It pulsed gently in my hands as I opened it—like it had a heartbeat of its own, heavier than anything else I'd picked up so far. The label, in crisp, clean script, read:

[Quantum Arbiter]

I had no clue what to expect from a name like that—sounded like it could rewrite physics or politely ask reality to sit down and behave. I flipped it open. First page, as always, was the illustration. A preview of who—or what—I'd become.

Scales of burnished gold, laced with endless fractal spirals looping in on themselves. Beneath them, prismatic underscales shimmered with a storm of violet and black static. My neck—long, serpentine, elegant in the way a loaded crossbow might be—led up to a face with glowing violet eyes, a maw curved in a smug little grin. The tongue poked out playfully. One eye winked with the derpy confidence of a chaos gremlin. Somehow, it was both adorable and terrifying. Mostly terrifying.

Wings stretched wide, translucent membranes traced with glowing golden veins. The tentacles were still there—golden now—each ending in obsidian blades. My talons had the same obsidian sheen, cracked with glowing gold lines that pulsed softly.

And the tail. Long, golden, ending in a bladed barb of shadowy metal that didn't quite play fair with the light—it bent it, whispered to it, convinced it to shimmer the wrong way.

But the centerpiece was the core. A slow, steady pulse of violet light glowing through a translucent patch in my chest, as if my heart had learned to hum in ultraviolet.

It was abominable. It was art. It was me—provided I whispered I do.

This cognitive whiplash was standard for my upgrades lately. I gaped at the page. My pulse pounded like a dubstep timpani. A dry swallow, then I turned the leaf.

I read.

The words hooked my synapses and didn't let go.

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A judicial predator that weaponizes quantum uncertainty as its "courtroom." Enforces verdicts by collapsing probabilities, entangling fates, and weaponizing spacetime loopholes. Less a judge, more a gremlin with a gavel.

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Stat Enhancements (Per Level): +45 Intelligence | +15 Willpower | +15 Durability | +25 Strength

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Affinity Unlocked: Quantum Affinity – An advanced elemental fusion of Lightning and Dark.

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New Organ: Quantum Nexus A fractal, pulsating organ located near the heart, containing entangled particles resembling black lightning within violet haze.

• Functionality: – Charges with Quantum Mana. – Enables generation of Superposition Clones (Max 2 active). Each clone consumes 50% of Quantum Mana Charge. – Clones exist in unstable probabilistic states: 50% chance to mirror user's actions, 50% chance to behave independently. – Duration: 1 to 2 minutes. Clone behavior improves with higher Intelligence.

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New Alignment Ability: Court of Quantum Edicts Designates a 35-meter field as a Quantum Tribunal. Duration: 180 seconds. High Quantum Mana cost.

• Field Effects:

Verdict of Thunder – Declare a single Quantum Law (e.g., "No healing"). Violators are struck by Collapse Lightning, a high-damage lightning strike from a random angle.

Punishment Protocol – Every second strike against a target within the field applies Entanglement: 30% of the damage is reflected to the target's nearest ally.

Clause of a Gremlin Judge – Spend mana to briefly Override Reality, allowing allies to bypass declared Quantum Laws. (e.g., allies may teleport through restricted areas.)

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New Abilities:

1) Reality Gremlin Paradox • Quantum Loophole (Passive): When enemies resist user's effects, they cursed with a stack of Dimensional Paradox. At 3 stacks, a Quantum Fae Gremlin is summoned from the fairy plane. The gremlin autonomously harasses the target for 24 hours, regardless of location.

• Draconic Gremlin's Final Gambit (Ultimate): Consumes an extreme amount of Quantum Mana. Temporarily upgrades the Court of Quantum Edicts into Singularity Court for 1 second (extendable with additional mana). – User's consciousness is projected forward in time by 1 second, allowing preemptive reaction and nullification of certain attacks. – All Superposition Clones become stable and real for the remaining duration.

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2) Quantum Attunement • Passive Effect: – All attacks gain Quantum Imbuement. Strikes carry residual quantum mana, increasing potency. – Attacks may trigger Chain Entangle: arcs to a secondary target, dealing half damage and applying Entanglement.

• Active Mode – Uncertainty Overdrive: Consumes significant Quantum Mana. Temporarily enhances weapon/spell output. – Quantum Edge: Attacks may ignore defense/wards and may deal double damage. – Waveform Strike: After each hit, allows user to teleport to a random location within 10 meters.

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New Skills: Unlocks skills based on Quantum Affinity. Focus areas include unpredictability, probabilistic manipulation, and entangled casting techniques.

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Mana Core: Advanced Mana Core – Densely refined. Allows vast mana storage with stable flow under high compression.

