The fire crackled softly in the clearing, faint sparks floating up into the night sky.
The three of them sat around it — Ethan, Dan, and Joseph — armor dulled by battle, faces half-lit by flickering orange light.
It had been nearly a week since the System appeared — a week since the world had changed beyond recognition. Cities warped by mana storms, forests grown wild with monsters, and people discovering power they barely understood.
Ethan stared quietly into the fire, lost in thought, while Joseph absently tossed a pebble into the flames.
"So," Joseph said finally, breaking the silence, "you ever gonna tell us how you got that sword? Or the armor? You didn't just spawn with it like some kind of boss mob."
Dan glanced over, brushing ash from his gauntlet. "Yeah, man. Everyone's gear looks like trash compared to yours. You look like death itself. Which I guess fits, but still…"
Ethan didn't respond right away. He looked at them both, then back at the fire — and after a long silence, he spoke.
"It wasn't given to me," he said quietly. "It called to me."
Flashback — Three Days After the System Appeared
The world had only just begun to fracture.
Monsters had started appearing in small clusters, tearing through towns and highways. Ethan had spent most of those early days surviving — scavenging, fighting off feral creatures with whatever weapons he could find.
Then he felt it.
A faint thrum in his chest — subtle at first, like a heartbeat that wasn't his own. It pulsed softly, guiding him. Every few minutes it would surge, urging him north. It didn't feel hostile — more like a whisper, calling him toward something ancient.
He ignored it for a day. Tried to convince himself he was imagining it. But the pull only grew stronger, more insistent, until he couldn't resist anymore.
He followed it through the outskirts of a ruined Michigan town, past cracked roads and forests overgrown with crystalline vines. Snow had started falling out of season — a strange side effect of ambient mana twisting the weather.
Finally, he found it.
An old quarry, half-filled with ice and frost. At its center stood a sword, encased in a pillar of frozen crystal. Faint runes glowed beneath the surface, pulsing in perfect rhythm with the thrum in his chest.
It was beautiful — and terrifying.
But he wasn't alone.
The sound of crunching snow echoed behind him. He turned to see another figure descending the ridge — clad in blackened steel, runes glowing faintly along the edges. A deathly blue light burned behind his helmet's visor.
Another Deathknight.
"You feel it too," the stranger said, voice low and resonant. "The call of the relic."
Ethan tensed, hand instinctively tightening on his makeshift blade. "It's mine."
The man chuckled darkly. "They all say that."
Without warning, the stranger lunged — his runeblade cleaving downward in a burst of frost and shadow. Ethan barely dodged, his body moving on instinct as a surge of cold energy flared through his veins.
The thrum in his chest grew louder. The sword in the ice pulsed violently, responding to him.
[Class Awakening: Deathknight]
[Skill Unlocked: Soul Reaver]
Power erupted from within him — raw, freezing, and hungry. Frost spread beneath his boots as he met the other Deathknight's charge. Their blades collided, ringing through the air like a funeral bell.
The stranger was stronger, faster, but Ethan fought like a cornered beast.
Each clash sent shards of ice and blood scattering across the quarry floor.
When the enemy tried to pull him in with some dark tendril — Ethan's instincts took over. A shadowy surge exploded from his hand, dragging the man forward instead. Their blades met at close range, and Ethan drove his sword through the man's chest.
For a moment, everything went still.
The other Deathknight's body cracked, breaking apart into frost and black mist. His armor — ornate and heavy — dissolved into streams of light that swirled toward Ethan.
[You have slain another Deathknight.]
[Runic Armor of the Fallen Claimed.]
[Relic Bond Achieved: Varyn Echo.]
The ice shattered around the relic sword, freeing it. Ethan reached for it, feeling the runes burn cold against his palm. The thrum faded… and then merged with his own heartbeat.
From that moment, he knew — he wasn't just wielding the blade.
It was part of him.
Present — The Campfire
Joseph leaned forward, eyes wide. "You're telling me you killed another player for your weapon?"
Ethan shook his head slowly. "He attacked first. But yeah. The System doesn't care who claims what. It rewards the survivor."
Dan frowned, rubbing the back of his neck. "So there are others like you — Deathknights — out there right now?"
"There are," Ethan said. "Each of us can feel our relic calling. But if one falls… their weapon, their power, their armor — all of it can be taken."
Joseph snorted. "So it's a murder-for-loot mechanic. Nice. Real wholesome world we've got here."
"Welcome to the new reality," Ethan said quietly.
The mood fell into silence again — until Joseph broke it with a grin. "Well, for what it's worth, if I ever get a cool relic, I'm chaining it to my soul. No offense, man, but I don't wanna be your loot drop."
That actually earned a faint chuckle from Ethan. "Noted."
Dan smiled faintly too, leaning back. "Guess we all got our own paths. Mine just seems to involve getting faster."
He lifted his hand, flicking open his interface. "It says my agility stat hit some threshold. My senses are sharper. Time feels… slower. I can move before things even register."
Joseph smirked. "So basically, you can see the world in slow-mo now? Great. Remind me never to spar with you."
Ethan nodded approvingly. "That'll come in handy soon."
