Lucas didn't sleep. The weight of Rourke's ultimatum pressed down on him like the dome itself. He spent the night mentally running through his pathetic options, each one ending in ruin. Saying yes felt like losing. Saying no felt like suicide.
As the sickly dawn light filtered through the energy field, Kai slipped over from his tent, holding two steaming cups of something that smelled vaguely like bark.
"Word is you got the offer," Kai said, handing Lucas a cup. "And that you didn't jump at it. Smart. Or stupid. Hard to tell yet."
"I need options," Lucas said, taking the bitter drink. "I need something they want but can't just take."
Kai sipped his brew. "Rourke's power is built on three things: manpower, information, and gear. You can't compete on manpower. Information… maybe. But gear?" He nodded toward the Obelisk. "The high-end stuff doesn't come from the shop. It comes from dungeons."
"Dungeons?"
"Areas the System has transformed. High monster density, better loot tables, environmental hazards. The Vanguard has been mapping them. There's one nearby they haven't cracked yet. Too risky for a full assault, not worth the casualties for the *potential* reward." Kai's eyes gleamed. "But for a small, specialized team… say, a man who can turn the local monsters into an escort… it might be manageable."
Lucas's pulse quickened. "Where?"
"Old city archives. Three blocks outside the dome, west side. The System tag calls it '[The Hall of Corrupted Records].' It's full of 'Inkling' and 'Manuscript Fiend' type mobs. Paper and ink monsters. Rourke's heavy-armor brutes get bogged down, blinded, their weapons are ineffective. But something with area control or… specialized minions… might fare better."
Paper monsters. Lucas looked at Scribbles, the Tome-Hound, who was pretending to be a normal book. A monster made of paper and knowledge might have advantages there.
"What's the prize?"
"Rumor is a 'Codex'-type item at the core. Something that can teach skills or upgrade classes. Rourke wants it badly. If you walked in there and came out with it…" Kai shrugged. "Suddenly you're not a recruit. You're a competitor with leverage. Or a very valuable asset they can't afford to bully."
It was a huge risk. It was exactly the kind of reckless, against-the-odds play he'd spent his life doing in games. But this wasn't a game.
"I need a healer," Lucas said. "Eleanor. But I can't ask her to—"
"You don't have to," Eleanor's voice came from the tent flap. She stepped out, her face set with a determination Lucas hadn't seen before. "I heard. I'm going."
"Grandma, no!" Mark emerged, panicked.
"I'm not a child to be protected, Mark," she said firmly. "I am a [Caretaker]. My purpose is to preserve life. Sitting here waiting to be absorbed into a warlord's faction does not preserve our lives. It just postpones the decision." She looked at Lucas. "I trust your… leadership. And my skill is small, but it is real. I will help."
Lucas felt a surge of something that wasn't fear. It was the beginnings of a plan. A terrible, likely fatal plan.
"Okay," he said. "We go. Tonight, after last rations, when movement is less noticeable. Just us. Mem, Volt, Scribbles, Eleanor, and me. Mark, you stay here. Guard the plot. If we're not back by morning… use the map. Try to survive."
Mark looked like he wanted to argue, but the grim acceptance on his uncle's face silenced him.
The day crawled by. Lucas used his few Credits to buy two more Basic Healing Salves from the shop, putting him back at zero. He sharpened his knife. He checked Volt's components. He fed Scribbles a page from an old manual (the Tome-Hound ate it with a sound like rustling appreciation).
When dusk settled and the dome's light cast long, blue shadows, they moved. Slipping out of the Safe Zone was easier than getting in. A distracted guard at a smaller post, a gap in the patrol schedule Kai had conveniently mentioned—they were through the energy field and back into the silent, dead city in minutes.
The Archive building was a grand, stone structure now overgrown with pulsating, vine-like scripts that glowed with soft purple light. The double doors were gone. The entrance was a maw of darkness.
[You have entered: The Hall of Corrupted Records - Tier 1 Dungeon.]
[Objective: Survive. Loot the core.]
[Warning: Knowledge-based hazards detected.]
