The flames died down, and the Wight steadied itself. Burned, damaged, but still functional.

I forced myself upright and realized I'd dropped my sword somewhere in the blast.

Then I felt it.

Something inside me shifted.

Not painful. But strange, like a door I didn't know existed had suddenly opened. A space in my chest expanding, stretching, becoming more than it had been a second ago. Heat flooded through my muscles.

But I pushed it aside as The Wight advanced through smoke and ash, sword raised, green light pulsing in its eye sockets.

I activated Debug Vision one last time, looking past the physical form, past the burning armor, into the underlying structure that made it exist.

Green threads of necrotic energy woven through every bone, every joint.

[ENTITY: Blackwood Wight]

Animation Pattern: Stable Necrotic Energy Flow: 87%

Core Integrity: 100%

That's it. That's the only way.

Edit the magic itself. The thing keeping it alive.

But I'd tried to edit its armor and it failed due to necrotic resistance. It would resist this too, wouldn't it?

Unless...

The fire had weakened it.

Maybe it was vulnerable now.

"Here goes nothing..."

I initiated the edit.

[EDIT: Disturb Necrotic Energy Flow]

System flashed red warnings, but I ignored them and accepted the edit.

Then suddenly, it hit me.

Not pain. It was beyond pain.

Like someone had driven molten spikes through both my eyes directly into my brain, then twisted them. My vision went white, then red, then black shot through with lightning.

Blood exploded from my nose. From my ears. I tasted copper flooding my mouth.

The world tilted sideways and I couldn't tell if I was standing or falling or dying.

But it worked.

The Wight stumbled. The green light in its eyes flickered violently. Its movements became jerky, like a puppet with most of its strings cut at once.

It tried to raise its sword. The blade wavered, dipped, came up again at the wrong angle.

I tried to move forward. But my legs wouldn't respond.

Couldn't feel them.

Couldn't feel anything except the screaming agony in my skull.

The Wight staggered toward me, movements failing, but still trying.

And eventually, my legs gave out.

I collapsed, hitting the ground hard. Felt nothing below my neck. Completely numb.

I'd pushed too far.

The Wight took another step. Then its leg buckled, it caught itself on its sword, using the blade like a crutch.

The green light flickered again. But weakening now.

We stared at each other across five feet of ash-covered stone.

It tried to take another step.

Its knee joint locked up. The necrotic energy flow, disrupted beyond recovery, couldn't maintain the animation pattern anymore.

The Wight fell forward, crashed to the ground in a clatter of burned armor.

The green fire in its eyes pulsed once.

Twice.

Then went dark.

And... it didn't move again.

I lay there beside the corpse, unable to move either, blood pooling beneath my head. My sword had clattered away somewhere I couldn't see.

Can't... can't move...

My head felt like it was splitting open from the inside. The neural damage from that energy disruption edit was severe.

My vision swam. Doubled. Wouldn't focus properly.

The pain in my skull started fading. Not because it was healing.

Because I was losing consciousness.

No. Not yet.

But... the darkness swallowed me whole.

...

I jerked awake with a gasp that sent fire through my ribs.

How long—?

My vision spun violently. I squeezed my eyes shut, fighting down the nausea.

Stay awake. Stay awake. If you pass out again, you might not wake up.

I forced my eyes open. The chamber ceiling swam into focus, cracked stone and cobwebs. The Wight's corpse lay a few feet away, unmoving.

I tried to move. My arms responded this time, but barely.

Fingers twitching, then curling into fists.

Progress.

Minutes crawled by. I focused on breathing.

In. Out. In. Out.

Each breath hurt less than the last.

Slowly, sensation returned to my legs. Pins and needles, then dull aching pain.

I gritted my teeth.

I'd take pain over numbness.

Eventually, I managed to reach my pack with shaking hands and pulled out a healing potion, nearly dropping it twice, and managed to uncork it with numb fingers.

The liquid spilled across my lips, down my chin, but enough made it into my mouth.

Warmth spread through my chest, my ribs.

The cracked bone sealed with that horrible ice-water sensation. The muscle tears knitted back together, slowly, painfully.

The head wound closed. The bleeding from my nose and ears stopped.

But the neural damage remained. My head still pounded. My vision still wouldn't focus right.

Physically healed. But not really.

I was staring at nothing, trying to gather the will to move.

Then something flickered in my peripheral vision.

A notification.

[ENEMY DEFEATED: Blackwood Wight - Level 18]

Then other notifications appeared.

[LEVEL UP!]

[LEVEL UP!]

I pushed them aside and just lay there, breathing hard, feeling the slow trickle of energy returning to my body.

Okay. Okay. I can work with this.

I forced myself to sit up. The world spun sickeningly, but I held on, bracing myself against the cold stone floor.

Slowly. Take it slow.

My hands were still shaking. My head still pounded. But I could move now. Could think.

I pulled up my full status.

[STATUS]

Name: Jin Raith

Age: 17

Class: Debugger

Level: 14

EXP: 15/2050

Rank: E

MC (Mana Capacity): 54/100

HP: 200/305

MP: 38/134

STR: 17

VIT: 16

AGI: 16

INT: 69

WIS: 39

LUK: 16

Allocation Points: 10

Skills:

Poison Resistance (65%), Social Engineering, Alchemy (Basic), Debug Vision, Mana Circulation (Basic) [New!]

Combat:

Unorthodox Fang (Proficiency: 55%)

New Skill Unlocked: [Mana Circulation - Basic]

Passive Effect: Mana regeneration increased by 15%

I stared at the glowing text.

E-Rank.

When did—?

Then it clicked.

That sensation I felt earlier. That feeling of something inside me expanding, stretching wider.

That was my mana capacity breaking through the threshold.

F to E. I actually ranked up.

And even got a new skill.

I closed the status window and leaned back against the wall, breathing hard. The stone was cold against my spine, grounding me.

My mana was regenerating. With the new skill.

At this rate, I'll have... maybe more than 70 mana by the time I reach the core chamber.

Is that enough?

I didn't know.

But it was more than zero.

Minutes passed. I focused on breathing. Letting my body recover what it could.

Eventually, I forced myself to stand. My legs wobbled but held. I used the wall for support, moving carefully toward the Wight's corpse.

Let's check the remains. Might be something useful.

I knelt beside it, fighting down another wave of dizziness.

Most of the armor was fused to the corpse, unusable. The sword had shattered when it fell. But in a pouch at its belt—

A small vial. Black liquid with a purple sheen.

[Item Analysis]

item_id: "necrotic_essence_concentrated"

type: "consumable"

effects: {

temporary_physical_amplification:{

strength_increase: "significant"

structural_reinforcement: "minor"

duration: "approx_10_minutes"

}

}

hazards: {

hp_drain: "5_points_per_second_after_effect_ends"

biological_toxicity: "severe_to_mortals"

}

I stared at it.

Good for reinforcement.

But five HP per second afterward. I'd be dead in less than a minute once the effect wore off.

Suicide poison.

But I pocketed it anyway.

Then I lifted my head and looked around...

Beyond the door the Wight had been guarding was a spiral staircase leading down into darkness.

MP: 38/134 —> 84/118

Still climbing. I retrieved my sword from where it had fallen, sheathed it with shaking hands.

Took one last look at the Wight's corpse.

Level 18. And I'm only Level 14 now.

What the hell is waiting for me down there?

I didn't want to know.

But I started down the stairs anyway.

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