They rode for hours until they reached a vast meadow, dominated by an unnatural hill rising from its center. At its base shimmered a silver portal, pulsing like a heartbeat, spinning slowly in the air.

  The horses stopped near the portal, and the party exited their carriages.

  “Everyone! This is a natural-born dungeon,” Boridus announced proudly. “It appeared three months ago, and I managed to secure it for us. Let’s go inside. Corvin, you enter first, then we follow. Isolde and Perry, you’ll take the rear as usual. Help the kid, if necessary, okay?”

  Before Corvin could speak, Boridus shoved him through the portal.

  He stumbled into a dark cave reeking of fungus and damp earth. The only light came from patches of luminous moss clinging to the walls.

  “How is it, boy?” Boridus’s voice echoed from beyond the portal. Looks like these portals can transfer sound, Corvin noted.

  “It’s dark and smells like death! And I need a sword, damn it!” Corvin shouted back. Being weaponless in this black void made his skin crawl.

  “Like your energy, boy!” Brent bellowed as he stepped through, the rest of the group following.

  “Here, catch!” Roary called, tossing him a rusty longsword.

  “Thanks,” Corvin muttered, cursing inwardly. Giving me this piece of junk? Might as well paint a target on my back.

  “Luminus!” Perry intoned, his spell flaring to life. A wisp of light shimmered into existence, casting a pale glow across the cave entrance. It was the simplest spell a Mage Icon allowed one to learn.

  Corvin stared at the glowing orb, envy gnawing at him. Lucky bastard. He wasn’t wrong; the fortunate were born with useful Icons. And Mages? They were revered above all. Caster types were beyond useful in the dungeons and were sought after.

  “Thank you, Perry! Now let’s move. Corvin, lead the way!” Boridus ordered. The red bracelet on Corvin’s wrist pulsed, forcing him to pick up the pace.

  ***

  Corvin moved carefully as they ventured deeper into the cavern system. Nothing had attacked yet, but the eerie silence made every step heavier.

  Then he heard it, a skittering of legs. A sharp hiss cut through the air. Instinct honed by countless drills with Roary kicked in, and Corvin leapt back just as a sticky glob splattered where he’d been standing.

  “Spiders! It’s a spider’s den!” Roary roared as a swarm of massive arachnids poured from holes in the ceiling. At least twenty, some small, others the size of boulders, scuttled toward them.

  “What the hell are those?” Corvin shivered, turning to run.

  “Where do you think you’re going? Attack the small ones, be useful!” Boridus barked, dashing forward in a gust of wind toward the largest beasts.

  Corvin gripped his rusty sword tighter and charged, slashing at a smaller spider. The dull blade barely scratched its armored exoskeleton.

  Behind him, Isolde’s voice rang out, manic and gleeful. “Haha! Finally, something that bleeds. I’ve had enough of those damned golems!”

  She raised her staff. “Holy Ground!”

  Light flared across the cavern floor, binding the spiders in glowing chains while the party’s bodies felt lighter, faster.

  I feel so much quicker… So, Healer Icons can do this, too? Interesting, Corvin thought, hacking at the spider with little success.

  Up front, Boridus fought like a storm, gauntlet-clad fists wreathed in blades of air, struck a massive spider repeatedly, each punch tearing a spider’s leg clean off. Beside him, Brent’s body glowed crimson as he ripped a massive arachnid in two.

  “Come to me! Taunt!” the Shieldbearer bellowed, drawing the spiders’ fury as he smashed them back with his iron shield.

  Roary danced among the smaller ones, his twin blades flashing. “Come on, scum! This is how you do it!” he roared mid-swing.

  I would, if I had a real blade, Corvin cursed inwardly as he finally severed a spider’s leg. The creature shrieked and spat a ball of acid at his feet.

  Corvin dodged, but not fast enough. Acid splashed across his right leg, eating through his pants and searing flesh. “Aaaaah! It burns!” he screamed.

  “Isolde! Please, we just started!” Boridus shouted.

  With an irritated sigh, she raised her staff. “Cleanse! Lesser Heal!” White light enveloped Corvin’s leg, black smoke hissed as the wound closed, and his skin rejuvenated.

  “Damn scum, making me waste my Magicka!” she snarled.

  “I’ll try to be more careful!” Corvin called back, knowing why she was furious. Magicka was used to cast skills and was limited; once spent, it required costly potions or time to recover. No wonder she hated wasting it on someone like him.

