Jacob made one final stop before heading to the field.
The blacksmith handed over a reinforced leather cap with iron plates riveted to the sides and brow.
It was a sturdy, practical piece of work that fit snugly over his ears. As Jacob walked the remaining distance toward the gate, he kept his etching tool in hand.
He worked with a steady rhythm, carving a compact version of the strengthening rune with the linking mechanism into the interior iron band.
He did not need a complex lattice, he simply wanted the metal to hold its shape if something heavy struck his head and for it to be capable of dispersing the force into the heavy coat.
By the time the gate came into view, the runes were already set, and the helm was on his head. The gate itself stood in the shallow dip of a field that should have been like any other.
From a distance, it could have passed for a strange bit of broken ruin with two rough stone pillars jutting from the earth at an angle, leaning together at the top but never quite touching.
Only when Jacob got close enough to see the air between them did it stop looking like anything people had made.
The space shimmered.
Not like heat above a fire or a mirage on a road. This shimmer felt thicker, as if there were a skin stretched between the stones and light was being forced through it.
His armor hummed faintly against his skin.
Carlos waited beside the gate with his party. The dwarf had his shield strapped on and an axe at his hip.
The elf had traded the wide-brimmed hat for a tighter hood, wand visible in a loop at her belt. Tamsin had fewer knives on display, which only made Jacob more certain he had more of them hidden.
Carlos watched Jacob approach, eyes checking his gear with a professional sort of approval.
"Good," he said. "You didn't decide to show up in just a shirt and smile."
"I like breathing," Jacob said.
The dwarf snorted.
Carlos jerked his chin at the stones.
"F-rank gates don't look like much from the road," Carlos said as he gestured toward the leaning stones. "That lack of presence is what gets people killed. They assume that just because the entrance is narrow, the threats inside are no more dangerous than a stray dog or a hungry boar."
"Is it actually worse?" Jacob asked.
Carlos's expression went flat. "It can be. We are going to treat it like a death trap until we prove otherwise."
He gathered the group with a sharp look. The dwarf, the elf, Tamsin, and Jacob formed a loose half-circle with the shimmering threshold at their backs.
"Pay attention," Carlos said. "This is our last conversation before we step through, and I don't want any surprises to cut this trip short before it even really starts."
He focused on Jacob. "You are at the rear. It is a position of responsibility, not a slight against your skill. You will observe our movements, obey every command instantly, keep your feet moving, and stay alert. Don't go wandering off for any reason. If a monster slips past us, your only priority is staying alive. Use the sword and the armor you built, but don't go looking for glory."
"If you end up on the ground," Carlos added, "you tuck your chin and curl into a ball. Use that brigandine as a shell. You shout for help, keep your limbs tucked, stay low, and wait for us to clear the path. Do not try to stand up while metal is still flying around."
"I'll be smart baggage," Jacob said, nodding toward Tamsin.
The gnome offered a thin smirk. "There is a massive difference between smart baggage and a liability. Aim for the first one."
The elf spoke for the first time that morning, her voice smooth like silk.
"If something happens to Carlos, you listen to me or to Tamsin," she said. "No arguing, and no asking why. Just move."
"Understood," Jacob said.
Carlos studied his face for a moment, then nodded slowly.
He stepped back and rolled his shoulders.
"All right. The order is the same as last time. Me in front, shield wall behind, glass and tricks in the middle, scout and new baggage in the rear. We go in slowly. No showing off on the first floor. Now lets move."
The dwarf and elf went ahead of him, boots crunching the frost as they lined up. Tamsin fell in beside Jacob.
"First time?" the gnome asked quietly.
"Through a gate?" Jacob said. "Yes."
"Remember to breathe," Tamsin said. "People forget and then blame the air."
Jacob almost laughed.
They walked together toward the pillars.
Every step closer made the pressure he had felt the night before grow sharper. The world felt thicker here, like the air had been compressed.
His skin itched under the coat. The links to his armor and sword pulsed in the back of his mind, a reassurance in the weirdness of the field of the gate.
Carlos passed between the stones without slowing. The shimmer swallowed him like water swallowing a thrown rock. The dwarf followed, then the elf.
Tamsin glanced at Jacob.
"Do not stop," he said. "Stopping in the middle is worse."
Jacob nodded, throat dry.
Jacob took a final lungful of the freezing morning air and forced himself through the threshold. The transition felt like being crushed by a massive, invisible hand.
The pressure was not painful, but it was absolute, pressing against his ribs and his eyes from every angle at once. Colors bled together into a violent, nameless smear while his inner ear protested the sudden shift.