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Supplemental Core: Quantum Node – A secondary micro-core tuned exclusively for Quantum Mana. – Stores Quantum Mana separately from main reserves. – Passively recharges by absorbing ambient quantum energy.

----

First thing that caught my eye? The stat bonuses.

And I mean what the actual fuck?! How was this even remotely fair? Gold-ranked options capped at maybe—maybe—32 stat points per level, and this thing was casually handing out a clean 100. Per. Level.

And that wasn't even scratching the fractal surface of this whole upgrade. "Judicial predator" that weaponizes quantum uncertainty? Clones made of probability guesses? A court system enforced by lightning bolts and quantum sass? This didn't sound like a Stage 4 evolution—it sounded like someone gave a reality-bending dragon too much coffee and a law degree.

The data tsunami didn't stop. New organ? Check. Field effects that mock causality? Check. Passively summoning gremlin stalkers? Checkmate. And Singularity Court wasn't an ability—it was a war crime with a user manual.

I reread it. The page didn't blur. No take-backsies.

But one thing about it all snagged my thoughts: "It all seems awfully detailed for some reason."

Like it wasn't just describing a form… it was describing a role. A script already written, waiting for someone reckless enough to step onto the stage.

"Maybe the system was feeling generous this time."

"EEEEP!"

My doppelgänger's voice pinged from behind me like a startled notification from the void. I nearly jumped out of my scales. When the hell did she get here?! I hadn't sensed a thing. Then it clicked—no air sense. Right. This place didn't have air. Or anything, really. I wasn't here physically, just... mentally projected into some interdimensional laboratory with flair.

Still didn't excuse her ambush. She'd draped herself over my shoulder now, peering at the tome like a cat judging a spreadsheet.

But I had better things to analyze. And her nosiness sometimes came with answers—if she was feeling helpful. Talking to her always felt like arguing with Lotte if Lotte had even less of a filter and a full library of smug expressions.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"…Quantum Affinity is a combination of Lightning and Dark?!" I blurted, half in shock. That was new. That was news. Nowhere in my experience—or my extensive eavesdropping on others'—had I ever heard of something that bent probability into a weapon. I knew Lightning and Dark made Shadow Current when paired. Not Quantum.

But then again… Dark wasn't just "dark." It was tied to space, entropy, concealment. Quantum felt like a cousin to that—just one who studied weird physics, committed thought crimes, and probably wore a lab coat made of metaphors.

"Not entirely true," she said lazily, like she was explaining why gravity works to someone who just fell down the stairs. "It's the advanced combination of Lightning and Dark. Every element has an advanced form. Combine those instead, and voilà. You get advanced combinations. Quantum comes from Shadow—Dark's big sister—and Storm, the evolved form of Lightning. The rest is homework. You're allegedly smart."

I frowned, brain doing somersaults. "So… Storm is wild, chaotic, destructive. Lightning made unpredictable. And Shadow's like… covert entropy? Less about raw stealth, more about the manipulation of unseen forces. Together, they make…"

"A nightmare," she offered.

"I was gonna say 'a reality-breaking abomination,' but sure." I sighed. "It's absurd. This isn't just an affinity. It's a whole field of reality that no one's touched in probably ever. Two advanced elements combined? No wonder no one's seen this before. It's like drooling over Space magic and then finding out the next aisle has Time. This feels like cheating."

She just laughed. "Well, you are a walking loophole. Maybe it fits."

I snapped the tome shut with a quiet thump, still feeling its pulse in my palms. My gaze narrowed.

"You ever get that… comprehension vertigo? Where the dots connect, the manual's flawless—but your brain's just bluescreened?"

"Can't say I have."

"Don't care." I scowled. "But that's how I'm feeling."

"Overwhelmed."

"A rather underwhelming word for it. But yeah… close enough." I glared at the tome's throbbing cover. "I… feel weird about this."

Her hands ghosted over my shoulders—cold sparks in a void that shouldn't have temperature.

"Weird… about what? That reality's holding up a mirror and you're squirming at the reflection?"

"I… don't know."

"But I do."

She leaned in, her breath a phantom tickle against scales I didn't technically have here.

"I'm you. Forged from the dregs even you won't scrape up—the rage you labeled 'unfairness,' the helplessness you stuffed in a mental closet. The times the universe treated you like a footnote. So tell me: what did you want? Not the sanitized version. The raw draft."

The question punched through my ribs.

The room dissolved. Suddenly I was 12 again, hunched in a classroom corner. Red bowtie itching my collar. Gift from father. Staring at clouds shaped like escape routes. Don't be seen. Don't be heard. Maybe the world will misplace you.

But it never did.

"…I wanted to vanish," I muttered. "Not power. Not magic. Just… quiet. A workshop full of gears and silence. No eyes. No voices. Just a hermit crab of the soul."