  Behind her, Perry’s voice rang out, thin but commanding. “Everyone, move back!” The group obeyed instantly.

  “Fireball Barrage!”

  A storm of blazing spheres rained down, incinerating the spiders in a deafening roar. When the smoke cleared, green crystals littered the ground; they were monster cores. The larger the spider, the bigger the core. They were worth a fortune, though Corvin still didn’t know their true purpose. Isolde never taught him, and none of the books explained it.

  “Good job, everyone! Brent, I like how you move!” Boridus shouted, then turned to Corvin. “You, collect the cores. Fill the bag!” he barked.

  Corvin clenched his jaw and obeyed, stuffing the glowing shards into a linen sack.

  ***

  Like that, they moved through the cave tunnels, following their plan: use Corvin as bait, then strike the unsuspecting insects with a combined assault. Step by step, they reached the boss’s chamber.

  “It’s probably going to be an Arachnid or something similar,” Boridus muttered. “Corvin, you go in first and tell us what we’re dealing with. If you can bait a few attacks, even better.”

  “Not like I have a choice,” Corvin grumbled, stepping into a vast cavern where multiple tunnels converged. At the far end lay a massive nest, littered with small eggs.

  The sight made Corvin pale. Every instinct screamed at him to run. He was just about to retreat when a monstrous spider, four meters tall and just as wide, descended from the ceiling with a screech. Its countless eyes locked onto Corvin and his trembling blade.

  The creature spat a thick strand of webbing, catching him before he could move.

  “Aaaaah! Get in here, you bastards! This huge spider’s going to eat me alive!” Corvin shouted, dropping all pretense of politeness.

  “Haha! Look at him go. Hang in there a bit longer, let me see what she’s got!” Boridus laughed, peeking from behind the entrance.

  Corvin cursed his fate as the spider lunged, its massive front leg slashing toward him. He raised his rusty sword to block. Miraculously, he parried, only for the blade to snap in half as the leg drove into his chest, piercing a lung.

  Blood filled his throat. Darkness crept in. Just as the spider reared back to tear off his head, Boridus appeared, a whirlwind spinning around him like a barrier. The last thing Corvin heard was: “Greater Heal!”

  ***

  When his vision cleared, Corvin lay drenched in blood, his wounds knitting under Isolde’s spell. Around him, Boridus and Brent hammered the spider with a barrage of punches and kicks, each blow carving gashes into its massive body. As it prepared to strike back, the Shieldbearer roared, taunting it while Roary joined the fray. His blades danced like a tornado, severing hind legs and forcing the beast to spit a ball of acidic liquid.

  “Detoxify!” Isolde cried, turning the deadly acid into harmless water.

  “Lightning!” Perry shouted. A bolt of blue energy speared the spider’s head, killing it instantly. The mage collapsed, barely standing, his Magicka reserves completely spent.

  “Nice job, everyone, even our little explorer helped,” Boridus grinned, pulling a massive crystal coated in green slime from the spider’s belly. “Corvin, you’re healed now. Get up, gather these eggs, and drag the corpse outside. You hear me?!”

  Corvin groaned, rising slowly. His shirt was torn wide open, his body crimson from lost blood, but thanks to Isolde, his wound had closed in time, and his lung regenerated.

  “Thank you, Isolde. Truly,” Corvin said earnestly. He’d thought they would leave him to die like they did Stix and Urdu.

  “If we didn’t need you, I’d gladly let you die and then dissect your weird body!” Isolde laughed, ripping a leg off the Arachnid. “I’m keeping this!” she shouted, striding toward the exit.

  “Don’t mind her,” Boridus whispered to Brent as the group left, leaving Corvin to clean up.

  Hours later, Corvin finally dragged out the massive bag of monster cores, spider eggs, and the Arachnid’s corpse. Thanks to his strength, it only took an hour to haul the body.

  “Good. You earned all the healing spells we wasted on you today!” Boridus chuckled. “We’ll be back in two months. This dungeon won’t close yet; another spider queen will take over and multiply.” He explained as they loaded everything onto the carriages and departed.

  ***

  This life dragged on for Corvin for another year before they dared to raid the Eternal Tomb again. This time, luck was on his side; he survived, though not without a wound so deep that even healing magic couldn’t fully mend it. Their tank, the Shieldbearer, whose name Corvin never bothered to learn, wasn’t so fortunate. His death crippled the party for years.

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  For the next few years, they stuck to C-Tier dungeons or lower. Anything higher without a tank was suicide.

