldn't push. I lay on the cold stone floor, staring up at the dark ceiling, waiting for the killing blow.
The hunter stood over me. His sword rose.
And the world went white.
---
I landed on a bed.
A soft bed. With sheets that smelled like antiseptic and old flowers.
The clinic.
I was back in the clinic.
Kael was standing by the window, his golden eyes wide, his hands gripping the windowsill so hard his knuckles were white.
"Arlen!"
He crossed the room in two steps and dropped to his knees beside the bed.
"Where the hell did you go?! One second you were here, the next—" He stopped. His eyes scanned my body—the gash on my shoulder, the wound on my leg, the blood soaking through my bandages. "You're hurt."
"The maze," I gasped. "The System sent me to a maze. There was a hunter. I ran. For an hour. I just... ran."
Kael's expression shifted from panic to something else. Something like pride.
"You survived."
"Barely."
"You survived." He grabbed a roll of bandages from the table and started wrapping my leg. "You're an idiot for skipping the training. But you survived."
"The System said the penalty was a survival quest. I didn't think it would be... that."
"Yeah, well. Now you know." He tied off the bandage and moved to my shoulder. "Next time, do the pushups."
I laughed. It hurt.
"Yeah. Next time."
---
The System screen appeared.
---
[SURVIVAL QUEST: THE MAZE – COMPLETE]
Rewards:
· Survival (obviously)
· Skill Borrowing: Level 1 → Level 2
[NEW SKILL: PREDATOR'S FOCUS (BORROWED)]
Effect: Temporarily slow perception of time. Duration scales with user's stamina.
[DAILY TRAINING REGIMEN – RESET]
Objective: Complete before 11:59 PM today.
· 20km run
· 1,000 pushups
· 1,000 squats
Penalty for failure: Survival quest (increased difficulty)
---
I stared at the screen.
"It reset," I said.
"Of course it did." Kael finished bandaging my shoulder and sat back on his heels. "The System doesn't give second chances. It gives infinite chances, each one harder than the last."
I looked at the objectives. Twenty kilometers. One thousand pushups. One thousand squats.
My leg was bleeding. My shoulder was cut. My ribs were cracked.
"Kael."
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to need your help."
He smiled—a real smile, warm and reassuring.
"I know. That's why I'm here." He stood up and offered me his hand. "Now get up. We've got twenty kilometers to run."
I took his hand