Wystan lay still for several seconds, his chest rising and falling in slow, uneven breaths. The suffocating darkness of the underground pit remained unchanged, cold stone, stale air, the distant drip of water echoing somewhere beyond sight.
And yet...
Everything felt... different.
Warmer...
Alive....
He moved his fingers. This time, they responded. No resistance, no weakness, no trembling.
Wystan's eyes widened slightly.
"What?" He pushed himself up. His body should have screamed in pain. His ribs had cracked, his arm had bent at a wrong angle. He had felt it. He remembered it, but now?
Nothing.
No pain , no stiffness, no injury.
Instead-strength. A strange, unfamiliar vitality surged through his limbs, like heat flowing beneath his skin. His breathing stabilized, his heartbeat-steady, powerful.
Wystan slowly stood.
"No way..." His gaze dropped to his hands. Faint embers flickered across his fingertips, vanishing as quickly as they appeared. Not imagination, not residual mana. Something else entirely.
A translucent window shimmered into existence before his eyes.
Name: Wystan Vega
Rank: F
Level: 4
Skills:
- Phoenix Body (Lvl.1)
His breath caught. "Level... 4?" He hadn't fought anything, hadn't gained experience. So why-
[Phoenix Body (Lvl.1)
- Rapid Regeneration
- Fire Affinity Enhancement
- Conditional Revival (1 Charge)
- Passive Heat Resistance
Wystan froze.
"Revival?" His voice echoed softly in the dark. He read it again, slower, carefully. "Conditional... Revival..." His mind struggled to catch up. Did that mean "If I die... I come back?" The idea felt absurd impossible.
And yet...
His body, his very existence, right now, was proof that something impossible had already happened. Wystan clenched his fist. The faint embers returned dancing across his knuckles.
"Phoenix Body..."
Fire.
Rebirth.
Regeneration.
The meaning clicked instantly. Bitter laugh escaped him. "Fire... and Healing..."
Spark.
Minor Regeneration.
Two of the most useless skills imaginable.
Combined into-
"This?"
He exhaled slowly. For the first time, since awakening, he didn't feel weak. A low sound broke the silence. Wystan head snapped up. "What was that?" A growl.
Deep, close. The shadows shifted. Something moved. Wystan's instincts screamed. He turned, just as a creature lunged from the darkness. It was massive.
Twice the size of the ghouls from before, its hunched and muscular. Blackened skin stretched over bulging veins. Its jaw split open unnaturally, rows of stretched teeth glistening in the faint blue glow of dungeon mana. Its eyes burning red.
A Feral Ghoul.
Stronger, faster, deadlier
"Shit!" .Wystan barely had time to react. The creature was already on him, its claws slashed forward. Wystan raised his arm instinctively. Too slow,
Slash-!
Pain exploded. No, not pain. He froze. The claws had struck him, he felt the impact but instead of agony, heat .
His skin split, and then, he watched it heal instantly. The wound closed before his eyes, flesh knitting together in a flicker of ember- like light.
"What the hell?" The ghoul hesitated, just for a second, confused. That second was enough. Wystan moved. Not perfectly. Not gracefully, but faster than before, he stepped forward into the creature's reach instead of away.
His blades swung, Clang-!
It struck the ghoul's arm, too shallow, not enough damage. " Damn it!"
The ghoul roared, its claws coming down again-
Slash-!
This time across his chest. Wystan staggered back, but didn't fall. The wound burned. Not with pain but with heat. And then it closed again. "You've got to be kidding me." A grin, small, disbelieving, formed on his lips.
"I can't... Die?" The ghoul lunged again.
This time, Wysta didn't hesitate. "Fine then..." He tightened his grip on his blade. "Let's test it." The creature attacked. Faster, more vicious, claws tore into him again and again, each time, he healed.
At first he flinched. Instinct, fear, pain memory. But as seconds passed something changed. The fear faded replaced by something else. "Heh." a low chuckle escaped him.
The ghoul roared, lunging once more. Wystan stepped forward. This time, he didn't defend. He endured. The claws sank into his shoulder, and Wystan drove his blade straight into the creature's throat.
CRACK-!
The ghoul shrieked, thrashing violently. Black blood spilled. Wystan held on. His body burned not from damage but from something deeper.
