Haruto chuckled, the sound muffled by his robe.
"What am I even afraid of? I've got my blade, I've got my rod, and I've got the best intuition in the game. Let's get to work."
As he took a few more steps, the thick, grey fog suddenly parted like a curtain. Haruto stopped dead, his eyes widening.
It wasn't a dungeon in the way he expected. It was a surreal, ethereal landscape. The ground was a soft, vibrant pink, stretching out like a velvet carpet, and the trees surrounding him were translucent, shimmering with a soft, bioluminescent glow that pulsed in time with his own heartbeat. The sky above didn't show stars; it showed a swirling nebula of shifting colors.
"Wow," he whispered. "This is Layer 1?"
He didn't waste a second. He tapped the side of his chest, activating his Advanced HUD. A sleek, semi-transparent interface materialized in his field of vision. He quickly navigated to the [Map] tab.
What he saw made his breath hitch.
The map wasn't just a simple grid; it was labeled as [UNKNOWN SECTOR: DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED]. The area was massive—vastly larger than any map he had seen in the academy database. Everywhere he looked, the screen was peppered with aggressive red icons indicating [BOSS ENTITY] signatures.
The entire area is a breeding ground for bosses, he thought, his analytical mind kicking into gear. This isn't a beginner's zone. This is a high-density spawn point.
He zoomed out, gauging the distance. He had enough supplies and stamina for a quick run.
I'll just keep it simple, he decided. Stick to the outskirts, avoid the red boss clusters, collect some environmental data for the team, and get out within two hours. If I stay too long, the 'No Magic' penalty is going to start affecting my physical stamina.
He gripped his iron rod and adjusted his sword. With one last look at the breathtaking, dangerous beauty of the pink fields, he started moving forward, keeping to the shadows of the glowing trees.
Two hours, he told himself. Get in, get the data, get out. Don't wake the bosses.
Haruto crept forward, his boots making no sound on the alien, pink-tinted earth. A few yards ahead, a small, multi-legged creature—looking like a cross between a beetle and a mechanical drone—was busy gnawing on the bark of a glowing tree.
First target, Haruto thought, his heart rate spiking. Let's see if this 'no-magic' run is actually doable.
He lunged, swinging his shortsword in a clean arc. But the moment the blade whistled through the air, the creature simply flickered out of existence. Haruto's sword hit nothing but empty air.
"What?" he hissed, spinning around. Teleportation? No, it was too fast. It must have used a high-speed dodge.
He immediately triggered his [Flash] passive skill. His vision blurred into a stream of data as his perception shifted, allowing him to track micro-movements. He scanned the area, his ears straining. A faint, rhythmic clicking sound drifted from behind him.
He whirled around to find the creature hanging onto the hem of his robe, its mandibles crunching away at the dark fabric.
Caught you.
Haruto didn't hesitate. He dropped the iron rod and unleashed a strike with his bare hand, channeling every ounce of his remaining physical agility into a precise, high-speed chop. The creature didn't even have time to flicker; the strike connected perfectly, smashing the bug against the glowing roots of the tree.
As the creature expired, a soft, golden light pulsed from its remains, and a small, glowing ball dropped onto the pink grass.
Haruto picked it up, feeling a warm hum vibrate through his palm. Loot?
He inspected it—it was a small, crystallized sphere of compressed energy. Probably just a common-tier resource drop, he reasoned. Since it was such an easy kill, the quality won't be high, but I'm not throwing this away.
He tucked the crystal into his pocket, his confidence rising. It was his first kill on the higher floors, and even if it wasn't a legendary artifact, it was his.
First blood, he thought, adjusting his grip on the sword. The Tower thinks it can scare me with 'high difficulty' warnings? Let's see what else this floor is hiding.
He pushed deeper into the glowing forest, his eyes wide, scanning for the next movement. The two-hour timer was still ticking, but the thrill of the hunt was quickly making him forget about the danger.
Haruto pushed deeper into the glowing forest, but the novelty of the hunt quickly turned to tedium. Everywhere he turned, more of those beetle-like creatures scurried around.
Without his magic to wipe out large swaths of them at once, he was forced into a repetitive grind: Slash, parry, strike. Slash, parry, strike.
