After the extreme coldness faded, his body ignited—burning from the inside out.
Barely able to lower his gaze, he saw the skin on his hand turning brittle, charred black. Fine cracks spread across it, and from them seeped bitter smoke, curling upward in thin wisps.
Then, almost instantly, the pain vanished.
His vision cleared.
Translucent lines of text flickered into existence before his eyes, appearing one after another.
[Awakening Sequence Initialized]
[User Identified: Kael Arion]
[Analyzing…]
[Searching for Optimal Stat Configuration]
Trial #001: Scanning Mana Signature…
[Result: Incompatible]
Trial #002: Assessing Neural Synchronization…
[Result: Failure]
Trial #003–#105: Processing…
Trial #004–#105: Processing…
[Result: ERROR] ×103
Trial #106: Attempting Final Synchronization…
[ERROR — Soul Signature Not Detected]
[Conclusion: Host Soul Integrity = NULL]
[Initiating Emergency Protocol]
[- Searching for Compatible Entity -]
[Match Found: ADMIN-CLASS SOUL DETECTED]
Override Initiated… Fusing host and co-host parameters… Granting administrative privileges…
[Access Level: ROOT (Limited) — GRANTED][Welcome, Administrator: Kael Arion]
A translucent blue screen hovered in front of him.
Kael's eyes—still half-lidded—struggled to keep up with the rapidly scrolling text, each line appearing and vanishing like a command executed in a bash script.
"Administrator…?" he murmured.
Somehow, the world's system had recognized the original soul residing within Kael Arion's body.
Not the owner of the flesh—
—but the one truly inside.
'I feel different…'
Noticing the change, Kael reflexively turned his gaze to his right hand.
Just moments ago, it had been burned to ash.
Now, it had returned to its natural state, smooth and unblemished, as if the damage had never existed.
No scars.No pain.
His vision sharpened further.
From his restored hand, thin threads of light drifted lazily into the air—three distinct colors, faint yet unmistakable. They swayed like living strands, barely visible to the naked eye.
But Kael could see them clearly.
And instinctively, he knew—Is this mana?
Every living being in this world possessed some degree of mana, and the brighter the color, the denser the mana.
He didn't waste a single second, and without a thought, he did what most gamers do when they start any new game.
"Status!"
Almost instantly, a blue translucent screen appeared in front of his vision.
「Status Window」
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
✵ Name: Kael Arion
✵ Level:G
✵ Rank: Awakened
✵ Mana Grade: Grade-6
✵ Race: Human
✵ Age: 17
✵ Affinity: Ice / Light / Time
✵Profession : [Swordsmanship 1]
✵Rank : G
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"...Ah?"
As expected, he had the lowest level among humans his age. Even his mana grade was just 6—the lowest among the lowest. In this game, a person's potential was determined by mana grade, and now he had the lowest possible mana grade.
'Well, at least I'm awakened.'
That meant there was still room to grow.
The thought made Kael excited.
In a world ruled by knights and magic, not being awakened was practically a death sentence.
Still, what truly caught his eye was his affinity.
Affinity: Ice / Time / ◆Light
Not just one, but three affinities.
And among them… were Light Affinity and Time Affinity.
"That's… weird."
Only the protagonist of worlds doomsday Light Affinity—the element feared by demons. It was the very thing that made him the chosen one.
But I have Light Affinity and Time Affinity.
"…Time?"
For a moment, Kael thought his vision had glitched.
He stared at the word again.
Time.
Not space.Not wind.Time.
His breathing stalled.
In this world, elemental affinities followed rules—clear, unbreakable rules passed down for thousands of years.
Time was not an element.
It was a law.
A power that governed causality, lifespan, growth, and decay itself.
Only myths spoke of it. Ancient records. Half-burned scriptures dismissed as fabrication.
No human had ever possessed it.
"...This isn't possible."
His fingers trembled as he reached out, half-expecting the word to vanish.
But it didn't.
Ice.Light.Time.
Three affinities—each one absurd on its own.
And Time stood above them all.
Cold crept up Kael's spine.
If anyone else sees this…
He didn't finish the thought.
This wasn't just rare.
This was forbidden.
And for the first time since awakening—
Kael felt something close to fear.
'Wouldn't that make me his equal or above?'
That's what Kael thought, until he checked his stats.
「Statistics」 - - - - - - - - -
Mana Capacity - F+Strength - F+Defense - F+Stamina - D-Speed - D-Intelligence - S+Charm - A+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"..."
After witnessing his stats, only one word escaped his mouth.
"Trash!" Now I know why they called Kael Arion trash in the game. With these stats, even calling him "trash" is a disgrace to trash.
