"Drop the daggers?" Sera repeated, her voice echoing off the curved walls of the sanctum. She laughed, but it was a tight, nervous sound. "I don't think so, Ghost. You're hiding. That means you're either weak, or you're waiting for a cooldown. Which is it?"
Elian pressed his face against the cold iron grate of the ventilation shaft. Sweat was stinging his eyes. He was thirty feet up. If she looked up and spotted the glint of his flashlight, he was dead. If she decided to throw a dagger at the vent "just in case," he was dead.
"I'm hiding because I don't trust you," Elian lied smoothly. "And I'm waiting because the defense grid is currently cycling. If I step onto the floor right now, the motion sensors will turn me into ash. You, however... you're standing in the only blind spot."
Sera stiffened. She looked down at her feet, then up at the ceiling. There were no motion sensors. But she didn't know that. This was a "Beginner" dungeon, but the Pillar was ancient tech. Who knew what defenses it had?
"You're lying," she said, but she didn't move.
"Risk it then," Elian said, bored. "Take a step to your left. See what happens."
Sera hesitated. The seed of doubt was planted.
"What do you want?" she asked, her grip on the daggers loosening slightly.
"I told you. The loot. The Pillar contains a Class Awakening Token. I can't use it; I'm already Classed." (Another lie). "But I need the achievement credits. You input the code, you get the Token, I get the achievement. Win-win."
Sera bit her lip. A Class Awakening Token. In the open market, that was worth millions. It was enough to buy a seat on the High Council.
"What's the code?" she asked.
"Holster the weapons. Hands where I can see them."
Sera glared at the darkness above, then slowly sheathed her daggers at her hips. She raised her hands. "Happy?"
"Delighted. Now, listen carefully. The console uses a base-six mana flow. You need to touch the runes in the order of the flow."
Elian closed his eyes. The Ghost provided the image.
Sequence: North-Star. Void-Gate. Broken-Crown. Sunrise.
"Top left," Elian instructed. "The symbol that looks like a star."
Sera pressed it. The crystal hummed, changing from white to a soft blue.
"Bottom right. The empty circle."
She pressed it. The hum grew louder. The liquid void beneath the platform began to swirl.
"Center. The cracked crown."
Sera reached for it, then paused. "If this activates a trap, I will find you, and I will skin you."
"If it activates a trap, we both die," Elian countered. "Press it."
She pressed it.
KA-THUM.
The room shook. The massive crystal Pillar split open down the middle, steam hissing as the two halves separated. A pedestal rose from the floor in front of the console.
Sitting on the pedestal was not a Token. It was a glowing, holographic keyboard.
"There's no Token," Sera hissed, her hand flying to her dagger. "You played me!"
"The Token is the reward for completing the sequence," Elian said quickly, his heart racing. "That's the Admin Terminal. You have to execute the command."
"What command?"
"I'll tell you. But first, you have to bypass the biometric lock."
This was the gamble.
Kaelen's memories were clear. The Pillar of Ascendance wasn't just a computer; it was a mana-battery. To access the "Admin Mode," it required a massive infusion of mana to jumpstart the ancient circuits.
Memory Warning: User mana will be drained to 1% upon contact. Status: 'Mana Shock' will induce paralysis for 60 seconds.
Elian needed Sera to be the battery.
"Place both hands on the glowing panels," Elian instructed. "It reads your mana signature to verify you aren't a monster."
Sera looked at the panels. They pulsed with an inviting warm light. She was greedy, but she wasn't an idiot. "Why don't you come down and do it?"
"My mana type is Void," Elian improvised, throwing out buzzwords he remembered from high-level lore. "The system will reject me. Yours is... Shadow? Blood? It's compatible."
Sera stood there for a long, agonizing second. She looked at the terminal. She looked at the impossible wealth that lay just one command away.
"If you're lying..." she muttered.
She slammed her hands onto the panels.
ZZZ-ZAP!
A bolt of blue lightning arched from the console, seizing Sera's body. She screamed, her back arching as the machine drank her mana like a starving vampire.
"What... is... this?!" she shrieked, unable to let go.
"Authentication," Elian whispered.
The light died down. Sera collapsed, sliding down the front of the console. She lay on the floor, twitching, her breathing ragged.
[Target Status: Mana Shock. Paralysis applied.]
Elian kicked the grate open. It clattered onto the platform below with a loud clang.
He dropped.
He landed in a roll—sloppy, jarring his shoulder—but he was up instantly. He drew the Rot-Iron Blade and sprinted across the platform.
Sera watched him come. Her eyes were wide with rage, but she couldn't move her limbs. She could only wheeze.
"You..." she gasped. "You... rat."
Elian didn't look like a high-level player. He looked like a beggar in a dirty coat with a rusted sword.
"Sorry," Elian said, stepping over her paralyzed body. "But I really need that Token."
He stood before the terminal. It was glowing green. [Access Granted.]
The interface was complex—thousands of lines of ancient runic code scrolling past. To a normal person, it was gibberish.
To Elian, it was Python.
Ghost, take the wheel.
His fingers flew across the holographic keys. He didn't know what he was typing, but his muscle memory did.
Command: /sys_override/gate_logic/delay
Parameter: +72_Hours
Redirect_Reward: User_ID_Local
The screen flashed red. [Error. Delay protocol requires Council Authorization.]
"Damn it," Elian cursed. "Kaelen, what now?"
Bypass it. Use the Emergency Maintenance Loophole. Reroute the power from the defense grid to the containment field.
Elian typed frantically.
Command: /reroute_power
Source: Defense_Grid
Target: Gate_Stabilizer
[Warning: Defense Grid Deactivated. Dungeon stability compromising.]