"I didn't come all the way to Layer 1 to play pest control," he muttered, wiping a bit of residue from his sword. "This isn't a dungeon exploration; it's a glorified cleaning simulator."
He was just about to find a spot to rest when he noticed something massive moving through the trees. It was a creature the size of a carriage, shaped somewhat like a camel, with fur that shimmered like spun silk. It wasn't attacking; it was calmly grazing on the bioluminescent foliage.
Haruto approached cautiously. As he got closer, the creature didn't flinch. It actually leaned forward and sniffed him, its warm breath smelling faintly of ozone and sweet berries.
Transport? Haruto wondered, eyeing the broad, padded ridge on its back. In a floor this huge, you'd need something fast to cover ground. Maybe this is how the upper-level players navigate.
He climbed up, finding the fur incredibly soft, almost like sitting on a cloud. He settled into a comfortable position and decided to test the controls.
"Go," he commanded, feeling a bit foolish.
Nothing happened.
"Move forward? Dash?"
The creature just blinked its large, liquid eyes and continued to chew on a glowing branch.
There has to be a mechanism, he thought, scanning the creature's neck. That's when he spotted a thin, metallic-looking cord, almost like a rein, dangling near its shoulder.
"Ah, manual override."
Haruto leaned over and gave the cord a firm, curious tug.
Yeeeooowww!
The creature let out a sound that was less of a camel's moan and more of a supersonic shriek. It didn't just move—it exploded into motion. The acceleration was so violent that Haruto's head snapped back. It was moving faster than his [Flash] passive skill could even track. The world blurred into a smear of pink and bioluminescent neon.
"Whoa, whoa, wait!" Haruto shouted, clutching the fur for dear life as the creature tore through the forest, banking around trees and leaping over glowing ravines with reckless abandon.
He was being tossed around like a doll, his robe flapping wildly in the wind. This is not transport—this is a high-speed suicide ride!
Despite the sheer terror of being flung toward an unknown destination at Mach speeds, a wide, frantic grin broke across Haruto's face. Okay... maybe this isn't so boring after all.
Haruto held on for dear life, his knuckles white as the creature tore through the landscape. After what felt like an eternity of high-speed blurring, he decided he'd had enough. He reached forward and tried to pull the cord again, thinking it might be a brake or a "stop" command.
Instead, the creature let out an even higher-pitched shriek and doubled its speed.
"Are you serious?!" Haruto yelled, but the wind snatched his words away.
Panic set in. The force was becoming unbearable, and his head was spinning. Just as he tried to shift his weight to force the beast to turn, a low-hanging, glowing branch whipped out of the dark and smacked him square in the forehead.
Crack.
The world went pitch black instantly.
When Haruto finally pried his eyes open, the air felt different—thinner, colder, and charged with static electricity. He groaned, clutching his throbbing head, and sat up. The "camel" creature was still running at full tilt, its hooves drumming rhythmically against the ground.
He looked around. The pink, glowing forest was gone. In its place was a jagged, volcanic landscape of obsidian rock and swirling purple mist.
"Wait... where am I?" Haruto thought.
He froze. He couldn't talk. The three-hour window! He quickly pulled up his HUD, his fingers trembling as he tapped the map. His stomach dropped into his boots.
[CURRENT LOCATION: LAYER 5]
"Layer 5?" he thought, his voice echoing in the head, desolate crater.
"How did I get here? That beast didn't just run, it jumped floors!"
He scanned the map, and his blood turned to ice. Every inch of the surrounding area was swarming with high-level boss markers. They weren't just standard monsters; they were apex predators, pulsating with enough energy to wipe out an entire platoon. And they were all converging on his position.
"Oh, great," he thought, watching the red dots on his HUD closing in.
"I'm in the heart of a high-tier spawn point with no magic and a massive headache."
Just as he was about to jump off the creature and try to hide, the "camel" began to flicker, its form turning translucent. It was de-spawning.
Haruto tumbled across the jagged obsidian ground, his robe tearing as he skidded to a halt. He scrambled to his feet, panting, his head still throbbing from the impact.
