The silence in the art studio was thick, heavy with the coppery smell of alien blood and the ozone tang of unleashed power. All eyes were locked on Leo. The incredibly handsome boy who sketched and mixed paints had just annihilated a nightmare with a flick of his wrist.
Mr. Davos's question hung in the air, unanswered. "Leo... what did you do?"
What had he done? He'd fused two skills into a new ability. It felt less like casting a spell and more like finishing a sculpture, the final, perfect stroke that brought the form to life. The thrill of that creation was a stark, guilty contrast to the twitching corpse on the floor.
"I… I made something new," Leo finally said, his voice low. He looked at his hands, then at the three girls whose fates now seemed inextricably linked to his. Chloe, the anchor. Maya, the theorist. Luna, the wild card. His first components.
The System screen—[Tutorial Dungeon: 'Broken Academy']—pulsed in his vision, a grim reminder that this was just the beginning.
"Stick together? With you?" Luna's voice was a shaky whisper from behind the easel. She stood up fully, brushing dust from her pristine uniform skirt. Her face, usually adorned with a camera-ready smile, was pale. "You just… you blew a hole in it. With light."
"It was a calculated application of force," Maya murmured, pushing her glasses up her nose. Her analytical gaze was fixed on Leo, the fear in her eyes now competing with a burning curiosity. "Chloe's barrier possesses a defensive energy matrix. My Arcane Bolt is a simple projective kinetic force. You combined them. The defensive matrix became the projectile's shell, and upon impact, the contained kinetic energy was released violently." She blinked. "Theoretically."
Chloe was the one who moved first. She walked over to Leo, her steps deliberate. She ignored the monster's body, her eyes searching his. "You stored our skills. You saw them, and you… copied them?"
"Not copied," Leo corrected, a fundamental part of his power clicking into place. "I appraised them. I stored the blueprint. The recipe. I can't use your Aegis, Chloe. But I can use it as an ingredient." He tapped his temple. "I have the blueprints for Aegis and Arcane Bolt in here. I fused them to make Aegis Bolt. It's mine. Only mine."
The implication settled over the room. He was a solitary forger. He couldn't empower them directly. He could only arm himself.
"So you're our one-man arsenal," Chloe said, the class rep in her assessing their resources. Her initial shock had solidified into a grim pragmatism. "And we're your… your scouts. Your bodyguards. While you get stronger."
"It's the only way any of us get stronger," Leo said, meeting her gaze. "My power is useless without skills to appraise. The more skills I see, the more tools I can make. Tools that can keep us alive." He gestured to the shattered closet door. "There are going to be more of those things out there. And we have to find this 'Heart of the School'."
A low moan came from the corner of the room. One of the students, a boy named Liam, was clutching a bleeding gash on his arm from flying debris. "It hurts… someone, help…"
[Appraise: Liam]
[Status: Lacerated. Minor Bleeding.]
[Skill: None.]
[Store Skill Blueprint? N/A]
He had nothing to store. No skill to fuse. Useless.
But then, Leo's eyes fell on the wreckage of the storage closet. Among the shattered canvases and broken easels were the art supplies. Tubes of oil paint, charcoal sticks, metal palette knives. Items.
[Forge] permits fusion of skill blueprints with physical objects to create enchanted items.
An idea, wild and untested, sparked in his mind.
"Chloe, Maya, watch the door," Leo commanded, his artist's mind taking over, pushing the fear aside. "Luna, help me."
Luna looked startled but, with a nervous glance at the main barricaded door, scurried over. "What are you doing?"
"Making a first-aid kit," Leo said, grabbing a half-crushed tube of cadmium red oil paint and a clean-ish paintbrush from the debris. He held them in one hand. In his mind, he focused on the only two blueprints he possessed. [Aegis] was a shield. [Arcane Bolt] was pure force. Neither was healing. But what was healing, if not the reinforcement of the body? A barrier against harm, from the inside out?
It was a stretch. But it was all he had.
[Fuse Skill Blueprint: Aegis with Physical Items: Oil Paint & Brush? Y/N]
He selected Yes.
Nothing happened for a second. Then, a soft blue glow enveloped the tube and the brush. The materials seemed to liquefy and merge, the paint soaking into the wooden brush handle, the metal ferrule glowing white-hot before cooling instantly. When the light faded, Leo was holding a single, elegant brush with bristles that now shimmered with a deep, crimson light. It felt warm in his hand.
