Ashforge had gone silent.
Ethan crouched atop a jagged ridge, his camo-cloaked frame nearly indistinguishable from the scorched stone around him. The air shimmered with lingering forge heat. Smoke hissed out of vents and cracks like the zone itself was still breathing, angry and unsettled. From this vantage, he could see everything—the slag-crusted walls of the broken citadel, the semi-functional rail path curling through the ruins, and the narrow chasms below where light struggled to reach.
He wasn't here to fight. Not yet. He was here to install the first node.
Inside his toolbelt, the Ashen Core hummed—a rhythmic throb of potential. The rig had synced with three of the five ruined subzones already, granting him localized domain control. The system recognized him as a zone influencer now. That opened possibilities.
A flick of his wrist brought up the interface:
[ASHCORE TACTICAL INTERFACE v2.1]
Zones Linked: 3/5
Active Modules: 4
Custom Devices: 8 (available)
Node Sync Stability: 93%
The map overlay pulsed with real-time data. Ethan selected a location just outside the collapsed eastern tramway station—narrow walls, multi-elevation, dead angles. Perfect for a choke trap.
He descended silently, moving through terrain like liquid shadow. Every step placed with care. His gear made no noise—no clank, no creak. Just his breath, steady, measured.
Once inside the chosen cavern, he got to work.
First, a pressure-sensitive snap trap—shrapnel-forged teeth in a forward arc. Then a sensory disruptor rigged behind a false rubble pile, designed to scramble targeting inputs and create visual ghost trails. The final piece was new: a field manipulator using two Ashcore fragments to emit an artificial dead zone, where enemy radar and vision became unreliable.
It took twenty-three minutes.
When he finished, the interface confirmed:
[ASHCORE NODE ESTABLISHED: SECTOR GR-8]
Linked to Network. Trap Sync: Online.
Passive Bonuses Active in Radius.
He moved on to the next one.
Two Hours Later
The fifth node was the hardest.
Located inside an old AI sub-reactor beneath the southern fissure, the site was partially corrupted. Every few minutes, arcs of electromagnetic interference burst through the walls, scrambling his HUD and input timing. A relic from an early dev build—the kind of bugged dungeon most players avoided out of frustration.
Not Ethan.
He welcomed the hazard.
He worked in intervals, moving only between the pulses. Each time the field cleared, he placed another line of traps: snare wires, proximity mines, reinforced blade rigs. He hardwired each into the core network manually—no system shortcuts, no automation.
When the final trap sealed into place, he tapped the node housing:
[ASHCORE NODE ESTABLISHED: REACTOR VAULT-DELTA]
Total Nodes Online: 5/5
Ashen Network Activated
The whole zone shifted.
Fog poured out of the fissures. Flame pockets ignited. The map flickered, glitching once, as if the system couldn't decide what rules to follow anymore.
[SYSTEM NOTICE: A player has stabilized a volatile sub-region.]
[Server-Wide Alert: Ashforge Territory Network Established.]
[AI Monitoring Engaged. Data channels encrypted. GM eyes active.]
He stepped back into the shadow of the corridor, watching as his trap system went from passive to reactive. Drones buzzed to life, shield nodes shimmered beneath the ash, and the canyon's layout subtly warped, turning the zone into a puzzle box no one had the map for.
His territory.
And it was only just beginning to wake up.
[LEVEL UP: Ethan Ryker — Lvl 11 → Lvl 12]
+3 Dexterity
+2 Trap Mastery
+1 Vitality
New Passive Unlocked: Lurking Predator — Damage against unaware enemies increased by 12%
Back in the Real World
The NeuroDive hissed open, and Ethan sat up into darkness.
No lights. No sound. Just the sharp hum of circuitry and the faint glow of the pad's sleep screen.
He swung his legs over the side and stretched, vertebrae cracking one by one. He hadn't eaten in eighteen hours. Didn't care. He was running on something more precise than hunger.
He rolled his shoulders, stripped the neuro-suit, and went to the pull-up bar welded into the door frame. Twenty slow reps. Then knuckle push-ups until his hands numbed. Then planks until sweat dripped from his nose onto the wood.
His phone buzzed against the table.
He ignored it.
Thirty more push-ups. Breathe. Focus. Reset.
Buzz.
He finished the set before checking it.
Unknown number. Encrypted call line. No metadata.
He picked up.
Static.
Then a synthetic voice: "Congratulations. You're being noticed."
Click.
Dead line.
Next Login — Mythos Online
Ashforge was different now.
He could feel it in the air—like static crawling over his skin.
The moment he logged in, the system adjusted his overlay:
[ASHEN NODE INFLUENCE: ACTIVE]
Environmental control: Partial (Zone Tier 1)
Threat Rating: Elevated
Tracked Entries: 3 Parties Inbound
He watched them from the ridgeline: one guild crew, two mixed scavenger teams. Low coordination. Mid-tier gear. None of them knew the layout had changed.
He pinged node GR-8.
[Trigger Sequence Initialized — Ghost Chain #2]
Below, traps activated in sequence. Stone shifted. Lures activated. One scavenger team triggered a fake cache. A time-delayed mine detonated beneath their leader, scattering the group into a choke corridor lined with proximity spikes.
All of it visible to Ethan through the tactical map.
One by one, markers vanished.
[Combat Summary]
Enemies Defeated: 6
Zone Control Bonus: +12%
Reputation: +4
[LEVEL UP: Ethan Ryker — Lvl 12 → Lvl 13]
+2 Strength
+3 Tactical Instinct
New Skill Gained: Chain Detonation Protocol — Allows trap sequences to be chained manually for amplified damage and control
He stood and moved on.
There was another team approaching the southern trench. They wouldn't make it through Reactor Vault-Delta without bleeding first.