Thirstfall - Memory of a Returnee

Veric comes back to the center of the hall and pulls one of the chairs away from the dais.

"Start from the beginning," he says. "And this time don’t leave out the part where we almost die."

I sit across from him.

"The dungeon’s called the Ferryman’s Toll. Rank C, a max of five people per entry, and a five percent completion rate."

Veric rests his arms on his knees. His hair falls over his eyes, and the tiredness from the hunting grounds still sits on his shoulders, but his attention has changed completely since I mentioned Rhayne.

"Where is it?"

"Northeast of the continent, in a region of abandoned canals. The entrance shows up at low tide and stays open for a little over six hours."

"Shows up?"

"The structure’s underwater the rest of the time. When the water drops, a staircase forms inside a drainage well. Once five people cross, the entrance closes."

Veric frowns.

"No pulling out the way you came in."

"Not after the dungeon starts."

"And the exit?"

"Depends on whether the offering’s accepted."

He stays quiet, waiting for the rest.

I lay out the route as plainly as I can. The Ferryman’s Toll is split into three crossings. In the first, the group has to push through flooded corridors while magic currents bound to the walls try to drag each member off in a different direction. The second part runs through a gallery of pillars where the guardians react to any attempt at using excessive force.

The altar sits past the third crossing, where there’s a boss.

"The place wasn’t built to be conquered," I say. "It was built to charge a toll. The harder someone tries to dominate it, the worse it reacts."

"And the pearls?"

"An accepted offering produces one Reentry Pearl. Each person gets one trade. You hand over a reliquary and get one back."

"So we need three offerings."

"Yes."

Veric looks at the portrait of Garen on the wall before coming back to me.

"And you told Rhayne the altar accepts this reliquary?"

"I did. And I stressed it doesn’t have to be something physical."

"And what does that mean?"

"I’m not explaining yet."

His expression closes.

"I asked you to start from the beginning."

"I’m explaining the path. Choosing the sacrifice works better without too much preparation."

"That sounds like an excuse to hide the worst part."

"The altar weighs what a person hands over and what it’s worth to them. If I tell you which forms of offering can be accepted, you’ll go in trying to build an answer. The dungeon notices that."

Veric spends a few seconds turning the explanation over.

"It reads minds?"

"Not exactly. It reads intent, bond, and loss. Money doesn’t matter. Weapons, armor, rare materials get refused when the owner feels nothing handing them over. Grieve the thing beforehand and you walk in already resigned to losing it—by then it’s worth nothing to the altar."

"That’s why the teams fail."

"Part of it. Most of them arrive carrying everything they think is expensive and nothing that would actually cost them to lose. When the altar refuses, they try to offer something else or force the pearl out."

"And the guardians wake up—"

I nod.

"The routes shift too. The water rises, the corridors split off, and each member gets a different exit. That’s how nearly every expedition ended. But I have a plan. A simple one, as it happens."

Veric leans back in the chair.

"You know what you’re going to offer?"

"I have a few options."

"That wasn’t an answer."

"It’s the only one I have."

The choice felt simple when I was only thinking about how the dungeon worked. I know objects tied to my family, to the past, to the people I’ve lost. Knowing which of them I could actually hand over is a different thing.

Veric doesn’t push.

"Why do you need me?"

"On the first crossing, the currents try to separate the team. They don’t just pull the body. They change the direction of the water and shift the walls to keep everyone from staying on the same route."

"Undertow’s current can keep us linked."

"That. And it can set anchor points and hold Zhang Xi and Rhayne without tying up the Battle Ribbon. If a current takes someone into another passage, we might not find them again before the altar."

He crosses his arms.

"And you?"

"Kraken can move on her own. I can use her as an anchor if I have to."

"You mean to drive a conscious sword into a wall and trust it not to decide to go after something else."

"She tends to cooperate when she feels important."

Veric looks at me long enough to make it clear that piece of information doesn’t reassure him.

"The second crossing?"

