"Gideon," I said, pointing to the pillar. "There's a mana signature under there. It's faint, but it feels... contained. Not a monster. An item. Can you move this?"
Gideon, my quiet 'necromancer,' stepped forward. He placed his pale hand on the concrete. "[Corpse-bloom: Rapid Decay]," he whispered.
The spell wasn't designed for stone, but its entropy-based magic had the same effect. Cracks spiderwebbed across the pillar. The concrete didn't explode; it just... un-made itself, crumbling into a pile of fine gravel and dust in a matter of seconds.
The team stared, freshly impressed by the sheer utility of Gideon's "creepy" magic.
Beneath the dust lay a small, F-Rank-locked chest.
"Loot!" Alex said, grinning.
"Stand back," I said. I knelt by the chest. The lock was a simple, three-dial runic combination. 'In the game, the dev-note for this puzzle was 'The beginning of all things.' The answer is always '3-1-4,' a developer's inside joke about pi.'
