The second option finished forming.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Unspent Ending │
│ Potential: SSS │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel stared at the name.
Then the description appeared.
Preserve the traces of outcomes that failed to reach completion.
Under compatible conditions, the value of an unfinished ending may be carried into a later moment.
Limitations: ???
Cost: ???
Etzel remained silent for several seconds.
“That’s not ominous at all.”
The third frame completed.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Inheritance of the Unclaimed │
│ Potential: SSS │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel raised an eyebrow.
“Of course. Why would descriptions actually describe things?”
Three choices floated before him.
Three SSS-potential Paths.
And one hundred eighty seconds to decide which one would remain.
The first option waited on the left.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Witness of the First Flaw │
│ Potential: SSS │
│ Principle I: Recognition │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Beneath it was a single explanation.
A flaw will not be shown to you.
You must recognize it first.
Etzel stared at it.
Then at the other two again.
Unspent Ending.
Inheritance of the Unclaimed.
Witness of the First Flaw.
The System was perfectly willing to tell him how far all three might eventually go.
SSS.
It was considerably less interested in explaining how they would get there.
Naturally.
That would have been helpful.
Etzel’s eyes moved toward DK.
The knight stood near the Regent’s corpse.
His damaged shield was still in his hand.
The battle was over.
DK continued watching the cavern anyway.
Etzel looked back at the choices.
Inheritance of the Unclaimed.
The name alone sounded dangerously compatible with Limited Necromancer.
Unclaimed legacies.
Things left behind.
Perhaps the dead.
Perhaps powers.
Perhaps something far larger.
He didn’t know.
That was the problem.
Then he looked at Unspent Ending.
Outcomes that had failed to complete.
Unfinished endings.
Value that could somehow be carried into a later moment.
He didn’t fully understand what that meant either.
But he understood enough to know it could become terrifying in the right hands.
And then—
Witness.
Etzel remembered the Regent fight.
The crown.
Left branch.
Wide attack.
Right branch.
Direct strike.
Center.
Command.
Then the roots.
Three separate systems hidden inside something that had initially looked like a single overwhelming enemy.
Command.
Absorption.
Reinforcement.
And finally—
the pulse.
That tiny opening before the third.
That was what had won the fight.
Not his strength.
Definitely not his hatchet.
The remains of the poor thing were still embedded inside the shattered root.
DK was stronger than him.
Sivenne was faster.
Maerin controlled the battlefield.
Tessa could carry consequences Etzel probably wouldn’t survive.
But none of those things had been enough until they understood what they were fighting.
Etzel’s eyes returned to Witness.
Recognition.
The System would not give him the answer.
The description made that clear.
He would notice it first.
He would understand it himself.
Then—
maybe—
Witness would do something with that understanding.
Etzel looked at the other choices again.
Unspent Ending might give him more ways to survive failure.
Inheritance of the Unclaimed might have absurd synergy with Limited Necromancer.
But both carried the same problem.
He would be choosing them for what they might become.
Witness was different.
It had the potential to amplify something he already did naturally.
Observe.
Question.
Understand how something worked.
And if he was wrong—
try again.
Etzel smiled.
“I think you picked me.”
The System did not respond.
“Right. I know. Technically I’m picking you.”
Etzel made his decision.
He did not wait until the final second.
For half a moment, he considered how dramatic that might look.
Then he decided waiting until the last second to choose between three SSS-potential Paths purely for dramatic effect would be idiotic.
“Witness.”
Two frames vanished instantly.
Etzel’s smile froze slightly.
“Right. No undo button.”
Light filled the remaining frame.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Selection Confirmed. │
│ Witness of the First Flaw acquired. │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Then another window opened.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Witness of the First Flaw │
│ Rank Potential: SSS │
│ [Principle I — Recognition] │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
A flaw cannot be revealed by the System.
A flaw must first be recognized by the user.
Observation alone is insufficient.
Assumption alone is insufficient.
When the nature of a genuine flaw has been understood with sufficient accuracy, Recognition may confirm it.
Etzel kept reading.
More lines appeared.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Recognition does not discover a target’s weakness.
Recognition does not make an incorrect conclusion correct.
Recognition acknowledges only a flaw that has truly been understood.
Etzel went silent.
He read it again.
Then a third time.
“So…”
He stared at the message.
“You don’t tell me the flaw.”
Silence.
“I find it.”
Nothing.
“I figure out what it means.”
Silence.
“And if I understand it correctly, you confirm it.”
The System offered no reply.
Etzel slowly nodded.
“I do the difficult part.”
“Are you arguing with the System?”
Sivenne’s voice dragged him back into the cavern.
Etzel blinked.
Broken stone.
Dead creatures.
A ruined throne.
Three exhausted young women.
And DK, still standing guard in silence.
