The Awakening Hall smelled of incense and cold stone. Hundreds of torches burned along the walls, casting golden light across the towering chamber where the youths of Blackthorn City stood in neat rows.
It was the day every child waited for—the Awakening Ceremony. Today, each of them would touch the crystal sphere and awaken their spirit, bloodline, or divine blessing. The strong would soar to glory. The weak would be forgotten.
"Next—Ren Duskbane."
The elder's voice echoed through the hall.
A thin boy stepped forward. Black hair hung loosely over sharp features, his plain robes making him stand out among the richly dressed sons and daughters of nobles. Despite bearing the Duskbane name—once feared throughout the realm—he looked more like a servant than heir to a legendary bloodline.
Whispers followed him like vultures.
"That's the bastard child, isn't he?"
"How did House Duskbane fall so low?"
"He won't awaken anything. Look at those weak shoulders."
"Duskbane blood must be completely diluted by now."
Ren clenched his fists but kept walking. The weight of his family name pressed down on him—not as honor, but as mockery. Once, the Duskbane clan had been apex predators among the noble houses. Now he was living proof of their decline.
He stopped before the crystal sphere. It pulsed faintly with ancient power, waiting to judge him as it had judged generations before.
The elder's weathered face showed no emotion. "Place your hand, young Duskbane."
Ren pressed his palm against the cool surface. The sphere flared with brilliant light—then flickered once, twice... and went completely dark.
A heavy silence crushed the hall.
The elder frowned, his voice cutting through the quiet like a blade. "No response. No spirit, no bloodline manifestation. A complete failure."
Laughter erupted among the noble children. Some smirked behind silk fans, others sneered openly.
"As expected from fallen nobility."
"The mighty Duskbane bloodline, everyone!"
"Can't even awaken a house cat spirit. Pathetic."
"His ancestors must be rolling in their graves."
Ren stood frozen, his chest burning with shame. But he refused to bow his head. He was still a Duskbane, even if the blood ran thin. He withdrew his hand and turned away, ignoring the whispers that followed him like poison.
He had known this moment would come. Deep down, he had hoped—just maybe—that the legendary Duskbane bloodline would awaken within him. But hope was the cruelest joke of all.
By the ceremony's end, everyone else had awakened something. Fire wolf spirits. Lightning eagles. Even the weakest students had at least manifested minor elemental blessings.
Everyone except Ren Duskbane—the last disgrace of a once-mighty house.
That night, Ren sat alone on the cliff overlooking Blackthorn City. The wind howled through the grass as he stared at the distant lights, each one representing a life with more purpose than his own.
*What now?*
Without a spirit or awakened bloodline, he had no path forward. The academies wouldn't accept him. No clan would offer marriage alliances. Even the city guard required at least a basic elemental blessing.
He was nothing. Less than nothing.
"Maybe they're right," he whispered to the empty night. "Maybe I really am just worthless trash."
The words hung in the cold air like a confession. Sixteen years of hope, crushed in a single moment at that crystal sphere. Sixteen years of believing that maybe, somehow, he would prove them all wrong.
Instead, he had proven them right.
Ren buried his face in his hands. His shoulders shook, but no tears came. He was too empty for even that.
For a long moment, there was only silence and the distant howl of wind.
Then it hit him.
A crushing weight that made his knees buckle. The air itself became thick as honey, pressing against him from all sides. His chest compressed as if a mountain had fallen on his shoulders. Blood trickled from his nose as something vast and ancient stirred in the depths of reality.
*What... what is this...?*
The night grew deathly still. Every living thing within miles felt it—predators cowered in their dens, birds fell silent, insects stopped their chirping. The very world held its breath before something that should not be awake.
The pressure wasn't just physical. It weighed against his soul, pressing into the deepest parts of his being. Measuring. Judging. Deciding if he was worth the attention of something beyond mortal understanding.
Ren gasped, his vision blurring. *I'm going to die. Whatever this is, it's going to crush me like an insect.*
But slowly, impossibly, the weight began to shift. Not disappearing—changing. The crushing force became something else, something that flowed into him rather than pressing down. His blood grew warm, then hot, pulsing with a rhythm he'd never felt before.
Something deep inside him—something that had been sleeping his entire life—stirred awake.
A translucent screen flickered into existence before his stunned eyes.
**[PRIMORDIAL DRAGON SYSTEM]**
**[BLOODLINE COMPATIBILITY... ANALYZING...]**
**[...]**
**[COMPATIBILITY CONFIRMED]**
**[SYSTEM ACTIVATION COMPLETE]**
Ren stared at the floating text, his heart hammering against his ribs. This wasn't possible. Systems were myths from ancient stories, legends told to children. Not things that happened to failures like him.
