The world twisted—and then tried to kill him.
Space distorted for a brief second, dragging Arthur through the dark-purple gate.
The moment his boots touched the ground—
The air turned lethal.
Heavy. Thick. Suffocating.
A dense, glowing green fog filled the massive subterranean cavern. It didn't just burn—it devoured everything it touched.
The stone beneath Arthur's feet hissed, slowly melting under the sheer acidity of the mist.
[Warning!]
[Lethal airborne toxins detected.]
[Applying 500 Corrosive Damage per second…]
Any normal Level 4 Awakened would have died instantly. Their lungs would have dissolved before they could scream.
Even the academy's top geniuses wouldn't last three seconds here.
But Arthur?
He took a slow, deep breath.
[Passive Skill Activated: 100% Poison Immunity]
[All toxic and corrosive damage nullified.]
To him, the deadly fog felt like a cool morning breeze.
A faint smile crossed his face.
"A forbidden zone…" he murmured. "For everyone else."
He didn't relax.
This was still a Level 20 dungeon.
One mistake—one stray claw, one crushing bite—and his fragile Level 4 body would be torn apart.
He needed control.
Perfect control.
Arthur raised both hands.
The shadows beneath him aggressively stretched, boiling like dark, corrupted liquid.
"Come forth."
Two presences erupted into existence.
To his right—
A towering monster of black steel and corrupted red muscle.
The Blood-Iron Ghoul Fiend.
Its massive bone cleaver rested heavily on its shoulder, crimson flames burning in its hollow eyes.
To his left—
A slender, shifting shadow.
The Plague-Bone Assassin.
Black bones. Toxic green veins. Daggers dripping with lethal acid.
The Brute.
And the Blade.
Arthur stood exactly between them—perfectly still.
A commander.
Click. Clack. Sckitter.
The sound echoed through the dense fog.
They weren't hiding.
They were hunting.
Three massive shapes emerged from the green mist.
Gigantic centipedes—over four meters long.
They were covered in thick, purple crystal armor. Viscous, smoking venom dripped continuously from their mandibles, melting the rock beneath them.
[Monster Identified: Venomous Crypt-Stalker]
[Level: 15 | Tier: Elite]
Three Level 15 Elites.
For a Level 4... it was a mathematical death sentence.
They shrieked, a sound like grinding metal, and attacked together.
Arthur didn't move a single muscle.
His voice cut through the fog—cold, precise, and absolute.
"Hold the line."
A pause.
"Break their joints. Leave nothing intact."
The Ghoul Fiend moved first.
It didn't dodge. It stepped forward—directly into the path of the charging monstrosities.
[Skill Activated: Brutal Cleave]
BOOM!
The heavy bone blade crashed down.
The ground shattered. The sheer kinetic shockwave hit the first centipede head-on, violently crushing its purple crystal skull into fragments of gore and dust.
One strike.
One kill.
The other two Crypt-Stalkers lunged around the corpse of their pack-mate.
Massive fangs pierced deeply into the Ghoul Fiend's flesh. Acidic venom flooded its mutated body, aggressively eating away at its red muscle fibers.
It didn't react.
It didn't feel pain.
[Skill Activated: Blood Frenzy]
The giant undead roared—and violently grabbed one of the centipedes by the jaws, tearing its head clean off with raw, unadulterated strength.
But the third monster—the smartest of the pack—slipped past the tank.
It ignored the Ghoul Fiend completely.
Its mandibles clicked.
A massive, venom-laced crystal shard launched from its body—straight toward Arthur's unprotected head.
Too fast.
Too close.
CRACK!
The shard shattered mid-air.
The Ghoul Fiend's heavy blade had swept back with terrifying speed, intercepting the projectile just inches from Arthur's face.
Arthur didn't move.
But his heart skipped a single, violent beat.
For a fraction of a second, the cold reality of death brushed against his skin. A sharp reminder that his human body was painfully fragile.
He didn't blink, because he knew the Assassin had already moved.
It appeared mid-air, directly above the final Crypt-Stalker.
"Joints," Arthur said calmly, forcing his breathing to remain steady.
Slash. Slash. Slash.
Perfect, surgical precision.
The acid-dripping daggers didn't try to pierce the thick crystal armor. They slipped flawlessly into the weak, fleshy points between the centipede's armor plates.
HSSSSSS—
The [Lethal Corrosion] erupted inside the creature's bloodstream.
Its internal organs melted instantly.
The massive, armored body collapsed into a dissolving, twitching heap.
Silence.
Twelve seconds.
That was all it took.
Arthur hadn't moved a single step from where he arrived.
[Ding!]
[3 Level 15 Elite monsters defeated.]
[Level Difference Exceeds 10! EXP Multiplier Applied.]
[Experience gained: +4,500]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Level Up!]
[Current Level: 7]
[Notice: Mental Energy capacity increased.]
Arthur closed his eyes.
Pure, raw power surged through his veins—sharp, explosive, addictive.
Three levels. In twelve seconds.
He exhaled slowly, opening his pitch-black eyes.
"So this is high-level grinding…"
A pause.
"…It won't stay this easy."
The System always balanced itself.
It always did.
He looked down at the dissolving corpses of the centipedes.
The Plague-Bone Assassin didn't retreat into his shadow immediately. It stood over the melting bodies, its twin daggers dripping.
...Hungry... the faint, raspy whisper scratched at the back of Arthur's mind.
Arthur's jaw tightened.
The green fog of the dungeon wasn't just melting the corpses. It was interacting with them. And it was interacting with him.
The [Corruption Level: 3%] in his soul didn't just twitch.
It felt comfortable here. Too comfortable. The dungeon wasn't just poison; it was pure, refined decay.
[Warning: Environmental resonance detected.]
The thick green fog shifted slightly. Not blown by a wind, but actively parting around Arthur, as if making space for him. A terrifying, unnatural deference.
Arthur wasn't a trespasser in this dungeon. The corruption in his chest made him feel like a returning king.
The cavern was no longer quiet.
The scent of the Ghoul Fiend's blood, and the melting flesh of the centipedes, had spread.
Deep in the fog—
Dozens of red eyes flickered open.
One by one.
Watching. Waiting.
A low, distant screech echoed through the sprawling dungeon.
The walls trembled, dropping dust from the ceiling.
Something deeper...
Didn't move.
It simply watched.
It didn't feel like a mindless beast. It felt old. Heavy.
And it felt like it was actively analyzing the anomaly that had just entered its domain.
Arthur looked into the endless red eyes staring back at him through the fog.
The corruption in his chest pulsed, warm and inviting.
His smile widened—slow, cold, and entirely unnatural.
"Run," Arthur whispered softly into the toxic mist. "It makes the meat taste better."