New Apartment - Morning Routine
Sunlight filtered through reinforced windows as Vorn moved through the apartment, the careful movements of someone who understood that every action mattered to the person watching.
Seren sat at the kitchen table, her wheelchair positioned to catch the morning light. She was stronger now, color returning to her cheeks after days of proper rest away from the medical facility's sterile environment.
"Coffee?" Vorn asked, already knowing the answer.
"Please, light cream, no sugar."
He prepared two cups with the same attention to detail he applied to combat analysis. Temperature precise, proportions exact. Not because perfection was required, but because she deserved that level of care.
'Ah, yes.'
"The physical therapy equipment arrives today," he said, setting her cup within easy reach. "We'll start with basic exercises."
"You don't have to manage my recovery personally," Seren said gently. "The doctors said—"
"The doctors work for the family. I work for you."
The distinction was absolute in his mind. Family politics, academy obligations, even his own transformation - all secondary to ensuring she had every possible advantage in rebuilding her life.
They ate breakfast in comfortable silence, the domestic routine a strange counterpoint to the predator he was becoming. Here, with her, some fragment of his original humanity remained functional.
[EMOTIONAL CAPACITY: 70% - STABLE]
---
Academy Grounds - Unauthorized Dungeon
The hidden dungeon entrance lay beneath the academy's east wing, concealed in maintenance tunnels that administration pretended not to know about. Student rumors spoke of it in whispers - a low-level training space for unsanctioned practice.
'Perfect for testing my current capabilities without oversight.'
Vorn descended into artificial caverns carved from living rock. The mana density was deliberately low, creatures spawned at F-rank maximum. Designed for first-year students to practice basic combat.
The first goblin died before it could screech. Vorn's fingernails hardened and extended into razor-sharp claws that sliced through the creature's throat in one fluid motion. His fingers themselves became weapons - nails sharp enough to cut steel, fingers strong enough to pierce bone.
'No weapons needed, my body is the weapon.'
Two more goblins emerged. His enhanced reflexes let him move between them in a blur, claws extending and retracting as needed. Each strike was precisely calculated - fingernails sharpening to needle points for piercing attacks, turning into blade edges for slashing. His adaptation optimized every aspect in real-time.
For an hour, he moved through the dungeon like a natural disaster given human form. Every creature died to bare-handed strikes that his adaptation had perfected in real-time.
'Strength: approximately 3,600 kilograms now. Speed: approaching subsonic. Adaptation rate: exponential.'
Finally, he paused to check his status.
[CURRENT LEVEL: 5]
[EXP: 378/500]
[NO EXPERIENCE GAINED FROM RECENT COMBAT]
'Just as suspected, traditional advancement is completely severed.'
The system had cut him off from conventional power scaling. No more levels, no more experience points, no more following the established progression path.
'But I don't need their system anymore.'
His body was evolving beyond what levels could measure. Absolute Adaptation pushed him past human limitations through pure biological optimization.
---
Apartment - System Inventory
Back in his sanctuary, Vorn sat in his private room and consciously reached inward, checking what remained after the system's departure. The last time his other self had spoken, he'd mentioned there were still things Vorn didn't know about his situation.
'Time for a full inventory.'
He focused on each integrated component systematically:
The adaptive clothing - his grey hoodie and sweats that had become artifacts early in his transformation. They responded to his mental commands, flowing like liquid across his skin. Self-repairing, temperature-regulating, completely damage-resistant. Still fully functional.
'Check.'
The card pulsed in his chest, no longer a separate entity but woven into his cardiovascular system. He tested its responsiveness, feeling it shift and flow through his bloodstream. Still capable of manifesting as any tool or weapon he could visualize.
'Check.'
The glasses had fused completely with his visual cortex some time ago. He tested the enhanced perception modes - threat analysis, environmental scanning, energy detection. All systems remained active despite the system's withdrawal.
'Check.'
But was there anything else? Any hidden capabilities or restrictions he wasn't aware of?
He probed deeper, searching for changes or new limitations. His Absolute Adaptation felt unchanged - still continuously optimizing his physical capabilities. His stealth from detection remained perfect. The artifact integration was stable.
'No new restrictions detected. No hidden surprises, everythings functional.:
'Three artifacts remaining. All under my direct control, no system oversight required.'
