Buried under thick covers, a muffled snore leaked from the sleeping bag. A mop of messy hair covered the exit of the temporary bed, preventing anyone from seeing who was inside.

Standing around the sleeping individual were three people—a mercenary, an adventurer, and… an elf. The two women, the mercenary and the elf had their hands on their hips, while the adventurer was smirking as they all looked down at the sleeping bag.

Garthe used a foot to nudge the sleeping bag. Marellen only snored louder.

“Yup, he’s out for the count,” the green-eyed adventurer stated with a grin on his face.

“I did remind him of our tasks for today, but once again it seems he prioritised his study late at night over getting a good rest,” Roa commented, eyeing the mage with mild bemusement.

Larena cracked her knuckles and leaned from side to side, warming up. “Alright. Time to get the day in motion.”

She walked forward, raised a foot, and positioned it near the mage’s side. “Geeeeeeet…” She kicked him. “Up!”

The force of her kick sent Marellen and the sleeping bag tumbling, rolling quickly to come to a stop when blocked by the tent wall. The tent shuddered, and then Marellen sat bolt-upright, eyes wide and messy hair skewed in all directions. “Huh? Wha? Where… what?”

“Time to get up, lazy bones!” Garthe called out. “We were supposed to leave two hours ago!”

“I…” Marellen rubbed his eyes and awkwardly felt around the ground, looking for something. “Okay, I just… where are my glasses?”

Larena walked up to unceremoniously drop the gold-framed glasses on his lap.

He stared blankly at them, not registering what they were for a moment. “Ah…” The navy-haired mage finally put them on and blinked a few times, getting used to the view. He peered up at them. “So… we were meant to leave two minutes ago, did you say?”

“Two hours ago,” Larena stated with her hands on her hips, unimpressed.

“Right, two hours ago,” he replied sheepishly. “I… must’ve been tired.”

The raven-haired woman rolled her eyes as she turned to leave the tent. “Yeah, well, you’re banned from late-night experiments until you get your sleeping schedule back in order.”

Marellen’s eyes widened with horror. “What?! No experiments?! But-”

“You can complain about it after you get ready,” Larena said with a glance back. “You’ve got ten minutes to pack everything up, or else you’re banned from any more experiments for the rest of the trip.”

Garthe snickered and Roa wryly shook her head as they left, leaving Marellen grumbling as hastily extracted himself from his bedding. “Banning me from my experiments… not even my uncle managed to do that…”

He sighed as he gazed at the messy tent, feeling overwhelmed at the thought of packing it all up. “I wish the Athenaeum had invented dimensional bags that could just suck everything up and then place everything exactly how it was when I take it out…”

…

“Okay, Marellen. Do your powerful mage thing!”

Marellen glanced over his shoulder to give Garthe a weary look but sighed and placed a hand on the metal in front of him. Having spent the last week trying to locate the central zone of the hidden facility levels Marellen had accidentally discovered, they were now standing before two massive vault-like doors three times their height, the most likely entrance to their goal. A massive central gear of some kind sat in the centre, the engraved runes dim and unpowered.

Marellen closed his eyes as he concentrated on directing elemental mana to the six different spherical orbs that were evenly placed around the central cog. Slowly, the cog began to rotate, glowing mana lines spreading out from the orbs to create vein-like patterns across the doors.

They all stepped back and with the sound of pistons releasing, the two doors swung outward, revealing a dark room. They tried to see through the darkness, but all they saw was the faint glint of light reflecting off of metal.

Then clinical white light flooded the room with the sound of electrical buzzing, revealing a wide-open domed hall, a strange fountain-like object in the centre. Seven different hallways branched off of the hall, including their own. They traded glances.

“Looks empty enough. I guess we head in?” Garthe asked.

Larena nodded and stepped forward to lead the others in. Their footsteps echoed in the hall, and the floor was made of polished metal. Above their heads, artificial light streamed through panes of glass to create the impression of skylights.

“This place is rather refreshing to be in after the darkness of the former floors,” Roa remarked, looking up at the ceiling.

