The transport ship rattled as it descended through the clouds.
Inside, nobody was laughing anymore.
Twenty first-year students sat strapped into their seats, surrounded by the low hum of engines and the occasional warning beep from the control panel. The fluorescent lights above them flickered every few seconds, casting pale shadows across nervous faces.
The air smelled of metal, ozone, and fear.
Hitake sat beside the window.
Below them, Sector 7 stretched across the horizon like a graveyard.
Broken buildings stood half-submerged beneath layers of strange vegetation. Acid-green fog crawled through abandoned streets, and at the center of the ruined district stood the Rotting Hive.
The dungeon entrance wasn't a normal cave.
It was enormous.
A black dome of hardened biological material rose from the ground, its surface pulsing faintly as though something beneath it was breathing.
Hitake stared at it.
His Eyes of Truth activated instinctively.
The world sharpened.
Mana currents became visible.
Energy moved through the dungeon.
Then Hitake frowned.
The flow wasn't stable.
It was moving.
Not randomly.
Almost rhythmically.
Like a heartbeat.
“Something's wrong,” he murmured.
Zena, sitting beside him, stopped cleaning her daggers.
“What?”
Before Hitake could answer, the transport jolted.
Several students gasped.
Someone swore.
Across from Hitake, John Derrin flinched violently.
His shield nearly slipped from his hand.
Hitake noticed.
John immediately recovered and looked down at the shield as if nothing had happened.
“You okay?” Hitake asked.
“Yeah.”
“You sure?”
John forced a smile.
“Just hate flying.”
Hitake stared at him.
The lie was obvious.
Not because John was bad at lying.
Because Hitake could see it.
His breathing was too shallow.
His shoulders were tense.
His fingers were gripping the shield hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
Hitake quietly activated Appraisal.
[APPRAISAL]
Name: John Derrin
Level: 4
Class: Defender
Strength: 8
Agility: 6
Endurance: 18
Mana: 4
Perception: 7
Combat Distribution: Defense/Endurance Focused
Hitake's eyes narrowed.
John's physical abilities were strangely unbalanced.
His Strength wasn't impressive.
His Agility was poor.
His Mana was barely enough for basic techniques.
But his Endurance was almost absurd compared to the rest.
He had built himself around one purpose.
Standing between danger and everyone else.
“Problem?” Zena asked.
Hitake looked away from John.
“No.”
She studied him.
“You're staring.”
“I was thinking.”
“About John?”
Hitake glanced at her.
“You noticed?”
“I notice everything around you.”
Hitake smiled faintly.
“That's slightly terrifying.”
“It should be.”
Before he could answer, Nefertiti appeared on the overhead luggage compartment.
Only Hitake could see her.
She sat casually, swinging her legs.
“Want to know why he's afraid?”
Hitake's expression changed.
“You know?”
“I know many things.”
“Then tell me.”
Nefertiti tilted her head.
“Look deeper.”
Hitake activated his Eyes of Truth.
The world changed.
For a moment, the transport disappeared.
There was only darkness.
Then—
A scream.
Hitake's breath caught.
He saw a younger John.
Two years younger.
Smaller.
Standing inside a dungeon with four other children.
His armor was crude.
His shield was scratched.
And beside him stood a little girl with brown pigtails.
She was clutching his sleeve.
“Big bro,” she whispered, “I'm scared.”
John turned toward her.
“Don't be.”
He smiled.
“I've got you, Lily.”
The memory shifted.
A wall exploded.
Stone and flesh flew through the air.
Something enormous crawled through the opening.
A Level 7 monster.
The children screamed.
John immediately stepped forward.
“Stay behind me!”
He raised his shield.
The monster attacked.
BOOM!
John flew backward.
He landed on one knee.
His arms shook.
But he stood.
Again.
The monster struck.
Again.
John blocked.
Again.
His stamina dropped.
His shield cracked.
The girl screamed his name.
“John!”
“I've got you!”
He shouted it louder.
“I've got you!”
Then his shield broke.
The memory blurred.
