"I've already chosen," Dayesh said.
He was standing in front of them, holding a quest slip between his fingers.
There was no emotion on his face, nothing that hinted at hesitation or excitement.
He simply looked at the two of them.
"Can you handle this?"
He extended the paper toward them.
QUEST: The Gate of Varkhenn
Difficulty: High (Borderline A-Class)Reward: Large Gold Sum + Rare Artifact Fragment
The moment Ghoth read it, he let out a low whistle.
"Now this… is not normal."
Khafa said nothing at first. He only took the paper and studied it carefully, his eyes moving line by line, as if trying to catch something hidden between the words.
"Strength based dungeon," Khafa finally said. "No magic reliance recommended."
Ghoth tilted his head slightly.
"So it's one of those," he muttered.
LOCATION: RUINS OF VARKHENN
The destination was not an ordinary dungeon entrance.
Varkhenn was once an ancient fortress city.
Now, it existed only as ruins clinging to the edge of a massive cliff, as if the world itself had been torn open and left to heal incorrectly.
From afar, the remaining structures looked like broken stone gates. Tower sized pillars half buried into the earth, half collapsed, as if frozen at the exact moment they fell. Some stood upright but cracked down the middle, refusing to fully collapse, as though even destruction had failed to finish its job.
At the center stood a giant stone arch.
There was no door.
No barrier.
And yet, something about it made the air feel heavy.
Like even wind hesitated before passing through.
The ground around it was fractured, split into jagged lines that spread outward like veins of a dead giant.
Scattered across the ruins were remnants of statues.
Warriors without heads.
Hands reaching toward nothing.
Figures caught mid motion, as if the entire battlefield had been paused during its final second of existence.
Those who studied the site said one thing with certainty.
Varkhenn was not destroyed.
It was sealed from the inside.
And those who entered it long ago…
not all of them came back.
BACK AT THE GUILD
Even before they left, the weight of the decision had already settled over them.
Dayesh sat on the edge of a wooden table, completely still.
Khafa and Ghoth sat across from him. Both had already adjusted their gear, silently preparing themselves, but neither of them moved to stand just yet.
On the other side of the room, Rana stood holding an old map she had retrieved from storage.
She was the first to speak.
Her tone was calm, but there was a heaviness behind it, like someone who had explained too many dangerous places to too many people.
"Varkhenn," she began carefully, tracing her finger along the marked region on the map, "is not an ordinary ruin. And it is not a naturally formed dungeon either."
Silence filled the table.
Even Ghoth stopped fidgeting.
"It was once a fortress city," Rana continued. "But not one built for protection."
She paused for a moment.
"Whatever was inside… it was built to contain something."
Khafa narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Contain what?"
Rana shook her head slowly.
"No one knows anymore. Not for certain."
She looked at each of them in turn.
"After the Second Collapse, there were no more confirmed expeditions. The first recorded team managed to reach the third inner gate."
Her fingers stopped moving on the map. "And after that, they stopped returning as a group."
Khafa frowned. "So they split up?"
Rana's grip on the map tightened slightly.
"No," she said quietly. "They didn't come back as a group because they didn't leave as a group."
A heavy silence followed.
Ghoth scratched the side of his neck. "Meaning… only some of them got out?"
Rana hesitated before answering. "Yes," she said at last. "But even those who returned were not the same."
The atmosphere in the room shifted subtly.
"The reports are inconsistent," she continued. "Some returned with no memory of what happened inside. Some were mentally broken. Some couldn't even explain why they went there in the first place."
Khafa exhaled slowly. "So it affects the mind."
Rana nodded. "Yes. And that is the most dangerous part."
She stepped closer to the table and pointed at the central mark on the map, the arch like symbol that represented the deepest point of Varkhenn.
"There is something called a layered pressure system inside." She tapped it once.
"It does not just exhaust your body. It affects your decision making, your coordination, even your instincts."
Her eyes shifted toward Ghoth. "On paper, it is labeled as a strength based dungeon."
Then her tone lowered slightly. "But in reality, brute force alone is not what kills people there."
Ghoth let out a short breath. "So it's one of those places that makes you mess up slowly?"
Rana nodded again. "Exactly."
She moved her hand upward along the map, showing the outer rings of the ruin. "At the first gate, there is already a suppression field. It feels like gravity, but not quite. Like the air itself is pressing down on you."
She paused. "You won't collapse immediately. But you will notice yourself slowing down."
Khafa crossed his arms. "Slowing down how much?"
"Enough," Rana replied, "to make mistakes."
Silence returned.
Ghoth stared at the map. "Third layer?" he asked.
"I have no confirmed data beyond that," Rana said honestly. "But based on fragmented records, there are something called echo rooms deeper inside."
Khafa raised a brow. "Echo rooms?"
Rana nodded. "They are rooms that repeat your movements."
Ghoth frowned. "That doesn't sound too bad."
Rana's expression darkened slightly. "It is not a simple repetition," she said. "Each loop has small differences. Tiny variations. Almost unnoticeable at first."
She tapped the map again. "Enough to confuse your sense of certainty."
Khafa glanced at Ghoth. "That sounds annoying."
Ghoth nodded. "Sounds like a dungeon with personality issues."
But Rana was not finished yet. Her voice grew more serious. "And the most important part…"
She looked directly at Dayesh. "At the center of Varkhenn, there is something called the Core Gate."
The room fell completely silent.
"I do not know if it is an artifact, an entity, or a seal," she said. "But every report that mentions reaching it has one consistent detail."
She paused again. Her words slowed. "When you get close to the Core Gate…" She looked at each of them. "One of you will start to doubt why you are even there."
The silence that followed was different from before. It was no longer just caution. It was something more internal.
Khafa stopped moving completely. Ghoth no longer made any jokes. And Dayesh… he simply stared at Rana, as if measuring the weight of what she had just said.
Rana let out a slow breath. "I will not stop you," she said softly. "But you need to understand this clearly. Varkhenn does not measure strength."
Her fingers relaxed from the map. "It measures how long you can remain whole."
For a long moment, no one spoke.
The air in the guild felt heavier than the dungeon description itself.
Finally, Dayesh stood up. He adjusted his gear without a word. One simple motion. But it felt like the conversation had already ended the moment he moved.
"Let's go," he said.
Khafa stood up immediately after. Ghoth followed.
Rana remained behind for a moment, still holding the map.
Her eyes stayed on the mark that represented Varkhenn.
Because no matter how clearly she had explained everything… she knew it would never be enough to prepare someone for what waited inside.