CHAPTER 81: LEVEL UPS (1)

The column shuddered once, then let out a long, low tone, barely audible. Like a sigh made of metal and wind.

Then the glow faded.

All of it.

In a span of three seconds, every pulse of light vanished from the stone. The core’s internal veins darkened. The chamber, once filled with that strange, humming pressure, went cold.

And then—

Silence.

But not natural.

Dead.

Lucen’s system chimed softly.

[Drift Core Extracted: 100% Integrity]

[Environmental Sync: Terminated]

[Glyph Reactions: Ceased]

[External Intelligence: Disengaged]

[Signature Monitoring: Null]

No more voices.

No more echoes.

Just... system messages.

Lucen stood still for a full beat. Then another.

It felt like stepping out of a dream.

The kind where you wake up remembering too much, only to realize the world you’re in now has fewer colors.

Varik stood, holding the now-dormant core crystal in both hands. It had shrunk slightly, condensed into a pale, faceted prism about the size of a large book.

Its surface was cracked in spiral patterns, but the glow inside was steady.

He turned toward Lucen and gave a short nod. "Done."

Lucen stared at it for a moment. "That’s what we came for?"

Varik said nothing.

Then—

Lucen’s system exploded with sound.

[RIFT CLEARED: UNCLASSIFIED ZONE]

[Zone Class: ??]

[EXP Bonus Applied — Survival Weight: HIGH]

[Combat Rating: Tier A+]

[Class Multiplier (Hidden): Active]

[Guild Acknowledgement: Denied — Drift Not Registered]

[EXP Awarded: 14,250]

[LEVEL UP: 8 → 9]

[LEVEL UP: 9 - 10]

[LEVEL UP: 10 - 11]

[LEVEL UP: 11 - 12]

[LEVEL UP: 12 - 13]

[LEVEL UP: 13 - 14]

[LEVEL UP: 14 - 15]

[LEVEL UP: 15 - 16]

He staggered half a step, jaw tightening.

[Stat Points Gained: +32]

[New Spell Slots Unlocked: +3]

[Title Unlocked: "Unknown Quantity"]

[Signature Detected by System Vault: Update Pending]

Lucen blinked hard.

He hadn’t even used his hands. All he’d done was step forward and survive.

And the rift had rewarded him like he’d conquered it singlehandedly.

He opened his mouth. Closed it again. Then looked at Varik.

"You got the same?"

Varik’s system pinged once, quiet, almost bored.

He glanced at it, then gave a vague shrug. "Thirty-two EXP."

Lucen stared.

Varik turned toward the exit corridor without waiting for commentary. "That’s the problem with being maxed out. No one pays you for effort."

Lucen’s system was still updating. His spell archive trembled, slots opening, mana cap swelling, subroutines flickering with unfamiliar glyph templates.

He didn’t have to read them to know they were beyond what C-class should even display.

[Mana Pool: 132 - 148]

[Spell Archive: 8 / 11]

[Recovery: 2.6/sec → 2.9/sec]

[New Thread: Adaptive Invocation Protocol]

He didn’t smile.

Didn’t joke.

He just stood there a moment longer, blinking slowly, letting it wash over him.

Then he exhaled.

Long. Quiet.

And whispered to himself: "Sixteen."

It didn’t feel like a win.

Not entirely.

It felt like the zone had let go of him, not because he’d beaten it, but because it had seen enough.

Varik called over his shoulder, already halfway down the lift shaft, "We leave now. Before something higher-rank realizes the seal broke."

Lucen followed.

Boots clicking across stone that no longer pulsed.

No lights.

No whispers.

Just the sound of the real world taking itself back.

—

The corridor out of the drift felt like a memory.

Same cracked stone. Same dead glyphlines. But without the hum of mana or the low-pressure distortion, it might as well have been a cave.

Lucen walked in silence beside Varik, both of them moving at an even pace, the same way soldiers return from a war no one saw.

No monsters stirred.

No pressure built.

The zone, now gutted, barely recognized them.

Lucen’s boots kicked loose shards of core dust as they moved, fine, pale particles that glittered once before fading out like broken sparks.

He tapped his system silently, opening the spell archive with one thought.

[Spell Archive: 8 / 11]

[New Spell: Acquired Randomly During Drift Core Sync]

[Spell Name: Null Reversal]

[Type: Counter-Logic / Unknown]

[Mana Cost: 28]

[Range: 4m]

[Cast Type: Reflexive / Triggered Response]

[Description: When activated, attempts to invert the most recent incoming glyph logic within proximity. Result varies.]

Lucen stopped walking for just half a second.

’...What the hell does that even mean?’

The spell had no sigil base. No visual structure. It was a single line of abstract code, scrawled in system logic he couldn’t edit.

No cast window.

No preparation glyph.

Just a trigger.

Like something the system gave him that didn’t belong in its own dictionary.

He tapped it closed without comment.

Varik glanced sideways but didn’t slow. "You felt it, didn’t you?"

Lucen arched a brow. "Felt what?"

"That it wanted to give you something."

Lucen didn’t answer right away. Then: "It didn’t feel like a reward."

"No," Varik agreed. "It felt like recognition."

They stepped through the final stretch of corridor, and the shimmer of the exit point appeared ahea, a thin veil of light now hanging still, no longer shifting like a wound in space.

The rift had closed behind them, but this backdoor had remained open, probably by Varik’s design.

He paused before they stepped through.

"Before we go back," Varik said, tone casual but direct, "we’re going to the private training facility."

Lucen looked over at him slowly. "Now?"

"Tomorrow."

Lucen narrowed his eyes. "You want me to fight?"

"No," Varik said. "I want you to level."

Lucen was silent for a beat.

Then muttered, "So, yes."

Varik stepped through the shimmer.

Lucen followed.

The world folded.

The drift’s exit released them into cool night air, rooftop level, private sector, one of the outer buildings on the guild fringe where nobody checked IDs after dark.

A sleek black car was already waiting by the rooftop entrance. Same design as before.

Lucen didn’t move to get in yet.

He was still thinking about the spell. About the message from the core. About the entity that had looked at him and said nothing... but seen everything.

Varik opened the door, then paused.

"One sparring match. Me versus you. Minimal output, no finishers. You get three casts. That’ll be enough to push you again."

Lucen’s eyebrow twitched. "You’re saying fighting you is more efficient than a dungeon?"

"I’m saying fighting me is worth ten dungeons."

Lucen considered that for a beat.

Then said, "Good. I’m bringing snacks this time."

He climbed into the car and leaned back, boots up on the opposite seat. His eyes flicked open the spell archive again.

[Null Reversal] pulsed softly in the list. Dormant. Waiting.

Lucen didn’t know what it did.

Didn’t know why the core had offered it.

Didn’t know who the first spell was meant for, the one it would invert.

But he had a feeling he’d find out soon enough.