At an Observation Outpost.

  An isolated stone tower, embedded at the top of a tall dune, was protected by wooden palisades that looked far too fragile to withstand attacks from the monsters that lived in the desert.

  At the top of the tower, a guard yawned, adjusting his spear against his shoulder.

  He wore the standard uniform, a rough set of grayish leather reinforced with thin plates of dull metal marked by scratches and stains of sand.

  If he were devoured, the protection seemed to serve only to delay death by a few seconds.

  The guard had a thin face burned by constant heat, covered by a metal helmet. His eyes showed deep dark circles that betrayed many sleepless nights.

  "Two more hours..." Joren muttered, looking bored at the nighttime scenery of the desert. Today was his day to stay alone on duty, and the problem was that there was nothing here.

  The climate and the silence made Joren feel like he was being watched by a monster.

  He really had to agree with his veterans when they said that the night shift in the Ash Desert was a punishment.

  If you were alone, without card games to pass the time, chatting, or gossiping about the lives of your superiors, there was only one option left: stare silently into nothing, waiting for something to happen.

  Of course, it was still better if nothing happened.

  Between the cold wind that slipped through the gaps in his armor and the constant fear of a monster appearing out of nowhere, Joren preferred the cold.

  "Nothing happens in this hell. Not even adventurers are stupid enough to..."

  But sometimes, solitude made his brain imagine things.

  And today was one of those days.

  Joren locked his gaze in one direction.

  Down there, beyond the limit of the tower’s light, a silhouette emerged from the darkness.

  "What..." Joren quickly went on alert. Adjusting his stance, he focused his eyes on the silhouette, trying to understand what he was seeing.

  That shape looked like a...

  Human?

  A man was there, walking calmly over the soft sand as if it were a carpet. The man slowly approached the post under his attentive and cautious gaze.

  The figure wore a worn cloak, hiding his body. But he could still see the pale skin of his face.

  Joren felt the hairs on his arms rise.

  Was there really someone walking through the desert at night?

  Swallowing hard, he still had to do his job.

  "S-Stop!" Joren shouted, his voice faltering for a second before recovering. "Identify yourself, traveler! This is a Luminaris outpost. What are you doing in the desert at this hour?"

  The man stopped when he heard his voice.

  He looked up, and for a moment, Joren had the impression that those eyes glinted when they noticed him.

  "I am just a traveler." The stranger’s voice was calm as he answered, seeming to echo beside his ear. "I am looking for the way to Luminaris. Is this the right direction?"

  The ‘stranger’ was clearly Mark, lost in the desert after flying with Pippin for a while.

  He had ended up losing his sense of direction, and the point of light had drawn him here.

  Joren relaxed his grip on the spear, feeling more at ease when he heard that he was just a traveler looking for Luminaris. "Yes. Keep heading south. If you don’t stray, you’ll see the city lights before dawn."

  "Thank you." Mark replied, but his eyes were fixed on the structure, evaluating it with curiosity.

  He hadn’t expected to find a tower as lost as he was in the middle of the desert, so he was genuinely curious about what this post was doing here.

  "What are you?"

  Joren was stunned by the sudden question.

  'What are you? What kind of question was that?'

  Did the man not know what a guard post did?

  Despite the doubt, he still answered. "We are a Luminaris guard post. We are here only to signal the activity of large monster nests."

  'Oh...' Mark nodded.

  So it was to deal with monsters.

  But looking at the structure of the tower, Mark felt that thing didn’t look very reliable.

  "Isn’t it dangerous to stay alone here?"

  Joren let out a short laugh, tapping the shaft of his spear against the stone floor. "Ah, you’re really not from around here, are you? The tower is engraved with Third Circle repulsion runes. The magic here resists any monster up to Level 30. If something bigger shows up, the stones glow blue and we have time to use the transmission crystal to call for reinforcements."

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Mark raised an eyebrow.

  Level 30.

  "And what is the strongest monster in this area?"

  Mark knew, but still asked.

  "The Sand Worms, of course! Their level ranges between 25, at most 30 if it’s an old specimen." Joren replied with a dismissive gesture.

  "They’re trouble for a group of Silver Rank adventurers, but they don’t come close to the tower because of the barrier. Why the question? Did you run into one?"

  "..."

  Mark looked back toward the direction where the nest used to be.

  Level 25 to 30... he treated them like level 1.

  The discrepancy was absurd.

  In the game, his level 500 placed him on a scale where level 30 creatures wouldn’t even activate his passive defense abilities.

  "I saw some tracks." Mark replied with studied neutrality. "But it seems they were busy with something else."

  Thinking of something, Mark continued: "Does Luminaris have many guard posts?"

  Joren let out a laugh, tapping the parapet of the tower. "Only in a few locations. The city of Luminaris pays poorly for guard posts. If you want to earn money, you need to join the internal forces, but I’d rather stare at the void than fight in the border wars in the East."

  Mark lightly furrowed his brow, taking in the information.

  "Border wars in the East?" He tried to probe further, his voice tinged with genuine curiosity. "Where exactly?"

  Joren froze for a moment, his eyebrows rising so high they nearly disappeared under the metal helmet.

  The man in front of him didn’t know what a guard post did and didn’t know about the war either.

  Joren looked Mark up and down before letting out an incredulous laugh. He didn’t seem to have even the most basic knowledge!

  "Do you live under a rock? Or did you spend the last ten years meditating in some isolated cave?" He shook his head, thinking it was a joke.