Larena raised an eyebrow as they approached the ‘fountain’, a strange waist-high pool of liquid that looked like water. A large black metallic cube sat in the centre of the pool, runic engravings covering it on all sides. “What in the realms is this thing though?”

Marellen held his chin as he leaned forward to inspect the liquid. “I don’t know, but-” His and Roa’s eyes widened as they felt the rush of mana and they quickly moved away. “Get back!”

The two warriors withdrew their weapons as Marellen and Roa also held their staffs, prepared to cast spells at any moment. The runes on the cube slowly lit up, and sudden rays of light burst out from it. They hastily blinked, trying to see what had happened. Then they hesitated as they saw the three-metre-tall glowing rectangle hovering above the cube, covered in strange symbology. Most of the lines of symbols were glowing red, but a few glowed bright blue.

“Uh… is that it?” Garthe asked.

Marellen and Roa glanced at each other. “It appears to be,” Roa replied.

Larena slowly walked forward to try to touch the rectangle. Her hand went straight through it. “It’s clearly not an attack.” She tried to walk around to see what was on the back and paused as the rectangle turned to face her.

Garthe cocked an eyebrow. “Is it following you?” He walked forward and they all became surprised when the rectangle turned to face him, but only enough that both Larena and Garthe could see the front. Garthe began to walk so that he and Larena were on opposite sides of the fountain. “Oh… wait. I think it’s two-dimensional. Everything on this side is flipped.”

Marellen walked forward, using his Mana Sight skill to see what the rectangle was composed of. “This is only made of illusion mana. And… hm?” He held his chin as he inspected the symbols. “I recognise these symbols. They’re the language of the plane.”

Roa looked at him curiously. “Do you mean to say you understand what it says?”

“I don’t, but the translation artifact might work.” Marellen took out the ring artifact he had used when they discovered the floors and held it up to his eye, trying to see what it said. “Okay, so the text at the top says, ‘Welcome to the Institute of Nomological Augmentation’s Centre for Interdimensional Navigation. The text under each red sentence says… ‘Offline’, whatever that means. Under each blue sentence, it says ‘Online’. And…” He tilted his head. “The bottom half of the rectangle is… a map?”

They went silent as they contemplated what that meant. Then Garthe gained a strange expression. “Marellen, are you saying we’re all freaking out over a sign?”

“Uh… yes. This appears to be a sign listing the different areas of the Institute,” the navy-haired mage replied awkwardly.

Roa shook her head with amusement. “We still have yet to become used to the wonders of this facility, it seems.”

Garthe let out a groan. “Stupid ancient societies with their weird technology.” He turned to look at his sister. “This reminds me of last week when Larena had a panic attack because a door opened on its own. She thought something was going to escape and attack us but it turns out the door just opens on its own for whoever walks past.”

The dark-haired woman scowled. “Shut up.” She sighed as she looked at the glowing sign, and then turned to Marellen. “Well, if we now know what this is, where do you suppose we go, Marellen?”

The mage thought for a moment. “Out of the seven hallways, only three have the ‘Online’ status. I have a theory about what that means, but to test it, we need to check one of the ‘Offline’ doorways first.” He began walking in the direction of the closest ‘Offline’ hallway and stopped before a door. Placing his hand on it, he tried to use his elemental mana to unseal it as he did with the other one, but… nothing happened. Marellen let out a hum and walked back to the others. “Only the ‘Online’ doors can be opened right now because according to the map, the door we entered through is ‘Online’.”

“Hmm.” Larena looked at the sign. “We’ll need to find some way to access the other hallways, but first… Marellen, how do the other levels come into play?”

“Ah.” He nodded as he returned to them. “The sign says the hallways take us to different elevators that only have access to one level each. We just came from the ‘General Operations’ level, which explains all the desks and meeting rooms.”

The other three stared at him. “Marellen, we have spent a month navigating this level,” Roa stated. “You mean to say that we have barely explored a 7th of this ‘Centre’?”

