Eric approached the double-stone door, which had no notable decorations. It didn't have a lock, so he put his hands on each side and pushed.

What the?!

But he was surprised to find himself unable to move the door at all. It was too heavy.

How much does this thing weigh?

He didn't know what the point of building such a heavy door in a cave was.

Unless it was to protect something valuable inside.

That sounds reasonable, and it would explain the purpose of the arrow trap. It was a protective mechanism. Perhaps there was a mechanism in the corridor to deactivate the trap that he was unaware of.

Is it more valuable than what I have already found?

Not only did he find knowledge books, but also a powerful skill from the rune stone and a potion that could increase his stats tremendously, but with big side effects that he couldn't afford to risk consuming. Still, they didn't seem valuable enough to be hidden behind the door. What exactly was inside?

Eric took a deep breath and tried again, this time with all his strength. The door opened just enough for the light inside to reach him, but a cloud of stale air filled his nostrils, almost choking him and causing him to break into a mild coughing fit. And before he could take a look inside, he started losing strength, and the door slowly closed.

Shit! Almost there.

Frustrated by the stubborn door, Eric took a moment to collect himself. He considered his options and realized that brute force alone wouldn't be enough.

Maybe there's another way to open this door.

He examined the door more closely, looking for any mechanisms, locks, or hidden switches that might help him gain entry, but was disappointed to find none.

Thought so. They wouldn't be stupid enough to put them in such an obvious place.

He decided to explore the room further, examining the walls for signs of hidden passages or clues. But despite his thorough exploration of the room, he found no hidden mechanisms or clues.

Disappointed, he returned to the imposing stone door.

"Back to square one," he sighed.

Suddenly, his eyes widened as he remembered something.

"How could I forget... I still have one free stat point." he murmured, his eyes brightening.

He pulled out his interface and didn't even think about which attribute to increase. Considering what he needed at the moment, it was obvious that the place for the free point was the strength attribute.

"I hope this is enough to open the door."

He didn't feel any change in his body, but he was sure that his strength increased, as the system had already proven its reliability.

Without wasting any more time, he planted his hands firmly on both sides of the sturdy stone door and held his breath. Muscles strained as he pushed, and with a creak, the door reluctantly opened, allowing a ray of light to pierce the darkness, followed by a cloud of stale air. Fortunately, he was already holding his breath, so the stench didn't bother him too much. Despite the gradual fatigue in his arms, he persevered, inch by inch, until the door was wide enough for him to slip inside. Without hesitation, he leaped through the opening.

Eric stumbled and fell, but used his hands to break the fall before kissing the floor. At the same time, the door slammed shut with a thud.

"Man, that door was really heavy. Any more, and I would have given up trying to open it...hum?" He stopped talking after noticing something in front of his head.

Boots?

In front of him were old, worn-out boots, and he could see the end of a pair of pants. Someone was standing before him.

He hadn't expected to meet someone in this abandoned place, and he wondered if he was trapped or if it was the owner of this place.

Why isn't he saying anything?

He lifted his head and looked at the silent person, but it wasn't what he expected to see. In front of him was a human skeleton, dressed in old, dirty, worn clothes, sitting on a chair with his head bowed.

Startled, Eric scrambled to his feet and banged his head against the door behind him. He groaned, rubbed his head, and quickly surveyed his surroundings.

As Eric regained his bearings, he found himself in a large hall bathed in a soft blue light emanating from numerous lamps mounted on the walls. The hall stretched out before him, divided into sections that resembled a botanical garden. Each section was decorated with different plants and herbs.

Seeing no visible threat in the hall, Eric turned his attention back to the skeleton, still massaging his aching head. The bones were black and seemed to be starting to decay, showing that it had been a long time since the skeleton had been here.

Was it the owner, perhaps? That would explain the abandoned and dusty place.

What surprised him was the lack of any unpleasant odor from the skeleton, which shouldn't be possible without special means.

As he examined the skeleton, he noticed a faint light coming from its chest. Curious, Eric tore off the dirty brown shirt and looked at the source of the light.

A small, bluish-purple orb was stuck between his ribs. The light was so mesmerizing that Eric lost himself for a moment before regaining his composure, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from it.

"Beautiful," he murmured.

The orb was about the size of a pinball, and it looked like it had something soft and downy inside. The purple light came from that substance inside the orb.

