Lucen Ivara sat in plastic chair number 43, arms crossed, staring at a dead fly trapped between the ceiling panel and the light casing.
The Awakening Center smelled like hand sanitizer and old breath. Rows of teenagers packed the waiting hall, all vibrating with nerves. Some bounced their knees.
Others rehearsed speeches about joining guilds. One kid was filming a livestream on his wristband, posing with fake confidence and perfect teeth.
Lucen didn't bother pretending. He slouched deeper into the chair and tried not to breathe too much.
The guy next to him leaned over. Nervous hands. Too much cologne. Teeth clenched like he was chewing air.
"You nervous?"
Lucen didn't look at him. "No."
"Oh. Right. Me neither." The guy wiped his palms on his pants. "I've been prepping for this all year. Meditation, mental focus, even some raw mana exposure. Just hoping for anything B or above."
Lucen said nothing.
"Your first test?"
Lucen nodded once.
"Same. What do you think you'll get?"
Lucen looked at him now. Just once.
"Called in. That's what I'll get."
Before the guy could respond, the intercom crackled.
"Number forty-three, room two."
Lucen stood. The chair creaked.
The nervous guy gave him a thumbs up. "Good luck, man."
Lucen walked without answering.
The corridor smelled like ozone and metal polish. Lights buzzed overhead. Room two was already open.
A technician stood inside with a tablet in one hand and a half-finished energy drink on the table behind him. Balding. Mid-forties. White gloves. Professional indifference.
"Lucen Ivara?"
"Yeah."
"Step onto the platform. Hands at your sides. No jewelry. Don't speak during the scan unless asked."
Lucen stepped up. The pad under his boots hummed, lighting up with faint concentric rings. The walls locked in with a low hiss. Two glass scanner arms clicked into place on either side.
"Scan takes ten seconds. Afterward, your system will activate and display your class, stats, and affinity data. Standard interface. Ready?"
Lucen nodded.
The tech tapped a command on the tablet.
The platform vibrated softly.
Lucen kept his eyes on the forward wall.
Nothing happened for the first three seconds. Then a flash. Brief. White-blue. The scanner arms buzzed louder than they should have.
The tech frowned.
"Hold still. We're getting a signal delay."
The overhead sensor sparked.
Lucen felt something sharp in his chest. Not pain. More like pressure from the inside. A second later, something slid across his vision like a contact lens snapping into place.
A light-blue screen blinked open in front of him.
[System Activation Complete.]
[Welcome, Lucen Ivara.]
[Talent Registered: Spellcraft Sovereign]
[Class Rank: SSS]
[System Level: 1]
[Initializing Interface…]
Lucen blinked once.
'Wait… what?'
The screen didn't vanish.
A second prompt opened.
[Warning: System incompatibility detected. Standard quest schema not applicable.]
[Adaptive Interface in progress. Estimated sync time: 11 hours 39 minutes.]
The scanner shut off with a sharp clunk. One of the glass arms sparked again, then drooped.
The platform lights died.
The technician swore.
"Dammit. That's the second one this week."
Lucen stepped off the pad.
"Is it broken?"
The tech tapped rapidly on his tablet. "It's not you. Probably a feedback fault. We'll have to log this manually. What did your system display?"
Lucen paused.
He still had the blue panel floating in front of him. A single word on it glowed brighter than the rest.
[SSS-RANK]
He closed the panel with a thought.
Then he said, "It didn't show a class. Just 'Initializing.' Said to wait."
The technician made a face. "That's not unusual. Happens with late-blooming types. We'll put you down as pending. Wait in the results lobby."
Lucen turned to go.
He made it halfway down the corridor before reopening the panel with a thought.
It came back instantly.
The last line pulsed.
[Talent: Spellcraft Sovereign]
[Rank: SSS]
[System Mode: Adaptive Spell Designer Interface]
A third line appeared beneath it.
[First Quest Unlocked: Design and cast an original spell. Reward: +1 skill point | +150 EXP | Unique Spell Slot.]
Lucen stared at the quest line.
'Everyone else gets "kill a slime." I have to Invent magic spell from scratch…'
He let the panel blink out.
Then he walked back to the waiting area, already rewriting the story he'd have to tell.
—
The panel faded as he stepped into the holding lounge. No sound. Just a quiet shimmer and gone.
Lucen scanned the room. Half the kids were still waiting for their scans. The other half were tapping at their new systems like they were playing a game they hadn't read the instructions for.
He kept his face still. Just enough boredom to blend in.
Chair 43 was still warm when he sat back down.
The guy next to him looked over immediately.
"You're back fast. What'd you get?"
Lucen shrugged.
"Didn't say. Said it needed more time to register."
The guy frowned. "Really? That happen a lot?"
Lucen leaned his head back, closed his eyes halfway. "No clue."
A few seats down, someone gasped. "S-rank! I got S-rank! Oh my god!"
Half the room turned toward the voice. A staffer quickly walked over and escorted the kid through a side door, no doubt for "private processing." Lucen watched without turning his head.
'That's how they react to S.'
His screen had said SSS. Not just a class, a category that technically wasn't even supposed to exist. He hadn't even heard rumors of anyone in this country ever hitting it.
He reopened the panel with a thought, just long enough to check.
[Talent: Spellcraft Sovereign]
[Rank: SSS]
[Level: 1]
[Quests Available: 1]
[Mana: 54]
[Stat Points: 5]
There was still no explanation of what Spellcraft Sovereign actually did. Just a flashing tag.
[TALENT DETAIL: LOCKED]
He closed the panel again. He couldn't risk someone seeing the light.
The guy next to him nudged his shoulder.
"Hey. Seriously, what did yours say? You don't look like you're freaking out."
Lucen opened one eye.
"It said C-rank. Utility affinity. Something to do with mana fluctuation."
The guy nodded like he understood. "Oof. That's rough. Still, you might land support duty in a subguild. Buffs? Detox? Some of those C-classers still pull decent credits."
Lucen made a quiet sound. Could've been agreement.
A soft chime rang overhead. A voice followed.
"Attention. If your system is pending verification, please proceed to the blue-labeled hallway for manual processing. If you received a system successfully, report to station B1 for official registration and stat locking."
Lucen stood with the rest of the "pending" crowd. Ten kids, maybe less. Mostly dazed. One girl was crying into her hands. Another was laughing too loudly at nothing.
He kept his pace measured.
The blue hallway was narrow and lined with screens. A clerk waved him forward and handed him a paper form, an actual paper.
"Until the scanner logs are confirmed, we need a written placeholder for your initial results," she said, not looking up from her monitor.
"Talent name, if it appeared. Class if known. Leave stat sections blank. Your final record will be updated after reassessment."
Lucen nodded. Took the clipboard. Stepped to a side counter.
The line above "Talent Name" stared back at him.
He hesitated.
Then he wrote Spell Tracer.
Under class, he wrote the letter C.
He paused a second longer, then added Support/Utility onto the paper.
He handed it back.
The clerk barely glanced at it. "You'll get a rescan appointment by tomorrow. If your system activates before then, don't panic. Let the interface guide you. Dismissed."
Lucen left the hallway.
Out the front doors. Past the gate. Down the stairs into the street. The late afternoon heat hit like a furnace.
He turned left and walked four blocks before speaking again.
"Open system."
The panel appeared.
[Quest: Design and cast an original spell]
[Progress: 0%]
[Warning: No spellcraft tools detected]
[Mana Efficiency: Untrained]
[System Sync: 8 hours, 42 minutes remaining]
He exhaled through his nose.
Then muttered, "What the hell did I just get myself into?"