“Er, well…” He rubbed his neck. “We haven’t exactly been taking a linear path to find this place. I think we went down a few staircases, accidentally fell through a chasm or two, climbed up a tunnel…” Marellen looked around. “We probably will recognise some areas of the levels when we go to them.”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

Larena sighed. “Okay. Time to decide which of these other two ‘Online’ levels to go to first.” She pointed at the mage. “Could you translate their names for us?”

Marellen reactivated his translation artifact. “The first ‘Online’ level is called… Dimensional Archives. I think that’s where they store their knowledge.”

Larena frowned. “So, filled with complex books that can only be read with translation artifacts. What’s the next one?”

“Er… ‘Item and Material Stockroom’.”

“…huh?”

They all ignored Garthe’s sound of incomprehension.

Roa gazed at the ground in thought. “Is a ‘stockroom’ not a word for a storage room?”

Marellen nodded. “I’m pretty sure it’s a level that stores all the stuff they need so the people on the upper levels of the Institute don’t interact much with them.”

Larena crossed her arms, considering what to do. Then she nodded. “Alright then. A vote. Who wants us to check out this stockroom and hope there’s something more interesting than blank paper in there, and who wants to go and steal from a library? Everyone in favour of the first raise your hand.”

They all raised their hands, including Marellen. Roa gave him a surprised look. “You do not wish to access their texts?”

Marellen shook his head. “While mage is my main class, I’m also an alchemist. I’d love to see what unique materials they have down here. Books can always be read once we’ve left the plane.” Then he shrugged. “And besides, ancient magic can’t be cast by anyone who was born after the magic’s era, so the books might be useless. Artifacts are so valuable because they contain ancient magic that can’t be cast anymore.”

Garthe smirked and rubbed his hands together. “Let’s hope this stockroom has more artifacts.”

“It’s decided then.” Larena nodded and gestured to Marellen. “We’ll go to this stockroom level. Marellen, please lead the way.”

Marellen nodded in return and walked in the direction of the doors leading to the stockroom level. “Maybe we’ll find some more interesting items to study.”

…

The bronze disc-shaped platform they were on finally stopped, allowing them to step off into a long hallway. Weapons at the ready, they slowly approached five doors in a circular room at the end of the hallway. Marellen raised his artifact to translate the signs above the doors.

“It looks like you’re in luck, Garthe,” the navy-haired mage said. “This room on the far left is called the ‘Upcoming Investigation Subject Storage’. I’m pretty sure the subjects they’re talking about are artifacts.”

“What are we waiting for?” Garthe asked with a wicked grin. “Let’s head on in!” He ran forward to yank the door open and dashed inside.

Marellen’s eyes widened. “Wait, Garthe-” He paused as he felt a hand on his shoulder.

“No use calling him back now,” Larena said, running past. “Let’s catch up with him before he steals all the artifact- I mean, before he gets himself killed.”

She likewise disappeared inside, leaving Marellen and Roa standing outside. Roa raised an eyebrow at him as she passed the navy-haired mage. “Try to keep in mind that this is how we felt when you disappeared, Marellen.”

“Ah…” Marellen was left standing there awkwardly. He sighed and followed them in.

On the other side of the door was an enormous warehouse, filled with shelves that nearly reached the ceiling. Marellen blinked as he found himself beside the three others on a small platform, raised several metres above the ground. Stairs were on either side of the platform, which Garthe quickly noticed. He ran down them to start exploring the massive space.

Larena frowned at her brother. “Garthe!”

“Don’t ‘Garthe’ me, you just don’t want to lose the collection bet agai- woah.” He came to a screeching halt as hundreds of thin red beams of light shot out, forming a wall between him and the rest of the warehouse. Raising an eyebrow as the others came up beside him, Garthe activated his own Mana Sight to see what was going on. “The light… isn’t made of mana? It’s just mundane?”

Larena cocked an eyebrow. “A bit excessive for a decoration.”

Roa frowned slightly. “I believe it to be best if we stand back. I do not believe a facility as advanced as this would utilise this light for simply decorative purposes.”

