"Is this some kind of glitch, or part of an opening event?" Adyr murmured, thoughtfully sifting through the dazzling events unfolding before him, leaning more toward the latter.
"Whatever," he chuckled, having already decided which path to choose.
He had wanted to choose his own path freely, without any manipulation or outside influence. But this newly revealed path felt far too special—ignoring it would have been nothing short of foolish.
And so, without hesitating any further, he gave his answer.
"I choose Primora."
The moment he spoke, all the existing texts vanished, replaced by new ones flashing before his eyes.
[Analyzing character…]
[Character analysis complete.]
[Generating status panel…]
[Status panel created.]
[Name]: Adyr
[Race]: Human
[Path]: Primora
[Evolution Step]: 0
[Physique]: 2
[Will]: 3
[Resilience]: 3
[Sense]: 2
[Energy]: 10 / 10
[Registered Talents]: 0/5
[Sparks]: Complete your first evolution to unlock.
[Sanctuary]: Complete your first evolution to unlock.
[Free Stat Points]: 0
Adyr skimmed through the newly opened status panel, his mind swirling with thoughts, especially how the system knew his name.
But before he could delve deeper into it, a sudden force yanked at him.
Gravity—absent until now—returned with brutal immediacy. Without warning, Adyr began to plummet, falling from what must have been thousands of meters above the ground.
As he accelerated, the pressure of the air slammed against his body, growing harsher with every passing second. The soft breeze he had barely noticed earlier had transformed into a violent gale, clawing at his skin and tearing at his clothes.
The freezing cold of high altitude bit into him, seeping deep into his flesh, numbing his hands and face. Breathing became a struggle as the rushing air battered his lungs, and his eyes stung from the relentless wind tearing at them.
Fuck… He cursed under his breath, feeling every painful detail of the fall.
The brutal realism of the experience made one chilling thought creep into his mind—if the senses were this real, would dying feel real too?
He had died once before.
He knew exactly what it felt like—and it was nothing even remotely close to pleasure.
Still, stubbornly, he kept his eyes open.
He watched as the ground grew larger and larger in his vision, rushing up to meet him.
Despite everything—the pain, the tension, the chaos—he couldn't help but enjoy it.
There was something raw, something breathtakingly beautiful about the fall.
And then came the inevitable—the crash.
THUD!
Adyr blinked in confusion. It wasn't the bone-shattering, flesh-bursting impact he had braced for. Instead, it felt like a mild stumble—no more than tripping and falling onto solid ground.
Slowly, he pushed himself up, first checking his body. Finding no visible wounds or signs of injury, he finally turned his attention to his surroundings.
He quickly realized it was no longer the bright daytime sky he had fallen through. Darkness cloaked the area, and it didn't take him long to notice the jagged stone walls encircling him.
He was inside a cave.
How did I fall here? He thought, frowning as he looked up—only to find solid rock overhead, no hole, no entrance, no explanation for his arrival.
Then something else struck his senses: the smell. A foul mixture of rot, ash, and dampness clung to the air, thick and oppressive.
He glanced down and noticed the ground was coated in a thin layer of black soil.
Faint footprints were scattered across the black soil, so sharp and brittle they could only have been left by bare bone, like the steps of skeletons wandering through the darkness.
"What is this... a skeleton dungeon?" Adyr muttered to himself, drawing on his experience with MMORPGs to make an educated guess.
At that moment, the green text returned to his vision, carrying a new message:
[Talent Recognition: "Observer(Lv1)" confirmed.]
-Talent has been identified based on demonstrated behavior.
-Proceed with registration to the Status Panel?
-Cost: 1 Energy
-Reward: 1 Free Stat Point
Adyr read the system message carefully, running it through his mind before finally saying, "Yes."
Immediately, he felt something invisible within him being siphoned away. The sensation was strange but brief, and once it faded, he found himself wondering how he could view the changes to his status panel.
As if responding to his thoughts, green text appeared in front of him, revealing the updated panel:
[Name]: Adyr
[Race]: Human
[Path]: Primora
[Evolution Step]: 0
[Physique]: 2
[Will]: 3
[Resilience]: 3
[Sense]: 2
[Energy]: 9 / 10
[Registered Talents]: 1/5
[Sparks]: Complete your first evolution to unlock.
[Sanctuary]: Complete your first evolution to unlock.
[Free Stat Points]: 1
He noticed that his [Energy] had decreased by one point, while both the [Registered Talents] and [Free Stat Points] sections had each increased by one.
"So this is how it works," Adyr muttered, a trace of understanding flashing in his eyes.
Rather than granting him a new skill or ability, the system had simply recognized a talent he already possessed—and rewarded him with a free stat point for demonstrating it.
It was obvious that the game's power system revolved around the players' genuine talents.
Before allocating his newly gained free stat point, Adyr noticed the [Lv.1] indicator next to the talent and paused, a thought crossing his mind.
He crouched beside one of the skeletal footprints and began examining it more closely. The strange blue crystals embedded in the stone walls cast a faint, natural glow, like a pale moonlight—and he used that dim illumination to aid his inspection.
Short. No taller than a child.
Toes turned slightly inward. Walks hunched over.
Pressure's heavier on the right. Carrying something—sword or short spear. Weight... fifteen, maybe twenty kilos. Light on its feet, but the bones are solid. Not something that'll crumble with a single blow.
As a former human hunter, his tracking and observation skills were exceptional, and after completing his deeper investigation, the system message appeared once again, confirming what he had already suspected.
[Talent Recognition: "Observer (Lv2)" confirmed.]
- Talent has been identified based on further demonstrated behavior.
- Proceed with registration to the Status Panel?
- Cost: 10 Energy
- Reward: 10 Free Stat Points
Unlike before, the reward wasn't just a single stat point—it was an incredible tenfold increase.
But there was a small problem.
"I don't have enough energy to register it," Adyr muttered, glancing at his [Energy] bar and wondering how he could increase it.
He experimented a little but quickly realized he couldn't allocate his free stat point directly into [Energy]. At the same time, he wasn't keen on spending it on his other stats either—not before he fully understood what each of them truly represented.
For now, he chose to set the issue aside and focus on exploring the cave around him. With less than three hours of battery life remaining on the helmet, he had no intention of wasting it all on tedious system analysis.
He shifted his attention to a tunnel—the only path leading deeper into the cave—and began moving forward in small, cautious steps.
A faint excitement stirred within him at the thought of meeting his first skeleton victim.