Richard couldn't stop staring at the message on his screen. The countdown continued advancing relentlessly, as if each passing second pushed him further into the unknown.
[**New mission available**]
[**Objective: Find information about the Book of Ur-Kigal**]
[**Time remaining: 48 hours**]
[**Reward: Access to the First Level of the System**]
The system offered no further details, but after solving the spiral enigma the night before and experiencing that disturbing vision of the terrified scribe, Richard knew he couldn't ignore it. There was something about that name, "Ur-Kigal," that called to him, as if it were a missing piece of a puzzle he didn't know he was assembling.
---
That morning, Richard received an email from Marcus Henshaw with details about the expedition. The archaeological site was located in a remote region of the Middle East, in a desert that seemed as inhospitable as it was mysterious. The email included a list of things he should bring: light but resistant clothing, camping equipment, and any tools he might need to take notes or record findings.
Richard spent the rest of the day preparing. First, he went to a supply store to buy appropriate clothing for the desert: pants made of resistant fabric, long-sleeved shirts to protect from the sun, a wide-brimmed hat, and trekking boots. He also acquired a new backpack, a canteen, and a small first aid kit.
At home, he checked his personal equipment. He packed his laptop, a notebook, pencils, and a digital camera. He also included the book he had found in the library, *"Myths and Lost Kingdoms of Mesopotamia,"* and the portable scanner that Elliot had given him after their meeting at the café. Before closing the backpack, he hesitated for a moment and then took the small stone amulet that Emily had handed him at the door of his apartment that afternoon.
"For protection," she had said, avoiding his gaze. "My grandmother was... superstitious. She said this amulet was special. I know it sounds silly, but if you're going into a desert full of ancient ruins and potential curses..."
Richard had smiled at Emily's concern, but now, holding the amulet between his fingers, he felt a strange sensation of calm. Its smooth, cold surface, marked with a symbol he didn't fully recognize, emitted a subtle vibration that seemed to resonate with the "Knowledge Fragment" he had acquired.
Finally, he printed a map of the region where the archaeological site was located. Although he knew that Marcus and his team would guide him, he wanted to be prepared for any eventuality.
When he finished, he sat on the edge of his bed, looking at the backpack. It was the first time he was leaving the country, let alone for something so important. Excitement and fear mixed in his chest, but he knew he couldn't turn back.
His phone vibrated with an incoming message. It was Jake, with his usual ironic humor:
**Jake:** *Have you found your magic book yet or do we need to organize a rescue team for when you get lost in the desert?*
Followed almost immediately by another from Emily:
**Emily:** *Be careful. Stay in touch whenever you can.*
And finally, Elliot with his pragmatism as always:
**Elliot:** *The portable scanner has a solar panel. I configured the software to automatically record patterns similar to those on your Sumerian tablet. And I bought life insurance in your name. Statistically speaking, archaeological expeditions in remote areas...*
Richard smiled, grateful for his friends' concern, although he had only told them part of the truth. He responded with a group message assuring them that he would be careful and keep them informed.
---
The journey began early the next day. Richard took a taxi to the airport, where he boarded an international flight to a city near the desert. During the flight, he tried to distract himself by reading the book he had packed, but his mind kept returning to the system's message and the mission ahead.
Occasionally, when turning pages that mentioned ancient rituals or particularly intriguing symbols, he felt a slight buzz in his head, as if the fragment of knowledge he had acquired was trying to connect seemingly incongruous information. It was a strange sensation, as if part of his brain was processing data in a language he didn't yet fully understand.
When the plane landed, Richard immediately felt the change in the environment. The heat was suffocating, and the dry air seemed to absorb all the moisture from his skin. At the airport, a jeep driven by a man that Marcus had sent was waiting for him.
The journey in the jeep was long and exhausting. As they ventured deeper into the desert, the landscape became increasingly arid and desolate. Sand dunes extended as far as the eye could see, and the sun shone with an almost blinding intensity.
Richard tried to converse with the driver, but the man was sparing with words. Instead, he spent the time observing the landscape and taking notes in his notebook. He also reviewed the map he had printed, trying to familiarize himself with the region.
During the trip, he had a moment of disorientation when, looking toward some rock formations in the distance, he briefly thought he saw human figures that disappeared when he blinked. These weren't conventional mirages; they appeared to be translucent silhouettes wearing ancient tunics, moving as if the desert he was seeing was, for them, a thriving city.
"Vision of Echoes?" he muttered to himself, remembering one of the abilities the system had mentioned in his "First Level" preview. Was he seeing echoes of the past? The driver didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary.
When they finally arrived at the archaeological camp, the sun was beginning to set, tinting the sky in orange and red tones. Marcus Henshaw greeted him with a firm handshake and a tired smile.
"Richard Wonder, right?" said Marcus. "Welcome to the site. I hope you're ready to work."
The camp was small but functional, with several tents distributed around a central excavation. There was an air of tension in the place, as if everyone was waiting for something to happen.
"Is this where they found the texts?" asked Richard as he followed Marcus to the main tent.
"Yes, but there's something you should know. This place... it's not like other archaeological sites. Some of the workers have reported strange things: tools that disappear, sounds at night, even shadows that seem to move on their own."
Richard felt a chill, but said nothing. Would these "anomalies" be perceptible to him in a different way now that he had begun to interact with the system?
"There's more," continued Marcus, lowering his voice. "Two members of the team had to be evacuated last week. They began to have... episodes. Visions, they said. They talked about ancient figures whispering in lost languages."
That immediately caught Richard's attention. It sounded dangerously similar to what he himself was experiencing, but he couldn't reveal this without appearing suspicious or, worse, mentally unstable.
"What kind of visions?" he asked, trying to maintain a casual tone.