“You’re too cautious, Roa.” Garthe went to take a step forward and cross the red light beams. “I bet that nothing will happen even when-”

A blaring alarm sounded as the red beams of light all focused on Garthe. Mechanical whirring could be heard as Garthe froze in place, unsure what to do. “Uh, okay, so maybe ‘nothing’ isn’t exactly-”

The walls of the warehouse slid aside to reveal barricades of metal tubes, all aimed at Garthe. Multiple fireballs shot out from the tubes and the others hastily wielded their weapons, the two mages of the party summoning barriers of earth and ice. They gritted their teeth as the bombardment continued.

“How do we turn this off?!” Larena shouted.

“I don’t-” Something familiar caught Marellen’s eye and he shifted his barrier. “Roa, please protect them for a few more seconds!”

Marellen rushed out from their group, shielding himself with spells. He ran over to the wall where a metal cabinet like the one he had used at the entrance to the Centre for Inter-Dimensional Navigation was, and yanked it open. Summoning his elemental mana, he quickly worked the system, trying to remember the right combination.

“Marellen, the barrier won’t hold out much longer!” Roa yelled.

“I know, I’m almost…” His mana locked into place. “There!”

The warehouse suddenly fell into pitch-black darkness, all mechanisms and systems shut down due to the lack of power. Marellen heaved a sigh of relief as he cast his Star of Brilliance spell and walked back over to the others, where Roa had summoned an orb of fire for light.

“I managed to reroute the power,” Marellen explained. “But that just means that if there are any dangerous artifacts in this place, then their seals might’ve been released.” He shuddered as a thought came to him. “Maybe Heretic items are here too.”

“Then we have to tread more carefully,” Larena said. She fixed a stare on Garthe. “Very carefully.”

“Fine, yes, I know this was my fault,” he grumbled. He hoisted his spear and pointed ahead. “So, can we finally go check out these artifacts?”

Larena held out her sword and nodded. “Yes. But we’ll go slowly.”

…

They spent half an hour walking past the shelves, looking at anything that caught their interest. Unfortunately, a lot of what was on the shelves was magical materials that had lost their energy, or items that no longer functioned. It was only when they walked past the area of the warehouse with the tall shelves that they found where the artifacts were.

Placed within glass cases on evenly-spaced pedestals, the strange objects were arranged in neat rows, each labelled by words engraved into the glass. What made them pause, however, was that some cases… had been shattered, and no artifacts were left resting on the silk pillows within.

“…it looks like someone came in here and stole a bunch of stuff, doesn’t it?” Garthe said. “I guess everyone was in a panic to survive when the wight crossed over.”

“Indeed.” Roa paused when she saw Marellen’s frown. “Marellen? Is something the matter?”

“Oh, uh… no, not really,” the navy-haired mage replied. He shook his head to distract himself from his thoughts about the mysterious visitor he discovered a month ago. “Let’s see what these signs say- oh, look, one of the shattered cases still has an artifact inside!”

The others shook their heads wryly at how quickly Marellen had gotten distracted. Marellen lowered his head to eye the strange ornate box on the red pillow. “It’s quite large for an artifact. What does the label say… oh.” He scratched his head when he saw that the glass where the engraved name should’ve been was destroyed. “I guess we won’t be finding out what they named this one then.”

Marellen went to pick it up as the others came closer.

“What did I say earlier about being careful, Marellen?” Larena asked as she gave him a flat look.

“Not to worry, very few artifacts are dangerous to their wielders unless used incorrectly.” The mage picked up the box, noticing the metal clasp on the front, the metallic finery covering its surface, and the four legs extending from the bottom. “This looks like a jewellery casket.”

Garthe came closer and whistled. “Solid gold, too. I wonder how that thing became an artifact.”

Marellen checked the clasp on the front to see if it had a lock. It did, but when he looked down at the pillow he noticed a small key with a ruby embedded in its end. Shrugging, he inserted the key into the keyhole and went to turn it when-

[Warning: This object consumes Stats when used. Do you want to proceed? Yes/No]

He hesitated when he saw the notification. Then he noticed that the others were staring at the exact same notification too.

Larena took another look at the box and then snatched it out of Marellen’s hands. “Let’s put that away and never touch it again,” she said as she placed it back down on its pillow.

