There was something about Blackspire Canyon that always made my palms sweat.
Even before I had memories of the future, I hated this place — a jagged scar on the western edge of the starter continent, carved by digital earthquakes and flooded with corrupted mobs that hated you just for breathing.
But this time, we weren't here to grind XP or chase random boss spawns.
We were here to dig up ghosts.
The quest I received from the Archivist, "Echoes of the Forgotten," had only one hint: "Where the sun first wept on stone, the path below awakens."
It sounded poetic.
In practice? It meant standing at the canyon rim at sunrise, hoping a system event would trigger.
"Couldn't this ancient ruin be inside a cozy inn or a meadow?" Brutus asked, peering over the edge. "Why do ancient secrets always come with cliffs?"
"It's symbolic," Sera said, her arms folded.
"Symbolic of what?"
"Pain," she replied flatly.
Aiko flicked a pebble off the ledge. "I like her."
The sun crested the far hills, bleeding gold across the sky. For a moment, nothing happened.
Then my interface flickered.
Quest Triggered:
Echoes of the Forgotten – Part I
Objective: Descend the Shattered Path
The rocks beneath us shimmered.
A winding trail of stone slabs emerged from the cliff face, snaking down into the canyon like a staircase carved by a blind giant.
I exhaled. "That's our road."
Brutus stared. "That's not a road. That's a lawsuit."
We descended carefully. The stones shifted underfoot, cracking in places, making every step a gamble. A misstep here meant a 300-foot drop and a very short obituary.
Halfway down, a storm of shadow crows burst from the rocks — not hostile mobs, just a terrifying visual.
Brutus nearly swung his hammer at thin air.
Aiko laughed. "Relax, big guy. Just atmosphere."
"You call that atmosphere? I almost peed pixels."
We reached the base of the canyon — a wide open flat of cracked red earth. In the center stood an enormous stone door buried into the canyon wall, wrapped in vines and dusted with age.
Etched into it was a symbol.
A triangle within a circle.
I froze.
I knew that emblem.
It was the logo of the first guild ever registered in Eternum — The Dawnwatch.
They were wiped from the game database after a scandal in the early months of launch: suspected exploits, a server-wide glitch that crashed entire dungeons, and a disappearing act no one could explain.
Some said the devs deleted them.
Others… said they deleted themselves.
"I thought this guild was a myth," Sera whispered, tracing the carving.
"They weren't," I said. "They just disappeared before anyone could understand what they found."
"Which is?"
"The game's first real secret."
A prompt appeared.
Enter Forgotten Ruins of the Dawnwatch?
[Yes] [No]
I hit Yes.
The stone door groaned and split down the middle, revealing a long tunnel of moss-covered brick, lit by torches that ignited as we passed.
No mobs.
No music.
Just our footsteps and the faint hum of buried code.
We stepped into a massive underground hall.
Statues lined the walls — not NPCs, but player avatars frozen in stone. I recognized a few faces from ancient screenshots and old forums. These were once real players.
Immortalized.
Or entombed.
A podium stood at the center with a flickering hologram.
System Message:
The first guild gave everything for discovery. Will you?
Brutus scratched his head. "Give what? Gold? Time? I gave half my life to this game already."
The hologram blinked.
Access requires offering: One memory shard.
I opened my inventory and pulled out the shard from the Archivist.
It pulsed.
When I placed it on the podium, light exploded outward — illuminating the hall and revealing a hidden stairway descending even deeper into the earth.
The air turned colder.
Aiko whistled low. "This is either the best loot vault ever, or the part where we all die for lore."
"I vote loot," Brutus muttered.
We followed the stairs.
At the bottom was a single chamber.
And a body.
An avatar — male, armored, still breathing — sat slumped against the wall, eyes closed, a glowing symbol hovering above his head.
I stepped closer.
The name tag read: [Aethel] – Dawnwatch Founder
But the level?
???
I tried inspecting him. Nothing.
Just a pop-up:
This player exists outside the current timeline.
Sera's eyes widened. "He's in stasis."
"Not dead?" I asked.
"No," she whispered. "Frozen."
The air crackled.
Suddenly, the figure stirred — barely. His lips moved.
A faint whisper echoed in the chamber.
"Don't let them reset it…"
A quest alert flashed.
New Quest Unlocked: Echoes of the Forgotten – Part II
Objective: Prevent the Reset
Timer: 5 Days, 12 Hours
"What reset?" Brutus asked.
I didn't answer right away.
Because I'd seen this phrase before.
In dev logs.
In banned forums.
In the shutdown warning before Eternum's original collapse — right before I died.
"The world," I murmured. "They're going to reset the world."
Aiko frowned. "You mean like a patch?"
"No. A wipe. A forced rollback. A full system memory purge."
Sera paled. "But why?"
"To hide something. Or someone."
A beat of silence.
Then Brutus looked up. "What happens if we stop it?"
I turned to face them.
"We become the only ones who remember. And that makes us dangerous."
Aiko grinned. "I like being dangerous."
Sera nodded. "What's the plan?"
I opened the quest log.
Echoes of the Forgotten – Prevent the Reset
Subtasks:
‣ Find the three Memory Seals
‣ Defeat the Overseer of Clockspire
‣ Uncover the last words of Aethel
‣ Deliver the Truth to the Central Tower
I smiled.
"We hunt for memories."
And for once, it felt good not to be the only one carrying the weight of the past.