The forgotten alcove smelled of dust, old stone, and the faint metallic tang of dried blood. Kael Voss sat with his back against the crumbling altar, every breath still pulling at the ugly scar across his chest. The Shadow Drake's distant roars had long since faded, replaced by the occasional skitter of lesser monsters in the tunnels.
He stared at his trembling hands, the faint gray light from his status window casting harsh shadows while another loading bar crawled across his vision.
'... Level 4. Four measly levels earned from killing rats while bleeding out. Six months in this world and the best I can do is scrape by like a tutorial mob. Back on Earth I at least had coffee while grinding spreadsheets. Here even my power-ups come with loading screens...'
The system had been mostly silent while his body knit itself back together in that painful, inefficient way only legacy code allowed. No flashy healing. Just slow, burning regeneration that left him weak but standing.
[Health regeneration… 67%… 84%… 100% complete.]
He pulled up the updated screen, watching the text appear line by line with its usual frustrating delay.
Name: Kael Voss
Level: 4
Class: None
Title: [Fallen Heir]
Stats:
STR: 5 AGI: 5 VIT: 4 INT: 8 LUK: 4
Skills:
Strike (Basic) – Rank F
Analyze (Deprecated) – Stabilized version
Override Protocol Alpha (Cooldown: 19 hours remaining)
Echo Strike (Legacy – Fragment) – Your next basic attack echoes up to 3 times. Diminishing returns. May cause minor desync in nearby modern systems.
A new line finally loaded after a long pause.
[Side Quest Generated: Map the Forgotten Layers]
[Loading quest details… 31%… 58%… 92%…]
Description: The upper floors belong to the new world. Deeper down, pieces of the old code still linger. Find them before the Spire's guardians notice an unauthorized legacy user.
Reward: Potential skill fusion or stat recovery boost.
Failure: Permanent soul instability if core fragments reject you.
Kael pushed himself to his feet, wincing as fresh pain lanced through his scar.
"They're probably back at the keep by now," he muttered, voice rough. "Telling Father how bravely the glitch died. How my sacrifice let them claim the Drake's core. Six months of being the family disappointment, and they finally got their wish."
He tested Echo Strike on a nearby loose stone. His fist connected once — then echoed twice more after the usual delay. The stone cracked on the third hit. Not impressive, but the ripple felt satisfying.
'... Four levels from rats and spite. It's a start. Better than being level 1 trash they left to die...'
He chose a downward-sloping tunnel that Analyze finally marked after its slow scan.
[Analyze activated… Loading terrain data… 44%… 71%… complete.]
[Safe-ish path detected. Proceed with caution.]
The deeper he went, the older the stonework became. Runes on the walls flickered with faint gray light when he passed, almost recognizing him.
Hours blurred. He killed what crossed his path — more shadow rats, crystal spiders, a lone tendril horror. Each kill added stingy, glitchy experience that loaded slowly.
[Experience gained… Loading allocation… 39%… 76%…]
Level remains 4. (Still grinding, kid.)
At one point a larger guardian — a stone golem etched with modern Nexus seals — blocked a narrow bridge. Kael triggered Override Protocol Alpha. The command took its time.
[Override Protocol Alpha activating… Loading rollback… 28%… 65%… 100%]
For five seconds the golem's armor skill flickered out. Kael slipped past and landed a full Echo Strike combo on its exposed core. The echoes cracked the stone and sent the guardian tumbling into the abyss.
He collapsed on the far side, breathing hard.
'... Five seconds of their perfect world failing. My favorite number. Even if my system celebrates like it's buffering a YouTube video on 56k...'
The system pinged after its usual delay.
[Echo Strike improved. Echoes now reach 4.]
[New Passive: Code Memory]
Effect: Spending time near legacy ruins increases skill comprehension speed. Warning: May attract attention.**
Kael gave a tired smile. "At least you're honest about the risks."
Deeper still, the tunnel opened into a vast buried chamber. Massive pillars rose into darkness, covered in primordial syntax that glowed softly. In the center stood a shattered pedestal with a cracked orb pulsing gray energy.
Kael approached. Analyze loaded slowly.
[Legacy Core Fragment – Damaged.]
[Integration risk: High.]
He reached out anyway.
Pain exploded behind his eyes as memories loaded in stuttering flashes. A cold voice echoed after a long pause.
"You carry the discarded seed. Will you let it grow?"
Kael gritted his teeth. "I didn't survive four levels of rats just to quit."
The orb shattered. Code threads sank into his chest. The scar burned, then settled.
[Legacy Core Fragment absorbed.]
