The tunnel sloped downward, carved through roots and stone. It was too precise to be natural, yet too rough to be human work. The walls pulsed faintly with green light, veins of magic running like capillaries through bark and rock. Quinn steadied his breathing, forcing himself to take slow steps forward. The echoes of goblin shrieks were gone, but the memory lingered.
He glanced at the ember shard glowing faintly in his palm. Fire. A basic spell, maybe, but still fire. His grin flickered in the dark. "Finally not just swinging sticks."
The System chimed.
[ New Ability Unlocked: Ember Manipulation (Tier 1) ][ Current Mana: 25/25 ][ Cost: 5 Mana per cast ]
He flexed his fingers. A spark leapt to life, hovering above his palm. It was small, guttering, but the heat licked at his skin. His gamer instincts whispered potential. If this was just the tutorial version of fire, upgrades had to exist. Combos. AoE. Burst damage.
"Alright," he whispered, extinguishing the flame. "Now I'm officially playing mage."
The tunnel curved, and the faint glow brightened. Quinn slowed, crouching low. His perception picked up faint vibrations ahead: machinery, moving air, and the muted hum of magic woven into circuits. He crept forward until the tunnel opened into a cavern.
And froze.
The underground stretched before him in impossible scale. Cavern walls glittered with crystals that cast rainbow light across bridges of stone and living wood. Streams of water ran through grooves in the floor, glowing faint blue. Above, hanging like stars, were clusters of floating motes that shifted with unseen currents.
But what stole his breath were the structures. Sleek, metallic towers rose from the cavern floor, their surfaces etched with glowing runes. Pipes and conduits pulsed with energy, linking towers into a web of light. Hovering platforms drifted lazily between them. And in the distance, barely visible through the haze, Quinn thought he saw the faint shimmer of a dome enclosing the whole city.
Haven.
The books had described it, but standing here, it was something else entirely. This was a living blend of magic and technology, both alien and familiar. For the first time since waking in this world, Quinn felt small.
The System intruded.
[ World Update Unlocked: Lower Elements Reconnaissance Database ][ New Zone Discovered: Outer Haven Perimeter ][ Warning: Unauthorized entry will trigger alert ]
Quinn's mouth went dry. "So I'm basically in a PvP zone."
Movement below caught his attention. A patrol glided along one of the bridges, armor gleaming, visors glowing green. LEP Recon. Their rifles looked sleek, compact, humming faintly with restrained power. These weren't goblins. These were professionals.
He pressed back against the tunnel wall, heart racing. He had wanted confirmation that the Fowl world was real. Now he had it, and the reality was terrifying. One wrong move and he'd be a red smear on the cavern floor.
His perception tugged him again. Not toward the city, but along the perimeter, where the cavern wall bent into shadow. There was a smaller tunnel there, half-hidden, lined with faint glyphs. A service passage maybe.
The System chimed softly.
[ Side Objective Detected: Investigate the Glyph-lined Passage ][ Reward: Random Fragment ]
Quinn exhaled. "Of course you want me to side-quest."
He dropped lower, inching along the tunnel rim until he reached the glyph passage. The air here was different, colder, tinged with something metallic. He slipped inside, careful not to brush the glowing symbols. They pulsed faintly at his approach but didn't flare.
The passage sloped sharply down. After several minutes, it opened into a chamber. And Quinn stopped dead.
A workshop.
Tables covered in tools and strange devices filled the room. Crystal cores hovered in suspension fields. Runes were etched into sheets of metal. Fragments — dozens of them — floated inside containment pods, each labeled in fairy script. Quinn couldn't read the language, but the System kindly translated.
[ Fragment: Shard of Fortitude ][ Fragment: Shard of Precision ][ Fragment: Shard of Rejuvenation ]
His heart skipped. This wasn't just loot. This was a lab. Someone was studying fragments. Farming them. Harnessing them.
He stepped closer to one of the pods, watching the shard within pulse gently. It was like looking into his own future. If the fairies were collecting fragments, then they already knew about the System. Or something like it. That changed everything.
"Question is," he muttered, "are they ahead of me in the meta, or am I playing on a different server entirely?"
The thought chilled him. If the LEP were fragment farming, then Quinn wasn't a unique player. He was just one more variable.
The System pinged.
[ Hidden Objective Progress: Uncover the Nature of Fragments (1/5) ]
He frowned. So the System wanted him digging deeper. He had barely started and already it was dangling long-term quests.
Before he could think further, his perception flared. Footsteps. Light. Someone was coming.
Quinn ducked behind a workbench, crouching low. The doorway shimmered, and two figures entered.
Fairies. Recon armor stripped down for lab use. One carried a datapad, the other a containment case. They spoke in clipped tones, their voices filtered by visors.
"…batch from the surface. Goblins still unstable. More fragments than expected."
"…Council's nervous. If humans ever…"
The words faded as they moved deeper into the lab. Quinn's heart pounded. He had dreamed of meeting fairies when he was younger, back when Artemis's adventures were just stories. Now, all he felt was fear. If they saw him, he was dead.
He inched backward, careful not to make a sound. The shard of silence wrapped him like a cloak, muffling every step. Slowly, painfully, he crept back to the tunnel and slipped away.
Only when the glyph passage closed behind him did he breathe again.
The System chimed.
[ Side Objective Complete: Investigate the Glyph-lined Passage ][ Reward: Random Fragment ]
A shard hovered into his palm, glowing pale silver.
[ Fragment Acquired: Shard of Veil. Function: Enhances stealth capabilities ]
Quinn smiled grimly. "Perfect timing."
He glanced once more at the cavern of Haven, the city sprawling like a living jewel below. The temptation to charge in burned in him, gamer instincts screaming about loot, quests, alliances. But reason held him back. He wasn't ready. Not yet.
For now, he had fragments to farm, skills to sharpen, and a world to learn. Artemis Fowl was somewhere above, plotting, while the LEP patrolled their shining city below. And Quinn?
Quinn was the glitch in their system.
He turned from the cavern, slipping into the shadows of the passageways. His game had only just begun.