Jaeden felt a weight settle in his chest, the gravity of his situation becoming clearer. “What is all this really about?”

Echo smiled knowingly. “Ah, life is full of trials, my boy,” he replied, waving a hand dismissively. “But this... this is something unique. Think of it as a quest, a scavenger hunt. And you, whether you realize it or not, are right in the thick of it.”

The chamber around them seemed to shift, the fractal patterns on the floor pulsing with a strange energy. Jaeden glanced down at the dice in his hand - the ones Echo had given him earlier. He still wasn’t sure of their purpose, but they seemed to pulse with an unseen power.

“Use them wisely,” Echo had told him, the old man’s words now ringing in his mind.

“Each choice you make has the power to shape what happens next,” Echo remarked, his voice carrying that infuriating blend of knowing and smugness. “You’re uncertain, and yet you don’t pretend to have all the answers. That’s a start. But here’s the thing - decisions matter. They’re what moves you forward. Without decisions, you’re stagnant. Without intention, there’s no progress. And without progress? Well, you’re just standing still. Stuck. And who wants that, hmm?”

He paused, letting his words sink in. “Each step you take, every decision, propels you forward or pulls you back. Standing still isn’t an option here, not if you want to find what you’re looking for.”

Jaeden opened his mouth to respond, but Echo was already moving on.

“Pick a goal,” Echo continued, his tone firm. “Walk in that direction. Overcome the obstacles in your path - or overcome yourself to get there. Either way, you must move forward.”

Jaeden’s eyes instinctively lifted to the swirling portals above him, each a window into a strange realm. They weren’t just still images; they were alive, filled with swirling fire, crackling storms, shifting sands, and rolling waves. Each one felt tangible as if he could reach out and feel the heat, the cold, the raw elemental energy.

“These,” Echo said, drawing Jaeden’s attention back, “are where you must go. Each realm holds a key. Get the keys. Bring them to me. That’s all I ask. Thank you, please,” he added in a sing-song, almost mocking voice, with an exaggerated bow. “Do that, and you’ll be rewarded. Do that, and - well, let’s just say, you won’t be disappointed.”

Before Jaeden could ask anything further, Echo clapped his hands together. “But for now, our time is up, my boy. That is all!”

In an instant, Jaeden found himself standing in the center of the chamber, facing the portal that had been standing behind him, a silent sentinel.

The knotted fractal pattern still hummed beneath his feet, radiating a faint energy that reverberated through the air. The portal was a large blue oval rimmed in white, floating just above the floor, its edges shimmering like the delicate surface tension of an overfilled glass of water.

Jaeden approached the portal cautiously, trying to peer around its edge, but it seemed to shift with his gaze. It bent space itself, warping the air around it in a way that defied logic. As he moved, he instinctively realized that it wasn’t a doorway - it was more like a slice, a perfect, thin cut through time and space. The view through it remained elusive, almost teasing, as if daring him to step closer.

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Echo’s voice chortled behind him, dripping with amusement. “Good choice, boy. Only idiots jump into mysterious portals without thinking. Or, you know, those with a death wish. But then again... have you looked at your stats lately?”

Before Jaeden could respond, his character sheet sprang up before him, unbidden. Attributes, stats, and skills scrolled in front of his eyes. To his surprise, several areas had increased - just from being in the presence of Echo, or whatever he was. All of them had jumped significantly.

S.A.S.S.Y.

System Alert: Stats Boosted! Proximity to Potentially Omnipotent Entity Increases General Awesomeness by 17%.

Jaeden let out a slow breath. “Okay, okay...” he muttered to himself, trying to steady his nerves. “Now I just have to decide.”

His eyes flicked back to the portal, then to the simple obsidian ring the old man had tossed him earlier. It still felt strange and foreign in his palm, yet something inside him whispered that it was the key to moving forward safely. Without it, there was no telling where he might end up.

Taking a deep breath, Jaeden slid the ring onto his finger. The portal shimmered in response, its outline becoming sharper, more defined. He could almost hear the hum of energy intensify as the ring settled into place.

Here we go, he thought, feeling a mix of excitement and apprehension.

Echo’s voice was gleeful as he appeared beside the liquid blue portal. “Ah, yes! Through this gate, my boy, is your first challenge. Don’t disappoint!”

“Oh, and another thing,” Echo leaned in close, his gaze sharp as a knife, yet his eyes held a weight - a kind of ancient, unspoken sorrow, as if he carried the memory of countless lifetimes hidden behind those glinting irises. His lips curled into a sly, knowing smile, but there was something else there too, a glimmer of something not entirely playful. He spoke slowly, his words coming out almost like a challenge wrapped in the guise of wisdom.

“Here’s a bit of advice,” he murmured, his voice dropping to a low rumble that filled the space between them. “When you fix your attention carefully on something, you don’t need to mess with it, or prod it, or even try to change it. No, all you need to do is watch - really see it, hold it in your mind like it’s the only thing in the world. And if you do… you’ll find that things start to shift, straighten themselves out. It’s as if the mere act of seeing can change what you’re looking at.”

Jaeden’s eyes narrowed, the skepticism plain on his face, but he held his breath, waiting for more, trying to keep up with the unexpected gravity in Echo’s words. But Echo wasn’t done yet.

“Funny thing, though,” Echo continued, his tone dipping almost to a whisper, as if confiding a cosmic secret, his voice gentle but laced with that same sly edge. “Things… they have a peculiar way of organizing themselves when you truly see them. Your power of observation - your glance, your look - it’s a force, a strange, bending power that works far, far beyond what anyone would expect. Your gaze alone, boy, it works. It changes things, shifts things in ways that don’t follow any logic. Sometimes, the real magic is simply in seeing. And that’s enough.”

Echo leaned back slowly, his gaze still fixed on Jaeden, watching him, as though daring him to test the idea. For a moment, Jaeden was caught in the weight of that look, feeling a strange tension, a pressure that seemed to wrap around him - a kind of silent dare from a mind that had peered into the farthest reaches of possibility.

Jaeden exhaled slowly, his own skepticism dissolving just a bit, replaced by a flicker of understanding, or perhaps curiosity. “So… seeing is believing?” he replied, his tone half-challenging, half-intrigued.

Echo’s smile widened, the gleam in his eyes intensifying, his laugh a soft, almost reverent sound. “Ah, it’s more than that, boy. Seeing is being. And that, my dear Jaeden, is where the real magic lies.”

“And with that, I bid you good day.” With a snap of sound, Echo was gone, leaving Jaeden alone with his thoughts, and the shimmering gateway to another world.

Jaeden took one last look around the chamber, feeling the pulse of the fractal pattern beneath his feet, grounding him for the leap he was about to take. With a steadying breath, he stepped through the portal, feeling the world shift around him as he entered the unknown.