The Awakening Center smelled like the nervous sweat of three hundred teenagers hoping to win the genetic lottery.
Liam stood before the Awakening Stone -- a massive, jagged slab of obsidian pulsing with dormant mana. In his past life, he had touched this stone and awakened as a fragile F-Rank with a pathetic wisp of shadow magic. It had taken him a decade of literal blood, sweat, and borderline psychopathic determination to force that wisp into an SSS-Rank cataclysm.
He reached out, expecting the familiar, weak hum.
A golden window materialized directly over the stone, blocking his hand.
[Quest Update: First Ignition]
[Your mana circuits are currently sealed to prevent your past-life power from detonating your fragile new body. To unseal your base ’Shadow Seed’, you require an emotional anchor.]
[Task: Place your hand on the stone. Turn and make unbroken, intense eye contact with Liora Selene for five seconds. Think about her lips. Or her smile. Just make it romantic.]
[Penalty for breaking eye contact: Temporary ’Cross-Eyed’ debuff (Duration: 12 hours).]
Liam paused, his hand hovering an inch from the glass-like surface.
You have got to be kidding me, he thought.
[I am perfectly serious. Tick-tock, Sovereign.]
The bored examiner, a balding man with an electronic clipboard, tapped his pen. "Any day now, kid. We’ve got a schedule."
"Right." Liam exhaled a sharp breath. He placed his right palm flat against the cold stone.
Then, he turned his head completely around to face the crowd. He scanned the sea of faces, his predator-honed instincts instantly locking onto Liora. She was standing near the front row, holding her paper bag, looking at him with mild confusion.
Liam stared at her.
He tried to follow the System’s instructions to be romantic, but his facial muscles were permanently wired for intimidation. He ended up furrowing his brows, his crimson-flecked dark eyes drilling into hers with the intensity of a sniper acquiring a target.
Think about her lips, the system had said.
Liam analyzed them. Adequate symmetry. Healthy coloration indicating good circulation. If she was bitten by a Venom-Weaver spider, that area would swell first.
In the crowd, Liora’s eyes widened. A furious blush erupted across her cheeks and down her neck. She shifted her weight, looking around to see if anyone else was noticing that the guy on stage was glaring at her like he wanted to devour her.
"What is he doing?" someone whispered.
"Is he having a stroke?" another muttered.
[3... 2... 1...]
Ka-thump.
It wasn’t a sound. It was a physical sensation that rattled the teeth of everyone in the room.
For a fraction of a millisecond, the System’s seal slipped.
The temperature in the Awakening Center plummeted twenty degrees. The fluorescent lights flickered and died, plunging the hall into dimness. The shadows stretching behind the bleachers, the desks, and the examiners suddenly seemed to lengthen, writhing like dying snakes.
A suffocating, blood-soaked pressure descended on the room. It was the aura of a man who had slaughtered armies, beheaded guild masters, and walked out of Cataclysm Gates stepping on the corpses of dragons.
In the front row, a few kids collapsed to their knees, gasping for air as their survival instincts screamed at them to play dead. The examiner dropped his clipboard, his face drained of blood.
And then, as quickly as it happened, the pressure vanished. The lights flickered back on.
[Task Complete. Base Shadow Seed Unsealed.]
[Note: Try smiling next time, you psycho. You looked like you were going to skin her.]
The obsidian stone flared, but not with the blinding brilliance of a high-ranker. It emitted a dull, smoky gray pulse.
A holographic projection above the stone displayed the results.
[Liam Cross]
[Rank: E]
[Affinity: Shadow]
The silence in the room stretched for a painful three seconds. The examiner, trembling slightly and wiping sweat from his forehead, looked wildly around the room, trying to find the source of the terrifying pressure. Finding nothing, he cleared his throat awkwardly.
"Uh. Liam Cross. E-Rank. Shadow Affinity. Step down, please."
The tension in the room snapped. Nervous laughter rippled through the crowd, quickly escalating into outright mockery.
"E-Rank? Are you serious?"
"Bro, I thought a boss monster just spawned! Must have been a glitch with the ventilation system."
Liam pulled his hand back, ignoring the murmurs. He checked his internal state. A tiny, familiar droplet of cold energy rested near his heart. His shadows were back. Weak, pathetic, and barely enough to light a cigarette, but they were there.
He walked down the steps, heading straight back to Liora. She was still flushed, her blue eyes darting away as he approached.
"Liam, what was... why were you looking at me like that?" she whispered, her voice a mix of embarrassment and something else he couldn’t quite identify.
Before he could calculate a response that wouldn’t result in a system penalty, a shadow fell over them.
"Well, well. E-Rank."
It was the guy from earlier. The loudmouth in the designer jacket who had bumped into them. Julian Vance. His father was a B-Rank executive at the local Silver Vanguard Guild, a fact Julian made sure everyone within a five-mile radius knew.
