The silence Yoo Sae-rin left in her wake was more deafening than the snickers of the F-rank students.
I didn't look back. I kept my stride rhythmic and heavy, maintaining the illusion of the "Human Thermos" until I rounded the corner of the training wing. Only then did I let my breath hitch. My heart wasn't pounding from fear—it was pounding from the sheer exhilaration of the [Eternal Solar Core] reacting to her mana.
Her "Ice Queen" aura had been a challenge. To my core, it wasn't a threat; it was an appetizer.
[Warning: Synchronization is currently at 1.2%.]
[The Sovereign's instincts are influencing your emotional state.]
[Suppression advised to maintain 'The Great Lie'.]
"I know," I muttered, ducking into the locker room. "I'm working on it."
The lockers were dented and smelled of old sweat and cheap mana-recovery drinks. I found locker 402—mine. Or rather, the one that had been vandalized three times this month. Someone had scratched "PROPERTY OF THE HEATER" into the metal door with a mana-fused blade.
I didn't care. I touched the metal, and for a second, I felt the molecular structure of the steel. I could have turned it into dust with a thought, but I simply pulled out my gear bag.
Today was "Field Study" day. For the elites like Sae-rin and Han-gyul, that meant entering a Grade-B Gate under the supervision of high-rank Hunters. For F-ranks like me, it meant being sent to the "Scavenger Pits"—Grade-E or F Gates that had already been cleared of bosses, where we were expected to pick up the leftover mana-stones and carcass parts for a few credits.
It was the perfect place to disappear.
"Jin-woo! Wait up!"
Min-ah caught up to me at the transport bus, her orange hair windswept. She looked troubled. "Hey, I saw you talking to Yoo Sae-rin back there. Or... she was talking to you. What was that about? People are already whispering that you did something to offend her."
"She thought she recognized me," I said, leaning against the bus frame. "Mistook me for a delivery guy or something. You know how those chaebols are. We all look the same to them."
Min-ah bit her lip, her 'Wind Runner' instincts clearly telling her I was lying. "Jin-woo, stay away from her. The Yoo-Hwa Guild is no joke. If she thinks you're a nuisance, they can have you blacklisted from every Academy in Seoul before lunch."
"I'm an F-rank, Min-ah. I'm already a nuisance to the system," I said with a faint, wry smile. "Don't worry about me. Go focus on your C-rank trial. I heard they're testing the new Gale-Step technique today."
That distracted her. Min-ah loved talking about technique. As she rambled on about wind-flow and mana-vectors, I boarded the bus for the scavenger team.
The bus was filled with the "discards." Older men who had awakened late in life with weak stats, students who were failing their combat trials, and the desperate. The air was thick with the smell of cheap cigarettes and hopelessness.
I sat in the back, staring out the window at the skyline of Seoul.
[New Quest: The First Harvest]
[Goal: Absorb 10 'Low-Grade' Mana Hearts.]
[Reward: Skill - 'Aether Perception' (Rank: B).]
[Current Progress: 0/10]
Mana Hearts? Usually, Hunters sold those to the Association for money. The System wanted me to eat them? Or maybe the Solar Core did.
The Gate was located in an abandoned subway tunnel beneath the Mapo District. It was a flickering, jagged tear in reality, glowing with a sickly green hue.
"Alright, listen up, you scavengers!" a burly Hunter in Grade-D plate armor barked. "The combat teams cleared this two hours ago. Most of the Shadow Rats and Iron-Hides are dead. Your job is to extract the stones and clear the tunnels. Any monster you find is yours to keep, but if you die, don't expect a funeral on the Association's dime. Move!"
I followed the group in, but the moment we crossed the event horizon of the Gate, I felt the shift.
To the others, the Gate was dark and damp. To me, it was a map of glowing ley-lines. I could see the residual mana from the combat teams—blue trails of sword-slashes and red bursts of fire-magic. But deeper in, beneath the stone, I felt something else.
A pulse.
I broke away from the main group, slipping into a side-ventilation shaft that was too narrow for the armored Hunters.
[Passive Skill: 'Universal Deception' is maintaining your F-rank signature.]
[Warning: Hostile presence detected. Distance: 20 meters.]
I stopped. The darkness of the tunnel was absolute, but my eyes began to hum. The golden rim returned, and the world shifted into a spectrum of heat and energy.
Three Shadow Rats—monsters the size of large dogs with teeth like jagged glass—were feasting on the carcass of a fallen scavenger. They hadn't been killed by the combat team; they had been hiding in the "blind spots" of the cave.
One of them looked up, its red eyes locking onto me. It let out a hiss that sounded like grinding metal.
In the past, I would have turned and run, praying my "Thermal Equilibrium" would hide my heat signature.
Now, I just felt... hungry.
The first rat lunged. It moved fast, a blur of fur and teeth.
Time didn't slow down, but my perception accelerated. I saw every muscle fiber in the rat's legs twitch. I reached out, not with a fist, but with a thought.
[Spatial Skill: 'Sovereign's Grip' (Unlocked).]
The air around the rat suddenly solidified. It was as if the space itself had become a vice. The monster frozen mid-air, its limbs twitching against an invisible wall.
