Man-made Story

Reading through the diary, Frederick noticed that the diary had been written during the 7th generation of candidates. It was a diary that recorded the most important events of the author's life and most importantly, information about the Chronicles.

After a few hours of intense reading, he soon neared the conclusion of the diary, Frederick observed a sudden deterioration in the handwriting. The script became increasingly sloppy, vague, and confusing. Initially puzzled, he soon grasped the reason as he continued reading. Turning, to the last page, the diary ended with a simple message. 

"I can't do this anymore... I am tired. So tired. If anyone sees this diary then... Fuck you."

'I see. So that's what happened... Her story is pretty tragic' thought Frederick as a smile appeared on his face. However, it was not a smile of pity or compassion but rather a mocking one.

This tall skeleton was actually the one of a woman. If Frederick had to do a rough summary of the author's life then it would be something along the lines of:

Her name was Aake Krisoch, an authority smith. She lived in a realm called "Poesie" with her two brothers and parents before the Chronicles. She had spent her whole life there with them. Her family was well off and her life was peaceful. But then, the Chronicles started.

One day, they were teleported together along with a few thousand people to the main hub world. It was peaceful despite a general confusion the first few days however, they soon realized it would not last. Soon enough, candidates started killing each other to obtain ... 'food'. Although they emerged right next to a gate, they still did not know exactly what it was.

Escaping the place where they initially appeared, they soon entered a forest of giant trees. They thought those woods would be safe as there was none. They even found one of those resource crates which was full of food.

Little did they know that the forest was empty of anyone for a reason. While there were indeed numerous food crates within the woods, it was also infested with the same clawed monsters that had previously killed Frederick.

In just a few days, her parents sacrificed themself to lure those creatures away from the siblings. This event devasted the siblings and they had to forcefully adapt to their new world. Luckily for them, their authority was valuable in the eyes of some groups of survivors and was then accepted into the "Hill Town", one of the countless settlements that had a gate to side stories in the Main hub world. 

They were successful in earning a living, but their past traumatic experience changed them and they had become more selfish and greedy. This greed was actually what doomed them. 

During the main story, the youngest brother, despite having Dark Veil, an authority capable of extreme stealth, fails to steal an authority item from a formidable candidate. In a desperate bid to save his brother's life, the older brother risked everything and narrowly managed to rescue him. 

Unfortunately, their efforts left them poisoned with an exceptionally lethal venom, created by a high rarity authority. Despite Aake's efforts to navigate them through the main story, she ultimately failed, losing her arm in the process.

Failing a main story meant losing their candidate status, becoming a "Fallen" and rendering them unable to level up anymore. More significantly, the loss of candidate status resulted in their banishment from the Main Hub World by the Chronicles. They were discarded like trash into a random realm, without a way to go back.

They found out the realm they were cast into was called "Dyrroth", a medieval world where humans had no supernatural power whatsoever. The only thing peculiar in this world was this sentient maze. This world became a mere jest to them due to their high levels; arrows and even siege weapons proved ineffective against their prowess.

However, Aake's brother were still poisoned by a high-tier authority and she had no way to cure them. She attempted to use one of her items capable of healing. However, how can a poison generated by a high tier be cured this easily? 

Medium-tier was rare enough already but high-tier authorities were something that could lead entire settlements to fight to the death. In this world where authorities and levels meant everything, having a high-tier authority was like having an unimaginable source of power and potential. Even Aake, despite having lived a long life being an item smith, has never seen a high rarity authority orb.

In a desperate attempt, she tried her best to find a cure within the realm but nothing seemed to work, it was a pointless attempt. In a bold attempt, she had an idea and tried to recreate a side story with the help of her brothers, using parts of the already present sentient maze as a base. She aimed to attract the Chronicles into sending a candidate to their man-made side story.

 She hoped that perhaps, this candidate sent by the Chronicles would have the right ability to heal them. She knew that was stupid and close to impossible but she did not have much choice and was desperate. This world was their prison.

Sensing that the maze was too simple for the Chronicles to send anyone, she deliberately disrupted a portion of the labyrinth and introduced three stages based on the three major monsters present in his maze, they would later become the 'guardian' of each stage.

