Chapter 4: The Crucible's First Flame
The hammer descended.
Daryl's charge was not a tactical decision. It was not the result of careful planning or strategic insight. It was simply the only thing his body would do when faced with annihilation—move forward, toward the danger, because going back meant death and standing still meant death and at least moving forward meant he was doing something.
The hammer struck the ground behind him as he ducked and rolled between the champion's legs. The impact sent shockwaves through the stone, throwing him off balance, but he used the momentum to tumble back to his feet, already turning, already looking for an opening.
Ignis was slow to turn. That was something. Its massive body, built of stone and molten metal, couldn't match his agility. If he could stay behind it, stay moving, stay—
A fist caught him in the chest.
He hadn't seen it coming. The champion had simply reached back with its free hand, faster than something its size should be able to move, and slammed stone fingers into his ribcage. Daryl flew backward, bounced off a pillar, and crashed into a pile of rubble.
The world swam. His vision blurred. Blood—warm, wet, terrifying—filled his mouth and dribbled down his chin.
[Health: 23%]
The notification flashed unbidden, the first time the system had revealed his health percentage. It was breaking its own rules, which meant things were bad. Which meant [Overgrowth] was overriding standard protocols to keep him informed.
Which meant he might actually die here.
Ignis approached, each footstep shaking the ground. Its molten eyes regarded him with something that might have been curiosity or might have been amusement. "You move well, little spark. For an F-Grade, you move very well. But movement alone will not save you. Nothing will save you. The forge claims all who enter."
Daryl pushed himself up. His ribs screamed. His left arm felt wrong—not broken, but close, the muscles torn, the joints strained. The dagger was still in his right hand, bond strength now at 36%, as if the near-death experience had accelerated its growth.
"Tell me something," Daryl gasped, buying time, thinking, always thinking. "The others who came here. The ones who failed. What happened to them?"
Ignis paused. The question seemed to genuinely surprise it. "Failed champions become fuel. Their strength feeds the forge. Their cores become part of the flame."
"And the ones who succeeded?"
For a long moment, the champion was silent. When it spoke again, its voice was different—softer, almost reverent. "They ascend. They become more than they were. The gods remake them in their image, and they take their place among the guardians of higher realms."
Higher realms. So the Molten Forge was just the beginning. Just the first trial. Beyond it waited the Endless Library, the Verdant Maze, and who knew what else.
Daryl filed that information away and used it to fuel the fire growing in his chest.
"One more question," he said, pushing himself fully upright. He could feel [Overflow] coiling, ready to activate if his health dropped further. He had maybe one chance. One opportunity to do something insane.
"Ask," Ignis rumbled. "It will not change your fate."
"That hammer of yours. It's made of forge-metal, right? The same stuff that runs in those rivers?"
The champion glanced at the molten streams carving glowing paths through the chamber. "Yes. The living heart of the forge. Why?"
Daryl smiled. It hurt. Everything hurt. But he smiled anyway.
"Just wondering how it handles cold."
He ran.
Not toward the champion this time, but toward the nearest river of molten rock. The heat intensified with each step, blistering his skin, drying his eyes, making each breath feel like swallowing fire. Behind him, Ignis roared and gave chase, its massive footsteps shaking the ground.
Faster. He needed to be faster.
[Light Footsteps proficiency increased: 2% -> 4%]
The notification flashed and faded. Daryl didn't have time to acknowledge it. He reached the river's edge and leaped, not over it, but into it—
And at the last possible moment, he twisted, caught a protruding rock with his free hand, and swung himself along the river's edge instead of into it. His momentum carried him parallel to the molten flow, his feet skimming the bank, his body leaning out over certain death.
Ignis couldn't stop. Its massive size, its momentum, its single-minded charge—all of it combined to carry it forward, directly toward the river, directly toward the trap Daryl had barely survived setting.
The champion's foot hit the molten rock.
For a moment, nothing happened. Ignis was born of the forge, shaped by fire, immune to heat that would vaporize lesser beings. The molten river should have been like water to it, harmless, welcoming.
But Daryl had been paying attention. He had watched the champion move, had studied its body, had noticed the way it avoided the rivers despite its immunity. Not because the heat could hurt it—but because the molten rock was fluid, unstable, and Ignis was heavy. Incredibly, impossibly heavy.
