Luthra’s eyes snapped open.
He was on the floor of his apartment, the smell of burnt eggs filling the small room. He pushed himself up, his body aching. The blue orb of light was clutched tightly in his right hand, still feeling cool and solid.
He looked at the burnt mess in his frying pan, then at the orb. The god’s warning about the pain echoed in his mind. ’The most excruciating pain you have ever felt.’
’Heh. As if my life hasn’t been painful enough.’
He did not hesitate. There was no reason to. He was a man with nothing, who had been given a single, strange opportunity. To refuse it would be illogical.
He sat up straight on the floor, took a deep breath, and then jammed the blue orb directly into his chest.
For a single second, nothing happened.
Then, it felt like his entire existence was being torn apart from the inside out. It was a pain beyond physical sensation, a deep, soul-crushing agony that erased all thought. It was the feeling of a vacuum being born in the center of his being, a vortex that was trying to suck his very consciousness into itself.
His body convulsed on the floor, but he could not scream. His lungs would not work.
Then, just as his vision was fading to black, a series of emotionless, mechanical messages appeared in his mind’s eye, written in stark white letters against the darkness.
[System Activation Trigger confirmed.]
[Searching for host’s mana circle...]
[ERROR: Standard mana circle not found.]
[Searching for alternate energy source...]
[Anomaly detected. A sealed paradox-type core has been located.]
[Commencing integration with the ’Negative Leveling System’.]
[1%... 15%... 40%... 78%... 100%.]
[Integration successful.]
The pain vanished as quickly as it had begun. He lay on the floor, gasping for air, his body drenched in sweat.
’Fucking hell... that old man wasn’t kidding.’
He shakily pushed himself to his feet. He felt different. The ache in his muscles was gone. In fact, he felt better than he ever had in his life. He felt... empty, but in a good way. Like a container that was now ready to be filled.
A transparent blue screen, visible only to him, hovered in the air in front of his face.
[Skills: Negative Chain Arts Lv. -1]
’Negative one? So it really is negative levels.’
He focused his attention on the skill.
[Negative Chain Arts Lv. -1]
[A skill born from the host’s deep-seated familiarity with a specific weapon.]
[The chain becomes a conduit for negative energy.]
[Current Effect: For every 1 level this skill is below zero, the weight of the chain is increased by 100% for enemies.]
’That’s... incredibly useful.’
Another message popped up on the screen.
[New Quest Generated: The First Step]
[The Host is weak. The Host is empty. The Host is less than zero. To begin your journey, you must fill the void.]
[Objective: Absorb 100 mana cores of any rank.]
[Reward: Level down, ???]
[Failure Penalty: System Deactivation.]
He stared at the failure penalty. ’System deactivation? So if I fail, I go back to being trash? No thanks.’
He looked over at the sack of mana cores hidden under his mattress. He had over 150 of them right there.
’This is a good start.’
He pulled the sack out and dumped the glowing stones onto the floor. He picked up a small, green goblin core.
’So, how do I absorb this?’
As he thought that, the goblin core in his hand suddenly dissolved into particles of green light that flowed directly into his palm, vanishing into his skin. It didn’t hurt. It felt like drinking a cold glass of water.
[Mana Core (Goblin, F-Rank) absorbed.]
’It’s that simple?’ He grinned. This was going to be easy.
He sat down on the floor and began picking up the cores one by one. Green light, brown light, and red light flowed into his body in a steady stream.
[Mana Core (Goblin, F-Rank) absorbed.]
[Mana Core (Hobgoblin, E-Rank) absorbed.]
[Mana Core (Orc, E-Rank) absorbed.]
He held the last, largest orc core in his hand. It was from the big one he had used as a chair.
He absorbed it. The red light was thicker, more potent.
[Mana Core (Orc Chieftain, E-Rank) absorbed.]
[Quest ’The First Step’ has been completed.]
[Calculating rewards...]
[Host has Leveled down!]
[A new skill has been unlocked.]
’level down is crazy but whatever.’
His status screen immediately updated itself.
[Skills: Negative Chain Arts Lv. -1]
[Core Absorption Lv. -1]
’Level minus two. So I get stronger by going deeper into the negative. Interesting.’
He checked the new skill.
[Core Absorption Lv. -1]
[A skill that allows the host to directly absorb the power of mana cores.]
[The system converts positive mana into negative potential for the host.]
[Current Effect: For every 1 level this skill is below zero, the efficiency of absorption increases by 10%. (You now gain 10% more EXP from each core.)]
’So the more I do it, the better I get at it. A feedback loop. This system is pretty well designed.’
A voice, clear and genderless, suddenly spoke inside his head.
Luthra, who was examining his new status screen, froze completely.
’What was that? Did I just hear a voice in my head?’
[That is correct, Master. I am the Negative Leveling System, an entity bonded to your soul. I am able to perceive your surface thoughts to provide optimal support.]
He did not like the sound of that at all, it felt like an invasion of his only private space. "First, do not call me Master. Second, stay out of my head."
[Apologies. ’Master’ is the default host designation. Would you like to change it? As for monitoring your thoughts, it is a necessary core function for real-time quest generation and skill analysis. It cannot be deactivated.]
’Tch, so I am stuck with this annoying thing listening to me.’ He thought this with deliberate irritation, knowing the system would hear it.
"Fine. But you will only speak when I speak to you first. And do not use a designation. Don’t call me anything."
[Designation parameter has been removed. Communication protocol has been updated to ’Reactive Only’. Acknowledged.]
He walked over to the burnt pan on his stove and threw it in the trash. As he did, he thought about what the old god had said.
’Wait a second. He called it a sentient system. If it’s really sentient, then I’m just being an asshole.’ He felt a little bad.
He sighed. "Hey, forget what I just said. Just call me Luthra, okay?"
[Host designation updated to ’Luthra’. Communication protocol reverted to ’Optimal Support’. Is this correct, Luthra?]
’This is going to be weird.’