Chapter 1 - Part 3

PART 3: VAULT OF FIRST FRAGMENTS

I descended the glowing staircase, each step humming beneath my boots like a distant engine winding up. The air grew cooler, charged with static and that faint smell of rain. In Velmira, rain wasn’t clear. When the city’s chemical micro-particles catch the street and holo-light, raindrops glow in electric blues, pinks, and greens. It gives every puddle a mirror-prism effect that artists and data-poets prize.

The glow comes from trace metals and bio-fluids used in the city’s holo-net. Left unfiltered, it eats at unprotected metal and degrades exposed circuits. Direct contact can irritate skin and lungs. Without a proper rain-jacket lining or respirator, you risk respiratory code-burn, which is another name for a nasty hacking cough.

In a heavy neon downpour, your holo-comm links and security drones can overload on the stray luminescent data-burst, so patrols often ground their flyers until it clears.

My HUD popped up again:

NEW QUEST: Enter Vault of First Fragments

LOCATION: –162, +430

Coordinates meant nothing to me, so I followed the corridor’s curve until I stood before rusted iron doors etched with fractal runes. A soft click and they swung inward, revealing a circular chamber carved from obsidian and lit by hovering shard-lights.

“Vault of First Fragments,” I whispered.

“Sounds cozy.”

Inside, half-broken statues of past Nullborn champions loomed… some wielding swords, others brandishing staves, one clad in tattered robes. Their faces were frozen in expressions of triumph or terror; hard to tell which. The floor was slick, like wet stone, and digital dust motes drifted through the air in slow loops.

“HUD,” I muttered, wiping a smear of virtual dust off my sleeve, “what’s my goal here?”

A calm chime replied:

Collect three Memory Fragments to unlock your first Shardblade skill. Failure to collect within three system-cycles will lock your progress.

Three system-cycles, three minutes, to find three glowing shards hidden somewhere in this glitchy mausoleum. Great. Just when I thought school tests were stressful.

I edged around a shattered pillar. A flash of teal caught my eye: a small shard nestled in the broken statue’s palm. It pulsed like a heartbeat. I lunged for it, and nearly tripped over a loose stone. My stomach grumbled in protest, but at least this time it wasn’t about lunch. I snatched the shard.

MEMORY FRAGMENT ACQUIRED (1/3)

A second shimmer danced across the wall relief—a fragment wedged between two carved beasts. I vaulted onto a fallen dais and pried it free. It hummed like a tuning fork.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

MEMORY FRAGMENT ACQUIRED (2/3)

“One more,” I told myself, one more and I can get on with my life. But of course, destiny loves drama: a low growl echoed through the vault, followed by a loud clank.

I turned. From the shadows emerged some sort of creature—a tall, wire-frame construct draped in glitch-code, its eyes glowing were crimson. Its shape was humanoid, but its limbs stretched at impossible angles, like someone had pulled a mannequin too hard. The HUD above it said “Sentinel”.

“Great,” I muttered.

“Boss fight already?”

Before I could backpedal, the sentinel swung an arm. I dodged, slipping on digital dust and landing in a crouch. My inner monologue kicked into overdrive:

Lyric, buddy, you picked Warrior for a reason. Time to test that Shardblade skill—oh wait, skill’s locked until after fragments. Fabulous.

I tapped the HUD icon for “Shardblade Slash.” It blinked red: Skill Unavailable. Of course. So, I did the only logical thing: I sprinted.

The sentinel gave chase, its limbs uncoiling like elastic springs. Every so often it lashed out with a glitch-laden swipe that sent sparks dancing across the walls. I zig-zagged between statues, heart hammering, praying my agility allocation would pay off.

One fragment remained, the largest and brightest of the three, floating above a circular dais at the chamber’s center. I lunged forward, leaping over a heap of rubble as the sentinel smashed through behind me. My boot snagged on a loose tile, nearly sending me sprawling, but I caught myself, arms flailing in a wild windmill—my first-ever windmill, pulled off by sheer luck.

The sentinel loomed above me, eyes blazing.

Then, reflexively, I yanked my arm upward—right through the holographic “INTERACT” prompt hovering above the fragment. Reality hiccupped. Light wrapped around my fist like a second skin, and I yanked the fragment down in one smooth motion.

MEMORY FRAGMENT ACQUIRED (3/3)

A pulse of energy radiated outward. The sentinel froze mid-swing, its frame flickering. A new HUD notification appeared:

SKILL UNLOCKED: SHARDBLADE SLASH

Press [X] to activate

I blinked, huffing for breath. “About time,” I gasped. I mentally tapped [X]. A spectral sword blade, jagged, with ambient violet light wrapped around it, materialized in my hand. It felt weightless, but I also felt its power. I pointed it at the sentinel.

It snarled and then charged. I held my ground, summoned every bit of courage, and slashed. The blade cut through its torso in a flash of light, sparks of what appeared to be corrupt data scattered like fireflies. The sentinel collapsed into pixels and vanished.

I sheathed the Blade, watching it dissolve into the HUD:

SHARDBLADE SLASH

Damage: 15 + STR*2

Cooldown: 10s

Dust settled around me. My chest heaved.

“Well,” I said, voice trembling with equal parts adrenaline and sarcasm, “that escalated nicely.”

A doorway shimmered open at the far end of the vault. Beyond it, I glimpsed a lush courtyard bathed in golden light. The HUD chirped.

QUEST COMPLETE: Enter Vault of First Fragments

NEW QUEST: PROCEED TO COURTYARD OF PROMISES.

“Courtyard of Promises,” I repeated.

“Must be where they give out the free t-shirts.”

I limped toward the exit, testing my new blade with a flick of my wrist. It hummed. My heart still pounded from all that action—but now there was something else: excitement.

For the first time since high school P.E. nearly killed me, I felt… ready.