  And so, Corvin’s sixteenth birthday came and went. Seven years had passed since he lost everything.

  Then one day, Boridus arrived with a new slave. There had been others over the years, but they all died sooner or later. This one was different, bought from a church, branded a murderous criminal. His Icon was that of a Juggernaut: a massive shield-wielding tank, and of an Epic rank.

  With him, their next raid on the Eternal Tomb began.

  Seven years was no small span of time, but thanks to the power of Icons, most skilled users lived well into their two-hundreds, at least humans did. Other races lived even longer.

  Corvin, now nearly two meters tall, walked through the familiar halls of the Eternal Tomb. In his right hand was a massive iron blade, simple but deadly. He had long since earned a proper weapon from Roary, who had trained him relentlessly over the years. Corvin had become their longest-living explorer.

  His body was a map of scars. Half of his upper ear was gone, and his left hand was missing, cut off at the elbow. Any wound that wasn’t life-threatening was no longer healed by Isolde.

  And still, after all these years, they never gave him proper armor. He wore a black button-down shirt that had seen better days, ripped leather pants, and old boots.

  Behind him walked Brent, Boridus, and the new tank, Oslo. In the middle, as always, was Roary, and at the rear Perry and Isolde, whose face somehow looked younger than before. Corvin never figured out what she did with all the body parts she collected, or with his blood, which she still took regularly.

  “Everyone, stop!” Boridus barked. “From here on, it’s that damn golem we never managed to kill for all those years. Oslo and Corvin will dive in first and bait it. While they hold it, I’ll unleash a new skill I bought for Windstriker’s, which cost me a fortune. Brent and Roary, attack at your own pace. Isolde, prep every support spell you’ve got. Perry, get Meteor ready. I paid a lot for that, so don’t screw it up.”

  The group obeyed, marching into the chamber where a four-armed golem stood guard before the doors leading deeper underground.

  ***

  Corvin and Oslo stepped in first. As slaves, they were expendable, unlike the rest of the group.

  “Stay behind me, young man. I’ll do my best to protect you,” Oslo whispered as they approached the slumbering golem.

  “Why? You don’t know me,” Corvin replied coldly. Years of torture and being treated as a tool had made him wary of anyone offering help.

  “To be a slave at your age… your life hasn’t been easy, right?” Oslo said solemnly. “I lived a long and happy life, but all of that is long gone now. I have nothing to live for anyway. So, if I’m going to die today, let me at least protect someone who deserves it.”

  Before Corvin could respond, Oslo roared: “Shield Meteor!”

  His shield glowed brilliantly as he exploded forward, crashing into the golem with such force that its outer shell cracked. Corvin froze in shock. This was the first time he had ever seen the creature suffer real damage.

  Epic Icons really are different, Corvin thought, tightening his grip on his blade as he circled behind the monster.

  The golem stirred, its core buzzing ominously. Two arms flared with golden light and swung down toward Oslo, while another seized a boulder and hurled it at Corvin. He screamed, diving into a backward roll as the rock smashed into the ground, his blade clattering away.

  “Provocation! Harden!” Oslo bellowed, chaining skills in rapid succession. His skin turned gray as stone, and a green aura enveloped the golem, forcing its attention onto him.

  “Spending a fortune on him was worth it!” Boridus laughed, hovering above Corvin, who paled at the sight. Is he flying? Impossible. Windstriker Icons can’t fly… Corvin knew their Icons well. Boridus was the strongest by far, wielding a Rare Icon that let him amplify his body with wind and strike with razor-sharp gusts. But flight? That shouldn’t be possible.

  “Amazing, isn’t it?” Boridus grinned, then shot upward like an arrow. “Gale Destruction!” he roared as winds condensed around him, forming a spiraling vortex. He slammed into the golem, tearing off a massive chunk of its armor.

  “Haha! Worth every coin!” Boridus cheered as he landed.

  So that was part of the skill, Corvin realized, exhaling slowly. I knew it, he couldn’t really fly. He stayed back, gripping his blade, waiting for his chance.

  Brent and Roary charged next, their weapons flashing as they activated their skills and clashed against the golem’s remaining arms, slowly chipping away at its armor.

  “Holy Ground! Strength! Haste! Magicka Boost!” Isolde shouted, her voice echoing through the chamber. Then she threw her hands up and yelled, “That’s all I’ve got, good luck!” before retreating to the rear, guarding herself.

