Lucen stepped off the curb and kept walking. No direction. Just forward.
The wind smelled like oil and old metal. Somewhere nearby, a power relay was burning out. It made a soft clicking noise like someone trying to light a match that had long since given up.
He turned into a side street with less foot traffic. The kind of block where kiosks didn't bother fixing their backlights and people walked faster for no reason.
That's where he found the gear box.
Wedged between a busted stairwell and a gutter pipe someone tied with red prayer ribbon.
The screen flickered when he tapped it.
Took a full second to load.
[Scavenger Basic Kit – 35 credits]
[Sigil Container – 18 credits]
[Mana Stabilizer Pack – 12 credits]
Lucen stared at the top listing.
Basic kit. Half a spell ward, a plastic knife, and a utility disc that looked like it came out of a cereal box.
He checked his balance.
Still had a little over 200 credits left from the rescan payout.
'Right. Let me just burn half of it prepping to die in a sewer with no witnesses.'
He bought the kit.
The machine groaned like it didn't approve.
A tray slid out. Knife, disc, wrap of cloth that might've once been armor. Maybe.
He picked up the knife. It bent a little.
'This thing couldn't stab a sandwich.'
He sheathed it anyway and dropped the gear into his coat. Then tapped in the second purchase.
Sigil case.
Metal clasp. Foam interior. Smelled like rust and someone else's regret.
He shook it once.
It rattled.
'Perfect. That's exactly what you want from something holding volatile rune pieces.'
He stepped back onto the street.
The city blinked around him. One block up, a bigger kiosk ran full holo ads for guild contracts.
Slick logo. Silver letters. Music playing like it thought life had stakes.
[Your Class Deserves Glory – Apply to Blackspire Today]
Lucen didn't break stride.
He glanced at the kid standing nearby. Probably seventeen. Full guild coat. System window hovering over his wrist.
[Runeblade – Rank B]
People were definitely looking.
Lucen adjusted his collar and kept moving.
'Yeah. Flash it harder, man. Maybe the gate monsters will wait politely while you read off your resume.'
He ducked into an alley under the bridge.
This was where the job boards lived.
The real ones.
No ads. No branding. Just paper. Chalk. Sometimes tape. Listings that felt like they were written by people who couldn't afford to lie.
He walked past a wall of old requests. Most were already scratched out.
Then one caught his eye.
Low-Tier Clearance Contract – Zone 12 Drift
Danger Rating: F to C
Entry Pay: 40 credits
Sigil Bonus: Variable
Guild Not Required
Manual Sign-In Accepted
Lucen stared at it.
Zone 12. Not a full dungeon yet. Just drift activity. A few twisted corridors. Minor spawn risk.
'Or so they say. That's always the sales pitch. "Minor risk." Translation is no cleanup crew and no refunds.'
He pulled a pen from his pocket.
Wrote his name at the bottom.
Lucen Ivara
Small. Neat.
'Congratulations. You've officially volunteered for forty credits of trauma.'
The alley behind him was quiet.
No one watching. Just the low buzz of a failing mana relay in the wall and the faint hiss of water leaking from somewhere it shouldn't be.
He adjusted his coat and walked.
No rush. No one waiting.
He opened his system window with a tap.
[Class Rank: SSS]
[Talent: Spellcraft Sovereign]
[System Mode: Adaptive Spell Designer Interface]
[Spells Created: 1]
[Current Spell: Unstable Kinetic Point]
[Mana: 51 / 51]
[Status: Unsynced]
[Level: 1]
[Next Level: 150 EXP]
No map. No quest guide. No safety.
Just a box that let him make spells by drawing squiggly lines and praying they didn't kill him.
He smiled a little.
'Totally fine. I'll just improvise spell number two while getting chased by something with bones on the outside.'
He closed the system.
And walked toward home.
Lucen reached the front door of his building and hit the panel with his ID.
Nothing happened.
He hit it again.
The screen blinked once like it was thinking about it. Then turned green.
The lock clicked.
'Yeah. That's what I thought. Keep pretending you have standards.'
He stepped inside. The hallway lights stuttered. The carpet hadn't been cleaned since the last political cycle. Someone had spilled what looked like curry across three steps. It didn't smell like curry anymore.
Second floor. Room 203. He unlocked it, stepped in, and closed the door behind him like the room might try to escape if he didn't.
The space was small.
Not cozy small. Just small.
Bed. Desk. One cracked window. Sink in the corner. Bathroom behind a sliding door that didn't slide. The radiator groaned once as if offended by the cold.
Lucen dropped his bag on the chair.
Took off his coat. Dropped it on the bag.
Then sat.
The chair complained.
He opened the system window with one flick.
[Class Rank: SSS]
[Talent: Spellcraft Sovereign]
[Spells Created: 1]
[Mana: 51 / 51]
[Spell: Unstable Kinetic Point]
[Level: 1 – EXP: 0 / 150]
The spell glowed in the archive. Still basic. Still unstable. But it had worked. He'd aimed. Fired. Something launched. The tile cracked. Nothing exploded.
Lucen tapped the spell to open the structure diagram.
The shape hovered in midair.
Triangle base. Curve anchor. Central point for release.
He'd built it from instinct. Just followed what the system showed him and hoped it didn't blow his hand off.
It still didn't feel real.
'Who the hell lets a seventeen-year-old build spells from scratch like it's a hobby?'
He reached for his notepad and flipped to a blank page.
The pen shook slightly in his fingers. Not fear. Just the afterbuzz of casting something that shouldn't exist.
'Alright. Spell two.'
He stared at the page.
Nothing came to mind.
'Cool. Genius spell designer. Blank page. This is going great.'
He leaned back and let the pen rest on the desk.
The room creaked in the corner. Probably the pipes. Or a rat. Or a pipe rat.
He didn't move.
'What do I even need? I've got launch force. I need control. Maybe slow? Lockdown? A trap?'
He opened his tablet and loaded a public spell index.
[Basic Containment Wards – Theory Only]
[Entry Flame Loops]
[Mana Poke (Beginner Knockback Spell)]
[Thread Pulse – Interruption Class]
He scrolled.
Most of them had safety notes. Warnings. Suggested builds. Stuff that looked like it was written by lawyers with too much free time.
His spell didn't have any of that.
Just a name.
A shape.
And a very clear warning when it got unstable.
He opened a blank template in the system. The grid pulsed faintly.
[New Spell Design – Begin Structure]
He didn't draw anything yet.
Just stared.
'If I screw this up in the middle of a drift zone, I'm going to die with a really stupid look on my face.'
He tapped the corner of the desk twice.
Then pulled open the scavenger kit he bought earlier.
The knife was still dull.
The fake shield disc buzzed when he shook it. That was probably fine.
The cheap armor had one enchant glyph. It was misaligned. He could tell just by looking.
'Okay. So gear's useless. Spell's half a guess. And I have to enter a drift zone tomorrow morning for forty credits. This is either the start of an underdog story or a very efficient obituary.'
He slid the kit pieces into his bag and zipped it shut.
Then looked at the grid again.
Still blank.
Waiting for a spark.