"I will make you my successor."

*Crack!*

The solid stone ground splintered directly beneath Nero's feet.

His knees almost buckled instantly under the invisible weight pressing down on him.

It felt like gravity had suddenly decided to focus all its attention on him alone.

The lower muscles in his body were screaming in protest, trembling violently as they fought to keep him upright, but still…

"..."

His body did not relent.

He refused to fold.

His thoughts raced while his body tried remembering how breathing worked under what felt like a small two-story building sitting on his shoulder.

Every breath was a labor, a conscious effort to expand lungs that wanted to collapse.

Then, just as suddenly as it started, the crushing pressure vanished.

*Whoosh…*

Velraeth lifted her hand and stepped back with that sharp-toothed grin still plastered across her face.

She looked entirely too casual.

Like she had just finished testing the springs on a new sofa instead of nearly crushing a human being into paste.

"Not bad, you have grown. You didn't pass out this time."

Her tail swished behind her with enough force to make loose rubble scatter across the floor.

"Most humans would've blacked out a few seconds from that pressure."

Nero blinked as he steadied his body.

"Thanks for the compliment, I guess."

Nero rolled his shoulders with a heavy sigh, hearing a few pops in his joints.

Everything seemed functional... though his pride had taken more damage than his bones.

It was humbling, to say the least.

But hey, it is a progress to see he could now somewhat withstand her power without instantly face-planting.

He straightened his posture, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead.

"Just to clarify... what do you mean by successor?"

Velraeth's expression shifted slightly, the predatory grin softening into something that almost resembled pride.

It was a strange look on a dragon known for destruction.

"Among dragons, it's tradition. An honor, actually."

She crossed her arms, tail swishing with deliberate slowness behind her as she paced a small circle.

"When we find an individual we deem worthy, someone with the potential to carry forward what we've learned across centuries, we pass everything down to them... Every technique, every secret, every drop of knowledge earned through blood and battle."

Nero blinked, trying to wrap his head around the scale of that statement.

"So it's like... an inheritance?"

"More than that."

Her amber eyes gleamed with fierce intensity, staring right into his soul.

"It's ensuring the legacy continues. That the methods I've perfected over millennia don't die with me. Dragons live long, human, but we're not immortal. What we learn, what we master, that deserves to outlive us."

Nero processed that, feeling the weight of what she was actually offering.

This was not just some combat training or a few tips on how to swing a sword better.

She was talking about a complete transfer of everything a millennia-old dragon warrior had accumulated.

Centuries of war, strategy, and power.

"That's..."

"Overwhelming? Terrifying? Both?"

Velraeth's grin returned, sharper than before, challenging him.

"Good. You should be nervous. Most who receive this honor crack under the pressure long before the training's complete."

Nero swallowed hard.

The logical part of his brain told him this was insanity.

He was human.

She was a dragon.

The physical gap alone was a canyon he had to jump across.

But he didn't have the luxury of fear right now.

"When do we start?"

"After the celebration in Legendor."

She waved a clawed hand dismissively, as if the party was a boring chore she had to endure.

"You'll need to attend that invitation anyway. Once the formalities are done, we'll begin proper training and..."

"Tomorrow."

The word came out flat, certain.

It cut through the air like a blade.

Velraeth blinked.

Her tail stopped mid-swish, freezing in place.

"What?"

"We start tomorrow."

Nero met her gaze without flinching, despite every survival instinct screaming at him to reconsider and take the break while he could.

"The celebration can wait. Training can't."

"..."

Silence stretched between them.

The air in the dungeon felt heavy, charged with the tension of his demand.

Then Velraeth's grin split wider than Nero thought physically possible.

"Hahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA!"

Her laugh echoed off the stone walls, booming and deep.

It was genuine approval bleeding through every syllable.

"Look at you, demanding we start immediately! Most humans would be begging for more time to prepare, more time to work up the courage!"

She stepped forward, clapping a hand on his shoulder hard enough to make his bones rattle inside his skin.

"I like your guts, human. Tomorrow it is."

Nero silently smiled as he chuckled, rubbing his throbbing shoulder.

Velraeth approved of his initiative.