  Perry, meanwhile, grew pale as he began his incantation. The spell Boridus had forced him to learn, Meteor, was one of the Fire Mage’s grand skills. Perry was a simple Mage. He wasn’t born with any specialization. Casting one of the strongest fire spells was beyond taxing for his body.

  Sweat poured down his face as the air shimmered behind him. Finally, a massive orb of fire materialized, burning the oxygen and scorching the ceiling above. Perry screamed, “Everyone back! Meteor!”

  The blazing sphere tore through the air, melting stone as it descended upon the guardian. The golem raised two of its arms to shield itself, but the impact melted them instantly. The explosion cracked the ground and shook the chamber with a deafening boom.

  The golem’s upper arms were gone, but instead of weakening, its body glowed crimson as it slammed with an invigorated strength around the ground as if letting go of its frustrations.

  With terrifying speed, it lunged forward and smashed Brent square in the gut. The impact splattered him against the wall in a grotesque spray of blood.

  No one had expected this. Losing its upper arms hadn’t crippled the golem; it had made it stronger. Faster.

  Then came the hum, a deep, resonant vibration. A ripple of energy burst outward, forcing everyone except the two furthest back to charge headlong at the monster. Oslo, closest to the beast, roared: “Iron Fortress! Taunt!” His body hardened to stone, gaining a metallic sheen as he tried to draw its attention. But the golem ignored him, locking onto Boridus, the one who had wounded it most, throwing a fist full of nearby rocks like shrapnel.

  “Damn it all! What the hell is with this dungeon?” Boridus snarled, panic flashing in his eyes, as he dodged the rain of rocks; unfortunately, some he didn’t manage to avoid on time as they struck his left arm and leg. “After all that money invested, am I going to fail again? Or worse, die?” He screamed in pain; his fear twisted into rage. “The hell I will!” He roared. “Corvin, you useless mutt, protect me!”

  Corvin froze. His stomach churned. He didn’t want this fight, but Boridus’s command was absolute. With a heavy heart, he stepped forward, his bracelet glowing red. “Fuck you, Boridus,” he roared. “I hope you die a painful death.”

  The golem thundered toward them while Oslo hurled himself into its path with another Shield Meteor, his shield colliding with the monster’s fist like a thunderclap. The impact shattered Oslo’s stone defense and drove him into the ground. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he coughed violently.

  But the golem didn’t stop. It barreled forward toward Corvin.

  “Fight, you maggot! Save your master!” Boridus screamed, his voice cracking as the crimson giant loomed closer.

  The golem’s fist rose, its body burning with increased Magicka, even the air around it distorted, and the ground shone red as if molten, then as it punched out, ready to crush Corvin, the ground beneath them shook as the cracks deepened and stone shattered. Then, with a scream, the golem, Oslo, and Corvin plunged into darkness.

  The taunt effect vanished instantly. Boridus and Roary skidded to a halt at the edge of a yawning abyss. They peered down, but the hole was so deep they could neither see nor hear anything below.

  Boridus whistled. “Damn, that’s deep.” Then he sat down, brushing dust from his clothes. “Isolde, heal me. Now!”

  Light washed over him as his wounds closed. He cursed under his breath. “Goddamn it. Lost an expensive slave, and even that scum. He was weak but really useful. Didn’t want to die at any cost… and look at him now.” He chuckled darkly. “Let’s rest. Then we move on. There’s got to be something good behind those doors.” He pointed toward the massive gates with a grin.

  “Boridus… we lost Brent,” Roary said quietly, nodding toward the crimson smear on the wall.

  “Eh. Who cares? Four of us are the original party members anyway. We can always find another fool. Let’s rest then, finally, after all these years, a proper reward for our efforts will be within our grasp.” Boridus grinned wider and motioned for them to sit.

  ***

  The first to land was the golem. Its massive body shattered like glass against the black obsidian floor. Its shattered core slowly hummed as its stored Magicka dissipated into the air.

  Oslo and Corvin kept falling for what felt like minutes, the echoes of the golem’s final hum fading into silence.

  “Boy! Come here, I’ll protect you!” Oslo roared midair. “I’ve got nothing left to live for anyway. If you survive this… if you ever find freedom… live your life the way you want. And never trust any holy church, or their women!” His voice cracked with rage and regret as he launched himself toward Corvin with a Shield Bash, wrapping the boy between his body and his shield. “Iron Fortress!” he bellowed as they slammed into the ground.

