With my plan finally locked in, everything felt simple.
Stay low-key.
Stay off the radar.
Abuse the system quietly.
If I moved smart, I could hit a few more dungeons today alone, stack skills and loot, then sort through what to keep and what to sell once I was back home. Especially skills — those were the real jackpot.
I'd love to run [Redwater Sinkhole] again right away, but speed-clearing the same dungeon twice in a row? That's the kind of thing that makes people look too closely.
And I've already broken records in past lives.
Not trying to start that game again.
Not yet.
My short-term goal is simple:
Become the first A-ranked awakener in Sacramento, CA.
Right now, Sacramento only has two B-ranks, and they've been sitting at the top like a damn royal couple for the last two years.
The B-Rank Power Couple
Elias "Iron Saint" Cross – B-rank Hybrid Knight. Wields a giant black greatsword, aura like reinforced rebar, led the defense when a D-rank dungeon in Elk Grove almost broke two years ago. Known for defending civilians first, profit second.
Serena "Sunveil" Cross – B-rank Radiant Mage. Light, flame, and barriers. She's the one who turned that dungeon break into a "miracle survival story." He holds the line. She erases anything that gets past it.
Together, they've kept Sacramento relatively stable.
Two B-ranks ruling a city that barely has any C-ranks at all.
And I fully intend to climb past them.
Sacramento might be a "medium-sized" city, but it has several dungeons scattered around it. The highest-ranked one is an A-ranked Violet-Red dungeon called [Crimson Spire Expanse] — a twisted tower of floating fragments and blood-red lightning. No one's cleared its top floor yet. It glows on the city's skyline at night like a threat and a promise.
That's for later.
For now, my next target is an E-ranked dungeon people actively avoid.
Dungeon #2 — [Ebon Veil Labyrinth]
An E-ranked Indigo-tier dungeon.
Forty levels deep.
Attribute: Shadow/Spirit/Emotion.
Monsters inside don't just chew on your flesh — they chew on your fear, memories, and sanity.
Rumor is that people come out… wrong.
So most awakeners skip it and farm safer spots like Redwater.
Perfect.
Before diving in, though, I decided to test something that's been gnawing at me:
How far can I push my power if I just… don't stop using it?
So I found an empty clearing on the outskirts near the city, set up a few markers, and got to work.
[Genesis Singularity].
Again.
Again.
Again.
Orb after orb formed in my hand or in the air, imploding targets, shaking the ground, bending light. I spammed it in all directions, changing size, timing, distance, density, micro-control paths.
Hours blurred.
I lost count of the casts.
The only thing I know is that by the time my brain finally checked the number:
I'd activated Genesis Singularityover 5,000 times.
No fatigue.
No dizziness.
No Focus drain.
Not even a twinge.
An A-ranked awakener would have collapsed.
I'm not even sure the strongest awakener in the world could pull that off.
World's current #1?
World Rank 1 — "Sky-Sunder Empress"
Aurelia "Sky-Sunder Empress" Valen — S-rank, maybe beyond.
Wields thunder and gravity. Cracked a mountain range on live broadcast once and turned an S-ranked dungeon break into a crater.
Even she would need breaks between casts.
Me?
I was just… warmed up.
The thought struck like lightning:
What if my Focus isn't missing?
What if it's boundless?
Right then:
[DING]
A system window exploded into view, bright enough to make me flinch.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: BOUNDLESS REALIZATION]
Condition Met: User has repeatedly surpassed all expected limits on Focus expenditure without measurable loss.
[Boundless Focus] — Fully Awakened.
Focus ceases to function as a consumable resource. All skills draw from an infinite, self-renewing conceptual reservoir. Overuse can strain structure, but cannot empty it.
[Boundless System] — Core Layer Unlocked.
Framework shifts from "finite-stat" model to "expansion-stat" model. Growth paths now follow Boundless trajectories.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED:
[First of the Boundless]
You are the first existence in this reality to fully awaken the Boundless layer.
