Date: June 16, 2018 (Saturday)
Location: Geneva Ground Zero / Hell Gate Interior
Time: 10:55 AM
In the world outside, fifty-five minutes had passed for Aris and the guards standing before the massive Hell Gate. The heavy mana leaking from the portal made every second a struggle for the ordinary men stationed barely twenty meters away. It felt as if an invisible mountain was slowly crushing their chests.
Inside the dimensional labyrinth, Richard Vance's cold and calculating slaughter continued without a pause. This place held no beauty; it was a damp, dark, and stony cave where the air was thick with the scent of blood and decay. To Richard, it was merely a factory of data.
While Richard's S-Rank physical endurance knew no fatigue, his weapons faced a strict physical limit. The math in his mind was clear. A 'Hybrid Alloy' sword could only hold his suppressed mana for thirteen to eighteen minutes before the structural integrity failed.
During the last fifty-five minutes of brutal execution, he had pushed forward relentlessly. The first sword shattered at fifteen minutes. The second lasted fourteen. The third gave way at sixteen minutes. He was now on his fourth blade, which had been in use for ten minutes.
Spider-web micro-cracks were already spreading across the blade's surface. It vibrated violently against the air under the pressure of his golden mana. It was on the verge of complete destruction. Only one fresh sword remained in his back-strap.
The Core Guardian
As he moved through the dark labyrinth, the path suddenly widened. There was no grand structure or ornate door to mark a 'Boss Room.' It was simply a deeper, more open section of the cavern where the darkness felt significantly more dense and heavy.
Richard's footsteps stopped. Standing in the center of the clearing was the Boss—a creature at the absolute peak of E-Rank. Its skin was as hard and black as solid obsidian, and a single, thick horn protruded from its heavy skull. Its mana pressure was a suffocating weight. To a normal soldier, this was death incarnate; to an S-Rank veteran, it was a slow, oversized target.
The beast unleashed a savage roar and launched a heavy charge. Richard stood perfectly still.
As the Boss entered his striking zone, Richard triggered his absolute S-Rank speed. To the naked eye, he became a golden blur. The beast's heavy strike tore through empty air, while Richard had already slid directly beneath its massive chest.
Without breaking his momentum, Richard drove the cracked fourth sword into the center of the Boss's hardened chest. The impact was so brutal that the Hybrid Alloy blade shattered into shards inside the creature. A final wave of golden mana erupted from the fragments, destroying the creature's internal organs.
The beast collapsed like a fallen mountain of stone.
The Extraction
Richard knew the gate was a dimensional bridge, and this Boss was its anchor. With the anchor destroyed, the cavern began to destabilize. Dirt and rocks fell from the ceiling. Richard quickly carved into the chest to extract a larger, denser E-Rank Mana Core and Essence Stone.
At exactly 11:00 AM, one hour after he had entered, a dark silhouette emerged from the purple-red vortex in Geneva. Richard stepped out onto the rubble with a calm, emotionless expression. Only one fresh sword remained at his waist.
As he crossed the threshold, the twenty-foot Hell Gate behind him cracked like glass. It dissolved into the air and vanished completely, erasing the labyrinth from reality forever.
Richard handed the Boss-level Mana Core and Essence Stone to a senior guard. Though they were E-Rank, they were significantly heavier and denser than standard drops.
"I have analyzed the cavern," Richard said coldly. "The life of a Hybrid sword is approximately fifteen minutes. The dungeon is a dark ecosystem where monster bodies remain in physical form."
He did not look back at the site of the gate.
"Let us return to the bunker," Richard commanded. "This single gate has verified our mathematical calculations. We must now find a proper process to forge pure Magitech weapons on a global scale."