The champion's foot sank.
Ignis roared—a sound of genuine surprise, of sudden alarm—and threw its weight backward, trying to extract itself from the flowing stone. But the river had other ideas. It pulled, dragged, demanded tribute from the creature that had walked its banks for millennia without ever paying the price.
The hammer swung wildly as Ignis fought for balance. Daryl saw his chance.
He ran along the riverbank, paralleling the struggling champion, and when he was close enough—when he could feel the heat of the hammer's passing as Ignis swung it in desperate arcs—he jumped.
His hand caught the hammer's haft.
The metal was hot—impossibly, agonizingly hot. His palm sizzled. The smell of cooking flesh filled his nostrils. But [Thorn Body] reacted, the magical thorns on his skin providing just enough insulation, just enough protection, to keep his grip from failing completely.
And [Overgrowth]... fed.
[Bond established with Forge Hammer (Temporary)]
Bond Strength: 1%
Warning: Item not owned. Bond will fade on release.
Daryl didn't have time to wonder what that meant. He pulled himself up the haft, using the champion's own panicked movements to climb, and when he reached the head—the massive, glowing, living head of the hammer—he drove his dagger into it with all his remaining strength.
The blade sank deep.
Ignis screamed.
The sound was like nothing Daryl had ever heard—a shriek of tortured metal, of breaking stone, of something ancient and powerful experiencing pain for the first time in millennia. The champion's grip on the hammer faltered, and Daryl fell, still clinging to his embedded dagger, tearing a gash through the hammer's surface as he dropped.
He hit the ground hard, rolled, and came up facing the champion.
Ignis was staggering. The hammer hung loose in one hand, damaged, leaking molten light from the wound Daryl had inflicted. The champion's other hand pressed against its own chest, where—Daryl now saw—a crack had appeared in the stone, mirroring the damage to its weapon.
Somehow, impossibly, the hammer was connected to its wielder. Hurting one hurt the other.
Daryl filed that information away too.
"You..." Ignis growled, its voice unsteady for the first time. "You damaged the Crucible. An F-Grade damaged the Crucible."
"Looks that way."
"I have killed thousands. Challengers from every rank, every world, every corner of creation. None have ever marked me."
Daryl looked at his dagger. Bond strength: 41%. The blade was glowing faintly, the thorn pattern on its surface more pronounced, more alive.
"First time for everything."
He charged again.
---
The battle shifted after that. Ignis was still stronger, still tougher, still capable of killing Daryl with a single solid blow. But it was also wounded, off-balance, and—Daryl realized with a shock—afraid. Not of him, not exactly, but of what he represented. The possibility that an F-Grade could actually win. Could actually ascend.
Fear made the champion sloppy.
Its swings grew wild, desperate. Its movements lost their economy, its stamina draining as it chased Daryl around the chamber, through the rivers, between the pillars. And with each near miss, each glancing blow that Daryl dodged or deflected, his skills grew.
[Dagger Mastery proficiency increased: 4% -> 7%]
[Light Footsteps proficiency increased: 4% -> 8%]
[Thorn Body proficiency increased: 9% -> 15%]
The thorns on his skin were fully visible now, a faint green-black pattern that covered his arms, his chest, his face. When Ignis's fist caught his shoulder—a blow that should have shattered bone—the thorns flared, absorbing some of the impact, reflecting a fraction back at the attacker.
Ignis's stone fingers cracked.
Daryl didn't pause to celebrate. He drove forward, inside the champion's reach, and stabbed upward toward the crack in its chest. The dagger sank deep, and this time, when Ignis screamed, something broke.
Light poured from the wound. Not molten light, but something purer, brighter—the champion's core, exposed and vulnerable.
[Core Energy Detected]
[Overgrowth Hungers]
The warmth in Daryl's chest blazed. It wanted this. It needed this. The core fragment of a god's champion, ripe for absorption, ready to fuel the next stage of growth.
But taking it would kill Ignis. Would end the champion's millennia of existence. Would—
The hammer caught him across the ribs.
Daryl flew. Crashed. Lay still.
[Health: 8%]
[Overflow Activating...]
"No," Daryl gasped. "Not yet. Not yet."
