We shouldn’t have gone close to the mechanical tower.

  Sean’s party was in complete disarray. Their merry band of ten players was shattered under the relentless pursuit of countless shadowy creatures. They should have heeded the warning that the game had given them — not to approach the mechanical tower even out of curiosity.

  Patrick was the first to disappear from the group. He vanished when a strange mist suddenly enveloped the whole group. Shortly after, the shadowy creatures encircled them from all directions, causing the remaining members to splinter. Chicken had even died protecting him from the attack of the shadowy creatures. That guy had sacrificed his life for him twice in a row!

  “Keep moving! Our loot is too valuable for us to die here! If we die, Chicken and the other’s sacrifice would have been for nothing,” Sean urged as he desperately carried strange rainbow-colored fruits with him. According to the official website wiki, these magical fruits were called “Fragrant Rainbow Fruit,” and they were worth thousands of merit points. Knowing this, his remaining party members — Prominence, Storm, Butterfly, and Scarlet — who were still with him, kept running through the strange, ancient forest and tried to protect him.

  He didn’t know whether it was his luck that was too bad or something, but he couldn’t activate the key that had brought them all into this pocket dimension. He thought that they should come back to the place where they had first entered this pocket dimension.

  Suddenly, the shadowy creatures launched another attack. Prominence barely dodged a swipe from one of the creatures, its claws narrowly missing his face. “Crap, crap, crap! We can’t keep running like this! They’re gaining on us!” he shouted, frantically shooting spells at the shadowy creatures. The guy was probably scared of dying and losing his magic staff over losing his life…

  At any rate, the group’s mana reserves were running low. Even Butterfly, the strongest of them all, was injured. Storm, wielding his pair of cutlasses, managed to fend off a few of the creatures along with Scarlet, but physical attacks were ineffective against these enemies.

  “Kuro, we need to find a place to hide, or we’re done for!” Storm yelled.

  In their frantic escape, they didn’t notice the cliff wall until it was too late!

  “No! It’s a dead end!” Sean, leading the group, couldn’t stop in time and tried to put his free hand against the wall to stop his momentum. But as he was about to touch the cliff wall, something unexpected happened. The cliff wall shimmered for a moment, and he was sucked through it as if there was nothing. One by one, his friends were also pulled along.

  In the darkness and still moving fast from their momentum, Sean and the others tumbled down a hidden passageway, the world spinning around them. The fall seemed to last forever until they finally landed with a thud in a strange place. The air was thick with dust, and the area was illuminated by mana torches and lamps.

  Sean groaned and pushed himself up, looking around. “Is everyone okay?” Luckily, the magical fruits weren’t destroyed in the fall and were only scattered around, which he quickly picked up and stored in his bag; previously, he had no time to do this.

  “I’m fine!” Storm exclaimed, breathing heavily. “But wh-where the fuck are we?”

  “No, guys,” Prominence interrupted, “Are they still chasing us?”

  “No, I don’t think so…” Butterfly confirmed, to which Scarlet nodded in agreement.

  As their eyes adjusted to the dim light, they saw that they were in a large, ancient, dilapidated hall. The walls were covered in cryptic runes and faded murals depicting scenes of a cloaked figure battling against large armies and monsters. In the center of the room stood a stone pedestal with a shimmering crystal embedded in it.

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  “This… this must be a ruin…” Sean whispered in awe. “It seems we’ve stumbled upon something incredible!” Maybe this is the reason the creatures stop chasing us…

  He then approached the pedestal cautiously, and the others quickly followed him—

  “What? What’s going on?” someone exclaimed.

  Sean looked back and found that the others were rooted in place, unable to move their legs.

  “What happened to you guys?” he asked.

  “We can’t follow you. Ugh!” Prominence, the closest to him, was brought to his knee. It looked as though something pressured him down.

  “It… it feels like a strange force is stopping us in place.” Even Butterfly was unable to move an inch.

  “Y-Yeah.”

  Through gritted teeth, Storm hypothesized, “I think this is a restricted area, and only a certain individual that meets the criteria is able to advance… You know, like those trial chambers or whatnot.”

  But why?

  Was the shimmering crystal embedded on the stone pedestal the key to something? Maybe even their way out of this place?

  There was only one way to find out.

  Determined, Sean headed toward the pedestal and reached it in no time. There, he saw strange writings etched into the stone which he couldn’t understand. No matter though. Since he was already here, he might as well straightened his hand toward the crystal. But then, it began to absorb the light around him and envelop the room in darkness. The moment his fingers made contact, a surge of chaotic mana coursed through his body, and his vision went black.

  In an instant, Sean found himself in a vast, dark void. Before him stood the spectral figure of a cloaked man, radiating immense power. Just looking at the figure’s glowing eyes caused his body to freeze and his head to go black. Soon, his voice echoed in Sean’s mind.

  “For passing my trial, you have been chosen,” the figure intoned. “I am Tharion, a fallen dark Magus of ancient times. If you are willing to exact my vengeance, I will grant you my inheritance.”

  “Vengeance?” Sean questioned, barely managing a word.

  “It is as what is written on the pedestal,” the man explained.

  Those strange writings? Sean raised his eyebrows. Obviously, he had no way to decipher what was inscribed on the pedestal. However, his experience as a veteran gamer told him to accept the offer. He adopted the philosophy of “Do now, think later.” Besides, the excitement of uncovering a hidden plot and potentially gaining a hidden class was too alluring to resist. There was no way he would waste this chance!

  “I accept!” The second those words escaped his mouth, it felt as though his very soul was branded with something, a binding force warning him of terrible consequences should he break his promise. Whoa, this sensation feels so realistic! But wait, where’s the mission pop-up?

  “Through this crystal, I bestow upon you my knowledge and power,” the cloaked figure continued. “You may use it as you will, so long you keep your promise…”

  Images and symbols flashed before Sean’s eyes, overwhelming his senses. Unknown magic knowledge and spell models poured into his mind like water bursting through a dam, expanding his understanding of magic by leaps and bounds. He could feel Tharion’s life experiences — everything — seeping into his consciousness.

  The transfer of knowledge was painful. Sean’s mind strained to absorb the vast influx of information, and his body trembled under the pressure. Just as he felt he could take no more, the vision faded, and he was thrust back into the dilapidated hall. Before he could process what was going on, he collapsed to the ground, unconscious. The last thing he heard before succumbing to darkness was the concerned voices of his friends calling his name and “connection interrupted” alert.

  When he regained consciousness, he found himself back in his room in the real world inside the gaming capsule. In haste, he tried to access the game again anxiously—

  Magus Academy Online

  Connection Cooldown:

  8:27:51

  He was met with a notification of cooldown.

  “What?!” He couldn’t believe it. While he had never died in the game, he knew what the resurrection cooldown period looked like, and this was definitely not it. What the fuck was going on?!

  Just as his mind swirled in confusion, he realized that he could take this chance to inform his party members from here and even made a post detailing his experience in the pocket dimension. Furthermore, he was in the midst of streaming when he lost consciousness, so he had to check on that. With that thought, he rushed to his computer.