The girl's knife hand shook, but her eyes held a desperate kind of courage. In the Rust District, fear was a luxury. If you didn't fight, you didn't eat.
Chronos stood up slowly, dusting off his hoodie. He could feel the new power from Level 3 thrumming in his veins. He looked at the girl, and his vision shifted.
[Insight Activated (Passive)]
Name: Elara Potential: D-Rank (Incomplete Awakening) Condition: Severe Malnutrition, Mana-Blockage.Note: A 'Dud' who touched the fragment but failed to ignite her soul.
"I'm not here to hurt you," Chronos said, his voice calmer than he felt. "And those batteries were junk anyway."
"Junk?" Elara hissed, taking a step forward. "To you, maybe! To us, those 'dregs' are the only thing that keeps the heaters going in the winter. You just swallowed a week's worth of warmth for thirty people!"
Chronos paused. He had been so focused on his own survival that he'd forgotten the ecosystem of the slums. He had effectively stolen the lifeblood of this warehouse district.
[Quest: The First Citizen] [Status: At Risk. Hostility detected.]
[Creator's Tip: A God does not just take; a God provides.]
"What if I told you I could give you something better than dreg mana?" Chronos reached into his pocket, pretending to pull something out. In reality, he was accessing the Void.
Inside the Void, the [Corrupted Mana Heart] from the monster he'd killed had been purified by the molten core. It was now a small, marble-sized bead of pure, white energy.
[Synthesizing: Basic Mana Bead (Grade: Low)] [Cost: 5 Mana]
He held out his hand. A small, glowing pearl rested on his palm. The dim warehouse was suddenly bathed in a soft, holy light.
Elara's jaw dropped. The knife clattered to the floor. "Pure... pure mana? No... that's impossible. Only the High Temples have stones that clean..."
"Take it," Chronos said. "Feed it to your heaters. One of these will last longer than a thousand dead batteries."
She approached him like a frightened animal, her fingers brushing his palm as she snatched the bead. The moment she touched it, a golden thread, invisible to her, snapped into place between them.
[Ding! Soul-Link Established.]
[Apostle #1 Recruited: Elara (Scavenger)]
[Shared Mana Pool: Unlocked (10% of Apostle's mana flows to Creator).]
[Apostle Bonus: Elara has received the 'Blessing of the Architect'. Potential upgraded: D-Rank -> C-Rank.]
Elara gasped, clutching her chest. The "Mana-Blockage" the System had noted shattered. Her skin, once pale and sickly, flushed with sudden heat. Her incomplete awakening was finally finishing.
"What... what did you do to me?" she whispered, looking at her hands. Small sparks of static electricity danced between her fingertips.
"I gave you a future," Chronos said. "But it comes with a price. I'm being hunted by the City Guards. I need a place to hide, and I need information on every 'Blue Rock' fragment kept in this city."
Elara looked from the glowing bead to Chronos. She realized that the person standing before her wasn't just an Awakened—he was a source. A walking, breathing miracle in a world of scrap.
"The guards don't come into the Deep Rust," she said, her voice growing firm. "They're afraid of the 'Scrap-Lords.' I can hide you. But if you're looking for fragments... you're talking about the Iron Vault."
"The Iron Vault?"
"It's where the government stores the shards that are too small for the public Awakening ceremonies. They use them to experiment on... people like us." She looked down at her scarred eye. "I was there. I'm the only one who escaped."
[New Main Quest: The Great Harvest]
[Objective: Infiltrate the Iron Vault and 'Reclaim' the stolen fragments.]
[Reward: Unlock 'Creation Tier 1: Biological Life'.]
Chronos's heart skipped a beat. Biological Life. Right now, his Void was just rocks, gas, and a single spear. But if he could unlock life... he could create an army. He could create a world that didn't just have gravity, but people, monsters, and protectors.
"Take me to your camp, Elara," Chronos commanded. "And tell me everything about the Vault's security. By tomorrow, I'm going to give those 'Lords' a reason to be afraid of the dark."
Inside the Void - Status Update
While Chronos walked, his mind drifted into his dimension. The iron spear he used to kill the larva was now stuck in the ground near the molten core.
[Notice: The iron spear is absorbing 'Chaos' energy from the monster's remains.]
[Evolution in progress...]
[New Item Formed: 'Black-Hole Needle' (Rank: D)]
Chronos smiled. The world thought he was a "Null." They thought he was a Zero-Star orphan.
They had no idea that he was currently carrying a growing sun and an evolving arsenal inside his chest.