Midnight struck the Academy clock tower, the heavy tolling bell echoing across the empty campus.
I stood in the shadows of the servant's entrance behind the Grand Library, the cool night air nipping at my skin. A moment later, the heavy iron door creaked open.
Instructor Gideon stepped out. He looked different than he had yesterday. The grey pallor of his skin was gone, replaced by a healthy flush, and his breathing—usually wheezing due to the Mana Rot—was silent and deep. The Star-Tear Elixir was already working.
He didn't say a word. He simply slid a black magnetic keycard across the pavement toward my boot.
"The night shift guards are on a 'mandatory break' for the next thirty minutes," Gideon grunted, refusing to look me in the eye. "After that, the automated wards reactivate. If you get caught, I don't know you."
"Pleasure doing business, Gideon," I whispered, picking up the card.
He vanished back into the darkness, his debt paid.
I swiped the card. The lock disengaged with a soft click.
I slipped inside, immediately activating the [Ring of Shadows]. A veil of grey mist wrapped around me, dampening my footsteps and erasing my thermal signature.
The Academy Archives were a sight to behold. It wasn't just a room with books; it was a labyrinth of floating shelves, rotating artifacts, and glowing mana-streams that spiraled up into a vaulted ceiling that seemed endless.
I ignored the common sections. I moved straight for the Restricted Vaults in the basement.
This was where the Empire kept its dirty secrets: forbidden spells, genealogy records of demon bloodlines, and, most importantly, the geographical data on the Ancient Calamities.
I reached the bottom of the spiral staircase and stopped.
I wasn't alone.
Down the hallway, illuminated by the faint blue glow of a mana-torch, a figure was hunched over the massive circular door of the Vault of the First Era.
I narrowed my eyes. [Eyes of Truth].
[Target: Kaelen]
[Status: Frustrated / Confused]
[Current Activity: Attempting to bypass a Class-5 Rune Lock using 'Instinct'.]
I almost laughed out loud. Of course. The Protagonist.
In the original story, Kaelen stumbles upon this vault by accident while looking for a bathroom (or some other ridiculous plot contrivance). He is supposed to spend three chapters solving the puzzle through trial and error, eventually unlocking the [Map of the Calamity] just in time to save the southern border.
But right now, he looked like a monkey trying to do calculus.
"Come on..." Kaelen muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. He was spinning the rune-dials on the vault door frantically. "I feel like... the mana wants to go left? No, right? Why won't it open?"
He slammed his fist against the adamantine steel. "Open, damn it! I know there's something important inside! I can feel it!"
That was the problem with Heroes. They relied on "feelings." I relied on the Wiki.
I stepped out of the shadows, letting my stealth fade just enough to be visible.
"You're holding the cipher upside down, simpleton."
Kaelen jumped about three feet in the air, spinning around with his hand on his sword hilt. When he saw me leaning against a pillar, checking my nails, his face went pale.
"Lucas!" he hissed. "What... what are you doing here? You're trespassing!"
"Rich coming from the commoner who broke in through the ventilation shaft," I noted, pointing to the grate he had left unscrewed on the ceiling. "At least I used a key."
I walked past him toward the vault door.
"Step aside, Kaelen. You're embarrassing yourself."
"You can't open it," Kaelen snapped, stepping in my way. "That's a Rune-Lock from the First Era! The patterns change every ten seconds! I've been trying to synchronize with its mana flow for an hour!"
"An hour?" I scoffed. "Tragic."
I pushed him aside with a casual shove. He stumbled back, too shocked to resist.
I looked at the lock. To Kaelen, it was a swirling chaos of lights. To me, it was a math problem I had solved fifty times on my PC.
"It's not about 'mana flow'," I lectured, my fingers dancing over the rune-dials. "It's a Fibonacci sequence based on the atmospheric density of the mana. The pattern doesn't change randomly; it cycles."
Click. Click. Whirrrrr.
I spun the three dials in rapid succession: Left 3. Right 8. Left 5.
"And the final key," I whispered, pressing the center sigil. "Is zero."
KA-CHUNK.
The massive gears of the vault groaned. Dust fell from the ceiling as the heavy steel doors slowly ground open, bathing the dark hallway in a brilliant golden light.
Kaelen's jaw hit the floor. He stared at me, then at the open vault. "How... how did you know that?"
"I read books, Kaelen. You should try it sometime instead of swinging that sword at everything."
I walked into the vault. It was empty save for a single stone pedestal. Resting on it was a scroll made of dragon-skin leather.
[Item Found: Map of the Calamity (Unique)]
[Description: Reveals the exact spawn points and timing of the upcoming Monster Wave.]
I snatched the scroll.
"No!" Kaelen shouted, rushing into the room. "Put that back! That belongs to the Academy! If you take it, you're stealing state secrets!"
"I'm not stealing it," I corrected, tucking the map into my inventory. "I'm privatizing it. Vayne Corp will make much better use of this information than the dusty old deans of this school."
"I won't let you!" Kaelen drew his sword. "That map... I felt it calling to me! It's mine!"
"Yours?" I laughed coldly. "Destiny called you, Kaelen, but I picked up the phone."
Suddenly, the sound of heavy boots echoed from the top of the stairs. The thirty minutes were up. The distraction was over.
"Intruder alert! Sector 4!" a guard shouted.
Kaelen froze, looking toward the exit in panic.
I smirked. "Well, that's my cue."
I activated [Shadow Step]. My body dissolved into pure darkness.
"Wait! Lucas!" Kaelen yelled, reaching out to grab me. His hand passed through smoke.
I reappeared at the top of the stairs, behind the approaching guards, cloaked in invisibility. I watched as three armored wardens burst into the basement hallway.
They saw the open vault. They saw the missing artifact. And they saw Kaelen, standing alone in the center of the crime scene, holding his drawn sword.
"Student Kaelen!" the Head Warden roared, leveling his spear. "Drop the weapon! You are under arrest for breaking and entering and grand theft!"
"No! Wait!" Kaelen stammered, raising his hands. "It wasn't me! It was Lucas! He was just here! He turned into smoke!"
The Warden scoffed. "Lucas Vayne is currently in his dormitory. The sensors show you are the only life form in this sector. On your knees! Now!"
I watched as the "Hero" was forced to his knees, magically cuffed, and dragged away kicking and screaming about how unfair it all was.
A delightful chime rang in my mind.
[ System Notification: Key Plot Item Acquired. ]
[ Protagonist Framed for Crime. ]
[ Reward: +1,200 Destiny Points. ]
[ Current DP: 6,300 ]
I turned and walked out the front door, whistling a cheerful tune.
The Hero was going to detention. The Villain was going to war.