  Corvin felt the impact reverberate through his bones. He heard Oslo’s body shatter, felt the man’s last breath against his ear.

  “Live, boy… live…” Oslo whispered and died.

  Corvin chuckled bitterly. “Yeah… I think that’s not gonna happen,” he rasped, staring down at the jagged spike impaled through his gut, a shard of the golem’s shattered core. They had landed on its remains.

  Blood bubbled from his lips as he laughed. “My fucking luck… Fuck you, gods, fates, whoever’s up there. I just hope you’ve got the decency to show yourselves when I die… and explain this farce of a life!” His voice cracked into a scream, though it carried little strength.

  Pain consumed him. His body was broken, his wound bleeding heavily. He could feel his insides shutting down.

  Ah, fuck it… Let’s see if there’s anything here that I can ruin for those bastards. If he couldn’t live, he’d make sure Boridus gained nothing from this endeavor.

  Slowly, he stood up and limped toward what seemed to be an entrance to another chamber. Blood streamed from the jagged shard impaled through his gut as he made his way to the doors, which were barely ajar, likely from the impact of the golem’s crash. He squeezed through, leaving a dark, bloody trail behind him.

  The room beyond glowed with an eerie brilliance. Light crystals were etched into the ceiling, casting a warm, almost serene glow across the space. At its center floated a silver orb, its surface metallic but alive, like some strange liquid. On its body, glowing runes and intricate energy lines pulsed in unnatural rhythm.

  “Hah… a relic,” Corvin rasped, coughing violently as blood dripped from his lips. “Time to break this shit and die. At least I can screw them over in death if not in life.”

  He staggered forward, collapsing to his knees more than once, before finally reaching the orb. His trembling hands closed around it. Warmth radiated from its surface, soothing and cold all at once.

  Then his body shook, his lungs seized for a moment, forcing him to vomit a monstrous amount of blood onto the pristine floor and all over the orb.

  Blood smeared across the runes, and the glow deepened to the shade of midnight blue. A low hum filled the chamber, vibrating through his bones.

  Such is life… even my last wish won’t be fulfilled. He sighed, his eyes burning with unwillingness to give in as he clutched the silver orb, now slick with crimson.

  Darkness crept in, swallowing his vision. His thoughts blurred, and his body grew colder.

  Somewhere in the void, a voice sang, a melody soft as moonlight.

  “The dawn will come, my child… even if the night devours the sky.”

  Corvin’s eyes burned as the memory clawed its way back. His mother’s voice. Her smile. Julian’s laughter echoing faintly behind her song.

  He saw Urdu too, grinning like a fool, promising him a blade named after his curse. Stix’s quiet nod, his tail flicking in amusement.

  “I’ll keep your dreams alive,” Corvin rasped into the void, blood bubbling on his lips. “All of them. I swear…”

  His heartbeat thundered in his ears as the orb pulsed faster, brighter, until the glow swallowed the room whole.

  Then came the voice, cold, mechanical, echoing inside his skull:

  [System booting up.]

  System? The fuck is a system?

  Corvin froze, breath hitching as a surge of energy tore through his veins, burning and freezing all at once. His body convulsed, muscles locking as the voice continued:

  [Suitable host detected. Initiating Omega Protocol.]

  Omega Protocol… Is this what she meant? Damn it all… even in death, I’m just being used.

  Fragments of light spiraled around him, weaving into his flesh like molten threads. Pain exploded, eclipsing thought, yet somewhere beneath the agony, a spark of defiance flared.

  Is this it then? Seven years of pain, and I die in a hole, finished off by a glowing orb? No… no, I won’t let it end like this. He tried to fight it, to stay awake,

  But the voice droned on, relentlessly.

  [Reconstruction initiated. Host integrity: 7%. Commencing override.]

  A high-pitched chime interrupted the command sequence.

  [WARNING: Bloodline composition detected is outside of established parameters. Calculating probabilities; improbable.]

  [Confirmed reading: 80% Human, 14% Demonic, 5% Divine. 1% unknown component detected. Bloodline is statistically impossible.]

  [Re-running diagnostic...]

  [WARNING: Host integrity: 3%. Override commencing despite error. Prioritizing Host life signs over genetic integrity.]

  Corvin’s scream tore through the chamber, raw and primal, as the orb’s brilliance consumed him and something strange settled within his mind and tore through his body. Bright blinding light surged at the edges of his vision, but before it claimed him, he heard one last whisper:

  […Welcome to the System.]

  And then, silence.

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