NOVEL WEB Chapter 18: The Awakening Ritual
The journey back to the ruins felt different this time. Where their first expedition had been tentative exploration into unknown territory, this was a purposeful march toward something momentous. Guppi had managed to secure not only the deed to the land containing the ruins, but a substantial area surrounding it as well—a smart investment if Fabledeep truly proved to be the legendary content he believed it to be.
As they walked, Lunessa took the opportunity to examine her character progression. Reaching level 10 felt like a genuine milestone, and the stat increases were substantial enough to notice.
💠 Core Identity
Name: Lunessa
Class: Nightblade
Level: 10
Guild: None
Titles: Veteran Adventurer
💥 Primary Stats
Vitality: 21
Focus: 21
Might: 17
Finesse: 37
Will: 17
Insight: 27
🧬 Secondary Values
HP: 210/210 Focus: 210/210
Loadout: Shadowsteel Daggers, Duskwrap Leathers (+stealth duration, +evasion), Traveler's Pack
Auras/Buffs: None active
📜 Traits & Skills
Passive Traits:
Darkvision: See clearly in total darkness
Shadow Affinity: +15% to stealth & shadow magic effectiveness
Keen Senses: Boosted detection for traps, secrets, hidden enemies
Elusive Frame: (New) Evading an attack grants +10% evasion for 4 sec (stacks once)
Equipped Skills:
Shadowstep: Instantly teleport up to 15 feet to any shadow within line of sight. Cooldown: 45 sec
Fade: Slip partially into shadow, reducing detection radius and gaining bonus movement speed. Attacking breaks the effect.
Umbra Dagger: Conjure a throwing blade formed of solidified shadow. Deals minor damage and marks the target for 6 seconds. Striking a marked enemy from stealth deals bonus critical damage.
Shadow Flurry: Unleash four rapid stabs in a deadly burst. Final hit automatically crits if the target is marked. If cast from stealth, the first hit stuns for 1 sec. Each strike has a 10% chance to apply Bleed of the Veil (stacking shadow damage over 6 sec). Cooldown: 40 sec
Her new passive trait, Elusive Frame, felt modest but practical.
She'd also learned that abilities came every five levels, which meant her next major upgrade wouldn't be until level 15. But there were other ways to acquire skills—special skillbook drops, unique quest rewards, achievements, rare trainer NPCs, hidden skill shrines, and even crafting certain items. The possibilities for character customization seemed nearly endless.
Guppi walked beside them, his excitement barely contained as he clutched an ornate ebony box against his chest. The container was covered in glowing runes that pulsed with soft light, and the party could feel the magical energy radiating from it even at a distance. Whatever was inside had to be worth a fortune.
"Are you sure those components are safe to transport like that?" Serein asked, eyeing the magical container with professional concern. "Some of those items sounded incredibly volatile."
"Safe, perfectly secure!" Guppi replied, though his grip on the box tightened. "Dimensional storage with stasis enchantments, temporal suspension! The items exist in a suspended state, frozen moment—no degradation, no interaction, no instability!"
The return journey proved much faster than their initial exploration. The monsters in the area had respawned, but at their current level the dire wolves and fanged deer posed little threat. They cut through the opposition with practiced efficiency, their teamwork honed by hours of combat experience.
When the ruins came into view, Guppi's excitement reached a new peak. His eyes went wide as he took in the ancient stonework, the moss-covered walls, the architectural details that spoke of incredible age and forgotten purpose.
"Magnificent, absolutely magnificent!" he croaked, his throat sac inflating with awe. "The craftsmanship, the preservation—this place has stood for millennia, countless ages!"
They made their way through the familiar breach in the outer wall, past the courtyard where they had fought the stone sentinels, and into the central keep. Guppi examined everything with the intensity of a scholar discovering a lost library, his independent eyes tracking different architectural features simultaneously.
But when his gaze finally fell upon the portal itself, he froze completely.
For a long moment, he simply stared at the massive archway, his throat sac slowly deflating as the reality of what he was seeing sank in. Then he began making excited croaking sounds that might have been laughter or sobs of joy.
"It's real, it's actually real!" he exclaimed, rushing toward the portal with surprising speed for someone his size. "All the ancient texts, the half-remembered legends, the fragmentary references—they were all true, completely accurate!"
He circled the archway like a pilgrimage site, his hands hovering just above the carved surface as he traced the intricate patterns and symbols. The portal remained dark and inactive, but even in its dormant state it radiated an aura of immense power and antiquity.
"Marvelous, absolutely marvelous!" he continued, his normal speech patterns completely abandoned in his excitement. "The construction techniques, the runic integration—this is work from the earliest ages of Aetherion, the foundation period!"
