"Player Cien! Oh Gods! I am so sorry for what happened to you!"

The Guildmaster greeted passionately as Lucien entered his office. Lucien meanwhile smiled and nodded.

"It's alright. People get kidnapped every now and then, there's nothing shocking about it."

The man paused for a minute and looked at Lucien weirdly. Meanwhile Lucien just nonchalantly continued.

"You actually might not believe this Guildmaster, but I used to get kidnapped a lot as a child. Each experience was always humbling. Although this once had been by far the most humbling. I do not think I have been captured by a snake before."

Lucien chuckled as he settled down into a chair, while finally noticing the Guildmaster's concerned gaze.

He scoffed.

"What? Don't look at me like I'm twisted, I'm actually perfectly fine. It was a very humbling experience for me…"

He paused, his expression growing distant.

"I think I might have been growing some cocky wings at a point, thinking that I matter because of the fame and all."

The Guildmaster chuckled shortly.

"Player Cien… you matter. The things you have done in such a short amount of time, I have not seen anyone who is able to match that."

Lucien laughed ridiculously, for a bit then the laugh died down and he looked down for a bit.

"I watched something that if I had dared to enter, I would have died. I was not able to protect myself… I never thought that was going to suck as much as it does."

The Guildmaster observed him silently.

Lucien leaned forward, looking down at the table with a slight frown.

"You know… I am actually at a dangerous point in my life… and I think it just truly hit day before yesterday. I would have died and it would have been the end for me. This… as much of a game as it poses to be… isn't just a game for me. I am fighting for my life, here."

He looked into the Guildmaster's eyes.

"Which is why I have to grow stronger. And to do that I'll need your help."

The man patiently looked at him.

"What do you want player Cien?"

A dangerous white light glinted in Lucien's eyes.

"I want maps… detailed maps of regions, across the continent. You are the Guildmaster of the Adventurer's guild. I want the places that are considered red zones, the places where players should not go. The dark forest, with vicious monsters I probably don't want to ever know in my life."

Lucien looked into the man's eyes fiercely.

"And don't tell me you do not know anything."

The Guildmaster leaned back in his chair, his weathered hands steepling as he studied Lucien's determined expression. The dangerous glint in the young adventurer's eyes didn't go unnoticed.

"Red zones..."

The Guildmaster repeated slowly, his voice carrying years of hard-earned wisdom.

"Player Cien, what you're asking for... these aren't places where one goes to grow stronger. These are places where seasoned veterans go to die."

He stood and moved to a massive cabinet behind his desk, its surface scarred from decades of use. With practiced movements, he withdrew several rolled maps, their edges yellowed with age.

"The Whispering Moors to the north—where the very air drives men mad before the shadow beasts finish them off. The Sundered Peaks in the east, there are rumors that some dragons still nest among ruins older than the flow of time itself"

He unrolled one map, revealing intricate details marked in red ink.

"The Bone Gardens to the south, where necromancers once experimented with forbidden magic, and their creations still wander freely."

The Guildmaster's finger traced across the parchment, stopping at a region colored in deep crimson.

"And then there's this—the Abyssal Reach. Even I have only secondhand reports from there. Most who venture that deep... simply never return."

He looked up at Lucien, concern etched deep in the lines around his eyes.

"But you already know this, don't you? The question isn't whether I can provide these maps—it's whether I should. What happened to you out there... it changed something, didn't it?"

Lucien looked at him as he continued.

"But what will happen to you in this zones that I speak of… will break something. Why do you want to lose the life you are desperately trying to save. It is reckless Player Cien."

Lucien's jaw tightened, his fingers curling into fists on the table. The concern in the Guildmaster's voice only seemed to fuel the fire burning in his eyes.

He let out a bitter laugh.

"Reckless? You want to know what's reckless? Staying weak. Staying comfortable. Thinking that playing it safe will somehow protect me when the real dangers come knocking."

He stood abruptly, his chair scraping against the floor. The maps lay spread between them like a battlefield waiting to be chosen.

