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No Mana, Only Mastery

Tác giả: DivineClover
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[Welcome Runners to The Layers!] Trapped in a multiverse of deadly realms, humanity must climb through each Layer to reclaim their world. The System grants supernatural powers fueled by mana, except Lance doesn’t have any mana. No mana. No flashy skills. Just one Special Talent: Weapon Mastery. The higher his mastery, the more deadly his weapon becomes. With nothing but his spear and the sheer singular motive to survive and live on , Lance vows to conquer every Layer and return to the life he lost. But survival comes at a cost and the Layers never let anyone go easily.

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Chapter 1Prologue: The Layers

[Warning: You are surrounded by Revenants!]

"Come on, you damn monsters! Is this the best you've got?!" I shouted, voice hoarse, but still carrying the weight of defiance. My legs were barely holding me up, the world spinning with every breath I took, but I wasn't going down without a fight.

I was cornered, surrounded by an army of monsters. The grotesque shapes of their misshapen bodies slithered around me, drooling, their eyes glowing with hunger. Some were tall, others short, their frames twisted and unnatural, but one thing was for sure—they all looked like they had a one-track mind: dinner. And I was the main course.

The only thing I had left was my spear, the old, battered weapon that had seen too many battles and spilled too much blood. The metal was slick with the viscera of monsters I'd already taken down. Each time they leapt at me, I thrust, poked, and skewered whatever dared to get too close. A few dropped, but more took their place, as if they had a never-ending supply of bodies to throw at me. They kept coming.

And me? I kept fighting. But not for much longer.

My team had already escaped, probably off to the next Layer. They were better off without me. I was more of a liability than anything, just dead weight in the grand scheme of things. If I die here, at least I'll die with a little dignity. Right? Or, at the very least, die trying to keep the world from ending.

At this point, there was no way out. An army of these freaks was closing in on me. It was the end.

"Tch!" I grunted, my body stumbling as I tried to parry some of the Revenants' strikes. Their talons were like razors, and I could feel the sharp pain as they tore through my clothes and skin, leaving gashes that bled freely. My body was covered in cuts, bruises, and who knows what else. Honestly, at this point, I didn't even care.

My grip on the spear was slipping. The blood pouring from my wounds seemed to drown out any strength I had left. The fight was fading from me. If I'm being honest, my mind was too. My body wasn't just broken; my spirit was starting to crack too.

The worst part? I knew it. I was giving up. Slowly, but surely.

"Dammit!" I spat, frustration building as I saw no way out. I could have just as easily given up hours ago, let them rip me to shreds. But I couldn't, could I? That's just not how things worked. If I wasn't going to survive, then at least I could keep the others alive a little longer.

But if I'm being honest, I really didn't want to die like this. A twisted part of me wanted to scream at the unfairness of it all.

I wanted my old life back. The normal one. The boring, uneventful one. I didn't ask for any of this. I didn't ask for the monsters, the power, or the whole damn system that dragged me into this nightmare.

I used to be normal. My name is Lance, just Lance. No last name. No grand destiny. Just some orphaned kid who managed to scrape by. Got a 9-5, a crummy little job that paid enough to keep the roof over my head and food on the table. Life wasn't glamorous, but it was good enough for me. I wasn't asking for much. Hell, I was thankful for my boring little life. I didn't even know how to dream bigger.

But then the Revenants showed up. Out of nowhere. Monsters. Monsters with the sole purpose of slaughtering every damn human they could find. At first, we tried to fight back with our weapons. Firearms, artillery, you name it. But nothing worked. Not a damn thing. No, the only thing that worked was blunt weapons. Swords, axes, and spears. And even then, it was like trying to kill cockroaches with a hammer. They just kept coming.

In a matter of days, humanity was wiped out. The population dwindled to nothing. Just a few of us, hanging on by the skin of our teeth, hiding wherever we could, fighting for scraps. It felt like the end. I didn't think there was a chance for us.

But then, the system showed up. Like some weird glitch in the matrix. It was surreal. One minute, there was nothing. The next, a holographic screen appeared in front of me, flashing messages that made no damn sense.

[System Booting...]

[System Booted!]

[Layer 1 - World 1. Contains Revenants that reset once every five days.]

[Initializing Personal Info...]

[Successfully Read!]

[Congratulations Lance! You are now a 'Runner' Welcome to The Layers!]

[The Layers are worlds separated between bridges trapped between a deadly multiverse of realities. Trapped in a multiverse of deadly realms, your world is at the bottom of said Layers. Runners must conquer the Layers and once conquered, Runners are able to continue their lives as almighty powerful beings or return to their normal lives.]

The hell was that supposed to mean? What was the purpose of conquerring The Layers in the face place? I didn't even have time to process what I was reading before another message popped up.

[System Update: Humans have gained access to supernatural abilties and also mana. Use mana to summon abilities to fight against the Revenants.]

That was supposed to be good news, right? Humans had a fighting chance now? Maybe.

But not me.

[Name: Lance

Level: 1

Mana: None

Skills: (Empty)

Special Talents: (Weapon Mastery)

Class: (Empty)

Titles: (Empty)]

Yeah, you read that right. No mana. I was literally a walking, talking dead weight. Without mana I couldn't level up. Couldn't get cool magical abilties. Nothing. But, I did have one thing. One small glimmer of usefulness: Weapon Mastery.

[This talent allows you to hone your skills with a specific weapon of your choosing, leveling it into mastery with continuous use and training makes the weapon very deadly.]

Not much, but it kept me alive. So I kept fighting, kept training, kept doing everything I could to survive. Because, frankly, there was nothing else left to do. And somehow, against all odds, I made it. I fought off the Revenants. The group I joined—other survivors like me—we stuck together. It wasn't easy. But we made it.

