The walk to the Hub was not a journey; it was a filtration process. The path was paved with "Siphon-Stone"—a black, porous rock that hummed with a low-frequency vibration. In his first life, Andy had been too panicked to notice the hum. Now, with his Level 6 senses, the stone felt like a predator, licking the excess mana from the air like a tongue tasting the wind. It was designed to drain the weak, leaving only the "worthy" to reach the gates.

  "Why is it so quiet?" Sarah asked, clutching Amito's arm. Her voice was brittle, the kind of sound that breaks before it even leaves the throat.

  "Because the forest is waiting for the timer to hit zero," Andy said without looking back. "The Hub gates are the only safety. If you're not inside when the clock stops, the Tutorial ends. The real world begins. And the real world is hungry for those who aren't prepared."

  The group moved in a loose, ragged formation. Amito led the front, his glowing sword acting as a beacon in the twilight of the woods. Andy stayed at the rear with his mother. He watched her feet, noting the slight tremor in her step. She was limping, but her grip on the gladius remained firm. She had adapted to the weight of the steel faster than any of the younger recruits.

  As they approached the massive obsidian archway of the Hub, Andy noticed the Attunement Stone. It was a jagged monolith of translucent quartz, vibrating with a deep violet light. This was the moment that would define the rest of the war. In the System's design, the Attunement Stone analyzed your internal mana capacity and assigned your "Starting Path." It was the ultimate separator.

  "We have to touch the stone to enter," Marcus, the Guide, said. He looked at Andy with a mix of fear and resentment. He still didn't understand how a Level 1 kid had known about the wagon cache, and that ignorance was rotting his confidence. "The Stone doesn't lie. It sees what you are. It sees what you’re worth to the future of humanity."

  Amito stepped forward first. He reached out and touched the quartz with the confidence of a man who already knew he was chosen.

  The Stone exploded with golden light. It was blinding, a literal sun appearing in the middle of the dark forest. It was the same light that had heralded Amito’s ascension in the first life.

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  [ATTUNEMENT: DIVINE PATH]

  [POTENTIAL: S-RANK]

  The recruits gasped, falling back as if burned. Marcus bowed his head, a gesture of instinctive subservience. Amito looked at his hands, his face filled with a sudden, terrifying sense of destiny. The boy was being consumed by his own myth before it had even begun. He wasn't Amito anymore; he was the Savior.

  "Andy, you go next," Amito said, his voice now carrying the heavy, forced gravity of his new rank. "Let's see where you belong."

  Andy stepped toward the Stone. He looked at the violet light and felt a surge of cold fury. The Stone didn't measure potential; it measured how easily the System could mold you into a weapon. Amito was an S-Rank because he was the perfect puppet, a vessel designed to hold the System’s agenda.

  Andy reached out. He didn't just touch the stone; he gripped it. He used his knowledge of the 17th-floor "Feedback Loop" to mask his true essence. He forced his mana to stay dormant, compressing his soul into a tiny, dense knot, hiding the Master-tier experience beneath a layer of static. He made himself look like a void.

  The Stone flickered. It didn't glow. It didn't hum. It turned a dull, muddy gray, the color of wet ash. The interface blinked briefly, assigning him to the Labor Path with an F-Rank potential that made the surrounding recruits recoil as if poverty were contagious.

  The silence was even heavier than the one after the Goliath's death. Sarah let out a small, cruel snicker. Marcus smirked, his wounded pride finally finding a place to heal. Even Amito looked at Andy with a trace of pity—the most dangerous weapon in a hero's arsenal.

  "Labor Path?" Amito whispered. "Andy... I'm sorry. I'll make sure they give you a spot in my quarters as a servant. I won't let you starve in the outer ring."

  "I'm fine where I am," Andy said, his voice flat and unyielding.

  He turned to his mother. "Your turn."

  She touched the Stone. It turned a soft, steady blue, the quartz thrumming with the quiet strength of the Guardian Path. She was ranked as a C, a solid, dependable grade that would keep her out of the slums but far enough from the Inner Circle's spotlight to remain safe. Andy felt a genuine wave of relief. He could work with a Guardian. He could protect a Guardian.

  As they passed through the gates, the "Inner Circle" was directed to the left, toward the marble towers and the clean sheets. The "Laborers" were pushed to the right, toward the mud huts, the iron forges, and the smell of coal smoke.

  Andy and his mother were separated at the fork.

  "I'll find you," Andy whispered to her. He noticed her shawl again; the thread he had tucked in earlier was still holding. It was a small, physical proof that he could change things, that his intervention had permanence.

  He turned toward the Laborer's quarters. He wasn't angry about the F-Rank. In the first life, he had been a B-Rank, and the System had watched his every move, calculating his growth. As an F-Rank laborer, he was invisible. He was the dirt under the System's fingernails.

  He walked into the forge area and smelled the familiar scent of coal and sweat. He found a corner near a cooling furnace and sat down. He pulled out his cleaning stone and began to work on it again.

  "He will make sure of it," he whispered to the shadows, mocking the promise the world had made to Amito.

  He wasn't talking about Amito. He was talking about himself. He had the plan. He had the invisibility.