Her fingers interlaced with mine—a grip like truth serum.

"A fairytale," she purred. "A bedtime story you tell yourself so the real hunger doesn't chew through the walls. I didn't ask what you wanted to settle for. I asked what you wanted. The feral little girl who bit back. The one you keep chained in the basement so you can play 'mature adult.'"

And then I was there.

Hand trembling over a lunchbox. A vial of itching powder—harmless, petty, pathetic. Guilt curdling my gut, but my soul hissing: Make them pay. Make them feel it.

"…Justice," I rasped.

"Liar." Her whisper was a scalpel. "Justice is a bandage for the status quo. What you truly wanted was to burn the rulebook. To rig the game so thoroughly, no one could ever push you again. That girl didn't crave fairness—she craved a detonator."

A laugh bubbled up—brittle, blackened—but it vaporized before it fled my throat.

"Thought we were aiming for 'realistic' here."

"As if your pantomime of 'moving on' wasn't its own delusion."

"…touché."

Her hands slipped away. And without meaning to, my fingers opened the tome again. The pulse beneath the pages felt stronger. Syncing with my heartbeat.

"Maybe that's why you feel weird. That old dream—the one you told your plush toys when the lights were out and no one was listening? It might be staring right back at you.

"You wanted to be a Judge. Sure. You resonated with justice. With lightning. With rules. But rules… rules were never the endgame. You never wanted to follow the law. You wanted to wield it. Twist it. Make it yours."

She flipped the page again. Her breath, hot against my neck, sent a shiver down my spine.

"Arbiter? Pfft. You were never that. You're a thief, darling. A plunderer of possibilities. Someone who takes from fate itself, and turns it into your own kind of justice."

Snap.

The book shut again.

I stared down at it, hands trembling slightly.

"Go on," she said, almost mockingly sweet. "Drink your little potion. Destiny's a trickster, but it's not cruel. Sometimes, it gives us exactly what we buried the deepest."

I couldn't argue with her. Not really.

My eyes flicked back toward the shelf—black tomes, and those strange rainbow-colored ones. Only four remained in the rainbow section now. The rest were forbidden to me, all tied to sun and light, powers that didn't resonate with anything I was.

But for once, I didn't feel disappointed.

I'd gotten something else. Something equal… or maybe even something far more absurd than anything they had to offer.

No time to think it over. I was floating in a shielded air pocket above Varkaigrad's sky, and if anyone came sniffing around, I'd be caught—dragon form and all. Time was slowed in this place, but I'd already lingered too long.

My doppelganger only smiled when I looked back at her.

I stepped forward, snatched the potion from her desk, and moved.

***

A wing flicked—half spasm, half tell.

The crow leaned closer, one feather-padded limb smooshed against the door like a feather duster with a voyeurism kink. The other claw hovered near its beak in a disturbingly humanoid "hmm…" pose.

Lysska funneled more mana into the bird. Its ears sharpened—slightly. Still garbled, but better than eavesdropping through soup.

That necro-rat had scurried through this door earlier. She'd kept the crow outside—the room's aura reeked of "enter and regret." Caution first, espionage second.

Now, audio voyeurism it was.

"Lord—I mean, Professor! Please, you have to believe me! I got no signal, no orders from the higher-ups! I had to tuck my tail in and run!"

There was a second voice. Quieter. Whispery, insidious.

Lysska nearly risked pushing more mana through the bond to catch it—but stopped herself. Too dangerous.

"I swear on Goddess Selene, if it weren't for that meddling scalebag Drakkari, I would've succeeded! But she had to show up and ruin everything in the final moments!"

Another whisper. Too quiet to parse.

Then silence. Sharp. Sudden. Like something had caught in the necromancer's throat.

"...I might be wrong," he continued, more hesitant now. "But I think she might still be alive. When the conduit exploded—there was this strange barrier. Just for a second, right where she was. I don't know if it held. I was already out of sync, in pain—couldn't tell if it broke or stayed."

Jade.

Lysska's gut twisted. She knew it. That girl had survived. That reckless, stubborn girl always had a plan.

Another whisper. Then—

A thud.

The necromancer dropped to his knees.

"I knew you'd see reason, my lo—uh, esteemed Professor," he panted. "I'll send out a team right away. One that can trace the bitch from the aftermath. We'll scour the skies above Varkaigrad, start at the explosion's center. And if that scaled cockroach survived?" A wet, jagged chuckle. "She'll beg for the explosion once a dozen red-core warriors are on her ass."

Lysska's connection flared, then nearly collapsed entirely.

"Trouble?" came Vyra's voice, faintly behind her.

Lysska stood abruptly.

"…Jade," she hissed, eyes slitting to daggers. "Might've swapped one apocalypse for another."

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