"Activate simulation set 3C. No audience. Minimal safety protocols."
The training chamber buzzed to life with a hiss of hot air and a flash of arcane lighting. Pale green runes flared across the floor, then faded to a dull pulse. The lights dimmed. The walls adjusted their density, flexing like muscle. One of the combat golems flickered into form at the far end of the room—a sleek bipedal shape, sword-arm already raised in salute.
Kael flexed his fingers and muttered, "Right, let's see what kind of body I've inherited from myself."
He rolled his shoulders, twisted his spine until it cracked, and stepped into the center of the sparring circle. His boots scuffed lightly on polished obsidian stone.
The simulation chamber was buried four levels beneath Astralis, past the abandoned teleportation lift that stuttered like a drunk, and through a maintenance crawlspace Kael had only found because he'd remembered a throwaway paragraph in chapter 13 of the original novel. The protagonist never found it.
Which meant it was safe.
Private.
Perfect for someone trying to figure out how to be Kael Vire without accidentally vaporizing himself—or worse, attracting attention.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: Ready when you are. Chance of injury: 74%. Chance of making a fool of yourself: 91%.]
"Good to know you're rooting for me."
[Rooting is not the term. I am observing.]
"Judging."
[Vigorously.]
Kael grinned. "Well then."
He raised his hand.
Aether surged.
It wasn't like before—not the sluggish, uncertain power he'd felt in the first days after waking up here. This was sharper now. Clearer. Dangerous.
The runes in his right palm sparked to life—erratic but strong. Threads of silver-blue energy wove through his arm like live wires beneath his skin. His Core Drift flared with unstable resonance.
He could feel three distinct pathways trying to express themselves at once:
Synth-Knight strength—physical channeling, raw muscle enhancement.
Sigilcaster control—runes ready to deploy, all etched into his nervous system.
And something else. Netwalker glitch-tech—slippery, reality-skimming, barely stable.
Too many flavors.
Too much risk.
Exactly the way he liked it.
"Alright," Kael said, stepping forward as the golem took a defensive stance. "Let's dance, toaster."
He came in fast. Too fast.
The Synth-Knight surge kicked in harder than expected—his foot cracked the floor with the force of his launch. The golem barely reacted before he was already inside its guard.
He twisted mid-swing, activating a Sigilcaster rune as he spun.
The blast was sloppy—barely a directional pulse—but it was enough to knock the golem's balance off. Kael rolled under its counter-swing, kicked off the wall, and—
Midair, his Core glitched.
Everything fuzzed for a quarter-second—vision shimmered, pulse skipped, equilibrium tanked.
He landed sideways. Crashed hard. Groaned.
[Core Drift Unstable – Affinity Spike Detected]
"Yeah," Kael wheezed. "Noticed that, thanks."
[Your Netwalker thread is trying to process physical impact as a psychic event. Fascinating. Stupid, but fascinating.]
Kael lay there for a moment, staring at the ceiling.
"Maybe I am broken."
[Statistically, yes.]
"Perfect."
Eventually, he got back up and staggered to the control panel at the wall. He tapped through the interface with a scowl, pulling up his full stat overlay.
KAEL VIRE – CORE STATUS— Core Type: Hybrid (Glitched - Drift Enabled)— Stability: 29% (Critically Unstable)— Path Resonance: Synth-Knight [42%], Sigilcaster [38%], Netwalker [19%]— Unlocked Traits:
• Core Drift (Passive): Hybrid paths can be sampled, but with distortion risk• Reader's Insight (Glitched): Story prediction range reduced by 37%• Plot Resistance (Lv. 1): Minor immunity to scripted events• Overclock (Locked): ???— System Commentary:"You are a walking contradiction. Congratulations."
Kael rubbed his jaw.
"Right. So I'm unstable, unpredictable, and possibly the only student with access to Netwalker threading before third year."
[Correct.]
"And I have absolutely no idea how to control it."
[You are speaking truth. This is rare for you.]
Kael groaned, leaning against the wall.
Still. The potential was there. And if he could just stabilize his Core enough to switch between casting types without causing himself internal bleeding, he might actually become—
Not the strongest. Arin still had the advantage of protagonist scaling and divine plot symmetry.
But Kael could be the variable.
The one thing the story hadn't prepared for.
He reset the simulation to "Low Threat" mode and resumed light combat—more testing than fighting. Swing, cast, blink-dodge. Aether pull, fake overclock, retreat. It was messy but it was his messy.
And for once, it felt almost good.
Like he wasn't borrowing this body anymore.
He was molding it.
Thirty minutes later, shirt clinging to his back, breath ragged, Kael collapsed onto the training bench and let the silence wrap around him.
[Progress: Core Drift resonance adjusted +3%. Minor adaptation achieved.]
"You gonna give me a sticker?"
[I can display a celebratory emoji.]
"Pass."
He closed his eyes, letting the sweat cool. Somewhere behind his eyelids, memories tried to creep in again—rain. Concrete. Flickering signs in a language he didn't use anymore.
He pushed them down.
He was Kael Vire now.
He didn't have time to be anyone else.
The silence broke.
[ALERT: Incoming Entity – Override Clearance Detected][Identity: AZAREL VIRE – House Patriarch][Estimated Arrival: 47 Minutes]
Kael sat up like he'd been punched.
"What."
[Your father is coming.]
"No—why?"
[You lost a duel, altered your core usage pattern, falsified injury logs, and dodged five story flags in the last week.]
"Yeah, but I looked good doing it."
[He disagrees.]
Kael wiped his face with the hem of his sleeve.
"Of course he's coming now."
He stood, rolled his shoulders, and stared at the glowing interface one more time.
Then he grinned.
"Well. Let's make sure I look like I'm worth confronting."