Rewards:
• Passive: Boundless Resonance — any time you break a previously recorded personal limit (power, speed, comprehension, kill count, dungeon clear record, etc.), all growth gains from that event are doubled.
• Passive: Appraisal Jammer — any attempt to scan, appraise, or inspect your true status is downgraded or returns partial/false info unless you allow it.
• Hidden Metric: Boundless Index — tracks your expansion rate relative to cosmic norms.
TITLE GAINED:
[Boundless Sovereign (Proto)]
Your existence is no longer measured using the same ruler as others.
Effects:
• +1 "Authority Weight" tier when interacting with laws, skills, or systems.
• Your edits (via Genesis Script) are more stable, less likely to snap back.
• Drop rates for rare/unique items increased by +25% in all dungeons.
SECOND TITLE GAINED:
[Fourth-Life Paradox]
Four lives. Four timelines. One soul refusing to break.
Effects:
• Soul Defense: massively increased; standard soul/mental attacks are resisted or distorted.
• +40% resistance to fear, madness, possession, and charm.
• "Death Imprint" — upon fatal damage, time slows slightly for you, granting a fraction of a second more to react, once per day (local).
I just stood there, staring at the screens.
A wave of emotions crashed over me — disbelief, relief, rage, satisfaction, hunger.
Thirty minutes later, I finally calmed down enough to think straight.
I looked at my hands.
Five thousand casts. No fatigue. Boundless Focus. Boundless System. Two titles. Extra passives stacked on passives.
I was a walking glitch.
Time to check the full picture.
[STATUS]
A familiar translucent window unfolded.
[STATUS — KAELEN HARDEMAN]
Lineage: Kaelenic Genesis Line — Sole Founder, Soul-Keyed
Race: Human (Ascendant Variant)
Bloodline: Progenitor of All — Ω-Class (Evolvable)
Realm: Genesis Realm — Floor 0
Limiter: OFF
Authority: Reality-Write (Local)
CORE TRAITS
• Infinite Energy — stamina/essence cannot be exhausted by conventional means
• Boundless Focus — Focus no longer depletes; skill costs are conceptual only
• Unbounded Potential — caps convert to soft limits; soft limits convert to milestones
• Genesis Script — edit self, objects, or micro-laws at a growing cost
• Sovereign Mandate — aura enforces narrative superiority; sub-tier beings flinch or fold
• Reality-Shaper — manipulate local physics within a radius, anchor changes
• Duality Sigils (Platinum/Obsidian) — encode intent into skills and passives
STATS
Strength: SSS+
Agility: SSS+
Vitality: SSS+
Intelligence: ∞
Wisdom: ∞
Focus: ∞ / ∞ (Boundless)
Charisma: ∞
Luck: ∞
Derived:
Armor DR: ∞ (local)
Aura DR: ∞ (local)
Action Speed: instant-adjacent
Crit Type: "authorial"
TITLES
• Boundless Sovereign (Proto) — growth multipliers, edit stability, rare drop boost
• Fourth-Life Paradox — soul defense, mental resistance, pseudo-"death slowdown"
• (Legacy Achievements):
– Awakened Four Months, Moved Mountains
– First Rewrite
– Node Founder (2/9)
– First of the Boundless
PASSIVES
• Boundless Potential —
– All gains ×7
– 55% chance loot upgrades +4 tiers
– 45% chance to jump to Ultimate tier
– +45% EXP gain
– +85% understanding/comprehension/control
– +4 skill points every 2 seconds (Boundless Stream)
Boundless Resonance — doubled gains when surpassing personal records
• Spatial Inventory — infinite-cap non-decaying inventory; no living storage
Skill Points: [Overflow State] — value exceeds display capacity
ACTIVE SKILLS
• Genesis Singularity (100%) — manifest and control singularities; wide variability
• Unseen Aegis (100%) — invisible, auto-adaptive defense layer
• Event Horizon (100%) — 4-pulse ignition field; boundary control and kill-zone shaping
• Axiom Glaive (100%) — manifests four weapon-constructs aligned to intent:
– Edge-Judge (Katana)
– Anchor-Lancer (Spear)
– Perimeter Suppressor (P90)
– Singularity Kusarigama (Chain-Sickle)
COMBO ART
• QP-Array [Quad Perihelion Array] (100%) — unified four-weapon rotational formation; defense + offense; can evolve.