[Success. Gate Opening Delayed.]
The room began to rumble. Dust fell from the ceiling. The void liquid below began to bubble violently.
[Global System Announcement]
[CRITICAL ALERT: The Third Gate opening sequence has been stalled by an unknown anomaly.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Crisis Averted (Tier 1)]
[Reward Distributed: Class Awakening Token (Random)]
[Reward Distributed: 50,000 Credits]
A golden card materialized in the air above the console. It spun slowly, radiating a holy light.
Elian snatched it out of the air.
[Item Acquired: Class Awakening Token]
[Rank: Unique]
He shoved it into his pocket. "Got it."
He looked down at Sera. The paralysis was fading. Her fingers were twitching toward her daggers. Her eyes promised murder.
"You're dead," she whispered, her voice gaining strength. "I will hunt you to the ends of the Earth. I will kill everyone you know."
Elian raised his rusted sword. He could kill her right now. She was helpless. It was the smart thing to do. It was what a Vulture would do.
He hesitated.
Killing a monster was one thing. Killing a human—even a threatening one—was a line he hadn't crossed yet. And if he killed a member of the Blood-Rose Guild, they would investigate. If he left her alive, she might lie to save face about being beaten by a Level 2 trash mob.
Kill her, the Ghost urged. She is a variable.
"No," Elian decided. "If I kill her, the Guild logs her death location. They'll swarm this place."
He reached into his pack and pulled out the Mana Thread book—no, he had already learned that. He pulled out the Corpse-Stalker Teeth.
He grabbed Sera's hand and shoved the teeth into her palm, closing her fingers around them.
"Consolation prize," Elian said. "Those fetch a good price."
"Go to hell," she spat.
"Already there, sweetheart."
Elian turned and ran.
[Warning: Dungeon Collapsing. 60 Seconds to Evacuation.]
He sprinted for the exit tunnel. The developer backdoor he had entered through was crumbling.
He dove into the hole just as a massive chunk of ceiling crashed onto the platform where he had been standing.
The Escape
Elian scrambled through the maintenance shaft on hands and knees. The dungeon was screaming around him. Stone ground against stone. Pipes burst, spraying steam.
He reached the inscription plate at the Plaza of Heroes. It was jammed.
"Open! Open!" Elian kicked the stone slab.
Manual Release. Left side. Pull the lever.
Elian found the hidden latch and yanked it. The stone slid open.
He tumbled out onto the grass of the Plaza of Heroes, coughing and covered in dust.
It was night. The plaza was empty, save for the holographic statues.
Behind him, the inscription plate slammed shut and fused. The hidden entrance was gone.
Elian lay on his back, staring up at the fake stars of the sector dome. His heart was beating so hard it hurt.
He reached into his pocket. The golden card was warm to the touch.
[Class Awakening Token]
[Use to awaken a Hidden Class tailored to your soul signature.]
He had done it. He had robbed a dungeon, tricked an assassin, and hacked the apocalypse.
"Status," Elian whispered.
[Name: Elian Vance]
[Class: None]
[Level: 3]
[Credits: 50,450]
Fifty thousand credits. He was rich. He could move to Sector 2. He could eat real meat.
But the money didn't matter. He looked at the Token.
"Time to stop being a Vulture," Elian said.
He sat up and crushed the card in his hand.
The Awakening
The world turned gold.
A pillar of light erupted from Elian's body, shooting into the sky. It was silent, invisible to anyone without high Mana Sensitivity, but to Elian, it was a thunderclap.
The System voice boomed in his mind, louder than ever before.
[Awakening Ritual Initiated.]
[Scanning Soul Signature...]
[Detected Anomaly: Trait
[Detected Anomaly: Memory Core
[Analyzing Combat Style: Trap utilization, Deception, Environment manipulation.]
[Calculating Class Compatibility...]
Elian held his breath. He wanted a Combat Class. Sword Saint like Kaelen? Shadow Lord? Archmage?
The light coalesced into words.
[Class Determined.]
[Congratulations! You have awakened the Unique Class:
Elian stared at the floating text.
"...What?"
[Class: Dungeon Architect]
[Description: You do not just conquer dungeons; you understand them. You can manipulate terrain, reprogram traps, and exploit the structural weaknesses of the System itself. The world is your blueprint.]
[Active Skill 1: Blueprint Sight (See the wireframe of reality/structures/traps).]
[Active Skill 2: Edit Mode (Minor modification of inanimate objects within a 2m radius).]
[Passive: Trap Immunity (You cannot trigger traps you have identified).]
Elian blinked. It wasn't a combat class. He couldn't shoot fireballs. He couldn't cut mountains in half.
"I'm... a builder?" Elian groaned, falling back onto the grass. "I have the memories of the greatest warrior in history, and I get a class for construction workers?"
Incorrect, the Ghost whispered, and for the first time, Kaelen sounded amused.
You have a class that can delete the floor from under the Demon King's feet.
Elian paused. He looked at the statue of Kaelen.
He thought about the urn he had pulled with a thread. He thought about the console he had hacked.
"Edit Mode," Elian tested the words. He looked at the park bench next to him.
[Target: Marble Bench]
[Structure: Limestone. Durability: 500/500.]
[Edit?]
Elian focused. He imagined the bench having a leg made of glass.
Mana Cost: 20.
The stone leg of the bench shimmered and turned transparent. The bench groaned under its own weight, then the leg shattered, and the heavy slab crashed to the ground.
Elian looked at his hand.
He couldn't fight the monsters head-on. But he could turn the battlefield into a death trap.
"Okay," Elian grinned, a dark, dangerous look returning to his eyes. "I can work with this."