New Skill Unlocked: Fracture Pulse (Active – Legacy)
Description: Short-range pulse that corrupts nearby modern skills by 40% for 8 seconds. Cost: 25% health. Cooldown: 48 hours.
Kael dropped to one knee, head throbbing but power humming under his skin.
"Fracture Pulse. Not balanced… but mine."
He rested, eating scavenged rations while the system stayed quiet except for occasional slow updates.
Then footsteps. Human. Careful.
Kael hid behind a pillar as his system began loading a warning.
A lone woman emerged — tall, patched armor, dented greatsword, short dark hair, burn scars on her face. Her v4.7 status flickered with cracks.
Name: Ryn
Level: 47
Class: [Iron Warden]
Title: [Exiled Failure]
She spotted the blood trail and stopped dead. "Hey. Whoever's hiding back there, I can hear you. Come out slow. I've had a really shitty week and my patience is gone."
Kael stepped out slowly, hands raised, trying not to look too threatening despite the blood. "Easy. I'm not looking for a fight. Name's Kael. You don't look like you're having the best day either."
Ryn kept her sword ready, eyes flicking over his wounds and the weird gray glow around him. "You're bleeding like a stuck pig, kid. And that system signature… it's old. Wrong. Like the kind the guilds scream about in the bad zones. What the hell are you doing this deep? Most people don't wander down here unless they're already half-dead or stupid."
Kael leaned against the pillar, trying to catch his breath. "Half-dead sounds about right. My own brother put a blade in my back a few days ago. Left me for the monsters so the rest of them could play hero and bring back some fancy core. This slow, outdated system is the only reason I'm still breathing. Used to be the third son of House Voss — until they decided I was better off dead."
Ryn lowered her sword a little, but not all the way. She let out a short, tired laugh. "Voss. Yeah, I heard some runners talking about a 'heroic sacrifice' up top. Funny how the weak one always ends up conveniently gone. Me? Got kicked from my party last week when my tank skills started glitching out during a raid. They said it was bad luck, told me to fix my attitude. I told them where they could shove their perfect system. Been down here scraping by ever since. Figured dying alone was better than crawling back begging for another chance."
She glanced at the gray glow around him, then rubbed her own temple where her interface probably itched. "That thing in your head is making my screen itch like crazy… but some of my old bugs feel quieter now. It's weird. Almost like it's… fixing stuff. What are you, really? Some kind of cursed relic walking around?"
Kael gave a small, exhausted shrug, keeping his tone honest. "Pretty much a glitch they couldn't delete properly. I've got old code that breaks their shiny new rules — even if it loads slower than a snail on vacation. Look, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm not asking for trust right away. You've got experience and a sword arm I don't. I've got something that actually messes with their perfect system. If you're tired of the new system throwing you away like yesterday's trash… maybe we stop dying solo. What do you say? Deal?"
Ryn stared at his offered hand for a long moment, jaw tight, clearly weighing her options. She let out a heavy sigh. "You know what? Screw it. I've got nothing left up there anyway. My old party already wrote me off, and wandering these ruins alone is just a slower way to die. At least with you I might actually have a chance to hit back at the bastards who screwed me over. Fine. Deal."
She gripped his hand firmly, her palm calloused and strong. "But if this turns out to be some kind of trap or you're feeding me pretty lies, this sword goes straight through you. No hard feelings."
Kael nodded, a bit of the weight in his chest easing for the first time since the betrayal. "Fair enough. No hard feelings."
'... One ally. One broken tank who actually gets it. Four levels and one friend. Not an army yet, but enough to start rewriting their story... even if my system still lags on the victory screen.'
As they moved deeper together, the ruins seemed to hum faintly — as if the old code approved, after its usual delay.
____________________________________
Far above, in Voss Keep, Baron Harlan listened to the report. Darius's arm was bandaged. Lira's shadows flickered with delays. Elara stood beside Darius, alliance forming.
"The glitch died well," Darius said smoothly.
The Baron nodded, but his eyes lingered on faint errors in the guild logs — small desyncs that loaded like warnings.
Deep below, Kael and Ryn reached a sealed door covered in primordial runes. Fracture Pulse pulsed warningly in Kael's mind after its usual slow activation.
Behind it, something ancient stirred.
A single gray notification slipped into Elara's status window for half a second before lagging away:
[Deprecated Entity still active. Error persistence detected.]
Kael placed his hand on the door. "They think the story ended with my death."
He glanced at Ryn. "You ready for this? It's probably going to get ugly."
Ryn hefted her sword with a grim smile. "Ugly is all I've got left. Lead the way, glitch. Let's go make them regret it."
The door groaned open, the sound echoing like the system finally loading the next stage.