Julian smirked, flanked by two lackeys. He looked at Liam, then let his gaze slide over Liora, his eyes lingering uncomfortably long on her legs. "Shadow affinity, huh? That’s a thief’s class. Makes sense for an alley rat. And the staring contest on stage? Really, man? Have some class. If you’re going to beg a girl to look at you, at least be higher than the bottom tier."
Liam didn’t say anything. His eyes simply shifted from Julian’s face to his clavicle, his leading shoulder, and the placement of his feet.
Weight distribution heavily favoring the right leg. Left arm relaxed, zero guard. Center of gravity completely exposed. Structural integrity of neck: highly vulnerable.
"Hey, I’m talking to you, garbage," Julian sneered, stepping closer. He reached out to shove Liam’s shoulder. "Maybe you need someone to teach you how to behave around your betters."
Julian’s hand moved.
To Liam, who had spent ten years fighting enemies that moved at the speed of sound, Julian’s shove looked like it was happening in slow motion. It was pathetic.
With a minimal, almost lazy pivot of his hips, Liam let Julian’s hand slide harmlessly past his shoulder. In the same motion, Liam brought his right hand up, the web of his palm striking perfectly into the soft nerve cluster at the crook of Julian’s elbow.
Julian let out a sharp gasp as his arm went numb.
Before the arrogant guild heir could process what was happening, Liam hooked a foot behind Julian’s ankle and gave his chest a flat, open-handed push. It wasn’t a strike. It was basic physics.
Julian’s feet flew out from under him. He hit the hard linoleum floor with a sickening CRACK, all the air leaving his lungs in a violent whoosh.
The two lackeys froze, their jaws dropping. They hadn’t even seen Liam wind up. One second Julian was shoving him, the next Julian was on his back, gasping like a beached fish, his eyes bulging as he desperately tried to draw breath.
Liam looked down at him with utter apathy.
"Your defensive posture is severely lacking," Liam stated, his voice flat and analytical. "You telegraphed your intent, overextended your center of gravity, and left your throat unguarded. In a dungeon, you would be dead before your brain registered the pain."
The entire section of the hall went dead silent. Nobody moved.
Liam turned away from the wheezing Julian and looked back at Liora. She was staring at him, her lips slightly parted in shock.
[Ding!]
[Interaction Log: +5 Affection with Liora Selene (now 44)]
[She is simultaneously intimidated and highly impressed. Good job protecting your potential Consort without using magic. +1 to Strength Stat.]
Liam felt a tiny surge of heat run through his muscles. The lingering soreness from his regression faded just a fraction. Physical stat upgrades from making a girl swoon. This system is absurd.
"Come on," Liam said, gesturing to the stage. "It’s your turn."
Liora blinked, snapping out of her daze. She looked from the groaning Julian on the floor to Liam’s completely nonchalant face. "You... you just dropped a Vanguard trainee without even trying."
"He tripped," Liam lied smoothly.
"Next up, Liora Selene!" the examiner called out, still sounding a bit shaky from the earlier power fluctuation.
Liora took a deep breath, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. "Okay. Okay, my turn."
She walked up the steps, her posture rigid with nerves. Liam watched her closely. In his previous life, Liora had awakened as an A-Rank Celestial Weaver -- a ridiculously rare support class that could stitch flesh back together and weave buffs out of starlight. She had been poached by a massive guild the very next day, and he had never spoken to her again.
Liora placed her small, trembling hand on the obsidian stone.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then, a fracture appeared in the center of the unbreakable Awakening crystal.
Crack.
A sliver of blinding, incandescent silver light leaked from the fissure. It wasn’t the gentle glow of a healer. It was violent, jagged, and searingly bright.
CRACK.
Another fissure spread. The examiner screamed and scrambled backward, throwing his arms over his face.
Liam’s eyes narrowed, his combat instincts flaring into overdrive. That’s not Celestial magic. That’s volatile.
"Liora, let go of the stone!" Liam shouted, surging forward toward the stage.
But Liora was frozen, her eyes rolled back into her head, her hand seemingly glued to the obsidian. A swirling vortex of silver-blue energy erupted from the stone, whipping her hair around her in a violent halo.
The crystal began to scream -- a high-pitched wail of overloaded mana.
[CRITICAL ALERT!]
[Temporal Anomaly Detected. The Goddess’s interference in this timeline has prematurely mutated Target Liora Selene’s Awakening.]
[New Quest: Save the Consort]
[Objective: Sever the mana feedback loop before she detonates the entire building.]
[Reward: High Affection Boost + Second Seal Break.]
[Failure: You die a virgin again, but this time in pieces.]
Liam didn’t hesitate. He vaulted over the front row of chairs, his body protesting the sudden movement as he rushed the stage. The silver light was already burning the oxygen out of the air, and the stone was seconds away from a catastrophic meltdown.