They all lay beside a sputtering fire, the air tense and restless — a group teetering on the edge of fear. They didn't know what was going to be beyond the third dungeon.
"Elise," Ronan said, trying to break the awkward silence. "What do you think is going to be behind this door? Monsters? Traps?" Ronan sat up, gave a quick nod to the group. "Hopefully, it's something easy, like a maze."
Elise glanced at him, then back at the fire. She sat there, hugging her knees. "I don't know," she mumbled. "The first door were traps. The second had monsters. This place has no pattern besides having things that want to kill us. It scares me sometimes."
Callum nudged Ronan before he could continue speaking. "Ay, at least we got each other." Callum grinned, with food stuck to his white beard.
Lydia threw a stick into the fire and jumped up. "If the first door had traps, and the second had monsters, we might be able to find out what the third will have." Her eyes quickly glared at the door. "Traps, monsters, ah shit. Never mind, I don't think we can really guess what is beyond the third door."
Jean looked at each of them in turn. "I wonder what Erik is doing right now." The group went silent again. "Hey, come on, guys, he might have tried to blame us, but..." Jean stopped for a second but didn't finish talking.
No one argued, they all had blank stares when Jean talked about Erik.
They didn't know what was beyond the third door. None of them did. But they knew that they had each other, they were walking into it together.
As the time came, they opened the third door.
The third dungeon was different the moment they stepped inside.
There were no monsters like the jungle, nothing lethal like the labyrinth, just... silent. The air was dry, yet it was so foggy. A crimson light bled through the thick fog. The terrain reminded Jean of a ruined temple he had learned about in school. Faded carvings and crumbling statues, the temple looked as if it was half swallowed by the earth.
They walked quietly along the stone path. No one spoke. Ronan didn't even give any sarcastic jabs. The silence seemed as if it had infected all of them.
Jean walked near the back of the group, lost in his thoughts. He felt as if he knew this place. It seemed as if he had seen this temple before. Jean squinted at the carvings. Egyptians? No—too rounded. Mayans? Close. Aztecs. It had to be Aztec.
The group stopped to rest near what looked like the remains of an altar. Elise and Callum knelt beside it to check their supplies, while Ronan looked for anything useful.
Jean felt restless. He hated how used to fear he was becoming. He began to wander a little farther, just to think.
He must've taken too many wrong turns.
When he looked up... the others were gone.
"Hello?" he yelled as he retraced his steps. No response. The temple looked the same from every direction he looked at. It was as if the place was rearranging itself, trying to trap him.
"Of course," he scoffed, his heart raced. "Of course, just when Ronan talks about mazes, it has to be a maze."
When he tried to retrace his steps, nothing changed. He had no chance to escape. There were no landmarks he could use.
His eyes caught something strange.
An odd hole in the ground. Small, yet barely wide enough for an arm to reach into. It wasn't like the rest of the temple—all rocks—yet there was metal lining the edge. He peered into the hole. Something glowing.
A faint blue light was pulsing at the bottom. It seemed as if an object was half-buried. The object looked as if it was breathing.
He reached in.
His fingers barely brushed against the object—and pain shot through his arm.
The hole clamped shut on his arm like a bear trap.
Jean screamed, jumping backward. It was locked tight onto his forearm. Shit! As it let go of his arm, he slowly fell to the ground. He fainted.
As he woke up, a blue light appeared from his forearm. Something burrowed into his skin. His sleeve had been torn. A metal plate had been embedded into his flesh. It wasn't bleeding, nor was it swollen. It looked as if it was applied very precisely.
Then—text appeared above his vision.
[Initializing System…][User: Jean][Vitals: Stable][Health: 100/100 | Stamina: 48/50][Attributes: Strength - 1 | Speed - 1 | Perception - 1][Upgrade Points: 0]
His eyes darted from side to side, but the glowing interface followed. He blinked, but it didn't go away.
[Upgrades available upon level increase.][Monitor health and stamina in real-time.][Abilities unlock with progression.]
