The Guild’s subterranean armory smelled of oil, cold iron, and old blood.
Raven leaned against a stone pillar, her wide-brimmed hat casting shadows over her face as she watched me strap on my gear. Between her lips, the glowing blue cigar drifted smoke into the damp air.
"You look like a amateur playing dress-up," Raven noted, her voice carrying a dry, amused edge.
"I’m a freaking security guard who got summoned here six days ago," I muttered, cinching the leather sheath at my waist. "Amateur is a promotion."
On my left hip hung two dark-tempered, katana-style dual swords—slender, single-edged, and balanced for high-speed slashing. On my chest harness sat three black steel throwing daggers. On my right forearm, the silver Soul-Channeler Gauntlet hummed with blue Aether runes, linked directly to Valeska’s soul. Finally, I tucked three vials of crimson High-Grade Vitality Potions into my belt.
"The place you’re entering is called the Sunken Crypt of Erebos," Raven said, taking a slow drag from her cigar. "It predates the High Empire. Predates the Church. It’s an ancient graveyard built on a fractured divine Leyline beneath Oakhaven."
Valeska stood by the armory entrance, her six-foot-two obsidian frame blotted against the torchlight. Her crimson visor burned quietly in the dark.
"The architecture is pre-Empire," Valeska noted, her voice echoing in my mind like grinding iron. "I recognize the seal on those stone doors. It belongs to the old lineage."
"Keep your eyes open, kid," Raven warned, her blue eyes glinting under her hat. "The monsters down there aren’t feral beasts. They are ancient husks preserved by decayed Aether. They don’t feel pain. They don’t tire. And if you rely purely on brute force instead of real footwork and blade-angles, they will tear you apart."
I pulled both katanas from their sheaths, feeling the cold weight of the steel in my palms.
"No kill-scaling," I said, looking at the dark stone stairwell leading down into the earth. "No 10x System buffs. Just me, two swords, and a Calamity entity who thinks breaking my ribs is good character development."
"I am building your vessel," Valeska growled, her visor flaring red. "If you die to common husks, you deserve the grave."
"Lead the way, Empress," I smirked. "Let’s go get thrashed."
The descent into Erebos felt like walking down the throat of a dying god.
The temperature plummeted with every step. The air became thick, suffocating, and reeking of dried blood and ancient decay. The walls were not made of carved stone—they were carved out of massive, petrified black bones intertwined with glowing, sickly purple moss.
[LOCATION: Sunken Crypt of Erebos (Floor 1)]
[WARNING: High-Density Decayed Aether Detected!]
[Environmental Hazard: Sensory Distortion & Slow Regeneration]
The moment my boots hit the bottom floor of the stairwell, the heavy stone doors behind us slammed shut with a deafening BOOM.
The ancient magical torches on the walls instantly extinguished, plunging the entire corridor into dusky darkness.
"Kaelen," Valeska’s voice echoed in my head.
Before I could answer, my [Adaptive Resonance] screamed in alarm.
SWOOSH!
A jagged, rusted iron halberd tore through the darkness from my blind spot, aiming directly for my neck.
I didn’t have Valeska’s instincts. I didn’t have my old 10x System reflexes.
I tried to parry with my right katana, but my blade angle was off by two inches.
CRACK!
The heavy halberd smashed past my guard, the rusted blade catching me square in the chest.
"Gah!"
The sheer impact shattered my collarbone and sent me flying backward through the dark. I slammed hard against the petrified bone wall, my left katana clattering onto the stone floor.
Pain—pure, unadulterated, blinding agony—erupted across my torso.
"Aargh! Fuck!" I gasped, slumped against the wall, blood pooling in my throat.
[Innate Trait: [Endless Resilience Lv. 1] Active!]
[Repairing Shattered Collarbone (5%... 20%...)]
[WARNING: Environmental Decay Is Slowing Regeneration Rate!]
Unlike before, my bones didn’t knit together in half a second. The dark Leyline energy in the crypt was actively suppressing my healing. I could feel every jagged shard of my broken collarbone scraping against muscle as it slowly, agonizingly forced itself back into alignment.
A pair of glowing, hollow white sockets ignited in the darkness twenty feet in front of me.
Stepping into the faint light of the purple moss was an eight-foot-tall, four-armed construct made of rusted iron plates and decaying bone. It held two heavy halberds and a jagged tower shield.
[Monster Identified: Crypt-Husk Sentinel (B-Rank Undead)]
"Valeska..." I wheezed, clutching my left shoulder while my bones slowly reconnected under my skin. "A little help?"
Valeska stood ten feet away, her arms folded over her obsidian chestplate, her crimson visor glowing coldly in the dark.
"No," Valeska said, her voice completely devoid of pity. "Your grip was loose. Your stance was top-heavy. You are still relying on your System instead of watching his shoulder muscles. Stand up and correct your form, Kaelen Cross."
"He just broke my collarbone!" I yelled, spitting a glob of blood onto the floor.
"Then break his skull," Valeska replied coldly.
The Crypt-Husk Sentinel didn’t wait for us to finish. It lunged forward, the four-armed monstrosity raising both halberds above its head, ready to bisect me where I sat.
’I’m gonna die here. I’m actually gonna get turned into paste.’
Panic tried to seize my brain, but [Adaptive Resonance] kicked in, forcing my heart rate down. I saw the sentinel’s left shoulder dip a fraction of a second before the halberds came down.
I rolled to the right.
BOOM!
The halberds smashed into the bone wall where my head had been, sending shards of petrified bone flying like shrapnel.
I scrambled to my feet, my left collarbone snapping back into place with a sickening CRACK. I grabbed my fallen katana off the floor, gripping both hilts tightly.
"Exhale on the strike," I remembered Valeska’s words before we entered. "Force comes from the root, not the arms."
The Sentinel turned its four-armed torso toward me, swinging its tower shield like a battering ram.
Instead of backing away, I stepped into the attack.
I ducked beneath the shield’s swing, rotated my hips, and drove my right katana upward into the joint beneath its primary arm.
CLANG!
My blade hit the rusted armor, sparks flying, but the angle was right. I channeled 20 Soul Essence through my gauntlet.
"Ashen Pulse!"
BOOM!
The short-range kinetic shockwave exploded inside the sentinel’s arm joint. The four-armed construct’s left arm shattered at the shoulder, rusted metal and old bone flying across the corridor.
The Sentinel let out a hollow, silent scream, staggering back.
"Better," Valeska’s voice echoed in my head, cool and critical. "Now fix your footwork before the other three arms kill you."
Before I could celebrate my first successful strike, the darkness deep within the corridor began to pulse.
Dozens... no, hundreds of hollow white eyes ignited in the pitch-black tunnels ahead. The sound of rusted armor, dragging blades, and scraping bone echoed from every direction, surrounding us completely.
I wiped the blood from my mouth, raising my dual katanas as the eerie, horror-filled darkness closed in.
’Are we serious??’ I thought, my heart pounding against my ribs as the first wave of crypt-husks rushed out of the gloom. ’I’m definitely not surviving this raid.’