After recovering from his shock, Timeless slowly walked on the muddy path. As he grew closer to the center, he felt an intangible pressure. It felt like something was weighing down his chest and making his legs feel heavy. The closer he got to the middle, the colder he felt. Not cold from the outside temperature, but a cold from deep inside.
When he neared the center, he found what appeared to be an ancient beast bone. It seemed that the pressure he felt came from this bone. It was so heavy and cold that Timeless nearly collapsed on the spot, but he steeled his heart and regained consciousness while quickly backing away down the path. After reaching a certain distance, and regaining his senses, he paused. Despite the gigantic bone emitting such enormous pressure, he noticed that there was something underneath the skeleton: a glowing jade orb.
At that instant, greed blinded him. Anyone who knows Timeless would know he was worse than a beggar. They may have military offered free housing and meals for a year, but that was to just make life easier for the new recruits in God's Domain.
The food being served was terrible, but it did contain all the required nutrients and calories for minimum survival; wanting anything extra would require you to do it yourself.
"Is it some sort of treasure? If I could get my hands on such treasure could I be rich?" pondered Timeless.
Looking at the location of the orb, he thought about various ways to get it. He even went so far as to think of binding multiple sticks together to reach the orb without having to get too close to avoid the cold and pressure. However, he soon put that thought away as he wasn't sure that if he left the region of the lake that he would be able to come back.
Not being able to think of a good solution, he pondered over his last option: contact the military and have them come get the orb. Maybe, just maybe, he could get a little benefit from the military. But that would be foolish, wouldn't it?
Finally, making up his mind, he steeled his heart to brave through this obstacle and emerge victorious, even if it killed him.
Walking forward, he felt the not-so-subtle increase of cold pressure from the bone, and could hardly stand as he entered the middle of the now empty lake. Still, he took another step. One step—two steps—three steps. He struggled to raise his head up at that point to see if he was close. To his disappointment, there were still a lot of steps to go. He marched on.
As he got closer to the orb, he started crawling. His bones felt immense pain as if there was a mountain on his back, but seeing as he was so close and just about less than six feet left to go. He struggled to move forward in the thick mud, but he couldn't; the pressure too great at this point he couldn't help but lose consciousness, and falling down into the mud on his side.
In a pitch-black space, Timeless muttered to himself, " Is this the way I leave this world? Killed by an ordinary bone? I think in the whole of God's domain, this is the first time someone has been killed by a mere skeleton."
'How can I end it like this? At least if I am to die, it should be gloriously fighting some powerful entity not some skeleton, dammit! I cannot die! I need to get stronger. Only the strong rule the world, and this is my path to strength. If such a skeleton is here, then what it's holding should be something quite powerful. I must get it, no matter the cost. I will not fail here!'
As Timeless felt the determination rise in him with those thoughts, he opened a bloodshot eye as the space he was in shattered. Timeless found himself back in his body with renewed resolve. He stood up with a single great effort and walked again while muttering like chants, "I cannot die here. I will not die. I must succeed. who are you to stop me." Without realizing it, he was within 2 feet from the skeleton, but he couldn't even think about that at the moment. His mind and body were at the point of breaking. Only his sheer willpower kept him from collapsing again.
With blood dripping from his ears, eyes, and nose, he gritted his teeth and took another step, causing blood to trickle from between his teeth. He could only exhaustedly sigh because he felt that he couldn't take the last step. With such unwillingness in his heart, he knelt down due to the pressure, and looked at the white orb just within arm's length, "So close, yet so far."
He raised his arm soaked in his own blood and made one last attempt at one more crazy push. He stood up and bent his him in a crazy attempt to dive forward, regardless of what might happen. If he could just touch the orb that was the source of his pain, then he might actually be happy with such an outcome.
Bracing himself for a world of hurt he dove for the orb, and with the pressure hitting him stronger than ever against all odds, he touched it. With a crazed smile on his bloodied face, he closed his eyes thinking, 'This is it.'
Instead, he found himself in a strange space. Standing in front of him was a gigantic entity covered in darkness, but still emitting that same bone-shilling pressure he felt before. Timeless hurriedly took a step back and asked, "Who the hell are you, and where am I?"
The entity looked at him for a while and spoke; "I have watched you struggle to get to that orb. Although blinded by greed, that no longer matters. What matters is you have what I need—strong enough willpower to get a job done. This is also your great fortune and misfortune."
Timeless was left utterly stunned by this speech. "A great misfortune?" What the hell is this bullshit?! Timeless wanted to know more about the 'great misfortune.' He was about to ask but was cut short.
The entity moved his arm, and Timeless was pulled towards him without much resistance. He grabbed a hold of Timeless, who couldn't move his body and had a horrified look on his face. It smiled slightly and then pointed a finger at Timeless's forehead before saying, "This is the only gift I can give you. How far you can go depends on you," and with that the entity scattered.
Timeless found himself back in reality and the white jade orb was nowhere to be seen—as if it had vanished into thin air. However, he also felt his body had become stronger, so he decided to check his stats.