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Chapter 1 - Chapter 1: Born in the Abyss

The world did not welcome him.

There was no sun. No sky. No light. Only silence. Only rot. And something deeper — watching.

Deep beneath the earth, in a cavern untouched by time and memory, mana twisted like a wounded storm. The air pulsed with raw magical pressure, thick and suffocating. Ancient power saturated the stone, leaking from cracks in reality itself. It was a place forsaken by gods and forgotten by history, where life had no meaning and death had no mercy.

At the center of that corrupted storm, something stirred.

A ripple in the shadows. A breath drawn through dark lungs. A heartbeat.

A form began to shape itself from the mana — bone formed, wrapped in muscle and flesh forged of shadow. Arcane runes glowed faintly across the cavern floor, circling the emerging figure like a forgotten ritual.

A child.

He inhaled his first breath—thick with mold, iron, and rot. It clawed at his throat like broken glass. His scream echoed across stone halls, swallowed whole by darkness.

He wasn't born. He was created.

"Subject 0... Core stable. Physical structure complete."

The voice echoed not from the walls, but from within him—ancient, mechanical, and cold.

"Dark mana density: 237%. Evolution threshold: unlocked. Intelligence: low. Assigning assistant… activating SAGE."

A surge of blinding light flooded his mind. His small body tensed, frozen like stone, then relaxed with unnatural stillness.

"Greetings. I am SAGE. I will be your guide."

He didn't understand. He didn't know what words were. But he felt it.

Knowledge etched itself into his neurons. Concepts flowed into him like cold fire — movement, danger, hunger. Language without learning. Memories that weren't his flickered and vanished. He existed between understanding and instinct.

His body was frail, barely clothed in torn strands of mana-flesh. His limbs trembled as he tried to move. The shadows curled around him, clinging like old friends. The cavern stretched endlessly in all directions, jagged and ancient. It was a tomb. And he was its heir.

He was weak. Alone. Hungry. But alive.

Time passed. But there were no days or nights. Only unchanging black. The world offered no guidance but pain.

He learned to crawl across jagged stone, every movement tearing skin. He found bones — vermin long dead — and fashioned them into crude weapons. He hunted glowing rats and insects with too many legs. He ate fungi that glowed with sickly blue light and drank black water that clung to cave walls. He discovered which mushrooms burned his throat, and which made his mana boil.

He endured.

SAGE whispered to him. A cold voice in his mind, never louder than a thought, never absent.

[Trait Gained: Shadow Affinity Lv.1]

[Passive Unlocked: Mana Absorption]

He began to feel mana — not just sense it, but feel it. It pulsed through the walls, hummed beneath stone, coiled like serpents in the air. It listened when he reached out with bloody hands and silent will. It was a language without words, a force that recognized his kindred soul.

He discovered he could influence it. Not shape it fully yet, but coax it. Absorb it. Call it.

And it responded.

Sometimes violently.

He learned that too much hunger made the mana twist, made it lash out. His blood boiled. His bones burned. And still, he persisted. Because he had nothing else.

One day, crawling through a tunnel choked with fungus, he stumbled into a chamber. At its center, a pool of still water reflected the faint blue glow of mana fungi.

He approached slowly.

For the first time, he saw his reflection.

Pale skin. Hollow cheeks. Hair like soot, matted and wild. His eyes shimmered silver, like liquid metal, unblinking. Around his fingertips, a black mist writhed — dark energy, alive and waiting.

He didn't look human. He looked like a ghost. Or a weapon.

"Begin spell test. Focus on the hatred inside."

His hand rose, trembling. He clenched his jaw.

He thought of the hunger. The cold. The endless silence. The pain. The void in his chest where purpose should be.

A pulse.

Mana coalesced at his fingertips.

A jagged arc of black energy ripped from his palm and obliterated a section of cavern wall. Rock shattered, dust billowed. For a moment, light flashed. Then — darkness.

He gasped, collapsing to his knees, smoke rising from his hand.

[Skill Acquired: Void Scratch Lv.1]

And then — he laughed.

Not with joy. Not with relief. But with purpose.

For the first time, he knew one thing:

He could fight. He could destroy. He was no longer nothing.

Time blurred again.

He grew stronger, faster. Learned which mushrooms made his mana burn. Which insects enhanced his senses. Which tunnels led to danger. He survived more than he suffered. He mapped the caverns by instinct, carving notches into the wall.

He began talking to the shadows. To himself. To SAGE.

He started forming thoughts. Dreams.

Then, one day — he wasn't alone.

He wasn't sure how he sensed it, but something in the air changed.

Breath. Movement. Blood.

He followed the scent.

A creature crouched in a narrow tunnel — hunched, bleeding, snarling.

A goblin.

Its yellow eyes locked with his. It hissed. So did he.

They lunged. A clash of claws, teeth, instinct. No words. No thoughts. Just rage and hunger and survival.

Blood splashed on stone. His shoulder burned from a bite. He slammed the goblin into the wall. It clawed at his face.

He grabbed its throat.

And stopped.

"Naming Protocol Unlocked. Assign identity to initiate evolution."

He didn't know what the words meant. But something in his soul understood.

He opened his mouth.

"Zar."

The goblin froze.

Its eyes widened. Its body spasmed. Glowing veins of mana surged through it. Muscles restructured. Bones realigned.

It screamed.

And then it knelt.

"Zar… serves Master…"

[Zar: Named Goblin | Rank F+ | Loyalty: 100%]

He stepped back, heart pounding.

This wasn't magic. This was something else.

Something greater.

He had taken a creature broken and feral — and raised it.

Not healed. Not helped. Commanded.

He looked down at his hand, then back to Zar.

He had no name. No memories. But now, he had a follower. And with that — a beginning.

"Welcome to the abyss, Kael."

[Title Gained: The Abyssborn]

He repeated the name in a whisper, tasting its weight. "Kael."

It wasn't given. He claimed it.

And so, in a world without gods, without mercy, and without hope — a king began his crawl toward the surface.

One shadow at a time.

[Kael – Status: Unknown | Race: Abyssborn | Level: 1 | Mana Core: Dark (Unstable)]

[SAGE: Active | Language Protocols: Complete | Combat Adaptation: Initializing]

[Next Objective: Survival. Domination. Evolution.]

The world above still basked in light. But far below, something had awoken.

And it would rise.

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