Chương 26: The Door Everyone Warned Him About

Meno stared down at the Morgras hollow and realized the game expected him to do the worst part manually. The enemies were dead or broken for now. The boss had been knocked off its altar, speared, and turned into black-glass wreckage somewhere on the pyramid steps. The fiery eye had detonated. The command structure was disrupted, according to the system, which was a polite way of saying Meno had thrown himself at the problem until the room gave up. The hoard still sat there.

Piles of gold, urns, old weapons, red gems, scale-like plates, statues, rings, cups, chains, carved boxes, and enough shiny metal to make his rent-brain start doing dangerous math. It surrounded the pyramid in obscene heaps, glowing under red crystal light. He jumped. This time, he did not dive like a lunatic. He dropped from the ledge, waited until the ground came up too fast, then kicked off empty air with False Wings and bled the impact into a hard landing near the lower treasure road.

His knees bent, the Soma-X7 held the motion clean, and he only lost a sliver of HP instead of becoming shrine paste.

"Progress," he said. Chat had recovered from the Crown-Sight detonation and was already back to being awful. loot arc take the gold RICHBEADGOD steal everything dragon tax incoming Meno grabbed the nearest gold-stuffed urn. [Treasure Fragment Acquired | Quest Item] He froze. The urn vanished into inventory with no coin sound, no currency update, no gold total, and no dopamine. Meno looked at the empty patch of floor.

"Quest item." Chat smelled the grief. LOL FAKE MONEY dragon monopoly cash can't spend hoard quest gamer now flowers arc evolved"There is clearly gold here," Meno said.

"This is theft by classification." He grabbed a jeweled chain next. [Treasure Fragment Acquired | Quest Item] Same result. Meno went through the hoard like an angry vacuum cleaner. Urns vanished. Gem piles vanished. Sword racks vanished. Dragon-scale plates vanished. Gold bars vanished. A ceremonial bowl the size of a helmet vanished. None of it touched his currency. None of it entered his inventory as sellable loot. It all compressed into the same cursed quest-state. Treasure Fragment. Treasure Fragment.

Treasure Fragment. Doing quests made him feel dirty. Doing quests while manually collecting gold he could not spend felt like being asked to deliver his own paycheck to someone richer.

"Don't get used to this," he told chat.

"Still not doing quests." QUESTBEADGOD he's roleplaying you are doing a quest bro dragon delivery boy missed pile left He turned sharply.

"Where?" left right behind you missed MISSED"Chat directional input is a debuff." He still checked because he hated himself enough to believe them one time in twenty. After the last pile disappeared, the fragments snapped together in his inventory with a heavy system pulse. [Treasure Fragments Consolidated] [Treasure Acquired | Quest Item] Ashen Crown Hoard: Recovered The hollow looked emptier without the gold. The pyramid seemed taller, more exposed, its black-glass sides no longer cushioned by wealth.

Far below the broken roads, heat moved in fire channels. Somewhere in the deeper city, a click echoed and then stopped.

"Technically," Meno said, "I just have to return it now." He did not return it. He ran around the pyramid instead, checking the base, the rear stairs, cracks between basalt tiers, vents, broken panels, shadowed corners, anything that might hide an entrance or a chest the quest item vacuum had not eaten. The game had built a whole underground civilization around a pyramid; there had to be something behind it besides a boss platform and stolen dragon property. Chat helped by lying.

secret door north side press altar crouch at left statue missed Meno found no secret door.

"Unrealistic," he said, after checking the same seam twice.

"Ancient evil civilizations love secret doors." He pushed into side passages next, not for the quest. For ore. The first tunnels gave him nothing but heat vents, red crystals that cracked uselessly, empty shelves, and one side room that looked like it had once stored ritual tools before the hoard classification swept the floor clean. The half-hour respawn timer sat in the back of his head, getting louder with each dead end.

If the Morgras started returning before he was done, the hollow would become a glass blender again. Then he found a bright vein jutting from the black stone, fiery lines moving inside it like liquid. Meno lifted the Ashen Crown Tail Spike.

