Primordial Awakening: I Breathe Skill Points!-Chapter 52: Treasure and Ruins (1)
The katana wielder’s final desperate counter came exactly as Zeph predicted.
An overhead slash with everything the man had left—technique, skill, and raw desperation compressed into one strike meant to cleave him in half.
Zeph activated Phantom Step.
[MP: 847 → 747]
The world blinked.
One moment he stood directly in the path of the blade. The next, he materialized three meters to the side, his opponent’s katana cutting through empty air where his head had been.
The katana wielder’s eyes widened in shock as his momentum carried him forward into a stumble.
Wide open.
Defenseless.
Zeph’s axe swung in a brutal horizontal arc.
[Cleaving Momentum - Stack 5: 100% damage bonus]
[Critical Hit - Neck/Spine Area: 462 damage]
The strike connected with devastating force, and the katana wielder’s avatar flickered once before dissolving into pixels.
[MATCH CONCLUDED]
[Winner: DIRTYGRANDPA]
[Placement Match 5/10: VICTORY]
[Performance Rating: EXCELLENT]
[Current Streak: 5-0]
[Updated Tier Estimation: PLATINUM IV]
The arena dissolved around him, returning him to the white VR hub space.
Zeph pulled off his headset and stared at his apartment ceiling, chest heaving despite the lack of actual physical exertion.
Two matches today. Both intense. Both victories that pushed him one step closer to a competitive ranking he’d only dreamed about weeks ago.
The third match had been against a spear user with ridiculous reach and A-rank thrust speed. That fight had lasted nineteen minutes and come down to a final exchange where Zeph won by exactly 47 HP. Every single moment had been calculated, every dodge precise, every counter-attack measured. The spear user had nearly broken through his defense three separate times, forcing Zeph to burn through MP on Phantom Step just to survive the onslaught.
This fifth match against the katana specialist had been shorter—eleven minutes—but more technically demanding. The man had Master-level sword technique and had forced Zeph to actually use his Iron Woodsman’s Foundation expertise instead of relying purely on stats. It had been a masterclass in reading patterns, anticipating strikes, and exploiting the microscopic gaps in even perfect technique.
’Five wins. Five matches. Halfway to placement completion.’
’Platinum IV estimation. If I win the next five, I might place Diamond.’
The thought made him grin despite his mental exhaustion.
But he’d pushed enough for today. Two high-intensity matches back-to-back had drained his focus more than he’d expected. One more and he’d start making sloppy mistakes, the kind that cost matches and tanked rankings before they even solidified.
’Rest. Recover. Come back tomorrow fresh.’
Besides, today was important for a completely different reason.
Nine days.
Nine days since he’d forcibly unsealed Chen’s storage ring in that dungeon, breaking through the security formation with brute force instead of proper technique.
Nine days since Marcus had warned him the internal spatial structure would need time to stabilize before accessing the deepest layers.
Nine days of waiting while the deep layer contents remained tantalizingly out of reach, like treasure visible through glass he couldn’t break.
Zeph sat up and pulled the storage ring from his pocket—a simple silver band . Unremarkable to look at, but the spatial pocket inside was anything but simple.
He’d been using it all week without issue. The shallow layer had stabilized within hours of the forced unsealing, giving him plenty of space to store his Union purchases, technique manuals, and daily supplies. The convenience alone had been worth the risk—no more lugging equipment around in a backpack like some kind of newbie.
But the deep layer—where Chen had stored his most valuable items in maximum spatial compression—had been violently destabilized by Zeph’s amateur unsealing attempt.
Marcus had explained it with an analogy Zeph understood perfectly:
"Storage rings use layered spatial compression. Shallow layer is like the surface of a pool—minimal compression, easy access. Deep layer is like the bottom of that pool—extreme compression for maximum security. When you force-break a seal instead of using the proper formation, you create turbulence. The surface ripples a bit, settles quickly. But the deep water? That churns violently. Try to grab something from the bottom while it’s churning, and you might pull out destroyed fragments. Or worse, trigger a spatial collapse that destroys everything. Give it about nine days for the turbulence to settle completely."
So Zeph had waited.
Used the shallow layer for his mundane storage needs while checking the deep layer daily, feeling the spatial turbulence gradually decrease as the pocket’s matrix repaired itself.
He’d been able to SENSE items down there. Feel their presence like shapes seen through murky water. But attempting retrieval would have risked destroying them.
And if Chen had stored items in the DEEP layer—the most secure, most compressed section of his storage ring—they were valuable enough that destroying them would be catastrophic.
Now, nine days later, Zeph reached into the storage space with his consciousness.
The shallow layer responded instantly. His clothes, manuals, axe—all easily accessible as they’d been all week.
He pushed deeper.
Past the comfortable surface level.
Through the middle layer—empty, unused by both Chen and himself.
Into the deep layer, where spatial compression reached its maximum.
And for the first time since the forced unsealing, the turbulence was completely gone.
The churning sensation that had blocked access all week had settled into smooth, stable spatial matrix. Like still water after a storm.
’Finally.’
Zeph’s heart rate spiked with genuine excitement.
