The morning sun felt suspiciously warm, a stark contrast to the eternal winter that had shrouded the world in his past life. Aryan stood on the balcony of his small apartment in Dhaka, watching the chaotic traffic of Mirpur Road. To anyone else, this was just a loud, dusty Wednesday. To Aryan, it was the calm before an unimaginable storm.
Ten months, he thought, his fingers tightening on the railing. In exactly ten months, that sky will tear open.
He turned his gaze inward, and the black book, the Chronos Archive, shimmered into existence on his desk. Its pages were blank except for the status window he had seen earlier.
[Current Mission: Collect your first 'Power' within 24 hours.]
[Time Remaining: 21 Hours 42 Minutes.]
"In the previous life, the first signs of the Great Descent weren't giant monsters," Aryan muttered to himself. "It was the 'Leaking Mana Zones'. Places where the barrier between worlds was thin. People thought they were haunted houses or urban myths."
He remembered a news report from January 2026. A construction site in Purbachal had been shut down because workers were falling into unexplained comas. In his past life, he had ignored it. Now, he knew exactly what it was: a Low-Rank Mana Fissure.
If he wanted a skill, he had to go there before the government or the early 'Awakeners' discovered it.
Two hours later, Aryan stood before the rusted gates of a deserted housing project in Purbachal. The air here felt heavy, vibrating with a low frequency that made his teeth ache. It was the smell of ozone and rotting vegetation—the signature scent of the Void.
"Stop right there, kid! This area is off-limits," a gruff voice called out.
A security guard, looking bored and tired, approached him. Aryan noticed the man's eyes were bloodshot, and he was shivering despite the heat.
He's being affected by mana poisoning, Aryan realized.
"I'm just looking for my dog, uncle. He ran inside," Aryan lied, his voice calm. He didn't have time to argue. As the guard reached out to grab his shoulder, Aryan felt a surge of cold energy from the book hidden in his satchel.
[Ding!]
[Detection: Low-Rank Mana Fissure detected nearby.]
[Warning: Host's current body is too weak. Mana saturation: 15%.]
"I need to move fast," Aryan whispered. He slipped past the disoriented guard, moving with a speed he didn't know he possessed. The system was already subtly enhancing his reflexes.
He ran toward the center of the site, where a half-finished building stood like a skeletal giant. Inside the basement, the violet mist he remembered so vividly was swirling in the darkness. In the center of the mist lay a dead creature—a Shadow Rat from the Void. It had likely slipped through a tiny crack in space and died, unable to sustain itself in Earth's low-mana atmosphere.
But its soul was still there. A flickering, dark flame hovering over the carcass.
[Target Identified: Fragmented Soul of a Void Stalker (Rank: F).]
[Would you like to Archive this power?]
"Yes," Aryan commanded.
Suddenly, black chains erupted from the pages of the Chronos Archive. They lashed out, wrapping around the dark flame. The basement erupted in a silent scream of energy. Aryan felt a searing pain in his chest, as if someone was pouring molten lead into his veins.
Argh! He collapsed to his knees, his vision blurring.
[Archiving Process: 10%... 45%... 85%...]
[Integration Successful!]
[You have Archived your first Skill: 'Shadow Extraction' (Rank: E).]
[Description: Allows the user to pull the shadow of a defeated foe and turn it into a loyal soldier for a limited time.]
[Mission Accomplished!]
[Reward: 500 Archive Points received.]
[Level Up! Level 1 -> Level 3.]
Aryan breathed heavily, sweat dripping from his chin. He felt a new reservoir of energy in his core. He stood up and looked at his own shadow on the dusty floor. It seemed deeper, darker, and slightly detached from his movements.
"Shadow Extraction..."
He looked at the dead Shadow Rat. "Rise."
The shadow beneath the rat began to bubble like boiling ink. Slowly, a pitch-black silhouette of the rat rose from the ground, its red eyes glowing with ghostly light. It stood obediently at Aryan's feet.
[Shadow Servant 1/1]
[Type: Void Rat]
[Strength: 5 | Agility: 12]
Aryan let out a dry laugh. It wasn't a dragon, and it wasn't a god-killing sword. But it was a start. In his last life, it took him three years to get a skill this useful. Now, he had done it in one day.
But the celebration was short-lived.
[Ding!]
[Urgent Mission: The security guard outside has succumbed to Mana Poisoning and is transforming into a 'Ghoul'.]
[Objective: Neutralize the threat to prevent a public outbreak.]
[Failure: Death or Global Exposure.]
Aryan's smile vanished. "Right. No rest for the wicked."
He looked at his new shadow servant. "Let's see what you can do."
[Status Window]
Name: Aryan
Class: Shadow Archivist (Mythic)
Level: 3
Mana: 35/35
Archive Points: 500
Skills: 1. Shadow Extraction (Rank E): Extract shadows of the dead.
Active Shadows: 1 (Void Rat)