“Soul-Enhancing Crystals manifest in three documented tiers: Basic, Advanced, and Superior and each can be used only once. Palistra’s acquisition of an Advanced Crystal during the Tutorial period reportedly cost him almost all of his accumulated resources.Post-acquisition performance metrics suggest the investment was optimal.”— Aurelia Research Division, Compatibility Studies (classified)The wind screamed up the ravine wall and clawed at my hoodie, hot fingers of air that carried grit and the faint copper-sweet stink of something organic in the heat. Below me, the plateau stretched like a wound in the earth, dark stone pulsing with those arterial veins of light, and everything on it wanted me dead.I stared at the notification hovering in my vision.[ACCEPT] | [REJECT: Return to diving room]The rational answer was obvious. A child could see it. A particularly dim child, raised in a closet with no access to educational materials, could see it. Press REJECT, materialize back in the diving room, file a complaint with Scavantis about the team that had just used me as a loot-table enhancer and then abandoned me at a boss spawn zone, and go home to eat scrambled eggs and feel sorry for myself.That was the smart play.The sane play.My eyes drifted back down to the plateau.The creatures moved between the boulders in patterns that weren’t random, clusters of four or five drifting along invisible patrol routes, their sensory pits casting faint light across the dark stone. The boss sat in the center of it all, a mountain of plated chitin that rose and fell with breaths so deep I could see the ground shift around its legs.Sleeping.For now.Goal: Kill everything.Everything. It didn’t say “the boss” or “the threats.” My goal was to kill every plated, digit-clawed, (...)