The silence in the central chamber was absolute, a heavy blanket pressed down where a storm of light and mana had raged moments before.

The only sound was my own ragged breathing, each gasp echoing too loudly in the vast, empty vault.

I was on my hands and knees, my forehead pressed against the cold, reflective black stone. My entire body felt like it had been struck by a high-speed train.

A dull, pounding throb pulsed behind my eyes, the familiar and agonizing signature of spatial magic backlash.

Blood dripped slowly from my nose onto the floor, the metallic tang thick in my mouth. My mana core felt less like a reservoir and more like a shriveled, aching void.

But I'm alive.

The thought was a defiant spark in a sea of exhaustion. I'd faced a B-Rank construct, a guardian of light, and won.

It was a victory won by a razor's edge of calculation, a desperate gamble that had pushed my E+ body and unrefined affinities far beyond their breaking point.

After a long minute, I forced myself to move, gritting my teeth against the wave of nausea that rolled over me.

I pushed myself into a sitting position, my back slumping against the bottom step of the central dais. Draken lay beside me, its dark blade inert, no longer humming with the fused power I had poured into it.

"Fuuu…" I let out a long, shaky breath, the mist of it visible in the chamber's lingering chill. "Right… That... was unpleasant."

My body needed to recover, but my mind was already turning, analyzing. I needed to see the results. I needed to see what this agonizing fight had earned me.

"System," I rasped, my voice hoarse. "Show me the quest rewards."

The familiar blue panel flickered to life in front of my face. Its clean, logical light was a profound comfort after the chaotic, raw power of the battle.

[Dungeon Quest Complete: Echoes of the Forgotten Sun]

[Objective 1: Reach the Central Vault Chamber - Complete.]

[Objective 2: Defeat the Vault Guardian - Complete.]

[Rewards Issued:]

[+15 Unallocated Stat Points]

[+30,000 SP]

[1x Rare Material Cache (Item)]

My gaze immediately went to the stat points. Fifteen. A solid reward for a C-Rank dungeon, especially one with a B-Rank boss. My body was screaming for reinforcement.

'Allocate,' I thought, my mind sluggishly sorting priorities.

The spatial jump had stressed my core, the fight had drained my stamina, and my agility had barely been enough.

'Ten points to Endurance, to solidify my core and resilience against this kind of backlash. Five points to Agility.'

[STATUS UPDATE]

[ENC: 92 -> 102]

[AGI: 149 -> 154]

[Unallocated Stats: 0]

A faint, restorative warmth spread through my limbs as the points were allocated.

It wasn't a full heal, but the violent trembling in my muscles subsided, the world stabilized, and the screaming throb in my head dulled to a manageable ache.

[SP: 224,720 -> 254,720]

Good. The SP pool was growing respectable, funding my future skill evolutions and, more immediately, my business ventures.

I opened the [Rare Material Cache] from my inventory. The boxy icon dissolved, replaced by images of several high-grade materials: five Shadow-Veil Silks, a chunk of C-Rank Mithril Ore, and, most importantly, two vials of 'Concentrated Sunpetal Dew' – a refined version of the flower I'd just acquired.

The system had processed the quest and provided related, high-quality loot. This was excellent; it saved me the trouble of trying to refine the raw flower myself.

The cure for Master Thorne was secure.

I was about to close the log when I noticed a line I'd almost missed in my exhaustion.

[Optional Objective: Uncover the source of the dungeon's whispers (Incomplete)]

My gaze drifted from the screen to the black stone dais I was leaning against.

The 'heart' of the vault. The Solara Votary was just the guardian; the 'sleeping sun' it protected was the platform itself, the epicenter of the energy I had attacked.

The whispers had come from here, filled with sorrow and dread.

I forced myself to my feet, using Draken as a crutch. My legs still felt like overcooked noodles, but the stat-point allocation had returned some small measure of strength.

I limped up the ten steps, back onto the main platform where the construct had dissolved.

The swirling energy distortion was gone. The oppressive mana density had vanished.

The platform was just... a platform of cold, black stone. But as I scanned its surface, my eyes caught it – a faint, circular seam, almost invisible, etched into the center.

