Lyra led Liam to the Royal Library.
Her steps were purposeful, taking them to a single, protected display case in the center of the room.
Inside, resting on a velvet cushion, was an ancient book,
"This is it," Lyra said . She unlocked the case, carefully lifting the book and placing it on the table.
"Most think it's just a story for children now, but it's one of the oldest texts we have."
Liam looked at the book, feeling a strange thrum of energy from its pages,
"The story goes," Lyra began, "that a long, long time ago, a dungeon just... appeared.
No one knew where it came from.
But when it did,
it brought magic into this world.
They say the master of that first dungeon wrote this book.
A party of hunters found it after they cleared the dungeon, or so the legend claims."
I think it's more than a legend, Liam."
She opened the book. The pages were brittle, the ink faded.
She pointed to a specific passage. "Listen. 'The day this world faces its biggest threat is the day one magic caster will have all three root magic attributes.'" light and green and dark
Her words struck Liam.
He stared at the text, seeing his own impossible existence written in the ink of ages past.
"But that's not all," Lyra continued,
turning a few more pages.
"Look." She indicated a section where the book abruptly ended,
the stubs of several torn-out pages clearly visible. "There are pages missing. I know someone didn't want people to see what came next."
She looked up at Liam.
When I was a child, I questioned my father about the missing pages.
He told me a secret he was told by his father:
If someone wants to read all of it, he has to go and clear all the layers of the dungeon.
The dungeon itself will reward him with the book again, complete this time.'"
"No one has managed to do it again for years," she said,
"They say there are two powerful beings protecting the last layer. It's a 100-layer dungeon,
but people don't even get close to the end.
Layer 50... they say it's a slaughterhouse. So many have died there."
"The kingdom officially closed the dungeon for the safety of the hunters.
The casualty rates were horrifying. Sometimes, a group of a hundred hunters would go in, and only two would survive and come back.
The creatures let them go, just to tell people not to enter the dungeon again."
Liam froze.
There is something in this dungeon, he thought I know it.
They are protecting something.
He broke the silence, his voice firm. "I have to go."
Lyra looked at him, with sad understanding.
"I knew you would say that."
"Where is this dungeon located? Is it close?" Liam asked,
"No, it's not,", shaking her head. "It's a ten-day journey by a wagon .
Maybe you can find some travelers heading that way who will take you.
The dungeon is closed, but people don't care. They still go, thinking it's full of gold and silver." They say if the dungeon cleared another dungeon will appear in a random area each time with a better reward
Liam nodded, his gaze distant. Gold and silver were irrelevant. He was hunting for something far more valuable: the truth of his own existence and why they protect this dungeon