Jace’s eyes snapped open. His lungs burned as they sucked in desperate gasps of air—air he hadn’t even realized he was missing. Phantom aches rolled through his body, dull and distant, like echoes of pain long past.
His vision cleared slowly, and then he saw it. Cold stone, rough and worn, lay beneath him. Its dark and pitted surface pockmarked and stained almost black with something.
“What…” It was all he could rasp before he inhaled the layer of dust. The taste was acrid. He immediately coughed and began rubbing his tongue to the roof of his mouth, trying to get the taste out.
His eyes struggled to adjust to the dim, flickering greenish light. He just couldn't figure it out. Something felt really off about this whole place. It was hard to think, hard to focus. His thoughts were disoriented, and every movement he made caused his nausea to rise.
Green coloured torches lined the stone walls, their eerie glow casting elongated shadows that twisted and danced in the gloom. The stale rotting stench of death and decay stung his nose—thick, putrid, and heavy with the dampness of stale stagnant air.
He tried to take stock of his situation. His throat burned, his head throbbed, and nausea clawed at his gut, but none of it mattered as much as the one pressing question pounding in his skull.
"Where the hell am I?" His voice was harsh and sore. The room was dark, save for the area around him lit up green. Further out from the light, he could see pillars that led down a dark corridor shrouded in shadows.
He couldn't make sense of his surroundings. It didn't look like any hospital or morgue he'd ever seen, well, maybe it was closer to a morgue.
Slowly, he pushed himself onto his hands and knees—his stomach lurched. The unease finally came due. A violent heave tore through him, spilling only bile onto the already-stained stone, followed by dry retches that wracked his body until his stomach finally settled.
It took a few minutes until his stomach was void of contents. And a few more until his abdominal muscles slowly stopped seizing completely.
He wiped his mouth and sat back on his heels as he waited for his body to stop spasming. He looked up, rescanning the chamber in a daze. The tall, blackened pillars loomed around him, framing a massive archway lined with yellowed bones. That were an uneven patchwork of stone, ancient and worn, not from passage, but from the slow death of time. With skulls and bones interlaced around the architecture.
It looked oddly familiar. Too familiar.
'Is it an undercroft?' His mind was still foggy, but he felt it was at the tip of his brain.
No… more like something he remembered from not too long ago. Something important. A hobby, stress relief. It looked like…
'A fucking dungeon.'
The realization cut through the fog in his brain instantly.
He stuttered, trying to fit the pieces together when a blue box with white blocky letters covered his vision.
Error…
Unidentified User Found…
New User Is Unregistered…
Jace squinted at the strange message, trying to make sense of the words. “Unregistered User? I’m not dead… am I?”
Flashes of memory resurfaced. A boring day at work, the drive home, the random unforecasted storm.
His stomach dropped. A car crash. Blinding pain. Floating weightless in a void. Then… the cold, hard stone.
The message continued, heedless of his confusion.
User Identified as a Paragon...
Welcome, Newly Selected Paragon...
Please Register For System Usage…
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.
Jace’s breath hitched.
“Newly selected Paragon? System Usage...” The words felt wrong in his mouth, like they weren't meant for him. “What the H-”
Please Select Paragon Race…
Error…
Race Already Granted…
Jace frowned. "I already received what, my race? Of course I'm fucking human. What the hell does that even mean?"
Race Chosen- Soulborne
His mind drifted back to the void. He remembered more than just the void. There was something else. A strange, melodic voice. Even now, the memory of it clung to him like a half-remembered dream. Was this all tied to that?
More text flickered to life.
Please select Class…
Error…
Class already selected.
Jace stiffened. “Wait—Class? What does that mean?!” He felt his stomach roll again as the words left his mouth, and he clenched it back.
A creeping sense of unease settled in his gut. Something was going on here. Something so familiar but so very strange. It reminded him of video games. The kinds he would play nonstop as a kid and even more so as an adult. Yet, this wasn’t like any game he’d ever played. This was…real?
It felt real. It looked real. He looked to the light cast by the torches. Then, he looked down at the contents of his stomach, splayed beneath him. It all looked so real.
Compiling soul…
A sudden twinge rippled through him, like something deep inside had shifted—an unfamiliar pulse of power stirred beneath his skin deep in his chest.
And then, the final message appeared.
Paragon User Analysis Complete…
Welcome, Paragon...
Displaying Personal Character Sheet.
Name: Jace Halloway
Race: Soulborne (Unique)
Class: Soulreaver (Unregistered)
Level: Error...
(Current Class Unable To Gain Experience Points, Leveling Denied...)
Health: 120/120
Stamina: 63/63
Mana: 89/89
Strength: 10
Dexterity: 8
Endurance: 11
Intelligence: 9
Wisdom: 8
Jace’s pulse thundered in his ears, and his hands shook as he studied the rest of the sheet. A leveling system he couldn't use.
"What... How..."
He had access to stats, but if he couldn’t gain experience then what did that leave him with? The ominous selections of his race and class. What was all this?
He took a deep breath as he could and counted to four, then held it for four seconds, and finally exhaled for four seconds. He needed to think about this logically.
He wasn't on Earth anymore. He had died, horribly. Now, though, he was unsure. Was this life after death? Were these the last vestiges of his soul playing out some long fantasized scenario? Either way, he was here.
And more too that point, he had statistics. But something about his numbers stood out. His Endurance was high, which made sense—he’d spent years in construction, lifting, building, hauling. His Strength wasn’t bad either. Probably attributed to the same lifestyle.
But his Dexterity? ‘Higher than I expected…’
Maybe all that work in tight spaces, balancing loads, and climbing scaffolding had honed his reflexes more than he thought.
Maybe this was something of an afterlife. At least after his life, after his old life. But before he could dwell on it further, another notification appeared.
Boons Granted!
Title Boon
Titles: Paragon of %#^$@
Error with title.
ERROR: Restricted title ‘Paragon of %#^$@’ cannot be displayed properly.
Boons Granted!
Soulreaver Core!
Jace scowled. “Boons? A title and a core..."
It seemed everything so far had only given him no answers. Just more questions.
But the system wasn’t finished.
Survive the Hallows.
Jace swallowed hard. The room suddenly felt a whole lot colder.
Survive.
Not escape.
Not explore.
Survive.
His fingers curled into fists as he pushed himself to his feet, his legs still shaky but holding firm. His stomach was no longer in knots despite the new developments.
“Whatever this is… whatever happened to me… I’m not dying here. I don't know what this is, or where the hell I am, but I've already died once...”
A sound caught in his ear, stopping the words as soon as they came.
A groan.
Low, gurgling, hungry.
Jace turned toward it, his breath hitching as it caught sight of its source.
"What... in the actual... fuck..."
What do you think Jace should do next?