But the warmth spreading through his veins was real. The strange awareness prickling at the edges of his mind was real. And the hunger—gods above and below, the hunger gnawing at his chest was definitely real.
More text appeared.
**[WELCOME, DRAGON CANDIDATE]**
**[CURRENT STATUS: DORMANT BLOODLINE - STAGE 0]**
**[BLOODLINE PURITY: TRACE AMOUNTS DETECTED]**
**[EVOLUTION POTENTIAL: UNKNOWN]**
**[WARNING: HOST BODY IS CRITICALLY WEAK]**
**[RECOMMENDATION: BEGIN STRENGTHENING PROCESS IMMEDIATELY]**
Ren tried to speak, but only managed a croak. He cleared his throat and tried again.
"This... this is real?"
**[AFFIRMATIVE]**
**[QUERY: DOES HOST WISH TO VIEW CURRENT STATUS?]**
Despite everything—the shock, the impossibility of it all—curiosity won out. Ren nodded weakly.
A new window appeared.
**[HOST STATUS]**
**Name:** Ren Duskbane
**Age:** 16
**Bloodline:** Primordial Dragon (Dormant - 0.01% Purity)
**Cultivation:** None
**Physical Condition:** Malnourished, Weak Constitution
**Combat Power:** 5
**Skills:** None
**Abilities:** None
**System Functions Available:**
- Status Display
- Basic Analysis
**[NOTE: Additional functions will unlock as bloodline awakens]**
Ren stared at the numbers with a mixture of fascination and horror. Combat power of five? He'd heard that even children typically measured around twenty to thirty after their awakening.
But he had a bloodline. A *dragon* bloodline.
"How..." he whispered. "How is this possible? I failed the ceremony. The crystal showed nothing."
**[PRIMORDIAL BLOODLINES CANNOT BE DETECTED BY STANDARD AWAKENING CRYSTALS]**
**[SUCH BLOODLINES REQUIRE EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES TO MANIFEST]**
**[HOST EXPERIENCED SUFFICIENT DESPAIR AND ACCEPTANCE OF DEATH TO TRIGGER INITIAL AWAKENING]**
The words hit him like physical blows. His moment of deepest despair, when he'd given up all hope—that's what had awakened whatever this was inside him.
"Dragon bloodline," he said the words out loud, testing how they sounded. They felt impossible on his tongue. "But I'm... I'm nothing. I'm weak. I can't even—"
**[CURRENT WEAKNESS IS TEMPORARY]**
**[DRAGONS ARE APEX PREDATORS]**
**[WITH PROPER DEVELOPMENT, HOST POTENTIAL IS LIMITLESS]**
The hunger in his chest pulsed stronger, responding to those words. Apex predator. For someone who'd been called trash his entire life, the concept was intoxicating.
But also terrifying.
"What do I have to do?" he asked.
**[FIRST PRIORITY: STRENGTHEN PHYSICAL FOUNDATION]**
**[SECOND PRIORITY: AWAKEN DORMANT BLOODLINE THROUGH COMBAT EXPERIENCE]**
**[THIRD PRIORITY: CONSUME SPIRITUAL ENERGY TO EVOLVE]**
**[WARNING: GROWTH WILL BE SLOW INITIALLY]**
**[PATIENCE AND CAUTION ARE RECOMMENDED]**
Ren nodded slowly. Patience and caution—that he could do. He'd been patient his whole life, waiting for something to change. And caution? When you were as weak as him, caution was survival.
The system screen began to fade.
**[INTEGRATION COMPLETE]**
**[HOST SHOULD REST AND PROCESS CHANGES]**
**[SYSTEM WILL PROVIDE GUIDANCE WHEN READY TO PROCEED]**
As the last of the text disappeared, Ren was left alone on the cliff with only the wind for company. But he wasn't the same person who had climbed up here in despair.
He had a system. He had a bloodline.
He had hope.
Standing on shaking legs, Ren began the long walk back to the city. His mind raced with possibilities and questions, but underneath it all was a steady warmth in his chest that hadn't been there before.
Tomorrow, everything would be different. Not because he was suddenly powerful—the system had made clear he was still pathetically weak. But because now he had a path forward.
Now he had a chance to become something more than trash.
As he disappeared into the night, heading home to process what had just changed his entire world, Ren Duskbane allowed himself the first genuine smile he'd worn in years.
The dragon was sleeping no more.