NOVEL ONLINE FREE Chapter 12: Chapter 12 – Breath Before the Storm
The air was heavy.
Mana pulsed in low waves across the ruined city outskirts, like the heartbeat of something colossal stirring beneath the earth. The sinkhole—now glowing a steady violet—throbbed with life.
It was nearly ready.
Auther stood on a half-broken rooftop overlooking the site, his silver-white hair shifting gently in the mana-charged wind. The runes circling the sinkhole had fully formed, swirling like a clock around the edges. Above it, faint distortions hovered in the air, the beginnings of a dimensional fracture.
He had one day left.
One day before the dungeon bloomed.
One day to finish sharpening every tool he had.
Auther turned and walked back toward his shelter. His mind was already calculating possibilities.
"I've hit F3. My offensive tools are solid. My movement skill is usable. I can survive a straight fight now."
He paused.
"But in a dungeon, sustainability is everything."
Prolonged battles, mana pressure, environmental shifts… It was his own body and control over it that would decide whether he walked out alive.
His breathing technique—Silent Star Breathing—was the core of everything he'd built.
And it was time to make it stronger.
---
Back in his hideout, he sat cross-legged on the cold floor, the datapad and notebook beside him, system window open and flickering softly in the dim light.
He took a long breath.
Silent Star Breathing had carried him this far. It allowed him to regulate mana, recover quickly, and avoid mana exhaustion even after extended combat. But it was still F-rank.
And it was time to take the next step.
He began rewriting the skill.
---
[Skill Upgrade Attempt]
Base Skill: Silent Star Breathing (F5)
Goal: Improve mana flow speed, increase efficiency, allow limited absorption of ambient mana during rest.
Name Attempt 1: Astral Core Breathing
Description: "A refined breathing technique that aligns the user's internal mana with ambient energy fields, enhancing natural recovery and increasing passive mana absorption. Improves internal circulation, pressure resistance, and grants a slight resistance to corrupted mana environments."
[Rank: E2 – Cost: 95 Points]
Too expensive.
He scaled it down.
---
Attempt 2:
Name: Starwave Breathing (F7)
Description: "A refined version of Silent Star Breathing. Allows better control of internal mana circulation and passive mana recovery when still. Slightly increases stamina and resistance to internal mana pressure."
[Rank: F7 – Cost: 28 Points]
Much better.
Clean, focused, achievable.
He confirmed.
---
[Skill Created: Starwave Breathing (F1)]
[Old Skill Silent Star Breathing removed.]
[Skill Points Remaining: 11]
---
He activated it.
The change was immediate.
His breath fell into rhythm, deeper and smoother than before. The mana around him no longer resisted him—it flowed toward him in tiny threads, brushing his skin like wind.
He entered a meditative trance.
Each inhale brought a thread of mana. Each exhale sent it spiraling through his veins.
It wasn't strong—not yet—but this technique wasn't about strength. It was about foundation. Efficiency. Long-term growth.
And most importantly—it gave him the ability to recover mana during stillness, something that most F-rank combatants couldn't do.
In a dungeon, that could mean the difference between life and death.
He meditated for two hours.
When he stood, his limbs were lighter. His core hummed with energy.
He smiled faintly.
"That's more like it."
---
The rest of the day was spent fine-tuning his gear.
He checked every potion, every wrap, re-tightened his cloak straps, reforged the edge of his makeshift weapon with mana, and went over his battle plans.
He even took out time to clean his small datapad and transcribe a fresh copy of his skill list and dungeon notes.
---
[Auther Finn – Rank: F3]
[Ability: Skill Creation – Unique]
[Skill Points: 11]
[Active Skills:]
Starwave Breathing (F7)
Mana Edge (F3)
Burst Step (F4)
Piercing Mana Spike (F5)
Fighting Mastery (F3)
Reflex Boost (F4)
Enhanced Hearing (F4)
[Passive / Utility:]
Reinforced Frame (F4)
Lesser Flesh Knitting (F4)
Mana Flow Regulation (F5)
---
[Inventory:]
• Healing Vials – 3
• Red-grade Mana Core – 1
• Stabilizer – 1
• Rations (3 Days)
• Rope, knife, flint spark
• Tattered cloak, steel pipe weapon
• Notebook & Pad
---
He stared at his skill list for a long while.
There were a few things missing.
He had no wide-area skills yet. No elemental magic. No ranged combat besides short-range mana spike. But he couldn't afford to create a new skill now—not without dropping below 10 points.
And 10 was his minimum emergency buffer.
So he waited.
Let the dungeon spawn first. Then, once he scouted it, he could design skills for that environment.
He needed adaptability, not pre-made assumptions.
---
That night, he climbed to the same rooftop overlooking the sink.
The wind howled across the crumbled ruins.
And the sink… pulsed like a heartbeat.
The color had changed again.
Now it glowed a deep indigo, and the glyphs spun slowly, as if a great eye were beginning to open.
"Tomorrow," he whispered. "You open tomorrow."
He felt no fear.
Just pressure.
And possibility.
---
In the distance, far beyond the walls of Ashveil, beyond the sprawl of its collapsed sectors and shadowed towers, a woman wearing a crimson mantle paused beside a mana detection tower.
She stared at a needle that had just twitched for the first time in days.
A faint distortion had been picked up from Ashveil's southern ruins.
"Interesting," she murmured, brushing a strand of dark hair behind one ear. "Unregistered mana gate forming in a Class C dead zone?"
She turned toward a long-haired beastfolk companion.
"Send a scout to observe. Quietly. Let's see who stirs the dirt in that graveyard."
---
Back in the ruins, Auther climbed down from the roof, head low, cloak trailing dust.
He didn't know eyes might fall on him soon.
Didn't know others were sensing the pulse of the coming dungeon.
But he didn't need to.
Right now, he had a single thought.
"Survive. Grow. Advance."
One step at a time.
And the next step?
Was tomorrow.