The morning mist clung to the valley like a warning.
Kael adjusted the straps of his pack, eyes set on the horizon where the ancient ruins of Tolmark lay veiled in cloud and legend. Behind him, Lyra tightened her gloves, her staff humming softly with stored energy. Orin double-checked the compass stone, which pulsed faintly toward the northwest.
"So it begins," Kael muttered, stepping onto the moss-laced trail leading to the lost city.
No more tests. No more training arcs. This was real now.
---
Echoes Beneath the Earth
Tolmark had been a name Kael once dismissed as myth—an ancient capital that vanished after a mana flood two centuries ago. But the Ley Dancer's words made it clear: Tolmark still lived, buried beneath layers of time and blood. It held one of the dungeon cores he needed to activate the Transgate Artifact—the only known way to cross dimensions and return home.
But it wasn't just any dungeon.
It was sentient.
---
The Signs of Warning
They passed a forest where the trees grew too straight, too tall—unnatural symmetry caused by magic gone wrong. The birds fell silent. The wind seemed to whisper in a forgotten tongue.
"Kael," Lyra said, her voice low. "Something's wrong. There's no wildlife here. Nothing since sunrise."
Kael paused. He bent down, brushing aside moss to reveal a set of footprints—deep, sharp, clawed.
"These are fresh," he said. "And big."
Orin squatted beside him.
"We're being followed."
Lyra's grip on her staff tightened.
"Or hunted."
---
A Rift of Memory
As they pressed forward, the path suddenly split.
To the left: A winding cave route swallowed by darkness.
To the right: A narrow bridge over a ravine with glowing red vines curling along the bottom.
The compass stone blinked once, then dimmed.
Kael took a deep breath.
"The left leads underground—closer to the core. But it's probably guarded."
"And the right?" Lyra asked.
"It's a mana leech forest. If we step into it, it'll drain everything magical we carry."
Orin chuckled dryly.
"So. Die quickly, or slowly."
Kael turned to them.
"We take the underground route. This core is too important."
He took one last look at the pendant around his neck—the one that still held a trace of Aria's warmth.
"Hang on, Aria. I'm coming."
With torches lit and nerves steeled, they stepped into the cave.
And something—deep in the walls—opened its eyes.
The cave swallowed them whole.
The light from their torches flickered against walls covered in forgotten runes—runes that pulsed faintly, like veins under ancient skin. Kael's eyes tracked every symbol, his genius mind already trying to decipher the language. It wasn't just old—it was pre-magic civilization old.
"These aren't just markings," Kael whispered. "They're instructions."
"For what?" Orin asked.
"For surviving this place."
Lyra brushed her fingers across a rune etched in the wall.
"It's humming… like it recognizes us."
Kael's heart skipped.
"No. It doesn't recognize us. It recognizes me."
---
Trap of the Mind
A distant sound echoed—scraping metal, crunching bone. They stopped.
Suddenly, the path split again, but this time not physically. They each saw something different ahead.
Lyra saw her childhood village burning.
Orin saw his long-dead brother holding a sword to his throat.
Kael saw Aria… covered in blood, eyes lifeless.
He stumbled forward, chasing the vision.
"ARIA! NO!"
"Kael, stop!" Lyra screamed, but her voice came from a different direction—like sound itself bent inside this place.
Kael caught himself, breathing hard. His fingers dug into the cave wall, finding a sharp rune under his grip. Pain snapped him out of the illusion.
"Illusion magic," he said. "Layered into the stone."
He bit his thumb and drew a blood rune into the air.
CLASH! A spark exploded, releasing a wave that shattered the hallucinations.
Orin collapsed, coughing.
Lyra was pale, sweating.
Kael's hand was bleeding, but his mind was sharper than ever.
"From this point on," he said, voice low, "this dungeon is alive… and it knows we're here."
---
A Monster with a Memory
They moved deeper until the passage widened into a great hall with pillars twisted into humanoid shapes—each one frozen in agony.
At the center stood a throne. On it sat a guardian—a skeletal figure in knight armor fused with obsidian stone. One eye glowed red. The other socket was empty.
It turned its head toward them slowly.
"Who… dares… awaken the Keeper of Thought?"
Kael stepped forward.
"A genius who wants his future back."
The creature rose. Its sword burned with black fire.
"Then bleed for it."
CLANG!
The obsidian knight's blade met Kael's with a blinding flash of heat and force. Though Kael lacked magic in this new world, his blade—handcrafted using his own designs—was forged with celestial steel and precision engineering. It held. Barely.
"This thing isn't just a monster," Kael muttered, dodging a vicious horizontal strike. "It's learning with every move."