Sivenne was staring at him.
Etzel glanced at the window still floating before him.
“Our relationship is developing.”
Sivenne looked toward Maerin.
“He got stranger.”
“He was already strange.”
“Fair.”
Etzel dismissed the window.
Then, almost instinctively, he looked toward the shattered Regent roots.
He waited.
Nothing happened.
No message.
No mark.
No System congratulating him for flaws he had discovered before gaining the ability.
Etzel waited a few more seconds.
Then raised an eyebrow.
“Really?”
Tessa looked at him.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Witness wasn’t retroactively rewarding the Regent fight.
What he had discovered before acquiring Recognition remained in the past.
Recognition was for what came next.
Etzel gave the shattered root one final look.
“Cheap.”
Tessa laughed weakly.
And Etzel realized how good it was to hear.
Maerin walked toward him.
She was limping slightly.
“You were gone for about half a minute.”
“Really?”
“You were staring at nothing.”
“I was doing something important.”
Sivenne joined them.
“You always say that immediately before doing something questionable.”
“I leveled.”
That stopped her.
Tessa looked up.
“Five?”
Etzel nodded.
“Five.”
Sivenne stared at him for a moment.
Then at the Regent.
Then back at him.
“You entered this dungeon at Level Four.”
“Yes.”
“And you’re leaving at Level Five.”
“That is generally how leveling works.”
She ignored him.
Maerin didn’t.
Her eyes remained on Etzel.
Not exactly impressed.
Evaluating.
That was somehow worse.
Finally, she said:
“You’re dangerous for a Level Five.”
Etzel placed a hand against his chest.
“That sounded almost like a compliment.”
“It wasn’t.”
“It was,” Sivenne said.
Maerin looked at her.
Sivenne shrugged.
“It absolutely was.”
Tessa smiled.
Etzel decided not to ruin the moment.
Mostly because his ribs hurt too much.
A sound came from behind them.
Crack.
Everyone turned.
The Regent’s corpse was changing.
It wasn’t dissolving immediately like the other creatures.
Its outer armor began separating from the tissue beneath it.
Thin streams of pale energy escaped through the fractures.
Sivenne’s exhaustion disappeared with suspicious speed.
“Oh.”
Etzel looked at her.
“That sounded greedy.”
“It was.”
The Regent’s crown cracked.
A large section fell onto the stone.
The System reacted.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │
│ Name: Regent Crown Fragment │
│ Classification: Rare Material │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Another section of the corpse loosened.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │
│ Name: Regent Carapace │
│ Classification: Rare Material │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Maerin approached carefully.
“Don’t touch anything yet.”
Etzel stopped.
His hand was already halfway toward the crown fragment.
“I was inspecting it.”
“You were touching it.”
“Inspection can be tactile.”
“No.”
The Regent’s chest collapsed inward.
Something rolled out from between the broken plates.
A dark sphere.
Barely larger than Etzel’s fist.
Thin lines of pale light moved beneath its surface.
Everyone went silent.
The System identified it.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │
│ Name: Authority Core │
│ Classification: Rare (Integrity: High) │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Sivenne whistled.
“That’s worth something.”
“How much?”
“A lot.”
Etzel smiled.
Maerin looked at him.
“You can’t sell it.”
His smile vanished.
Sivenne laughed immediately.
Etzel pointed at Maerin.
“Why do you hate happiness?”
“I don’t.”
“You waited until I smiled.”
“You’re still unregistered.”
“I’m aware.”
“Then you can’t legally sell dungeon or monster materials through the state Hunter system.”
“I am painfully aware.”
Tessa looked between them.
“You can keep your share until you register.”
“That,” Etzel said, pointing toward her, “is how you deliver bad news.”
Maerin ignored him.
More of the corpse separated.
Several pieces of Regent armor.
A length of hardened root.
Then something buried deep within the Regent’s torso.
A twisted mass of black fibers surrounding a pale center.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │
│ Name: Throne Root Heart │
│ Classification: Rare (Condition: Stable)│
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Even Maerin looked interested.
Sivenne crouched beside it.
“That might be worth more than the Core.”
Etzel stared.
“Really?”
“Possibly.”
Maerin looked at him.
“You still can’t sell it.”
Etzel closed his eyes.
“I liked you more before the boss died.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“That is unfortunately true.”
The final object appeared after most of the Regent’s body had dissolved.
Small.
Easy to miss.
A dark metallic ring rested on the stone.
Pale lines ran around its surface.
Etzel’s System reacted.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │
│ Name: Veinbound Ring │
│ Rank: C │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel stared at it.
Then stared a little harder.
Sivenne noticed.
“Oh no.”
“What?”
“You want it.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You’re looking at it exactly like you looked at the Authority Core.”
“That was a completely different look.”
