The moment we stepped out of the dungeon, the air felt different.
The heavy, suffocating stillness of the dungeon was gone, replaced by the crisp chill of the wilderness. My lungs drank it in greedily, but my relief was short-lived.
A faint *chime* echoed in my ears, followed by a flash of light in the corner of my vision.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
The word floated in front of me, glowing faintly against the dim backdrop of the forest.
“What the—” I started, but Kiera’s sharp intake of breath cut me off.
She was staring straight ahead, her jaw tight. I followed her gaze, and sure enough, a similar glowing notification hung in the air before her.
[You have completed a **Special Limited Event: Forgotten Vault of the Sentinels.**]
[Rewards: +3 Bonus Level Ups, +5 Stat Points, +Unique Loot Drop.]
“What does that mean?” I asked, my voice uncertain.
“It means we got lucky,” Kiera muttered, though her tone was far from relaxed.
I focused on the notification, and the system responded immediately, expanding into a detailed list:
[LEVEL UP!]
[Name: Hiro Tanaka]
[Current Level: 5 (+3 Levels)]
[Stat Points Available: +5]
[Unique Loot: Acquired.]
As if on cue, another chime sounded, and a faint glow appeared in my peripheral vision. When I turned to look, I saw an object shimmering on the ground near my feet—a small, intricate hourglass with silver casing and sand that shifted colors as it flowed.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“What the hell is this?” I muttered, picking it up carefully.
The system responded again:
[**Temporal Sandglass** – A rare artifact imbued with chronomancy. Grants a brief reset of stamina when activated. Cooldown: 1 hour.]
I turned the sandglass over in my hands, the colored sand inside swirling hypnotically.
“Well?” Kiera’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. “What’d you get?”
I hesitated. Something about the sandglass felt… personal, like it wasn’t meant to be shared. “Just a trinket,” I said, slipping it into my bag.
Kiera raised an eyebrow but didn’t press.
“What’s with this *special event* thing?” I asked, breaking the silence. “Why was this dungeon different?”
“It’s rare,” Kiera said. “Most dungeons are straightforward—go in, fight monsters, take loot. But sometimes, the system throws something else at you. Something with better rewards… and worse consequences.”
“Worse consequences?” I echoed, my stomach sinking.
Kiera shrugged. “Sometimes it’s a tougher boss, sometimes the environment changes. Sometimes, it’s nothing. But you can bet the system is watching.”
“Watching?”
She glanced at me, her expression unreadable. “The system doesn’t just track your progress. It reacts to it. You’ve noticed, haven’t you? Things… shifting.”
I thought back to the dungeon, to the traps that seemed to reset and the strange feeling that the world itself was adapting to me.
“Yeah,” I admitted. “I’ve noticed.”
Kiera nodded grimly. “That’s Aetherion. The system isn’t just a set of rules. It’s part of the world. And if you’re not careful, it’ll chew you up and spit you out.”
I frowned, staring at the glowing notification still hovering in front of me. It felt too deliberate, too calculated.
“Who built it?” I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop myself. “The system, I mean. Who designed it?”
Kiera snorted. “That’s the big question, isn’t it? Some people think it’s the Entity. Others say it’s older than Aetherion itself. Me? I don’t care. All that matters is surviving it.”
Her words hung heavy in the air, and for a moment, I didn’t know what to say.
The system chimed again, quieter this time, as if reminding me it was still there.
[Stat Allocation Required: Assign 5 Points.]