Inside stood a massive yellow portal, glowing and pulsing like it had a heartbeat. It hummed with a low, electric drone that set Aeric's teeth on edge.
He pulled a ticket from his bag and slid it into what looked like an old-fashioned timecard punch machine. It clicked, stamped the paper, and spat it out. Aeric stepped through a turnstile, moving toward the portal to wait for the others.
"This is always my least favorite part," he muttered.
"Not our fault your weak, unawakened stomach flips every time we jump," Theresa said with a smirk — then shoved him forward. "After you!"
As Aeric steps into the Dungeon, a wave of nausea hits him. Cold. Dark. The air's heavy — like something died in here last week and never left. He swallows hard, pulls out his headlamp, straps it on, and grabs his shield from off his back.
WHOOSH
The portal flares again behind him, and Marcello and Theresa stumble out.
Aeric flips on his light, scanning the surroundings. Stone walls. Jagged rocks. It's a cave lair.
"Be on your toes, guys. Close quarters like this? Anything could happen," Marcello says, moving to the front.
They pushed through a narrow break in the wall and immediately caught the stench — blood, rot, and something worse. It was thick in the air, clinging to the back of the throat like moldy meat. Every step deeper made Aeric's stomach twist harder. After maybe a minute, the tunnel spat them out into a wide chamber littered with corpses. Goblins. Dozens of them. Some looked like they'd been splattered on impact, others were slumped like rag dolls — torn, broken, and leaking across the stone.
"Just goblins," Marcello muttered, nudging a corpse aside with his boot. "Shouldn't be too much trouble. Dumb as bricks, the lot of 'em."
Two paths split off ahead — one curving to the right, the other completely caved in. Aeric raised his lamp and swept it over the rubble. Something glinted. Half-buried in the rocks was a goblin slathered in thick, metallic black powder. The hell?
"Only way is right," Aeric said, squinting at the weird goblin as he moved forward, Marcello falling in step behind.
Theresa lingered near the carnage, cocking a brow. "Hey, pack mule — bodies don't loot themselves. Or is that too high-level for you too?"
As they rounded the bend, the smell hit harder — copper, shit, something burned. Trails of blood streaked across the floor, dotted with shredded gear and bits of what used to be people. A snapped spear here, a chunk of intestine there.
Marcello grunted. "That's never a good sign."
The tunnel narrowed, forcing them to press in close. The walls felt too tight, the air too still. Halfway through, they nearly stepped on a twisted mess of limbs — a human and a goblin locked together in death. Flesh torn, weapons snapped, blood long dried.
"Lend me your shield," Marcello muttered. He took it from Aeric and gently pried the bodies apart. He hands him back his shield as he started dragging the bodies aside to clear the way. Beyond them, the tunnel opened into something much larger.
They stepped out of the tunnel and into a wide-open cavern. The place looked like a monster playground — holes carved into the walls, branching tunnels everywhere, and a massive boulder squatting dead center like it owned the room. The ground gave a low rumble beneath their feet.
"Let's move slow," Aeric said, gripping his shield. "The boss might be close."
Theresa rolled her eyes. "Of course the weakest link is the first one to get spooked."
Before Aeric could fire a quip back, a shadow darted across one of the side tunnels. Marcello didn't hesitate — he whipped his spear and launched it into the dark.
*SCREEEEEE*
"Bullseye!" Marcello grinned, already marching over to check his kill.
The goblin twitched once, then crumpled. Its skin was pitch black, almost charcoal, and its eyes glowed a sickly orange. Worst of all? The thing looked like it had been rotting for weeks.
"What the hell?" Theresa muttered. "Why does it look like that?"
Before anyone could answer, the body crumbled into a fine black powder and vanished on the wind.
Marcello stepped back. "Screw it. Let's keep moving. We still need to find the advance team."
Aeric didn't move. His voice dropped. "Yeah… about that. I think we found them."
They circled the boulder, and Aeric's stomach dropped.
Bodies — everywhere.
Chunks of meat, twisted limbs, blood sprayed like someone had painted with guts. What was left of the advance team barely looked human. Just pieces. The kind you couldn't stitch back together.
The only one not reduced to pulp was slumped against the far side of the boulder — a man with short gray hair, a blood-soaked green tunic, and one arm missing clean at the shoulder. His remaining arm, thick and calloused, twitched involuntarily as he struggled to stay upright. Deep lines ran across his angular face, etched by years of hard work and command, and a jagged scar cut across the bridge of his nose. Barely breathing, his dark, steely eye flickered with shock and pain, the other lid swollen shut.
Marcello moved fast. "Foreman?! Holy shit, what happened? This was supposed to be an F-rank dungeon!"
The man coughed wetly, blood bubbling from his lips as he tried to sit up. His posture was hunched, not from age but from the injuries, yet even in that weakened state there was a sense of authority lingering in the way he held himself, the kind that came from years of commanding respect in dangerous situations.
"Don't move!" Theresa barked, kneeling beside him. "You'll bleed out faster."
The Foreman's good eye fluttered open, locking on hers. Its steely gaze, hard and piercing despite the fatigue, conveyed sharpness, determination, and lingering stubbornness. His voice came ragged, each word scraped from the edge of death.