"Please don't explode in my face." it's going to explode take profession this time rare ore rare ore rare ore He struck the deposit. The spike rang clean. Sparks showered across the passage, and a chunk broke loose without the wall detonating. [Embervein Sliver Acquired] Quality: Rare III Type: Elemental Ore Trait: Fire-Tuned The prompt appeared again. Accept Elemental Extraction? [Y/N] Meno clicked N. [Profession Discovery Declined] Chat took personal damage.

HE DID IT AGAIN uninstall you are allergic to value ONE SLOT BRO rare III ore and he says no closed doors for people with brains"I'm not becoming a rock intern," Meno said. He hit the deposit again. It exploded. The blast erased the tunnel, his HP, his argument, and one more piece of junk. [Death | Embervein Deposit Detonation] [Respawn: Ashen Crown Shrine] [Dropped: Dead Button x1] He sat up under the dragon's cavern ceiling.

"Annoying." The dragon did not open its eye. Meno went back down. The next ore deposit took longer to find. He moved fast, but not stupid-fast. The Morgras had not respawned yet, though the hollow felt like it was holding its breath. He searched smaller side cuts, tapped suspicious seams, and used the Tail Spike only on metal that glowed with internal fire. The second deposit yielded two slivers before punishing him.

[Embervein Sliver Acquired] [Embervein Sliver Acquired] The third hit detonated the passage and killed him. [Death | Embervein Deposit Detonation] [Respawn: Ashen Crown Shrine] [Dropped: Cracked Prayer Bead x1] Four ores total. Not enough. Definitely not enough for a weapon, unless he found a crafter who could make a sword out of hope, dragon bits, and four pieces of angry metal. Meno ran the route again, jaw tight, watching for returning patrol heat.

The third deposit hid deeper behind a collapsed shelf near the pyramid's lower right side. He had to squeeze between two hot stone ribs and almost burned his sleeve getting close. First hit: nothing but a crack. Second hit: ore. [Embervein Sliver Acquired] Third hit: explosion. [Death | Embervein Deposit Detonation] [Respawn: Ashen Crown Shrine] [Dropped: Useless Festival Token x1] Five. Meno stood at the shrine and closed his inventory before greed could drag him back down for a fourth deposit.

Five Rare III elemental ore. Three Epic III dragon claw materials. One Epic III tail spike. A quest hoard in his inventory that still refused to become money.

"Enough," he said.

"For now." coward five is good need ten profession would fix this chat has never crafted anything He made one more stop before returning to the dragon. The pyramid top. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. False Wings carried him up the broken steps faster this time, with two clean air corrections and only one ugly stumble near the altar. The Eye was gone, detonated into nothing, but the ritual stand remained bolted to the black-glass platform.

It was a dark, angular frame fused into the altar surface, shaped to hold something round above it. Empty now. Useless-looking. Which meant it interested him. Meno tried pulling it. Nothing. He braced both feet and pulled harder. Nothing.

"Bolted." use spike thief ritual stand tech eye laser turret incoming He struck the base with the Tail Spike. The impact thudded dully. The stand's base was volcanic rock, or something close enough that Apex Edge did not care.

"Not elemental," Meno said.

"Rude." He left it for the moment and climbed back toward the dragon. The Ashen Crown Dragon was awake by the time he reached the cavern. Its molten eye opened as he stepped out of the passage behind the vanished lavafall. The red shrine light trembled under the weight of its stare. Meno carried the recovered hoard in inventory, which meant he carried nothing visible, which made what he was about to do feel even worse.

"I have your hoard," he said. The dragon lifted its head. Meno held up one finger.

"But." The cavern got hotter.

"Thief."

"Technically I recovered stolen property."

"Give it."

"I need one small thing." The dragon's lips peeled back enough to show teeth lit from within.

"Small things die." Meno swallowed. Over 100, 000 viewers watched his life expectancy shrink. Viewers: 108, 443.

"You can kill me," he said, keeping his voice as flat as possible.

"You still won't get the hoard. It's quest-locked to me until I turn it in. Probably." The dragon's throat pulsed red. For a second, Meno thought the bluff would become a lesson in ash. Then the dragon spoke.

