Chapter 42: The S-Rank Anomaly
The air in the fourth basement of the Abyssal Spire didn't just feel cold; it felt heavy, as if the oxygen had been replaced by liquid lead. As the raid party pushed into the Chamber of Echoes, even the mid-ranked players began to struggle with the atmospheric pressure. Damon, however, walked with a rhythmic, effortless stride, his heavy carrier pack seemingly weightless. To the others, he was a "poser" in a high-grade mask; to the dungeon, he was a black hole walking among flickering candles.
"Stay close, Damon," a shaky voice whispered. It was Toby, the Bronze-rank carrier. He was gripping a low-level protection charm so hard his knuckles were white. "Kargan is looking for any excuse to dock our pay. If you trip or drop a crate, he'll use it as a reason to leave us behind as monster bait."
Damon glanced at the young man. Toby was terrified, yet he was intentionally slowing his pace to make sure the "weakest" player wasn't left alone in the dark. "I'll be fine, Toby," Damon replied, his voice a low, steady vibration. "Just keep your eyes forward."
Suddenly, the mana-detectors strapped to the vanguard's wrists began to scream in a high-pitched frequency.
"Halt!" Ryker commanded.
In the years since Damon had last seen him, Ryker had undergone a terrifying transformation. He was no longer the Platinum-rank who had struggled with dimensional distortions; he had ascended. He was now a Diamond-ranked Master, one of the few dozen humans who stood at the top of the food chain. His legendary blade, Heaven's Edge, hummed with a golden light that illuminated the entire hall. His very presence forced the shadows to retreat.
"Something is wrong," Ryker muttered, his Diamond-tier senses sharpening. "The mana density just spiked into the red zone. This shouldn't be possible on the fourth floor."
Before Kargan could crack a joke, the shadows above them curdled and tore open. A Void-Stalker—a legendary S-Rank anomaly—dropped from the rift. The sheer pressure of its presence caused the Silver-rank players to collapse to their knees, vomiting from mana-poisoning.
"An S-Rank?! Here?!" Ryker roared. His Diamond aura flared like a miniature sun, the golden energy clashing against the monster's violet void. To any other human, Ryker looked like a god. "Defensive formation! I'll handle the core, the rest of you fall back!"
The Stalker ignored the Diamond Master. It ignored the golden blade. It sensed something "wrong" at the back of the group—a silence so deep it felt like a threat. It lunged, a blur of violet light, straight for the Epsilon carrier.
"Damon, run!" Toby screamed.
Damon didn't move. As the Stalker's scythe whistled toward his neck, he allowed a microscopic leak of his [Void Heart] to touch the air. He didn't use a skill. He simply looked the monster in the eye.
To the S-Rank beast, the world suddenly stopped. The Diamond-rank leader's light was a candle, but the human in front of it was the Sun. The Stalker's instinctual "Logic" shattered. It shrieked—a sound of tearing metal—and did the unthinkable. It twisted mid-air, slamming into a stone pillar to avoid touching Damon, and fled back into the rift.
The chamber fell into a deafening silence. Ryker stood frozen, his Diamond-tier blade still glowing. He had reached the peak of humanity, yet he had just watched a monster ignore him to flee from an Epsilon. "It... it fled? From a carrier?"
Kargan wiped sweat from his brow, his face twisted in a sneer. "It was a glitch! The dungeon's AI must have reset. Or maybe the kid's fake Diamond face is so ugly it scared the thing off!"
Damon didn't say a word. He reached into the dust and picked up a Supreme Obsidian Core—a drop worth 2,000,000 credits.
To be continued....