[You have slain a Ruins Guardian. Gained 194 EXP!]
[You have slain a Ruins Guardian. Gained 201 EXP!]
Sword light flashed.
Two more Ruins Guardians collapsed, their shattered armor clattering onto the sand.
Caelan looked at the monsters' remains as they dissolved into shadow elements—and suddenly realized a very serious problem.
Killing these monsters was indeed easy.
But…
He didn't have enough time.
There were far too many Ruins Guardians in this Instance.
Killing them one by one would take too long.
He had entered with only five minutes remaining.
If he kept cutting through them like this, he would never make it in time!
"No… I need another way."
Caelan glanced at several snarling guards not far away, and suddenly, an idea clicked.
Moments later, the imperial ruins—silent for countless ages—were filled with a strange, eerie "vitality."
The long-dead Ruins Guardians raised their broken weapons, as if returning to an era long past—
a time before the empire had fallen.
Once, the empire's loyal guards had driven out intruders for honor.
Now, mindless monsters were passively provoked, blindly chasing the one who dared challenge them.
Beneath a white stone pillar engraved with remnants of a shattered temple, several Ruins Guardians stared blankly at the rolling dust clouds in the distance—and at the "companions" rushing within them.
Before they could even react, a figure flashed past.
A streak of sword light followed.
One Ruins Guardian fell.
"Should be about enough now…"
Still sprinting, Caelan glanced back.
Behind the newly gathered guards were even more Ruins Guardians—
all of them drawn by his aggro.
The faceless monsters surged like a tide behind him.
One wrong step, and he would be torn apart.
Caelan didn't hesitate again.
Leading the massive monster horde, he charged straight toward the castle—
Toward the Instance Boss, the King.
"Ka… khh… kkk…"
As Caelan approached, the King let out strange, broken sounds, as if trying to speak.
Caelan ignored it, flashing behind the creature and stopping.
His 1.8-meter frame looked small before the nearly three-meter-tall, grotesquely swollen figure.
Calmly, Caelan stared at the enraged King, furious over the intrusion into its castle.
Just before the King could pull the black-mist-wreathed greatsword from its spine and strike—
Caelan raised his blade, aiming at both the King and the charging loyal guards behind it.
"If monsters are dumb and weak—"
"Then why not just pull aggro, group them up, and wipe them all at once?"
His lips moved.
The sword swung.
"Infinite Lightblade!"
The moment the words fell—
The world plunged into brief silence.
Even the howling wind and sand seemed frozen, as if time itself had been paused.
The next second, elemental energy across the entire world erupted into violent turmoil.
The edge of Caelan's sword burst into blinding white light.
The light condensed—then exploded outward.
A terrifying lightblade, packed with searing heat and annihilating force, expanded at terrifying speed.
The imperial ruins—long trapped in eternal wind and dusk—
seemed to witness sunrise once more.
The suffocating Infinite Lightblade, like a river of pure radiance, flooded forward in an instant—
Drowning everything in its path.
Monsters.
Ruins.
Relics of the old empire.
All were swallowed whole.
The shadow-infused guardians were erased in the blink of an eye.
Their murky shadow power didn't even have time to escape before being completely dissolved.
Within the fifty-meter light-river, whether monsters or imperial remains—
Everything was cleansed. Everything was erased.
The sheer power was so horrifying that even this E-rank Instance could not withstand it.
The ground split apart, massive ravines tearing open.
At the boundary of the Instance, space itself cracked—
Dense, spiderweb-like fractures spread rapidly across the "sky," as if the apocalypse had arrived.
The final boss—the King—
As the first "lucky" recipient of this destructive force, didn't even get the chance to display its info panel.
It simply became one more line in the flood of EXP notifications.
[You have slain Shadow Thrall · King. Gained 10,044 EXP!]
[You have slain a Ruins Guardian. Gained 183 EXP!]
[You have slain a Ruins Guardian. Gained 218 EXP!]
[You have slain Ruins Guardian Captain. Gained 781 EXP!]
...
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 5. Gained 5 attribute points!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 11. Gained 5 attribute points!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 17. Gained 5 attribute points!]
[Congratulations! You have reached Level 25. Gained 10 attribute points!]
...
"Look! What's going on with the teleportation gate?!"
At the graduation assessment site, the waiting crowd stared in shock as the E-rank Instance gate suddenly began to shake violently—without any warning.
"W-What's happening?"
"Holy hell—what did that Caelan do in there?! Why is the gate reacting like this?!"
"Caelan? Impossible! It must just be timing out—the gate's about to disappear! He's just a bottom-ranker, how could he possibly affect—"
Before the sentence could finish—
Everyone saw it.
Within the hazy white light of the gate, a thread of ink-black darkness surfaced.
Then the gate began to dim.
Crack.
A crisp sound like shattering glass rang out—
followed by piercing screams.
"T-That… what's happening?! The gate!"
Amid the screams, the crowd watched in terror as a visible crack appeared on the gate standing on the platform—
Like a grotesque black handprint smeared across a beautiful face.
"It… it shouldn't be…"
A weak voice spoke, tinged with desperate hope.
The sentence went unfinished.
But everyone who noticed knew what that "shouldn't" meant.
Another sharp cracking sound rang out, shattering their illusion.
A second crack appeared—
even more horrifying than the first.
"Move! Check it immediately!"
Madeleine Shaw, who had been standing guard, issued orders at once—
calling technicians to inspect the gate while urgently evacuating the students.
The technicians rushed forward—
Only to freeze.
They didn't know where to start.
Or rather, they were afraid to touch it.
In just a few breaths, the gate had become riddled with cracks—
on the verge of total collapse.
"What are you all doing?! Do something! There's still a stu—"
Madeleine's shout was cut short.
The dim gate flared once—
And before the stunned crowd, Caelan burst out of the shattered teleportation gate, escaping from within.
The assessment results panel appeared.
[Instance: Empire Watch]
[Assessment Rating: SSS...]
Mid-display, the panel suddenly glitched.
The image warped and distorted wildly.
A few seconds later, it stabilized—
and a glaring red warning flashed.
[Abnormal condition detected.]
[Instance: Empire Watch has suffered irreversible damage.]
[Status: Permanently Disabled.]