The silence in the boiler room was a physical presence, thick and warm, broken only by the ragged breaths of the survivors and the soft, almost melodic hum of the [Heart of the School]. The golden light from the floating crystal washed over them, and Leo could feel it working immediately. The crushing mental fatigue from overusing his power receded, not gone, but pushed back from a cliff's edge to a manageable ache. The shallow cut on his arm from a piece of flying debris itched as it knitted itself closed.
"It's... healing us," Maya whispered, her voice full of wonder as she stared at the crystal. She held up her hand, where a friction burn from a fall was fading before their eyes. "The energy field has regenerative properties. It's a localized reversal of the principles governing the Tecron corruption."
"Speak English, Maya," Luna groaned, slumped against a warm pipe, her uniform filthy. "My brain is too tired for nerd."
"It's fixing our boo-boos," Chloe translated, a small, weary smile touching her lips for the first time since the world ended. She was checking on the other students, her class-rep instincts kicking in even here.
Leo didn't join them. He stood just inside the circle of the Heart's light, his back to the group, staring at the sealed metal door. He could still feel the phantom heat of his [Flash-Cinder] on his palms, smell the acrid scent of burnt chitin and oil paint. He had created fire from nothing but an idea and some art supplies. The power was intoxicating, and that terrified him.
He looked at his hands. They were the hands of an artist, skilled at blending colors and shaping clay. Now they were weapons. He had fused, destroyed, and killed with them. The line between creation and destruction had never felt so thin.
"You saved us, Leo."
He turned. Chloe was standing beside him, her arms crossed. The golden light caught the determined set of her jaw.
"We saved each other," he corrected, his voice hoarse. "Your shield. Maya's bolts. Luna's scouting. Without you, I'm just a guy with a bag full of weird ideas and no way to test them."
"But you're the one who keeps us grounded, you see a way forward even in an apocalypse," she insisted. "That thing you did with the fire... I've never seen anything like it. No one has. And you had made it. It wasn't a blessing from thee system. It wasyours"
Yours. The word hung in the air and it became a sweet smelling savour to him. He was a solitary forger in a world that demanded community.
A soft chime echoed in the silence, not from the room, but in their minds. A new, translucent blue screen appeared before each of them.
[Tutorial Dungeon: 'Broken Academy' - Primary Objective Complete.]
[Survived until Safe Zone Secured.]
[Rewards Distributing...]
[+100 Experience Points to all surviving party members.]
A wave of energy, different from the Heart's gentle restoration, washed through Leo. It was a jolt of pure power, a circuit completing. The screen in front of him flashed.
[Level Up!]
[Leo Vance is now Level 2!]
[+5 Stat Points to Allocate.]
[Forging Rank has increased to E-Rank. New fusion combinations are now possible.]
E-Rank. He could feel the difference immediately. The "slots" in his mind where he held his blueprints felt larger, more stable. The hard cap that had limited his first fusions felt like it had been pushed back, allowing for more complex, more powerful creations. He could now fuse two skills together with greater ease, and perhaps even attempt more daring combinations.
He glanced at the others. Chloe let out a soft gasp as a slightly larger, more intricate barrier shimmered into existence around her forearm before fading. [Aegis] had leveled up. Maya flexed her fingers, a larger, more stable spark of electricity crackling between them. Luna blinked, looking less nauseous after her last [Mirage Step]. They were all growing.
But his growth was different. He didn't level up a skill; he leveled up his potential to create them.
"Stat points," Maya murmured, her eyes darting back and forth as she read her own private screen. "Strength, Vitality, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Charisma. It's a classic six-attribute RPG distribution."
"Where should we put them?" Chloe asked, the pragmatist seeking an optimal strategy.
"Intelligence for mana, probably. Or Vitality for survivability," Maya mused.
Leo didn't hesitate. He allocated all five of his points into Intelligence. His power was his mind—his ability to appraise, to conceptualize fusions, and to fuel them. More mana meant more creations, and more powerful ones. It was the only choice.
As he confirmed his selection, a fresh, clear well of energy surged within him. The lingering ache from his earlier exertions vanished. He felt sharper, more alert, the world coming into a more focused detail. His [Appraise] function seemed to work faster, feeding him more data with less effort.
The moment of respite was shattered by a frantic pounding on the boiler room door.
BAM. BAM. BAM.
"Please! Let us in! For God's sake, open the door!" a desperate voice screamed from the other side.
The survivors in the boiler room froze. Hope and fear warred on their faces.
"Don't!" Ethan, the lanky boy, hissed. "It could be a trick! It could be one of them!"
"But it's a person!" another student cried.
Leo's [Appraise] was already active, focused on the door. It couldn't penetrate the solid metal, but his new [Ward-Sense] could feel the aura on the other side. It wasn't the hostile red of a Tecron creature. It was the frantic, panicked grey of a human. But there was something else. A faint, clinging residue of something... cold. Oily.
"It's human," Leo confirmed. "But... be ready."
Mr. Davos and a few others heaved the door open a crack.
Three students tumbled through, collapsing onto the concrete floor in a heap of sobs and relief. They were from the chemistry club, their lab coats stained and torn. The last one to stumble in was a tall, broad-shouldered boy named Kyle, the school's star quarterback. He slammed the door shut behind him, his chest heaving.
"We made it," Kyle gasped, leaning against the door. "We saw the light... heard the fighting..."
Then, his eyes fell on Leo. A complex series of emotions flashed across his face: shock, recognition, and then a simmering, deep-seated resentment. Before the System, Kyle had been at the top of the school's social food chain. Leo had just been the quiet, incredibly good-looking art kid. Now, the hierarchy had been violently upended.
Kyle's gaze swept over the room, taking in the way everyone looked to Leo, the way Chloe stood protectively near him. His jaw tightened.
Chloe was his ex..
But Leo wasn't looking at Kyle. His [Appraise] was locked on the data it fed him and made his blood run cold.
[Name: Kyle Bronson]
[Race: Human (Baseline)]
[Level: 2]
[Skill: Power Strike (E-Rank) - The next physical attack is enhanced with concussive force.]
[Status: Afflicted with 'Tecron Whisper' (Latent).]
[Tecron Whisper (Latent): A psychic marker placed by a Tecron Dominator. Allows the Dominator to track the afflicted and, in advanced stages, subtly influence their emotions and perceptions. The marker is inactive within a Sanctuary Zone.]
Leo's eyes met Maya's. She had been using the passive ability of her mage skills, the ability to discern mana, on the newcomers too, and from her sharp intake of breath, she had seen the same thing. Her face was a mask of horror.
They were safe for now. The Heart's light protected them. But Kyle was a Trojan horse. He had brought a shadow with him into their sanctuary. And when they left this safe haven, that shadow would lead the hunters right to them.