"What do you want?" Meno looked at the cavern entrance. It was too small for the dragon to fit through, but that was not the point. He pointed downward, toward the Morgras hollow.

"Put your head through the passage. The eye is gone, so it's safe. I need you to hit the top of the pyramid with a fireball." The dragon stared. Meno kept going before his survival instinct could take over.

"Specifically the altar. The ritual stand. Blow it loose. Unless sleep is your only skill."

"You think I cannot form a fireball?"

"I think you can form an extremely impressive fireball. I'm asking politely so you don't accidentally vaporize the part I want." The dragon rose. Stone cracked under one claw. Chat became religious. he is negotiating artillery dragon mortar support give hoard first??? this is insane 100k watching blackmail dragon thief pest diplomacy Meno jumped back down toward the pyramid before the dragon could reconsider. He landed near the base, sprinted away from the top platform, and shouted upward through the hollow.

"Now!" Heat gathered above. The dragon's head pushed into the upper passage like the mountain had grown a second sun. Fire formed in its jaws, compressed into a bright sphere, then launched down through the hollow. The fireball struck the pyramid top. The altar exploded. Black glass, basalt, and ember fragments tore outward. The ritual stand ripped free and tumbled down the pyramid side, bouncing off steps with a sound like a bell tower falling into a forge.

It hit the lower ground near Meno and skidded, glowing red-hot. He ran to it. The stand was larger than he expected, an angular black frame with hooks, rings, and empty grooves where the eye had hovered. Its surface glowed superheated red in places, and the air around it shimmered. He inspected it. [Morgra Ritual Stand | Type: Unclassified] Jackpot. Unclassified. The AI had not considered someone removing it. Meno grinned with all the health of a man finding a loophole in a burning temple.

"I love VRMMOs." UNCLASSIFIED put it away put it away AI patch incoming training dummy 2 ban inc eye laser turret? he stole the altar Meno shoved it into inventory before the system could develop an opinion. It fit. He did not know what it would be good for yet. Training dummy 2. 0. Ritual anchor. Laser turret mount. Magic conduit. The key fact was that it existed in his bag as something the UI had not named properly. That was value.

He climbed back to the dragon before the Morgras respawn timer could start collecting interest. The dragon waited with its head withdrawn from the passage, smoke curling from its nostrils. Meno stopped in front of it and opened the quest inventory. The Ashen Crown Hoard dumped onto the cavern floor. Gold, urns, old weapons, red gems, scale plates, statues, and glittering chains spilled into existence in a pile big enough to make chat scream again.

This time it was all in front of the dragon, and Meno did not touch a single piece. The dragon's expression changed. It was subtle at first. The ember veins slowed. Its eye softened by one degree. Then it lowered its head and inhaled over the treasure, not like it smelled money, but like it recognized something older than ownership. The hoard shifted. Gold rang. Gems clicked. Scales slid together. The dragon inhaled deeper.

The entire pile vanished into its breath, swallowed by firelight, and the Ashen Crown Dragon looked satisfied in a way that made Meno understand why kings put dragons on banners. [Quest Updated: Burden of the Cursed Priest] Objective Complete: Return the Ashen Crown Hoard. New Objective: Ride Kaerthalan to the Lost Temple. Meno blinked.

"Ride." The dragon turned toward the cavern exit.

"Follow."

"Wait. Your name is Kaerthalan?" The dragon ignored him. Meno followed through the exit arch that had killed him in spirit long before it opened in practice. Outside, the air hit his face cleaner than the cavern's furnace breath. It still carried ash, sulfur, and volcanic heat, but it moved. It had sky in it. Freedom tasted like burnt stone and not dying in a shrine loop. The volcanic zone spread around the mountain in black earth, lava rivers, and fields of ash.

Fire elementals moved in the distance like wandering sparks, nowhere near the volcano now that the dragon had stepped out. The sky above was smoky red near the horizon, clearing toward darker blue higher up. Kaerthalan lowered one wing and a ridge of scales along its back.

"Climb." Meno looked at the dragon's spine.