Except for his intelligence, everything else was at rock bottom.
"Hm?" He scrolled through the stat window. "Since when did this third-rate villain have S+ ranked intelligence…?"
He remembered clearly that Kael had always been bottom-tier in every stat.
'Is it because of me?'
That was the only explanation. His intelligence had maxed out because I, the century's greatest genius, had transmigrated into Kael's body.
A small grin crept onto his face.
'This makes things so much easier.'
Kael had been worried about the upcoming interview with Eclipse's headmaster. He had to pass it, because everybody knew he was talentless. He couldn't let this opportunity be wasted—he needed to pass the interview, become a student, and grow stronger.
But now, with S+ intelligence… he was confident he would pass.
There were only a handful of S-rank intelligence individuals in the entire academy. An S-rank intelligence level was rare.
'So… I'll be treated as a prodigy?'
That thought alone made Kael—or rather, Haru—excited for Eclipse Institute.
He didn't like the idea of someone looking down on him.
Treated as a genius since birth, Haru had always taken pride in himself.
Compared to Haru, Kael's life was… pathetic.
"Does he have any skills?"
With a single thought, he opened the skill window.
「Skills」
Analyze: Rank E+
Quick Step: Rank F
Hawk Eye: Rank F
Mana Sense: Rank F+
"Heh, trash again!" he cursed. "What the hell is wrong with this character?"
Sure, he was the one who designed him, but still—giving a villain F-rank stats and garbage skills wasn't normal.
'No wonder Kael ranked so low in the forums…'
It was all the developers' fault.
Giving him bottom-tier stats just to turn him into a running joke.
After staring at the skill window for half a minute, he exhaled loudly.
"Sigh… it's over…"
He pulled at his hair in frustration.
"My life is over."
And right then, another window popped up in front of his vision.
「Unique Skills」 - - -
Skill Deconstruction - A+
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
He almost fell.
Rubbing his eyes, he read the words again.
"U-Unique skill?!"
Now that was something to take pride in.
A Unique Skill was rare. For a trash character like him to have one—and at A+ rank—made it hard for Kael to accept reality.
Is this really the Kael Arion I designed?
He didn't recall ever giving Kael a Unique Skill.
'Did my transmigration into Kael's body… alter his fate somehow?'
"I don't know what's happening anymore…!"
He'd never questioned it before, but now… this was freaking him out.
"Who exactly transmigrated me here?" he muttered. "And why Kael, of all characters?"
He had no idea who or what was behind it.
For now, he just stared at the empty sky above.
Clenching his fist, he made a mental note:
Whoever brought him here, Kael would make sure to find them—and ask directly why they chose him.
"Sigh… there's no time to think about that now…"
With that in mind, he turned his focus to the Unique Skill.
「Skill Deconstruction」
Usage: Allows replication of a witnessed skill.
Limitation: Requires full observation. Only works on known affinities.
Replication requires complete understanding of the skill's mechanics.
Rank: A++
Cost: 1 Fate Point
The limitations were manageable.
After all, Kael himself had designed most of the skills, so he understood their principles better than anyone.
'Does that mean I can replicate all those skills once I see them in action?'
He would definitely try it.
Anyway—
'What's this… Fate Point?'
It was an unfamiliar term.
He had never seen it before, not even during the game's development.
As he wondered, another screen appeared.
「Fate Points」
Current Points: 0
Earned by altering the story's flow.
Calculated based on how deeply the user changes the fate of the story.
Kael read it.
Rubbing his temple, he murmured,
'…I knew it wasn't going to be that easy.'
Fate Points were earned by altering the original storyline.
Kael scoffed.
"How the hell am I supposed to do that?"
Taking out a small silver-chained pocket watch, he checked the time.
"Shit! It's already 7 PM?!"
There was a birthday banquet for Princess Henna at exactly 8 PM tonight, and Duke Orion had strictly ordered him to attend.
'Do I really have to go…?'
He had no choice.
Princess Henna of the Liora Kingdom—third in line to the throne and the undeniable genius of her generation. In the near future, she would claim the top score at the prestigious Eclipse Institute.
"I really don't want to face her."
In the original storyline, Kael had a crush on Princess Rinna.
And, surprisingly enough, he had once proposed to her.
Not too long ago.
In front of her entire family.
'Fuck you, Kael!'
He had made a complete fool of himself and narrowly escaped the king's wrath, all thanks to his elder sister's reputation.
'But I don't want the father scolding me again…'
Really, he had no choice.
Standing up, he took a few extra [Drop of Origin] potions with him.
With his awakening complete, his work here was done.
He made his way back to Arion Manor...