Infinite Awakening: 10,000x EXP Converter!

3 AM. The Warrens swallowed him whole.

The familiar walk through the thirteenth level maintenance tunnels took forty minutes. His Level 19 body made the journey easy now. The bad environment that had nearly killed him a week ago was nothing but a slight bother. His enhanced VIT meant the toxic air barely registered. His AGI 22 meant he could run through the broken pathways at full speed without risk.

But tonight he was not here for experience. He was here for one thing.

Karma Points.

His interface showed KP at 19. One more low roll. One sub-5x multiplier from any kill, and he would hit 20. The Re-Roll Token would be his.

The irony was sharp enough to cut. He was actively hoping for bad luck. A week of garbage rolls had angered him endlessly, and now that he actually needed one, the System would probably make him work for it. It always loved a good joke.

The glowing wall fluid pulsed with its familiar light as he entered the subway tunnels.

The first Ironjaw Rat jumped from a ceiling pipe. It was fast and angry, exactly the kind of monster that had nearly killed him days ago.

Alvian caught it by the throat with his left hand. His STR 20 grip crushed its windpipe instantly. He drove his enhanced Clearwater Palm into its skull with his right. The acid, still settling from Serah tech work, ate through the metallic skin in seconds. The melting spread deeper and faster than before, the eighteen-second window giving him plenty of time to finish the job.

The rat shook once and died.

[Ding!]

[Combat action detected.]

[Random multiplier activated: 12x!]

[Uncommon Roll!]

[Ironjaw Rat Base EXP: 25]

[Multiplier: 12x]

[Total EXP: 300]

Three hundred EXP. Solid roll. No Karma Point.

”Of course,” Alvian muttered in the dark. ”The one time I actually want garbage.”

He moved deeper. The second rat came from behind a broken pillar, jaws snapping at his ankle. He moved aside, drove Clearwater Palm into its ribs, and followed with a brutal stomp to its skull. The acid had softened the skin enough that his boot cracked the bone beneath.

[Ding!]

[Random multiplier activated: 8x!]

[Total EXP: 200]

Eight times. Still above 5x. Still no KP.

His jaw tightened. He killed two more rats over the next hour. Both fights were easy. His enhanced Clearwater Palm made the metallic skin almost useless now. The rats barely posed a threat at his current level.

The rolls kept coming in high.

[Ding!]

[Random multiplier activated: 15x!]

[Total EXP: 375]

[Ding!]

[Random multiplier activated: 22x!]

[Total EXP: 550]

Four rats dead. Zero Karma Points. His luck was crazy good tonight, exactly when he did not want it to be.

’You have got to be kidding me,’ he thought, staring at the latest notification. ’A week of trash rolls and now the System decides to be kind?’

He kept moving. The Warrens stretched deeper ahead, the glowing light growing brighter as the dimensional energy thickened. He could hear more rats scratching in the walls. Plenty of targets. Plenty of chances.

The fifth rat was smaller than the others. Young, probably. Its metallic teeth were small and its skin was thinner. It stopped when it saw him instead of charging blindly.

Alvian grabbed it by the tail, slammed it against the tunnel wall, and drove his palm into its skull. A quick end for a weak monster. At least it would not grow up to bite anyone else.

[Ding!]

[Combat action detected.]

[Random multiplier activated: 2x!]

[Common Roll!]

[Ironjaw Rat Base EXP: 25]

[Multiplier: 2x]

[Total EXP: 50]

[Ding!]

[Roll below 5x detected!]

[Karma Points +1. Current KP: 20]

[The cosmos weeps for your terrible fortune.]

Twenty.

The notification hit before he could even process the EXP gain.

[Ding!]

[Karma Point threshold reached!]

[20 KP cumulative earned!]

[Re-Roll Token now available for purchase!]

[Cost: 20 KP]

[Purchase? Y/N]

”Purchase,” Alvian said right away.

[KP: 20 to 0]

[Re-Roll Token acquired!]

[Single use. Activates automatically on next multiplier roll.]

[If first result is bad, second spin will execute using same probability table.]

[The System regrets to inform you that it cannot guarantee two good rolls in a row. But it would find two bad ones absolutely hilarious.]