He fought the skill's activation, forcing it back, refusing to burn his one get-out-of-death-free card when he was so close. The warmth in his chest pulsed—confused, perhaps, by his refusal—but it obeyed. [Overflow] subsided, waiting.
Daryl stood.
Ignis was advancing, but slowly. The wound in its chest was pouring light now, its strength visibly fading. The hammer dragged on the ground behind it, too heavy to lift in its weakened state.
"How?" the champion whispered. "How does an F-Grade do this?"
Daryl didn't have an answer. Or rather, he had too many answers. His talent. His core. His refusal to stay dead. His two lifetimes of being nothing, and the desperate hunger that came from finally having a chance to be something.
Instead of answering, he raised his dagger and charged one last time.
---
The final exchange was not dramatic. There was no clash of titans, no explosion of power, no last-minute reversal. Daryl simply ran past the champion's failing defenses, leaped onto its chest, and drove his dagger into the exposed core with both hands.
The light blazed.
For a moment, Daryl was blind, deaf, senseless—aware only of the energy flooding into him, through him, becoming him. [Overgrowth] drank deeply, greedily, pulling the champion's essence into itself with an hunger that bordered on desperate.
And then it was over.
Ignis crumbled. The massive form that had stood for millennia, that had defeated thousands of challengers, that had been the first and final obstacle for countless would-be ascendants—fell apart into rubble and dust and fading light.
Daryl stood in the center of the destruction, chest heaving, dagger dripping with molten residue, and felt the champion's core settling into place beside his own.
[C-Rank Core Absorbed: Ignis the Crucible]
[Overgrowth Integration: 8% -> 22%]
[Significant evolution detected in multiple skills.]
The notifications kept coming, too fast to read, too many to process. Daryl let them flow past him, focusing instead on the simple fact that he was alive. That he had won. That an F-Grade trash hunter had just killed a C-Rank champion of the gods.
He laughed. It was a broken, hysterical sound, but it was real.
The Molten Forge chamber was quiet now. The rivers still flowed, the pillars still stood, but the presence that had dominated the space was gone. In its place, at the far end of the chamber, a new doorway had appeared—a arch of pure light that pulsed with invitation.
The path forward. The next trial.
Daryl looked at it for a long moment, then looked down at his dagger.
[Thorned Iron Dagger]
Quality: F+ -> E- (Evolving)
Attack: 5-8 -> Calculating...
Durability: 20/20 -> 25/25
Bond Strength: 41% -> 63%
Evolution in progress: 47% complete
The blade was changing visibly. The thorns on its surface had grown more pronounced, more organic, as if the weapon was becoming something alive. Green veins pulsed beneath the steel, and the edge seemed to shimmer with barely contained energy.
[Thorn Body proficiency: 15% -> 28%]
[Dagger Mastery proficiency: 7% -> 19%]
[Stealth proficiency: 3% -> 5%]
[Light Footsteps proficiency: 8% -> 12%]
[New Skill Gained: Flame Resistance (Passive) - F-Rank]
Prolonged exposure to the Molten Forge has tempered your body. You take 5% less damage from fire-based attacks.
[New Skill Gained: Core Sense (Passive) - F-Rank]
Having absorbed two cores, you can now sense the presence of other cores within a limited range. Range increases with proficiency.
Daryl stood in the silence of the conquered forge and took stock of himself. He was not the same man who had entered this place. He was stronger, faster, more skilled—and beneath it all, [Overgrowth] pulsed with satisfaction, already reaching for the next challenge.
The arch of light beckoned.
He sheathed his evolving dagger, checked his remaining supplies—the crystal shard was gone, consumed in the battle somehow—and walked toward the doorway. Behind him, the Molten Forge began to fade, its purpose fulfilled, its champion fallen.
Ahead lay the unknown.
Daryl Ramsay, F-Grade trash, stepped through the light.