She thought it showed courage and determination, a warrior's spirit.

But the truth was simpler and colder.

It wasn't just bravery.

It was a necessity.

Any wasted time could prove fatal when the second trial is around the corner.

He couldn't afford to delay.

Not with what was coming.

Every second spent celebrating was a second he wasn't getting stronger, and that math didn't work in his favor.

"Ehem."

A quiet cough interrupted their exchange.

Both turned toward Luna, who stood slightly off to the side still holding Verdalume like it was the most precious thing she'd ever touched.

Which, given her scholarly obsession with rare magical artifacts, it probably was.

She looked like a kid who had just been handed the keys to a candy factory.

"If you two are finished making training arrangements..."

Her heterochromic eyes flickered toward Nero, then immediately darted away when their gazes met.

A faint pink dusted her cheeks that she tried hiding by adjusting her grip on the staff, pretending to inspect the crystalñike formation of the handle.

"I believe there are still relics left to distribute."

Nero fought the urge to grin at her reaction.

Seeing the usually composed genius mage get flustered over a gift hit is different than watching her analyze magical theory with cold precision.

It was a reminder that beneath the layers of mana formulas and genius intellect, she was still a person.

'Right. Still got the necklace for Celis and the sword for Aurelia.'

He gestured at the two remaining SSR-tier relics floating nearby, their golden auras casting soft light across the sealed chamber.

Those items were game-changers in their own right, and he needed to make sure they got to the right hands.

"... Plus I should probably burn through my remaining tickets."

Nero muttered under his breath while looking at the interface hovering in his vision.

Luna tilted her head slightly, curiosity flickering across her features, but she didn't press for details this time and just observed.

Nero's system was his own business, after all, and she had learned that some things were better left as mysteries until he was ready to explain.

Instead, she returned her attention to Verdalume, fingers tracing the intricate patterns carved into the staff's surface, lost in her own world of magical analysis.

Velraeth snorted and moved to examine the other relics, leaving Nero with his thoughts.

Might as well use the rest now, he thought, pulling up his interface.

[Master! You're going to use the remaining tickets?]

Aria's voice chimed in his mind, bright with curiosity.

'Yeah. No point saving them for now.'

He checked his inventory.

===

Premium Relic Tickets: 25x

===

25 pulls left.

That was a decent amount, but considering his recent luck, he wasn't expecting miracles.

After getting three SSR-tier items in a single ten-pull, his luck had to be completely tapped out.

The universe generally demanded balance, and he had likely used up his quota of good fortune for the next year.

[The probability of another SSR-tier is quite low after such fortune...]

Aria admitted, playing the role of the realist.

[But pity mechanics is building!]

'Yep. I'm grinding my pity points for now.'

[Mhm! Exactly! Think of it as an investment for future pulls!]

Nero had played enough gacha games to understand the brutal mathematics behind these systems.

You win some, you lose most.

Three SSR pulls in one session was already stupid lucky.

Expecting more would be delusional.

Still, wasting 25 tickets felt wrong somehow.

Leaving them sitting there was like having an itch you couldn't scratch.

'Alright, single pulls it is.'

He navigated back to the Premium Relic Banner, finger hovering over the 1x summon button this time.

There's not a hint of expectations in his face.

Just the dead eyes of a veteran gamer clearing inventory and hoping the pity counter was secretly building toward something useful down the line.

*Tap.*

The button pressed with its familiar soft chime.

Bronze light flickered.

It was weak, dull, and disappointing.

R-tier dagger materialized and immediately got stored in his inventory without a second glance.

Trash loot.

*Tap.*

Another bronze flash.

R-tier shield this time.

*Tap. Tap. Tap.*

He settled into a rhythm, watching bronze cards appear and disappear in quick succession while Luna observed the chamber and Velraeth looked vaguely bored.

It was a mundane task.

Tap, flash, store.

Tap, flash, store.

[15 pulls down, Master! Still building that pity!]

So encouraging, Aria.

[Aria tries her best!]

The monotony was almost soothing.

It was just button spamming at this point. There's no adrenaline spike of hoping for anything good.

He was just taking out the garbage, digitally speaking.

Well… until,

*CRACK!*

Reality split.