"This feels unsafe." Kaerthalan looked back. Meno climbed. The first wingbeat nearly threw him off. He grabbed a ridge spike with both arms and locked his knees around scale. The second wingbeat lifted them into the air so violently his stomach tried to stay on the volcano. Wind slammed into him. Heat rose from the dragon's body. The Soma-X7 translated enough pressure to make every grip choice feel urgent and personal.

"Okay," he shouted.

"No saddle. Great design." Kaerthalan did not care. They flew below the clouds, high above the volcanic zone. Fire elementals became sparks. Lava rivers became red cracks. Birds fled before the dragon, breaking formation and diving away like the sky itself had issued a threat warning. They left the volcanic zone behind. The marsh came next, black water and pale fog spread beneath them, reed beds cutting through ruined causeways. Meno saw the crocodile shapes again, and from this height they looked even larger.

The dragon flew straight over the zone he had bypassed illegally, and Meno decided not to wave. Beyond the marsh was water. A whole zone of it. A vast lake spread across the land, silver-blue under broken clouds, dotted with islands and tall reed towers. Winged dolphins burst from the surface in pairs, beating sleek fins that became wings for three impossible seconds. One snapped a bird from the air, twisted, and plunged back into the lake. Meno stared.

"Wild." Kaerthalan climbed above the clouds after that. The world disappeared into white. For at least half an hour, there was only cold wind, dragon heat, and Meno's arms slowly discovering new ways to hate him. He did not check chat. He did not check the leaderboard. He did not look down because there was nothing to see and because seeing it would not help him remain attached to the dragon. Then the clouds broke around a shadow.

A floating platform hung in the sky ahead, enormous and circular, its underside carved with dark ribs. Atop it stood a temple structure so large it made the platform look like a foundation. It rose like a cathedral sharpened into a spear, with pointed towers, stained stone arches, and old gold lines running through ivory walls. At one side, a huge gate held a swirling portal. Raid entrance. Meno knew it before the system told him. Kaerthalan landed on the platform hard enough to shake dust from the temple steps.

Meno climbed down with all the grace of a man escaping a moving building. The dragon settled on the stone and lowered its head.

"My bargain is fulfilled." [Quest Updated: Burden of the Cursed Priest] New Objective: Open the Lost Temple. Meno stared at the notice.

"Excuse me." Kaerthalan closed its eyes.

"No. Don't sleep. What do you mean open?" The dragon did not answer, and after circling the platform, Meno found nothing else. The circular stone platform had no shops, no shrines, no chest, no helpful old priest, no hidden bench. Just empty space around the massive cathedral, the huge portal gate, and one ancient dragon already going back to sleep after dropping him at the worst possible tourist attraction. Viewers: 231, 084.

A privacy-filtered message pulsed at the edge of his vision, routed from his new phone into the capsule. The stream could not see it. Aureliana Sorell: Do not be stupid for once in your life. Meno found that rude, so he dismissed it. The gate prompt appeared when he approached the swirling portal. [Unlock the Lost Temple?] [Y/N] Meno backed away to the platform's edge. Below, clouds drifted in broken layers.

Somewhere under them lay the Four Kingdoms, the volcanic zone, the lake, the marsh, Emberhollow, Rillpost, Vernova's virtual roads, every player who had told him not to press the wrong button. Technically, he could jump. Bad idea. He would probably land in some other high-level zone with no weapon, and no dragon taxi. He had done all this trouble for a quest. The quest had to give something. It would be too lame if it didn't. He turned back to chat.

"What do you want to see?" The answer arrived as one word in ten thousand forms. UNLOCK Y PRESS IT DO IT Meno walked back to the portal. The prompt waited.

"This isn't just a quest completion prompt," he said.

"If I press yes, I'm on every PK list. Crownfall, Highbanner, Silverwake, Stormhold, probably guilds I haven't even annoyed yet." The portal turned slowly inside the gate. He thought of Carl's deal. Aureliana's warning. His mother's new job. Honeygrave's advice. BrineSaint grinding clean routes while everyone else tilted. The guild officers telling him to stop because the server was not ready. It wasn't about spite. Spite was support damage, not the core build. He had earned this.

