Primordial Awakening: I Breathe Skill Points!-Chapter 23: Three Minutes.

Chapter 23: Three Minutes.
Zeph’s lungs burned as he pushed his supernatural speed to its absolute limits, each stride carrying him hundreds of feet across the shattered Seattle ruins. The wind screamed past his face, his purple hair whipping behind him like a banner, and buildings blurred into indistinct shapes as he ran faster than sound itself.
But something was wrong.
The Soul Mark on his forehead—the purple tattoo that pulsed with alien warmth—felt different. Weaker. Like a fire slowly dying to embers.
’What the hell?’
He pushed the observation to the back of his mind, focusing on the immediate crisis of not being caught by an S-rank awakened whose soul burned hot enough to melt steel from proximity alone. But the sensation persisted, growing more noticeable with each passing second.
The connection between himself and the mark was fading.
Zeph’s mind latched onto that detail with laser focus. If the connection was weakening, that meant...
’It’s not permanent!’
The realization hit him like a physical blow, nearly making him stumble mid-stride. The transformation—the eight-foot frame, the purple hair, the claws, the absurd 999 stats—all of it was temporary.
Which meant eventually, inevitably, he’d revert to his normal level 19 self. Would lose the overwhelming power that let him casually destroy buildings and kill B-rank awakened like they were made of paper.
But more importantly...
’I’ll stop being an anomaly!’
The System Event would end. The bounty on his head would disappear. The constant threat of every awakened in the region hunting him for rewards would simply... cease.
He’d go back to being just another awakened. Powerful for his level, sure, with skills and techniques he’d gained from the tutorial. But not a walking extinction event that needed to be eliminated at all costs.
’The mark is temporary. The hunt is temporary. This nightmare has an expiration date.’
Relief flooded through him like ice water, cooling the panic that had been clawing at his chest since the moment that centipede had branded his soul. He wasn’t doomed to spend the rest of his life running from hunters. Wasn’t condemned to either die or become a monster the System needed to put down.
He just had to survive long enough for the transformation to end.
But even as that thought formed, another followed immediately after—colder, sharper, infinitely more pragmatic. Infinitely more Zeph.
’But while I still have this power...’
Zeph’s trajectory shifted mid-stride, his enhanced agility letting him change direction with the casual ease of someone whose physical capabilities made physics optional. Instead of continuing his blind flight away from Marcus, he angled southeast.
Toward the industrial district.
Toward the E-rank dungeon that had started this entire clusterfuck.
A smile spread across his face—not the careful, calculated expression he usually wore, but something wider and more predatory. Something that matched the monster the System thought he was.
’If this power is temporary, I’m going to squeeze every drop of value from it before it’s gone!’
His enhanced hearing picked up his pursuer growing closer—maybe three miles back and closing the gap with relentless efficiency. The S-rank wasn’t faster than Zeph’s current speed, but he was consistent, tireless, and clearly had tracking abilities that made losing him nearly impossible.
’Doesn’t matter. I only need a few minutes.’
The industrial district materialized ahead of him, its skeletal buildings and collapsed factories creating a maze of twisted metal and broken concrete. Zeph navigated the obstacles at speeds that turned everything into a blur, his soul-sense guiding him toward the dungeon’s location with unerring accuracy.
And there it was.
The dungeon gate hung suspended in the air like a jewel, a massive orb of multicolored light that pulsed and swirled with hypnotic beauty. It floated perhaps ten feet off the ground, spinning with glacial slowness, casting rainbow reflections across the rubble-strewn clearing.
Zeph had seen dungeon gates before—every scavenger in the ruins knew what they looked like. But he’d never seen one this close, never had the chance to really examine the phenomenon that had reshaped human civilization.
It was beautiful. Ethereal. Like looking at a window into another dimension where the laws of physics were merely suggestions.
But this gate was dying.
Massive cracks spider-webbed across its surface, bleeding light that twisted and distorted reality around the fractures.
The beautiful swirling colors flickered and stuttered like a damaged screen. The whole structure vibrated with visible instability, moments away from catastrophic collapse.
’A few more minutes and this thing would have shattered completely,’ Zeph realized. ’The dungeon break would have flooded the region with E-rank monsters.’
But it was still intact. Still accessible.
Still offering exactly what he needed.
Zeph didn’t hesitate. Didn’t slow down to admire the view or consider the risks. He just launched himself at the gate, his momentum carrying him through the barrier between dimensions with the subtle resistance of pushing through water.
Reality twisted.
The industrial district vanished, replaced by—
Stone corridors. Torchlight flickering against ancient walls. The distinctive architecture of a temple.
Zeph’s smile widened as his enhanced hearing picked up distant chittering and the shuffle of small feet. His soul-sense painted a three-dimensional map of the dungeon in his mind—showing him every goblin, every corridor, every room between himself and the core chamber where the dungeon boss would be waiting.
’For someone with my current stats, an E-rank dungeon should take... what? Five minutes? Ten if I’m being careful?’
But careful for what?
He had maybe fifteen minutes before his pursuer caught up to him. More than enough time.
Zeph activated Force and moved.
BOOM!
-----
Sixty seconds later, the first wave of goblins died before they could even scream.
Zeph tore through them like a hurricane made of purple fire and steel, his absurd stats turning combat into a one-sided massacre. Every punch was a kill. Every kick shattered bones. His mere presence created shockwaves that sent weaker goblins tumbling.
The purple flames wreathing his body pulsed and expanded, reaching out to claim the souls of everything he killed. He could feel them now—tiny motes of consciousness being pulled into the mark on his forehead, absorbed and processed and converted into... something. Energy? Power? He didn’t have time to analyze it.
He just kept killing.
Ninety seconds. The goblin warriors tried to form defensive lines. Zeph ran through them like they weren’t there, his Force-enhanced speed making their attempts at coordination look like slow motion.
Two minutes. The goblin shamans attempted to cast binding spells. The purple flames ate their magic, consuming the mana constructs before they could even form properly.
Three minutes. He reached the throne room where the dungeon boss waited—a massive goblin chieftain covered in ritual scars and wielding a war axe that hummed with enchantments.
The boss opened its mouth to roar a challenge.
Zeph’s fist went through its skull before sound could emerge.
[E-Rank Dungeon: Goblin Chieftain’s Domain - CLEARED]
[Congratulations! You have completed the System Event: Dungeon Break Prevention]
[Calculating rewards...]