The knight lunged again, but this time Kael slid beneath the blow and drove a small explosive under its leg joint. BOOM!
The leg buckled, but instead of falling, the knight adapted—rebalancing itself with impossible fluidity.
"He's absorbing your tactics," Lyra called out, preparing her enchanted arrows.
"Then we out-think him!" Kael shouted back.
---
Tactics Over Power
Kael had fought wars of intellect, not brute force. Now, that mindset became his greatest weapon.
He dashed toward a pillar, baiting the knight's swing, and leapt at the last moment. The blade struck the stone instead, showering the area in shards. Kael signaled Orin.
"NOW!"
Orin hurled a smoke grenade Kael had invented—filling the area with thick, golden fog infused with an alchemical binding agent.
"Lyra, disrupt its balance!"
She fired a triple-arrow volley—two to distract, one to strike true—embedding itself into the knight's heel. Sparks erupted, and the creature stumbled.
Kael sprinted up the pillar wall, launched himself off it, and twisted mid-air—driving his blade down with brutal force into the creature's eye socket.
"FOR ARIA!"
The obsidian knight screeched—a sound like stone grinding against the soul. Its armor shattered, magic dissipating in pulses like dying heartbeats. Its body collapsed, leaving behind a single, hovering crystal shard.
---
A Shard of Something Greater
Kael caught the shard as it fell.
It was warm.
Not just heat—memories.
"This… is a Thought Shard," he whispered. "A memory from the time of the ancients."
As he held it, images surged into his mind—maps of forbidden dungeons, alchemical formulas lost to history, and a glimpse… just a glimpse… of Aria's face, trapped in glass.
"She's still alive," Kael whispered, stunned. "But running out of time."
Lyra looked at him, brows furrowed.
"What did you see?"
Kael's eyes gleamed with fire and focus.
"Hope."
The dungeon trembled. Kael's blade hissed with residual heat, and the air still echoed with the phantom cry of the obsidian knight's defeat. But the real storm had just begun.
Kael stood in the soft glow of the Thought Shard, breathing heavily, its whispers dancing in his ears. The memories within it flowed like a puzzle trying to solve him, not the other way around.
"This is more than a clue," Kael muttered. "This is the next step."
He looked over his shoulder—Lyra's bow was still half-drawn, Orin's gauntlet was cracked, and sweat glistened on all their foreheads.
"Let's move. We don't have long," Kael said.
"Move where?" Orin asked, limping behind.
Kael held up the shard.
"This has coordinates—latitude, leyline, even elevation—encoded inside. It's pointing us toward a place known in legend: The Vault of Lost Threads."
---
What Lies Beyond
As they ascended from the now-dead dungeon floor, the air outside was crisp, the sky turning to twilight. Kael opened his portable sketchpad and began copying the arcane patterns he had seen in the shard.
"The Vault stores relics of time," Kael explained. "Artifacts left behind by people like me—those who came from different worlds, wielding forbidden knowledge."
Lyra narrowed her eyes.
"Then why hasn't anyone claimed them?"
"Because the vault moves," Kael said, "and because its guardians only respond to a particular code—one that only a 'reincarnated genius' would know how to unlock."
He paused.
"The goddess left breadcrumbs for me. She wants me to reach it."
---
Foreshadow of War
That night, while the others rested, Kael stayed awake under the stars. He laid the shard against a prism device of his own design. Lines of light bent around it, projecting a constellation that formed a sigil.
Suddenly, a flicker of pain lanced through his head—visions poured in: masked scientists, Aria locked in a stasis pod, the mark of the villain organization glowing red like a curse. And then—
A voice. Not divine, not monstrous. Her voice.
"Kael... please come back... I'm still waiting…"
His hand trembled.
"I will. No matter what this world throws at me. I'll build the bridge across dimensions, across fate... and I'll bring you back."
---
Onward to Destiny
As dawn painted the sky, Kael folded the shard into a containment cube. He turned toward the others, already packing.
"We leave for the Vault today."
Orin raised an eyebrow.
"Why the rush?"
Kael looked to the horizon—where ancient clouds twisted unnaturally, and a red flare had silently burst in the heavens.
"Because we're no longer the only ones searching for it."
To be continue...
📢 Hey Readers!
If you're enjoying Reincarnated Genius: I'll Return to Save Her, I've got something cool to share!
I have an official YouTube channel called Anime Mastermind 🎥 — where I talk about anime, my stories, and maybe even your favorite moments!
🌟 Want to see how this story ends?
👉 Add this book to your library so you never miss an update.
👉 Vote for the story if you're having fun reading — it really helps me keep going and bring you more chapters!
Thanks for being part of this journey. Your support means the world to me! 🙏💙
— Anime Mastermind