Jax stood at the front of the archway for a second, staring at the glowing runes carved into the stone. He glanced down at the ring he’d pried off the skeleton’s finger — the faint red-green veins still pulsing like they had their own heartbeat. He face-palmed hard enough to sting.
“Fine,” he muttered to the ring. “One look and I’m fucking out.”
He stepped through.
The moment his boot crossed the threshold, a blue holographic screen popped into his vision like a bad pop-up ad you couldn’t swipe away.
Jax rubbed his eyes. Looked again. Still there. Closed his eyes, shook his head. Still fucking there.
“The fuck is this thing?”
He stuck his arm through it. The screen glitched around his hand like static, but his arm came out fine. He pulled it back and flexed his fingers — nothing wrong.
The ring on his finger gave one last weak pulse, then went quiet, like it had just handed him off.
He leaned in and actually read the damn thing.
[System Initialization loading… complete!]
[System skill rewards obtained!]
[Obtained (skill): Appraisal (MAXED)]
[Obtained (skill): Inventory (MAXED)]
[Obtained (skill): Mini-Map (MAXED)]
[Obtained (skill): System Crafter (MAXED – blueprint access restricted by layer)]
[Obtained (skill): Universal Translator (MAXED)]
[Obtained (skill): System Store (MAXED – Locked until Layer 5)]
[Welcome to the ‘Ruins of Old Orders’ mega-dungeon!]
[Designated containment calibration layers: 1–5. Tutorial stage begins now.]
[ Ok ]
Jax’s eyes widened. He stood there frozen for a full second, then let out a long, tired exhale.
“What? No way. Seriously?!”
He dragged a hand down his face again, muttering to himself like the system could hear him bitching.
“A tutorial stage? After everything on the surface, you give me a goddamn tutorial now?”
He waved his hand through the box again—still didn’t budge. He snorted.
“156 layers. Of course it’s 156. Why would it be normal?”
He reached up and pressed the [Ok] button.
The screen flickered once and vanished.
He cracked his neck and stepped forward anyway, already scanning the shadows ahead.
Jax headed down to the first level. Broken bricks, thick moss, and massive roots jutted out from the walls like the dungeon was trying to strangle the stone itself. He reached Layer 1 and stopped mid-step when the path split into three separate tunnels.
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“System,” he muttered. “Use Skill: Mini-Map.”
The mini-map bloomed in the corner of his vision. Red dots lit up across the layout. All three paths eventually led to the same large room ahead.
Then he spotted movement.
A lone goblin shuffled through the middle hallway, a crude club dragging behind it. It hadn’t noticed him yet.
Jax slipped into the shadows, moving silent and low like he’d done a hundred times before. He closed the distance in seconds, wrapped one arm around the goblin’s head, and drove his knife straight into the side of its neck.
Thud.
The goblin dropped instantly. For half a second the quiet after the kill felt… too easy. Like his body had done it before his brain even caught up.
A moment later, items spilled out onto the stone floor with a metallic clatter.
[System Notification]
[Obtained: 8 Copper Coins]
[Obtained: 2 Silver Coins]
[Obtained: 1 Low-Grade Mana Crystal]
[Obtained: Rusty Dagger (Scrap)]
[Obtained: Goblin Hide (Scrap)]
[ Ok ]
Jax reached up and pressed the [Ok] button. The box vanished.
He stared at the pile for a second, then shook his head.
“Pathetic.”
He quickly scooped everything useful into his backpack before continuing forward.
[System Notification: Level Up! — Calibration Complete.]
[You are now Level 2]
[Obtained: +5 Stat Points, +1 Skill Point (Unallocated)]
[ Ok ]
Jax stared at the floating box, eyes wide.
He reached up and slapped the [Ok] button hard. The screen vanished.
“Huh,” he muttered. “It seems like the system is generous today, haha.”
He shook his head and kept moving, knife still gripped tight.
He’d only taken a few steps when he heard voices echoing from the tunnel ahead — shrill, guttural, and fast.
“Human smell… fresh blood… kill the intruder!”
The words hit his brain clear as day, even though the actual sounds were pure ugly goblin gibberish.
Universal Translator, he realized. Neat.