 The first stage was the authentic labyrinth of this realm, a sentient ever-changing maze with deadly traps. Despite being poisoned, Aake's brothers used their authority and successfully created a boss room at the "end" of the maze. This was to ensure that the visitor would have to go through the boss and not just be able to dodge it before being able to continue. 

Yet she knew that it was not enough. It needed to be even more difficult and more diverse to be able to attract the Chronicles. 

The second stage was created using a powerful authority item that could manipulate cold, the only drawback was that it used her life as fuel. However she did not care and used most of her lifespan to create a cold stage, it was of course without her brothers knowing. She needed to save her brothers no matter what, if she could sacrifice her own life for a chance to save theirs, then she would have gladly accepted. After learning what she did, her brothers were in pain and resented themselves. However it was too late, they could not go back in time. 

One day, the younger brother, sensing that his end was near, employed all his strength to use his authority one last time to create a dark veil separating the second stage from the rest of the stage, this was to make sure the second guardian, way smarter than the rest, didn't escape the stage. 

Even in his dying breath, he hoped that his older brother could be saved. When the rest of the siblings found him, his body already melted from the poison, leaving nothing but a toxic zone and his authority on the cold floor.

Truth to be told, Frederick already visited the place where the younger brother died. During his travel in the second stage, he met a place he thought was a geyser or warm source. Even now, the air produced by the poison was potent enough to melt Frederick alive.

Seeing the death of her young brother, Aake cried for the first time after losing her parents. She cried a lot. But she did not give up and hoped her older brother could be saved. 

In haste, she used the remaining authority she had gathered during her journey and forged an authority item using the body of the last major monster of the maze as a base. The result was the birth of the third stage guardian, a giant worm statue designed to activate when someone touched the door she expended all her remaining strength to create. 

She made sure to prevent this worm from escaping this maze by adding a fatal weakness to this guardian; sunlight. During her life, she has killed too many people. It was because she was out of choice. She needed strength to survive. Now that she no longer needed to kill, she didn't want her creation to go on a rampage in this realm if something happened. She caused too much pain already.

However, she was too late. Her last brother died before she could even finish the third stage. At this moment, she understood that it was all a fruitless effort and broke down. The pain and suffering of losing her brothers broke her mentally, no matter how high her stats were, she was broken inside. She did not want to do anything anymore. Her brothers were gone, the world she lived in now consisted of a giant maze and her life was meaningless.

In a fit of madness, she destroyed all her items, leaving only blue flying lights as the last remnants of her past authorities. However, she could not bring herself to break her siblings' authority and instead, decided to make an item out of them. 

Once she finished, she used her remaining lifespan to create a "safe zone" as a final resting place for her beloved siblings. Without any authority, she started to dig with her bare hands. Years later, feeling that she was close to death and with an ultimate act of sanity, she wrote this diary and made a single grave ... for all of her brothers and herself.

 'I can't do this anymore... I am tired. So tired. If anyone sees this diary then... Fuck you.' This diary ended like that.

'Tragic, huh?' Frederick closed the diary with a flick. The story of that girl was everything but his concern. The only thing he cared about was the information she left behind in this diary. At most, he would find this story funny, amusing even... He could feel the pure suffering of these people. The agony and despair in those writings... 

This diary was truly a goldmine of information. From this, he was able to discover many things. This book gave Frederick a lot of information about authorities, gates, stories, and even item smiths. Those pieces of information are a real treasure! Although some key parts were missing, it was still enough for him. 

Frederick couldn't help but be surprised at the capabilities of candidates. Even if Aake and her brothers were on their dying breath, they still managed to create 3 stages almost out of nothing. This shows just how powerful they were during their life. She did not even used her authorities to create a "safe room".

He was also amazed by how versatile authorities could become after reaching a certain point of dexterity stat. He always thought that authorities were something that could only create a specific effect and were sorely limited to the description given by the Chronicles, but he was wrong. 

Aake's younger brother, for example, had "Dark Veil" which was a defensive and stealth authority. However, he still could manipulate his veil to use it for offensive purposes despite not having the "skill" required on his status window.

However, this was not for his meager level yet. He was far from strong enough to compete against those monsters.

With the diary in hand, Frederick decided to look around once more. He was looking for something very specific. If Aake died here, where's her authority orb?