“It was exactly the same.”
Maerin picked up the ring.
Etzel watched it leave the ground.
Sivenne smiled.
“Very subtle.”
“I’宁 appreciating the craftsmanship.”
“You’re appreciating your craftsmanship.”
Etzel looked offended.
“I didn’t make it.”
“That somehow makes this worse.”
Maerin examined the ring.
Then looked toward Etzel.
“It suits you.”
Etzel blinked.
Sivenne gasped theatrically.
“Second compliment.”
“It was an observation.”
“Two in one day.”
Maerin ignored her.
Etzel looked at the ring.
Then at the materials.
“No.”
Maerin raised an eyebrow.
“No?”
“Sivenne killed the Regent.”
Sivenne’s smile faded slightly.
“So?”
“So she gets first choice.”
“No.”
Etzel frowned.
“That was fast.”
“You found the anchors.”
“Maerin created the openings.”
“Tessa kept us alive.”
Tessa immediately shook her head.
“Don’t bring me into this.”
“DK held the Regent.”
Everyone looked toward the knight.
DK stood silently.
Etzel pointed at him.
“And destroyed his shield doing it.”
DK looked at the damaged shield.
“I do not require payment.”
Etzel nodded.
“Good. You’re expensive enough already.”
Sivenne laughed.
Even DK seemed to pause at that.
Etzel looked at the loot again.
“We split it.”
Maerin nodded.
“Evenly?”
“As closely as possible.”
Sivenne picked up a piece of Regent carapace.
“The ring doesn’t split.”
Etzel looked at her.
Sivenne threw it toward him.
He barely caught it.
His ribs protested.
“Hey.”
“You’re the only person here who spent half the fight staring at glowing lines.”
“That was tactical analysis.”
“Wear your tactical analysis.”
Etzel examined the ring.
Then slipped it onto his finger.
The effect was subtle.
Very subtle.
The remaining pale veins in the cavern became slightly easier to distinguish.
Not brighter.
Clearer.
Etzel smiled.
“Fine.”
Sivenne pointed at him.
“That look.”
“What look?”
“The greedy one.”
“I hate this team.”
Tessa laughed again.
The ruined throne cracked.
A deep grinding sound came from behind it.
DK immediately turned.
Sword raised.
Everyone else followed.
Stone shifted.
A section of the rear wall sank.
Behind it was not another monster.
Not another tunnel.
A narrow chamber waited beyond.
Pale crystals covered one wall.
Dark metallic ore protruded from another.
Blue-green moss grew around a shallow pool.
Sivenne stared.
Then looked at the Regent.
Then back at the chamber.
“Oh. I forgive this dungeon.”
Maerin entered first.
Carefully.
Etzel followed.
The System began identifying resources.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ RESOURCES IDENTIFIED │
│ > Dungeon Crystal Cluster │
│ > Ironroot Ore │
│ > Restorative Moss │
│ > Minor Rune Fragment │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel looked around.
“Is this normal?”
“Reward pockets exist,” Maerin said. “Not in every dungeon.”
Sivenne was already examining the crystal wall.
“And usually not this good.”
Etzel studied the resources.
Food.
Medicine.
Equipment.
Repairs.
Everything cost money.
Hunters weren’t entering dungeons only because the System rewarded Levels.
They entered because dungeons contained things the world needed.
And those things had value.
Real value.
For the first time, Etzel understood part of the economy surrounding Hunters.
Then he remembered.
He couldn’t sell any of it.
His mood deteriorated immediately.
Maerin saw his face.
“No.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were about to.”
“I was thinking.”
“That’s usually where the problems begin.”
They spent several minutes gathering everything they could safely carry.
The division wasn’t perfect.
It couldn’t be.
Some resources were worth more than others.
Some might change in value after appraisal.
Maerin suggested recording everything and adjusting their shares later.
Etzel agreed.
Mostly because Maerin very clearly understood this better than he did.
His own share went into storage.
Regent materials.
Dungeon crystals.
Ore.
Rune fragments.
Potentially the most valuable things he had ever possessed—
and completely impossible to sell legally until he registered.
He stared at the stored materials.
“One day.”
Sivenne walked past him.
“You’re talking to your loot now?”
“I’m building relationships.”
“You need more friends.”
“I thought I had three.”
Tessa smiled.
“You do.”
Etzel stopped.
That landed harder than expected.
So naturally—
“Terrible judgment on your part.”
Tessa rolled her eyes.
The System changed.
A new message appeared before the four Hunters.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SYSTEM STATUS │
│ > Dungeon Authority Removed. │
│ > Natural Exit Restored. │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
A directional marker appeared.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ NAVIGATION │ │ EXIT — 84m │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel stared.
“That is the most beautiful number I’ve seen all day.”
Sivenne looked at him.
