The Goblin Who Devoured Fate

The tunnels stretched endlessly before us, the flickering torchlight casting eerie shadows on the rough stone walls. The air was thick with the scent of blood—and we were still too close to the scene of the fight.

I clutched the egg tightly. Every instinct in my body screamed that we had to keep moving.

Rhia jogged beside me, her breathing steady despite the exhaustion. "Leon, that one guy escaped. He'll bring reinforcements."

I gritted my teeth. "I know."

We had two options:

Find a place to hide and recover. Risky, since the cultists knew these tunnels better than we did.Keep running until we reached the surface. But if we ran into another patrol, we'd be in even bigger trouble.

Neither was great, but…

I wasn't about to die here.

The System's Guidance

[System Notification!]

[Survival Route Detected – Hidden Pathway Nearby][Would you like to reveal the path?][Y/N]

I hesitated. A hidden path? That could be a trap.

But right now, I didn't have a better choice.

"…Yes."

The system's interface shifted, and suddenly, a faint glow appeared on the tunnel wall ahead. It was subtle—just a barely visible seam in the stone.

Rhia saw it too. "A secret door?"

"Looks like it." I hurried over, feeling along the surface. With a slight push, the stone slid inward with a soft click.

Behind it—a narrow passage leading deeper underground.

"…I don't like this," Rhia muttered. "But it's better than waiting to get ambushed."

I nodded. We stepped inside, sealing the door behind us.

The Forgotten Chamber

The tunnel sloped downward. The deeper we went, the colder the air became.

Eventually, the narrow passage opened into a massive underground chamber.

And at the center of it—

A shrine.

Ancient. Abandoned. Covered in strange markings.

Rhia stepped forward cautiously. "What… is this place?"

I didn't know. But something about it made my skin crawl.

And then—

[System Notification!]

[Location Discovered: Ruins of the Forsaken][Warning: Presence of Sealed Entity Detected]

My stomach twisted.

Something was sealed here?

And we had just walked right into it.