The job board was crowded with offers—beast extermination, supply escorts, even graveyard purifications—but one mission pulsed faintly blue.
[Probationary Contract: Sewer Survey & Mapping]
Client: Mossbridge Guild
Reward: 3 Silver, Meal Token, Minor Potion
Status: Low Risk
Team Required: 2 Minimum
Note: Newcomers Only
"Let me guess," Ash said, "this is where they send people to die quietly?"
Riven smirked. "Only if you're stupid. Or smell-sensitive."
They accepted the job via the rune plate, and the system immediately reacted.
> [Mission Registered: Sewer Survey]
[Environment Buffs: +5% Stealth, -10% Perception]
[Note: Magical interference below surface. SYSTEM reception may drop.]
A few hours later, they were descending into darkness, guided by a half-rusted hatch near the western wall. The air turned thick with rot and something worse—magic decay.
Ash stepped down carefully, eyes adjusting. Riven moved like he'd done this before.
"I hate this place," the kid muttered, lighting a mana torch. "It shifts sometimes. Like it's alive."
The sewers were tunnels of damp stone and rusted grates, but symbols—arcane and ancient—lined the walls. Not maintenance glyphs. Warding sigils. Forgotten ones.
The deeper they went, the colder it grew.
Ash's system pulsed faintly.
> [Environmental Anomaly Detected]
> Temporal Echoes Present
Unknown Signature Beneath Eastern Quadrant
[Stat Leech on HOLD – No viable targets nearby]
[Current Load: 83% – Passive Skills Stabilized]
"Do you feel that?" Ash asked, whispering.
"Feel what?"
"Like we're walking through memories."
Riven gave him a look. "Okay, you are weird."
They followed the map, marking corridors with chalk and drops of potion mixture—standard tracking technique. For twenty minutes, nothing attacked. No monsters. No movement. Just... silence.
Then came the whisper.
Not a voice. A vibration in the air. Wrong.
Ash turned the corner—
And there it stood.
Not a beast. Not human.
A figure made of fragmented numbers, flickering like broken code, standing in the center of the hallway with eyes like empty blue fire. A glitch in reality.
> [SYSTEM ALERT]
> Origin Entity Detected
Alignment: UNKNOWN
Threat Level: Undetermined
Warning: This being exists partially within your system interface. Engage at extreme risk.
Ash stepped back. "Riven—"
Too late.
The thing screeched. Not sound. Data. A scream of code that scrambled vision and thought. Riven stumbled, blade half-drawn, blood from his nose.
Ash's screen warped—letters crashing into one another, stats flickering wildly.
> [FORCED CONNECTION ATTEMPT BLOCKED]
[SKILL: STAT LEECH—INACTIVE]
[SYSTEM REBOOT: 10 SECONDS]
The entity floated toward Ash, dissolving every magical ward on the walls as it passed.
No time. No tools. No weapon.
But instinct kicked in.
Ash slammed his fist against a broken sigil on the wall—one that felt warm beneath the grime. His system flared violently.
> [Emergency Boost Activated – WARNING: Not Authorized]
[TEMPORARY OVERCLOCK: Reflex +70%, Mind Defense +80%]
[Duration: 15 seconds]
Time bent.
Ash lunged forward—not to attack, but to shove Riven back and slam the emergency escape glyph on the far wall.
The room inverted.
Light exploded from the glyph. The entity screeched in fragmented fury, its form fracturing like broken glass. Reality snapped back with a jolt—and they landed outside the hatch, coughing, shivering, alive.
> [MISSION: Incomplete – Aborted Due to External Force]
[Guild Record: Encounter Logged]
Memory Fragment Recovered: ["It watches from inside the system…"]
[Temporary Skill Acquired: Data Sense (Locked)]
Riven sat up, pale. "What… the hell was that?"
Ash didn't answer. He was still staring at the last line on his system log.
> [That entity knew your name.]
> Welcome back, Ash.
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