CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE
Just three random pages from a book of mysteries
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It’s been just fifteen days since the major System Update
The damage has already begun to accelerate
Dungeon monsters have started appearing in midair
Pouring out of portals, but how did portals get there?
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We’ve lost all access to the dungeons, but no one knows why
And all our stats have been erased now, no matter how high
We prayed until our knees were bleeding on the temple floor
But our gods no longer reach out to us anymore
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It’s been a month since the apocalypse the System wrought
We’ve lost so many friends, so many battles have been fought
We once controlled the elements, and sought out new frontiers
But now we shake in fear when one of those portals appears
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Another System Update came today, this time a patch
But so far there’s just one detail that folks like me could catch
Our status screens are back, but still our powers won’t return
The limitations of this new screen took no time to learn
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Three months since the Update took our powers and our pride
Opening up portals that still leave us terrified
Unlike dungeons, there’s no logic to their strength or skills
Their random strength now challenges all of our hearts and wills
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The gods have spoken to us, but they’re not the gods we knew
No longer do they guide our paths or tell us what to do
They simply give you little status boosts when you succeed
Helping just a little, but much less than we all need
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It’s been ten years since the event which changed our lives and fate
But finally I’m starting to decode that cursed Update
Rumours tell of one who could escape the System’s crime
Some suspect he was a master in the arts of Time
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Stolen novel; please report.
I’m writing this not knowing if it ever will be found
I’m sitting here within a cave upon the frozen ground
But I will search for answers and that man until I die
Even if the only thing that I can ask is WHY
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I made it past the mountains and I found a hidden town
They pulled me from a river when i was about to drown
They told me of a legend, tales of a wandering mage
Whose face is much too young to match is unnatural age
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I stumbled on a dungeon yesterday, but it was dead
And I’m still unsure what to make of what my new god said
“Good job on locating such a mysterious place
Ruins of an era that vanished without a trace”
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I’ve spent the last few weeks evading portals out at sea
But now the portals seems to be slowing down finally
I’ve noticed that despite the random monsters that appear
Rarely are they strong enough for warriors to fear
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I’m unsure what it means, but something strange happened today
I found a temple locked in time that wouldn’t fade away
I think it may be evidence that someone strong was there
But there’s no way to guess at WHEN, as far as I’m aware...
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How I long to go back to the days of adventure
These seventeen long years have been exhausting to endure
My friends and I were Dungeon crawling adventurers then
How I’d long to hold a core in my young hands again
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Although it’s taken years of effort, I have become strong
But the journey to enlightenment has been too long
The stats I gain through challenging myself may not be grand
But there are now few portal monsters I cannot withstand
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The empires that once reached across the world have fallen now
But in their wake, the new beginnings lift me up somehow
Watching people start again and overcome their pain
Feels just like a ray of sunshine after heavy rain
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I ran into a very old friend out on my journey
He thinks I should give up on my quest of discovery
But til I have answers for the things that I have lost
I will follow that mage’s cold trail, despite the cost
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It’s been such a long time since the System said a thing
I have to wonder if it truly controls everything
My god says that all is as the System wills to be
But those portals stink of spatial instability
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I FOUND HIM, I have proof at last, the God of Time is real
Someone whose old status screen survived the whole ordeal
I found him in a ruined dungeon, and I called him out
Then he disappeared, it must be him, I have no doubt!
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