Hyun-Jae took a deep breath as he accepted the new prompt.
[Level 10: Begin.]
The familiar dark mist of the Abyss coiled around him, but when it cleared, everything looked different. The endless cavern floor had transformed into a jagged obsidian landscape, stretching endlessly into a horizon of broken bridges and hovering shards of stone. A faint, red glow pulsed beneath the cracks in the earth like the world itself was bleeding.
No Ravager Talons. No wolves. Only silence.
Then the screen appeared before him again:
[Objective: Reach the Target Location.]
He frowned. "No enemies?"
Before he could even process it, a deep rumble shook the entire platform beneath his feet. Hyun-Jae's eyes widened as the ground behind him began crumbling away, stone collapsing into a bottomless void.
"Are you kidding me!?"
He took off in a sprint, the air whipping past his face as the ground disintegrated behind him like an unstoppable tide. Each step cracked the platform further, forcing him to keep running without a single pause.
The abyss screamed beneath him, an endless fall that promised nothing but oblivion. He focused forward, his heart hammering, his muscles burning.
Then he saw it.A massive gap splitting the path ahead. It was easily twenty meters across, and the edges were already starting to give way.
Hyun-Jae gritted his teeth. "No choice."
He pushed himself harder, his legs feeling like fire, and at the very last second, he leapt, arms flailing as the ledge he launched from collapsed into the void.
For a terrifying moment, he didn't think he'd make it.Then, thud.
His hands caught the edge. His fingers dug into the jagged stone, and he pulled himself up, gasping for air. His heart thundered in his chest, but there was no time to rest, the floor continued to crumble from behind.
He forced himself forward again, his mind empty except for one thought: Run.
Minutes bled into hours. The environment kept shifting, bridges turning to slopes, slopes turning into sharp, uneven terrain. His breath came out ragged. His body screamed at him to stop. But the collapsing ground behind him didn't care.
He'd lost all sense of time. His throat was dry. His vision blurred.
Then, he saw it. A faint, glowing mark on a floating platform ahead. The endpoint.
"Almost…" He panted, his voice hoarse. "Almost there."
He stumbled forward, forcing his legs to move faster even though they felt like lead. The rumbling behind him grew louder.
With one last desperate burst, Hyun-Jae leapt toward the glowing sigil, landing hard on the smooth, glowing surface just as the final chunk of ground behind him fell into the void.
He collapsed, gasping, his body trembling.
Then, the voice echoed in his head again, calm, mechanical, almost mocking.
[Level 10 Complete.]
[All injuries restored.]
[Leveled Up]
Hyun-Jae lay there, chest rising and falling, staring up at the abyssal sky above.
"...What kind of level was that?" he muttered between breaths.
Hyun-Jae stayed on the glowing platform for a few moments, letting the last echoes of the collapsing world fade behind him. His chest rose and fell steadily now, his pulse slowly calming as the air around him shimmered again.
A familiar chime rang out, sharp and metallic.
[Choose Your Reward.]
The same translucent screen appeared in front of him, listing a few options just as it had before. But this time, he didn't even bother glancing through them. He already knew what he wanted.
[Option 1: Stat Increase +3 to all attributes] [Option 2: New Weapon] [Option 3: New Armor]
Hyun-Jae immediately selected the first one.The screen pulsed gold, and a surge of heat coursed through his body, his muscles tightening, his vision sharpening, his heartbeat syncing to a steady, powerful rhythm.
[All Stats Increased by +3.]
He exhaled slowly, flexing his fingers. "That's more like it."
Without hesitation, he reached for the panel again and tapped it.
[Repeat Level?]
His lips curved into a faint smirk. "Yeah."
The world around him dissolved once more, and he was thrown back into the crumbling abyssal terrain of Level 10.
The same message appeared.
[Objective: Reach the Target Location.]
This time, he didn't stumble or hesitate. His feet moved on instinct, faster, lighter, sharper. Where he once barely leapt across the gap, now he soared with room to spare. Every stride was clean, efficient.
The level that once tested his limits now felt almost like a warm-up.
He cleared it again.
[Level 10 Complete.]
And again.