"Rank C stone guardians. They wake as the group lets out OXI. The more force we use, the more of them show up, plus a small puzzle that changes every entry."

"So Zhang Xi holds the defense, Rhayne controls the first ones, and I hold whatever gets through while you solve the puzzle."

"Exactly. While I open the way."

"Opening it with what?"

"I know every puzzle and the order of the pillars that shuts down part of the gallery."

"How?"

Veric lets out a breath.

"Never mind. You and your secrets. This is the part you always call a plan?"

"It’s the part that keeps everyone else alive even if the plan fails."

He doesn’t find that funny.

"Sands, we’re logging an external extraction route and leaving a team waiting through the whole six hours of low tide. If the first crossing shows any structural change, we assess before we continue. You don’t decide on your own that a difference is acceptable."

"Small differences are going to be unavoidable."

"Then the four of us decide."

"Three votes?"

"Consensus," he says, snapping his fingers.

"That makes any retreat slower."

"It makes it harder for you to drag us in because you spotted some new reward."

There’s no denying the worry has grounds.

"Fine."

Veric leans forward.

"Zhang Xi only goes in after she assesses Rhayne. Undertow gets used to hold the formation, not to recover someone after a stupid decision. If the dungeon separates a member, the rest don’t advance until we reestablish contact."

"Agreed."

"I also want access to whatever records you have on the earlier expeditions."

"I only have memories. Not full records."

"Send everything on the Forum."

I nod.

Veric runs a hand through his hair and looks at the staircase. The acceptance is already clear, but there’s something he still hasn’t said.

"There’s one more condition."

"What?"

He avoids my eyes for a second.

"Don’t tell Rhayne I’m coming."

It takes me a moment to answer.

"Why?"

"Just don’t."

"She’ll find out when you show up."

"That’s the point."

The answer explains nothing.

Veric stands, takes the glass off the table, and pours himself water. The way he keeps his hands busy and turns his face back to the documents has nothing to do with the dungeon. It doesn’t look like he’s setting up a pleasant surprise either.

Something happened between him and Rhayne.

I don’t know if they argued after the Team Battle, if Veric said something during her recovery, or if the tension goes back further. His discomfort doesn’t match someone just trying to dodge a round of thanks.

Veric looks more willing to discuss a dungeon with a five percent completion rate than to explain what happened between the two of them.

"Fine," I say. "She won’t hear it from me."

"Send the time when Zhang Xi clears the entry."

He goes back to his water, closing the conversation.

I stand and head for the exit. I’ve already reached the first column when a notification opens in front of my eyes.

[Hadal Notoriety +150]

I stop.

The number hangs in the center of my vision.

A hundred and fifty.

There’s no fight, no crowd, no important figure in front of me. Nothing just happened in the palace, and Veric doesn’t even know I’m looking at a screen.

"What is it?" he asks.

I don’t answer.

I open the Hadal Notoriety interface.

I expect a description, an origin, some sign of the event that caused the jump. Ocean’s Law offers nothing. It just updates the value, acknowledging that my name has taken on a weight I can’t trace.

Duvilin’s arrow could have crossed the broadcast networks of Azure Prime. Someone might have tied Uncle Den to the Silver Fang. The LDP sale could have reached other territories overnight.

There’s also the chance the notoriety came from none of that. For the Chaos Theory, anything is possible.

Maybe something recognized Duvilin.

Another message appears.

[Hadal Notoriety threshold reached.]

[Public Recognition Level increased.]

[Folk Character → Rising Star]

My skin goes cold.

The screen keeps opening.

[Hadal Notoriety Ranking unlocked.]

[Public Position: 998 / 1,000]

For a few seconds, I just stare at the number.

The ranking isn’t a decorative list. Being among the thousand most recognized names in Thirstfall means anyone with access to Ocean’s Law’s public function can find me.

I open the profile.

[HADAL NOTORIETY — PUBLIC RANKING]

[#998 — Dryden Sands]

[Public Alias: Death Angel, Uncle Den]

’Death Angel? So that’s what they call me. Embarrassing.’

