The statue stood about waist-high, carved in the shape of an ancient figure, with a opening in its base .It was a detail easily missed by anyone passing by, but Soobin knew it was the key to unlocking something greater.

Kneeling before the statue, Soobin couldn’t help but mutter, "So this is where it all started…" He glanced up at the massive tree behind the statue, its bark twisted and dark, radiating shadow energy. “It looks just as eerie as I imagined.”

His fingers brushed over the small opening in the base of the statue. "just a little more " The tension in his voice betrayed his nervousness. He pulled the wolf’s nuclei core from his pocket and stared at it for a moment, its surface glowing faintly with dark energy. His heart pounded in his chest as he held it over the opening.

'Here goes nothing,' he thought, placing the core inside.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, without warning, a low rumble shook the ground beneath his feet. A sudden thud echoed through the clearing, and before he could react, the ground opened up beneath him.

"Shit!" Soobin yelled, but it was too late. The earth swallowed him whole as the land collapsed, sending him tumbling into the darkness below.

He hit the ground with a hard thump, groaning as he rolled over onto his back. His body ached, but nothing felt broken. As he lay there, staring up at the faint outline of the hole above, he let out a breathless laugh. “Well... that was one hell of a trap.” he felt confused, 'this was not written in the novel at all'.

The air down here was cool, damp. He could hear the faint drip of water somewhere in the distance. Slowly, Soobin sat up, his eyes adjusting to the dim light filtering through the hole above. His heart was still racing from the fall, but a strange sense of excitement welled up within him. Now he recognized the place.

He was exactly where the original protagonist had been—right at the cusp of something extraordinary.

Soobin groaned as he pushed himself up, dusting off his clothes. His body ached from the fall, but what lay before him quickly erased the pain. He found himself in a massive clearing, unlike anything he had ever seen. The entire place was bathed in soft light from luminescent plants scattered across the ground, their vibrant colors glowing in purples, blues, and golds. It looked like something out of a dream—a mystical garden untouched by time. The air here felt thick with spirit energy, like it hummed with life itself. It was a place that almost felt alive, as if the very ground beneath his feet was aware of his presence.

Soobin was amazed by this, how can there be spirit energy in a place just under a high concentrated shadow energy zone? he didnt understand the phenomenon. The place was lit with glowing plants, orbs , he could literally see orbs or droplets of spirit energy in the air, such high was its concentration there.

In the center of this ethereal scene stood a pedestal. And attached to it were two objects—the very items he had come searching for: the ring and the sword.

The ring glinted faintly, glowing with a soft, pulsing light, while the sword—a sleek, beautiful blade with a blue blade and a white rim—sat firmly embedded into the pedestal beside it. The sight of the two sent a wave of excitement through Soobin’s chest.

“None of this was in the novel,” he muttered, scratching his head in confusion. The book only described the ring and sword appearing after the orb was placed, with nothing about this magical, otherworldly clearing.

He took a deep breath and steadied himself. As he began walking towards the pedestal, his heartbeat quickened. If his hunch was right—if this ring was what he thought it was—everything could change. He could gain something even the original protagonist couldn’t grasp.

Soobin’s heart began to race as he approached the ring. His pulse quickened with every step, a sense of anticipation building inside him.

His breath hitched as he reached out, fingers trembling. The moment his skin touched the cold surface of the ring, sparks erupted, lighting up the entire clearing in a brilliant display of energy. Just how the light spread across the whole clearing, a second after that in a similar but opposite fashion, everything got sucked into the ring. It felt as if the entire spirit energy of this cave was pulled towards that certain point. He stumbled back, eyes wide as the sparks intensified. "Ahhh... what the hell is going on" he shouted, Then—boom—a flash of light blinded him momentarily, and suddenly, a holographic screen materialized in front of him, hovering just like it had for the original protagonist.

But this time, something was different. The screen wasn’t red as he remembered from the novel, Instead, the screen shimmered in a calm, vibrant green, the words flickering across it like a heartbeat.

NO SPIRIT CORES DETECTED... COMPATIBILITY ACCEPTED.

LEGACY ARTIFACT ACTIVATED...

A surge of adrenaline shot through his veins. His breathing grew shallow, heart pounding as the realization hit him. This was it. The thing the original protagonist couldn’t use because of his spirit core. The relic that had only made a brief appearance before vanishing from the story.

His hunch was right.

His head swam with the sheer thrill of it, the pieces clicking into place. In front of him, glowing and alive with potential, was the very thing that could change his fate.

In front of him was... the status window.