Chapter 10: Dying Wish X

Chapter 10: 10: Dying Wish X --- John stared at it. His heart beat was steady. His hands were no longer shaking. This was real. Not a dream. Not some broken vision brought on by hunger or blood loss. The System had arrived, and it had brought something impossible into this world. The ring warmed on his finger. "System," he whispered, "explain Black Hole Core." A pause. Then the voice returned, smooth and mechanical, yet familiar now. [Black Hole Core is your unique magic affinity. Void Compression allows manipulation of gravitational singularity through internal mana conversion. Current status: sealed due to user’s rank. Unlock condition: activate first Heart Circle.] He nodded slowly. "And Blueprint Conversion?" [Blueprint Conversion allows the user to mentally recreate any object previously seen in your former world called Earth. Once converted, a magical variant can be crafted using this world’s resources and mana essence.] John raised his eyes to the tunnel walls. The mana stones still pulsed softly. Crystalline veins shimmered, humming with untapped energy. He could feel it now, not just see it. The raw current of power vibrating in the stone, and the System whispering in his thoughts how to use it. Blueprints. He could build. Weapons. Tools. Devices that no one in this world had ever imagined. He clenched his fists. A scream echoed from the back of the tunnel. He turned. Loric had fallen to one knee, gripping the side of the wall. His face had turned pale beneath the flickering lantern light. Behind him, the other guards stood frozen, hands on their hilts but afraid to act. John walked forward. His steps made no sound. The weight of gravity around him shifted. Pebbles lifted from the ground, hovering in the air like dust caught in a storm. Every footstep pressed down with unnatural force, as if the very stone recognized the change in him. Loric tried to stand. John raised one hand. A small ripple formed in the air. Not a black hole... not yet. Something smaller. A flicker of distorted space that hummed like a pulse. The lantern beside Loric shattered with a pop. Flames hissed and vanished into the darkness. The tunnel dimmed, leaving only the glow of the mana stones and the faint, swirling shadow around John’s hand. "You brought me here to die," John said. Loric swallowed hard. "You were a mistake," the man spat. "Your blood is weak. A bastard’s child playing noble." John stepped closer. "Then why do I feel stronger than any of you?" He opened his palm. The swirling shadow expanded. Wind spiraled inward. Dust and grit flew across the floor. The guards flinched as one man stumbled backward. Loric lifted his sword. But he never swung it. The singularity pulsed once and the blade crumpled inward like paper, drawn into the miniature void before vanishing completely. No sound. No fire. Just a quiet implosion. Loric screamed and fell back, dropping the hilt. "Stop! Stay back!" John stood over him now, eyes glowing faintly with black light. He leaned closer. "You don’t get to give orders anymore." He closed his hand again. The void collapsed. Silence followed. No one moved. Even the guards at the rear lowered their weapons, eyes wide, jaws slack. They had never seen magic like this. It wasn’t flame or ice or lightning. It was nothing. A piece of the void. Something that devoured rather than destroyed. John turned to the others. "Unlock the chains," he said. No one disobeyed. The first man scrambled forward, hands shaking as he grabbed a ring of keys from Loric’s belt. The prisoners were unshackled one by one. None of them spoke. Some stared at John as if he were no longer human. Maybe he wasn’t. Not anymore. He approached the wall where he had worked. The crack he had made with his pickaxe had deepened during the System’s awakening. The mana stone inside the wall glowed brighter now, as if reacting to his presence. He placed a hand on it. The stone pulsed. And a message appeared. [Mana core identified. Material suitable for Trade System input. Do you wish to collect this as a base resource?] "Yes," he said. The stone dissolved in his hand. A faint mist drifted into his palm and vanished. Another line of text appeared. [One unit of Raw Mana Crystal collected. Stored in Inventory Slot 1.] He smiled. The guards still stared at him from the back of the tunnel. John turned to them. "You work for Julian?" They said nothing. He didn’t need the answer. "I want you to deliver a message," he said with a calm voice. They shifted uncomfortably. "Tell him I’m not dead." He stepped forward again, letting the gravity around him thicken. The stone under his boots cracked softly. "Tell him," he said, "that I’m coming for him." The air inside the mine had changed. It was still thick with dust and mana. Still damp with the stink of sweat and stone. But beneath it now was something else. Something deeper. The others could not name it. They only felt it. The shift. The pressure. As if the mine itself had inhaled and was holding its breath. John stood in the silence. He looked down at his hands. They no longer trembled. His muscles still ached from exhaustion. His arms still bore the strain of work and hunger. But the pain had dulled. Faded beneath something greater. It was Power... Real power. Not imagined. Not hoped for. It thrummed quietly inside him. Not as fire or lightning. Not like the elements he had seen in books or stories or anime. This was heavier. Deeper. A void where all things ended. He took a step forward. The guards pulled back. He walked past Loric without a word. The man lay against the wall with his mouth half open and his eyes fixed on the place where his sword had vanished. He did not try to rise.