SSS Ranked Awakening: All My Skills Are at Level 100

Chapter 16 – ”Shadows, Cores, Death, and Silent Steps”

Leon crouched beside the fallen wolf, one hand braced on its bloodied shoulder, the other reaching beneath the thick fur and cracked bone. A moment later, his fingers closed around something faintly warm.

A mana core.

Small. Rough-edged. Still pulsing faintly with residual light.

’Got it,’ he thought, pulling it free and turning it over in his palm. It was duller than he expected. Not as radiant as stories claimed—but it was his first.

He slipped it into his pouch carefully.

’”Don’t forget to collect every core.”’ Seraphine’s voice echoed in his memory. ’”Once you awaken, you’ll need them. Consuming cores is the fastest way to strengthen a yourself at the start.”’

He’d rolled his eyes when she’d said that—mostly because she’d said it while trying to spoon-feed him soup like he was six.

But now?

Now he understood the weight behind those words.

Every victory mattered.

Every resource had a purpose.

Every core was power waiting to be unlocked.

---

With the wolf dealt with and his breath steadying, Leon finally let himself take in the world around him.

The dungeon.

He hadn’t noticed before—too busy not dying—but now that his blood wasn’t on fire, the details came into focus.

The stone beneath him wasn’t regular masonry. It was ancient—cracked, overgrown with roots, faintly glowing with threads of dormant runes. The ceiling arched far overhead, carved with forgotten sigils. Moss grew in patches, giving the air a damp, earthen tang.

And the light?

It didn’t come from torches or magic lanterns.

It came from the walls themselves—soft pulses of blue and violet leaking from runes buried under layers of grime. Not enough to illuminate fully, but enough to cast strange shadows across every jagged surface.

’This place feels... alive.’

Not just inhabited.

Not just dangerous.

’Alive.’

He didn’t like it.

---

Leon exhaled softly and reached into his cloak, brushing fingers against the faint seam near the shoulder.

Time to move.

The last fight had gone well—too well, actually—but he wasn’t going to let that lull him. A one-on-one kill was doable.

But if two more wolves jumped him mid-recovery?

He wouldn’t walk out of here.

Not even with his regeneration ring.

He tapped the embedded rune of his Cloak of Mild Invisibility, the fabric thrumming faintly in response.

It didn’t shimmer. Didn’t glow.

He simply vanished.

Not with a grand flourish. Not with a flicker of light.

Just—gone.

His heart ticked up slightly, but his steps were steady as he crept forward.

He didn’t make the cloak while someone was looking.

Which meant...

He’d stay invisible. For now.

---

He moved like a shadow—slow, deliberate, close to the wall.

And as he walked, his thoughts drifted back to the hundreds of experiments he’d run with his treasures during training. Hours inside the Dimensional Hourglass, testing, retesting, refining.

And the cloak?

It had turned out to be a borderline cheat item.

’”It’s not true invisibility,”’ he’d muttered once while writing in his journal. ’”It’s just... really convenient selective blindness. If they don’t see you vanish, they won’t see you appear.”’

But it had flaws.

Big ones.

No sound masking.

No scent suppression.

And no second chances if someone caught a flicker.

That meant: No talking. No tripping. No breathing too loud.

And most of all—no mistakes.

---

After another few minutes of careful travel, Leon froze.

Blood.

The coppery smell hit his nose before the scene did.

Two bodies lay crumpled near a collapsed archway—one slumped against stone, the other sprawled facedown. Both wore light armor. Both looked fresh.

Candidates.

From his group.

He hadn’t even talked to them—but something in his gut twisted all the same.

They weren’t just dead.

They were torn.

Claw marks.

Ripped throats.

Unfinished kill.

’Pack behavior,’ he realized, eyes narrowing.

His gaze shifted left—then caught motion.

Three wolves.

Still lingering.

Prowling around the corpses. Searching. One of them sniffed the air.

Leon stayed perfectly still, hidden by cloak and distance.

’They haven’t seen me yet.’

But this would be dangerous.

Three enemies.

One of him.

And invisibility wouldn’t last long if he made a single noise.

He crouched lower, weighing his options.

’”Avoid unless necessary,”’ Seraphine had taught.

But she’d also said:

’”If you must strike... end it fast.”’

Three wolves stood near the corpses, tearing at what remained—snarling, feeding, half-alert.

’Those two entered with me. Maybe from one of the outer cities. Strong enough to be chosen. Not strong enough to survive.’

He didn’t move closer yet.

Not until he reviewed his odds.

’Three enemies. I can’t engage head-on. Not unless I want a tooth lodged in my ribcage. But... if I use the cloak right...’

Leon remembered all the tests.

’Back in the estate, I experimented with this thing a hundred ways. If I activate it while no one’s watching, and stay quiet... I stay invisible. Indefinitely. Until I cancel it or make a mistake.’

But again—no masking of scent, sound.

Still, it was enough for a clean approach.

As long as he didn’t get cocky.

’Right. No distractions. Think tactically. Quietly get the drop on one... kill it instantly... then pivot. Cloak reactivates the second I break line of sight.’

He breathed in once, slow and calm.

Then the thought crept in—quiet, unshakable.

’Seraphine said performance mattered. The better I do in here... the higher the chance I awaken a rare class.’

He looked at the wolves again, narrowing his gaze.

’Mediocre isn’t an option.’

Because it wasn’t just about surviving this dungeon anymore.

It was about reaching further.

’I was thrown into the Lower Domain. The bottom rung of the Earthly Plane. The entity made it sound like a punishment, but also... a test.’

He remembered the being’s words—that faint echo in the void.

That if fate aligned... ’they might meet again.’

And more importantly, that it wasn’t a god.

Not even close.

’There are beings who walk galaxies like footpaths. Who blink, and suns die. That... that’s what’s out there. That’s the scale I’m up against.’

Leon’s chest rose slowly.

His fists clenched.

’Seraphine is one of the strongest in this kingdom. But even she’s confined to its borders. This world... it’s small. Even the sky feels like a ceiling.’

But beyond that?

Beyond the dungeons, and empires, and Domains—

There was something else.

’Planets. Races. Worlds.’

’I want that.’

’I want to see it all.’

Not just out of curiosity.

But because for the first time in both his lives—

He had a ’purpose’.

Not survival.

Not peace.

But ’discovery’.

He wanted to find beauty no one else had seen. Stand in places no human had ever walked. Speak to entities that didn’t have names.

’And to do that... I need power.’

Not borrowed.

Not handed down.

’Earned.’

His eyes opened, bright and cold like a distant moon.

’Starting now.’

’’’’

Three wolves. One of him.

Leon crouched in the shadowed edge of the corridor, gaze fixed, breath slow. The beasts paced, unaware—yet.

Outnumbered? Yeah.

Outmatched? Hell no.

He flexed his grip on the daggers, silver eyes gleaming beneath the hood.

’If I move first... this ends before they even process it.’

**