His boots struck solid earth with a jarring thud, sending a shock up his legs that forced his stomach to settle.
The silence of the void vanished, replaced by the sharp rustle of vegetation moving in the wind. From somewhere far ahead, a rhythmic clicking sound echoed through the air.
Jacob stumbled, his balance returning in fits, and looked down at his feet. He stood in a vast field of blue-tinted grass that reached his waist.
The blades were unusually broad and possessed edges that looked as sharp as a kitchen knife.
He looked back for the exit, but the familiar fields of his village had disappeared. In their place sat an endless expanse of the same blue-tinted grass fading into a gray mist.
The stone pillars remained standing nearby, though they looked as if they had been absorbed by the dungeon itself, their textures matching the dull sky above.
Carlos and the rest of the party stood barely a pace away, each of them adjusting their gear as they acclimated to the change.
The tension Jacob had felt outside had intensified into a focused pressure. It felt as if he were standing inside a giant lung during a held breath.
His armor vibrated against his skin, the runes reacting to the density of the mana in the environment with a physical pulse.
Suddenly, something moved at the edge of his vision. It was not a physical object, but a flicker of script that seemed to hang in the air around his companions.
Geas Exception Logged
Entity: Unregistered human juvenile.
Status: Non-bound.
Location: Within active gate.
Restriction Updated: Discussion of System, Dungeon structure, Skills, and Related Functions permitted in presence of entity while inside this instance.
Carlos blinked, face going still for a second. The dwarf shifted his grip on the shield. The elf grimaced faintly. Tamsin muttered something rude under his breath.
Jacob saw nothing, but he saw their reactions.
"What just happened?" he asked.
Carlos looked at him, then looked away and laughed once, short and disbelieving.
"Of course," he said quietly. "Of course it does this for you."
He ran a hand over his face, then dropped it.
"All right," Carlos said. "Change of rules. In here, we are allowed to tell you the truth."
Jacob frowned.
"The truth about what?"
"The thing behind all this," Carlos said. He gestured at the starting area of the dungeon. "The thing that decides where gates appear, and how strength is distributed throughout the world. The thing that just told us we can talk freely around you as long as we stay inside."
Jacob's heart felt like it skipped a beat.
"You mean there is something that decides that?" he asked.
"Yes," the elf said quietly. "We call it the System."
The word slid into his mind and clicked against a shape that had not quite been there before.
Not a memory, not yet, but the outline of one, like an empty frame waiting for a picture.
"System," Jacob repeated.
The geas did not choke them. There was no cough or choking sensation. The word simply sat in the air between them naturally.
"There," Carlos said. "First secret broken. Dungeons, skills, all of it, they are part of that. Outside the gate, we would nearly bite our tongues trying to say it in front of you."
"Why me?" Jacob asked.
Tamsin gave him a sideways look.
"Good question," he said. "One that I am not keen on answering while we are standing in this tall grass where anything could be hiding."
Carlos nodded.
"Explanations will come in pieces," he said. "First lesson is simple: The System made this place. It tracks what happens in it. It is watching us now, and it likes rules. One of those rules was that children do not get told about it. Inside this gate, for you, that rule has been relaxed, it seems."
Jacob swallowed.
"Because I am with you?"
"Because you are something it wants to keep an eye on," the elf said. "Or because it thinks letting you see this will make its story more interesting."
Carlos offered the elf a brief glance but chose not to respond.
"Keep your eyes on the horizon," he commanded. "We can talk while we move. This floor is the most forgiving place to learn, and there is no reason to linger here." He turned and began wading through the thick blades.
The dwarf stayed at his shoulder with the iron shield held ready. The elf followed them, while Tamsin signaled for Jacob to move and settled into his position at the boy's side.
Quest Updated
Objective: Escort anomaly to dungeon.
Status: Complete.
New Objective: Clear first floor without losing anomaly.
Reward: Upgrade of grade to one skill.
Jacob moved, every sense straining, not knowing of the quest the adventurers were on.
The world felt wrong and right at the same time. Wrong because none of this should exist just outside his village.
Right, because some piece inside him had always suspected there was a pattern behind the strange things adults refused to explain.
"The System," he said again under his breath, tasting the word like iron on his tongue.
The grass parted ahead as the party advanced.
For the first time in his life, Jacob walked toward danger knowing that something unseen was counting every step.
But a forming memory was starting to hint at his previous knowledge of this so-called System.
And unbeknownst to anyone in the dungeon, another system notification popped up where Jacob was still unable to see it.
Hidden Quest Unlocked
Rarity: Unique
Objective: Survive enhanced gate.
Reward: Class Upgrade