Primordial Awakening: I Can Evolve My Skills Infinitely

Ding!

[You have entered the "Seventh Layer" of the "Forsaken" Realm: The Forgotten City.]

Sam's shoes touched solid ground, and he straightened as his eyes swept over the strange place he had just arrived in.

He stood on a small island, its surface covered in thick, healthy grass, with a single tree standing quietly at its center.

All around the island stretched a bottomless void, a darkness so deep it felt like falling into it would erase him entirely.

There was no wind. No sound. And no one else.

He was completely alone here.

'So either this layer works on a solo basis, or it's just because I entered without a team.'

In the [Lower] realm, layers like this one could be entered by hundreds of people at once, pulled in randomly and forced to share the same space.

But the [Upper] realm didn't work that way.

Here, the rules were sharper and more selective.

Sam didn't mind in the slightest.

In fact, he preferred it this way, because being alone meant he didn't have to hold back for anyone's sake.

Still, that also meant there were other instances of this [Seventh Layer] running right now, with other groups and individuals facing whatever waited beyond.

'This is only the first mission here, but I'm willing to bet it'll be a wall that stops a lot of people in their tracks.'

He closed his eyes briefly, thinking through the possibilities.

Once the people still in the [Forsaken] kingdom realized they couldn't leave a layer mid-mission.

And that missions themselves locked them in until completion, he suspected most of them would simply give up and settle down in the kingdom.

He opened his eyes again and looked ahead.

A wide, straight path stretched out before him, leading toward an enormous gate standing alone in the void.

'I guess I just need to move forward.'

Power burned in his gaze, his eyes glowing faintly as his primordial sword pulsed with the energy of his affinities.

Without hesitation, Sam sprinted forward, covering the distance to the gate in less than ten seconds.

[Push the gate to enter the "Forgotten City"]

"Hm."

The gate itself was pure white, its surface glowing faintly with a pressure that suggested danger waited on the other side.

But that wasn't what caught his attention.

What drew his eyes was the strange drawing carved into the white surface.

It was dark, faintly shifting as though powered by something unnatural, and the longer he looked at it, the more the details seemed to move.

Sam tilted his head back to study it, and then his eyes widened.

"Hah… I should have known…"

To anyone else, the image might have been incomprehensible.

If every other group in the other instances was standing here at this same moment, he doubted any of them would understand what they were seeing. But he did.

The carving showed six objects, each one radiating visible corruption.

From each object, a chain extended outward, and all six chains converged on a single figure in the center of the image.

The figure's eyes glowed red, and its limbs were bound tightly by the chains.

The six objects were clear enough to recognize: a crown, an eye, a four-edged star, a trident, a mask, and a heart.

A slow smile spread across Sam's face, crimson aura spilling faintly from his eyes and curling at the edges of his mouth.

'So the voice that spoke to me while I was being transported here… is that being.'

It had told him he would be the one to free it from its shackles, and that once free, it would end him.

Sam didn't care in the slightest.

Whatever it was, he would face it head-on.

His determination would burn brighter than anything it could imagine.

Or… so he thought, until the next message appeared.

[You sense a DETERMINATION so strong that it may currently rival yours.]

[Keep pushing forward.]

"…Hm."

Determination was the lifeblood of Sam's strength, the same was true for the other primordials.

If another being possessed something that could rival his own, it was dangerous.

For him especially, since every realm he entered seemed determined to kill him.

Regardless, he stepped forward, planting his hands against the smooth surface of the gate and pushing.

The massive doors split apart, opening slowly to reveal what lay beyond.

Ding!

[You have entered the "Forgotten City"]

The first zone within this [Seventh Layer] stretched out before him, just as its name implied, a city.

It wasn't as sprawling or overwhelming as the corrupted city he had fought through in the second layer.

This one was smaller, but no less strange.

He crossed the threshold, officially entering the zone.

The moment his legs touched the uneven ground beyond the gate—

CLANG!

The gate slammed shut behind him, vanishing completely as if it had never been there.

Now he was truly alone inside the city.

The [Forgotten City] was a collection of small buildings, most of them on the brink of collapse.

Their foundations were cracked and rotting, their walls crumbling.

Streets lay in ruins, broken stones scattered everywhere, as if the place had been neglected for centuries.

The air carried the heavy weight of abandonment, as though even time itself had stopped caring about this place.

Sam's gaze narrowed as he realized the oddest thing about the entire layer.

'There's no color.'

Everything around him was rendered in shades of black, white, and gray.

Not a single trace of another color touched the city.

Only the swirling hues of his own auras and the colors of his clothes stood out, making it clear that the effect was unique to the city itself.

It gave the entire place an eerie, lifeless feeling.

[We cannot falter here.]

Sam gave a small nod to the message and started forward, scanning the ruins as he moved.

The buildings here were smaller than in previous layers, but just as destroyed.

'Do I need to reach the far end to clear this mission? Or find that being from the carving?'

Even with the shackles depicted on the gate's image, he didn't trust that the creature was harmless.

He wanted to find it and destroy it.

Every enemy he defeated made him stronger. Every battle sharpened his determination further.

Ten minutes passed as he navigated the empty streets.

It was still strange to think there even was a seventh layer, and stranger still that he was alone in it again.

'But that also means there's a seventh sub-layer.'

A grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.

'Gotta find it.'

He knew from experience that sub-layers could be hidden in all sorts of ways.

A trapdoor. A hidden gate. A hole. A spatial rift. Or even being forcibly pulled there by the Forsaken Lord.

But every new layer meant new mechanics, and that meant caution was necessary.

Still, as he turned the next corner—

Fwish! BOOM!

The impact came before he even registered the movement, slamming into him with crushing force and launching him straight into the side of a building.

Stone shattered around him as he crashed through, dust falling into the street.

He landed unharmed thanks to the [Eternal Barrier] flickering faintly over his form.

Without a moment's hesitation, he kicked off the debris and dropped back to the street, turning to face whatever had struck him.

'First mission monster.' He drew a deep breath, muscles tensing, 'Here we go.'

The mist swirling in the street began to clear.

And then he saw it.

---

[The Forgotten Statue (???)]

[Level: 75]

[Description: A statue that has been abandoned for so long, even after coming to life thanks to the corruption.]

[Hell-Mode Analysis: This thing doesn't feel pain, doesn't care about anything, it simply wants to kill you. Heh… it's just like us =)]

---

'Level 75?!' Sam's eyes widened. 'Holy shit…'