The party gave him several minutes to compose himself, understanding that this moment represented the culmination of years of research and hope. Finally, Lunessa cleared her throat gently.
"Guppi, should we begin the activation ritual?"
The amphibian merchant nodded enthusiastically, though his hands were visibly trembling as he opened the ebony container. "Yes, yes—the time has come, the moment arrives! But I must warn you, caution you—the ritual requires multiple participants, several people. The magical resonance is too complex for a single individual, too demanding!"
He reached into the box and began withdrawing items, each one somehow larger than the container should have been able to hold. Spudicus leaned forward with obvious fascination, his mechanical mind trying to understand the dimensional enchantments at work.
"Spatial folding," he murmured appreciatively. "That's some seriously advanced magic right there."
The first item Guppi removed was a large, crystalline sphere containing what appeared to be a flame of impossible colors—gold and silver fire that flickered and danced within its transparent prison. Heat radiated from the Core of the Forgotten Flame even through its containment, making the air around it shimmer.
"Serein, if you would hold this—" Guppi began, extending the sphere toward the nature-loving healer.
"Absolutely not," Serein said, backing away from the intense heat. "That thing would probably ignite my bark skin."
"I'll take it," Nira said eagerly, accepting the sphere with obvious delight. The flames within seemed to respond to her presence, burning brighter and more vibrantly. "Oh, this is beautiful. I can feel the fire's history—it's ancient, primal. This flame has burned since the world was young."
The second item made even Nira recoil. The Inkheart was exactly what its name suggested—a large, black heart that continued beating with slow, rhythmic pulses. Viscous black liquid oozed from its surface, dripping to the ground where it left stains that seemed to absorb light.
"What the hell is that thing?" Nira demanded, her usual enthusiasm replaced by disgust as Guppi attempted to hand it to her.
"The heart of an Ink Wraith, a script phantom," Guppi explained matter-of-factly. "Creatures born from stories left unfinished, tales abandoned. Their hearts continue to beat with the rhythm of incomplete narratives, unresolved plots."
"I am not touching that," Nira said flatly.
Serein sighed and accepted the grotesque organ with obvious reluctance, holding it as far from his body as possible. "The things I do for this party," he muttered.
The third component was the Shard of the Echoing Seal, and it went to Spudicus. The crystalline fragment pulsed with prismatic energy, cycling through every color of the spectrum in mesmerizing patterns. The moment he grasped it, the entire party felt a surge of energy—strength, confidence, and readiness for whatever lay ahead.
"Can you hear anything from it?" Lunessa asked, remembering the name.
Spudicus held the shard to his ear and listened intently. "Nothing. Just a faint humming, like distant machinery. Maybe it only echoes at certain frequencies?"
Ironstride received the Thread of Moonwoven Silk, which appeared to be exactly what it sounded like—silvery thread that shimmered with its own internal light. The strand was impossibly fine yet clearly strong, and it seemed to move with a life of its own, responding to the moonlight filtering through the ruined roof.
"Silk from dream-spiders, sleep weavers," Guppi explained as he passed the thread to the Emberforged warrior. "They spin their webs in the spaces between sleeping and waking, the liminal boundaries. This thread has the power to bind different states of reality, separate dimensions."
Finally, Lunessa received the Tear of the Hollow Muse. The artifact was crystalline in form, perfectly clear except for what appeared to be a sphere of absolute darkness suspended at its center. Looking at it too directly made her eyes water, as if the void within was drawing in light and leaving only emptiness behind.
"The tear of a muse who forgot her own song, lost her inspiration," Guppi said softly. "It contains the essence of creative loss, artistic despair. But also the potential for rebirth, renewal—for every ending creates space for new beginnings, fresh starts."
With all the components distributed, Guppi positioned them in an arc facing the portal, each party member holding their assigned artifact. He pulled out a scroll covered in ancient script, the parchment so old it seemed ready to crumble at the slightest touch.
"The ritual begins now, the awakening commences," he announced, his voice taking on a formal, ceremonial tone as he began to read from the ancient text.
"First, we place the ember's core—
The flame once lost behind sealed door.
It lights the path with smoldered breath,
A memory warmed from ancient death."
As he spoke the words, the Core of the Forgotten Flame began to glow more brightly in Nira's hands. Then, without warning, it tore itself from her grasp and flew directly into the center of the portal archway, where it shattered like glass against the empty air. The flames within didn't die—instead, they spread outward, racing along the carved runes and symbols covering the arch's surface. The ancient stonework began to glow with golden-silver fire, each symbol igniting in sequence like a chain reaction.
