While walking in the dark cave, he at one point looked down at his skeletal hands and simply marveled. Yes, he had been reborn into a new reality, but he never really believed in anything after death, as he never saw a need to. In this new reality, he could live a life like no other, especially looking like a skeleton. He did enjoy having fun and facing hard elements in life, but this put a whole different meaning to it. He was looking forward to what this world had to offer and how his life would unfold. Every turn would be a surprise and he loved the idea of that.

Lost in thought, he didn't realize that the cave had begun to shrink until he scraped his skull on the ceiling. Once again, he didn't know how he was able to feel anything with his nerves and muscles gone. Shaking his head, he focused ahead and saw that the cave had started to brighten from a light that slowly appeared. He advanced towards the light, and by the time he reached it, he was on his knees. As he reached out, his hand touched nothing but air. Moving his arm around, he felt the edge of the cave and pulled himself out, only to slip and he tumbled to the ground.

[You have entered a dungeon. Loading legend.]

[A scholar and scientist, Doctor Xerxes Zmon was the most intelligent being nearly 400 years ago. His research and creations paved the way to a new era, the Era of Knowledge, where many great scientists and scholars were born. However, none ever grew to the prominence and acknowledgement that Zmon held. Due to this, a small sect of scholars---(Expand to read more)]

[3 Quests Available]

‘I don’t really want to read all that. I’ll just focus on what’s important. I don’t need to care about the history of this place, just the missions given.’ Cade minimized the legend screen and kept open the quests.

[Quest 1] A Feng has made this dungeon her home and her children have infested the walls. Purify this sacred place from the presence of the Feng. Rewards will be determined by the achievements gained.

[Quest 2] Find the keys to open the iron doors. (0/2)

[Quest 3] Explore the Crypt of Zmon and discover all the secrets. (0%)

‘A mission of subjugation, which I’m familiar with, so that should be pretty doable. Locating two keys might prove a challenge, since I’ve never been good at finding things. Discovering all the secrets can come last, since it’ll be completed on its own anyways.’

Satisfied with his set goals, he stood up and observed his surroundings. As he looked around, he noticed the room was made out of fancy looking stone and seemed to give off a light of its own. When he placed his skeletal hand on the wall, he felt vibrations on his fingertips, which he knew were because of the Feng’s children.

As there was nothing else of interest in this room, he made his way towards the wooden door across from him. The door opened with a slight creak and the new room was roughly the same size as the one he was just in. A broken table was in the center, accompanied with two broken chairs. Nothing else around the room seemed out of place, whatever out of place was for this world.

An identical door was on the right. Opening it revealed a bigger room. The wall straight across was lined with bookshelves. The books that occupied them looked old and worn out, cobwebs strewn about on some of the shelves. A large table stood in front of the bookshelves, made of the same wood as the furniture in the previous room. When he approached the bookshelf, his vision was bombarded with messages.

[You have discovered a collection of Skill Books.]

[You must possess a Bronze Core to utilize Skill Books.]

[Bronze Core Requirements: 1,000EXP to awaken]

[When a Skill Book is opened, it binds itself to the Mana Core and becomes permanent. Not only are Skill Books hard to come by, but they also take a long time to create, and cost a fortune. Hence, this Mana Core utilization method is used by very few people.]

[As there is no owner of these Skill Books, would you like to collect them? Yes/No]

‘Books that grant a specific power? I didn’t know reading would be this important. But I need to unlock my Mana Core. I only have 546EXP, I’ll need to collect more to meet the requirements. But how am I going to collect all these Skill Books? I don’t have pockets. Well, I’m sure it’ll work out. Yes.’

[Collection authorized. Moving 18 Skill Books to Storage.]

Upon that message, a large amount of books began to glow different colors, and as they began to vanish one by one, the wave of colors reminded Cade of the Aurora Borealis. A beautiful sight.

[You have collected 18 Skill Books. You can access them at any time through the Storage.]

When Cade looked at the message, his mind went to storage and what it meant. He than said what his mind was thinking. ‘Open Storage’

[Command not found]

[Storage does not exist in this real, rather in its own spatial dimension.]

[To add or remove items into or out of Storage, ask for the specific item to be added or removed from Storage.]

‘That’s…interesting. I want to try it out.’

Cade removed the bow from his back and gave a command.

‘Move [Basic Hunting Bow] and arrows into Storage.’

With that command, the bow was enveloped in a white light and, in a split second, shrunk and vanished. He also felt his back lighten when the arrows and satchel both vanished, he assumed in a similar fashion.

[Basic Hunting Bow and 15 Arrows added to Storage.]

With a large volume of messages, he double checked to see if he missed any messages. With no findings, he removed all the messages and looked to the door next to the bookshelves. As this room didn’t have anything else of interest, he proceeded to the next room.

Behind the door was an open space with two doors on either side. When he walked to the center of the room, he felt a small breeze coming from above. Looking up, he saw a pitch-black hole. As he had no way of getting there, he paid it no attention and looked between the two doors.

While he was deciding which door to go through, he felt a vibration in his skeletal feet. When he looked down, he saw cracks forming and his instincts screamed to move. Listening, he took two jumps back. As soon as he did, the ground he previously occupied erupted, sending chunks of dirt and rock everywhere, kicking up a cloud of dust. After a few seconds, the dust began to settle, and he wasn’t sure what he was looking at.

At first glance, what he saw looked like a tall, stone statue separated into pieces. It wasn’t perfectly sculpted but had jagged edges and a rough shape. There were four chunks stacked atop each other, with however many more hidden in the hole it came from.

He didn’t want to move and cause any unnecessary actions, so he stood there, not taking his empty eye sockets off of this rocky thing. Until the top boulder turned 90 degrees and stopped. What he saw could be used for nightmare fuel.

A large, gaping opening with rows and rows of teeth, each getting smaller as they edged towards what he assumed was the throat. Two black beady eyes starred at him, as if trying to locate his very existence, the soul he didn’t have.

Cade thought that image was enough to give anyone life-long paranoia, until it spoke, filling his mind with the sound of nails on a chalk board.

“WHO ARE YOU?”