---
[End of Chapter 4]
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Status Update: Daryl Ramsay (End of Chapter 4)
Personal Information:
· Name: Daryl Ramsay
· Rank: F (Officially) / Unknown (Actually—estimated E based on core absorption)
· Location: Transitioning from Molten Forge to next realm
Talent:
· [SSS-Rank: Overgrowth] - Current Integration: 22% (increased from 8%)
· Significant boost from absorbing C-Rank champion core
· Passive growth rate substantially increased
· Skills now evolve approximately 3x faster than before
Core Integration:
· Absorbed E-Rank dungeon core (Goblin Warrens)
· Absorbed C-Rank champion core (Ignis the Crucible)
· Current state: Two cores merging with [Overgrowth], providing:
· Accelerated skill growth
· Enhanced core sensing ability
· Unknown additional effects
Skills:
Active Offensive:
· [Dagger Mastery (F-Rank)] - Proficiency: 19% (↑ from 4%)
· Damage increase: approximately +8%
· Handling improvement: noticeably smoother, almost instinctive
· Beginning to unlock basic dagger techniques
Active Defensive:
· [Thorn Body (F-Rank)] - Proficiency: 28% (↑ from 9%)
· Thorns now fully visible when activated
· Damage reflection: approximately 8-10%
· Damage reduction: approximately 5 points
· Thorns provide minor intimidation factor
Active Utility:
· [Stealth (F-Rank)] - Proficiency: 5% (↑ from 3%)
· Detection range reduction: approximately 8%
· Now partially effective in low light as well as total darkness
· [Light Footsteps (F-Rank)] - Proficiency: 12% (↑ from 2%)
· Movement noise reduction: approximately 15%
· Now effective on most surfaces, including loose stone and gravel
Passive Survival:
· [Overflow (F-Rank)] - Cooldown: 21 days (↓ from 28)
· Cooldown reduced due to core absorption
· Still cannot be voluntarily activated
· [Flame Resistance (F-Rank) - NEW] - Proficiency: 1%
· Fire damage reduction: 5%
· Gained from prolonged exposure to Molten Forge
· Will increase with further fire exposure
· [Core Sense (F-Rank) - NEW] - Proficiency: 1%
· Detection range: approximately 50 meters
· Can sense cores in living beings, dungeon hearts, and certain items
· Gained from absorbing second core
Equipment:
Primary Weapon:
· [Thorned Iron Dagger (Evolving)] - Quality: E- (in progress)
· Attack: Calculating (estimated 8-12)
· Durability: 25/25 (increased from 20)
· Effects:
· Moderate Bleed: 10% chance for +5 damage over 5 seconds (upgraded)
· Thorned Return: 3% chance to reflect melee damage back at attacker (new)
· Bonded (63%): +1 attack per 20% bond strength (currently +3 total)
· Evolution complete at 100%
Secondary Equipment:
· [Scavenged Leather Gloves] - Quality: Junk
· Defense: 1
· Durability: 3/5
· Bond Strength: 5% (↑ from 2%)
· Slowly thickening, becoming more durable
· [The Collector's Crystal Shard] - Quality: ??? (Consumed)
· Used to access Molten Forge
· Consumed during champion battle
· May have contributed to core absorption success
Equipment Bonding Progress:
· Thorned Iron Dagger: 63% (Next evolution at 75%, final at 100%)
· Scavenged Leather Gloves: 5% (Next evolution at 25%)
Dungeon/Clearing Record:
· Goblin Warrens (E-Rank) - Core absorbed, dungeon collapsed
· Solo Imp Dungeon (F-Rank) - 14 full clears, 247 total imp kills
· Molten Forge (C-Rank) - Champion defeated, core absorbed, realm cleared
Notable Achievements:
· First F-Grade to defeat a C-Rank champion (recorded by system)
· Absorbed two cores (E and C rank)
· Evolved weapon to E- rank (in progress)
· Gained six total skills
· Survived God's Realm first trial
· Killed a being that had existed for millennia
Current Objectives:
· Complete dagger evolution to 100%
· Enter next realm (location unknown)
· Continue growing [Overgrowth] integration
· Reach F+ or E-Rank in at least one skill
· Understand the purpose of the God's Realm trials
Known Limitations:
· Still cannot access full status panel
· No healing abilities beyond natural recovery
· [Overflow] on 21-day cooldown if activated
· No information about next realm or its champion
· Supplies critically low (food, water almost gone)
· Physical injuries not fully healed (broken ribs, damaged arm)
Unknown Factors:
· What happens when [Overgrowth] reaches 100% integration
· Effects of absorbing additional champion cores
· The nature of the gods observing the trials
· The Collector's true identity and connection to all this
· Why the System Administrator hides his status
· The meaning of "Last F-Grade Tower Guardian"
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