Michael Kean knew immediately the moment his boot stepped on the platform, that something was wrong.
The dungeon feels unusually weird, not the kind you feel when you enter one. Cold. Freezing. Maybe it just the smell. Or the lack of one.
The dungeon smells too clean.
Like someone run a disinfectant raid party, which is weird.
Dungeon are supposed to smell bad, smell of rusty iron, decaying substances, blood and earth. But instead it smells clean, the type you smell in hospital after the wash the floors. It felt wrong, so wrong.
Micheal Kean slowed down without meaning to, letting the group walked forward.
There are seven in the party, two B ranks looking around like the place is starting to bore them out, three C ranks, a D rank healer with a glowing staff and then Michael a E rank, level seven.
He adjust his grip on his old beat up spear, it shaft had been repaired way too many times.
He open his status out of habit, a blue window came up in the corner of his vision.
[Hunter: Michael Kean]
[Rank: E]
[Level: 7]
[HP: 312 / 312]
It the same as yesterday. No growth or improvement. Just the same low stats that keep him used for stupid runs like this.
"Stay focus," the raid leader called, his voice echoing through the empty walls. He's a B rank, full of confidence. " Scouts called if low level undead. The dungeon is falling apart. We clear in and out."
Yeah, those words hit different when your HP barely cracks three hundred.
Michael didn't say anything, and just scanned the whole place. Cracked walls with faint blue lines inside them, it glow and look somewhat like veins or something. The ceiling hanging too low. It like the whole station had sunk over time. The lights, not the usual red emergency light. These lights were bright white.
Everything felt wrong. Like two different dungeon were patched together and neither was happy about the other.
A suddenly shake rolled through the floor. It so small, but Michael felt it, under his boots.
He stopped.
"Do you guys feel that?"
One of the C ranks looked at him, smirking. "Old dungeon, it just stuff settling dude, chill."
The leaders didn't even spare him a glance. "Move it. This is not sightseeing."
Michael stopped for a sec, and then kept walking. He knew if you talked too much you're too difficult and difficult guys don't get invited to the run. No run, no paycheck.
But the shake came again. Harder this time. Dust fall from the ceiling, light flickering once and then stopped. From the tunnel ahead , a wet dragging noise came. It sounded heavy, like something big moving itself along the railway.
His grip tighten on his spear. The thing or things showed themselves.
The undead.
Just… it not the normal ones. These ones have a pale skin, it looked so thin , almost transparent. Blue veins glowed like the ones inside the walls. Fungal sprouting down their spines. Every movement makes the little shiny spore clouds.
"Engage!" the leader shouted.
The squad moved fast.
Fire bloomed from the mage swallowing the front line in flames. Arrows fired. Blade thrown. The things dropped too quick, turning to ash and glowing dust.
Michael stayed back, watching. Something feels off, nothing seems to be adding up.
He looked up. The ceiling was moving like it has a heart of it own
Cracks formed across it, bulging out like something massive is pushing from above. A deep growl filled the station low. Way too loud for everyone.
"Leader?" the healer whispered, voice shaky with fear.
"No boss flagged," the leader barked back. "Push for…"
The ceiling blew apart. Concrete rained down in a storm. Something huge fall onto the platform, the shockwave sending everyone sideways. Michael dove on instinct, hitting the tile so hard as massive claws tire up the spot he'd just been standing .
It crouched in the dust. Looking like panther shaped. But all shadow. The black so deep, light literally just vanished into it. It edges flickering like a glitchy footage. Pale eyes that seems to locked on them, picking out the weak link already. Darkness pooled under it's paws, it looks alive.
No one even breathed, like they thought holding their breath was going to save them.
The tunnel screamed. Not actually scream just tracks twisted, metal shrieking as something forced it's way out. It looks huge and wrong. It is a towering pile of raw muscle, bone armor, and glowing machine parts grafted right into the flesh. The tubes pumping bright fluid, Blood maybe. With limbs everywhere, all looking so wrong, bad angles, ugly shapes.
This not undead. This was alive, messy and madly alive. Like someone decided to lure it out if it comfort zone.
"What the fuck is that thing?" somebody yelled, probably a C rank.
Michael's mind blanked out.
Two bosses. Shadow and bio mech. That has never happened. It wasn't supposed to ever.
The panther blinked out, and reappeared behind a B rank in a puff of black. It jaws closed. Scream cut off mid note. Blood sprayed everywhere. Body hit the ground in chunks. It happened so fast that chaos broke out.
"Back out!" the other B rank leader shouted. " Gate… Now!"
The abomination of a panther charged, a distorted mechanical roar mixed with the wet anger of it own. Slammed into the group like a train. Shields shattered, protective spells died. Bodies flew in different directions.
Michael didn't head for the gate, instead he bolted for a cover. Something that can shield him from the abomination monster.
He dove behind a wrecked ticket booth as shadow blades sliced overhead, the cold air whipping his hair. His heart pounding so hard that his chest hurt.
He risked a look. Everything shifting so fast.
No one was covering his flank. No spells landing near him. This wasn't an orderly pullback. It was every rank for themselves. They'd left him.
Again.
The floor shook as the abomination thundered by. The panther shadow stretched long, reaching where he was.
Michael scrambled up and ran with all the energy he had left. But something smashed his back, so hard he stumbled forward. Then a claw punched through the booth wall. Closed… too closed it claw almost cut through his torso.
The sound of his ribs cracking filled the whole booth.
Air moved out of his lungs so fast he didn't have the time to held some. Then he was flying, air borne and slamming back down twenty feet away. Blood in his mouth. The world tilting of it axis.
The panther moved slow. Like it was watching a prey struggle to escape. It didn't finish him.
It just stared down on him with his head cocked, it pale eyes looked curious
The abomination turned too, sensors whirring, locking on.
Michael tried to move but his legs are dead, he can't even feel them.
That is it, he thought, he lay there flat and numb.
No epic come back, no sudden awakening, no re birth, no saving. Just another E rank erased from the system.
The panther raised it claw and raked deep into his chest. The pain shot through him instantly the pain white hot.
His HP plummeted.
[ HP:41/312]
Maybe this was the change in stats he deserved.
Blood filled his mouth he could barely feel his tongue.
Everything moved slow. Edges went black.
A sudden ping sliced through the dark.
A cold ping.
[Fatal damage detected.]
[Hunter Michael Kean — Status: Dying.]
The blue text filled in the void
[Unique Condition Met.]
[Cross Realm Exposure Confirmed.]
[Latent Class Detected.]
There was no feeling left in his body.
[Offer Available.]
The words looked sharpened.
[Accept Forbidden Class: Chimeric Sovereign.]
The red warning throbbing below.
[This class is irreversible.]
[This class violates the system purity protocols.]
[User will be designated as an Anomaly.]
The countdown started.
[ Decline — Consciousness Termination in 3… 2…]
He laughed inside. He feels bitter and broken.
I can't even die probably. He thought.
Always the glitch, the easily disposable.
He stared at the forbidden option.
Anomaly.
Fine. Fuck it.
Accept.
Darkness swallowed him whole.