Chapter 119- Awakening

Chapter 119: Chapter 119- Awakening

The notifications kept coming, one after another, each new line stacking on top of the last.

[Congratulations. An additional mana vein has been added to the guild facility.]

[Ding~]

[Mana regeneration within the Crown’s Domain: +100%.]

[Mana density: +100%.]

[Learning Death-based skills is significantly easier within the domain. Death-based skill proficiency gain: 2x.]

Everyone felt the familiar hum of mana in the air thicken over the following seconds, pressing against their senses.

But just as quickly as it thickened, it settled back down to the same speed it had held before, returning to its previous state.

Another notification appeared.

[Ding~]

[Detected: Mana vein is Dormant.]

[The above bonuses remain locked while the mana vein is Dormant.]

[Additional functions of the mana vein remain unlocked pending further discovery.]

Everyone stared at the notification, clearly confused. Hugh couldn’t help but ask, "So — do we get the buffs, or we don’t?"

Leo stayed quiet, his eyes still fixed on the black structure sitting at the center of the chamber.

According to Elly’s hologram, the mana well remained exactly where it was — flat, dark, motionless, and utterly dormant.

He started moving toward the center structure, one deliberate step at a time, his footsteps echoing faintly enough that the rest of the group could barely make them out.

Elly’s hologram drifted along right beside him. "Master?" she called out.

Leo didn’t seem to hear her at all. He just kept walking.

"It says the mana vein is dormant," he muttered to himself. "Let’s see if I can wake it up. With a little force, maybe."

Elly went quiet for a moment. "And how exactly do you intend to wake it up, Master?"

"Touch it, I guess. Or maybe a slap or two, if that doesn’t work."

Her hologram seemed to stall out for a second, clearly struggling to process what he’d just said. She couldn’t make any sense of it at all.

Leo kept walking regardless. The closer he got, the darker and colder the air around him became.

The others watched from behind as his silhouette grew dimmer with every step he took into the gloom.

No one followed after him.

The structure itself radiated an oppressive, gloomy aura, nothing at all like the lightning mana well they’d encountered before.

The lightning well had practically announced its own existence, its power filling the entire vault the moment they’d stepped inside.

This death mana filled the chamber too, but where the lightning had felt commanding, this felt heavy, gloomy, and quietly frightening.

Leo finally came to a stop directly in front of it.

Through his forge sight, the basin-like shape of the structure resolved into something clearer at last.

He could tell immediately that it was ancient — not just old, but extremely old.

Its exterior had clearly been worn down by the passage of time, weathered and cracked in places, but the structure itself remained strong underneath, untouched by whatever damage showed on the surface. The cracks might have marred its appearance, but whatever lay beneath them was still fundamentally intact.

More than that, Leo felt an odd sense — almost as if the structure had been waiting. Waiting patiently for someone to come along and wake it.

The thought made him frown.

"Elly."

"Yes, Master."

"Can you figure out why it went dormant? Any possible cause you can think of?"

She began running her analysis at once, her holographic form expanding slightly, flickering with the effort.

A few seconds passed. Then several minutes went by in total silence.

Elly finally shook her holographic head. "I can’t detect any reason for it at all."

Leo nodded, taking that in stride. "Can you at least tell what’s inside it?"

Elly paused and attempted another scan, but her scanning waves hit some kind of barrier and simply couldn’t penetrate the structure’s interior.

She shook her head again, clearly disappointed with the result.

"It’s fine," Leo said, his eyes narrowing slightly as he thought it through.

"With the lightning mana well, guild membership was the requirement to interact with it properly. I’d guess the same basic condition applies here too, now that it’s registered as a guild facility — but there’s probably some additional hidden condition we still need to meet." He muttered this mostly to himself, and Elly nodded along in agreement.

Leo glanced over at Shen. "Any ideas?"

Shen shook his head as well. "The formations aren’t active right now, so I don’t really have a working theory either."

"Any way to activate them?"

"Nothing I can determine at the moment," Shen said, still carefully examining the carved patterns.

Leo nodded and stepped forward until the structure was finally within arm’s reach — close enough that if he extended his hand, he could touch it directly.

He reached his hand out toward the surface.

Everyone else held their breath in the silence, wondering what exactly would happen the instant Leo made contact.

Elly’s voice suddenly broke the quiet. "Master—"

Leo nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden interruption.

"What?" he asked, letting out a long breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

"Please be cautious. This could be dangerous."

Leo nodded and lowered his hand slightly, letting his fingers hover just above the surface. Even from that distance, the cold had already begun seeping into his skin.

