The sky over the Shattered Domain wasn't blue; it was a bruised purple, choked by the swirling mists of the Aether.
Jax stood at the edge of the transport ship, his military-issued fatigues feeling like a lead weight. Today was the Day of Descent. In the 20th year of birth, every citizen was conscripted. You either served, or you were "Exiled"—which was just a polite way of saying fed to the beasts.
"Move it, Null!" a voice barked.
Jax was shoved forward by Sergeant Vance, a man whose skin shimmered with the metallic sheen of a Tier II Iron-Ant Core. To Vance, Jax was a genetic dead-end who had failed his initial Core-Sync at age sixteen. The sergeant grinned, showing teeth that had been sharpened into points by predatory DNA. He told Jax that the army didn't need baggage, and that if he couldn't sync a core today, the beasts would get a free meal. With a brutal kick to the chest, Vance sent Jax hurtling out of the bay doors and into the abyss.
Jax hit the ground hard. The impact would have killed a normal man, but the high Aether density in Tier II zones thickened the air, acting like a partial cushion. Still, as he rolled through the jagged, obsidian-colored grass of the Whispering Barrens, he heard his ribs snap. The silence was the first thing that hit him. Then, the smell—rotting ozone and dried blood. He looked up just in time to see the transport ship vanish into the purple clouds. He had been dropped miles away from the designated safe zone. This wasn't a test; it was an execution.
A low growl vibrated through the earth. Ten yards away, a Shadow-Stalker emerged from the mist, a panther made of smoke with eyes glowing the sickly green of a Tier II Core. Jax wheezed, clutching his side, his hand brushing against something hard in the dirt. It was a Core—small, cracked, and dull gray. It was a Trash-Tier scavenger beetle core, the kind soldiers threw away because the energy was too weak to be worth a slot in a human soul.
The Shadow-Stalker lunged. Jax didn't think; he slammed the cracked core against the open wound in his side, screaming as the jagged crystal bit into his flesh. Usually, a Null's body would reject the energy and incinerate their veins. But as the gray light touched Jax's blood, his vision didn't go black. It turned gold.
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in his skull, announcing that the Eternal Repository System had found a suitable vessel after detecting a critical soul-failure. The system initialized a core consumption protocol, absorbing the scavenger beetle essence. A notification flashed in his mind: Capacity 1 of Infinite. Suddenly, a new trait called Hardened Carapace manifested.
The Shadow-Stalker's claws slammed into Jax's chest. Instead of shredding his heart, the claws met a sudden, metallic resistance. A layer of dull, grey chitin erupted under Jax's skin, locking together like armor plates. The beast recoiled, confused. Jax looked at his hands, feeling a small, hungry spark in his chest that wanted more. The system offered to overdrive the scavenger core to repair his biological damage. Jax spat blood into the obsidian grass and stared at the panther, telling the voice to burn it all.
The dull gray chitin armor groaned as the Shadow-Stalker's weight bore down on Jax, the beast's hot, sulfurous breath washing over his face. Normally, the creature's sheer mass would have crushed his sternum, but the Hardened Carapace held firm, absorbing the force into the newly formed plates beneath his skin.
"My turn," Jax hissed through grit teeth.
As the System initiated the overdrive, the beetle core in his side dissolved completely, turning into a searing liquid that raced through his veins. It wasn't the refined, cooling energy the military taught recruits to expect; it was raw, jagged power. His vision blurred as the System calculated the energy expenditure, flashing a warning that the temporary boost would exhaust his stamina in sixty seconds.
Jax surged upward, his hands—now tipped with thick, jagged fingernails that resembled a beetle's mandibles—clamping onto the panther's throat. With a roar that felt less human and more primal, he shoved the beast off him. The Shadow-Stalker flipped in the air and landed silently on its paws, its green eyes narrowing. It wasn't used to its "meal" fighting back, especially not a Null that smelled of low-tier trash.
The beast lunged again, but Jax saw the movement in slow motion. The System was overclocking his neural pathways, translating the vibration in the air into a tactical map. He didn't just see the panther; he saw the "Vector of Intent" as a flickering trail of light. Jax stepped to the left, the beast's stinger-tail whistling past his ear, and delivered a heavy blow to its flank.
The sound of the impact was like a sledgehammer hitting a wet carpet. His fist, reinforced by the chitin armor, cracked the panther's ribs.
[ WARNING: SYSTEM SYNCHRONIZATION AT 15% ]
[ ANALYZING TARGET: TIER II SHADOW-STALKER CORE ]
[ ANALYSIS COMPLETE: CORE CONTAINS "SHADOW-STEP" GENE. CONSUMPTION RECOMMENDED. ]
The hunger in Jax's chest intensified. It wasn't hunger for food, but for the glowing green orb he could see pulsing inside the beast's translucent chest. He launched himself forward, ignoring the pain in his broken ribs as the overdrive numbed his nerves. The Shadow-Stalker tried to dissolve into mist, its signature move to evade physical attacks, but Jax was faster. He reached into the shifting smoke and grabbed the one thing that remained solid: the Core.
With a violent wrench, Jax tore the glowing green crystal from the creature's chest. The Shadow-Stalker let out a final, silent scream before its form dissipated into nothingness, leaving only the pulsing Tier II core in Jax's hand.
The System flared to life, the gold light in his eyes blindingly bright.
[ TIER II CORE DETECTED. ]
[ WOULD YOU LIKE TO CONSUME AND EVOLVE? ]
Jax didn't hesitate. He crushed the green crystal in his palm, letting the shards sink into his skin. His body arched as the power of a Tier II predator collided with the scavenger foundation he had just built. His muscles began to tear and rebuild at a microscopic level, and the dull gray of his armor began to take on a sleek, obsidian sheen.
He stood alone in the purple mist, the silence of the barrens returning. He was no longer a Null. He was something the military hadn't accounted for—a scavenger that had just tasted its first real meal.
"Vance," Jax whispered, testing his new voice, which now carried a low, predatory hum. "I hope you saved a seat for me."