Chapter 1: The Architect of the Deep
The first thing Zen felt was the suffocating weight of silence—not the peaceful quiet of a library, but the heavy, oppressive stillness of a tomb.
He opened his eyes, but it made no difference. Darkness pressed against his retinas like physical matter. His lungs burned, gasping for air that tasted of damp earth and ancient dust. As he tried to push himself up, his hands didn't meet the smooth concrete or steel he was used to as a head structural engineer; instead, they sank into a mixture of cold mud and sharp, jagged bone.
"Where... am I?" he croaked. His voice sounded younger, thinner, and laced with a terror that didn't belong to a man who had spent fifteen years managing skyscraper projects.
Suddenly, a searing pain split his skull. Memories that weren't his flooded in like a broken dam. He wasn't Zen, the architect from Earth, anymore. He was Zenox Elliot von Luminos, the Fourth Prince of the Holy Empire of Luminos. A prince born with "dimmed mana," branded a curse by the High Priests, and finally, betrayed by his eldest brother, Crown Prince Hakon.
His last memory as Zenox was the feeling of a heavy iron collar being locked around his neck and the cold, mocking laughter of the palace guards as they kicked him into the yawning mouth of The Abyss—the legendary bottomless pit where the empire threw its "trash."
I died in the construction accident, Zen realized, his mind sharpening as the two identities merged. The crane snapped, the girder fell... and now I'm here. In a hole at the end of the world.
He felt a strange, cold sensation on his wrist. A translucent blue screen flickered into existence, illuminating the grim reality of his surroundings.
[System Initialization...]
[Host Identity Verified: Zenox Elliot von Luminos]
[Core Talent Detected: Master Structural Engineering (Rank: EX)]
[Activating Magic-Tech Blueprint System...]
Zen stared at the floating holographic display. It looked like a high-end BIM (Building Information Modeling) interface he used back on Earth, but with a mystical, crystalline aesthetic.
[Mission: Establish First Safe Zone]
[Reward: Basic Mana Furnace Blueprint]
[Current Environment: Extreme Danger - Toxic Air & Mana Corruption]
"A system?" Zen whispered, a grim smile tugging at his lips. "Well, if I have to rebuild my life, at least I have the right tools."
He looked around. The faint blue light of the system revealed he was in a cavernous hall. Above him, the ceiling was lost in shadows, thousands of meters high. Around him lay the rusted remains of old mining equipment and the skeletal remains of those who had been cast down before him.
First rule of survival: Infrastructure, he thought, his professional instincts kicking in. I need air, light, and a perimeter.
He crawled toward a pile of metallic scrap—remnants of an ancient, broken mana-drill. As his hand touched the rusted iron, the system pinged.
[Resource Detected: Corrupted Iron Alloy]
[Would you like to Deconstruct and Refine?]
"Yes," Zen commanded.
A golden light emanated from his palm. The rusted metal dissolved into glowing particles, swirling into a digital storage space in his mind.
[Acquired: 50 Units of Refined Iron, 5 Units of Low-Grade Mana Dust]
With the materials in hand, Zen opened the Creation tab. He didn't have much, but his engineering mind began to calculate. He didn't need a sword; he needed a multi-tool.
[Synthesizing Item: Magic-Tech Multi-Wrench v1.0]
[Estimated Time: 60 Seconds]
As the system hummed, Zen surveyed the area. This wasn't just a cave; it was a collapsed mining sector. The pillars were cracked, showing signs of structural fatigue. If he didn't reinforce this place, the next tremor from the surface would bury him alive.
CLINK.
A heavy, silver-black wrench fell into his hand. It felt balanced, vibrating with a faint blue light.
"Step one: Secure the foundation," Zen said, his eyes glowing with a new determination. He looked up into the darkness where the Empire of Luminos sat in their golden palaces. "You threw me into the dirt because you thought I was weak. But you forgot one thing about architects..."
He slammed the wrench against a cracked support pillar, and the system began to overlay a glowing blue structural grid across the entire cavern.
"...We are the ones who decide what stands and what falls."
[Blueprint Unlocked: "The Honeycomb Outpost"]
[Construction Commencing...]
The silence of the Abyss was finally broken—not by a scream of despair, but by the rhythmic, purposeful sound of a machine coming to life.