A new icon appeared in his System interface. A small spinning arrow labeled RE-ROLL pulsed softly in the corner of his vision. One use. One second chance on any roll, single or grouped.

The tactical thoughts flooded his mind right away. The tournament was in five days. Single elimination. Sorted by Talent rank. He would face much harder enemies, and by the third round, the bracket would put him against C-Rank talents or higher.

He could save the Re-Roll Token for the tournament. Use it on a crucial moment where a single roll could shift the entire fight. If he landed a hit on an enemy and the System triggered a roll, a bad result could be spun again for a second chance. No promises. The second spin used the same math. But doubled chances in a single bracket where one loss meant the end was huge.

He continued hunting. Three more hours of careful killing. The rats were simple enemies now, barely worth the effort, but every core was fifteen to twenty-five credits and every kill was base EXP.

The rolls were always above 5x. No more KP gain. He did not mind. He had what he came for.

[Ding!]

[Random multiplier activated: 9x!]

[Total EXP: 225]

[Ding!]

[Random multiplier activated: 6x!]

[Total EXP: 150]

[Ding!]

[Random multiplier activated: 14x!]

[Total EXP: 350]

By the time he decided to stop, he had killed eleven rats total over the entire night. Roughly 3,200 EXP earned from single kills. He added 2,000 EXP to INT.

[INT: 11 to 13]

The intelligence increase was slight but real. His battle thinking sharpened. He could track many things at once without mental stress. Enemy moving patterns, ground hazards, Clearwater Palm timing windows. Everything computed faster. The upgrade would be massive for tournament fights where quick choices decided winners.

He leaned against the tunnel wall and pulled up his full profile.

┌──────[ Profile]──────┐

│ [Host]: Alvian Vance

│ [Level]: 19 (Mortal Tier)

│ [Talent]: Clearwater [E-Rank]

│ [Skills]: Clearwater Palm [E-Rank, Enhanced]

│ [STR]: 20 | [AGI]: 22 | [VIT]: 35

│ [INT]: 13 | [Essence]: 12

│ [Karma Points]: 0

│ [EXP Bank]: ~71,000 / ∞

│ [Re-Roll Token]: 1 (Active)

│ [System Shop]: Unlocked

└───────────────┘

The Re-Roll Token pulsed softly in the corner of his vision. One use. He had to decide when to use it.

Five days until the tournament. Two more sessions with Serah that would further boost Clearwater Palm. 71,000 EXP in the Bank that he could use for a pre-tournament stat push. And a Re-Roll Token that could turn a bad moment from disaster to victory.

Eleven rat cores sat in his pack. Worth about 180 credits if Hendricks did not rob him. He would. But even 140 credits was enough for Martha medicine and food for the week.

Alvian pushed himself off the wall and began the long climb back to the surface. The glowing light faded behind him as the Warrens turned into old subway tiles, then to maintenance tunnels, then to the thirteenth level neon-lit hallways.

Tobias Finch sat outside his scrap hut. The old scavenger mechanical arm rested on his knee, quiet. His dark eye watched Alvian walk out of the tunnel. He saw the rat blood on his hands, the slow walking speed, the lack of visible wounds.

”BZZZT!”

The arm sparked once. Tobias smacked it.

”Tournament is in five days,” Tobias said flatly. ”Heard the Magnus kid talking in the upper market. He is bringing family sponsors to watch.”

”Let them watch.”

Tobias grunted. He picked up his soldering iron and went back to work. The mechanical arm sparked twice more. Blue-white flashes lit the dim hallway before fading.

Alvian walked home through the neon-lit thirteenth level. His mind was already running numbers. Two more sessions. 71,000 EXP to use. One Re-Roll Token. Five days until Darius Magnus got his stage.

The Re-Roll Token pulsed in the corner of his vision. He would save it. Not for the early rounds where weaker enemies would be easy. Not for the later rounds where C-Rank talents would test his enhanced Clearwater.

He would save it for the match that mattered most. The one where the gap between his hidden stats and his enemy Talent was widest. The one where a single lucky roll could shift the entire fight.

He checked his interface one final time before reaching his apartment door. The Re-Roll Token icon pulsed steadily beside his zero KP balance.

Five days.