The protagonist of our story is the only son of a branch family of a prestigious clan, his family was rather humble and content with themselves, they never caused trouble for anyone, but things could only remain stable for so long.

The main clan had held a so-called friendly tournament in hopes of inspiring the new generation and making them better prepared for their roles as the leaders of the next generation. It was there the families' troubles had started after their son had been brutally defeated by the main clan's eldest son.

This had caused many to withdraw their support, but their family stood with him and comforted him as much as possible, even when the other kids had bullied him after his prowess had seemingly disappeared along with any confidence he previously had.

The older their son grew, the more distressed he became at his weakness, he had started to become meaner and more aggressive taking out even the slightest of frustrations on everything around him even going as far as injuring anyone he considered weaker than him with no signs of stopping.

The greatest of his outbursts was when the marriage between him and his childhood friend had been called off, this revelation had sent him on a drinking spree and had caused quite some incidents. This made his parents decide to send him off to live with his aunt and uncle far away from the central area.

He had been stubborn at first still trying to sink back into his old habits but after some time he had started to improve somewhat, the only area he seemed to be unable to recover in was his former strength which only served to antagonize him further, this had eventually led to him escorting his uncle on his expeditions.

His uncle usually worked as a scout to help search teams when exploring new areas to find secret tomes or artifacts, which would be examined and either auctioned or handed over to the main clan, he may not have liked the idea of the main clan stripping the others of everything they had but he could only watch silently.

The site this time was safe by most standards, cleared completely of beasts, and with how far away it was from any supply routes it was safe from raiders as well. They hadn’t expected this place to have such complex traps.

The main entrance had sealed itself behind them and the only way out was for at least one of them to clear the temple, they had been working together so far and made it through every trap and puzzle, albeit barely.

He had fallen for one of the pitfall traps, separating the two, the structure had given way most likely due to the structure's age he had fallen deeper than one would have expected. His body was bashed against the walls of the temple and the debris that followed behind his fall struck him.

He had fallen for one of the pitfall traps, separating the two, the structure had given way most likely due to the structure's age, he had fallen deeper than one would have expected. His body was bashed against the walls of the temple and the debris that followed him down, one of the larger pieces hitting him over the head, he collapsed with a large open wound on his head.

This was the summary of the memories that had displayed themselves in front of Marcus while he sat with his back to the wall of the room, he had fallen in.

Marcus held his head and sighed, he had been relaxing in his bathtub before this and only closed his eyes for a few seconds, he was never a big fan of these kinds of things.

He stood up and slowly dusted his clothes, looking around there wasn't much of a choice in where to go, deciding to walk forward until he stumbled on a book. The book was small, with minimal designs on it, and didn’t feel like anything too grand to look at.

He sighed again grabbed the book and flipped it open. The surroundings around him had been replaced with white space. A man had appeared his hair long and grey and carried an air of knowledge about him.

“I welcome you dear in heritor, your ability to make it here is your great fortune” Marcus just nodded his head urging the spectre to continue its speech while he crossed his arms to listen to the old ghost ramblings. This made the old man stop for a moment and eye his ‘inheritor’ rather curiously.

“Are you unable to speak?” There was a trace of concern in the old man’s voice when he spoke wondering if his inheritor had a disability, a question to which Marcus slowly shook his head leaving the ghost a bit more puzzled.

“I was expecting this” Marcus said with a sense of finality and the ghost just turned and scrunched its face a bit in a complex expression before giving up and placing a finger on his forehead. The knowledge had rushed into his head like a stream, and he could feel something hot in his chest which made him cough. starting small and then into him wheezing and gasping for air until he vomited a black tar-like substance.

“What is this?” He asked but got no response and decided to try out the method he had just received. Channeling his aura, he noticed how easy it was compared to his previous attempts, it could even be said he had improved after the encounter just now. “This works I suppose”

This book was likely one of the ways to complete the temple as a path had opened in front of him which he had calmly walked out of only to see his uncle waiting for him on the other side wondering how he had gotten out, to which he explained that he had fallen into a separate room that later opened on its own.

His uncle was very happy that they had both survived and decided they should tell the team they didn’t find anything and head back. Marcus gave the temple one last; long look and sighed, today would be the start of a very troublesome life.