The C-Rank boss charged.
Lucas stood his ground.
His body was exhausted.
His muscles were screaming from Break Limit.
His shoulder was injured.
His breathing was heavy.
But his eyes remained focused.
The boss’s weapon came toward him.
Lucas stepped forward.
He didn’t retreat.
At the last possible moment, he shifted his body.
The weapon passed beside him.
Lucas raised his fist.
[Impact Break]
Energy gathered around his hand.
He aimed directly at the exposed core.
The boss turned.
Its free hand moved toward Lucas.
Lucas saw it coming.
He didn’t stop.
The boss’s hand struck his side.
Pain exploded through Lucas’s body.
But Lucas remained standing.
His fist continued forward.
Impact Break struck the core.
CRACK!
A fracture appeared across the crystal.
The boss staggered.
Lucas pulled his fist back.
The creature roared.
It wasn’t dead.
Lucas took a deep breath.
His body was reaching its limit.
He couldn’t keep Break Limit active much longer.
He needed to finish the fight.
The boss charged again.
Lucas charged too.
The distance disappeared.
The boss swung its weapon.
Lucas ducked beneath it.
He stepped inside its guard.
[Strength Enhancement]
[Impact Break]
His fist struck the exposed core.
CRACK!
Another fracture appeared.
The boss stumbled backward.
Lucas didn’t let it recover.
[Speed Enhancement]
He moved around its side.
The boss turned.
Lucas was already behind it.
[Impact Break]
His fist struck the damaged area.
The core cracked again.
The boss roared and swung wildly.
Lucas moved backward.
The weapon missed.
The boss attacked again.
Lucas ducked.
Another strike.
He stepped aside.
The creature’s movements were becoming more desperate.
Lucas recognized the pattern.
It was losing control.
That was his opening.
He rushed forward.
The boss raised its weapon.
Lucas grabbed its arm.
The force nearly knocked him off balance.
Lucas gritted his teeth.
“Not this time.”
He twisted the creature’s arm.
The boss lost its balance.
Lucas stepped inside its guard.
The exposed core was directly in front of him.
Lucas activated everything he had.
[Strength Enhancement]
[Speed Enhancement]
[Break Limit]
[Impact Break]
Power surged through his body.
Lucas pulled his fist backward.
The boss tried to recover.
Too late.
Lucas drove his fist directly into the cracked core.
CRACK!
The crystal shattered.
The C-Rank boss froze.
Its body began breaking apart.
The armor dissolved.
The weapon disappeared.
Dark energy scattered through the chamber.
Finally, the entire monster vanished.
Lucas remained standing.
For several seconds, he didn’t move.
Then the system appeared.
[FINAL BOSS DEFEATED]
[ADVANCEMENT DUNGEON COMPLETED]
Lucas stared at the notification.
He had done it.
The advancement trial that had defeated him multiple times in his first life was finally complete.
Lucas slowly lowered his fist.
“Finally.”
Another notification appeared.
[ADVANCEMENT REQUIREMENTS COMPLETE]
[Energy Capacity: Complete]
[Advanced Power Control: Complete]
[Approved D-Rank Dungeon: Complete]
[Required Monster Defeats: Complete]
[Final Trial: Complete]
[BOOST BREAKER]
[Rank Advancement Confirmed]
[Rank: E → D]
Lucas suddenly felt something change inside his body.
A powerful wave of energy spread through him.
His muscles tightened.
His senses sharpened. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
The energy inside his body became denser.
Lucas closed his eyes.
He could feel the difference.
His entire body was being rebuilt around his new rank.
Then a notification appeared.
[LEVEL RESET]
[Previous Rank: E]
[Previous Level: 30]
[New Rank: D]
[Level: 1]
Lucas opened his eyes.
“Level one.”
He already knew this would happen.
Every time an Awakener reached a new rank, their level returned to Level 1.
The level wasn’t a measurement of total power by itself.
Rank represented the quality and foundation of an Awakener’s power.
Level represented their growth within that rank.
Lucas opened his status.
[STATUS]
Name: Lucas
Level: 1
Rank: D
Class: None
Ability: Boost Breaker
Hidden Ability: Time Manipulation
Lucas looked at the experience bar.
[EXPERIENCE STORAGE]
[Stored Experience From Advancement Dungeon]
[Releasing…]
Lucas’s eyes narrowed.
The experience he had earned throughout the dungeon had been held back by the advancement trial.
Now that the trial was complete, it was being released.
The experience bar began climbing.
[LEVEL UP]
[LEVEL 2]
[LEVEL 3]
[LEVEL 4]
[LEVEL 5]
The number continued increasing.
[LEVEL 6]
[LEVEL 7]
[LEVEL 8]
[LEVEL 9]
[LEVEL 10]
Lucas watched silently.
[LEVEL 11]
[LEVEL 12]
[LEVEL 13]
[LEVEL 14]
[LEVEL 15]
[LEVEL 16]
[LEVEL 17]
The experience finally stopped.
Lucas stared at the notification.
[D-RANK LEVEL: 17]
He smiled.
“Level seventeen.”
He had entered the dungeon as an E-Rank Level 30.
He had left as a D-Rank Level 17.
Lucas opened his detailed status.
[DETAILED STATUS]
Name: Lucas
Rank: D
Level: 17
Class: None
Strength: 86
Speed: 82
Defense: 74
Vitality: 79
Energy: 91
Recovery: 76
Control: 100
Sense: 84
Lucas stared at the numbers.
