The interior of the Ashen Abyss Rift was a desolate, nightmare landscape.
A thick, ash-gray fog rolled over jagged volcanic rocks, and the sky above was a swirling vortex of deep crimson clouds. The air smelled heavily of sulfur and stagnant mana.
Ordinary students entering this Rank-C dungeon formed tight, defensive groups of ten, moving forward with shields raised, terrified of an ambush.
Ethan and Cassandra walked casually through the gray mist, their footsteps silent.
ROAR!!!
A series of savage, bloodthirsty growls echoed from the surrounding crags. Within seconds, a massive pack of Ashen Hell-Hounds—Level 30 fiends with skin made of hardened magma and eyes glowing with hellfire—burst from the fog.
There were at least fifty of them, their jaws snapping as they lunged toward the two intruders.
"My Lord, let me handle them," Cassandra said, her hand instantly snapping to the hilt of her blade.
"No need," Ethan said smoothly, his hands remaining in the pockets of his trench coat. "Don’t let their blood ruin your suit. Just stand back."
Ethan casually activated his SSS-Rank passive skill: Eternal Domain.
BOOM!
A localized, pitch-black shockwave of void gravity erupted outward in a perfect, three-hundred-yard circle.
The moment the Ashen Hell-Hounds crossed the boundary of the domain, the results were instantaneous and horrific. The 10x damage multiplier of Eternal Domain combined with Ethan’s massive 3,700+ Strength attribute meant the passive gravity alone carried the weight of a meteor strike.
SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!
The fifty high-level beasts didn’t even have a chance to bark. They were instantly slammed into the volcanic earth with such violent, kinetic force that their bodies exploded into clouds of dark mist and shattered bone fragments.
Within a fraction of a second, the entire pack was thoroughly exterminated.
The dungeon floor was littered with glowing, fiery orange crystals—Level 30 Ashen Beast Cores.
[DING! You have slaughtered 54x Ashen Hell-Hounds (Level 30)!]
[You have collected: 54x Low-Grade Fire Beast Cores!]
Ethan walked over, his void mana drawing all fifty-four cores into the air, swirling around his palm like tiny, fiery stars. He turned to Cassandra and casually tossed the entire cluster of cores into her hands.
"An investment for your frost cultivation," Ethan said with a faint smirk. "Absorb them."
Gifting fire cores to a frost mage would normally be an absolute waste, even dangerous. But the moment the cores touched Cassandra’s palms, the cosmic laws of the universe bent to Ethan’s will once more.
[DING! You have sincerely invested 54x ’Low-Grade Fire Beast Cores (D-Rank)’ into your loyal follower: Cassandra Vance.]
[Triggering Return Multiplier... Calculating... CONGRATULATIONS! You have triggered the maximum capped 10,000x Multiplier!]
[The items have undergone a radical elemental inversion and concept mutation!]
[You have received: 1x Glacial Empress Heart (SSS-Rank Mythic Core Evolution Material)!]
[Reward has been deposited into your System Space!]
Ethan’s eyes flashed. An SSS-Rank core material! He could use this to evolve Cassandra’s talent even further later, or use it to craft an absolute weapon.
Before he could pull it out, the ash-gray fog fifty yards ahead violently swirled.
Five silhouettes stepped out from the shadows of the volcanic rocks. Unlike the students, these men wore pitch-black, untraceable tactical armor designed to mask their mana signatures.
They carried high-grade, toxic-coated daggers and heavy repeat crossbows loaded with armor-piercing bolts.
The leader of the group, a scarred man with a Level 62 rating floating above his head, sneered as he looked at Ethan.
"So, you’re the brat who humiliated the Young Master," the leader rasped, his voice dripping with malice. "The Master paid us a handsome sum to make sure you die a slow death in this rift. The Underground Guild can’t save you here, kid. Go to hell!"
"Fire!" the leader barked.
Dozens of black, poison-tipped bolts cut through the fog, flying toward Ethan at supersonic speeds, targeted perfectly at his vital organs.
These were Level 60+ Vance family elite enforcers, professional assassins who specialized in wiping out rogue geniuses.
Ethan stood perfectly still, his expression completely bored.
The moment the supersonic bolts entered his Eternal Domain, the 90% damage reduction and the crushing gravitational force took effect.
The bolts instantly lost all kinetic energy, slowing down until they hung in the air inches away from Ethan’s face, before dropping harmlessly to the dirt like dead flies.
The assassins’ eyes widened in absolute, paralyzing horror. "What?! He didn’t even use a shield!"
"Level 60?" Ethan muttered, his voice echoing coldly through the misty crags. He slowly drew the Shadow Sovereign’s Twin Blades (SS-Rank) from his space. The twin obsidian daggers hissed, releasing a dense, sentient black mist that hungrily wrapped around his forearms.
"You guys traveled all this way just to deliver yourselves to me as fodder?" Ethan asked, his pupils completely dissolving into a pitch-black abyss.
With a single step, Ethan vanished into the shadows.
SHUCK!
Before the assassin leader could even react, Ethan materialized directly behind him. The obsidian blades flashed in a blinding, silent arc, executing a casual Void-Severing Asura Slash.
A crescent of pure, gravity-inverting dark energy tore through the leader’s torso, completely bypassing his high-grade tactical armor as if it were wet paper.
The man didn’t even have time to scream before his body was cleanly bisected, his soul instantly devoured by the sentient void blades.
"Leader?!" the remaining four assassins shrieked, their faces turning completely white. They turned to run back into the fog, completely abandoning their mission.
"Did I say you could leave?" Ethan’s cold voice whispered right into their ears.
The dark mist from the twin blades surged forward like living serpents, wrapping tightly around the ankles of the remaining four assassins, dragging them screaming back into the crushing center of the domain.
The Vance family thought they had sent a slaughter squad. They had no idea they had just delivered a group of high-level experience points right to Ethan’s doorstep.