He’d been desperately hoping for one thing: credits. Lots of credits. Enough to solve his rent crisis, buy better equipment, afford advanced breathing techniques. Enough to stop worrying about basic survival and start focusing on actual progression.
Chen had been a B-rank awakened working for a criminal syndicate. Surely he’d have money stored somewhere safe.
And what safer place than the deep layer of his personal storage ring?
’Please be credits. Please be hundreds of thousands of credits. Please let me not be broke anymore.’
He reached for the first item and pulled.
It materialized on his table with a faint shimmer of spatial decompression.
An egg.
Zeph stared at it.
Fist-sized. Smooth shell with iridescent colors that shifted between deep purple and silver depending on the angle. Warm to the touch. Pulsing with a rhythm like a heartbeat—slow, steady, approximately forty beats per minute.
’What the fuck.’
He activated his System’s identification feature.
[SCANNING...]
[Species: Unknown]
[Classification: Unable to determine]
[Origin: Data unavailable]
[Threat Level: ???]
’Okay. Not helpful.’
Zeph set the egg carefully aside and reached into the deep layer again.
The second item materialized: a perfectly smooth crystal sphere about the size of a golf ball, containing what looked like streams of gold and silver light spiraling around each other inside. The lights moved in hypnotic patterns, never quite touching, never quite separating completely.
’At least this looks valuable.’
He pulled his phone from his pocket and opened ScanID—an app he’d downloaded three days ago after seeing it recommended on Nova. It had over 50 million downloads and supposedly could identify almost anything by cross-referencing the entire internet database.
Point camera at object, take photo, wait for results.
Zeph aimed his phone at the crystal sphere and snapped a picture.
[ScanID - Analyzing...]
[Searching database...]
[Match found!]
```
ITEM IDENTIFIED:
Skill Fusion Crystal
Rarity: Legendary
Market Value: 800,000 - 1,200,000 credits
Availability: Extremely Rare (estimated 200 in existence globally)
FUNCTION:
Allows permanent fusion of two skills into single hybrid skill.
Single-use item. Fusion success rate varies by compatibility.
Warning: Failed fusion destroys both skills permanently.
KNOWN SALES:
- Last auction: 987,000 credits (Pacific Citadel, 3 months ago)
- Black market estimate: 750,000 - 900,000 credits
- Sanctuary Authority purchase: Not available for sale
```
Zeph’s breath caught.
’Eight hundred thousand to one point two MILLION credits.’
’That’s... that’s more than a year’s rent. That’s equipment. That’s techniques. That’s financial security.’
His hands trembled slightly as he set the crystal down and reached for the third item.
A small medallion materialized, roughly coin-sized, made of crystallized mana that seemed to shift between solid and liquid states. One side showed a human figure with glowing points at major joints. The other side showed the same figure with the points in different positions.
He aimed ScanID at it.
[Analyzing...]
[Match found!]
```
ITEM IDENTIFIED:
Stat Redistribution Token
Rarity: Epic
Market Value: 500,000 credits (fixed price)
Availability: Sanctuary Authority Exclusive (requires Platinum citizenship or higher)
FUNCTION:
Complete reallocation of all earned attribute points.
Single-use consumable. Process takes 24 hours.
Warning: Extremely painful. User completely vulnerable during process.
NOTES:
- Cannot be resold (soul-binds on first use attempt)
- Highly sought after by professional awakened
- Waiting list at Sanctuary Authority: 6-18 months
```
’Five hundred thousand.’
’Holy shit.’
Zeph set the token down next to the crystal and just... stared at the three items on his table.
An unknown egg.
A Skill Fusion Crystal worth up to 1.2 million credits.
A Stat Redistribution Token worth 500,000 credits.
Total potential value: 1.7 million credits.
Except he couldn’t actually SELL them.
The Fusion Crystal was a legendary tool that could create unique hybrid skills no one else possessed. Selling it for money when he could use it to gain impossible power would be idiocy of the highest order.
The Redistribution Token was soul-bound—it would bind to him the moment he tried to use OR sell it. And the ability to completely rebuild his stat distribution? That was worth more than money could buy. The chance to fix mistakes, optimize builds, adapt to new strategies—that kind of flexibility was priceless.
And the egg...
He aimed ScanID at it.
[Analyzing...]
[Searching database...]
[No matches found]
[Expanding search parameters...]
[Still no matches found]
[Suggestion: Item may be unique, unregistered, or extra-dimensional artifact]
’Of course. The mysterious egg that even the System can’t identify doesn’t appear in any database.’
Zeph picked it up carefully, feeling its warmth and steady pulse against his palm. The heartbeat rhythm was oddly soothing, almost hypnotic.
’What are you?’
The egg offered no answers.
He set it back down and leaned back against his wall, mind racing through possibilities and implications.
’I was hoping for credits. Instead I got: one complete mystery, one skill-fusion opportunity that could either make me incredibly powerful or destroy two of my skills, and one chance to completely rebuild my character stats.’
’None of which solve my immediate rent problem.’
’But all of which are potentially worth more than money in the long run.’
His phone buzzed.
Not a notification. A call.
Unknown number.
Zeph stared at it suspiciously. He’d only given his number to maybe three people total since arriving in Northern Bastion. Unknown callers were usually scams or...
He answered cautiously. "Yeah?"
