Chapter 2: Lucas Martin
He found the bag that apparently belonged to Lucas Martin canvas satchel, worn at the straps and searched it. Some coins. A second set of clothes, plain but decent quality.
A letter of introduction to the academy registrar. A small knife in a leather sheath, clearly decorative and nearly useless. And a notebook, nearly empty, with only a handful of pages used for what appeared to be accounting sums.
Lucus took the notebook and a pencil stub from the bottom of the bag and sat cross-legged on the bed.
He began to write. Not a story. A list.
What I know about the plot of Blue Star Chronicles, Arc One:
• Opening ceremony: 16th of Solent. Ethan Von Sliverstel arrives in Nevus City. First impression of the academy. His awakening assessment result will cause significant attention—dual affinity, lightning and space, neither of which has been recorded in an Aura Core user before.
• Class placement: Ethan goes to Class A. Top 20 students by assessed potential. Selena Starborn: Class A. Rosilia Braveheart: Class A. Aiden Stromfang: Class A. Lucas Martin: Class C.
• First-semester events: Combat ranking assessment (week 2). The Crystal Labyrinth exercise (month 2). The Phantom Forest training event (month 4). Various relationship-building arcs between the main cast.
• The Year One Dungeon Trial: End of first semester. All first-year students enter the academy's training dungeon, the Void Gate, in groups. A dungeon break occurs during the exercise—a rift opens inside the training zone, and a Demon Warrior-class entity enters. Seven students die before faculty intervention. Lucas Martin is among the seven.
He underlined the last line. Then he wrote below it, in letters slightly larger than the rest:
I am not going to die in someone else's story.
He put the pencil down. Looked at the list for a moment.
Then he added one more point:
Unknown: My unique skill. Unknown: What the ??? on my status screen actually means.
Unknown: What the author doesn't know about his own world.
That last point was the one that made his stomach drop.
He had built this world. He knew its history, its power system, its major players. But he had also written sixty-three chapters and planned seven arcs and he had never finished the story.
There were things he had planned only in outline. Characters who existed as names and rough concepts. Mysteries he had set up without working out the solutions.
He had been a writer who planted seeds without always knowing what would grow.
And now he was standing inside the garden.
_____
Now need to see his stats and for that he need the status window to appear.
The status window came when he focused.
He'd written the process: slow breath, attention turned inward, the Origin Seed visualized as a point of warmth below the sternum.
He'd described Ethan doing this in chapter three. He tried it himself, half expecting nothing to happen.
The air shimmered. Blue-white light coalesced at chest height, translucent and softly luminous. The panel hung in the air like something between a projection and a materialization.
He read it. Read it again.
========[STATUS]============
[NAME — LUCAS MARTIN]
[AGE — 17]
[TITLE — NONE]
[CORE RANK — UNFORMED]
[POTENTIAL — D]
[UNIQUE SKILL — ???]
[AFFINITY — WIND (MINOR)]
======[STATS]=========
STR — G
AGI — G+
INT — E+
VIT — G-
END — G
MANA — 340/340
===============
D potential.
In his power system, Potential was the system's assessment of an individual's ceiling not current strength, but the theoretical maximum they could reach through training and cultivation. S potential was the threshold for genuinely elite practitioners.
A potential was the floor for most Class A students. B and C potentials were common across the academy population.
D potential meant the system looked at Lucas Martin and saw a man who would plateau somewhere around the C rank, give or take. Not weak, exactly. Just… not remarkable.
The mana pool of 340 was effectively a pittance. Even a low-tier mage apprentice needed 600-800 to cast consistently. An Aura Core user at this stage had to build from near zero.
Wind affinity—minor. Wind mana was versatile but demanding. Minor aptitude meant he could access it, but the mana cost per use would be punishing until he either grew stronger or specialized.
And the unique skill listed as ???.
In his novel, he had never given Lucas Martin a unique skill. The character was never meant to have one. He was a prop. A name. A casualty statistic to give the dungeon trial scene weight.
But the status window showed ???, not NONE.
Which meant there was something there. A unique skill that existed in this world for this body—a skill that Lucus himself had never written, never planned, never imagined.
His own creation had depths he didn't know about.
The thought was equal parts fascinating and deeply unsettling.
He closed the status window with an effort of will—that part worked the way he'd written it—and sat for a long moment in the morning quiet of the inn room.
Then he picked up the notebook again, turned to a fresh page, and wrote:
Day One. Objectives:
1. Survive the next six months without dying in a dungeon.
2. Change my class placement. Class C is where I die. I need to be somewhere else.
3. Train. Whatever D potential means, it's not a ceiling I'm willing to accept.
4. Figure out what ??? is.
5. Figure out what the author doesn't know—and how much of it can hurt me.
He looked at the list.
Then added, because he was nothing if not honest with himself:
6. Try not to catastrophically derail the actual plot. Ethan needs to succeed. The world needs him to succeed. I'm an extra in his story. My job is to survive without breaking what needs to happen.
He closed the notebook. Got dressed—Lucas Martin's clothes, which fit the body if not his sense of self—and went to find breakfast.
_____
Outside the inn window, Nevus City hummed with morning life.
Somewhere across the city, in a story Lucus had built from nothing, wheels were turning.
Characters were moving toward their fated positions like pieces on a board he had designed.
He was the one piece that wasn't supposed to still be standing at the end of the first act.
He intended to remain standing regardless.
To be Continued....