Dan's wolf perked up suddenly, ears twitching. A low growl rumbled from its throat.
Ethan turned his head. Out past the treeline, the night sky pulsed faintly red. Smoke rose in the distance — and beneath it, the faint shimmer of molten light.
"Another dungeon," Ethan murmured.
Joseph groaned. "Can't we get, like, one day without nearly dying?"
Ethan stood, frost glimmering faintly along his armor. "Rest when we're dead."
Dan sighed, standing too and slinging his bow over his shoulder. "You really gotta work on your pep talks, man."
Ethan glanced back with the faintest trace of a grin. "I thought that was the pep talk."
As they walked toward the rising glow on the horizon, the wind carried the scent of smoke and ash.
The forest ahead shimmered red with flame and shadow.
And deep within Ethan's chest —
the thrum pulsed again.
The night air was colder than usual, but it wasn't natural cold — it was the kind that seemed to cling, seeping into armor and skin.
Ethan walked ahead, the faint blue glow of his runeblade, Varyn, cutting through the dark. Frost trailed lightly beneath his boots with every step. The others followed close behind, Joseph humming tunelessly under his breath and Dan keeping a watchful eye on the treeline, bow in hand.
"So," Joseph began, voice carrying just enough sarcasm to lighten the tension, "on a scale from one to 'we're all going to die horribly,' how bad do you think this next one's gonna be?"
"Considering it's glowing red?" Dan said. "Probably somewhere around the part where we start screaming."
Ethan smirked faintly — barely noticeable, but there. "That's optimistic."
Joseph grinned. "See? He's warming up to us. I knew the ice statue had a sense of humor buried in there somewhere."
Ethan didn't reply, but his tone softened slightly. "Don't get used to it."
They pushed through the undergrowth until the trees began to thin. The glow ahead brightened — flickers of firelight reflecting off the frost-covered ground.
Before them, an entire section of forest had transformed. The trees were burning but not consumed, their branches frozen mid-flame, flickering eternally. The air shimmered with heat and ash, and the ground beneath them pulsed faintly with mana.
"The dungeon's changing the terrain again," Dan murmured. "It's like… reality's just giving up."
Joseph crouched, touching the scorched earth. "Feels like standing on a volcano that forgot to finish erupting."
Ethan looked toward the pulsing red light at the center — a jagged rift, swirling with molten energy. He could feel Varyn hum softly in his grip, the runes along its blade flaring a cold, pale blue that contrasted violently against the fiery hues around them.
"Varyn doesn't like it," he said quietly.
"Your sword… talks?" Joseph asked, half-joking, half-concerned.
Ethan tilted his head slightly. "Not with words. It reacts. Resonates when something powerful is near."
Dan whistled low. "Creepy and useful. That thing's basically a haunted compass."
The blade's glow intensified briefly, and Ethan's eyes hardened. "It's not haunted. It's alive."
The others exchanged a glance, but didn't press further.
They set up a quick camp on the edge of the corrupted zone — a buffer before entering the dungeon. Ethan stood watch while Joseph unpacked what little food they had left, and Dan examined his interface again.
"Looks like my agility keeps scaling higher every level," Dan said. "My dodge rate's up, and… this new line appeared."
He tapped his display, and faint blue symbols shimmered in the air.
[New Passive Unlocked: Temporal Sense]
Description: Your heightened reflexes allow you to perceive combat at an accelerated rate. The world slows for a brief instant during lethal encounters.
Dan grinned. "Basically, I get bullet time when things go bad. I can see movements before they finish."
Joseph laughed. "Damn, we got Legolas with slow-mo mode. You're officially our MVP."
"Until I run out of arrows," Dan replied dryly. "Then it's back to screaming."
Joseph poked the fire again, his expression thoughtful. "You ever think about how crazy this all is? One minute I'm working construction, next thing I know, I've got a stat sheet and can bench press a car."
Ethan looked out toward the glowing rift, silent for a moment. "Power changes everything. But it doesn't change what we are underneath."
Dan nodded slowly. "And what's that, for you?"
Ethan hesitated. The flickering firelight reflected in his eyes — cold, sharp, but not empty. "Someone trying not to lose what's left of his humanity."
Joseph leaned back with a smirk. "Well, if it helps, you're doing a terrible job at being a brooding loner. We're growing on you."
That earned him a faint laugh from Ethan. "You're insufferable."
"And yet you keep saving my ass," Joseph shot back.
"Force of habit," Ethan said, though his tone carried warmth this time — a rare glimpse of his human side bleeding through the frost.
The laughter faded, replaced by the steady crackle of the campfire and the distant hum of the dungeon. The air felt charged — thick with energy, as if the world itself was holding its breath.
Dan's wolf stirred restlessly, and even Varyn gave off a faint vibration, the runes glowing in warning.
Ethan stood slowly, gripping the sword. "It's reacting again."
The others followed his gaze toward the treeline — where the shadows seemed to move against the firelight.
Shapes emerged — molten, shifting figures with flickers of ember-filled eyes. Fire elementals, twisted by unstable mana.
Dan nocked an arrow. Joseph cracked his neck, grinning wide. "Guess the dungeon's not gonna wait for us to knock."
