Whether it was luck or fate's determination, Benny had survived. His body moved on its own, crawling when he could no longer stand, bringing with him the bugs that clung to his back and gnawed at his flesh. Even without consciousness, his willpower—which he'd always thought was too weak—turned out to be his strongest fucking asset.
The will of the weak wasn't something that could be easily dismissed. It was what had kept him alive all this time. You could call it cowardice, but that in itself was power. Despite being overwhelmed to the point of submission, caught in situations others wouldn't want to face, you couldn't deny this strength. It was both real and potent—a survival mechanism that kicked in when death came knocking.
But Benny knew none of this. He just lay there, unconscious and bleeding, while something deep inside him refused to quit.
What he didn't know—what no one in this shithole labyrinth knew—was that his pathetic, cowardly nature had just triggered something that hadn't happened in thousands of years. Some cosmic system that mortals barely understood had taken notice of this weak-willed bastard who kept surviving against all odds.
The requirements were simple enough, though no one alive knew them: First, you had to be naturally cowardly and weak-willed. Check. Second, you had to survive through that fear, even if it meant abandoning everyone behind. Double check. And finally, you needed a near-death experience that should have killed you. Triple fucking check.
While Benny lay there unconscious, his body started changing. Healing itself in ways that made no sense. The chunks of missing flesh began growing back. The infections that he received from current wounds that should have killed him had burned away like they'd never existed. Something was rebuilding him from the inside out.
He had no idea that he was becoming something different. Something that hadn't existed on this continent for millennia—a regular human who'd earned the right to use mana without noble blood in his veins. Most people with magic came from old bloodlines that had been gifted this power generations ago. The rest of humanity got to watch from the sidelines, powerless and weak.
Less than 5% of the human population could use mana on this continent. Everyone who could was either nobility or connected to nobility somehow. The other races—the humanoids, demi-humans, even the monsters—they were all born and blessed with mana cores from birth. Only humans got screwed over for the longest time, left to struggle without any real power.
Until now. Until this cowardly piece of shit named Benny crawled into a sanctuary more dead than alive and triggered something that hadn't been seen in a thousand years.
His body was growing a mana heart—something that should have been impossible for someone like him. The World System, whatever the hell that was, had decided this pathetic guard from Tiamerith deserved a second chance. Or maybe it was just tired of watching humans in this continent get their asses kicked by everything else that lived on this planet or maybe it was a gift or a blessing it gave because it had just had its own World System update after thousands of years since it did so, who knows and who cares, no not Benny he couldn't give a single flying fuck.
But Benny wouldn't know any of this when he woke up. He'd still be the same cowardly bastard who abandoned his friends to save his own skin. He'd still hate himself for running when others fought and died. The power growing inside him wouldn't change who he was—just give him new ways to survive the hell he'd stumbled into.
This labyrinth had been waiting for someone like him, though he'd never understand why. Every trap, every monster, every near-death experience—it was all designed to push him to this point. To break him down until only the most stubborn, cowardly survival instinct remained.
For now, he just lay there, breathing slowly while his body rebuilt itself. Still the same weak-willed man who'd rather hide than fight. Still afraid of his own shadow.
The only difference was that now, maybe, his shadow would be afraid of him too.