If Natasha had to describe the feeling, it was like standing at the entrance of a cave she had already passed through countless times—except something was subtly, disturbingly wrong.
When they first entered, the cave ceiling had been barely a meter above her head. Now, as she stood beneath the faint yellow glow of the magic lantern, her head was at least one and a half, perhaps even two meters away from the ceiling.
The change was not sudden. That was the frightening part.
"What's going on…?" Natasha muttered, staring upward. "I didn't even notice this before."
She raised the lantern higher, its dim light revealing the smooth, slightly curved stone above them. The walls bore shallow, evenly spaced grooves, like marks left by repeated scraping.
Beside her, Smith leaned closer to the wall, running his fingers across the stone before answering calmly.
"It's normal. This cave has been expanding little by little from the entrance—millimeters at a time. When the change is that slow, no one questions it."
Natasha frowned. "So… cognitive bias?"
Smith shrugged. "Maybe. Or maybe the cave just doesn't want you to notice. Either way, if I hadn't checked the wall just now, I wouldn't have seen it either."
His answer was vague, but Natasha nodded anyway. It made sense. In total darkness, without deliberately comparing dimensions, who would realize the space had changed?
And the strangest part was how regular it all was.
After a brief pause, Natasha stepped forward, preparing to continue deeper into the cave.
"Wait."
The soft but urgent voice made everyone stop instantly.
Lisala—small, bespectacled, and usually quiet—had pressed one hand against the cave wall. Her eyes were closed, her brow slick with sweat.
"What is it?" Natasha asked immediately.
After an hour of traveling together, Natasha had already figured out the basic structure of this temporary exploration team. Lisala wasn't a fighter, but her perception abilities were sharp enough to detect things others couldn't.
Natasha herself had sensed something strange for a while now—someone lingering nearly a hundred meters behind them—but she hadn't mentioned it yet.
Lisala swallowed before speaking. "Something… something is moving ahead."
Her voice trembled slightly.
"It's very slow. Very large."
Natasha's expression sharpened. "Can you tell where it is? And how big?"
Lisala took a deep breath, clearly pushing her ability to its limit.
"About a thousand meters away. That's as far as I can sense. It's not coming toward us—it's moving deeper inside the cave."
She hesitated, then added quietly, "It feels like a wall. Like something blocking the entire passage."
A thousand meters.
And something large enough to block the whole cave.
Natasha's furrowed brow gradually relaxed, replaced by a glint of excitement.
They had been walking for over an hour without encountering a single monster. Now, something finally appeared.
"Well then," Natasha said calmly, "let's go take a look."
She turned to the others. "Drink your potions now and stay behind me. If anything feels wrong, we retreat immediately."
Smith, who was technically the captain of this team, glanced at her and nodded.
For him, fighting was everything.
Even the twenty-percent reward Roy had promised him mattered less than the thrill of combat itself.
"Alright," Smith agreed without hesitation.
Natasha stepping forward first gave him no reason to refuse. Backing down now would make him look timid.
Silently, everyone adjusted their positions. John and the others moved behind Natasha as instructed, their expressions tense.
After so long without danger, the sudden appearance of a monster made everyone cautious.
A thousand meters passed quicker than expected.
About fifteen minutes later, they saw it.
Under the faint glow of the magic lantern, a massive creature loomed ahead, its body completely filling the cave from wall to wall.
Long gray fur covered its back, thick and matted, swaying slowly as the creature moved forward at a crawling pace.
Its back was turned toward them.
Because it kept moving, they couldn't see its face—or even tell what kind of creature it was.
"I'll get closer," Natasha said quietly.
Even standing only ten meters away, the monster didn't react. That alone felt wrong.
From everything Natasha had learned through weeks of combat, monsters in this world were aggressive to an absurd degree. Some would attack the moment they sensed movement, even from hundreds of meters away.
Yet this thing… ignored them completely.
That unsettled her more than open hostility.
She stepped forward.
Smith and the others watched nervously from behind. A monster large enough to block an entire cave was terrifying no matter how calm it seemed.
Natasha closed the distance to within a single meter.
In that instant, the creature reacted.
Its gray fur suddenly stood on end.
Each strand hardened and shot outward like a volley of blades.
Natasha reacted immediately, throwing herself backward the moment she sensed danger.
Still, she was too slow.
A single strand sliced across her chin and chest. Warm blood flowed instantly, soaking into her clothes.
"Natasha!"
Smith lunged forward along with John. They caught her mid-fall and dragged her back nearly ten meters before stopping.
Lisala and Cam reacted at once.
One poured a Healing Potion directly over the wound. The other shoved a bottle into Natasha's hand.
She drank without hesitation.
"Hiss…" Natasha inhaled sharply as the pain faded. "I didn't expect something that clumsy to react that fast."
She had been prepared. Completely prepared.
And still, she had been injured.
That realization sent a thrill through her.
After more than a month of near-constant combat, Natasha knew her own limits. She shouldn't have been caught off guard like that.
Which meant only one thing.
This monster was stronger than anything she had faced before.
Her eyes lit up.
"Are you alright?" Smith asked, watching her expression carefully.
"I'm fine," Natasha replied, waving him off as she stood. "But I think I need to revise my earlier judgment."
Smith followed her gaze back to the massive creature, whose fur had already settled back into place.
"You mean about the cave?"
"Yes."
Smith nodded slowly. "This cave isn't a passageway. It's not a mine. And it probably wasn't dug by anything intelligent."
Natasha frowned. "You think this thing made it?"
Smith gestured toward the monster's back. "Look closely. That fur doesn't seem dangerous at first glance. But it cut you like a blade. The marks on the cave walls match its movement perfectly."
He raised the lantern higher.
"It doesn't turn around. It doesn't even look back. Because it can't."
Cam lifted his lantern as well, illuminating the entire cave.
Now everyone could see it clearly.
The creature's body fit the cave perfectly, leaving no room to turn or retreat.
It was sealed inside its own path.
"That makes sense," Natasha said slowly, watching the monster inch forward. "But I still have a question…"
She stared at its wriggling back, her expression thoughtful.
"If it can't turn around…"
Her lips curved into a faint smile.
"…then how are we supposed to kill it?"
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