They stepped inside. The air was dry and smelled of dust and ozone. The grand hall was a chaos of floating, torn pages that swirled like agitated birds. Bookshelves had come alive, twisting into wooden, grasping hands.
From the swirling paper, shapes coalesced. Humanoid figures made of stacked, shifting pages, with eyes of dripping black ink. [Manuscript Fiends. Level 3].
Volt surged forward, but its [Electro-Jolt] just made the paper creatures smoke and flutter, doing little damage. Mem's needle thrusts tore through them, but they reformed quickly.
Scribbles, however, trembled on Lucas's back. Then it hopped down and let out a low, resonant *hum*. The floating pages nearby slowed, then began to orbit the Tome-Hound. The Manuscript Fiends hesitated, their ink-eyes shifting toward Scribbles with something like confusion.
[Thrall Skill Evolution Detected!]
[Scribbles is exerting domain over lesser paper-based entities!]
[Area Effect: [Quiet the Pages] - Reduces aggression and speed of paper-based monsters in a small radius.]
"That's it!" Lucas shouted. "Scribbles, lead the way! Volt, guard Scribbles! Mem, protect Eleanor! We push through!"
They became a moving bubble of calm in the storm of paper. Fiends approached but slowed, milling around them. Deeper they went, into archives where the books wept ink that pooled like tar pits, and statues of scholars had animated, hurling fragments of slate.
They fought in short, brutal engagements when Scribbles's aura wasn't enough. Eleanor's [Minor Mend] sealed paper cuts that somehow bled real blood. Volt used its body as a physical shield. Mem was a whirlwind of precise destruction.
Finally, they reached the central chamber—the Reference Desk. There, floating above the main counter, was the core. It was a book, bound in cracked leather, but it was *alive*. Pages turned on their own. Ink swirled inside a glass dome on its cover. This was no monster. It was a [Dungeon Core].
And guarding it was the boss. A massive, serpentine creature made of woven bookbinding cords, with a head that was a screaming, open encyclopedia. [The Final Edition - Level 5 Dungeon Guardian].
It saw them and let out a silent roar of swirling paper.
"We just need the core!" Lucas yelled. "Mem, Volt, distract it! Eleanor, be ready! Scribbles… with me!"
While his Thralls engaged the massive book-snake, Lucas ran along the edge of the room, Scribbles at his heels. The core floated, just out of reach.
The Guardian swung its massive cord-body, smashing Mem into a shelf. Volt latched onto it, delivering shocks that made it spasm.
Lucas climbed onto the reference desk. He jumped, his fingers brushing the leather cover of the core.
He missed.
He fell, landing hard. The Guardian turned, ignoring Mem and Volt, its blank paper eyes fixed on him.
It lunged.
"Lucas, catch!" Eleanor cried.
Not a heal. She threw something. His [Scavenger's Eye] flashed. The butane lighter.
He caught it, flicked it open as the massive paper maw descended, and held the flame up.
The Guardian recoiled, hissing like a thousand tearing pages. Fire. Of course.
"Volt! Now! Full power to the core's glass!"
Volt disengaged and unleashed its entire remaining energy in a sustained [Electro-Jolt] not at the monster, but at the glass dome on the book-core.
The glass, superheated from the inside, cracked with a sound like a gunshot.
Lucas jumped again. This time, his hand closed around the burning-hot core.
[Critical Objective Complete!]
[Dungeon Core Acquired: [Codex of Subjugated Will].]
[The Hall of Corrupted Records is now neutralized.]
The massive Guardian dissolved into a shower of harmless confetti.
They stood panting in the sudden quiet, covered in paper cuts and ink. Lucas held the pulsing, warm Codex in his hands.
They had done it. They had a bargaining chip. And Lucas had a notification blinking urgently.
[Unique Item Synergy Detected: [Codex of Subjugated Will] + Class: [Chainlord] = Evolution Path Unlocked.]
[Return to a place of safety to integrate.]
He looked at his exhausted, bleeding party. They had a way out.
Now they just had to make it back to the cage.