He reached out to take it from the skeleton, but the moment the orb left the skeleton's chest, its bones suddenly crumbled and turned to ash, which slowly fell to the ground and some to the chair. Surprised, Eric retreated and warily eyed the spot where the skeleton had been just a few seconds ago.

What just happened?

He hadn't expected it to suddenly crumble. He was confused at first before he looked at the orb in his hand. He was sure that whatever had just happened had something to do with it.

To make a human skeleton crumble to ashes right after leaving his body... What is this thing?

It was as if the orb was what kept the skeleton in that state, and once he took it out, the skeleton had no support and returned to what it was supposed to be.

That's not the only strange thing. In the room before, every time he touched an item, a window would appear explaining its effects, but this time it was different because no window appeared.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

Does this mean that this item is beyond the system's ability to analyze? Or is it just worthless garbage with no effect worth mentioning?

He didn't know the answer, but he refused to accept that it was just a coincidence that the skeleton collapsed the moment he removed the orb.

Did I make a mistake, and the orb had nothing to do with the skeleton turning to ash?

Remembering what happened to the skeleton a few moments ago, he didn't want to take any chances. Without hesitation, he opened his hand to drop the orb on the ground, but it didn't fall.

The purple orb seemed to stick to his hand like glue. His pupils dilated as he watched the orb shrink, seemingly melting. The purple liquid seeped into his skin through his pores, and he felt a chill run down his arm as the liquid coursed through his body's blood vessels. He hastily tried to remove the orb, but even when he shook his hand, it still clung to him, shrinking by the second. And before he knew it, the orb was completely absorbed into his body.

"Shit!" Whether he cursed his luck or his curiosity remained unknown. Without dwelling on regret, he tried to discern if anything had happened to him after the orb had entered his body.

First, he looked at his hand, where the orb had been absorbed, and then he inspected the rest of his body. There was no obvious change in his physical body, but when he put his hand on his chest, he felt strange.

When he put his hand on his chest, he felt a strange sensation running through him. His heart seemed to stutter and beat twice in quick succession, almost as if two hearts were beating in his chest.

"What in the..." He stammered, not knowing whether to be curious or freak out.

With every erratic beat of his heart, a wave of heat engulfed his body, and he felt as if flames were burning him from within. It was as if his very being was being consumed by an inferno, each pulse intensifying the blaze coursing through him.

[Assimilation with??? fragment...]

[Strength increased by...]

[Agility increased by...]

[Vitality...]

[...]

A flurry of messages filled his vision, showing him the rapid increase in his stats, but he was in no condition to check them.

Overwhelmed by the intensity of the sensation, he collapsed to the ground, convulsing and rolling in agony like a snake. He screamed until his voice turned hoarse, a guttural cry of agony piercing the air.

In a desperate frenzy, he clawed at his own skin, desperately trying to put out flames that weren't there, his movements wild and frantic as he fought the invisible inferno consuming him from within.

[All stats increased by 25 points.]

After what felt like hours of torment, his body was exhausted and his spirit was drained. The fiery turmoil within him finally subsided, leaving him shivering and gasping for air.

Huff...What in...huff...the hell...happened to me?!

Eric struggled to stay conscious, his chest moving up and down in a rapid rhythm. Fortunately, the cool sensation of the floor provided a brief moment of relief.

As he rested, he felt a tingling, hot sensation on his hand before it spread and enveloped his entire body. Not having the energy to move, he lifted his arm while still lying on the floor.

As he felt the itch in his hand, he noticed that the missing fingernails he had lost in the rubble were slowly growing back. His pupils dilated in shock at the strange situation, giving him enough energy to lift himself off the ground and sit down, examining his hand carefully. He watched as the nails grew until they covered his fingertips again.

W-What the...?!

His nails weren't the only thing that had changed; he noticed that the scratches he had suffered were closing. He turned his hand over and looked at the large burn scar that used to cover his palm and saw that the wound was about ninety percent healed. The parts that hadn't healed wouldn't take much longer to return to normal, and the scar tissue around the edges of the wound was beginning to fade.

He clenched his hand into a fist, and his eyes flickered before he let out a sigh.

After a while, a thought occurred to him. Are all my wounds healed?

He lifted his shirt and looked at his chest. There was no pain anymore. Instead, it itched a little.

With suspicious eyes, he untied the bloody rags he had used as bandages. When he looked at the wound on his chest, his expression flickered dramatically.

