Kaizen regretted everything about his life choices.
The hike wasn't a hike. It was vertical punishment specifically designed by a sadist who hated humanity.
The terrain had shifted from mud to gravel. Then from gravel to jagged rocks that tried to slice through his shoes. Then from rocks to solid ice that wanted him dead.
He had to strap on the cheap crampons he bought from the general store just to keep moving. Clack. Clack.
They bit into the ice with each step, but every single footfall sent a shockwave of pain shooting straight up his shins like someone was hitting his bones with a hammer.
He used the climbing rope to haul his oversized backpack up a particularly steep ledge, grunting and wheezing like a dying seal that had given up on life.
"My lungs," Kaizen wheezed, clutching his chest like his organs were trying to escape. "I think I left one of my lungs back at the two thousand meter mark. I am literally running on pure spite and maybe some adrenaline."
[Status: Hypoxia Imminent]
The sun began to dip below the horizon, painting the endless snow in shades of violet mixed with grey. The temperature plummeted so fast he could feel it happening.
If he hadn't bought the overpriced Yeti-Fur Lined Coat from that shady vendor (definitely fake fur, probably dog), he would be a human popsicle by now, frozen solid and discovered by hikers in the spring.
He dragged his feet through the snow, which was now up to his knees. Every single step felt like he was wearing lead boots filled with concrete.
"Who puts a temple," huff, "at the very top," puff, "of a death mountain?" wheeze.
He paused, leaning heavily against a frozen pine tree to catch what little breath he had left. He flicked on his flashlight with numb fingers. The beam cut through the darkness, illuminating thousands of swirling snowflakes that looked almost pretty if you ignored the fact that they were trying to kill him.
The air up here was dangerously thin. It tasted like cold iron mixed with mint.
He looked up through the snow.
There it was, finally visible through the storm.
The Temple of the Sun God.
From this distance, it looked like a rotting tooth sticking out of the mountain's infected gum. It was a ruin in the truest, most depressing sense of the word. Broken pillars that had fallen centuries ago. Collapsed roofs that would never be repaired. Piles of gray rubble that used to be majestic walls before time and weather destroyed them.
"Just a little more," Kaizen groaned to himself, forcing his legs to keep moving. "Just get inside. Grab the katana. Sleep for an entire week."
He pushed off from the tree with effort.
He trudged through the knee-deep snow that seemed to be actively fighting him. The wind howled like a living thing, trying its best to push him back down the mountain, but Kaizen lowered his head and leaned into it with everything he had.
Fifty meters to go. Thirty meters. Ten meters. Five.
He stepped onto the cracked cobblestone of the temple courtyard.
[Ding.]
A blue window popped up in his vision. It wasn't the usual passive notification that appeared and disappeared. This one pulsed with a golden border and stayed put.
[SYSTEM ALERT]
[Hidden Dungeon Detected: The Echo of the Sun]
[Rank: F (Variable)]
[Entry Condition Met: Sun Tear Pendant]
Kaizen blinked hard, wiping accumulated snow from his frozen eyelashes.
"Rank F?"
He frowned, his tired brain trying to process this. "That's suspiciously low for a place this dramatic. The katana is supposed to be a D-Rank weapon. Why is the entire dungeon only F-Rank?"
Then he noticed the tag next to it. Variable.
"Ah," Kaizen nodded like he had just solved a mystery. "It scales based on something. That means the difficulty is currently set to Tutorial Mode because I haven't triggered the boss encounter yet. It's basically a safe zone until I do something monumentally stupid."
He took another careful step forward into the courtyard.
HUMMMMMM.
The air suddenly vibrated with this deep, bass frequency.
It wasn't a sound you could hear normally. It was a pressure wave that you felt in your bones and teeth.
The snow around his feet stopped falling. It hung suspended in mid-air like someone had hit the pause button on reality itself.
Then, without any warning, the world hit Rewind.
Whoosh.
A massive stone block flew past Kaizen's head, seemingly sucked out of the ground by some kind of invisible giant vacuum.
"Whoa!" Kaizen ducked hard, nearly losing his balance.
Another stone flew past him going backwards. Then an entire pillar. Then a whole roof section complete with decorative tiles.
The ruin wasn't collapsing into further decay. It was un-collapsing.
Grey, weathered stone transformed into pristine white marble that gleamed. Dead moss withered away and got replaced by shimmering gold paint that looked freshly applied. Massive cracks sealed themselves up with an audible hiss of magic energy.
The visuals were absolutely insane. It was like watching one of those time-lapse videos in reverse, except in 4K resolution with full surround sound and a special effects budget that would make movie studios jealous.
GONG.
A massive bell tolled from somewhere high above. The sound physically shook the accumulated snow off all the nearby trees.
GONG.
Kaizen just stood there with his mouth hanging open, watching this dead ruin transform itself into a magnificent, golden cathedral that belonged in a fantasy painting.
And then the people came.
They flickered into existence like holograms buffering into reality on a slow internet connection.
Monks in saffron robes walked through walls that were still forming around them. Paladins in shining silver armor stood guard at gates that literally didn't exist two seconds ago. Worshippers knelt on the cold stone floor, chanting prayers in a language that sounded like fire crackling mixed with wind chimes.
They weren't transparent ghosts. They looked completely solid. They had shadows stretching across the floor. They had weight and substance.
But when Kaizen waved his hand directly in front of a passing monk's face, the monk didn't react at all.
"Illusion? Or is it a memory. Memory of something deep inside the temple..."
The smell of incense replaced the harsh smell of snow and pine. The biting cold vanished, replaced by this gentle, artificial warmth radiating from somewhere deep in the temple's core.
The Temple of the Sun God was back in its prime, restored to its former glory.
Kaizen stood at the entrance, a small, shivering figure in a winter coat holding a rusty pan, staring up at the splendor of a lost age that had been dead for centuries.
"Okay," Kaizen whispered, his instincts completely overriding whatever fear he should probably be feeling. "The graphics budget went absolutely hard on this one. Someone's getting a raise."
He checked his watch. It was pitch black outside now. The wind was screaming like a banshee.
Inside the temple? It was warm. It was lit by magical torches that never went out. It was safe.
"I haven't triggered the main quest yet, so that means these monks won't suddenly become hostile and eat me."
Kaizen decided, walking through the massive golden doors that had to be three stories tall.
"And I am absolutely not walking back down that mountain in the dark where I can't see the cliffs."
He walked past a kneeling paladin who was frozen mid-prayer and found himself a cozy spot near a large marble pillar, tucked away from the draft.
He dropped his backpack with a heavy thud that echoed through the temple.
"Camping inside an active dungeon," Kaizen muttered, unrolling his sleeping bag on the pristine floor that probably hadn't been stepped on by a living person in centuries. "It's free real estate."
He crawled inside the sleeping bag, clutching his rusty pan against his chest like it was a teddy bear.
"Goodnight, ancient ghosts. Please don't eat me while I'm sleeping."