I couldn't help it.
"Ha. Haha. Hahahahaha…"
I laughed quietly, staring at my fist as I clenched it so tight my knuckles nearly broke skin. Everything in me wanted to scream in victory, but I kept it contained, forced it down into a cold, sharp line of focus.
"Finally," I murmured. "Something I can actually work with."
With all my skills at 100% proficiency and backed by Boundless traits, there's no one in this miserable world whose foundation is as unfair as mine.
Not yet, anyway.
Time to move.
I headed back to Redwater's exit area. As I walked past the other awakeners, I caught the whispers.
"Where's his party?"
"Did he get kicked out?"
"He looks way too weak to be a ranker."
"Nah, look at his eyes. That's not a rookie."
I ignored them.
Couldn't blame them, honestly. My gear was trash-tier. No one would guess this was my first dungeon run.
I stepped outside the boundary and followed the signs to the pickup area. Five minutes later, a Tesla slid up beside me. The window rolled down.
"You Kaelen?" the driver asked.
"Yeah."
I hopped in.
Next stop: [Ebon Veil Labyrinth].
The ride took about thirty minutes. Plenty of time to revise my plans.
For the next week:
• Clear as many dungeons as possible.
• Farm skills and passives, especially defense and regen.
• Stay off everyone's radar while my foundation skyrockets.
As we pulled up, I saw it.
[Ebon Veil Labyrinth]
The entrance wasn't a pit this time. It was a cracked, obsidian arch, half-buried in the ground, wrapped in faint violet mist. The color marker floating above it read Indigo, a full step darker and more dangerous than Redwater's White.
Even the air felt different: thicker, colder, carrying whispers that weren't really there.
"This one feels nastier," I muttered.
It should be.
Ebon Veil had 40 levels, packed with monsters tied to shadow, fear, memory, and spiritual damage. Less raw power, more "lose your mind and die slowly." No wonder people avoided it.
Perfect testing ground.
I jumped out of the car, flashed my license to the guards — no line, no crowd, no parties prepping. Just a handful of bored C-ranks posted in case anything went sideways.
I went straight to the entrance crystal, placed my hand on it…
…and the world folded.
I landed in the first level of [Ebon Veil Labyrinth].
The temperature dropped.
The sky — if you could call it that — was a ceiling of swirling black fog. The ground was made of broken stone and shattered mirror pieces that reflected warped images of me: dead, burned, twisted, bleeding.
The tension was immediate.
Killing intent rolled across the floor like a tide.
"Yeah," I said quietly. "Something's definitely off here."
With a thought:
[QP-Array — Partial Deploy]
"Kusarigama. Edge-Judge."
The chain-sickle and katana snapped into manifested form, weapons of polished death floating into a lazy orbit around me, point and blade angled outward.
A breath later, I heard them.
Skittering. Whispering.
Shadows detached from the walls and lunged.
Twisted shapes — vaguely humanoid, vaguely insect, vaguely wrong — rushed me with claws made of smoke and teeth that seemed to chew sound itself.
I grinned.
"This is going to be fucking fun."
Edge-Judge flashed, carving through three of them in a single line. The kusarigama's chain whipped around, the mini-singularity at its tip dragging a cluster of the creatures into a spinning knot before collapsing them into nothing.
Cores and twisted shadow-fragments dropped — and vanished instantly into my Spatial Inventory.
Notifications exploded at the edge of my vision. New monster types logged. New drops recorded. EXP surging. Growth stacking.
I ignored all of it.
Instead, I looked forward — deeper into the labyrinth.
Forty levels of spiritual pressure, fear, and madness-based monsters.
Forty levels where normal parties wiped, or came back changed.
For me?
"Ha… what a hell of a beginning," I said, taking my first step deeper.
"For my fourth and final life."
And then I kept walking.