Three goblins rounded the corner at the same time. They froze for half a second when they saw him, then their eyes lit up with pure murder.
“Kill the man-thing!” the biggest one snarled.
They charged.
Jax didn’t wait. He slipped sideways into the shadow of a broken pillar, waited for the first goblin to rush past, then drove his knife up under its ribs and twisted. The creature gurgled and dropped.
A blue box popped up instantly.
[System Notification]
[Obtained: 6 Copper Coins]
[Obtained: Goblin Hide (Scrap)]
[Gained 28 EXP]
[ Ok ]
Jax didn’t even slow down. He slapped the [Ok] button away like it was a mosquito.
The second goblin swung a rusty club at his head. Jax ducked, grabbed its wrist, and slammed its face into the stone wall. Once. Twice. The skull cracked. It went limp.
Another notification appeared. He swiped his hand through the air without looking and kept moving.
The last goblin—smaller but faster—skidded to a stop. Its eyes darted between its dead friends and Jax. For a split second it actually looked like it was thinking about running… then it screamed and lunged with a jagged spear.
Jax sidestepped the thrust, caught the spear shaft, and yanked the goblin forward. He drove his knife into its gut and twisted once, hard.
The goblin gasped, eyes wide, then slid off the blade.
Two more boxes appeared at once. Jax growled in annoyance and slapped both [Ok] buttons in quick succession.
“Stop fucking popping up,” he muttered. “I’m trying to work here.”
He kept walking.
The hallway stretched on forever. Broken stone, roots pushing through cracks, the occasional drip of water echoing like a clock. It felt like hours. His boots scuffed the floor, the mini-map glowing faintly in the corner of his vision. Red dots were scattered, but nothing close.
Then the tunnel opened up.
He froze at the edge of a large cavern.
A goblin camp sprawled out below — makeshift tents made of hides and bones, a central fire pit crackling, crude watch posts. Normal goblins lounged around sharpening weapons. A few bigger goblin warriors stood guard. One skinny goblin in ragged robes was muttering over a glowing crystal — a mage.
And right in the middle, bigger and uglier than the rest, stood the goblin commander. He was holding a long black-veined sword that pulsed with faint light. The commander swung it around like a toy, bragging loudly to the others.
“This blade! Strong! Steal power from enemies! I am unstoppable now!”
Jax crouched low in the shadows and watched.
He didn’t charge. Instead he pulled out one of the flammable drinking liquids he’d looted earlier — some strong-smelling alcohol in a cracked bottle. He soaked a corner of the nearest tent, struck his flint and steel, and tossed a small spark.
Whoosh.
The tent exploded into flames.
Chaos erupted instantly. Goblins screamed and ran around in panic. The fire spread fast.
Jax moved like a ghost through the smoke.
He dropped the first warrior from behind, knife across the throat. The second one turned—Jax used the burning tent pole to trip him and finished him on the ground. Normal goblins scattered in the smoke; he picked them off one by one, silent and efficient.
The mage tried to cast something. Jax threw a rock into its face, then closed the distance and stabbed it through the chest.
Finally, only the commander remained.
The big goblin roared and charged through the flames, swinging the black-veined sword wildly.
Jax waited until the commander was right under a burning support beam. He kicked the weakened post.
The entire section collapsed.
The commander disappeared under burning debris with a wet crunch.
Silence finally fell over the burning camp.
Jax stepped out of the smoke, breathing steady. He started looting everything useful—weapons, hides, mana crystals, coins—and then crouched by the commander’s crushed body.
A faint glow caught his eye under the rubble. He dug it out.
It was the sword. Long, black-veined, pulsing like it had a heartbeat.
The moment his fingers closed around the hilt, a new blue box appeared.
[Barbara has bonded to you.]
[Requirement: Level 5 to equip and use]
[Skill: Vein Steal unlocked.]
[Locked Skill: Mana-Vein Sight – Unlocks at Level 50]
[Locked Skill: Vein Slash (AOE) – Unlocks at Level 100]
[System Notification]
[You are now Level 8]
[Obtained: +30 Stat Points, +6 Skill Points (Unallocated)]
Jax stared at the sword for a long second, then smirked under the firelight.
“Well, would you look at that.”