Not metaphorically or dramatically for effect.

Actually fractured like someone had taken a sledgehammer to dimensional barriers and decided structural integrity was optional.

The sound wasn't just loud; it was something felt in the teeth and bones.

The entire dungeon trembled.

Stone walls developed stress fractures that spread like spiderwebs, dust raining from the ceiling as the sealed chamber protested whatever was happening.

"Huh…?"

Nero's words died as space itself tore open in front of him.

A jagged rift bleeding light that made his eyes water, colors that shouldn't exist swirling in patterns that hurt to perceive.

It looked like a wound in the universe.

[MASTER! MASTER! YOU DID IT! YOU ACTUALLY DID IT!]

Aria's voice exploded in his mind with enough enthusiasm to make his skull ring like a bell.

[UR-TIER! YOU PULLED A UR-TIER ITEM! ARIA CAN'T BELIEVE IT! THE ODDS WERE 0.001% AND YOU ACTUALLY...]

'Wait, what…?'

His brain stuttered trying to process that information while dimensional fabric continued having a violent breakdown in front of him.

UR-Tier?

That shouldn't be possible…

That was the realm of myths, items that broke the game balance just by existing.

Luna's eyes widened, magical patterns inside her vision activating involuntarily as she tried analyzing what was happening.

She looked terrified and mesmerized at the same time.

"Impossible… what is that…?"

Her voice came out barely above a whisper, scientific certainty cracking under observations that violated everything she understood about probability and reality.

"With the space instability alone..."

"Screw your shiny words!"

Velraeth's tail lashed with excitement, amber eyes locked onto the spatial tear with predatory focus.

She looked like she wanted to fight whatever was coming out, or maybe worship it.

"Something with enormous energy is coming through!"

*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!*

The rift expanded.

Not slowly or gradually.

Just suddenly grew wider like reality had given up arguing about proper expansion rates and decided to let physics sort itself out later.

Stellar light erupted from the tear.

Brilliant, overwhelming, carrying presence that made even the SSR-tier relics' auras look subdued by comparison.

The golden light of the previous items looked like candlelight next to a supernova.

Colors Nero didn't have names for swirled together in impossible combinations, creating patterns that suggested this item existed on a completely different tier of power than anything he'd seen before.

The air pressure in the room dropped, then spiked.

Then it emerged.

*Woooommm…*

A card floated through the spatial tear.

Not golden like the SSR pulls.

Multicolored.

It was shifting through the entire spectrum and beyond.

Swirling with energies that shifted between hues faster than his eyes could track, the surface rippling like liquid starlight compressed into physical form.

The UR-tier card drifted toward him with deliberate slowness, dimensional tears sealing behind it as reality hastily repaired damage and pretended nothing weird had happened.

Nero's hand moved on instinct.

Fingers extending to catch the descending card, his pulse racing with mixture of excitement and disbelief because this was actually happening.

0.001% chance.

One in a hundred thousand.

And somehow, impossibly, he'd just hit the jackpot.

He had just pulled the equivalent of winning the lottery while getting struck by lightning on a Tuesday.

The multicolored card settled into his palm with weight that felt both impossibly light and heavier than mountains simultaneously.

It anchored him to the spot.

Warmth spread through his fingers, energy humming with potential that made his mana channels resonate sympathetically.

"..."

Silence crashed down on the sealed chamber.

The dust settled.

The rumbling stopped.

Luna stood frozen, staff forgotten in her grip as she stared at the UR-tier card with expression suggesting her entire worldview was being violently rewritten.

She looked like she needed a stiff drink or a chalkboard to work this out.

Velraeth's grin had transformed into something almost reverent, excitement bleeding through her usual battle-hungry demeanor.

[...]

Even Aria had gone quiet in his mind.

Like the system itself was holding its breath waiting to see what emerged.

Nero looked down at the swirling multicolored card in his hand.

Its surface rippled with patterns that hurt to focus on, energies condensing and shifting in ways that suggested this wasn't just a weapon.

This wasn't just a tool.

This was something that could change everything.

'What the hell did I just pull…?'

His fingers tightened around the card as stellar light began building toward revelation.

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