Lucen leaned on the edge of the bed with the tablet open in front of him, a faint glow lighting up his jacket sleeve.
The glove tab stared back at him.
One of the reviews was still open.
"Didn't explode. Five stars…seriously?"
He rubbed his thumb across his eyebrow.
'Why is that a selling point. Why is that the top review.'
Another listing showed a slightly melted stabilizer bracket duct-taped to the palm.
That one had a video.
He didn't play it.
'Alright. One last check. Just to see what proper gloves cost.'
He opened a filtered shop tag from the district hunter forums. Something posted by a licensed vendor, not a guy trading spellbooks out of the back of a taxi.
The price was 480 credits.
He stared at the number.
Then closed the tab.
The tablet made a pitiful blink, like it was sorry it showed him that.
He exhaled and dropped back on the bed, tablet resting against his chest.
The ceiling didn't offer any new wisdom.
Just the crack again, looking slightly smug.
'Okay. New plan. Don't die. Save money. Steal gear later. Not necessarily in that order.'
He pulled the system window open again, just to center himself.
The interface hovered quiet and clean above his face.
[Lucen Ivara – Level 2]
Mana: 51 / 51
EXP: 26 / 200
Spell Slots: 3 / 3
Spells:
[Unstable Kinetic Point]
[Gravitic Snap]
[Tension Mark]
System Status: Unsynced
Alert: Manual concealment mode active
'Still hidden. Still off-grid. No one is knocking at the door to kill or kidnap me atleast.'
He closed the screen and sat up again.
His stomach growled.
He glanced toward the fridge, then at the tablet, then at his balance.
194 credits.
A fortune, kind of.
He could either invest in gear, eat something not made of powdered flavor, or restock emergency scrolls from a vendor who didn't label everything in Comic Sans.
He opened the local drift map.
A nearby listing blinked open, West Fleura Casual Circuit, a basic F to E-rank range gate with rotating mob patterns. It was legal to enter without party status as long as you signed the waiver.
He'd cleared it once already.
Got two sigils.
Almost died.
Still better than buying mana potion knockoffs from whatever alley vendor reused soda bottles.
'Maybe I hit that gate again tomorrow. If I'm careful. Build a fourth spell on paper. Prep a trap before going in. Same entrance route, different fallback.'
The drift's sub-tab showed its current element as wooded jungle bias. Same as last time.
Lucen made a note on his pad.
'Jungle favors noise traps. Rework Gravitic Snap for area hold?'
He put the tablet down.
His hand rested on the folded spell diagram from earlier.
Tension Mark had come out cleaner than he expected.
But it wasn't perfect.
There was still that delay when it activated on stationary targets. Maybe a fraction of a second. Enough to miss timing in combat.
He started redrawing the trigger rune.
Slower this time.
Angle by angle.
He didn't need to cast. Just see the pattern and run it mentally.
'If I cut the curve short here, the seal holds tighter. Might raise mana cost. Maybe shift the snap forward by a tick.'
His finger hovered over the draft.
Then he flipped the paper and wrote one more thing on the back.
'New spell idea is escape glyph. Boost jump or pushback. Low mana. Directional. Try open-air vector.'
He paused.
Then added a second line under it.
'Do not test in apartment. Again.'
The system blinked softly in the corner.
Still waiting.
Still listening.
Still evolving.
Lucen sat back.
Folded the paper once.
Then closed his eyes.
Just for a second.
Later he woke up with paper stuck to his face.
He blinked once. The ceiling blinked back.
The paper peeled off his cheek with a soft tearing sound. His spell sketch had transferred a faint imprint onto his jaw. Backward lines. Maybe readable. Maybe a sign he needed a better pillow.
He sat up slowly.
One sock was still on. The other had vanished.
The bed hadn't been made in days, but now it looked like a collapsing nest of blankets and open notebooks.
'If I die young, this is the crime scene they'll have to work with. Great.'
The radiator clunked once. Then gave up.
Lucen rubbed the side of his neck and reached for the tablet on the nightstand. The screen flicked on after a two-second lag. Battery at thirty percent.
He opened the city's drift map first.
The jungle gate was still active. Same element. Same trap-heavy layout. Still listed as "open solo run approved."
He closed it without thinking.
'Changed my mind…no way I'm running that back-to-back. I made it out once. I'm not pushing my luck again just to reenact a vine snare incident.'
He tapped into the deeper listings.
Filtered by range.
Then element type.
Then mob density.
Then he typed not currently full of scouts with something to prove.
A listing popped up that didn't look completely cursed.
[CIRCUIT: HOLLOW ZONE | Active Tier: F+]
Element: Urban-Rot / Arcane Ash
Type: Low-light corridor / static wave spawns
Entry Fee: 20cr
Solo Clearance: Approved
Warning: Visibility may fluctuate unexpectedly
Lucen sat up straighter.
Urban type meant structure. Less wildlife. More wreckage. Good for cover.
Arcane ash types were volatile, but predictable. Usually they dropped half-dead spirits or crawling husks with decayed cores. Nothing smart. Just aggressive noise.
'Visibility fluctuations… means fog or shimmer walls. Not ideal. But it also means no one sees what you're doing inside.'
He tapped the listing.
A location tag opened.
It was fifteen minutes east by tram. Tucked under an overpass where an old subway gate had collapsed and been re-zoned as a casual drift entrance.
Lucen tilted his head.
The entrance photo was dim and grainy. Just a steel gate with a number spray-painted over it and a single standing light that leaned like it owed someone money.
He read the most recent clearance log.
One team of E-class rogues went in four hours ago. No posted results.
No crowd.
No scouts.
Just static, haze, and rotting hallway mobs.
'Perfect.'
He opened a second tab and typed in a new search.
"Arcane Ash drift behavior, spell types that don't backfire"
The top result was a forum post titled:
"So your spell ignited the walls: a guide to surviving cursed elementals…perfect!"
Lucen bookmarked it.
Then closed the tablet and stood up.
The room creaked with him.
His jacket went on. Same one he'd worn yesterday. Pockets checked. Small pouch of chalk glyphs from two weeks ago. Tablet sleeve secured. ID tag tucked under the collar.
He didn't wear armor. Not yet. Not until someone made armor that didn't scream someone should stab him first.
At the door, he paused.
Then opened the system window just long enough to check his spells.
[Mana: 51 / 51]
[Unstable Kinetic Point]
[Gravitic Snap]
[Tension Mark]
System Mode: Manual Concealment – ON
He nodded.
'Let's see what kind of ghosts this one spits out.'