Chapter 1: First Fusion

Viktor Ashford had twelve skills.

This wasn't unusual—most awakeners accumulated skills over time, gaining new abilities as they leveled up or acquired skill books. What made Viktor different was that eleven of those skills were deliberately terrible.

[Minor Fire Spark] - F-Rank

[Basic Ice Touch] - F-Rank

[Weak Lightning Jolt] - F-Rank

[Simple Earth Tremor] - F-Rank

[Faint Wind Gust] - F-Rank

[Dim Light Flash] - F-Rank

[Shadow Whisper] - F-Rank

[Water Droplet] - F-Rank

[Plant Growth (Slow)] - F-Rank

[Basic Healing Touch] - F-Rank

[Enhancement (Minor)] - F-Rank

And one skill that made all of them worthwhile:

[Skill Fusion] - ???-Rank

He'd spent three years collecting the weakest possible versions of every elemental skill he could find. Guild recruiters laughed when they saw his status screen. Other hunters mocked him for deliberately acquiring trash abilities.

Today, all of that preparation would pay off.

Viktor sat in his apartment, skills spread across his mental interface like cards on a table. [Skill Fusion] required two abilities to merge—any two—and produced a single hybrid that combined their properties. The catch was permanent combination: once fused, skills couldn't be separated. Every fusion was an irrevocable choice.

Most awakeners with [Skill Fusion] rushed into combinations, merging their best abilities immediately. They ended up with powerful hybrids that couldn't be improved—trapped at whatever level their first fusion achieved.

Viktor had a different plan.

He selected [Minor Fire Spark] and [Basic Ice Touch].

**[SKILL FUSION: INITIATED]**

**[COMBINING: MINOR FIRE SPARK + BASIC ICE TOUCH]**

**[CALCULATING HYBRID PARAMETERS...]**

**[RESULT: THERMAL CONTROL (D-RANK)]**

**[DESCRIPTION: MANIPULATE TEMPERATURE AT WILL. CAN GENERATE MODERATE HEAT OR COLD.]**

Fire and ice were opposites. Combined, they became temperature control—a utility skill with far more versatility than either component. And because he'd started with F-Rank abilities, the result was only D-Rank.

Which meant he could fuse it again.

**[SKILL FUSION: INITIATED]**

**[COMBINING: THERMAL CONTROL + WEAK LIGHTNING JOLT]**

**[CALCULATING HYBRID PARAMETERS...]**

**[RESULT: ENERGY MANIPULATION (C-RANK)]**

Heat, cold, and electricity. Three forms of energy, merged into one skill that let him control all of them. Still only C-Rank because the components had been weak.

He kept going.

[Energy Manipulation] + [Simple Earth Tremor] = [Matter Vibration (B-Rank)]

[Matter Vibration] + [Faint Wind Gust] = [Kinetic Control (A-Rank)]

With each fusion, the skill grew more powerful and more versatile. Viktor wasn't just combining abilities—he was building toward something that no single skill could match.

[Kinetic Control] + [Dim Light Flash] = [Wavelength Mastery (S-Rank)]

An S-Rank skill. Control over light, motion, vibration, energy in all its forms. Created from seven F-Rank abilities that anyone else would have considered worthless.

But Viktor wasn't done.

**[SKILL FUSION: INITIATED]**

**[COMBINING: WAVELENGTH MASTERY + SHADOW WHISPER]**

**[WARNING: COMBINING AN S-RANK SKILL MAY PRODUCE UNSTABLE RESULTS]**

**[PROCEED? Y/N]**

"Yes."

**[CALCULATING HYBRID PARAMETERS...]**

**[...]**

**[...]**

**[RESULT: REALITY FREQUENCY (SS-RANK)]**

**[DESCRIPTION: CONTROL ALL FORMS OF ENERGY, MATTER, AND DIMENSIONAL FREQUENCY. CAN AFFECT PHYSICAL REALITY AT THE WAVE LEVEL.]**

Viktor stared at the notification. SS-Rank. A tier that most awakeners never reached. A power level that put him among the top hundred humans on Earth.

And he still had three skills left to fuse.

**[CURRENT STATUS]**

**[VIKTOR ASHFORD]**

**[LEVEL: 47]**

**[SKILLS: 5]**

**- [SKILL FUSION] - ???**

**- [REALITY FREQUENCY] - SS**

**- [WATER DROPLET] - F**

**- [PLANT GROWTH (SLOW)] - F**

**- [BASIC HEALING TOUCH] - F**

**- [ENHANCEMENT (MINOR)] - F**

Four F-Rank skills and one SS-Rank skill. To most people it would look like a mess—why keep weak abilities when you had something that powerful?

Viktor knew what they couldn't see: the final fusion. The combination that would push him past SS-Rank into territory humans had never reached.

[Reality Frequency] + [Water Droplet] + [Plant Growth] + [Basic Healing Touch] + [Enhancement (Minor)]

All of them. Everything he had. Merged into a single ultimate skill.

He couldn't do it yet—[Skill Fusion] only combined two abilities at a time, and he needed to work his way up. The remaining F-Rank skills would need to be fused into intermediate steps first.

They'd laughed at him for collecting trash skills. For wasting years on abilities that couldn't hurt a rabbit.

He thought about that while he selected his next two targets.

**[SKILL FUSION: AVAILABLE]**

**[READY FOR NEXT COMBINATION]**