[Item Forged: Brush of Sanguine Ward (F-Rank)]
[A single-use enchanted tool. When applied to a wound, it staunches bleeding and forms a temporary, protective synthetic skin, preventing infection. Soul-bound to Leo Vance.]
"Whoa," Luna breathed, her eyes wide.
Leo didn't hesitate. He rushed to Liam's side. "This might sting." He didn't know how to use it, so he simply painted a swift, crude line over the gash on the boy's arm.
The effect was immediate. The crimson bristles left a trail of what looked like liquid ruby on the wound. The bleeding stopped as if cinched by an invisible suture. The raw flesh sealed over with a glossy, red, film-like scab. Liam's pained moans subsided into shocked silence.
"It's… it's numb," he stammered. "It doesn't hurt."
A wave of murmurs, this time tinged with hope, rippled through the survivors. Leo had created a healing item from paint and a concept of defense.
"You can heal?" Chloe asked, a new layer of awe in her voice.
"No," Leo said, holding up the now-fading brush. It was turning to dust in his hand. "I can't. That was a one-time thing. I used up the Aegis blueprint to make it."
Maya's head snapped towards him. "You consumed the blueprint? You can't make another Aegis Bolt?"
"I still have the blueprint," Leo clarified, checking his mental inventory. It was still there. "I didn't lose it. I just used it as a component. I can reuse the blueprints as many times as I want for forging."
The strategic implications lit up Maya's face. "Infinite components. Your only limit is your level and your imagination."
And the number of skills I can find, Leo thought.
A sudden, heavy THUMP against the main classroom door made everyone jump. The cabinet shuddered. Then another THUMP. This one was accompanied by the sound of splintering wood.
"They're out there!" a student shrieked. "They're trying to get in!"
The momentary respite was over. The dungeon was active.
"New plan," Leo said, his voice cutting through the fresh wave of panic. He looked at his trio. "Chloe, you're on point. Your Aegis is our only real defense. Maya, you're rear guard. Your Arcane Bolt has more range than my Aegis Bolt. Conserve your energy. Luna…" He turned to the school idol. "I need your skill."
Luna flinched. "My… my what?"
"You have one, don't you?" Leo said, his [Appraise] already activating. He saw it instantly.
[Appraise: Luna Flores]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 1]
[Skill: Mirage Step (E-Rank) - Allows for a short, instantaneous teleportation dash in a single direction. High mana cost, short cooldown.]
[Store Skill Blueprint? Y/N]
Yes. A third blueprint joined his arsenal. Speed. Evasion.
"Mirage Step," Leo said aloud. "You can teleport."
Luna nodded nervously. "Just a little bit. It makes me dizzy."
"You're our scout," Leo declared. "When we move, you dash ahead, check corners, report back. Don't engage. Just look."
He was giving orders. And they were listening. The dynamic had shifted irrevocably. He was no longer just a student; he was the Artisan, and they were the first pieces of his survival.
With a final, deafening crack, the door burst inwards. The cabinet was shoved aside as a hulking, larger version of the Spawn—a [Tecron Brute (E-Rank)] according to Leo's Appraise—forced its way through the doorway, its bulk filling the frame.
"Now!" Leo yelled.
Chloe didn't hesitate. She threw up her hands, and a full-sized, shimmering [Aegis] barrier materialized in front of the brute. It roared and slammed a massive fist into it, causing the barrier to flicker but hold.
"Maya, now!"
A weak but precise [Arcane Bolt] shot from Maya's fingertips, striking the creature in the face. It flinched, buying them a precious second.
"Luna, the hallway! Go!"
With a gasp, Luna vanished in a blur of afterimages, reappearing ten feet down the hallway outside. "It's clear! For now!" she yelled back, her voice echoing.
Leo raised his hand. He felt the familiar energy flow as he called upon his fused creation. Another hexagonal pane of hard light spun into existence before his palm. He took aim, not at the brute's thick chest, but at its one visible, multi-faceted eye.
He thrust his hand forward.
The Aegis Bolt shot forth, a spinning disc of certain death.
The world had become a dungeon, and Leo Vance, the solitary forger, had just begun his work.