Energy, heat, power. "Stay... still...!" He twisted the blade. The ghoul collapsed.
Silence.
Wystan stood there, breathing heavily, his body unharmed. The corpse dissolved into black mist. A faint glow remained.
A core.
Wystan stared at it. "I actually.." He laughed, short, sharp unbelieving. "I actually killed it"
Alone.
He crouched, picking up the core. It pulsed faintly in his palm, warm. "So this is mine." Not stolen, not handed down, not denied.
Earned. He stood slowly, his gaze lifted. The darkness around him no longer felt suffocating. It felt like a beginning. "All right." His voice steady. "Let's figure this out."
Wystan Focused. The strange interfaces responded instantly.
[Skill Fusion System]
Available Skills:
- Phoenix Body (Lvl.1)
Fusion Options:
-No compatible skills detected
"So I need more skills?" that made sense. Fusion required materials. Skills were the materials. "Then, that means..." he looked at the core in his hand.
"This is how I grow." He had seen it before. Hunters absorbing cores to gain skills. Low chance, high risk, but possible.
Wystan hesitated. Just for a moment, then- "Why not?" He crushed the core. Energy surged.
[Attempting Skill Acquisition...]
His body tensed. Heat flared, but controlled, contained.
[Skill acquired:]
- Claw Strike (Lvl.1)
Wystan blinked. "That's it?" A simple skill, basic, but his lips curled upward. "That's enough." Because now he had something to combine.
His gaze sharpened. "Let's try this again."
[Available Skills:]
- Phoenix body (Lvl.1)
- Claw Strikem (Lvl.1)
The prompt appeared...
[Combined?]
Wystan didn't press it. "Not yet... No" He shook his head. "Not blindly." The memory of the first fusion still lingered.
The pain.
The uncontrollable transformation.
"I need to understand this first." For the first time- Wystan wasn't reacting. He was thinking, planning.
Hours passed.
Wystan moved carefully through the underground. The pit wasn't just a collapse, it was a lower layer, a hidden section of the dungeon.
The environment changed. The walls grew darker. The blue mana veins turned faintly purple, the air heavier, denser. "This isn't D-rank anymore." He had heard of this before. Dungeon layer shifts, when a dungeon's internal structure evolved creating deeper zones, with higher difficulty. "So I got dropped into the worst place possible."
And yet- he was alive. A faint smile formed. "Guess they messed up"
-
Two ghouls emerged from opposite sides, faster than the first. Wystan, exhaled slowly. "All right." He adjusted his stance. "Round two"
The first ghoul lunged. Wystan stepped in- dodged, barely "Still slow." The second attack, he blocked too late.
Slash-!
His arm split open, and healed. Wystan grin. "Yeah... I like this." The fight turned chaotic. He wasn't skilled. Not yet but he was relentless. He didn't retreat, didn't panic, didn't hesitate, because he didn't have to, blow after blow, damage after damage, all erased.
And slowly, he improved, his movement sharpened, his reactions tightened, until the one ghoul fell then the other.
Wystan stood over them. Breathing hard. "I'm getting used to this" he collected the cores, two this time. Better odds. He crushed the first.
[Skill Acquired:]
-Enhanced Agility (Lvl.1)
"Nice!"
The second-
[Acquisition Failed.]
"Of course..." He shrugged.
"Still worth it"
Wystan leaned against the wall, thinking.
Three skills
- Phoenix Body
- Claw Strike
- Enhanced Agility.
His eyes narrowed.
"Now"
The system responded.
[Available Skills:]
- Phoenix Body
- Claw Strike
- Enhanced Agility
Three paths, he could fuse-
Claw + Agility
Phoenix + Claw
Phoenix + Agility
Each unknown, each risky. Wystan smiled faintly. "This is insane."
No guidelines, no rules, no limits.
Just... choice.
He looked at his hands, at the faint embers flickering beneath his skin. "They threw me away." His voice was quiet but steady. "Left me to die." His gaze hardened. "Good."
The system pulsed, waiting.
Wystan raised his hand. "Let's see..." His finger hovered over the option.
"What happens next?"
[Combine?]
His lips curled into a slow, dangerous smile.
"Yeah."
Darkness shifted around him. The dungeon seemed to hold its breath, once more and far above unseen by enemy.