[Sligtht Name chage edit only]
Caelen's eyes opened slowly.
The first thing he noticed was the dim light pooling across a smooth ceiling—one he didn't recognize. His head throbbed with dull pain, and as he tried to lift himself with his hands, something yanked him back.
Clink.
His arms strained—and then froze. A cold chill trickled down his spine as he turned his head. Thick, black metallic chains wrapped tightly around both wrists, anchoring him to the wall behind the bed. But there were no visible bolts, no clasps—it was as if the chains were phasing into the wall itself. No give. No escape.
His heart pounded. "What the hell…?"
Frustration twisted in his gut, and he jerked his arms again and again, shouting out.
"LET ME OUT! WHO THE HELL PUT ME HERE?!"
Nothing.
He screamed again. Again. Ten minutes passed in a rage-filled blur of struggling and shouting.
Still, no one came.
Panting, sweat lining his brow, he finally let himself drop back onto the bed with a growl. "Dammit."
In the thick silence, a thought surfaced: the system. Maybe it could help.
He focused his thoughts and summoned the interface.
A red, glowing notification unfurled before his eyes:
[New Mission]
Objective: Escape your confinement.
Reward: Primordial Birth (Active)
Primordial Birth (Active):
Create a small seed corruption energy that allows you to make a high-tier demon Incubus and succubus transformation, but it causes backlash if overused.
Side Effect: Upon turning, the demons will experience intense lust.
Cooldown: 1 month
"Primordial… Birth again, huh…. Wait i never realized the month cooldown, how am I going to turn Lucy? On the last day? " Caelen muttered, rereading the description, then closing it.
But before he could fully process it—
"Hey, why'd you close that? I wasn't done looking."
The voice came suddenly—from behind his head. Feminine. Smooth. Annoyed, but not angry. Like a sulking kid denied their favorite toy.
He tensed and twisted his body, arching up slightly to try and see. All he could glimpse were arms resting casually on a wide headrest shelf, part of the elegant wooden structure connected to the bed.
Someone had been watching him. Reading his screen.
"What the—"
"HEY, BITCH! GET ME OUT OF HERE!"
He snapped, pure fury in his voice. The chains rattled violently with his movement.
Soft footsteps.
Then she stepped into view—calmly walking around the side of the bed, her heels clicking faintly against polished stone.
A woman with sleek black hair, sharp features, and a sunburst pendant around her neck. She moved like a noble, but smiled like a devil who'd found a new toy.
"You know," she began, her voice light and amused, "you're lucky I'm such a kind lady. I could've called that girl to finish you off…" She trailed a finger slowly down his chest, nails barely grazing. "But I think I could handle the job just fine."
Her finger traced down his bare chest, slowly, like she was dragging the moment out. "But I think I can do just as good a job as them. Maybe better."
That touch jolted Caelen's senses—and brought clarity.
She knows.
She saw the interface. She read his race.
Which meant she knew he wasn't fully human. Or at least, not anymore.
His mind turned quickly, piecing together everything she'd said and the look in her eye. Not afraid. Not repulsed. Interested.
He gritted his teeth. "...What do you want from me?"
Caelen slumped back against the headrest, arms aching, his breathing steadier now. His heart still pounded from the panic earlier, but something in him had begun to settle. He'd been through situations like this before—desperate nobles trying to squeeze him for extra potions back when he was the church's errand boy. This wasn't entirely new territory.
He eyed the woman carefully. She was still watching him, arms crossed, lips pursed in an amused smirk.
"What makes you think I want something?" she asked, voice velvety, her smile resting on the line between flirtation and threat.
Caelen exhaled through his nose, trying to read her. "Because no one kidnaps someone and chains them to a bed just for fun… unless you're into that. Which, hey—good for you."
She actually chuckled at that, a short sound that betrayed no real warmth. "Smart mouth. You're calmer than I expected."
"Yeah, well," Caelen said with a shrug as best he could in chains, "I've had worse conversations. One time, a duke's wife offered me ten gold pieces for a potion I didn't have—while her guards held a knife to my thigh."
That earned a proper laugh from her this time. "Sounds like you attract trouble."
"More like trouble attracts me." He tilted his head. "Who are you, anyway? You never said."
The woman ignored the question and instead asked one of her own. "Who are your parents?"
Caelen raised an eyebrow. "Orphan," he replied without missing a beat. "Raised by the Church."
That caught her off guard. Her expression shifted for a brief second—genuine surprise.
"The Church?" she repeated. "That's… ironic."
He smirked. "You're telling me."
She lingered on that thought a second longer than expected before moving on. "Alright then. Your system. Where or how did you get it?"
Caelen tilted his head again. This was getting too deep too fast. "A demon gave it to me."
She paused. "I figured as much."
