Chapter 148

his heavy leather pack, feeling the familiar, dull ache in his left shoulder. He stood on the edge of the Lower Ring’s outer rim, looking down into the Chasm—a jagged tear in the earth that swallowed half the lower slums forty years ago. Blue-gray mist rolled up from its depths, carrying the faint, metallic scent of unrefined Mana.

“You’re late, Kael,” a voice called out from behind a pile of rusted iron beams.

Tobin stepped into view, wiping grease off his thick forearms with an equally greasy rag. He was built like a siege tower, all broad shoulders and short legs, wearing a reinforced leather vest that looked three sizes too small.

“The guards at the Mid-Ring checkpoint were turning back anyone without a Guild pass,” Kaelen said, his voice flat. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two copper tokens, tossing one to Tobin. “Had to bribe a runner to use the drainage pipe.”

Tobin caught the copper, glancing at it with a scowl. “We shouldn’t even be down here today. The Guild announced an A-tier shift in the Chasm’s core yesterday. The Mana density is spiky.”

“If we don’t go down today, the landlord’s enforcers will take my sister’s medicine off the shelf tomorrow,” Kaelen replied simply.

He didn’t wait for Tobin’s response. He walked to the edge of the iron crane overhanging the Chasm, hooked his brass carabiner onto the thick steel cable, and stepped off the ledge.

The descent was always the worst part.

As Kaelen slid down into the fog, the sounds of the upper city vanished. The screaming engines of the High-Mage transports, the ringing bells of the spires, and the endless chatter of the merchant stalls faded into absolute silence. The temperature dropped instantly. Frost formed on the rivets of his leather gloves.

Around him, the shattered remnants of old buildings hung embedded in the rock walls like broken teeth. This was the Scavenger’s Zone—the upper layers of the Chasm where low-tier Mana crystals and discarded alloy scrap could still be found if you knew where to look.

He hit the lower platform with a soft thud, dropping into a crouch to absorb the impact. Tobin landed three seconds later, making the wooden scaffolding groan under his weight.

“Three hours,” Tobin grunted, unslinging a heavy pickaxe from his back. “We grab twenty pounds of low-grade blue crystal, get out, and sell it to the black-market alchemists in the Underdeck. No deep diving.”

“Agreed,” Kaelen said.

He pulled a small, brass-bound lantern from his belt, tapping the rune etched into its side. A pale green light flared inside the glass, illuminating the damp cave opening before them.

Kaelen didn’t possess a high-tier Affinity. When the System descended upon the world, awakening humanity’s dormant Mana veins, Kaelen had received an **[Unattuned]** class—the lowest of the low. While the high-born in the Spire districts awakened as Flame-Weavers, Void-Strikers, or Divine Healers, Kaelen had been granted a single, passive ability: **[Basic Appraisal]**.

It didn’t fire fireballs. It didn’t heal wounds. It simply let him see the crude stats of inanimate objects. But down in the dark, knowing which rock was about to collapse or which ore held pure Mana meant the difference between life and death.

> **[Item: Stagnant Blue Quartz]**

> **[Quality: Low]**

> **[Value: 4 Copper per Ounce]**

>

Kaelen focused his vision on a cluster of glowing shards embedded near the cave floor. “Not worth the tool wear. Let’s move deeper into the lateral seam.”

They moved down the narrow tunnel, their boots crunching on dry bone and shattered stone. The air grew thicker, heavy with the suffocating pressure of raw Mana. For an Unattuned, breathing high-density Mana felt like inhaling crushed glass. Kaelen’s lungs burned, but he kept his pace steady.

Half an hour passed in tense silence. They harvested small clusters of mid-tier quartz, filling their sacks until Kaelen’s shoulders throbbed with agony.

“That’s fifteen pounds,” Tobin panted, wiping sweat from his forehead despite the damp cold. “Five more and we’re clear.”

Kaelen stopped. He raised a hand, signaling for silence.

“What is it?” Tobin whispered, instantly dropping his pickaxe to grip the shaft of his short warhammer.

“The mist,” Kaelen muttered.

The green light of his lantern flickered. The blue-gray fog in the tunnel wasn’t drifting anymore—it was being pulled. A faint, rhythmic hum vibrated through the stone beneath their feet, like the heartbeat of some massive beast sleeping in the deep.

> **[Warning: Ambient Mana Density Rising Rapidly]**

> **[Localized Mana Anomaly Detected]**

>

A translucent blue window flashed before Kaelen’s eyes. It was a standard System alert, but the letters were pulsing red—a color he had never seen in his eight years of scavenging.