"So this is Spatial magic," I whispered.
I closed my hand.
Crunch.
The rat was crushed into a bloody sphere the size of a marble. No explosion, no mess—just a total collapse of space.
[Mana Heart detected. Absorbing...]
A small, glowing bead of purple light drifted from the remains and sank into my palm. A jolt of electricity shot up my arm, and the [Eternal Solar Core] let out a satisfied purr.
[Progress: 1/10]
The other two rats realized their predator had arrived. They didn't hiss this time. They turned to flee.
"Oh no, you don't."
I didn't move. I simply looked at the space they were trying to run into. I felt a "pull" in my mind, a tether to the fabric of the Gate itself.
[Skill: 'Void Step' initiated.]
I didn't walk. I didn't run. The distance between me and the rats simply ceased to exist. In one frame, I was ten meters away. In the next, I was standing directly over them.
I didn't even use my skills. I just kicked.
My boot, reinforced by the 1.2% synchronization, hit the first rat in the ribs. The impact sounded like a shotgun blast. The monster was sent flying through the air, embedded into the granite wall with such force that it became a permanent part of the cave's geography.
The third rat tried to lunge at my throat. I caught it by the neck.
Its teeth scraped against my skin, but it was like a house cat trying to bite through a steel pipe. I felt the vibration of its growl, the heat of its blood.
I could kill everything in this tunnel, the thought rose up, dark and heavy. I could erase the Academy. I could erase the Association.
[Warning: Draconic Ego is rising.]
[Humanity check required.]
I blinked, the gold in my eyes receding slightly. I snapped the rat's neck and let its body fall.
"I'm just here for the hearts," I reminded myself, my voice echoing in the dark. "Just a student doing a field study."
For the next hour, I became a ghost in the tunnels.
I stayed away from the other scavengers, moving through the "Dead Zones" where the mana density was too high for normal F-ranks to survive. I found more rats, a few Iron-Hide Spiders, and a wounded Twin-Headed Serpent that must have been a leftover from a Grade-D Gate.
Each one died before they even realized I was there.
[Progress: 9/10]
I was standing over the serpent's carcass, the ninth Mana Heart dissolving into my skin, when I heard it.
A scream.
It wasn't a monster's screech. It was a human voice—high, sharp, and filled with the kind of terror that only comes when you realize you're about to die.
I recognized that voice.
"Min-ah?"
I checked my internal map. The scream was coming from the "Cleared Zone" where the scavengers were supposed to be safe. But the mana signature I felt coming from that direction wasn't a Shadow Rat.
It was something much, much larger. Something that shouldn't be in a Grade-F Gate.
[Notice: 'Gate Mutation' detected.]
[A Hidden Boss has emerged: 'The Granite Devourer' (Rank: C).]
My blood turned to molten lead. Min-ah was a Rank-C, but she was a Speed-type. She couldn't handle a heavy Tank-type like a Devourer in a confined space.
I didn't think. I didn't care about the [Universal Deception] or who might be watching.
I pushed off the ground. The stone beneath my feet shattered into a crater as I broke the sound barrier, a sonic boom echoing through the tunnels like a crack of thunder.
In the Main Tunnel:
"Run! Get to the exit!" Min-ah shouted, her voice cracking.
She was standing in front of a group of trembling scavengers, her twin daggers glowing with a faint green light. In front of her was a nightmare—a six-meter-tall mass of sentient stone and glowing magma. Every time it moved, the ceiling of the subway tunnel groaned.
"Instructor Kim! Where is the backup?" one of the students wailed.
"The exit is blocked!" another screamed. "The mutation sealed the tear!"
The Granite Devourer let out a roar that shook the very air. It raised a massive, boulder-like fist, the magma in its veins glowing a fierce, angry orange.
Min-ah braced herself, her legs shaking. She knew she couldn't block it. She was a 'Wind Runner'—she was built to dodge, but there was nowhere to dodge in this narrow tunnel without leaving the scavengers to die.
"I'm sorry, Mom," she whispered, closing her eyes as the shadow of the fist fell over her.
BOOM.
The impact was loud enough to burst eardrums. A cloud of dust and pulverized stone filled the tunnel.
Min-ah waited for the pain. It didn't come.
She opened her eyes and gasped.
Standing in front of her was a figure in a shredded Academy hoodie. He hadn't used a shield. He hadn't used a weapon.
He had caught the three-ton stone fist with his bare hand.
"Jin-woo?" she whispered, her eyes wide with disbelief.
I didn't look back at her. I was staring at the Devourer, my hand buried deep into its stone knuckles. The heat of the magma was trying to melt my skin, but the [Eternal Solar Core] just absorbed it, turning the monster's own attack into fuel.
"You're late, Min-ah," I said, my voice echoing with an unnatural, metallic resonance. "I told you to stay focused on your trials."
I tightened my grip. The monster's stone arm began to crack.
"Now," I growled, the gold in my eyes flaring bright enough to illuminate the entire tunnel. "Let's finish this harvest."
[Quest: The First Harvest - Progress: 10/10]
[Reward: 'Aether Perception' (Rank: B) Unlocked.]
[New Skill: 'Aether Blade' (Rank: S) is reacting to your intent...]