Ethan raised Varyn, the blade exhaling a mist of pale frost that hissed as it met the heat. "Then let's not keep it waiting."
The ground trembled as the first of the creatures lunged forward — flame and frost colliding in a blinding flash of color and power.
And as the battle erupted beneath the red sky, Ethan's pulse aligned perfectly with the cold rhythm of Varyn's thrum.
They moved as one — man and blade, vengeance and frost.
The clash between flame and frost turned the clearing into chaos.
Each strike sent sparks and embers into the air, fire hissing as it met Ethan's frost-charged blade. The molten creatures lunged and hissed, their bodies melting and reforming like living magma.
Ethan's movements were precise — cold and surgical. Every swing of Varyn carved arcs of frost through the heat. When he cleaved through an elemental, the creature's molten body flash-froze mid-motion, shattering into crystalline shards that melted into black glass on the ground.
"Joseph, left flank!" Ethan barked.
Joseph grinned, raising his blade that shimmered faintly with his new skill, Titan's Break. He charged through the molten sludge, his strength stat doing its work — each swing of his weapon tore through enemies like paper. When he slammed his sword into the ground, a ripple of kinetic force burst outward, sending three elementals flying back into the flaming trees.
"Ha! You see that?!" Joseph yelled, laughing over the roar of combat. "I told you — pure muscle solves everything!"
"Focus!" Ethan shot back, though there was a faint curl of amusement in his voice.
Dan moved in the backline, precise and methodical. His arrows glowed faintly with mana — a new skill he'd recently unlocked, Piercing Gale. Each arrow carried a streak of condensed air that cut through flame like a blade. His wolf companion darted between enemies, snapping at legs and dragging molten fragments off balance so Dan's shots could finish the job.
The archer's eyes flickered with his Temporal Sense, everything slowing when danger loomed. He could see an elemental's molten fist forming before it struck and roll aside in perfect timing, firing two arrows into its core before time snapped back to normal speed.
"Gods," Dan muttered under his breath, "this never gets old."
The trio pressed forward, cutting through waves of fiery constructs, each one more unstable than the last. The deeper they went, the hotter it became — the air so thick with heat it shimmered like liquid. The trees gave way to walls of obsidian and flowing lava, glowing veins of orange splitting the black stone like cracks in the world.
Joseph wiped sweat from his brow. "I'm cooking in this armor. Pretty sure my ass is medium-rare."
"Stop complaining," Dan said, nocking another arrow. "At least you're not the one who has to breathe through this smoke."
Ethan didn't respond — his focus narrowed, Varyn's runes pulsing brighter with every step. The sword was guiding him again. That same thrum from before — faint but insistent — echoed in his mind.
He could feel it.
Something powerful was ahead.
They reached what could only be described as the dungeon's heart — a vast chamber where molten rivers crisscrossed a broken stone floor. The air here burned to breathe, and the light came not from flame, but from runes carved deep into the obsidian walls.
"This is it," Ethan said quietly.
Dan scanned the room. "Doesn't look like much of a boss arena."
"That's the problem," Joseph muttered. "It's too quiet."
The ground trembled beneath them. A low, rhythmic rumble echoed from the far side of the chamber, like the heartbeat of something ancient.
Varyn pulsed in Ethan's grasp, its icy aura flaring so bright it bathed the chamber in a ghostly blue. Frost spread outward from his boots, hissing against the molten rock.
Dan's wolf growled low, hackles raised, eyes locked on the glowing fissure at the center of the room.
Ethan took a step forward, tightening his grip on the blade. "It's here."
The fissure split open with a deafening crack, a burst of molten energy flaring skyward. The heat wave knocked Joseph and Dan back a step, and even Ethan had to brace himself.
From within the light, something massive began to stir. The shape was indistinct at first — molten claws dragging across the rock, eyes like twin furnaces igniting in the dark.
"Uh," Joseph muttered, raising his blade, "I'm guessing that's not friendly."
Dan drew another arrow, voice steady but tense. "You think?"
Ethan didn't answer. His eyes glowed faintly, the same icy blue as Varyn's runes. The thrum in his chest aligned perfectly with the creature's emerging heartbeat — a resonance of power meeting power.
Steam and fire twisted together as the monster rose fully from the magma pit, its form finally taking shape — towering, molten armor fused to flesh, runic chains glowing across its body like brands. A Flamebound Colossus — a dungeon guardian of pure, destructive mana.
The air around them crackled.
The creature's roar shook the cavern walls.
Joseph's grin faded. "Yeah… definitely not friendly."
Ethan stepped forward, raising Varyn. "Positions. Stay behind me until I draw its attention."
The others nodded, already moving to flank. The creature's molten eyes locked onto the group, and the chamber's heat rose another degree.
Then came silence — a single, heavy breath before the world exploded into motion.
The colossus raised its arm, and a wave of molten rock surged outward. Ethan's frost aura flared, his blade cutting through the heat in a burst of freezing mist.
The two forces collided — frost and fire, light and dark — the dungeon shuddering beneath the weight of their clash.
And then—
Everything went white