"It hit us faster than we could react. Goblins… undead-looking freaks. Wouldn't stop coming. Every time one dropped, it turned to this—" he motioned weakly with his stump— "black dust. Filled the whole room like smoke…"
He paused, choking on more blood.
"We thought it was over… then came the pressure. Felt like the whole dungeon dropped on our backs. I looked up—saw the dust gather in the center… swirling… forming something."
Aeric's chest tightened.
The Foreman kept talking, voice trembling. "It made a body. Huge. Massive thing. Orange eyes, thick hide like a wyvern's back. I blinked—and it was carnage. Men screaming. Blood everywhere. I couldn't move. I just… froze. Only thing I managed was trapping it under that boulder…"
His eyes rolled back as fresh blood gushed from his mouth. "Won't hold… long…"
SCREEEEEEEE SCREEEEEEEE
"Shit!" Marcello shoved Aeric behind him. "Here comes round two — stay back and try not to die!"
The air turned still. Too still. Like the dungeon was holding its breath.
TWANG—WOOSH!
A sharp whistle through the dark — then glass shattering. The elixir in Aeric's hand exploded, splashing warm liquid across his fingers.
"Son of a—!" Aeric ducked, heart pounding.
Then came the sound. Stomps. Scrapes. The rattle of claws against stone. From above. From the tunnels. From everywhere.
"Positions!" Marcello roared.
A goblin dropped from the ceiling like a corpse from a noose. Marcello speared it through midair, then ripped his whip from his belt and lashed out to snatch another. He yanked it forward like bait on a hook, impaling it in one smooth motion.
Theresa was already moving, revolvers drawn. She blinked in and out of cover, using her spatial magic to warp around the fight and pick off enemies from blind spots. When one got too close to Aeric, she didn't hesitate — she snapped her shotgun up and blasted it clean off its feet.
Aeric did what he could — shield up, backing into the wall, trying to make himself smaller. Every time one of them got too close, he bashed and dodged and prayed the others kept holding.
Time stretched. Blood spilled. The chamber reeked of rot and powder and old death.
Then — silence.
Aeric pressed himself against the wall, chest heaving, the taste of iron thick in his mouth. And somewhere beneath it all, a quiet pulse seemed to whisper in his mind.
[…Do you hear it?]
Only he could feel it. Just a faint, fleeting thread, like a heartbeat not his own, tugging at the edges of thought. It was almost electric in his mind, like a faint static in the back of his mind.
He ignored it. Survival first.
Aeric handed the last two elixirs to Marcello and Theresa, keeping his own close. They downed them without hesitation, nodding at him, but the Foreman's situation still loomed.
A low rumble rolled through the chamber. The goblin corpses around them started crumbling — one by one — into that same fine black powder. The dust didn't settle. It rose.
It started swirling.
They turned to check on the Foreman just in time to see the life drain from his eyes. The massive boulder behind him vanished in a blink, like it had never been there. His body slumped backward into the pit it had been sealing, and then—nothing.
The dust gathered, folding in on itself, compacting, churning in place like a storm with no wind. It twisted upward into a floating sphere that pulsed with an unnatural heartbeat.
The orb began to throb and twist, swelling like something trying to break free from inside. Thick, hulking arms tore out first, followed by massive clawed hands that flexed like they were already hungry. Its legs stretched down with a sickening crunch, ending in human-like feet tipped with sharp, curling talons. Then came the tail — long, twitching, and covered in tiny hooked thorns. Leather wings burst from its back with a wet snap, flaring wide as bone-like spikes sprouted down its spine one by one.
And where the head should've been, a massive ram's skull pushed out of the shifting mass, hollow eyes, curling horns, a grin that screamed death.
Marcello's eyes went wide. "RUUU—!"
He didn't even get to finish the word. The thing lunged, faster than anything that size should move. One swing from its tree-trunk arm sent Marcello flying across the cavern, his body slamming against the stone wall with a sickening crunch. He dropped to the floor and didn't get back up.
"Marcello!" Aeric shouted — but it was already too late.
The creature was on Theresa in a blink. It grabbed her by the leg, slammed her into the floor like a toy, and hurled her straight up. She smashed into the ceiling with a loud crack — and before her body could fall, the thing leapt and caught her in its jaws.
Aeric stood frozen as her body twisted and flailed in the creature's mouth.
Then it bit down.
Blood sprayed in all directions.
Aeric's lungs burned. His arms shook. The creature loomed above him, and all he could feel was helplessness.
Then — a high-pitched ringing pierced his mind.
[Focus.]
The whisper was soft, insistent. A thread in the chaos. Only he could hear it.
[This is… not the end.]
The creature's claws slammed toward him.
Aeric's body froze. Heart hammering. Breath shallow. He couldn't move, couldn't even lift his shield. The clawed hand of the monstrosity plucked him up like he weighed nothing.
The ringing in his head spiked.
[Choice. Observe. Endure. Learn.]
Time slowed. The shadow of death pressed close, but beneath it, the thread remained, pulsing, subtle.
Aeric gasped. Tried to twist. Tried to fight. Nothing.
[Do not despair.]
The creature's massive claw arced, carrying him toward its gaping maw.
And then — everything went black as the static began to drown every other sensation Aeric had left into nothingness.