“But…” Marellen frowned, reaching for the box again. “Just because it consumes stats, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dangerous. If I study it I can-”

“No. Pick something else to study and leave the probably cursed item alone.” Larena grabbed him by the collar and dragged him away. “Look, there’s a fancy glowing globe that looks like an atlas over here. I’m sure an incredibly smart mage like you can discover something about this.”

Marellen groaned as the others pulled him along but sighed and accepted not being able to study the artifact. With the power for the warehouse rerouted and protective measures disabled, the two warriors in their group helped by smashing the unbroken glass cases to access the artifacts inside. Storing them in dimensional bags, they worked methodically, taking artifacts from one section at a time.

Then Marellen blinked as his foot bumped into an object on the ground. He looked down and paused when he saw the very familiar, solid gold box. “Uh… is it just me or is this the same casket we saw earlier?”

The others looked back and frowned when they saw the artifact. Garthe walked forward to pick it up, shaking it and rotating it in his hands to check for himself. “Looks like it. But where’s the key?”

They looked around but couldn’t see it. Roa eventually shook her head. “It is no use to us if it doesn’t have a key, regardless of its ability to consume stats or not. Let us leave it there and-”

“…Roa, wait a second.” Larena walked forward with a strange expression and reached up to the snow elf’s bun. “And… there.”

Roa stared as a golden key embedded with a ruby returned with Larena’s hand. The raven-haired mercenary held it up to their light spells to study it. “Unless Garthe or Marellen has played a prank on you, I don’t think this somehow ended up in your hair because of us.”

They all eyed the key and gold casket. Larena threw the key near the box and turned around. “Ignore it. We have other artifacts to collect.”

They continued collecting artifacts, until five minutes later…

“Not again!”

They turned to look in the direction of Marellen, who was staring at the golden casket on top of another artifact’s case. They came over and gazed at the box with strange expressions.

“Alright.” Larena looked around. “Who has the key now?”

Roa checked her bun, and Marellen his pockets, but neither of them had it. Garthe scowled as he took out a small key from his shirt pocket. “No chance that you could melt this creepy box and key with fire, could you Roa?”

She shook her head. “An artifact such as these from an Old Era plane would only be able to be destroyed by the most powerful of Archmagi.”

Garthe sighed. “Go figure.” He threw the key over his shoulder, not bothering to look where it went, and marched off. “I bet if we just ignore that box then it will stop following us. Let’s get the rest of these artifacts!”

…

The lights in the warehouse turned back on as Marellen routed the power back. He walked back up the stairs to the platform where everyone else was. Larena placed her hands on her hips as she looked around. “We’re done here, right?”

They all nodded. Garthe grinned. “See? I told you if we ignored it then it would leave us alone!”

Larena sighed. “Yes. Well, time to head back up and set up camp in the level with the fountain.”

With all the artifacts stored, they left the warehouse, walking back into the hallway. But even as they left, Marellen couldn’t help absentmindedly fiddling with the ruby-embedded key in his pocket, thinking about the golden box that was sitting in his dimensional bag to be taken with them out of the plane.

----------------------------------------

Lucille was smiling brightly. She was in the Simulacrum Realm of her Origin Skill, in her simulated study. Her fingers steepled as she rested them against her desk, she waited patiently for the individual opposite her to speak.

Sitting there with his arms crossed was a man in his early sixties, wearing his trademark red tie and beige suit. He was frowning as he watched Lucy, tapping his fingers against his arm.

“Before anything else,” Marvin Goldcroft began, his expression serious. “I would just like to ask you one thing.” He gained an incredulous look as he gazed at his great-niece. “Medallion stocks for my birthday present?”

She shrugged. “I was bored and wanted to test the World Government’s age recognition systems. Obviously, they failed miserably, because I was still able to purchase them while being a minor.”

“Great, so it wasn’t even a gift you put thorough thought into,” he muttered. The owner of Medallion sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I’ve been bombarded by requests from the investors to know what chaos you intend to cause this time, so they can know what businesses to pull out of when your nefarious scheme inevitably activates.” Marvin gazed solemnly at her. “But I don’t think the chaos Lawrence believes will occur next year can be blamed on you.”