But there was one more test he needed to perform. From a secure drawer, he retrieved two combat daggers he'd kept from earlier trials - weapons that had absorbed energy during previous encounters, their metal still humming with residual power.
'Time to see if things can go deeper than I thought.'
He held the first dagger, focusing his will through the card integrated in his chest. The weapon's surface began to shimmer as he concentrated on absorption.
The dagger dissolved into streams of energy that flowed toward his chest, merging with the card's essence. But instead of simply vanishing, something remarkable happened - the weapon's properties became part of his arsenal. Its perfect balance, its energy-draining enchantment, its enhanced durability all integrated seamlessly.
When he willed the card to manifest as a blade, the resulting weapon felt lighter, more responsive, perfectly customized to his grip and fighting style. It held a subtle resistance to magical and spiritual energies that hadn't been there before.
The second dagger followed, adding its characteristics to the growing repository of forms his card could assume.
'Not just shapeshifting, true integration and enhancement.'
[ARTIFACT ABSORPTION COMPLETE]
[CARD CAPABILITIES: EXPANDED]
[NEW PROPERTIES: ENERGY DRAIN, MAGIC RESISTANCE]
[WEAPON FORMS: OPTIMIZED]
But these were just tools. His real power came from within.
He focused on his right hand, watching as his Absolute Adaptation responded to his will. Bone density increased until his knuckles could punch through steel. Skin hardened to resist cuts and impacts. Muscle fibers reorganized for maximum force generation.
'4,000 kilograms grip strength. Still climbing toward the transcendent threshold.'
---
Physical Assessment
In the apartment's reinforced training room, Vorn pushed his current limits systematically.
'Strength test.'
He gripped a steel bar with both hands and began to squeeze. The metal groaned, then crumpled like paper. His bones had adapted to handle forces that would shatter normal human skeletons.
'Speed test.'
Across the room in three steps, each movement too fast for unenhanced eyes to track. His nervous system had optimized to process information and execute responses at superhuman rates.
'Durability test.'
He slammed his fist into a concrete training block. The concrete cracked. His knuckles didn't even bruise.
[CURRENT PHYSICAL CAPABILITIES]
[STRENGTH: 4,100/12,000 KG (TRANSCENDENT THRESHOLD)]
[SPEED: HIGH SUBSONIC]
[DURABILITY: ENHANCED]
[ADAPTATION RATE: ACCELERATING]
'One-third of the way to transcendent requirements. And climbing faster every day.'
The traditional awakener path was closed, but he was blazing a new trail entirely. While other students measured progress in levels and ranks, his body was transcending human limitations through pure evolutionary optimization.
---
Evening Reflection
Sitting in his room while Seren settled in for the night, Vorn examined his hands in the lamplight. They looked normal, but could now crush steel or move faster than the eye could follow.
'The system protected me in the beginning, guided my choices, managed my progression.'
'Now I'm completely autonomous, that powerfully powerless feeling is no more there'
His phone buzzed with academy reminders about tomorrow's classes. Back to the performance of being a weak, unawakened student struggling with basic physical conditioning.
'If the school continues to measure me by their broken standards..., anyways that's not a problem seems like a good time to train not to flaunt.'
While they competed for rankings and magical advancement, he would continue evolving beyond their ability to detect or comprehend.
The card in his chest pulsed with his heartbeat. The integrated glasses sharpened his night vision automatically. His adaptive clothing adjusted to optimal comfort temperature.
'Not gaining levels, continuous evolution. I wonder how far I can take this.'
In the next room, Seren was reading, the sound of turning pages a reminder of what all this optimization served.
'Power without purpose is chaos, purpose without power is delusion,.'
[CURRENT STATUS SUMMARY]
[LEVEL: 5 (PERMANENTLY CAPPED)]
[GROWTH METHOD: BIOLOGICAL ADAPTATION]
[PHYSICAL PROGRESS: 34% TO TRANSCENDENT THRESHOLD]
[ARTIFACT INTEGRATION: COMPLETE]
[EMOTIONAL CAPACITY: 70% (STABLE)]
The path forward was clear. Continue the academy facade while pursuing transcendent evolution through Master Hajime's guidance and his own relentless adaptation.
'New rules, new game, new kind of power.'
He was ready.