As Vikas finished cleaning the last cobweb, the old lady didn't just let him leave. She sensed the panic. "Wait, child! This is an emergency. Let me assist," she croaked.
Ayush, breathless, looked at her. "Gramps—I mean, Ma'am—can you even fight?"
"Fight? No. But I have Appraisal and Benediction," she said, her eyes glowing like ancient lanterns. "I can temporarily overclock your potential."
Vikas didn't hesitate. He hoisted the old lady onto his shoulder—she was surprisingly heavy at first, making him grunt—but then she whispered a chant. Suddenly, her weight vanished as she made herself light as a feather, and Vikas felt a surge of raw power. His strength doubled instantly. With another chant, she boosted his speed.
They arrived at the Guild in a blur, meeting Aryan and Ayush at the exact same moment. The receptionist was frantic. "You have to save them! It was a trap set by the Dragon Party. They fed us false info—that A-Rank mission is actually an SS-Rank death trap!"
"Who the hell is the Dragon Party?" I asked, but she pushed us toward the door. "No time! The map is on your screens. Go!"
With the old lady's buffs, the world slowed down. We tore through the city at the speed of sound, laughing at the sheer thrill of it. We weren't just running; we were parkouring over massive, skyscroper-like fantasy buildings, clearing the Kingdom's towering walls in a single, gravity-defying leap.
In less than a minute, we reached the battlefield. It was a massacre.
Rei was barely standing, acting as a human shield. Behind him, Miku was pale, her mana depleted from spamming ice and water spells that didn't even scratch the enemy. Nakamu and Junie were down, bleeding out, barely clinging to life.
Facing them was a nightmare, a White Bahemoth, tall as a building, crawling on four muscular limbs with six milky eyes. It was grinning, blood and larva-filled saliva dripping from its maw. And behind it? Three more identical monsters, fresh and uninjured.
"Miku, take them and run!" Rei gasped. "My illusions are barely holding!"
"No!" she cried. "We won't leave you!"
Then we arrived. Ayush immediately summoned his Goblin Horde. Thanks to the old lady's 3x Stat Boost, his 'Low-Tier' Goblins now looked like elite berserkers.
"Carry them and run!" Rei shouted at us.
"No," I replied, my eyes fixed on the monsters. "You're coming with us."
Vikas slammed his visor down, his Obsidian Armour glowing with buffed energy as he took on two behemoths at once. Ayush's army swarmed the other two. I rushed to Rei, trying to copy his Illusion skill—Failed. I tried to copy the old lady's Appraisal—Failed. "Fine! If I can't steal, I'll burn!" I roared. I unleashed a Max-Output neon light, and Vikas synchronized his magic with mine. The blinded monsters shrieked, their six eyes sizzling.
While they were stunned, Ayush's soldiers scooped up the injured party and bolted toward the Kingdom. Vikas grabbed the old lady, and we prepared to vanish. But I couldn't leave empty-handed. I stared at the glitched, red status windows of the monsters.
[ SYSTEM: Copying... ERROR... ERROR... ]
I pushed until my brain felt like it was melting.
[ SYSTEM: SUCCESS. Skill 'Regenerate' (Lvl 1 - Weak) copied. ]
The moment the skill settled into my soul, I coughed up a spray of dark blood. My lungs burned. The feedback from copying a glitched SS-Rank skill was tearing me apart. I quickly activated the skill on myself; the boost from the old lady was the only thing keeping the skill from killing me instantly.
We made it back to the Kingdom, rushing the injured party to the High Healers. Three specialists immediately began chanting, but it was going to take hours to stabilize Nakamu and Junie.
The adrenoline was fading. As we stood in the white marble hallway of the Healer's Sanctuary, the old lady finally stopped her chanting. The glowing aura around us flickered and died. The 3x Stat Boost was gone.
Suddenly, the world tilted.
Aryan: (Thinking) Wait... why does the floor feel like it's spinning?
The moment the Appraisal & Benediction buff left my body, the "Regenerate" skill I had forcefully ripped from that SS-Rank monster turned toxic. My body wasn't built to hold that kind of glitched power without a boost.
"ARAYN!" Vikas shouted, but his voice sounded like it was underwater.
I didn't even have time to respond. A violent tremor shook my chest, and I collapsed to my knees. A thick, metallic taste flooded my mouth, and then—SPLARK. I wretched, coughing up a massive pool of dark, almost black blood onto the pristine floor.
Ayush: "Oi, what the hell?! Receptionist, get a healer over here NOW!"
The dizziness hit me like a physical truck. My vision started glitching—literally. I could see the code of the world tearing at the edges. The faces of Vikas and the receptionist were blurring into distorted pixels.
Receptionist: (Screaming) "His internal mana circuits are collapsing!
I tried to stand, but my legs felt like liquid. Every time I breathed, more blood leaked from my lips. The "Regenerate" skill was trying to heal me, but because it was a Glitched Level 1 version, it was healing my cells in the wrong order—creating a loop of constant pain.
Old Lady: (Looking grave) "He touched the forbidden power of the Abyss without a vessel... the boy's soul is rejecting the copy."
As the healers rushed toward me, my eyes rolled back. The last thing I saw was Ayush's panicked face and a system notification that popped up in blood-red text:
[ WARNING: SOUL INTEGRITY DROPPING... 14%... 12%... ]
[ SYSTEM ERROR: UNKNOWN DETECTED IN GENETIC CODE. ]
Then, everything went pitch black.