A claw passed him.
The little girl disappeared into the darkness.
“LILY!”
John screamed.
Hitake saw him run.
Saw him reach.
Saw him fall.
And heard the same words over and over.
I promised.
I promised.
I promised.
The vision shattered.
Hitake gasped.
He was back inside the transport.
Sweat ran down his forehead.
Zena immediately turned toward him.
“Hitake?”
He didn't answer.
His eyes were locked on John.
John was still sitting across from him.
Still gripping his shield.
Still pretending everything was fine.
Hitake finally understood.
John wasn't afraid of flying.
He wasn't afraid of the dungeon.
He wasn't even afraid of dying.
He was afraid of failing someone again.
Hitake leaned forward.
“Who was Lily?”
John froze.
The color drained from his face.
Zena looked between them.
“Hitake…”
John's fingers tightened around his shield.
After several seconds, he whispered,
“My sister.”
Silence settled between them.
“She was younger than me,” John continued. “Eight years old.”
His voice was almost too quiet to hear over the engines.
“We were on an academy-sponsored expedition. It was supposed to be safe.”
Hitake didn't interrupt.
“There were instructors with us. Other students. Everything was supposed to be controlled.”
John laughed bitterly.
“It wasn't.”
His thumb traced the crack along his shield.
“When the monster came, everyone started running.”
“You stayed,” Hitake said.
“I promised her.”
John looked down.
“I told her I'd protect her.”
His voice cracked.
“And I failed.”
Zena's expression softened.
“You were a child.”
John shook his head.
“I was her big brother.”
“That doesn't make you responsible for killing a Level 7 monster.”
John looked at her.
“It doesn't matter.”
He swallowed.
“I was supposed to hold the line.”
Hitake looked at his shield.
“You've been trying to become strong enough to make sure it never happens again.”
John didn't answer.
That was answer enough.
The transport suddenly shook violently.
WARNING — APPROACHING LANDING ZONE.
Everyone grabbed their equipment.
A commander shouted over the intercom.
“Two minutes!”
The students stood.
Fear filled the cabin again.
Hitake looked at John.
John looked back.
“You don't have to be fearless,” Hitake said.
John frowned.
“What?”
“You heard me.”
Hitake stood.
“Being afraid doesn't mean you're weak.”
John stared at him.
“It means you understand what's at stake.”
The transport descended lower.
Through the window, the Rotting Hive grew larger.
Hitake continued.
“But don't confuse protecting people with dying for them.”
John's eyes widened slightly.
“You don't have to die on the line to hold it.”
The landing alarm screamed.
“Thirty seconds!”
Hitake extended his hand.
John looked at it.
Then took it.
“Let's bring everyone home.”
John nodded.
“Yeah.”
The transport slammed onto the landing platform.
The rear doors opened.
Acidic air rushed inside.
The first thing Hitake smelled was rot.
The second was blood.
His Eyes of Truth immediately activated.
Mana signatures appeared everywhere.
Dozens.
Then hundreds.
“Movement!” someone shouted.
The ground erupted.
Creatures burst from beneath the soil.
Chitinous bodies.
Four-legged insects.
Acid dripping from their mouths.
[TARGET]
Hive Crawler — Level 2
Hive Crawler — Level 3
Hive Crawler — Level 2
Students screamed.
“Formation!”
An instructor's voice thundered through the communication channel.
“Teams move according to assignment!”
Zena was already moving.
Her daggers flashed.
One crawler lunged.
She stepped aside and cut through its exposed neck.
Hitake followed.
His Agility responded instantly.
He moved faster than before.
One step.
A turn.
His blade pierced the glowing weak point beneath a creature's jaw.
The crawler collapsed.
Another came from the side.
Hitake's Eyes of Truth caught its movement.
Weak Point Detected.
He twisted.
The attack missed by centimeters.
His blade struck the creature's leg joint.
It fell.
“Left!” Zena shouted.
Hitake moved before she finished speaking.
Three crawlers charged.
He ducked beneath the first.
Cut the second.
