Infinite Awakening: 10,000x EXP Converter!

Five days!

That was exactly how long Alvian had been farming the Rift. It had carved a brutal, unyielding routine directly into his bones.

Wake at 3 AM. Slip through the thirteenth level’s maintenance tunnels before the competing scavengers even stirred in their beds. Enter the Rift. Kill beetles until the spawn cycle completely depleted. Harvest the cores. Exit by noon. Sell to Hendricks. Buy supplies. Walk home. Sleep. Repeat.

To anyone else, it was hell. For Alvian, it was just survival with extra steps.

Two more days of methodical, mind-numbing grinding had finally pushed him from Level 9 to Level 12. The gains were steady but utterly unspectacular. Common rolls between 3x and 9x dominated his distribution, with only the occasional Uncommon roll breaking the sheer monotony. A 22x multiplier on day four had yielded an incredible 220 EXP from a single beetle, which was enough to push him through two entire levels at once. His Karma Points had slowly crept up to 14. His EXP Bank sat at roughly 9,400.

But the Clearwater Talent? It remained a completely dead weight in his status panel, doing absolutely nothing.

E-Rank. Useless. The Academy’s harsh verdict echoed in his mind every single time he checked his profile.

Until this morning.

"Whoosh!"

A Sludge Beetle lunged from behind a collapsed pipe, its massive mandibles snapping viciously. Routine. Alvian calmly sidestepped and brought his reinforced trench knife down toward its eye socket in a heavily practiced arc.

But the beetle twisted at the last possible second!

"CLANG!"

Its mandible caught the blade at a weird angle, sending a violent jolt of impact shock racing right up Alvian’s forearm.

Then, something entirely unexpected happened.

Water materialized around his fist.

It was just a thin film, like condensation on a cold glass, clinging to his knuckles for half a second before evaporating into the damp Rift air. But the beetle reacted as if it had been struck by lightning! It recoiled violently, its thick chitin sizzling audibly where the water had touched.

"Ssssss!"

A faint hiss filled the air. A pinpoint of corroded shell, pitted and discolored, began steaming faintly.

Alvian froze in pure shock.

Before he could even process what had just happened, a familiar, crisp sound chimed in his head.

[Ding! Clearwater Talent resonance detected!]

[First Skill unlock available!]

[Skill: Clearwater Palm (E-Rank)]

[Cost: 500 EXP from EXP Bank]

[Accept? Y/N]

He stared wide-eyed at the notification. The cosmic interface pulsed a soft blue, the text hovering perfectly in his peripheral vision. Clearwater Palm. A Skill. From his trash E-Rank Talent that the entire Academy had mercilessly laughed at!

"Accept," he commanded in his mind.

Instantly, five hundred EXP vanished from his Bank. A torrent of information and knowledge flooded his brain! It was raw, unfiltered muscle memory. His hands knew the exact movement before his brain could even catch up. A palm strike that channeled Clearwater energy directly into a target on contact. The motion was simple, direct, and incredibly brutal. His fingers curled, his wrist locked, and the hidden pathway from his core to his palm opened like a high-pressure valve.

The base damage was minimal, roughly equivalent to an additional 3 points of STR per strike. But it was his first Skill!

He quickly turned his attention to the next beetle feeding at the far end of the passage. The monster sensed him and instantly charged, mandibles open wide.

Instead of dodging sideways, Alvian stepped directly forward, met the creature head on, and drove his open palm fiercely against its skull.

"Clearwater Palm!"

"BAM!"

The physical impact was soft, almost negligible. An ugly circle of pitted, softened shell rapidly spread outward from the contact point. The surface bubbled faintly as the Clearwater energy violently ate into it. The beetle shrieked in agony, its eye swiveling wildly.

Alvian didn’t pause. He followed up instantly with the trench knife.

"Sququelch!"

The sharp blade punched through the softened chitin like it was wet paper, sinking deep into the monster’s skull. The beetle spasmed once and dropped dead.

The System rolled immediately.

[Ding! Combat action detected.]

[Random multiplier activated: 45x!]

[Uncommon Roll!]

[Sludge Beetle Base EXP: 10]

[Multiplier: 45x]

[Total EXP: 450]

Four hundred and fifty EXP! A very solid Uncommon roll. Alvian noted with intense focus that Skill-based kills did not seem to alter the multiplier at all. The cosmic roulette wheel treated all EXP-granting actions identically.

He spent the next three hours rigorously testing Clearwater Palm against every single beetle he encountered. He did not do it mindlessly. He was methodical. Each engagement was a calculated experiment.

How long does the corrosion last? He counted the seconds after each strike. Approximately eight seconds before the chitin hardened again.