"Second, the tear the muse let fall,
A grief too old for bards to call.
It sings of truth we dared not keep,
And stirs the vaults where secrets sleep."
The Tear of the Hollow Muse pulled away from Lunessa's fingers, floating upward before shattering against the flaming runes. The darkness within spread like ink through water, creating deep shadows that interplayed with the fire in impossible ways. Where darkness and flame met, new symbols began to appear—script that seemed to write itself across the archway's surface.
"Third, weave the moonspun thread,
Drawn from silk where dreamers tread.
It binds the veil with twilight seam,
A stitch between the world and dream."
Ironstride's Thread of Moonwoven Silk unraveled itself from his metallic fingers, stretching impossibly thin as it wove itself through the fire and shadow covering the portal. The silvery strand created intricate patterns, binding the conflicting energies together and creating a framework that pulsed with soft, lunar light.
"Fourth, the heart of ink and shade,
Where quiet hands and tales are made.
Its pulse was stilled, but not erased—
The gate shall read what time misplaced."
The Inkheart floated away from Serein with obvious relief on his part, positioning itself at the very center of the archway. Its rhythmic beating synchronized with the pulsing light of the portal, and with each pulse, more script appeared on the stonework—words in languages both ancient and unborn, stories that had been forgotten and tales yet to be told.
"Fifth, the shard of broken sound,
Once sealed beneath the hollow ground.
Its voice returns to mark the key—
One final note to set it free."
The Shard of the Echoing Seal was the last to join the ritual, floating upward until it reached the apex of the arch. There it shattered with a sound like crystal bells, but instead of silence, the chamber filled with a deep, resonant note that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. The sound built in intensity, harmonizing with itself until the entire keep was vibrating with musical energy.
Guppi raised his voice above the growing resonance for the final lines of the ritual:
"Now—
With flame and thread, with tear and mark,
With ink and echo in the dark,
We call the Deep, we call the Lore,
To wake the Fable, unseal the door."
The effect was immediate and overwhelming. The portal archway exploded with light—not the harsh glare of the sun, but something deeper and more complex. Colors that had no names swirled within the frame, and through them, glimpses of something beyond could be seen. Not another place, but another kind of place—somewhere that existed according to different rules, where stories had physical weight and imagination could reshape reality.
The party stood in stunned silence, none of them having expected anything quite so dramatic. They had anticipated a simple activation, maybe some glowing runes and a functional portal. Instead, they had witnessed something that felt like the birth of a legend.
The silence was broken by a series of notifications that appeared not just to them, but according to the system announcements, to every player in Aetherion Realms Online.
WORLD EVENT: THE FABLEDEEP AWAKENS For the first time in millennia, the legendary dungeon Fabledeep has been opened by the actions of brave adventurers. The realm of stories and imagination once again welcomes those bold enough to enter its halls.
Achievement Unlocked: Awakener of Legends Be among the first to open the portal to Fabledeep.
Reward: +3 to all primary stats, Title: "Legend Forger", Unique Portal Stone (Fabledeep)
Regional Announcement: The portal to Fabledeep now stands open in the ruins northeast of Hammerfall. Adventure awaits those who dare to explore where stories become reality.
"Holy shit," Spudicus said, staring at his achievement notifications. "This is going out to everyone? Every single player in the game?"
"We just announced to the entire server that there's legendary content here," Ironstride said, his voice tight with sudden realization. "How long do you think it'll be before every player in the game starts heading this way to investigate?"
Lunessa was already thinking tactically. "We need to get inside first. Right now, we're the only ones who know exactly where this is and how to access it. That advantage won't last long once people start sharing coordinates and screenshots."
Guppi, meanwhile, was practically vibrating with excitement and terror in equal measure. "It worked, it actually worked! But oh dear, oh my—this is going to bring attention, enormous attention! I must establish security, hire guards, set up infrastructure!"
Through the portal, they could see hints of what lay beyond—stone corridors lit by an otherworldly glow, chambers that seemed to shift and change when viewed from different angles, and in the distance, something that might have been a village or might have been something else entirely.
"So," Nira said, her voice filled with anticipation, "who wants to be the first to step through a legendary portal?"
The others looked at each other, the weight of the moment settling over them. They had expected a simple quest completion and maybe some decent loot. Instead, they had become part of gaming history, the first players to open content that would likely be talked about for years to come.
Lunessa stepped forward, her hand reaching toward the swirling energies of the portal. "After everything we've been through to get here? I think we've earned the right to see what's on the other side."
As her fingers touched the edge of the portal, reality rippled around them, and they prepared to enter a realm where the laws of physics bowed to the power of narrative and anything was possible.