I should pull back. Pushing myself like this is only going to get myself killed.

The golem stepped forward and brought its stone fist crashing down. Jinyoung held his ground until the last millisecond and used [dash]. He moved out of the way and held up his hand to protect against the force of the shockwave. His sword was chipped to the core and his eyes burned from being held open so long.

The golem slowly turned around and Jinyoung’s [scan] told him that another attack was coming (obviously). Normally, he’d have killed the golem and used the black shrine to heal, but he was so close he could taste it. He was nearly free.

Just one more.

Again, the golem raised his arm and brought it down. And just like he always had, Jinyoung held his breath. Waited until the last second and then… [dash]!

The golem froze. And then it seemed to waver a bit before it collapsed back into rubble.

QUEST COMPLETE.

“Holy shit,” Jinyoung croaked. It felt like ages since he’d spoken. Even to himself.

QUEST: The PATH of the STARS

Objective: Complete one of the following:

500 Perfect Dodges (COMPLETED) or,

50 Perfect Parries.

Reward: 1 CLA-S SK-LL point

Something was wrong. The reward condition had broken text.

“What is that-”

ERROR 0402K. VARIABLE not found. Processing…

Loading… OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES boot :: checkpoint not available

|| Reboot imminent ||

The dull white landscape glowed a concerning red.

MEMORY dump… ACCESS DENIED.

Attempting reboot… ACCESS DENIED.

<root> directory checkpoint… FAILED.

The text went on and on until the panic in Jinyoung’s chest grew and grew. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good. The quest was simple enough and he’d never heard of any cases of a system error like this. Or any error actually.

Error limit (10). System will reset QUEST once error limit is reached.

WHAT!?

<root> access… ACCESS DENIED. Error (1)

accessing security protocols… ACCESS DENIED. Error (2)

accessing UID protocols… ACCESS DENIED. Error (3)

accessing <class> directory… GRANTED.

…generating new variable… ACCESS GRANTED.

The system blinked. Jinyoung awaited his fate. Whatever this was, it was better than dying at the hands of the golem.

NOTICE: QUEST COMPLETED.

PLAYER does not have variable=CLASS.

1 CLASS SKILL point cannot be granted to PLAYER.

PLAYER will be granted variable=CLASS.

Accept

“The system can’t give me a class skill point because I don’t have a class. So, it’s giving me a class?” It strained his mind to believe that the system would be giving him a class for free, but he had to assume that it didn’t have a choice. The notice didn’t even give him an option to say no.

“Fine, if it gets me out of here.”

***

The light was blinding. Just like it had been when the black shrine had first taken him. But slowly the light faded and… he almost didn’t recognize where he was. It took Jinyoung a second to realize that he was still in the antechamber of the dungeon, but the sky was directly overhead. The ruins that he’d seen before were replaced with newer structures and a steady stream of people were walking around him. People who were now stopping to stare and this man who had suddenly appeared.

Jinyoung took a step forward and immediately fell forward. He looked down to see a plaque that read:

In Memory of the players lost in Defense of Humanity

Next to it, someone had scrawled something almost unintelligible.

As Jinyoung stood in the center of the square, the crowd watched in wonder as the black shrine faded and then disappeared completely.

“Shit. It’s him.”