Does it work on non-chitin materials? He firmly pressed his palm against a rusted pipe. The metal pitted slightly, a faint discoloration spreading across the surface. Organic material like wood barely reacted.

Can he use it defensively? No. Clearwater Palm required a palm strike, meaning he had to be in strict melee range. It was completely useless for blocking or ranged combat.

He documented each finding mentally, building a flawless tactical profile. The combination was now clear. Soften with Clearwater, pierce with steel. His kill speed had dramatically increased by roughly thirty percent. It was not a world-breaking game changer, but it was highly meaningful. Every second saved was another beetle killed before the spawn cycle depleted.

By noon, his status panel had updated significantly.

┌──────[ Profile]──────┐

│ [Host]: Alvian Vance

│ [Level]: 12 (Mortal Tier)

│ [Talent]: Clearwater [E-Rank]

│ [Skills]: Clearwater Palm [E-Rank]

│ [STR]: 14 | [AGI]: 13 | [VIT]: 26

│ [INT]: 8 | [Essence]: 9

│ [Karma Points]: 14

│ [EXP Bank]: ~8,900 / ∞

└────────────────┘

The Clearwater Talent’s Essence stat had finally seen its first meaningful increase, jumping from 7 to 9! Skill usage was actively developing the Talent’s underlying energy capacity. The connection was direct and undeniable.

Alvian stared at his wet palm after the last beetle died. The faint residue of Clearwater energy tingled across his knuckles. It was a cool, sharp sensation, exactly like touching battery acid with bare skin.

"Not useless," he murmured, a dangerous glint in his eyes.

It was not pride. It was absolute vindication. The entire Academy had publicly branded Clearwater as the worst possible Talent. Darius Magnus had publicly mocked him. Four thousand students had laughed at his misery. The proctor had announced his result like a funeral bell.

And now his trash Talent was generating acid!

A new thought quickly surfaced as he walked toward the Rift entrance. Vanity versus efficiency. Clearwater Palm was an E-Rank Skill from an E-Rank Talent. Using it publicly at the Academy would just invite more mockery. The exact same students who laughed at his Awakening would definitely sneer at his pathetic little acid palm. But concealing it meant fighting below his optimal capacity.

The decision was immediate.

’Let them think I’m trash. Let them underestimate me. It costs nothing and buys options.’

He would use Clearwater Palm freely in the Rift and conceal it completely at the Academy. It was not out of shame. It was strategic information management. The exact kind of survival calculus he had been running his entire life.

***

The apartment was dead quiet when he returned. Leo sat in the corner drawing with his charcoal stub, leaving dark smudges on scrap paper. Martha lay on her thin mattress, her breathing steady but incredibly shallow.

Alvian knelt beside her and gently lifted her hand from the worn blanket.

Her fingers were freezing cold. The grey patches he had first noticed two days ago had aggressively spread, creeping from her fingertips down past the first knuckle. The skin was glassy and faint, catching the dim light like a reflection on dirty ice. When he pressed his thumb against the patch, it felt hard. Rigid. It was not skin anymore.

The medicine was barely holding. Her breathing was steady, the crystalline rasp softer than a week ago. But the crystallisation itself had not stopped at all. The suppressants were fighting a brutal war they could not possibly win. She needed far more than suppressants. She needed a Purifier, and those cost thousands of credits.

Alvian set her hand down carefully and pulled the blanket right to her chin.

He sat on his mattress and opened his status panel. Level 12. Clearwater Palm. 8,900 EXP in the Bank. 14 Karma Points. Progress. Real, measurable progress. But the terrifying grey patches on Martha’s fingers told a completely different story.

The Rift was predictable. Twenty-three beetles a day, one hundred credits, fifty for medicine, fifty for survival. A sustainable loop that kept his family barely alive indefinitely. But barely alive was absolutely not enough anymore. The disease was spreading much faster than his credits could fight it. Dying slowly in this room was not the retirement plan he wanted for them.

Tobias Finch’s map sat folded in his pocket. Hand-drawn lines marking dead ends, nest locations, and the one dangerous chokepoint where a solo delver could fight safely. The Lower Warrens. Rank 2 monsters. Ironjaw Rats with metallic teeth and cores worth three times as much as basic beetle cores.

Alvian unfolded the map and traced the route with his finger. The path descended past the thirteenth level’s maintenance tunnels into pre-Cataclysm subway infrastructure. It was abandoned. Unmapped by the Guild. Unpatrolled by the Academy.

Near the deepest section, a glaring red circle marked with a strange symbol sat like a deadly warning. A dark circle bisected by a wavy line. Tobias had specifically told him not to go there. He had not explained why.

Alvian refolded the map and tucked it safely beneath his mattress. His eyes drifted to Martha’s hand, where the grey patch on her index finger caught the faint light.

Tomorrow, he would go deeper.

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