And carved perfectly in the middle of that circle was the 'forgotten sun' sigil, the same one that had opened the dungeon's entrance.

I remembered the map's instructions: press the sigil.

I placed my hand on the carving. It was cold, inert. I pushed a small, probing thread of mana into it.

Shhhk…

There was no grinding of stone. Instead, the circular seam glowed with a soft, golden light. The stone within the circle didn't move; it dissolved, fading into harmless motes of light, revealing a small, perfectly round compartment within the dais.

It was a hidden cache, sealed not by mechanics, but by a mana-based illusion key.

Inside, resting on a pile of what had once been velvet but was now just brittle, black dust, lay a single object. It was a smooth, palm-sized, milky-white stone.

It looked like an ordinary river stone, utterly unremarkable, except for the faint, sorrowful aura it radiated, a psychic cold that made the air around it feel heavy.

…so tired… at last…

The whisper was clear, coming directly from the stone. It wasn't a warning, but a sigh of profound, ancient relief.

I reached in, my fingers brushing its cool surface.

[Item Detected: Heart of the Vault (Unique Quest Item)]

[Description: A psychic capacitor. This stone contains the collective consciousness and final memories of the vault's original inhabitants, who sealed themselves here to escape an unknown cataclysm. Their trapped sorrow and fear, amplified over millennia, created the dungeon's psychic interference (The Whispers).]

[Effect: Contains the last echo of a forgotten civilization.]

[Optional Objective Complete: Source of whispers uncovered.]

[Rewards Issued:]

[+10,000 SP]

[1x Unique Skill Scroll Fragment (Item)]

[SP: 254,720 -> 264,720]

A skill scroll fragment. Valuable. But more than that, as I picked up the Heart of the Vault, the oppressive, sorrowful atmosphere of the entire dungeon vanished.

The whispers ceased. The psychic static that had been scraping at my mind since I entered simply... stopped.

…thank you… intruder… rest, at last…

The final whisper faded, and the stone in my hand turned a dull, lifeless grey, its aura gone. Its purpose was served, its inhabitants finally at peace. I placed the inert stone in my inventory. Whatever civilization built this place, their final echo was now silent.

A new sound reached my ears – a low, heavy GRIND of stone on stone.

My head snapped up. On the far side of the chamber, directly opposite the corridor I had entered from, a section of the massive wall was sliding open, revealing a new tunnel. This one, however, was different. It wasn't dark and dripping; it was bathed in bright, natural sunlight.

The exit.

[System Notification: Dungeon integrity failing. Dimensional anchor (Vault Guardian) has been neutralized. Estimated structural collapse in: 00:59:47]

"Right. Definitely time to go."

I limped towards the exit, my body screaming in protest with every step. The tunnel sloped sharply upwards, and the air grew warmer, fresher, carrying the familiar scent of pine and grass.

After a final, exhausting climb, I stumbled out of the tunnel and collapsed onto soft, sun-warmed grass, the smell of the forest filling my lungs. I gasped, the clean, mundane air of the Grey Hills feeling like the sweetest nectar.

Behind me, there was a final, low thud.

I turned, pushing myself up on one elbow. The tunnel I had just exited was gone. In its place was just a flat, unremarkable cliff face, covered in ivy, as if no opening had ever existed.

I checked the weeping stones on the hill above. The monolith's golden sigil was dark, the stone cold and normal. The dungeon had sealed itself, its purpose fulfilled, its spirits at rest.

I lay on my back, staring up at the bright blue sky, clouds drifting lazily overhead. My body was a tapestry of pain, my mana core was empty, and I was covered in my own dried blood, dirt, and sweat.

But I was alive. I had the cure for Master Thorne. I had the quest rewards. I had won.

A pained, ragged grin split my face.

"Now for the hard part," I muttered to the sky, my voice hoarse. "Walking all the way back to Selorn City… and pretending I spent the last three hours doing light aura training."

My alibi was looking thinner by the second.

_____

For a long moment, I just lay there on the grass, letting the mundane warmth of the real sun soak into my skin.

The contrast was almost sickening. Minutes ago, I was in a lightless vault, fighting a B-Rank construct of pure energy, tearing reality with a blade that housed a dragon's soul.

(To be continued )

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