The sensation of moving between dimensions or different spaces lasts longer than normal. In this place, you can’t measure it in seconds; I can’t even find a good way to put it into words—just the feeling of drifting through the void, stretched slightly longer than it should be.

  Finally, that strange sensation comes to an end. Why am I staring at the ground? As soon as my Personal World takes shape again and I open my eyes, everything is pitch-black. Why did I appear lying face-down? And more importantly—where am I?

  The perfectly cut grass covers only a portion of the area; a few dozen meters ahead, it turns into pure sand, and beyond that, everything is just water. Am I on an island? It’s definitely small—about ninety meters in diameter at most.

  I detect something different beside the only plant that resembles a palm tree on this tiny island: a table. I walk toward the palm, and from a distance I can see what looks like a letter on top of it. I rush over to grab it and read its contents as quickly as possible.

  “Such bad luck! You’ve arrived at this artificial island made from a small dungeon. You cannot break it, you cannot complete it; the only way to leave is to wait. Time is altered: for your body, three years will pass; you will feel them as three months, and in reality, only three weeks will go by. When you exit this place you will be three years older in just three weeks. If I ever meet you someday, I’ll reward you somehow for making you waste time in this deserted place. — C.H.”

  I freeze after finishing the letter. I set it down on the table, walk back to the palm tree, drop my body against it, and let my back slide down the trunk. “What the hell…” are the only words I manage to say as I try to process the short but unsettling message.

  I’m trapped in a place where the laws of time are distorted. “My body will age three years in what will feel like three months, and in the end only three weeks will have passed.” I make quick calculations, and when I exit this place, I’ll be sixteen years old; my birthday is right around the corner, and I’ll probably miss it thanks to this damn dungeon.

  I’ll be older than Sol, Marga, and Arisa when I come out of here—and almost the same age as Brendu… that’ll be awkward to explain.

  My heart hesitates to believe everything written in the letter. How can something like this even be possible? But immediately I remember the world I live in and slowly start accepting the reality. “No—I can’t fully trust a letter.” I yell and jump to my feet, flying at full speed away from the island. I’m forced to stop immediately.

  I almost smash my face into something invisible; my Personal World can’t detect anything past that thin layer a few meters ahead. From its shape, I can deduce it’s like a small semi-sphere, and this invisible wall seems to be the boundary of this “dungeon.”

  I load every boosting ability to the limit, forgetting for a moment about my physical safety, and strike with everything I have. Never in my life have I focused this much power into a single blow—this is definitely the strongest strike I’ve ever delivered.

  My arm crashes against the wall; bones shatter, skin tears apart, and then everything explodes. My right arm disappears completely, leaving behind a disgusting, bloody stump.

  I stare at the wall—or rather, the dungeon’s boundary—with empty eyes. Nothing happened. Not even the slightest tremor, not a single dent. Nothing at all, as if I’d never hit it. My arm regenerates while my mind remains blank; the pain fades quickly and I prepare for another attempt.

  I take one of my swords out from the cube. I gather all my power for a few seconds, so much that even my concentration begins slipping. Any stray thought could cause my arm to explode before even striking the wall.

  My arm moves at an extreme speed—faster than any part of my body has ever moved. My sword, empowered with all my affinities, my Imra woven into my mana, and my Banner with my Laws strengthening the attack, unleashes a deafening blast when it collides again with the invisible wall.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  The result surprises me. The sword is blown away, my arm disappears just like before, my mind feels drained… and the wall remains intact. Not a single scratch, not one damn change.

  Sad and disappointed, I slowly fly back toward the small piece of island. I sit down on the sand, head hanging low, absentmindedly drawing circles with my fingers while my arm finishes regenerating. My sword returns to me as soon as I call it. I managed to calculate the sea depth—roughly five meters.

  To clear my head, I take off my clothes and dive into the water without thinking; I need a real splash of reality. The water is perfect—not too cold, not too warm. It surprises me that it doesn’t taste salty when it touches my lips.

  There are fish everywhere, swimming calmly. The water is so clear it reminds me of a lake. I come up for air and decide to check whether it’s seawater or not. As expected, it isn’t salty—it tastes like clean, drinkable freshwater.

  My fears fade. I can survive with life mana for a long time; it works as a supplement if food or water is scarce, but I don’t know if my body could endure more than a month relying solely on it. My provisions will last at most three weeks, but at least the basics are solved.

  I swim for almost twenty minutes. Now I’m lying completely naked on the sand, thinking about the situation. At least I’ve calmed down; my mental skill helped a lot. I’ve already accepted the fact that I’ll spend three months in this place where my body will age three years… now I just need to make the most of it.

  I check the three rewards from the hero’s dungeon again.

  First, I examine my Banner, which received a slight improvement. I open my eyes in shock and can’t help shouting: “You call this slight?” The progress far exceeded my expectations—if before I had completed only about 20% of my Banner, now it’s well past halfway, almost at 70%.

  The dragon emblem looks fiercer, more alive, more realistic. Not only did the progress jump, but the Banner was also substantially enhanced. I can feel a subtle change in it, but I can’t identify what that change is, nor do I have a way to test it now.

  The Ghostweaver Scarf had been inside my cube; I don’t know when I stopped wearing it. Maybe when I was teleported here? Well, it doesn’t matter… I tie it around my neck and weave mana with Imra to activate it.

  My presence fades little by little—not just physically. At this moment, it must be almost impossible for a ruby-rank to detect me unless they specialize in tracking or have enhanced senses. Even some diamond-ranks might struggle a bit.

  I grab the Ghostweaver Scarf with one hand and my Thundersnow Fang with the other. I try to cut it—and I can’t. I empower my strikes with mana and Imra—and still nothing. I build several Joyeuse to test its durability—and nothing. This thing is ridiculously tough; it’s stronger than me. At least if I wear it all the time, I won’t have to fear being decapitated.

  Now comes the most important reward—the big prize of this adventure. The ability to learn a Law, in this case one of the spatial type. The large sphere-shaped guide floats near the area where my pseudo-laws and Laws are engraved.

  I focus on the desire to acquire it. I want to absorb its power as soon as possible.

  “Do you wish to acquire the knowledge of the Gravity Guide?” The omnipresent voice appears in my mind. Without wanting to wait any longer, I accept it immediately.

  A slight headache begins first, then intensifies rapidly. Every second the pain grows stronger. I must activate my mental skill at full power to avoid fainting—the pain spreads through every part of my body. I kneel and clench my hands, enduring as best as I can.

  The pain arrives together with all the necessary knowledge. It feels as if every cell in my body is absorbing the information from the sphere. Every corner inside and outside of me is being force-fed everything needed to never forget it.

  Why does it hurt so much? I struggle to concentrate; the slightest lapse will make me black out, but if I focus too much on the pain, it just worsens. The last time I received a reward, the pain wasn’t even close to this. This is completely different.

  Several seconds later, the pain finally starts fading. Slowly, I return to normal. My mind and body regain their calm a few seconds after that. All the suffering disappears at last, and all the knowledge is fully rooted in my being.

  Every part of me now knows how to use this new Law. The knowledge is embedded in my brain as naturally as breathing or walking.

  “Congratulations for acquiring a new Law.” The notification confirms what my body and mind already know. If after all that pain I hadn’t received anything, I would’ve vented my fury on whatever I could find.

  I check my status to see the new section, and I freeze upon reading the name of my new gravity Law:

  Law of the Dragon: Gravity.

  My brain stops for a moment, trying to comprehend the magnitude of this new Law. I’d read a bit about cases like this before, but I never expected to obtain something of this level.