“Run,” Kaelen said, his voice dropping an octave.

“What?”

“We’re leaving. Now!”

Kaelen turned back toward the entrance, but before he could take a step, the ground buckled.

A deafening crack tore through the cavern. The stone floor beneath Tobin exploded upward in a shower of dust and black blood. A razor-sharp leg, made of polished bone and translucent obsidian, thrust out from the rubble, pinning Tobin’s leg to the cave wall.

Tobin screamed—a raw, gut-wrenching sound that echoed off the stone.

“Tobin!” Kaelen lunged forward, drawing the short iron dagger from his hip.

Out of the darkness burst a creature that shouldn’t have been in the upper zones. It was a **[Void-Scuttler]**—a Rank-C beast shaped like a colossal, multi-legged arachnid, its body covered in natural bone armor that reflected the green light of the lantern.

> **[Entity: Void-Scuttler (Rank C)]**

> **[Threat Level: Fatal]**

> **[Health: 1,200/1,200]**

>

*Rank C.* Scavengers like them were barely equipped to handle Rank E pests. Against a C-rank beast, a non-combat Unattuned was nothing more than meat.

The monster hissed, its triple-jointed jaws dripping with acidic saliva that hissed as it hit the stone. Its multiple crimson eyes locked onto Tobin, who was frantically beating at the beast’s leg with his warhammer, doing nothing more than chipping the bone armor.

Kaelen’s mind went blank, replaced by a cold, sharp clarity. He didn’t think about his sister. He didn’t think about his rent. He only saw the geometry of the chamber and the glowing red text hovering over the monster’s shell.

> **[Item/Entity Analysis: Void-Scuttler]**

> **[Structural Weakness Identified: Joint Articulation – Left Abdominal Hinge]**

>

His **[Basic Appraisal]** skill—usually reserved for checking the purity of ore—suddenly flickered, straining under the effort of evaluating a living target. A small, glowing yellow dot appeared on the creature’s side.

“Hey! Over here, you blind ugly bastard!” Kaelen roared.

He picked up a heavy piece of fallen masonry and hurled it with all his strength. The stone struck the creature right between its central eyes.

The beast snapped its head toward Kaelen. It let out a high-pitched screech that shattered the glass of Kaelen’s lantern, plunging the cavern into near-total darkness, illuminated only by the faint glow of the monster’s eyes and Kaelen’s System interface.

The Scuttler abandoned Tobin, lunging at Kaelen with terrifying speed.

Kaelen didn’t try to dodge out of the cavern; there was nowhere to run. Instead, he dived *toward* the beast, sliding across the slick, moss-covered floor right beneath its razor-sharp front legs.

Acidic saliva splashed onto his leather jacket, burning straight through the shoulder pad and searing his skin. Pain spiked through his nervous system, but he shoved it down.

As he slid under the creature’s main body, he reversed his grip on his iron dagger and jammed the blade straight into the yellow dot highlighted by his skill—the left abdominal hinge.

*CRACK.*

The blade sank four inches into the soft tissue between the armor plates. The monster shrieked, its body twisting violently. A wave of black, burning blood gushed from the wound, drenching Kaelen’s face and torso.

> **[Critical Hit!]**

> **[Structural Damage Inflicted: 45]**

> **[Target Speed Reduced by 30%]**

>

The beast’s massive tail thrashed sideways, striking Kaelen like a runaway cargo cart.

He was lifted off his feet and slammed into the stone wall twenty feet away. The impact shattered three of his ribs and knocked every drop of air from his lungs. He slid down the rock face, falling into a heap on the floor. Vision blurring, blood pooling in his mouth, he watched the creature turn back toward him, dragging its injured leg.

*So this is it,* Kaelen thought, his breathing ragged. *An Unattuned dies in the dark, forgotten.*

The monster raised its heavy front scythe, ready to impale him.

Then, time stopped.

The air froze. The black blood dripping from the monster’s jaw hung suspended in mid-air. The screaming wind inside the Chasm died completely.

A blinding gold interface—unlike any System window Kaelen had ever seen—burst open in the middle of his vision. The text wasn’t blue, and it wasn’t red. It was forged in burning, liquid light.

> **[System Error: Anomaly Detected in Subject ‘Kaelen Vance’]**

> **[Condition Met: Mortally Wounded while Utilizing Non-Combat Skill for Combat Geometry]**

> **[Hidden Requirement Unlocked: The Eye of the Sovereign Architect]**

> **[Do you accept the Override?]**

> **[Warning: Accepting will purge