Niki touched the door, and the cores on it lit up like stars. As he waited for the dungeon to open, a message arrived from his system.


    [You are entering a Fate Omphalos. The Fa?e System received a buff.]


    [Fate Omphalos: The Machinery Workshop.]


    [Omphalos Rank: F.]


    [Omphalos Saturation: Low.]


    [Fate Buff Duration: 12 Hours.]


    “Omphalos?” Niki frowned at the umon word. It usually refers to ‘the center or gathering of something,’ but he was sure that it was used in ancient times as ‘a focal point of earth.’


    Niki was sure of one thing: a Fate Omphalos was a dungeon. However, the system receiving a buff was outside of his expectations.


    He avoided going into dungeons before because they were too dangerous with his stats. Now that he was stronger, Niki could manage using his knowledge and gun.


    ‘System, what are these things?’ Niki asked, and just like the usual with new functions, the system gave him a first-time tutorial.


    [Fate Omphalos: A ce where Fate gathers, by either natural or artificial means. The system receives a time-limited buff in Fate Omphaloi, halving the Fate Points consumed.]


    [Omphalos Rank: The more Fate in an Omphalos, the higher the rank will be. The higher the rank, the longer the buff remains.]


    [Omphalos Saturation: The state of an Omphalos capacity to gather Fate. If the saturation is Low, then the Omphalos can grow significantly. If the saturation is Max, then the Omphalos has reached its limits.]


    [Fate Buff Duration: The time the buff takes effect after you enter the Omphalos for the first time. After the time ends, the Fate Points consumption returns to normal.]


    ‘Halving?’ Niki’s eyes turned round. He let go of the door before the dungeon opened.


    He had 0 Fate Points after using the Holy Powers on Sergio to make use of this buff. ‘It’s a first-time buff only, but the concept is tempting. That means if I want to change a probability for half the points, I can make use of the Fate in a dungeon.


    He wanted to look for Fate Points, but the fastest way possible was to kill someone with a high fate value. His system registered characters and their Fate meter if they were relevant to him, but it didn’t do so for strangers.


    ‘Plus, I can’t kill innocent people. Unless they are viins, how would mindlessly killing make me any different than Dark Beings?’


    The knights would hunt him down and kill him if he started killing left and right. He didn’t want to inflict the pain he received on innocents just because he can.


    “If I can finish the quest in less than 12 hours, I can make use of the buff.” Niki decided he can only go for this route. “Let’s go dungeon diving.”


    [You have entered a Fate Omphalos. The System received a buff.]


    A light split the runic door in front of him into two as Niki felt a powerful force pull him inside. His body disappeared, and the travel toward the dungeon began.


    ***


    When Niki opened his eyes, he found himself standing on top of a metallic tform. The surface was smooth, and it was connected to other metallic tforms by several chains.


    They ran in an arc as far as the eyes can see, surrounding a giant metallic ck tower. Niki raised his head to look at the structure with a frown.


    ‘This environment…’


    He had some expectations since he found the screw. However, the magnitude of this novel proved that the system was correct. This dungeon can grow into something stronger than an F-rank.


    ‘It’s good that I found it early, but these sounds…’


    They were the sounds of gears rotating, their cogs clutching to each other. As Niki heard them, the first monster in the dungeon appeared.


    With a set of jets on different parts of its body, the machinery flew between the tforms. Niki watched as it flew from one tform to the other, patrolling the space.


    He walked toward the edge of the tform and found that rageful waves were below him. If he fell, getting out of the waves will be a challenge itself.


    “Intruder… Intruder…”


    The machinery sensed his existence and its eyes turned from yellow to red. Having the head of a human and a barrel for a body, it flew toward him as scythes and guns appeared from its body.


    “Why did it have to be machinery?” Nik grumbled with dissatisfaction. “How do I test eating the souls of monsters if it’s an inanimate monster?”


    He wanted to see if he can sate his curse by eating the souls of monsters. The system stated it needed to be a Living Soul, but he didn’t know if monsters had souls like humans or if they were considered a ‘Living’ by the Curse of The Banished.


    “Intruder… Elimination Protocol began.” The machine stopped in front of the tform, making use of its flying advantage.


    Niki, however, didn’t suffer a disadvantage with his gun. Picking a long-distance battle against a gunman was unwise, but it was a programmed machine.


    His darkness covered his arm like living armor before seeping into his gun. Aiming with his crimson eyes, Niki could see the tiniest of gaps in the machinery.


    His bullet left the muzzle, but there was no evidence of it other than the recoil of his gun. The machine couldn’t detect what struck it until the bullet tore through its gaps.


    “Damage… Cause undetected. Damage…”


    The machine aimed its gun at Niki, but he used his stealth and disappeared. He fired several shots, aiming at the machine’s gaps until its weapons began falling left and right.


    The machine tried looking for him, but it could only fire everywhere. One of the attacks almost struck Niki, forcing him to jump from the tform and run on the chains.


    As he did, the bullets never ceased raining on the machine. Its jets were destroyed, making it sway in the air before crashing toward the tform behind him.


    There was a pause before the machine exploded.