Chapter 1 – Risky Endeavour

„Huh, you´re still alive?"

He woke up to a male voice resounding in his ears. A second later a splitting headache engulfed him, to which weird memories filled his head. They were indistinct memories of another person´s life. He could however tell that those memories did not belong to him but someone named Luce. Luce D´Ambray to be specific.

Inspecting those flashes of memories, he found himself in a bizarre world. An old-fashioned world resembling Europe in its early stages of development like the the first few hundred years after Christ.

"Wait, who am I though." Other than his ability to associate things to some prior knowledge, like that someone called Christ he recalled just now, he could not remember anything. Not even his own name.

"Guess I´ll go with Luce for now."

He did not have time to think things through any further however, as another voice rang out:

"Get up, kid." An old voice rang out.

Then Luce opened his eyes to see a dimly lit stone room with 4 other people. One of them was an old man with gray hair, who, despite his age, still looked very strong. Next to him were two younger people, one around 15-year-old girl and another young man in his early twenties. They were all looking at him condescendingly. The other two people were two middle aged men with very similar faces who looked rather relieved when they looked at him.

Finally, Luce seemed to decipher where he was from his memories.

The other memories belonged to a 14-year-old boy named Luce D´Ambray. He used to be the Son of an old aristocrat in the City of Canguan. However, his reality of a peaceful rich life as a noble in this world was shattered by a group of people, precisely the old man and his two younger companions Luce saw before him right now.

Before Luce could continue his train of thought however the old man got impatient:

A "Hmph" resounded in the stone room and some weird kind of power started to lift up the Luce up into the air.

"Since you´re alive, I´ll have you continue scouting the way…" the old man said with a plain look, which was not able to vail his evil vibe though.

Luce was flung into the direction of a stone corridor supported by wooden pillars. There were a few torches along the way lighting up the room dimly, making Luce see that he would not land lightly. As expected, the floor came closer rapidly and he fell onto his bum, giving out a muffled sound.

Luce opened his eyes wide at the sudden sorcery performed at him, completely going against something his old self could remember as gravity or kinetic forces.

Scared, he quickly got up and looked back. The two middle aged men had looks of horror on their face, however, it was clear that this wasn´t the first time they´ve seen this. On the other hands the rest, namely the old man and the two teens had a facial expression of indifference. The old man motioned him to head deeper into the stone corridor.

Luce didn´t dare disobey after witnessing this magic and turned around to head forwards. Then he suddenly recalled where this kid named Luce even was, before he received the memories.

This was Luce´s great great grandfather´s grave. The nobleman Ashkiá D´Ambray, a grand person who was said to be a hero.

Luce had a bad feeling as he took his first step forward. According to these memories, ignoring all the less relevant information right now, this place was were his ancestor had hidden a great treasure.

However, every person of his lineage who came to try and retrieve the treasure had vanished after entering this tomb. That meant there was at least some kind of force preventing them from coming back out, maybe even diminishing their life.

Luce instantly checked his surroundings after taking that first step. No sign of danger yet. Taking a deep breath, Luce ventured deeper inside, taking small and cautious steps towards the other end of the corridor.

He could see blue flames lighting up the room ahead of him, illuminating it slightly. He couldn´t make out a lot in the room ahead but a golden throne, reflecting in the pale blue light.

Surrounded by danger from behind and the unknown in front of him, Luce knew he had to think of something. He searched his memories to look for a solution and recalled how he even reached this place.

Originally the people who came here were around 10. Yet only three people actually had an interest in entering. They had entered this place through a creepy looking stone chamber in the graveyard, a few kilometers away from his family's mansion. They followed this same stone corridor for about 2 hours, the amount of people steadily diminishing due to supernatural powers reaping lives left and right. Finally, when it was Luce´s turn to play bait and he walked down the corridor with shaking legs to scout, he was hit by a powerful wave of air or something else, catapulting him in the next room, however also leading him to lose his consciousness.

Luce now completely knew in what position he was in. The two men who looked very similar having that relieved look was most likely to them not having to take Luce´s place this time. He also recalled that there were two way to survive these corridors.

Firstly, having someone else scout ahead and letting him set off the trap in the corridor, indirectly disarming it.

Secondly, figuring out where the trap was located and either avoiding it or trying to disarm it.

As Luce reached the half of the room and had yet to spot any significant hint or sign he slowed his pasted even more while becoming very nervous. In all the corridors before, regardless which one looked at, there had always been traps. The first few were very obvious, allowing the 'scouts' to identify at least a pattern or possibility to disarm it.

The latter corridors however grew increasingly mysterious, causing the death of a lot of people.

Luce glanced around him looking for signs of irregularity.

"Continue moving, mortal." This time it was the words of the young man following the old man, reaching his back.

Luce was about to glance back when he suddenly felt something. It was a weak gust of wind, coming from the ceiling around 5 meters ahead of him.

Then his eyes glinted as his brain started working hard, trying to formulate a plan. Glancing ahead at the golden throne, a decisive look flashed across his face. He took a step back, both confusing and irritating the old and young man, however before they could voice their thoughts, Luce launched himself forward.

Luce´s sprint surprised everyone, even Luce himself, as he reached a speed which went against what he was thought to be possible in his own reality. The next moment he reached the spot where he thought the air was coming through from and took a big leap.

One could say it was a leap of faith.

Before he even landed a very loud crashing sound came from behind him. So when he actually reached the floor, he did not hesitate to continue sprinting down the aisle, not even trying to look back. Loud sounds of crashing were heard behind, finally a shockwave blasted towards Luce´s back, lifting him from his feet and projecting him towards the throne room.

He hit the floor hard, however when he noticed he was at the end of the corridor, he started laughing crazily and looked behind him with a triumphant look.

The view behind him was somewhat fascinating, a heavy wind blew through the corridor as black particles floated throughout the space.

Looking at these particles the old man opened his eyes wide and exclaimed:

"How could Space Ripples appear in such a remote realm!" The two other people beside him also had their eyes wide open staring at the black particles wearily.

Luce heard the old mans shout and looking at their expression he knew he dodged a bullet there.

"Boy, you better wait there and not touch anything until this old man reaches the other side." The elderly said after calming himself down a bit.

Luce looked at the old man funnily. There was clearly something in the of the group reaching this place and Luce had recalled that all the other people who followed these people here had not met a nice end. So rationally thinking, this room, which should contain a treasure should hold his only possibility of escaping this place with his life.

As a result, much to the dismay of the hostile party, he ignored the warning and started to look around the room.

Meanwhile the young man following accompanying the old person shouted angrily at the only two men left in order to get them to try and find a way to the other end.