The private office of the regional director sat tucked behind heavy, reinforced oak doors at the very apex of the cathedral's northern wing. The space was dead silent, a striking contrast to the suffocating noise of the central plaza outside. High, narrow windows cut through the thick stone walls, casting long, sharp beams of dusty sunlight across a massive mahogany desk cluttered with intricate copper astrolabes and ancient parchment ledgers tracking the frontier's historical tallies.
I stood completely still in the centre of the room, my arms crossed beneath my woollen cloak. My newly unsealed veins were still thrumming with a deep, steady warmth—the smooth, dense current of raw cosmic force flowing effortlessly through my muscles.
Sitting behind the desk was Regional Director Gregory Vane. His tailored dark robes were immaculate, but his hair was slightly dishevelled, and a thin line of nervous sweat glistened across his deeply furrowed brow. He held my bronze transit token between his ink-stained fingers, spinning it over and over with a frantic, metallic click.
"Sit, Astraeus," Director Gregory Vane said, his voice flat, carrying the rigid exhaustion of a high-ranking official whose perfect sorting array had just fractured on his watch.
I didn't hesitate. I dropped into the wooden chair opposite his desk with flawless precision—my back straight, my shoulders squared, and my expression perfectly neutral.
The immediate display of professional discipline caught him completely off guard. He paused, his ink-stained fingers freezing over the token as his sharp eyes scanned my posture, trying to reconcile my steady composure with the profile of a rowdy frontier peasant.
"I am Regional Director Gregory Vane," he said, his voice lowering into a cold, measured baritone as he placed his palms flat against the mahogany wood. "And for thirty years, I have overseen the unsealing ceremonies of the outer rim. I have watched thousands of commoners stand before the Awakening Crystal, place their tokens into the pedestal, and receive their automated public announcements."
Gregory Vane tapped a heavy index finger against an open ledger, turning it slightly so I could see the fresh blue ink.
"When an ordinary commoner steps into the unsealing circle, the world law reads their core and outputs nothing but the barest baseline record," Director Vane explained, pointing to a standard, clean entry on the parchment paper. "The interface operates on a strict policy of absolute privacy. Because the system naturally protects an Awakener's secrets, a public monolith or a standard scan is restricted from revealing anything sensitive. Asking another person to reveal their inner parameters is a profound insult across Aethelon. The individual alone is granted the private right to view their own raw attributes, rank, and skills behind their eyelids. The public screen only outputs a basic notification."
He gestured down to the entry on the parchment ledger.
[ UNSEALING COMPLETED ]
[ USER: REINALD ]
[ TALENT RANK: FIRST ECHELON (STONE-GRADE) ]
[ MAIN AFFINITY: EARTH CONSTITUTION ]
"That basic text is all the public is ever permitted to witness," Vane continued, his voice tightening. "But the moment your palms touched that star-stone monolith today, the entire altar experienced a severe delay. The unsealing circle beneath your boots violently flared with a white and pitch-black violet energy that has never been recorded in this sector. The monolith overloaded completely. It outputted a fake, automated cover profile to the cathedral hall to mask the delay."
Vane picked up a separate, unsealed parchment scroll, unrolling it with a sharp flick of his wrist to show the clean public illusion that had been broadcast to the crowd.
[ UNSEALING COMPLETED ]
[ USER: ASTRAEUS ]
[ TALENT RANK: FIFTH ECHELON (GOLD-GRADE) ]
[ MAIN AFFINITY: HIGH SWORD RESONANCE ]
"To the Awakeners standing in the hall, you look like a highly valuable, standard Fifth Echelon Swordsman who comfortably cleared the entry thresholds," Gregory Vane whispered, his voice carrying a dangerous edge. "But my private records captured the truth. The crystal didn't find a standard civilian alignment. It experienced a massive internal spike of energy that nearly shattered the stage. Furthermore, Astraeus, you carry no last name. You are a commoner from an outlying frontier village. A nameless orphan registering a Fifth Echelon profile is an absolute political death sentence. The local minor and major noble houses will try to illegally hijack your registration file, suppress your identity, and throw you into a vanguard camp to die the moment you step outside my doors."
Vane leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "But since your core just melted my crystal, it is time you learned the actual laws of the interface you are about to fight in. Tell me, how do you think an Awakener grows?"
"By killing monsters," I answered smoothly, keeping my face completely expressionless.
"A simple answer," Vane muttered. "The Interface requires a fixed amount of biological energy—Experience—harvested directly from defeating monsters. The system's rules are unyielding: every single level up doubles the experience capacity required for the next milestone. If Level 1 requires a baseline pool, Level 2 requires double that amount, and it will ruthlessly double every single time. And out in the field, the system enforces a strict law of proportion. Experience is shared dynamically. Whoever executes the highest contribution of physical trauma, strategic disruption, or directional energy in a fight receives the lion's share of the essence. You cannot ride the coattails of a master."
Vane stood up, pacing slowly behind his desk. "Furthermore, the standard physical scaling dictates your reserves. An Awakener carries a flat baseline of one hundred Vitality and one hundred Mana. From there, your attributes dictate your capacity. Every single point of Endurance permanently expands your cell resilience, adding exactly ten points to your maximum Vitality pool. Every single point of Wisdom permanently widens your paths, adding ten points to your maximum Mana core. High-tier active skills cost a massive volume of mana, though certain precise weapon techniques draw purely on physical force and kinetic leverage, depending entirely on the skill's nature."
He stopped, turning back to face me. "And skills are not simple tricks. Your native skill initializes at Level 1: Novice. To advance it through the milestones of Proficient, Expert, Apex, and Peak, you must physically grind the forms and drive mana through your channels. If you find a rare physical Skill Book in the wild or buy one from a vendor, it only grants you the conceptual blueprint. You cannot instantly absorb it. You must still train your body to execute it, or risk tearing your internal channels directly off the bone."
Vane leaned his palms flat against the mahogany wood, his voice dropping to a low whisper. "The government maintains strict state-sanctioned channels through the global Adventurer Guild. Every hub carries a massive public Post Board, ranking missions from F-Rank low-risk sweeps up to SSS-Rank cataclysmic threats. Independent Awakeners complete these contracts to earn minted money, shifting from Bronze to Silver, Gold, and Platinum coins. They use this marketplace to completely bypass the direct military draft. But because the imperial syndicates tax forty percent of official Guild payouts, the real wealth flows through the underground Black Markets. Every city houses one—subterranean syndicates operating completely outside the system's visibility where rogue Awakeners trade high-grade coins and unregistered material extracts."
He tapped the desk. "The empire regulates safe Leveling Zones right outside our perimeter walls where low-level monsters are intentionally allowed to breed for experience cultivation. But beyond those perimeters lie the Forbidden Zones—high-tier, untamed death-traps teeming with ancient horrors. Now, tell me, boy—what are you truly hiding beneath that cloak?"
"I just stood in the circle, Director," I lied cleanly, keeping my posture flawless. "The screen initialized, and the rest is exactly as you see."