Then kicked the third directly into Zena's path.
She finished it without hesitation.
“Nice.”
Hitake grinned.
“I'll take that as praise.”
“Don't get used to it.”
Behind them, one of the academy healers shouted.
“There's another one!”
Hitake turned.
A crawler had slipped through the formation.
It wasn't heading toward him.
It wasn't heading toward Zena.
It was heading straight for the healers.
John saw it.
His eyes widened.
For one terrible second, he wasn't standing in Sector 7.
He was back inside that dungeon.
A child behind him.
A monster approaching.
His shield shaking.
His promise failing.
“John!”
Hitake shouted.
John didn't move.
The crawler lunged.
The healer screamed.
Something inside John snapped.
“No.”
He stepped forward.
His shield slammed into the ground.
BOOM!
The creature crashed against it.
John's boots dug trenches into the dirt.
The force pushed him backward.
His arms trembled.
His breathing became ragged.
But he held.
The crawler opened its jaws.
John gritted his teeth.
“I said…”
His shield shook.
“I've got them.”
He pushed.
The creature stumbled backward.
John roared.
And charged.
CRACK!
His shield smashed into the crawler's head.
The creature flew several meters and crashed into the ground.
Silence.
John stared at it.
Then at the healer behind him.
She was alive.
John breathed heavily.
Hitake walked over.
“John.”
John looked at him.
“I almost froze.”
“I know.”
“I thought…”
His voice shook.
“I thought I was back there.”
Hitake placed a hand on his shoulder.
“But you weren't.”
John looked around.
The battlefield was still chaotic.
Students were fighting.
Zena was cutting through another group of crawlers.
The healers were treating wounded students.
This wasn't the dungeon from two years ago.
It was today.
And John had made a different choice.
“You didn't fail,” Hitake said.
John looked at his shield.
“No.”
He slowly tightened his grip.
“I didn't.”
Zena appeared beside them, wiping acid from one of her daggers.
“There you are.”
John looked at her.
“What?”
“The John I remember.”
John blinked.
Then smiled faintly.
“Don't make it weird.”
“I wasn't.”
“You absolutely were.”
Hitake laughed.
For a moment, the fear was gone.
Then the ground shook.
Everyone stopped.
The sound came from deep within the Rotting Hive.
A low, guttural roar.
The kind of sound that seemed to vibrate through bone.
Hitake's smile vanished.
His Eyes of Truth activated.
The massive dome ahead pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
Then something inside moved.
His vision pierced through the outer layers.
For a brief moment, he saw an enormous creature deep within the dungeon.
A massive insectoid body.
Dozens of limbs.
A crown-like structure surrounding its head.
And in the center of its chest—
A glowing red core.
[TARGET IDENTIFIED]
Hive Queen
Level: 8
Threat Classification: High
Hitake's eyes narrowed.
The mission briefing had been clear.
Do not engage the Hive Queen.
But something else caught his attention.
The Queen wasn't moving toward the students.
She was staring directly at the entrance.
Directly at him.
Hitake's Eyes of Truth sharpened.
The red core changed.
Something was wrapped around it.
Not normal mana.
Not dungeon energy.
Something foreign.
His vision flickered.
[UNKNOWN ENERGY SIGNATURE]
[ANALYSIS FAILED]
Hitake's expression hardened.
Nefertiti appeared beside him.
For once, she wasn't smiling.
“Darling.”
“What is that?”
“I don't know.”
Hitake looked at her.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
Her eyes remained fixed on the distant Queen.
“And that's what worries me.”
The Hive Queen opened its enormous mouth.
But instead of roaring—
It smiled.
Hitake's blood ran cold.
Nefertiti whispered,
“Don't investigate that yet.”
Hitake stared into the darkness.
He already knew he was going to.
Behind him, John raised his shield.
Zena drew both daggers.
The first mission had barely begun.
And somewhere inside the Rotting Hive, something had already recognized Hitake.
Something that should not have known he existed.
Something was waiting for him deeper inside.
And now—
it knew he was coming.