The cold initially crept in through his side, sending a shiver down his spine. Dominic remembered reading about wraith venom in a third-year dungeon biology textbook he had borrowed and never got around to returning.

From what he recalled, it spreads outward from the contact point—kind of like hypothermia. The book mentioned that the subject stays conscious longer than expected, a detail he found puzzling, but he trusted the medical text’s words.

The strange phrase was still fresh in his memory.

"Longer than is medically reasonable? What the fuck does this even mean..."

He had thought that before, but as he lay dying, it clicked.

"I understand it now."

As he lay on his back on the third floor of the Caldmore dungeon, he realised he was going to be conscious through it all. He thought it was more complicated than it actually was, which is why he kept overthinking everything.

Now, having been awake for a while, he noticed the sound of boots had stopped about two minutes ago.

Four sets. They moved swiftly and smoothly, climbing higher and retreating from him with a well-coordinated rhythm that clearly showed it wasn’t panic. If they had been panicking, their movements would have been more hurried and noisy. What he heard was a decision—clear, quick, and made confidently before they even looked at him on the ground.

Reyes hadn’t even hesitated.

’’That’s the part that should surprise me." Dominic sighed.

But it didn’t. He was puzzled by why his heart felt so calm despite everything happening around him.

Sighing softly, he looked up at the dungeon ceiling. The stone was gloomy and damp, seeming impossibly distant.

Somewhere to his left, the wraith had quietly dissolved into the air, just like they do after a kill—patient and never wasteful. His torch had rolled about three meters away and was still flickering, which felt a bit insulting. The light was steady. Everything was fine, except for him.

He let out a laugh.

But it sounded off—too quiet, too flat—and it didn’t quite feel genuine. Still, it was a laugh. Because, of course, it was Reyes. Naturally, and of course, it was a wraith—yet another dungeon creature that Summoners had traditionally been able to handle, back when their expertise still mattered.

His father would have dismissed this thing in seconds. Edmund Kane, SS-rank, the man whose crest stone had shone with three colors on the day of his ceremony, the man whose name still made senior Royal officials speak cautiously even now, four years after his death in a cell. His father would have laughed at a third-floor wraith.

And yet, his son was dying from one.

[F-rank], the stone had said. Three years ago. When he was sixteen.

He could remember clearly how the ceremony hall had gone very quiet, and he’d stood there holding the crest card with both hands, as if that would change what was printed on it.

[Summoner.]

A dead profession, his father had dragged back into relevance and made it legendary. Like the world had reached into his chest and pulled out the most precise possible humiliation.

He’d survived that.

He’d survived Greyfen’s lower city before that. Five years of it, after House Harwick and the Royal officials had finished with his family name and his father had disappeared into a Bureau detention cell, and the money had run out in the same week.

He’d learned which streets to avoid and which ones to use and how to look like someone not worth the effort of robbing. He’d gotten the Caldmore scholarship on scores alone because there was nothing else to get it on.

He’d spent three years being the quiet one. The reliable one. The one who pulled weight without announcing it and covered gaps without asking for credit.

He’d thought that meant something.

Reyes had met his eyes once. Just once, just long enough, and then he was gone. Dominic had spent three years making himself useful to that man. Turns out useful and worth saving were two very different things.

The cold had reached his chest now. His eyes closed.

"I should have done more," he thought. Not panicked. Just observational. He was good at observation. ’’Father’s name is still in the ground. Victor is probably laughing at dinner right now. Pathetic, I never—"

He didn’t finish it. He was cut short by a sound that made him open his eyes.

Not from the dungeon. Not from the walls or the dark or the dissolving air where the wraith had been. From somewhere that didn’t have a direction.

The cold in his chest paused.

Then text appeared in the air to him, crisp and white and utterly unbothered by the fact that he was dying.

[INFINITE GACHA SYSTEM: INITIALIZING...]

Dominic stared at it.

[HOST IDENTIFIED: DOMINIC KANE]

[STATUS: CRITICAL]

[THIS IS INCONVENIENT.]

A beat. Then.

[CORRECTING.]

The cold didn’t go away; instead, it seemed to reverse, as if a gentle hand reached into his chest and carefully pulled out the pain from its root. It wasn’t like the slow process of tissue healing—it felt more like an undoing. In less than a second, the venom disappeared from his bloodstream. The puncture in his side sealed up as though it had never been there. He gasped, and the air that filled his lungs was fresh and complete.

He sat up on the floor of a dungeon he had been dying in thirty seconds ago and looked at the floating text still hanging in the air in front of him, patient and luminous and waiting, confused at what was going on.

[SYSTEM INITIALIZATION: COMPLETE]

[VOID REGISTRY: ACTIVE]

[GT TOKENS: 0]

[FIRST PULL: PENDING]

[WELCOME, DOMINIC KANE.]

[THE INFINITY GACHA SYSTEM HAS SELECTED YOU AS ITS HOST.]

He looked at it for a long moment.

Then he looked at his hands. No venom. No wound. No cold.

He looked back at the text.

"Selected?" he asked, out loud, to no one.

[CORRECT.]

It continued.

[THROUGH THIS SYSTEM YOU WILL PULL FROM THE VOID.]

[THE VOID CONTAINS WOMEN OF EXTRAORDINARY ABILITY.]

[EACH ONE THE GREATEST OF A CIVILIZATION THAT NO LONGER EXISTS.]

Dominic didn’t fully grasp what it was, and he didn’t need to. It had already saved his life, was offering him strength, and he felt he had nothing to lose. Plus, he had a list of people who were still safe and sound. That was all he needed.

[ONE FREE PULL IS AVAILABLE.]

[WOULD YOU LIKE TO PROCEED?]

The dungeon was eerily quiet, with his torch flickering gently in the darkness. Up above, four adventurers were making their way toward the exit, their hands clean and their minds filled with a story they’ve already agreed upon.

Dominic rose to his feet, ready to face what was ahead.

"Yes," he said.

The system accepted his input, and suddenly, the space in front of him, along with the dungeon, began to feel more alive. The torch’s flame danced, bending sideways as if touched by unseen fingers, while the wet stone ceiling above groaned softly.

From nowhere and everywhere at once, warm, golden light poured in like flowing starlight, creating a magical glow. Then, it coiled and shaped itself into a figure — she appeared. Hovering half a meter above the ground, as if the air itself was gently holding her like a tender embrace, her eyes closed peacefully.

He didn’t move or say a word, just kept watching as some unseen force slowly brought her down, setting her softly onto the dungeon floor. Her black hair spilled over her back like spilled ink, adding to the enchanted scene. As the light faded away, everything grew still and quiet again, returning to its mysterious silence.

Then her eyes opened.

[SSS-RANK HEROINE PULLED: THERESA MOON]

[CIVILIZATION DESIGNATION: CELESTRA]

[LOYALTY BOUND. LIFE-LINK ESTABLISHED.]

[GT TOKENS REMAINING: 0]

[NEXT PULL AVAILABLE IN: 23 HOURS 59 MINUTES]