He waited a moment, but nothing happened, so he steadied his resolve and finally pressed his palm flat against the silent structure.

Everyone held their breath again, waiting.

Silence stretched on for a while.

Nothing happened.

Then—

A thump.

Leo felt a pulse beneath his hand.

The sensation traveled up through his palm and into his arm.

The mana well was responding to him.

The blackstone beneath his hand suddenly lit up with dark purple lines, tracing themselves into the stone.

One after another, more lines appeared, spreading outward from the point where his palm touched the surface, branching across the entire structure.

Everyone could see it clearly — the purple light cut straight through the surrounding darkness without any difficulty at all.

Shen straightened abruptly at the sight.

"The formations," he said. "They’re reacting."

Leo didn’t move.

Or rather, he couldn’t move. His palm seemed fixed in place against the stone.

Beneath the cold radiating from the surface, he could feel a strange warmth beginning to spread outward from his palm.

[Ding~]

[Ancient Structure recognized.]

"Finally, something," Leo muttered under his breath.

Then another notification appeared.

[Authority verification initiated...]

The ancient formation surged violently, dark gaseous clouds rolling off the stone in thick waves as the purple light flickered with sudden, overwhelming intensity.

Elly pulled every notification from Leo’s feed and projected them for the rest of the group to see.

[Authority recognized.]

Everyone froze at once.

Rook and Hugh both turned toward Leo. "What happened?"

"Brat, you could’ve just touched the damn thing the second we got here," Rook grumbled. "We wasted all that time overthinking it." For once, Hugh actually nodded along in agreement.

Then another notification appeared.

[Guild Foundation detected.]

[Ding! Undead affinity required.]

[Checking compatibility of the awakened for Death Mana and Undead attribute...]

[Detected: high-level affinity with Undead.]

Leo stared, stunned. "I have Undead affinity?"

Deep beneath the mana well, something shifted.

The structure, which hadn’t so much as budged in centuries, finally began to move.

The ground groaned and shook violently beneath their feet.

Another notification panel appeared.

[Dormant fortress systems detected.]

[Reactivation sequence beginning.]

The surrounding formations began to hum steadily as the chamber walls trembled, each formation lighting up one after another and linking together, just as Elly and Shen had predicted earlier.

Together, they formed an enormous, intricate network of light stretching across the entire chamber.

Elly’s scan was returning readings that left her visibly confused. "Mm... Master..."

Leo turned toward her. "What is it?"

"My scans are showing some readings that are completely off the charts. The sections that were previously blocked are letting my scans through now."

She continued. "I’ve detected something."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "What did you find?"

Elly went quiet for a long moment before answering.

"It appears to be some kind of entity. But the energy signature it’s giving off is... frankly, ridiculous."

The temperature in the chamber suddenly dropped several more degrees, and everyone began shivering against the cold.

The mana well pulsed again.

THUMP.

Leo’s own passive scanning ability began picking up something on its own now.

[Ding~]

[Detected: Ancient Guardian.]

[Undead Legacy Guardian: Dormant state.]

Everyone stood stunned by the revelation. Elona was the first to speak. "It really is another legacy. Does that mean the guild can offer an Undead-attributed class change option now, too?"

She seemed the most visibly shaken by the implications, because this would make the guild’s foundation almost unshakeable. Two entirely different affinity classes, both capable of producing entire armies of trained fighters.

No other guild in existence had anything close to this kind of privilege — most people were still out there grinding through endless quests just to earn a single Rare-rank class.

And here they were, potentially sitting on unlimited access to Rare-rank classes, with the possibility of pushing even further into Epic, Legendary, or even Myth rank, depending on someone’s affinity.

The sheer scale of it felt almost absurd to her. This was basically cheating the entire system.

Elona had a growing feeling that this Undead affinity would end up playing out just like the previous chamber had — granting Leo yet another set of powerful guild facilities.

Leo, meanwhile, was still lost in a daze over the legacy itself.

Rook muttered under his breath, "Is this brat lucky, or is he unlucky? I genuinely can’t tell anymore."

"Master," Elly called out, finally pulling Leo out of his stupor.

He turned toward her stiffly. "Yes?"

Before she could answer, the ground trembled again, and this time the entire chamber shook violently, as though a massive earthquake had struck directly beneath them. Cracks began spreading across the floor.

Everyone present in the chamber took an instinctive step back to steady themselves.

Leo could feel something stirring beneath them, something ancient finally beginning to wake.

"Master, I wanted to let you know — the awakening has already begun."

Whatever had been sleeping within the Death side of the fortress for thousands upon thousands of years—

— was finally opening its eyes.

[Ding~]

[Reactivating sequence...]