We thought we had done it. We thought we had cleared our world. The gates opened, and the screen flashed:

[Successfully cleared Layer 1!]

[Enter gates to go to next Layer]

But then the screen flashed again.

[Warning: Revenants are in the area.]

Goddammit.

I turned, heart sinking as I saw the monsters flooding in. An army of them, just waiting to rip us apart. They reset, just as we were about to escape.

I made a decision, one that would seal my fate. I told my team to leave, to get out, and I stayed behind. The bait. The distraction. I was never meant to survive this. It was better me than them right?

Brave? Maybe. Worth it? Probably not. But that's what you get when you're the weakest guy in the room. You die first. Simple as that.

I never asked for this life. I just wanted to live in peace, go back to the mundane. But now? Now I had to face the consequences of surviving in a world that had no place for people like me.

If I die here, I'll at least die with some dignity. Or at least, that's what I keep telling myself.

I was supposed to die, wasn't I?

That thought lingered in my mind as the cold, clawed hands of the Revenants closed in. A guy like me—weak, miserable, a useless speck of existence in a world teetering on chaos—has no business fighting for survival. My death was inevitable, a statistical certainty in this nightmare world. So why bother fighting it? Why not just let these shambling corpses rip me apart and put an end to my pathetic life?

But something wouldn't let me go.

Even as my legs screamed to collapse and my breath came in shallow, broken gasps, my grip on the bloodied spear tightened. My body refused to listen to the whispering void inside me, the one that begged for it all to end. Instead, I let out a guttural, animalistic roar and charged headfirst into the swarm.

"Die!" I bellowed, my voice cracked and raw as I plunged my spear into the chest of a Revenant. Its body spasmed, dark ichor gushing from the wound like a ruptured sewer pipe. The smell was rancid—like rotting meat mixed with burning tires. My stomach churned, but my hands moved on their own, yanking the weapon free with a sickening squelch.

The Revenants came at me like a tidal wave, each grotesque form more hideous than the last. Their skin hung in tatters, their eyes empty sockets dripping with blackened ichor. They weren't particularly strong; no, their strength came in numbers. They swarmed like ants, overwhelming and unrelenting. One lunged for my throat, its claws glinting in the dim moonlight. I twisted the spear, catching it mid-air, and impaled its chest.

Another leaped, its jaw unhinged like a snake. I swung the corpse still hanging from my spear, using it as a grotesque club to knock the attacker back. Blood and viscera sprayed in every direction, painting the ground beneath me in crimson and black.

[Gained 100 Mastery Points!

Weapon Mastery: Spear (Lv. 2) 100/200 → 200/200]

[Your Weapon Mastery has leveled up! Spear (Lv. 3)]

The system notification flashed before me, its glowing letters taunting me in their cheerfulness. "Oh, great," I muttered through gritted teeth, thrusting the spear through another Revenant's face. The blade pierced through its skull, shattering bone and releasing a splatter of brain matter. "Glad to know I'm getting better at dying!"

My body moved as if possessed. I ducked under a claw swipe, spun on my heel, and drove the spear through the attacker's throat. The blade ripped through flesh and sinew, tearing the Revenant's head clean off. It toppled to the ground, its decapitated body twitching.

"Why... why am I still fighting?" I muttered under my breath, kicking a lunging Revenant in the chest. My foot connected with a crunch, sending it sprawling. Another one replaced it immediately, slashing at my face. The claws tore through my cheek, and I stumbled back, warm blood cascading down my jaw.

It hurt like hell.

But instead of collapsing, instead of giving in, I roared again, driving the spear into the creature's mouth and out the back of its skull. "Damn!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the barren wasteland.

[Gained 50 Mastery Points!]

[Gained 100 Mastery Points!]

[Gained 20 Mastery Points!]

The notifications kept coming, one after another, as if the system itself was cheering me on. My spear tore through limbs and torsos, severing heads and impaling chests. Blood rained down, drenching me in gore. I should've been horrified, but all I felt was a sick satisfaction. The adrenaline coursing through my veins drowned out everything else—fear, pain, despair.

One by one, the Revenants fell. My spear turned the battlefield into a grotesque masterpiece of torn flesh and broken bodies. Yet they kept coming, their screeches piercing the night air. My arms burned, my legs wobbled, but I didn't stop.

[You have achieved Weapon Mastery: Spear (Lv. 5)]

[New Title Unlocked: Survivor]

[Skill Upgrade: Thrust → Piercing Thrust]

The system's cheery tone clashed with the carnage around me, almost mocking in its detachment. I couldn't tell if it wanted me to succeed or just to keep bleeding for its amusement.

Finally, as the first rays of sunlight broke over the horizon, the last Revenant fell. Its body collapsed in a heap, joining the grotesque pile of corpses beneath me. My breath came in ragged gasps, my body trembling from exhaustion. My spear, slick with blood and ichor, trembled in my hands.

I stood atop the mound of bodies, a grotesque king surveying his broken kingdom. My blood dripped onto the corpses below, mixing with theirs. My face throbbed from the gash, and my muscles screamed for rest, but I didn't care.

"I..." My voice cracked, barely audible over the sound of the wind. "I want to live."

The words came unbidden, surprising even me. Despite everything—despite the pain, the despair, the overwhelming futility of it all—I wanted to survive.

For what reason? I didn't want to die here, no. I want to return back to my normal life and find a family, live and die with a woman by my side... But as the sun rose higher, its warmth cutting through the cold darkness, I clung to that fragile, inexplicable desire.

And for now, that was enough.

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