[Current Rank: D — Coral]

[Recognition Status: Rising Star]

[Rumored Affiliation: Silver Fang]

Safe Harbor doesn’t show up.

That’s the only good part.

I scroll the list around my position.

[#997 — Rank B]

[#999 — Rank C]

[#1,000 — Rank C]

I keep going up.

Almost all of them are Rank C or higher. The few names below that level belong to nobles, heirs, religious representatives, or public figures protected by powerful organizations. People like Veric can enter the list before their strength catches up to it, because the surname already exists inside Thirstfall’s politics.

I don’t have that protection.

Veric is at 524.

My name shows up tied to a freshly launched commercial brand, a ridiculous alias, and a Rank D laid bare for anyone who cares to look.

"Sands?"

I share the public part of the screen with Veric.

He reads without a word. When he reaches the position and my Rank, the rest of the irritation leaves his face.

"You made the ranking."

"Position nine hundred ninety-eight."

"As a Rank D, with nobody covering your back."

Hearing him say it out loud makes it worse.

"A hundred and fifty points showed up just now."

"No reason?"

"The system never shows the reason."

Veric opens his own HUD and searches my name. How fast he finds it confirms how easy the access is.

"People are going to assume your Rank is hiding something."

"And the ones who believe it’s real will see me as easy prey."

"Those are the more dangerous ones."

I close the list, but the number stays in the corner of my vision.

Until this moment, someone had to follow the Oathring, dig into the Silver Fang, or catch rumors about Uncle Den to reach me. Now my name sits on a list used by guilds, hunters, families, and Divers chasing reputation.

Beating someone on the ranking generates recognition, fame, and Hadal Notoriety almost instantly.

Some would try to recruit me. Others would try to work out how a Rank D controlled an entity as powerful as Duvilin, survived Freya, and turned a Team Battle into a commercial operation.

There are also the ones who wouldn’t care about explanations.

They’d see only an exposed name, a low Rank, and a position that could be taken.

"Don’t leave through the main gate," Veric says. "It’s still early for anyone to be waiting, but we don’t know who got the update alert."

"Alerts exist?"

"For ranking changes. Larger houses track new entries, especially when the name shows up near the bottom threshold."

I look at the empty hall.

I’d planned to get the last four percent inside the Ferryman’s Toll. Waiting two or three days seemed fine when the only pressure came from the Deep Asylum.

Now every hour as a Rank D raises the risk.

An ambush before the dungeon could hurt Rhayne, Zhang Xi, or anyone close to me. If I were forced to summon Duvilin again, my notoriety could climb even higher. If I used Kraken or Eventide in public, I’d hand new information to people already looking.

I need to finish the progression.

I can’t wait for the dungeon.

"I’m going to the Academy fields," I say.

Veric closes the screen with my profile.

"Now?"

"I need the four percent."

"Filling the bar doesn’t mean breaking the barrier."

"It means I can start."

He understands.

Rank C would still demand a real breakthrough, but sitting at ninety-six percent while my name circulated among people much stronger left me exposed for no reason.

Before Veric can answer, a new pressure crosses my HUD.

The earlier messages vanish.

[Causal Exposure Threshold reached.]

My stomach tightens.

[Chaos Theory has evolved.]

[Previous Status: Marked by the Tide]

[New Status: Targeted by the Riptide]

I open the skill.

[Passive Skill: Chaos Theory]

[Unique Passive Trait: Causal Dissonance]

[Current Status: Targeted by the Riptide]

[Curse Amplification increased by 25%.]

[Blessing Amplification increased by 25%.]

[New Passive Effect acquired.]

The last line takes longer to surface.

[Anomalous Event Generation]

[Causal Dissonance now has a small probability of generating an Anomalous Event.]

I read the description again.

Before, Chaos Theory altered events that already existed. It raised risks, rewards, and consequences because my actions pulled the future off its original route.

The new passive doesn’t need to wait for something to happen.

Now it can create its own event.

’Just what I needed.’

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