The last time he'd checked, a large claw mark had covered his entire torso, but now the wound was almost completely healed, with only some light scar tissue at the edges.

What was that purple orb...?

Eric's eyes flickered as he remembered how the skeleton had been completely intact before he took the purple orb away.

It can keep the skeleton intact and heal living people as well.

His heart calmed, its tumultuous rhythm gradually returning to a more regular beat, but Eric was focused on another matter.

Would the healing only work once, or would it heal me every time I was injured?

Curious, he took the dagger beside him, made a small cut in his palm, and watched with anticipation.

Shortly after cutting his palm, he felt a gentle heat flow through the wound, and it slowly began to close. Eric couldn't hide the surprise on his face as he watched the remarkable healing process unfold before his eyes. The wound that had been gaping and raw moments before now seemed to be knitting itself back together by some unseen force. Eric's amazement grew as he watched the skin regenerate; it didn't take more than 5 seconds for the wound to completely heal without leaving a scar. It was as if the injury had never happened in the first place, leaving him in awe of the mysterious healing power.

How many times can it heal me?

Curiosity got the better of him, and he started cutting his palm over and over again just to see it heal each time. He looked like a psychopath as he gave himself different kinds of wounds just to see them heal with a smile on his face. In his excitement, he almost cut off his finger just to see if it would grow back. Fortunately, he suppressed that urge before he did something stupid.

What is this orb?

Despite the extensive knowledge he'd gained from absorbing books of knowledge about some items with magical effects, he was certain that the purple orb in front of him wasn't just an ordinary artifact but something very valuable. No wonder it was kept behind the stone door; it was indeed more valuable than anything he had received in the previous room.

Wait, why didn't I think of that? Didn't I have something that could explain these strange things?

Without wasting any time, he called up his interface and looked at the changes that had occurred after he had absorbed the purple orb and compared them to the statistics he had before.

****

**Status:

**Name: Eric Walker

** Level: 13 (Rank 0)

**Attributes:

-Strength:43

-Agility: 49

-Vitality: 47

-Constitution: 43

-Perception: 48

-Magic power: 41

-Mind power: 42

*Free points: 0

***

Not only did the orb heal all my wounds, but it also gave me a big boost.

Eric couldn't hide the smile on his face when he saw his stats. His stats had increased so much that they were almost four times higher than the initial stats he started with.

Does this make me four times stronger? Do I now have the strength of four men?

He clenched his fists and felt the explosive power filling his body. There was an itch that urged him to punch the wall as a test of his new strength, but he suppressed that urge. He still had to understand what this strange purple orb was and how it worked. There would be time to test his new abilities, but not now.

He looked at the only section that could give him some sort of explanation about the purple orb.

****

** Ability:

[Fragment of???—Current ability: self-healing]

[Locked—Rank 1 required.]

****

Even though he had gained so many levels, his original ability was still locked until he reached rank 1. He had no idea how many levels rank 1 was and how far he was from reaching it.

Without giving the matter much thought, he focused his attention on the new section that wasn't there before.

A fragment? Of what?

He asked for an explanation but was only met with silence.

Figured. He clicked his tongue and read the information on the window, trying to put it all together. Most of the information was not available, but it was enough to clear things up for him.

Is this fragment beyond the system's ability to analyze?

That was the only guess he could come up with as to why the information was unavailable, but he couldn't quite believe it. Time and time again, the system showed its abilities, literally changing his body for the better, yet it couldn't identify the orb. What kind of artificial was it?

He knew the orb wasn't normal because it gave him the ability to heal any injury he suffered, and he still didn't know where its limits were. Could it regenerate limbs? organs? If his heart were pierced, would he die or would he be healed? So many ideas and questions filled his mind, but he dared not test them.

And it's only one fragment; does that mean there are more? Who has them? Where did they come from? What is it?

Eric shook his head. Even if he kept thinking about the orb and somehow came up with an explanation, it would be of no use to him. The orb was already fused with his body, and he wouldn't be stupid enough to try to remove such a life-saving item.

I guess I'll have to let it go. Who knows, if I could get my hands on other fragments, maybe the system would be able to give me a proper explanation.

With that, Eric put the matter to the back of his mind and turned his attention to the hall he was in.

So, what now?

***

Just as Eric immersed himself in exploring the hall, the dungeon welcomed some unexpected guests!!