His Control immediately caught his attention.
“One hundred.”
That wasn’t surprising.
He had spent an entire lifetime learning how to use Boost Breaker.
Even though his body had regressed, his understanding hadn’t.
He had the experience of someone who had already reached the highest stages of the ability.
His body was new.
His knowledge wasn’t.
Lucas opened another window.
[BOOST BREAKER]
[Current Rank: D]
[Abilities]
[Basic Enhancement — D-Rank]
[Strength Enhancement — D-Rank]
[Speed Enhancement — D-Rank]
[Break Limit — D-Rank]
[Impact Break — D-Rank]
[Appraisal — D-Rank]
[Defense Break — D-Rank]
[Quest System: Active]
Lucas immediately noticed the difference.
Every ability he had previously unlocked had evolved with his rank.
They weren’t the same abilities he possessed at E-Rank.
Their output was higher.
Their efficiency was better.
Their strain on his body was lower.
And their potential had increased.
Then another notification appeared.
[NEW D-RANK ABILITY UNLOCKED]
[DEFENSE BREAK]
Lucas read the description.
[Defense Break]
[Allows the user to weaken the defensive properties of a target through concentrated Boost Breaker energy.]
[Effectiveness increases against targets with greater defensive strength.]
Lucas nodded.
That ability would have been extremely useful against the boss.
Impact Break concentrated his attack.
Defense Break weakened the target’s defenses.
Combined together, they could become extremely dangerous.
Lucas looked at his Time Manipulation.
[HIDDEN ABILITY]
[Time Manipulation] New chapters come out on g.com first.
[Current Ability: Temporal Sight]
[Effect: Perceive the world as slowed for a limited duration.]
[Duration: 8 seconds]
[Cooldown: 45 seconds]
Lucas’s expression became serious.
Eight seconds.
His ability had become stronger after reaching D-Rank.
The cooldown had also dropped significantly.
In his previous life, he had needed much longer before Time Manipulation became this useful.
Another anomaly.
Lucas closed the window.
Then he opened Appraisal.
[APPRAISAL]
[Current Rank: D]
[Maximum Appraisal Range: B-Rank]
[Information Available:]
[Target Rank]
[Target Level]
[Basic Status]
Lucas smiled.
He could now see targets up to two ranks above himself.
That meant he could appraise B-Rank Awakeners.
But there was something else Lucas wanted to understand.
He compared himself to an ordinary D-Rank Level 17.
[COMPARISON]
[Lucas — D-Rank Level 17]
Strength: 86
Speed: 82
Defense: 74
Vitality: 79
Energy: 91
Recovery: 76
Control: 100
Sense: 84
[Average D-Rank Level 17 Awakener]
Strength: 51
Speed: 48
Defense: 46
Vitality: 49
Energy: 53
Recovery: 45
Control: 50
Sense: 47
Lucas stared at the comparison.
The difference was enormous.
A normal D-Rank Level 17 Awakener was strong compared to lower ranks.
But Lucas was on another level.
His Control was the biggest difference.
A normal Awakener spent years learning to properly control their awakened power.
Lucas had already lived through an entire lifetime.
He knew exactly how to move energy.
He knew how to conserve it.
He knew how to combine abilities.
He knew when to attack.
He knew when to retreat.
And he knew how to exploit weaknesses.
His level was only seventeen.
But his actual combat ability was far beyond what his level suggested.
Lucas looked at his status.
[D-RANK — LEVEL 17]
He smiled.
“This is only the beginning.”
Then he remembered something.
His first life.
He had possessed Boost Breaker back then.
But he hadn’t understood it.
He had treated it like a simple enhancement ability.
He had wasted years.
It wasn’t until much later that he discovered what Boost Breaker truly was.
Now he had the knowledge he lacked back then.
And he had already unlocked abilities years earlier than he should have.
Lucas looked toward the dungeon exit.
He had finally surpassed the point where his first life had begun to change.
The future was already different.
And he was becoming stronger much faster than before.
But Lucas wasn’t satisfied.
D-Rank was only the next step.
There were still C-Rank.
B-Rank.
A-Rank.
S-Rank.
And eventually, the ranks beyond what most of humanity even knew existed.
Lucas turned toward the exit.
Before he left, one final notification appeared.
[QUEST — FIRST STEP]
[Completed]
[Rewards Available]
Lucas stopped.
He had forgotten about the quest.
The conditions had finally been completed.
Lucas stared at the notification.
“What did I get?”
The system went silent for a moment.
Then another window appeared.
[QUEST REWARD]
[BOOST BREAKER EVOLUTION POINTS ACQUIRED]
[Hidden Requirement Completed]
Lucas’s eyes narrowed.
“Evolution points?”
The system didn’t explain further.
Instead, a final message appeared.
[NEW QUEST AVAILABLE]
[THE NEXT STEP]
[Objective: Reach C-Rank]
[Progress: 0/1]
Lucas smiled.
He had expected this.
He closed the system.
“D-Rank.”
He clenched his fist.
“Now let’s see what C-Rank looks like.”
Lucas walked toward the dungeon exit.
He had entered the dungeon as an E-Rank.
He was leaving as a D-Rank Level 17.
And for the first time, Lucas realized something.
The timeline wasn’t simply changing around him anymore.
He was changing it himself.