“On the contrary, I am here to mitigate the chaos,” Lucy replied, picking up a pen to point it at him.

“Yes, so I’ve heard.” He gazed at her with a complicated expression before shaking his head. “Well, please enlighten me about these ‘memories’ of yours that Lawrence states he’s seen, just so I can stop considering him to be some very imaginative madman.”

Lucille smirked and reached forward to tap her uncle’s forehead. “Please breathe, Marvin.”

Her uncle’s eyes widened as the thoughts and pieces of information were sent across, informing him of all of the realms’ cultures, nations, technology, and details of the ‘System’. When she pulled back he clutched at his head, gritting his teeth as he tried to process what she had shown him.

“Marvin. This isn’t some elaborate prank this time,” she stated seriously. “Earth’s continued existence might be on the line here.”

“…yet you’ve shown me that this ‘System’ protects civilizations,” he said, breathing heavily. “If you believe you’re trying to prevent Earth from being destroyed, then there’s something else you’re not telling me.”

She stayed silent as Marvin recovered, letting out a sigh as he leaned back in the chair. “I… need some time to process all this before I can make arrangements, Lucille.”

Lucy nodded. “I expected as much. You can contact me whenever you need through your connection to the Simulacrum. But it’s probably best we cut our meeting short for now, as I’m going to be preoccupied in my physical body soon.”

“…yes.” Marvin stood up, not yet aware that he didn’t need to ‘leave’ her study to return to his body. Then he studied her solemnly. “You’ve never done anything without a reason, Lucille, but while I don’t know much about this ‘Tower’ and ‘System’… I hope you know what you’re doing. Don’t get yourself killed.”

Lucille smiled. “See you later, Marvin.”

…

Lucy blinked and opened her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she stretched her arms and sat up, looking around. When she spotted who she was looking for she smiled and got out of her sleeping bag. “Good morning, Hargrave.”

The scarlet-haired mercenary looked over his shoulder to see her approaching. “It’s not even dawn yet. You should stay asleep.”

“And I told you that I’m a light sleeper. You should’ve taken me up on my offer to be on the second watch.” She walked over to where he was sitting, his spear on his lap, and then sat down next to him. “Any thoughts about the Dungeon so far?”

“Not particularly, but…” Hargrave paused to study her silently.

Lucy tilted her head. “Is something the matter?”

He frowned, sighed, and then shook his head. “It’s not important.”

“Hmm…” She eyed him curiously but shrugged and leaned back on her arms. “Have Scytale and I been much trouble to take through the Dungeon?”

“…less than I expected.” Hargrave gained a strange expression as he looked at her. “You react to conflict the same way many experienced fighters do and make decisions that always tip the battle’s balance in our favour. But… you are definitely inexperienced at physical combat. I also haven’t seen you use any skills that look like combat skills.”

“Yes, well…” Lucille let out a sigh. “I won’t be using those for a long time. I did plan on gaining skills to enhance my combat ability before this Dungeon trip, but I’m still indecisive which path I should take.”

“There’s also…” Hargrave hesitated, as if to say something else and shook his head. “Never mind. Scytale is… nearly your exact opposite. He is incredibly adept at physical fights, but it’s almost like he’s still getting used to his magical abilities. Although, he reads the flow of battle just as well as you do…”

Ah, I think I know what Hargrave is curious about. I might have to address that if we fight alongside each other more often.

Lucy smiled. “Scytale only awakened his light-element bloodline around a year ago. Before that, he only used illusion.”

“…right, that makes a bit of sense. Still, his ability to access Heroic Power…” He shot her an odd look. “You make a strange pair.”

“We’re the only ones like us in the world, that’s for sure.” Lucy stood back up and stretched. “Well then, I’m going to have breakfast, but are you sure you don’t want to catch a few more hours of sleep before the day begins?”

He shook his head. “I’m fine.”

“Suit yourself.” She got up and walked back to her sleeping bag. “I’ll get you something to eat too.”