CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE

Just three random pages from a book of mysteries

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It’s been just fifteen days since the major System Update

The damage has already begun to accelerate

Dungeon monsters have started appearing in midair

Pouring out of portals, but how did portals get there?

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We’ve lost all access to the dungeons, but no one knows why

And all our stats have been erased now, no matter how high

We prayed until our knees were bleeding on the temple floor

But our gods no longer reach out to us anymore

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It’s been a month since the apocalypse the System wrought

We’ve lost so many friends, so many battles have been fought

We once controlled the elements, and sought out new frontiers

But now we shake in fear when one of those portals appears

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Another System Update came today, this time a patch

But so far there’s just one detail that folks like me could catch

Our status screens are back, but still our powers won’t return

The limitations of the new status screen took no time to learn

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Three months since the Update took our powers and our pride

Opening up portals that still leave us terrified

Unlike dungeons, there’s no logic to their strength or skills

Their random strength no challenges all of our hearts and wills

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The gods have spoken to us, but they’re not the gods we knew

No longer do they guide our paths or tell us what to do

They simply give you little status boosts when you succeed

Helping just a little, but much less than we all need

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It’s been ten years since the event which changed our lives and fate

But finally I’m starting to decode that cursed Update

Rumours tell of one who could escape the System’s crime

Some suspect the he was a master in the arts of Time

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I’m writing this not knowing if it ever will be ground

I’m sitting here within a cave upon the frozen ground

But I will search for answers and that man until I die

Even if the only thing that I can ask is WHY

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I made it past the mountains and I found a hidden town

They pulled me from a river when i was about to drown

They told me of a legend, tales of a wandering mage

Whose face is much too young to match is unnatural age

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I stumbled on a dungeon yesterday, but it was dead

And I’m still unsure what to make of what my new god said

“Good job on locating such a mysterious place

Ruins of an era that vanished without a trace”

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I’ve spent the last few weeks evading portals out at sea

But now the portals seems to be slowing down finally

I’ve noticed that despite the random monsters that appear

Rarely are they strong enough for warriors to fear

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I’m unsure what it means, but something strange happened today

I found a temple locked in time that wouldn’t fade away

I think it may be evidence that someone strong was there

But there’s no way to guess at WHEN, as far as I’m aware...

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How I long to go back to the days of adventure

These seventeen long years have been exhausting to endure

My friends and I were Dungeon crawling adventurers then

How I’d long to hold a core in my young hands again

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Although it’s taken years of effort, I have become strong

But the journey to enlightenment has been too long

The stats I gain through challenging myself may not be grand

But there are now few portal monsters I cannot withstand

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The empires that once reached across the world have fallen now

But in their wake, the new beginnings lift me up somehow

Watching people start again and overcome their pain

Feels just like a ray of sunshine after heavy rain

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I ran into a very old friend out on my journey

He thinks I should give up on my quest of discovery

But until I have answers for the things that I have lost

I will follow that mage’s cold trail, despite the cost

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It’s been such a long time since the System said a thing

I have to wonder if it truly controls everything

My god says that all is as the System wills to be

But those portals stink of spatial instability

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I FOUND HIM, I have proof at last, the God of Time is real

Someone whose old status screen survived the whole ordeal

I found him in a ruined dungeon, and I called him out

Then he disappeared, it must be him, I have no doubt!

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