He reached the Great Hall. In the center stood a pedestal holding the . Normally, this legendary gear required a level 99 soul and the blood of a dragon to touch. Kael reached out. The protective barrier, which should have vaporized his hand, flickered once and dissolved like mist. He strapped the midnight-black plate to his chest; it felt light as silk but hard as diamond.

But the Castle of Temptation earned its name for a reason. As Kael ascended to the upper reaches—the floors—the environment began to shift. He wasn't just finding gold and gear; he was finding the "What Ifs" of his own life. Behind one unlocked door was a version of himself that had never left home. Behind another, a version where he was king.

Kael stepped through the grand portcullis, which hung frozen halfway up its tracks. Usually, a traveler would have to solve the "Trials of the Silver Key" or defeat the "Cerberus of the Gate" to enter. Kael simply walked under the iron teeth. In his hand, a strange, glowing sapphire—the —pulsed with a steady blue light. As long as he held it, the world’s restrictions didn't apply to him.

"This is almost too easy," he muttered, his voice echoing off the vaulted ceilings.

Kael looked at his glowing sapphire stone, then back at the empty halls he had bypassed. He realized that a door without a lock is just a hole in the wall, and a victory without a struggle is just a hollow fact.

The air in the didn't just smell of ancient stone and damp moss; it smelled of magic and something far more dangerous. For Kael, a rogue who had spent his life dodging city guards and picking pockets, the legends of the castle’s "all-access" curse were too tempting to ignore.