"Nothing coherent. One of them, a brilliant linguist, insisted that he had seen a 'guardian' watching the site from a nearby dune. The other began to write frantically in a language that none of us could identify. When we asked him what he was writing, he said he was 'translating the voices of sand'."
---
That afternoon, Richard began to explore the site, feeling how Emily's amulet seemed to subtly warm against his skin. There was something about the ruins that attracted him, as if an invisible force was guiding him. The structures were imposing, although partially buried in the sand. Broken columns, fragments of tablets, and remnants of inscriptions covered the area, as if the place had been abruptly abandoned thousands of years ago.
With each step he took among the ruins, Richard felt his perception strangely sharpening. The inscriptions on the stones, which for other team members were barely visible or completely indecipherable, began to take on a peculiar meaning for him. It wasn't that he could read them directly, but intuited patterns seemed to form concepts in his mind.
As he walked, Richard noticed a pattern in the inscriptions: a recurring symbol that looked like a spiral surrounded by eyes, similar but not identical to the one on the tablet he had been studying for weeks. He remembered seeing it in the book he had read in the library, where it was mentioned as a symbol of transition between worlds.
And then he understood: it wasn't a unique symbol but a variation. As if it represented the same concept but seen from a different angle, a different perspective of the same phenomenon.
Suddenly, something caught his attention. A tablet partially buried in the sand glowed faintly under the sunlight. Richard knelt down and began to carefully unearth it. The tablet was covered with symbols he didn't recognize, but which seemed strangely familiar.
Upon touching it, he felt a buzzing in his head, as if something was trying to communicate with him. He closed his eyes, and suddenly, he had a vision:
An ancient ritual unfolded before his eyes. Several hooded figures surrounded a stone altar, their faces hidden in shadows. In the center of the altar, a bright light emanated from an object he couldn't identify. The figures murmured words in a language he didn't understand, but which resonated in his mind like an echo.
The vision changed. Now he saw a vast desert, with ruins similar to the ones he was exploring. On the horizon, a hooded figure watched him. Although he couldn't see its face, Richard felt it calling him by name.
Unlike the fragmented vision in the library, this experience was vivid and detailed, as if he were truly present in that moment of the past. He could feel the heat of the ritual fire, smell the burned incense, sense the tension in the air.
When the vision ended, Richard staggered backward, breathing heavily.
"Are you okay?" asked Marcus, who had arrived just in time to see him.
"Yes... I think so," responded Richard, although he wasn't sure if it was true.
Marcus looked at the tablet with interest.
"That tablet... we hadn't seen it before. It seems important."
Richard nodded, still trying to process what he had seen. He noticed that his hand was shaking slightly while holding the tablet, and that Emily's amulet now seemed to vibrate with more intensity, as if responding to the proximity of the ancient artifact.
"There are inscriptions here," he murmured, running his fingers over the surface. "They mention... a guardian. And a realm between worlds."
Marcus looked at him with surprise.
"Can you read them? Our linguists have been trying to decipher these symbols for weeks."
Richard realized his mistake. He shouldn't be able to understand these symbols, not without years of specialized study. And the truth is that he didn't "understand" them in the traditional sense; it was more like a deep intuition, an understanding that seemed to arise directly from that "Fragment of knowledge" he had acquired.
"Not exactly," he improvised. "I mean that the pattern is similar to some references I studied... in the book I found in my university library."
Marcus seemed to accept this explanation, although Richard noticed that he was observing him more carefully than before.
"Take it to the analysis tent," Marcus indicated. "I want to photograph and catalog it properly before nightfall."
---
That night, while reviewing his notes in the tent, the system activated again.
[**Mission completed**]
[**Reward unlocked: Access to the First Level of the System**]
Richard felt his heart race. Before he could process what it meant, a new message appeared on the screen:
[**First Level enabled. Available skills: Inscription Analysis, Vision of Echoes**]
Richard looked at the message, feeling a mixture of amazement and fear. For the first time, the system seemed to be offering him something tangible, something he could use. The mentioned skills explained his recent experiences: the ability to intuit the meaning of ancient inscriptions and the fragmentary visions of the past.
Almost immediately, he felt a subtle but undeniable change in his perception. It was as if a new layer of reality unfolded before him, allowing him to perceive nuances and connections previously invisible. The notes in front of him, the sketches he had made of the inscriptions, everything now seemed connected by invisible threads of meaning.
Emily's amulet, which he had left on his small field table, emitted a weak glow that faded so quickly that Richard wasn't sure he had actually seen it. He took it in his hands and noticed that the symbols engraved on its surface now seemed vaguely familiar, as if they belonged to the same linguistic family as the inscriptions on the tablet.
How had Emily gotten this object? Did she know more than she appeared to?
Outside, the desert wind howled, dragging sand against the tents. The temperature had dropped considerably with the night, but Richard barely noticed it, absorbed in his new perceptions and the questions that emerged in cascade.
He took out his phone to send a message to his friends, but stopped. What could he tell them? "I've unlocked ancient magical abilities and now I can see echoes of the past." It sounded like madness.
Instead, he wrote a simple message:
**Richard:** *Arrived well. The site is fascinating. I found something today that might be related to the book we're looking for.*
As he pressed "send," a notification appeared on his screen:
[**New mission available**]
[**Objective: Locate the Guardian's Chamber**]
[**Time limit: 24 hours**]
[**Reward: Symbol Comprehension Level 1**]
Richard knew this was just the beginning, that each answer obtained would generate new questions. The system, whatever it was, seemed to be guiding him toward something specific. And although part of him felt manipulated, another part—the one that had always sought patterns and hidden meanings—was intrigued beyond all rational caution.
He looked toward the entrance of the tent, toward the desert darkened by night, and wondered what other ancient secrets waited to be discovered among the sand.
And what price he would have to pay to discover them.