This is a disaster. I was supposed to be back by now! The mansion must be in lockdown, my team is probably panicking, and I'm stranded in Layer 5 with no mana.
He looked at the spot where the shimmering beast had just vanished. "You piece of scrap metal! You couldn't have dropped me off at the entrance?!"
A deafening, guttural roar vibrated through his chest, shaking the very air around him. It wasn't the sound of a beast; it sounded like metal grinding against metal. Haruto froze. He slowly turned around, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
He looked up. And up. And up.
It was colossal.
Floating in the center of the crater was an entity that defied all biological logic. It had no limbs—no arms, no legs. It was a massive, floating orb of dark, pulsating matter, covered in shifting, geometric armor plates. Behind its massive body, a jagged, glowing ring spun slowly, humming with a low-frequency energy that made the ground beneath Haruto crack.
From its back, six translucent, ethereal wings—looking like giant, spectral fans—pulsated, shedding showers of sparks that burned the ground where they fell.
And the eyes.
There were dozens of them embedded in its armor, but one primary eye in the center was the size of a carriage, glowing with an intense, hypnotic purple light. It didn't just look at Haruto; it seemed to be reading his data, scanning his very soul.
"I'm dead," Haruto thought, his voice trembling despite his best efforts to stay cool. "This isn't a boss. This is a system-tier entity."
The creature didn't move, yet Haruto felt the pressure of its gaze pushing him into the dirt. The purple light flickered, and the air around them began to distort, creating a vacuum that made it hard to breathe.
Sirehtea? Haruto called out desperately in his mind. Sirehtea, are you there?! I need a plan!
But there was only silence. He was completely on his own, standing in the shadow of a god-like entity, with nothing but an iron rod and a shortsword to his name.
The entity opened its central eye wider, and a beam of pure violet energy began to charge in the center of its ring. Haruto realized with a sinking heart that it wasn't just going to attack him—it was preparing to delete him.
The violet beam tore through the spot where Haruto had been standing a split second before. He dove, rolling across the jagged obsidian, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The entity didn't relent; it shrieked, and dozens of smaller, eye-shaped drones erupted from its core, swarming the area like angry hornets.
Haruto danced between the lasers, his [Flash] passive pushing his muscles to their absolute limit. He was sweating, his vision blurring. Dodge, roll, parry—I can't keep this up forever!
The entity paused, its central ring glowing with a blinding, terrifying intensity. It wasn't summoning drones anymore; it was charging a concentrated blast that felt like it could erase the entire layer. Haruto realized he couldn't outrun this. It was either take the hit or stand his ground. He gritted his teeth, his hand flying to the hilt of his shortsword.
Fine. I'll cut the damn beam in half if I have to!
Just as he braced for impact, a blur of motion streaked across the battlefield. A girl with hair like spun gold, clad in sleek, high-tech tactical gear, materialized in front of him. With a sharp flick of her wrist, she deployed a translucent, shimmering barrier.
The violet beam slammed into the shield, the sound like a cracking planet.
"Who are you?!" she shouted over the roar of the energy. "And what the hell are you doing in the forbidden zone?"
Haruto's throat was locked tight—the system's silence protocol. He could only stare at her, shocked.
Suddenly, the entity pulsed, and the shield shattered like glass. The beam bypassed the fragments and hit Haruto with the force of a freight train. He was thrown backward, his vision turning to static.
"Move!" the girl barked, her eyes flashing a brilliant, annoyed blue.
She didn't wait for an answer. She reached into the air, and a massive, heavy-duty railgun materialized in her grip, humming with lethal blue electricity. She didn't even aim properly—she just leveled it and pulled the trigger.
BOOM.
A streak of pure blue light obliterated the air. The massive orbital entity didn't even have time to roar; it simply evaporated into a cloud of glowing data fragments.
Haruto, lying in the dirt with his ribs feeling like they were pulverized, watched through half-lidded eyes. One shot... she took out a system-tier entity in one shot?
The adrenaline finally left him, and the darkness he'd been fighting all day finally surged forward. His eyes drifted shut, and he collapsed into the cold obsidian dust, the last thing he saw being the girl walking toward him with her glowing railgun slung over her shoulder.