The air in the Sump felt thick and greasy. It smelled like rust, old food, and the strange chemical waste that dripped down from Aethelgard, the shiny city floating high above. This was the only air Kael had ever known. To him, it was the smell of survival.
He moved silently through a maze of dripping pipes and broken walls. Kael was nineteen, thin and tough. His hands were scarred, and his eyes always looked tired and watchful, like someone who was always being hunted. He was a scavenger, someone who lived by finding things others threw away. The city was divided into layers. Rich nobles and magic-users lived in Aethelgard, high up in the sunlight. Merchants and craftsmen lived in the middle levels. But people like Kael lived in the Sump, the very bottom, living off the trash of the city that had forgotten them.
Today, he was heading to the Old Churn, a broken part of the city's old water system. It was a dangerous place. The walls were weak, and strange creatures called Sump-crawlers lived in the dark. These pale monsters were created from the chemical pollution. But you could find valuable things there. Sometimes, old machine parts or clean metal from the 'Before-Times' would get caught in the grates. Finding one good piece meant he could eat for a week.
He squeezed through a rusted hole in a wall, and his old leather coat got caught on a piece of metal. The air got colder, and the sound of dripping water was creepy. He had a small crystal for light, a 'glimmer-stone', that glowed when he shook it. It made long, dancing shadows that could trick his eyes.
He found it in the deepest room, where a giant gear was half-stuck in dirty, glowing water. It wasn't a piece of shiny metal or an old treasure. It was a spot of pure darkness. A small, black box, about the size of his hand, was sitting on a broken piece of stone. It seemed to pull in the light from his glimmer-stone, like a hole in the world.
Being curious was dangerous in the Sump, but he couldn't help it. Other scavengers stayed away from this part of the Old Churn, saying it was haunted. Kael never believed those stories. He walked closer, his boots making soft splashes in the muck. The box was perfectly black, with no lines or marks on it.
He reached out his hand, stopping just before he touched it. He didn't hear or feel anything from it. But he felt a strange pull, a low buzz that he felt in his bones, not in his ears. He had to know what it was.
The moment he touched it, the world disappeared.
He felt no pain, just total silence. He felt like he was falling through a black, empty space forever. His thoughts felt like they were being pulled apart and put back together in a new way.
Then, it was over. He was back on his knees in the dirty room. His glimmer-stone was on the ground, and its light was out. The black box was gone. He quickly checked his pockets and his bag, his heart beating fast. It wasn't there. It had just vanished.
But something was different. Inside his head, where it had always been just his own thoughts, he felt something else. It was cold and quiet. And he saw words.
[System Started: The Sextant Protocol][User Found: Kael][Checking User's Power.][Strength Level: 1.0][Daily Power-Up Will Begin.][Next Power-Up: Sunrise.]
Kael crawled backward until his back hit a slimy wall. He shut his eyes tight. Was it a voice? No, it was information sent right into his mind. He tried to ignore it, but the words stayed in his head.
"What are you?" he whispered in the dark, his voice shaking.
There was no answer. The words just faded away, leaving him feeling like he had been scanned. He was terrified. Kael grabbed his dead glimmer-stone and ran. He didn't look back. He forgot all about finding treasure. He was too scared of the thing that was now inside his head.
He spent the rest of the day hiding in his small home, a safe spot behind a broken furnace. He tried to tell himself it wasn't real. Maybe the bad air made him see things? But the feeling and the memory of the words were too clear. He didn't feel any different. His body ached like it always did from a life of climbing and hiding. Strength Level: 1.0. The words meant nothing to him.
He had a bad sleep, dreaming of falling and of numbers that grew bigger and bigger. He woke up suddenly when the first bits of morning light came through a grate high above. In Aethelgard, the sunrise would be beautiful. In the Sump, it just meant the dark gray got a little lighter.
And then, it happened.
A rush of warmth spread through his body, starting in his chest and going out to his arms and legs. It was a strong, powerful feeling of energy. His muscles tightened like springs. The normal aches and pains he always felt were suddenly gone, as if burned away. He felt strong and full of a strange, new power.
Then, the words came back to his mind, just as clear and cold as before.
[Sunrise Power-Up Complete.][Strength Level Multiplied by Six.][New Strength Level: 6.0]
Kael sat up straight, breathing fast. It was real. This wasn't a dream. He looked at his hands. They looked the same—rough, scarred, and dirty. But they didn't feel the same. He made a fist, and his muscles felt as strong as steel ropes.
He felt both panic and curiosity. He needed to see if it was real. He looked around his home and saw the heavy iron bar he used to block his door. It was a solid piece of metal, heavier than he was. Every night, he struggled to move it into place.
He stood up, feeling surprisingly light. He walked to the bar, his heart pounding. He bent his knees and got a good grip on the cold, rusty metal. He got ready for the heavy weight.
He lifted.
The bar flew up so easily that he almost threw it into the ceiling. He stepped back and caught it without any trouble. It felt… light. So light it felt impossible. He held it in one hand. The weight that was a struggle every night now felt like holding a small stick. He stared at it, his mouth open. He lifted it up and down a few times. Six times stronger? It felt like a hundred times stronger.
He carefully put the bar down. This was dangerous. He had a power he didn't understand and couldn't control. In the Sump, being different made you a target. Being strong was a challenge to the bullies who ruled the place.
But he couldn't hide forever. He had no food, and hunger was a bigger problem right now than his new power. Feeling very worried, he snuck out into the maze of tunnels.
The Sump was waking up. Other scavengers with hopeless looks on their faces moved in the dark. A man was selling bowls of hot, glowing mushroom soup. Kael kept his head down and his eyes open. But everything felt different. He could feel small changes in the ground, the way air moved around people, and the anger in a man fifty feet away. It was like the world was clearer now.
He was walking to the trading area when a big hand grabbed his shoulder and spun him around. Kael got ready to fight, but then he saw the man's ugly face and stopped.
It was Grist. He was a big bully who took things from scavengers like Kael. He was twice Kael's size and had thick arms.
"Well, look what we have here," Grist said, his bad breath hitting Kael's face. Two of his men stood nearby, blocking Kael's escape. "Find anything good in the Old Churn, rat?"
Kael's mind raced. Normally, he would just give them whatever he had and let them push him around. Fighting back was not an option.
"Nothing," Kael said quietly. "There was nothing there."
Grist's eyes got smaller. "Don't lie to me. You were in there for a long time. Empty your pockets."
This was how it always went. But as Grist's fingers reached for his coat, something inside Kael fought back. It wasn't bravery. It was the new power buzzing in his body. He remembered how easily he had lifted the iron bar.
He didn't think. He just acted. He raised his hand and pushed Grist's arm away.
He only meant to push it away lightly. He used almost no force at all.
But to Grist, it must have felt like being hit by a speeding cart.
The big man's arm was thrown back, and there was a loud crack of breaking bone. Grist's eyes opened wide with shock and pain. The push lifted him off his feet. He flew back ten feet and crashed through the soup seller's stall. He landed in a heap, groaning, with his arm bent in a wrong way.
The whole area went silent. Grist's two men stared, shocked, looking from Grist's broken body to Kael's hand. Everyone was staring at him.
Kael looked at his own hand, shaking with fear. He hadn't meant to do that. He didn't want to break Grist's arm or cause a scene. The strength had just burst out of him.
He was no longer just another scavenger. He was the boy who had broken Grist with a single, small push. He had changed the rules of his world.
In the Sump, getting this kind of attention wasn't just dangerous. It was a death sentence. As Kael looked at the scared faces around him, he knew one thing for sure: tomorrow at sunrise, he was going to be six times stronger.