Chapter 9 - 09: Dying Wish IX

Chapter 9: 09: Dying Wish IX --- The metal struck rock and bounced off, sending a sharp vibration up his arm. Clang! Again. Sparks danced for a heartbeat, then faded. The other workers glanced at him but said nothing. Faces hollow. Eyes dull. Every man here had been broken long before John arrived. Some looked barely alive, their skin pale, their ribs visible through their tattered clothes. Others simply stared ahead, arms moving out of habit, carving pieces of the wall without hope. John kept digging. His breath came shallow. His arms burned. His stomach ached with emptiness. The stale air mixed with the sharp tang of raw mana made his head spin, but he forced himself to stay upright. Again. Clang! Again. Clang! The stone began to crack. It took hours before he loosened a single chunk of glowing crystal. His arms shook as he pulled it free and placed it in the bucket behind him. The mana stone pulsed in his hand before he let go, like a small heartbeat against his skin. As he worked, the air grew heavier. He noticed it first in the way the light changed. The blue glow from the veins began to flicker, as if reacting to his presence. Tiny sparks leapt from the stone every time his pickaxe connected. The other workers kept their distance now, eyes flicking toward him with a mix of fear and curiosity. The mana in the mine was responding to him. At first, he thought it was a trick of exhaustion. His body was nearly spent. Every joint screamed. His lips were cracked, throat dry. But the feeling kept growing. The air buzzed around him like static. The stone pulsed harder with each strike. And then the whispers began. Faint. Like the wind sliding across glass. He stopped swinging. His heart thudded once. Twice. A strange warmth spread through his chest. He looked down at his hand. The ring was glowing. But this time, it was no longer a gentle pulse. It was alive. Lines of black light coiled around his fingers, spreading up his wrist like veins of ink. The surrounding mana veins along the wall flared in response. The blue light turned white-hot for a moment, flooding the tunnel with radiance. Then the voice returned. Not a whisper. A presence. [Ding! System construction complete.] John staggered backward, the pickaxe slipping from his hand and clattering against the stone floor. The sound bounced across the tunnel. His breathing quickened. The heat from the ring burned into his bones now, but it did not hurt. It filled him. [Initializing system interface.] A wave of pressure slammed into his mind. Not pain. Not physical. It was like a floodgate opened in his skull, pouring raw data and strange memories into him. He fell to his knees, clutching his head, gasping as vision after vision blurred behind his eyes. Blueprints. Circuits. Wires. Firearms. Drones. Generators. Vehicles, etc. The creation information he should not know. Diagrams of weapons forged with iron and magic. Tools shaped by science and spells alike. The knowledge of combining both worlds tools, filtered through something ancient, structured, and precise. [System designation: Modern Trade Integration, Abyss Tier.] John gasped for breath. He looked up, eyes glowing faintly with black light now. The tunnel was silent. Even the other workers had frozen. [System User: John White Registered.] A pause. [Welcome, Administrator.] The words sent a shiver down his spine. He had heard them before. In another life. Another death. [System protocols unlocked. Core functions active. Mana environment detected: stable.] "What... what is happening?" he whispered. His voice echoed down the shaft. [Installation accelerated due to concentrated mana exposure. You have completed initialization one year ahead of schedule.] John raised a hand. The black light around his fingers formed a thin halo. The ring pulsed again, sending ripples through the stone wall beside him. Then he felt it. A pressure in the center of his chest. Something forming. A pull. As if the space inside his body was being stretched, twisted inward. Then it snapped open. Silently. But he felt the shift. A tear inside him. A vacuum. Something ancient and hungry. And then— Woomph! The air around him compressed with a soft implosion. A swirling distortion formed just above his palm. Small at first. The size of a coin. Black and dense. The light around it bent unnaturally. Dust and pebbles lifted from the floor and floated toward it, vanishing into its center without a sound. A black hole. Real one. It was Contained. Alive. John stared at it. Without any fear. Only understanding. "This... this is mine," he whispered. [Confirmed. Primary affinity: Void Compression. Black Hole Magic awakened.] The other men scrambled away now, screaming. One dropped his pickaxe and ran. Another fell to the ground and crawled toward the exit. Chains rattled wildly as the others pulled back in terror. Loric appeared at the far end of the tunnel, eyes wide. "What in the name of the gods—" The swirling mass flared. John’s hand closed. The black hole vanished instantly. The tunnel grew silent again. John stood there. No pain. No weakness. Just power. The System voice echoed once more. [Would you like to view your status?] He smiled. "Yes." Light flickered across his vision. .Not from the tunnel. Not from the faint torchlight or the eerie blue veins that glowed along the stone. This light came from within. Lines of code and structure swirled in front of him, not written in ink, but etched into the air. It was visible only to his eyes. A screen hovered before him. No one else seemed to see it. It was made of energy and shadow, shaped like glass and mist, layered with strange symbols that rearranged themselves into something readable. [Status Window: Active. Name: John White. Race: Human (Reincarnated) System Core: Abyss Class Artifact (Bound to John White.) Magic Circle: Unranked Affinity: Void Compression (Unique) Primary Skill: Black Hole Core (Sealed) System Type: Modern Trade Integration System Level: Lv1 Initialization Complete. Build Progress: 100 percent. Secondary Skill: Blueprint Conversion (Unlocked). Inventory Space: 10 slots Mana Capacity: 000:00 (Unmeasured) Authority Level: Administrator.]