Her expression flattened with focus. "I only managed to see a little. Your profile… and that mission about escaping. I wasn't able to read anything else."
He narrowed his eyes. "So you can see system windows?"
"Some of them," she replied casually. "It's not perfect. But yours… yours was surprisingly easy to catch a glimpse of. You're not hiding it well."
Her tone shifted back to playful, but the sharpness in her eyes told him she wasn't taking this lightly. Caelen frowned. If she only saw the mission and profile, then she hadn't seen the active skills. That explained why she hadn't cut his head off yet.
Still, it was frustrating. She was right. He hadn't even used the escape skill or fought his way out—he just endured. A part of him wanted to try calling Emma with his link skill, but that felt pathetic. And risky.
Instead, he asked the only question that made sense right now. "How long have I been out?"
The woman blinked, as if she'd forgotten. "Three hours," she said, almost casually.
Caelen stiffened slightly. That was too long. Anything could've happened in that time.
Then she leaned closer, eyes sparkling like she'd just remembered something fun. "So. That skill. The seed. If I let you out, will you give it to me?"
He blinked. "What?"
"That skill," she said again. "The one I saw. It said something about creating a seed of corruption… turning people into demons, right? It seemed valuable. I want it."
He frowned. "And if I don't?"
"I'll kill you," she said matter-of-factly, her smile unwavering.
Caelen looked at her. Really looked at her. "You want to eat the seed, don't you?" he said slowly. "You're after the power."
That actually made her falter.
"What?" she asked sharply.
"You want power," he said again, leaning into it. "But let me guess. You didn't read the side effects, did you?"
She raised an eyebrow.
Caelen grinned. "If you take this seed, you'll become a lust-driven demon. Incubus or succubus class. You'll be starving for attention, overwhelmed with urges. You'll crave it. Bad idea for someone like you, right?"
Her lips tightened. "I read that part."
"Then you know," he said, voice lower. "Only I can calm you down. Your maker. That's how it works. Otherwise, you'll go feral, and someone like that girl you mentioned might notice."
Her eyes flickered.
"What are you saying?" she asked.
"I'm saying," Caelen said calmly, "you don't want to walk down that road unless you're ready to be tied to me. And I don't mean just a one-time thing. You'll be mine. My servant."
She stared at him. Silence stretched between them.
Finally, she shrugged. " After the deed is done, I'll release you, and we will see how everything turns out."
He stared back. She was serious. And either stupid, or very sure of herself.
"I want to be let out first," he said firmly.
She tilted her head. "Hmph. You're lucky I'm curious."
She pulled a small remote from a drawer beside the bed and pressed a button. With a quiet click, the black chains retracted into the wall, disappearing as if they had never existed.
Caelen sat up slowly, shaking the numbness from his arms. He leaned back against the tall wooden headrest frame, fingers brushing the grooves where the chains had bound him.
"Thanks," he muttered, just to shift the tension.
Almost immediately, a system window bloomed in front of him:
[MISSION COMPLETE: ESCAPE THE CHAMBER]
Reward unlocked: Primordial Birth (Active)
He blinked.
That's it?
He glanced at her. She hadn't noticed his inner reaction—only the flicker of the window in the air. "Yes," she said thoughtfully, "this is the same thing my ancestors used to make the dungeon."
Caelen blinked. "Huh?"
She smiled like a schoolteacher giving a lesson. "My family knows how to write with magic. Enchanting glyphs, shaping systems. The dungeon here in the city was crafted using that same method. Even my glasses—" she flashed them with a dramatic flair "—are inscribed with system-reactive script. Let me see notifications, energy flow, affinity signs…"
Caelen's mind reeled, trying to absorb that. "Wait—so the dungeon has its own system?"
She nodded proudly. "Yes. You've seen those red windows before entering? Same structure. The system changes floors, controls danger levels, and grants exit permissions. It's all built into the foundation."
"That's insane," Caelen muttered.
She smirked. "And you, little demon, seem to have one tied directly to your bloodline."
He stared at her. "You knew I was a demon the moment you saw that screen, didn't you?"
She nodded. "Of course. The moment it said 'Lust Demon.' I would've killed you… but curiosity got the better of me."
Caelen swallowed that revelation, tension still tightening in his spine. "That girl you mentioned earlier. The one you could've called to kill me—who is she?"
The woman's expression changed slightly, less playful now.
"She's a demon hunter, Lucy, I think. Best one they had in years."
Caelen's breath hitched slightly. "…Lucy?"
She smiled faintly. "Ah. So you've met. That makes things interesting."
Then, finally, she held out her hand. "Evelyn. Evelyn Sylraen. You'll be staying with me until we're done, Caelen. So let's try to get along."
Caelen stared at the hand. His instincts screamed at him not to trust her.
But he reached out anyway.