5. Wizard

Jason helps a robed, wizard-like man to his feet in a ransacked parlour. The man senses Jason’s odd aura, calls him nonhuman, and links him to a failed summoning. Weakened from backlash, the man drinks a recovery potion and, unable to use mana, decides to kill and eat Jason, calling him an outworlder.

Jason rushes for the exit but finds the doors locked. The cultist lunges with a knife, and they grapple in the dark. Jason bites the cultist’s hand, wrests the weapon, and, in panic, drives the blade into the man’s throat, killing him. The interface identifies the victim as a Builder Cultist, and a “Seal Knife” is revealed, but Jason cannot meet its requirements to use it.

As shock sets in, a hiss from a ceiling vent heralds an enormous, intelligent-looking black snake emerging. A new quest, “Time to Run,” appears: escape the Umbral Mountain Snake. Jason slams the bulkhead door and flees along the wooden walkway toward the crawl tunnel back to the well.

Despite his efforts, metal grinds behind him; the snake has opened the door. Jason crawls through the tunnel, scrapes himself raw, and scrambles up the well’s rungs. The snake spirals up the well’s slick walls as if adhered, closing the distance.

At the top, the snake coils around Jason’s leg and torso, stopping his ascent. Jason clings to the final rung until the brickwork’s mortar fails. The well wall collapses, and Jason, the snake, and debris plunge into the darkness below.