Inside his mind, Tiamat stirred as Lin Fang began to walk, boots crunching against gravel as he followed the familiar paths etched into his memory.
"This place…" the Chaos Dragon murmured, its many voices overlapping softly. "It feels real, yet not. Like a world carved from rules rather than time."
Lin Fang didn't answer immediately. He kept walking, eyes scanning the terrain until he finally spotted the dark mouth of a mine nestled between two massive stone ridges.
"Real enough for what I need," he replied at last.
He stepped inside.
The moment he crossed the threshold, the system-issued mana pickaxe materialized in his hand. Lin Fang rolled his shoulders once, then swung.
Clang.