"What the hell..." he said faintly.
Once he spoke, pain shot through his body. It felt as if a hammer had struck his head. Then everything went black.
Jean awoke to a strong smell of disinfectant and soft humming machines.
A hospital?
He pushed himself up slowly. White walls, cold tile floor. Pale fluorescent lights buzzing above. The kind of place that felt creepy.
As he wandered the hallway, he peeked through every door's window. Every door he tried was locked. The majority of the windows were covered in thick, fogged glass.
Eventually, he found a door slightly ajar. Inside was a bed.
Someone lay down flat on the bed.
Jean pushed the door open slowly. He put one foot in front of the other. The person's body was hazy. The face felt impossibly blurred. It felt as if his mind refused to register her face.
"Hello?" he asked.
No response.
He moved closer. The blurred face grew more intense. His eyes began to ache. He reached out to nudge the figure. His fingers inches from the figure's shoulder—
The figure's head snapped at him.
The blurry face had jumped towards him. It screamed — a shrill, inhuman wail that drilled into his ears.
Jean jumped back and screamed—
He jolted awake.
His heart felt as if it wanted to jump out of his chest.
His group circled around him.
"Jean!" Lydia yelled, grabbing his shoulder. "Are you okay? You just started shaking!"
Jean didn't speak. His eyes locked onto the metal plate in his arm.
He began to claw at it.
"Get it out," he screamed. "Please—get it off me!"
Blood welled up as his nails dug into his flesh, trying to tear the metal loose. It didn't move, not even a little.
"Jean, stop!" Callum shouted. He reached to grab Jean's arms, restraining him.
Elise knelt beside him, grabbing some cloth she had torn off. "You're bleeding—Jean, what the hell happened?!"
"How the hell did you get that stuck inside your arm?" Lydia asked, as Elise tried to clean his cuts.
As they tended to him, he stared at the glowing numbers.
[Health: 92/100][Stamina: 45/60]
From afar, Ronan had been scouting ahead when he noticed everyone huddled around Jean. "Hey, what's up? I think I found the... oh hell no!" He glanced at Jean's arm, almost puking in the process.
Everyone looked at the metal plate embedded in Jean's arm as if it was a ticking bomb.
Elise asked, "So what latched onto your arm?" Everyone looked at Jean with a questioned look.
"I... I found a hole," Jean stuttered. "There was something glowing inside... It grabbed me. Then something like a game HUD appeared."
"What's a game HUD?" Callum asked, obviously too old to know.
"Can we try to pry it off?" Elise questioned, as she wrapped cloth around his bloody arm.
"We don't know how deep it goes. it could be next to a vein—pulling it out might kill him.
Silence settled over them.
Ronan stood up and scanned the area. "Well, let's go. I think I found the door. I don't care what you guys do, but this place is creepy. I don't want to stay here any longer."
The group nodded, starting their journey through the ruins. After several minutes, they were met with the familiar black door.
They stepped through.
On the other side, the crimson sky was gone. The world had looked normal again.
Conversations picked up soon after.
"I know Callum might not understand, but you guys probably will," Jean said, as he showed the metal plate. "A small screen appeared right before my eyes. It says my health, endurance, and things like that."
"Like the ones in MMORPGs?" Elise asked.
"Yep, you got the idea down. This thing told me that when I level up, I can get stronger, but I don't know how to. This thing might make this place turn into more of a game."
They all had a basic understanding of the plate. All they wondered was how strong could Jean become with it. Superhuman? Peak athlete? Or godly strength? The interface hummed quietly, offering whispers of strength. Of power. Of something more than human.
And yet... Jean had never felt more human. Fragile like glass. So breakable.
Jean stared blankly at the sky while everyone went on their merry way.
Whatever was waiting ahead, it obviously wasn't something a normal human could survive. Why would they give him this device if they were strong enough?
Whatever was waiting ahead, he knew one thing. The world wanted them to change.
And it started... with him.