“You said that about the loot.”
“I contain multitudes.”
They started walking.
Slowly.
Nobody had enough energy left to hurry.
DK took the rear.
Again.
Even now.
Etzel noticed.
The knight said little.
But halfway through the ruined passage, DK stopped.
Etzel took another step before noticing.
Then turned.
“DK?”
The knight was staring at a dark fragment recovered from the Regent’s throne.
A thin piece of hardened vein.
His expression had changed.
Not pain.
Confusion.
Etzel walked closer.
“What?”
DK didn’t answer immediately.
His eyes remained on the fragment.
Then—
his hand tightened.
A battlefield.
Not Etzel’s memory.
Not his world.
For DK, the vision came and disappeared in less than a heartbeat.
A torn banner.
Blackened earth.
Someone shouting through smoke.
One word.
A name.
DK blinked.
The passage returned.
Etzel watched him.
“What did you see?”
Silence.
Then DK spoke.
“Someone called me something.”
Etzel’s humor vanished.
“What?”
DK looked at him.
“Vardan.”
Etzel waited.
“Your name?”
“I don’t know.”
“First name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Family name?”
“I don’t know.”
Etzel nodded.
No pressure.
Not now.
“Vardan.”
DK looked toward the exit.
“Yes.”
Etzel smiled slightly.
“Well.”
He started walking again.
“That’s one more thing than we knew this morning.”
After a moment—
DK followed.
The exit appeared ahead.
Real light.
Not dungeon crystal.
Not pale veins.
Sunlight.
Sivenne stepped through first.
Tessa followed.
Then Maerin.
Etzel stopped at the threshold.
Wind touched his face.
Real wind.
He hadn’t realized how much he had missed it.
He stepped outside.
The dungeon remained behind them.
For a few seconds, nobody spoke.
No monsters.
No roots.
No Regent.
Just sky.
Etzel inhaled.
His ribs immediately punished him.
He exhaled more carefully.
Sivenne looked at him.
“So.”
Etzel knew that tone.
“So?”
“Next dungeon.”
He stared at her.
“There’s a next dungeon?”
“Obviously.”
“I admire how quickly trauma leaves your body.”
“It doesn’t.”
She smiled.
“I just like loot.”
“That I believe.”
Maerin adjusted the pack containing part of their resources.
“We recover first.”
“See?” Etzel said. “Someone sensible.”
Maerin looked at him.
“And you need better equipment.”
He looked down at the broken piece of hatchet handle still tucked into his belt.
A moment of silence.
“Yes.”
Tessa smiled.
“A much better weapon.”
“Yes.”
Sivenne looked toward DK’s cracked shield.
“And probably a shield.”
DK glanced at it.
“It remains functional.”
A small piece fell from the edge.
Everyone watched it hit the ground.
DK looked down.
Etzel nodded solemnly.
“Convincing.”
Sivenne laughed.
Then she looked at Etzel.
The humor softened slightly.
“At the gate, I thought you were going to slow us down.”
Etzel placed a hand against his chest.
“That is incredibly hurtful.”
“You were Level Four.”
“Still hurtful.”
“With Limited Necromancer.”
“Now you’re attacking my profession.”
Sivenne smiled.
“And I was wrong.”
That silenced him.
Briefly.
Maerin looked at Etzel.
“You notice things.”
Tessa added:
“And you don’t panic when those things are trying to kill you.”
“I absolutely panic.”
“You hide it well.”
“That’s called talent.”
Sivenne started walking.
“Next time, we’re charging you for tactical advice.”
Etzel frowned.
“I thought I was providing it.”
“Exactly. Start valuing yourself.”
He watched her walk away.
Then looked toward Maerin.
“Was that another compliment?”
“No.”
Tessa passed him.
“It was.”
Etzel smiled.
Eventually, their paths separated.
Not permanently.
They exchanged contact information.
Agreed to talk again after they recovered.
No grand promise.
No dramatic declaration of friendship.
Just—
“See you.”
And somehow, that felt more real.
Etzel walked toward home with DK beside him.
His body hurt.
His equipment was ruined.
His storage contained materials he couldn’t legally sell.
His new ability wasn’t going to give him answers.
He would still have to find those himself.
DK had remembered half a name.
And Etzel was now Level Five.
He opened a System window.
Checked his status.
Then stopped.
Near the bottom:
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Hunter Registry Status: UNREGISTERED │
│ Restricted Market Access │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel looked at the valuable materials in his storage.
Then toward the road home.
His family still knew none of this.
Not the Levels.
Not the dungeon.
Not DK’s true nature.
Not the Regent.
Not the fact that their son had just stood in front of something capable of killing him several times over.
Etzel dismissed the window.
He had survived a dungeon boss.
Somehow—
telling his family was beginning to look harder.
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