He repeated the process several times, running through Level 10 like a machine. Each time he cleared it, his endurance grew. The endless sprint didn't burn his lungs anymore. His body adapted, his legs no longer trembled, his reflexes tightened, and his stamina seemed bottomless.
At one point, he didn't even feel fatigue at all; his movements had become fluid, almost natural, like the Abyss itself had started moving with him instead of against him.
He wiped the sweat from his forehead, feeling that same rush of satisfaction he hadn't felt in ages.
He entered the next level now. The endless run he had conquered was no longer simple. From the darkness above came the screech of Ravager Talons, swooping down in waves while D-rank wolves lunged from cracks in the collapsing ground.
Hyun-Jae grinned. "So that's how it's gonna be now?"
He sprinted forward, blades flashing. His old blade parried, his new one struck with precision. His movements were seamless, fluid like the rhythm of a song only he could hear. Each level blended into the next: new terrain, new hazards, new creatures. The air grew denser, filled with howls, screeches, and the smell of burning stone.
He cleared every one.Sometimes barely, sometimes effortlessly.And each time, he got stronger.
[Level Cleared.][Level Up +2.][All Stats Increased.]
By now, the birds and wolves weren't the main threats anymore. The new monsters were Ash Hounds, black beasts with glowing ribs of ember and smoke for breath. They were fast and cunning, attacking in groups. Hyun-Jae learned to move smarter, not harder, baiting them into each other's paths, exploiting every second of the crumbling terrain.
When the floor broke beneath his feet mid-battle, he rolled into the next platform instead of falling. When a Talon tried to ambush him from above, he caught its shadow before it even screeched.
He had stopped reacting to danger.He was anticipating it.
That's when a new screen appeared for the first time:
[Inventory Unlocked.]
He blinked, staring at it. A small grid of empty slots shimmered into existence beside his vision. He reached toward it out of instinct, and his extra blades and fragments of armor vanished into the screen with a faint hum.
"Finally," he muttered. "Something useful."
Soon after came another prompt:
[Shop Function Unlocked.]
He browsed it between levels, rows of faintly glowing icons that displayed basic potions, low-tier armor, and strange materials. He didn't know how the system decided their worth, but each cost points, points he had been earning without realizing.
[Abyssal Points: 3,250]
He purchased a few potions and tested one mid-battle. The liquid restored his stamina in seconds.
The Abyss no longer felt like a void, it felt like a world constantly shifting to test his limits. Lava fields replaced stone ruins. Storms of black lightning ripped across the sky. The monsters evolved again, Shadow Mantises, long limbed creatures that attacked from invisible angles.
Hyun-Jae adapted.He used his agility to weave between their strikes, his strength to cut through their armor, and his growing instincts to sense their patterns. The first few encounters left him with deep gashes, but he always healed once the level ended, and came back sharper.
He learned to use the environment: kicking loose rocks to distract, luring enemies into collapsing floors, using the wind from a Talon's wings to propel himself forward.
[Level 37 Complete.]
His blades no longer chipped or cracked. They gleamed faintly now, pulsing with faint etchings that resembled veins of light.
The trial's tone changed again. The Abyss introduced creatures with intelligence, Stalkers, smaller wolf beings that communicated through growls and tactics. They flanked, trapped, and cornered him like trained assassins.
He started to lose track of time completely. There was no sunrise, no rest. Only endless motion and growth.
And finally, after an uncountable number of cycles, he stood at the start of Level 50.
The Abyss was quiet.No screeches, no tremors. Just stillness.
He stared ahead. The darkness before him wasn't shifting like before, it was breathing. The air felt heavy, like pressure pushing against his skin. The ground beneath his boots was smooth, almost polished.
The portal had placed him in a circular arena surrounded by black stone pillars, faint blue runes glowing on their sides. It was different. Purposeful.
He instinctively checked his stats:
[Level: 77]
[Strength: 92]
[Agility: 105]
[Endurance: 99]
[Durability: 87]
[Intellect: 36]
[Abyssal Points: 7,940]
He took a slow breath, flexing his fingers around his blades.
"This one's… not like the others," he said quietly.
Hyun-Jae felt something stir in his chest again.
Not fear. But anticipation.