  "The Solis Empire has been pushing its borders against neighboring principalities for months. They say it’s to ‘unify the faith under the sun,’ but everyone knows it’s because of mana mines and trade routes. Luminaris is still neutral, but the East is a meat grinder now. If you were planning to go there, you’d better turn back."

  'Solis Empire? Unify the faith under the sun?'

  Mark tried to remember, but there didn’t seem to be any mention of the Solis Empire in the game, so he didn’t know if they had any relation to the holy kingdom and the army of light.

  This sounded more like one of the many expansionist empire events, resource disputes, and religious conflicts that existed in the game.

  "I have been busy with other matters." Mark replied dryly, regaining his composure. "I didn’t know the situation was so unstable."

  "Now you do. And be thankful you’re in this cursed desert." Joren spat to the side.

  "Here, we only worry about not being eaten by worms. In the East, you worry about not being incinerated by a squad of Solis battle mages. They don’t ask questions, they attack first and check the corpse later."

  "I understand. I appreciate the information." Mark said.

  "You’re welcome. Follow the glow of the moons. In a few hours you’ll see the lights of the main watch post. And try not to get eaten on the way, adventurer." Joren waved casually, pointing in the direction Mark should follow.

  Mark said goodbye with a nod and turned his body, resuming his walk.

  Joren stayed there, watching the silhouette move away.

  When he blinked for a moment and looked back, there was no one there.

  "What the hell..." Joren ran to the edge, stretching his neck.

  The desert was in absolute silence. "Hey! Already gone?"

  There was no answer.

  Joren felt a chill crawl up his spine. He looked at the spot where Mark had been standing and noticed that the sand was perfectly smooth.

  There were no footprints.

  "By the Light..." He whispered, making the sign of light on his chest. "I saw a ghost. I definitely just talked to a haunting."

  Meanwhile, the "ghost" was already kilometers ahead, flying at full speed while heading toward Luminaris.

  Pippin, with his large wings beating in a steady rhythm, kept just behind like a faithful shadow following his master.

  Mark’s mind was busy, processing the new information.

  The encounter with that guard had been genuinely useful.

  Border wars in the East...

  In Age of Blood, politics were told through loot.

  Occasionally, he found banners that didn’t belong to the Holy Kingdom or the Army of Light — the two great powers that hated him the most in the game.

  But that was a thousand years ago.

  The idea that those nations might still be standing was intriguing and, at the same time, unlikely. If a thousand years had transformed geography and fauna, what had they done to royal bloodlines and borders?

  And this Solis Empire... Mark narrowed his eyes as the wind cut against his face.

  The guard had mentioned that Luminaris was still neutral, but that the East had become a "meat grinder." The mention of Solis battle mage squads stirred his veteran player curiosity.

  He wondered what level of power those mages had.

  Would they be capable of casting high-grade spells? Or were they just basic mana users who relied on numbers to win?

  Mark shook his head, setting the thought aside for the moment. For now, it was just a curiosity he would have to file away in the back of his mind.

  He had more immediate data to analyze.

  If Sand Worms were level 25 to 30 and gave trouble to a group of Silver Rank adventurers, the power scale of this world was beginning to draw a map in his head.

  If a level 30 monster was considered a real threat to experienced professionals, then where would Mark, who resided at the absolute peak of level 500, stand on that scale?

  "I need to be even more careful." Mark murmured to himself.

  If he entered Luminaris displaying what he considered 'basic strength,' he might end up attracting unwanted attention.

  He wasn’t afraid.

  His concern was purely strategic and, above all, personal. What truly bothered him was the possibility that the Holy Kingdom and the Army of Light were still out there, hidden under new names or maintaining old traditions.

  Those people were detestable; they hunted him not for something he had done, but for what he was. Being a Vampire made him an automatic target for fanatics who called themselves "defenders of the light."

  Even being level 500, facing the upper echelons of the Army of Light had never been a walk in the park.

  Mark still remembered the Elite Paladins who used [Divine Aegis], a barrier of light that reduced his blood damage by half, forcing him to spend twice the Blood Essence to break through their defenses.

  They had HP bars that seemed endless and abilities like [Judgment of the Morning Star], which summoned pillars of sacred fire capable of draining considerable chunks of his life, ignoring part of his physical and magical defense.

  In the game, a single mistake against a coordinated Holy Kingdom squad could mean defeat, even for him.

  Of course, Vaelin was no easy prey either.

  Far from it.

  In fact, the Holy Kingdom and the Army of Light were a narrative arc in Age of Blood that seemed to never end, because the developers were always adding new expansions, new holy generals, and increasingly punishing invasion mechanics.

  The player was always on the passive side, resisting waves of "heroes" that became stronger with each update.

  It was a game of absolute endurance.

  And Mark had won every one of those stages.

  His 1,460 days of uninterrupted logins were not just a number on a profile; they were 1,460 days of perfect defense.

  He had repelled every crusade, every invasion attempt, and every purification spell cast.

  With his max level, a library of over two thousand skills, the Crimson Ziggurat under his command, and a stocked inventory, he had every reason to be arrogant.

  If the Holy Kingdom or the Army of Light really knocked on his door in this new world, Mark was confident that his winning streak would not be broken.

  "Sovereign..." Pippin suddenly spoke. "I think we’ve arrived."

  Mark snapped out of his thoughts and looked to where Pippin was looking.

  Down below, the ash dunes began to give way to low, twisted vegetation, indicating that the desert was finally being left behind.

  On the horizon, a thin line of artificial lights began to flicker.

  Luminaris was in sight.

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