"Guildmaster, I saw someone today who would have cut me in half with a stick if they willed it so. And what could I do, stand there bounded. My pathetic excuse was that I was bounded with a legendary item, no matter what I did it wouldn't break apart. You know after I was free, I had to sit back for a bit and sincerely ask myself, in the impossibility of this world, could there exist something that could have been done to overcome that situation."

He smiled bitterly.

"I don't think so… my mind is my weakness. I am too comfortable, Guildmaster."

Lucien's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper, his eyes never leaving the older man's face.

"You say these places will break something in me. But I'm already broken. The question is whether I break myself trying to become strong enough to survive, or whether I let this world break me slowly while I pretend safety exists."

He leaned forward, placing both hands flat on the desk, the maps crinkling beneath his palms.

"To be honest with you Guildmaster. I know what it means to be ppowerless, I can remember how it feels so much. And I also know that power—real power—doesn't come from avoiding the darkness. It comes from walking through it and coming out the other side. I need to level up at a rate that will shock the world."

His voice turned cold, calculating.

"So I'll ask you again. Will you help me, or do I need to find these places on my own?"

The Guildmaster stared at Lucien for a long moment, the weight of years and countless lost adventurers heavy in his gaze. Finally, he let out a deep sigh that seemed to carry the burden of difficult decisions and said quietly, his fingers drumming against the desk

"You remind me of someone I once knew… had the same fire in his eyes, the same desperate hunger for power. He made it further than most before..."

He trailed off, then shook his head.

"But perhaps that's exactly why you might succeed where others have failed."

The Guildmaster reached into a locked drawer, producing a crystalline device that pulsed with soft blue light—a map crystal.

"Very well, Player Cien. Against my better judgment, I'll help you."

He placed the crystal on the table between them. "This will update your map interface with detailed information about the red zones. Terrain, known monster territories, estimated danger levels, and the few safe routes that exist."

He began pointing to specific locations on the spread maps.

"But I have conditions. First—you don't go alone. Find companions, even if they're just meat shields. Second—you start with the outer edges of these zones, not the deep crimson areas. And third..."

His voice hardened.

"You report back every two weeks. If I don't hear from you, I'm sending a recovery team, whether you want one or not."

The crystal began to glow brighter as he activated it.

"Touch the crystal, and your map will sync with our guild database. But remember, Player Cien—information is only as good as the person using it. These maps can tell you where the dragons nest, but they can't make you strong enough to face them."

He looked directly into Lucien's eyes.

"Are you absolutely certain this is the path you want to take?"

Lucien didn't hesitate. His hand shot out and pressed firmly against the crystal, the blue light immediately intensifying and washing over his face.

He responded, his voice steady as steel.

"I've never been more certain of anything in my life. And your conditions are fair. I'm not suicidal—just desperate enough to do what needs to be done."

The crystal pulsed once, twice, then erupted in a brilliant flash. Lucien felt a strange tingling sensation behind his eyes as information flooded his consciousness. His map interface materialized in his vision, expanding rapidly as new regions appeared like ink bleeding across parchment.

[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: Map Database Updated]

[New Regions Unlocked: 47]

[Red Zone Classifications Added]

[Danger Level Indicators: Active]

The familiar green and yellow zones of his previous map were now dwarfed by vast swaths of orange, red, and deep crimson territories. Detailed markers appeared—skull icons for confirmed monster lairs, warning symbols for environmental hazards, and thin dotted lines marking the few known safe passages through the deadly terrain.

"Gods..."

Lucien breathed, his eyes wide as he absorbed the sheer scope of the dangerous world that had been hidden from him. The Whispering Moors sprawled across the northern reaches like a festering wound, while the Abyssal Reach yawned like a bottomless crater in the far east.

This made him realized just how little of a danger zone, Forgotten Mist was.

He blinked, dismissing the interface, and looked back at the Guildmaster with renewed determination.

The Guildmaster master sighed and handed him an envelope.

"Here contains your bank card and Identification card. Do not forget, two weeks for reports. Companions before you venture in. Start at the edges."

He stood, collecting the envelope.

"You have my word, Guildmaster."

A dangerous smile played at his lips.

"About the companions… do you mind if I take Adrian?"

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