With deaths, junk, movement practice, bad decisions, and enough repeated execution to make humiliation into a route. Someone else could clear the raid later. Someone else could organize twenty players and spreadsheets and loot councils. Fine. They would not take the unlock from him. He pressed Y. [Lost Temple Unlock Initiated] The platform shook. Meno backed toward the edge as the cathedral lit from within. Golden light traced every wall seam, window arch, and broken spire.

It gathered upward, brighter and brighter, until the topmost point of the temple burned like a star. A beam of gold pierced the sky, splitting the clouds as something descended through the light. At first glance, it looked holy. At second glance, the holiness curdled. A tall humanoid figure walked downward inside the beam, thin and regal, almost floating. Layered ceremonial robes wrapped its body, but the cloth was fused into it like burial linen, prayer ribbons, and molted skin had grown together.

Its face was a smooth pale mask carved with closed eyes. A broken halo-crown hung above its head, tilted and cracked, chains and dream talismans swaying from the fractured ring. Its hands were too long, elegant in a priestly way, with blackened fingertips like ash dipped in ink. Its lower body trailed into smoke and drifting cloth, then briefly formed feet whenever it took a step. Ivory, ash-black, dull gold, deep blue-violet, and ember-red moved through it in layers that made Meno's eyes tired.

The air around it felt sleepy and sacred, like a church remembered inside a nightmare. The figure descended into the Lost Temple and vanished as the glow faded. The system arrived for everyone. [World Notice] Vervenzal, the Banished God and ancient enemy of Kaerthalan, the Ashen Crown, descends toward Veyrath. The Lost Temple has opened. Assist Kaerthalan in defeating Vervenzal to open routes beyond the Four Kingdoms.

Classification: World Raid Recommended Level: 50+ Maximum Party Size: 20 Loot Classification: Legendary I–III Apex Drop Potential: Mythic I crafting materials from Vervenzal — Extremely Low Raid Reset Cycle: 7 days Chat lost it. WORLD RAID LEVEL 50+ LEGENDARY DROPS MYTHIC MATS??? LOL MOST PPL ARE LVL15 HE OPENED IT GUILDS ARE GOING TO KILL HIM VERVENZAL BANISHED GOD EXPANSION UNLOCK Meno read the lines again, slower.

"Recommended level fifty-plus. Bad. Maximum party size twenty. Guild content. Legendary one to three loot. Very bad for my safety. Mythic one crafting material potential, extremely low, which means people will pretend they're rational while ruining their lives." His throat felt dry.

"Raid reset seven days. Routes beyond the Four Kingdoms means progression gate. So yes. The officers were right. This is a big door." Behind him, Kaerthalan slept. In front of him, four portals opened in a line at the platform edge. Four old NPCs stepped through. Two women. Two men. All robed. All carrying the kind of pressure that made player gear feel like toys. Meno inspected them one by one.

[Seravaine | Northern Archmage] She wore red robes, layered and severe, with silver hair bound behind her head and eyes like cut garnet. [Orren | Western Archmage] His yellow robe hung loose over a narrow frame, and his beard was braided with tiny gold rings that did not move in the wind. [Maelira | Eastern Archmage] Her silver robe caught the temple light, and her face remained calm in a way that made Meno trust her least. [Caldrin | Southern Archmage] Blue robes. Broad shoulders. Deep lines around his mouth.

He looked at Kaerthalan first, then at Meno, and somehow seemed disappointed by both. The four portals behind them stabilized, each matching the archmage's robe color. Red, yellow, silver, blue. Four kingdom links. The next notification came before Meno could decide whether speaking would get him killed politically, magically, or both. [World Progression Event Unlocked: Vervenzal's Dream] Sleepwalkers have entered the Four Kingdoms. Where they wander, worshippers change. Where they gather, the world dreams.

Defeat Vervenzal in the Lost Temple before the Four Kingdoms are lost. Meno stared at the message. Then at the archmages. Then at the dragon asleep behind him like none of this was its problem anymore.

"Well that sucks," he said.