From the perspective of Alessio Leone
The loading screen faded away smoothly, and Alessio drew a deep breath as his digital body regained weight inside the Black Tower.
The metallic stench of the hall still lingered, as if the battle had ended only minutes ago—though he knew an entire day had passed in the real world.
The boss chamber was silent.
No roars, no movement.
Only the memory of the fight remained, etched into the cracked walls and half-shattered columns. The bodies of the boss and its guards had vanished after their defeat, but the scars on the scenery endured, a signature of victory.
No respawn. No timer. No pressure.He repeated the simple rules in his mind, a rare privilege granted by the Tower.
When players cleared a dungeon inside the Black Tower, there was no forced logout. No new boss would respawn over time.
It was like a true pause—a break gifted by the game's very design.
One of the few luxuries the Tower ever allowed.
Of course, those "luxuries" served their own purposes, though not at this stage of the game.
Still, because of that privilege, everyone in the group had been able to safely log out inside the dungeon the night before.
Alessio moved slowly across the room, the metal of his boots scraping against the floor. He looked around and quickly realized he was alone. None of the others had logged in yet.
He was in a bit of a hurry—his goals for the third day weren't easy—but he still chose to wait for his companions.
He stopped in the center of the chamber, raising his gaze to the high ceiling, its cracks spreading like spiderwebs. The silence was almost comforting. No outside pressure, no enemies popping out of nowhere. Just time to think.
And in that void, something broke the monotony.
A glow.
Faint at first, almost like a stray reflection on the floor. Yet distinct enough to capture his lonely attention. The light pulsed between the broken stones at the very spot where the boss had fallen the night before.
Alessio narrowed his eyes, instinctively moving closer.
Carefully, he brushed aside fragments of stone until his fingers touched something cold and solid. Half-buried among the rubble, camouflaged by dust, a small metal box revealed itself.
At first glance, it was unimpressive. About the size of his palm, rectangular, its edges worn down to nearly blend with the gray floor. If not for the faintly polished center of its lid, reflecting the residual glow of the chamber, he would never have noticed it.
With a firm, measured pull, he pried it loose from the crevice. The metal groaned in protest as if resenting its release after being trapped for so long.
The moment the box came fully into view, Alessio's eyes lit up.Not with simple joy, but with instinctive recognition: this item was anything but ordinary.
Didn't Matteo or the girls see this yesterday?The thought came quickly. Maybe they had ignored it, mistaking it for battle debris. Possible—likely, even. After all, he himself wasn't entirely sure what it was.
But there was one detail impossible to overlook.
Etched along the side were fine, carefully carved runes, nearly erased by time. They weren't decorative markings. Alessio knew the pattern—not because he had seen it before, but because symbols like these had shown up in forum posts from his previous life.
It was an ancient language. Something players weren't supposed to encounter until much later in the game.
Especially not here, in the Black Tower at the world's center.
That alone was enough to mark the item as extraordinary.Even without knowing its immediate purpose.
I'll need a library in a major city to translate this… maybe even an NPC who specializes in this kind of script.
His thoughts began to align, already sketching strategies—but they were cut short before they could fully form.
"Hey, man, you logged in early…"
The cheerful voice cracked the silence like distant thunder.
Alessio turned his head over his shoulder and saw Matteo Romano approaching in his usual way—confident, yet with that engineer's smile that looked ready to dismantle anything just to see how it worked.
Alessio discreetly closed his hand around the box and, with a smooth motion, slid it into the small pouch strapped to his waist. No rush, no hesitation. Store first, question later.
When he turned back, Matteo was already walking up to him.
"Of course, man. We've got plenty to do today," Alessio replied with an easy smile, as if nothing had happened.
He didn't show the box. Not out of greed, nor a desire to hoard loot. It was simply pointless. Matteo was brilliant—an engineer with flawless technical reasoning—but he lacked the strategic reading and brutal knowledge the Tower demanded. Not yet. Not like Alessio, who carried ten years of experience.
If the item later proved useful to Matteo but useless to him, Alessio would gladly hand it over.
But first, he needed to understand exactly what he was dealing with.
"No sign of the girls?" Matteo glanced around, breaking the quiet.
"Nope. Just me and this wrecked hall."
The engineer nodded, not pressing the matter. He simply crossed his arms, relaxed, accepting the wait as part of the routine.
Alessio leaned against one of the fractured columns. He needed to speak with the girls before making any moves. He had some advice about the routes they should take to grow a bit faster. And even if he didn't know how long this little group would last—or if they'd truly become long-term partners—it didn't hurt to help them. Better to have favors owed than owed against him.
Fortunately, it didn't take long for one of them to arrive.
A silhouette emerged from the chamber's shadows, a black cloak brushing lightly against the floor. The hood hid part of her face, but there was no mistaking her.
Hana Takayama.
The group's most efficient damage dealer so far.