Kael stopped near the storage sheds where one of Grelt's messengers waited with a sealed scroll and a bored expression. The man shifted his weight from foot to foot, clearly eager to return to whatever comfortable corner he came from.
"Hold this for me," Kael said, sliding the Grimoire Pack into my arms without warning.
The weight settled against my chest—solid, warm, and strangely alive. The leather breathed under my palms, a faint pulse like a slow heartbeat. For thirty seconds I counted every single one while Kael turned to speak with the messenger in low, efficient tones about quotas, permissions, and minor adjustments to the daily harvest logs.
I didn't hesitate.
My eyes dropped to the open pages and I read with everything I had, faster than I had ever read anything in my short, repeated lives. The Grimoire was alive in a way nothing else in this cage had ever been. Ink flowed and rearranged itself as I watched, new lines forming, old ones sharpening. The pages had no end. They simply kept going, ready to hold whatever knowledge the owner demanded. Comprehensive. Dangerous. The kind of book that could make an ordinary person lethal if they understood even half of what it contained.
I tore through three full pages before Kael reached back and took the pack from me.
The first page showed Zone 1 monsters in intricate detail. Sketches of Void Stalkers and Mana Leeches moved subtly when I focused on them. Weakness tables, habitat notes, exact EXP yields under different kill conditions. One creature could drain levels if it latched on too long. The information sank into me like water into dry soil.
[Achievement Unlocked: First Reader][You have accessed restricted Traveller knowledge for the first time. Information absorption speed increased by 7% for the next 48 hours.]
The second page laid out EXP generation rates for manual labour in cold, merciless tables. Berry picking sat near the absolute bottom, pathetic and heavily taxed. Digging—especially in disturbed or ancient ground—sat much higher. Grave digging had its own highlighted column with multipliers and footnotes. Pre-System structures amplified returns. The Zone 0 siphon rate was printed plainly: 99.99%. A brutal confirmation of every calculation I had made in the dark.
[Achievement Unlocked: Gradient Seeker][You have studied EXP yield mechanics in depth. All intentional manual labor actions now receive a temporary +3% bonus when performed with calculated purpose.]
The third page—only half of it before the book was taken—covered Traveller class privileges. Travellers could cross zone barriers at will, their immunity tied strictly to their own person and not transferable. The bag itself was a Registered Traveller's Satchel. If stolen or taken by force, it would immediately lose every function and become nothing more than ordinary, useless leather. Penalties for unauthorized handling were listed in neat, unforgiving script.
[Knowledge Acquired: Traveller Privileges][You now understand zone traversal mechanics and artifact binding rules.]
I locked every fact away behind my blank expression. My face showed nothing. My breathing stayed even. But inside, the pieces clicked together with mechanical precision.
Travellers walked through the blue wall like it was open air. Their protection did not extend to anyone else. And the bag would punish any thief.
Kael finished his conversation, tucked the Grimoire away, and gave me a small nod as though nothing important had happened. "Shall we continue?"
The rest of the daylight hours passed in careful movement along the edges of the fields. Kael pointed out patches of soil that looked older or darker. I dug where he indicated, using the small shovel he provided, widening shallow test holes while he murmured notes to the living book. Every strike of metal or hands fed the counter in tiny increments. I tracked them all without expression.
When night finally settled, thick and complete, we moved to the first real survey tunnel.
Kael had located an old entrance half-hidden beside one of the abandoned graves. A narrow crack that opened into a descending passage once we cleared the top layer of dirt. The air inside carried the heavy scent of damp stone and ancient dust—air that had not moved in centuries.
I went first, digging steadily while Kael held the torch and gave quiet directions. My arms burned. My back protested with every motion. But I kept widening the tunnel, pulling away dirt and loose rock, creating just enough space for us to advance. The walls felt rough and untouched by modern tools. These passages had existed long before the berry fields were planted. Long before the barrier sealed us in.
Then the counter surged without warning.
[EXP: 0.000089]
I froze, fingers still buried in the soil.
Zero point zero zero zero zero eight nine.
The highest single gain I had ever recorded in my entire existence here. Higher than any grave I had touched. Higher than any calculated test during breaks. For one impossible heartbeat the number hung there, bright and real.
Then the siphon took it.
It dropped back to zero in an instant, as if the System refused to let me keep even that small victory.
But I had seen it. I had felt the spike run through me like lightning that didn't burn.
[Achievement Unlocked: Tunnel Delver][You have begun exploring pre-System underground structures. All underground digging actions now receive a permanent +10% EXP multiplier.][Title Progress: Secret Harvester → Ancient Delver (1/5)][New Condition Detected: Anomalous Soil Resonance]
I stared at the dirt wall inches from my face, chest rising and falling harder than it should have. Something was different about these tunnels. The soil carried a weight and memory that had nothing to do with ordinary earth. An older presence slept beneath the farm—something the System had tried to bury under endless rows of nightberries and that glowing blue wall.
Kael's voice came soft behind me. "What is it?"
I didn't answer immediately. My mind was already tearing through new calculations, adjusting every previous estimate, reworking the long path to one hundred thousand EXP.
The tunnels changed the slope of the mountain. The Grimoire had handed me rules I was never meant to know. And for one brief, stolen moment, the counter had shown me a number that actually meant something.
I wiped dirt and sweat from my brow with the back of my hand and kept digging, deeper this time.
Whatever waited under this field was waking up.
And so was I.