The white light surrounding Karl gradually disappeared, and the ruined cathedral was replaced by a wide stone chamber illuminated by several floating crystals.
Leon looked around before releasing a long breath, while Mira quietly checked herself for injuries that had somehow carried through the dungeon settlement.
"So this is finally the reward space."
Karl nodded as several platforms slowly rose from the floor ahead of them.
The first contained ordinary weapons, armour pieces and several consumable items that would have excited most newly awakened professionals, but none of the three showed much interest.
Leon picked up a sword and inspected it for several seconds before placing it back.
"Not bad."
Mira glanced toward him. "You already have better."
"Exactly."
Karl had even less reason to consider the equipment, especially after receiving the Death Stick from the Reed family vault.
They still collected everything since throwing away usable equipment would be stupid, but the rewards disappeared into their storage equipment without much discussion.
Another notification appeared immediately afterward.
[Insane Mode clear rewards are being distributed.]
[Experience reward calculated.]
A large amount of energy entered Karl’s body almost instantly.
The sensation was considerably stronger than anything they had received from killing individual dungeon creatures, and several notifications appeared one after another.
[Level increased.]
[Level increased.]
[Level increased.]
Karl opened his status panel once the flow of energy finally settled.
[Level: 22]
The experience bar beneath it had already crossed most of the distance toward Level 23.
Leon and Mira checked their own panels almost simultaneously.
"Twenty-one."
Leon looked toward Mira.
She nodded. "Same."
Leon immediately glanced toward Karl. "And you?"
"Twenty-two."
Leon stared at him for several seconds.
"Of course."
Karl ignored him and closed the panel.
The difference was not enormous, but considering all three had entered the dungeon around the same level, the accumulated experience from earlier kills had finally started showing itself.
A second platform rose from the floor.
Unlike the ordinary equipment from before, only a small black tome rested upon it.
The cover looked surprisingly simple, with several thin silver runes engraved across the surface and no title visible anywhere.
Karl picked it up and a panel appeared.
[Sevenfold Lament Tome]
[Type: Special Equipment]
[Quality: Epic]
[Primary Compatibility: Priest / Support / Curse-type professions]
Karl turned several pages before closing it again.
The item was clearly valuable, especially considering how unusual equipment capable of interacting with multiple support effects could become at higher levels, but none of them possessed a profession capable of properly using it.
Mira examined the runes across the cover.
"That’s going to sell for a lot."
Karl shook his head slightly.
"Probably better to exchange it."
Equipment this unusual could often be worth considerably more when traded directly for something equally difficult to obtain.
Leon looked toward the tome before nodding.
"Definitely don’t sell it to some random auction house."
Karl stored it away and the final reward appeared shortly afterward, this time taking the form of a dark silver bracelet with several small crystals embedded around the band.
Its effects were decent and the quality was similarly respectable, but once again the restrictions made it almost useless to all three of them.
Leon sighed.
"Insane Mode really hates our professions."
Mira took the bracelet from him and stored it away.
"We’ll exchange that one too."
Karl nodded, and the reward chamber finally began losing its shape as white light gathered around them again.
This time the transportation lasted barely a second.
Cold wilderness air immediately replaced the still atmosphere of the reward chamber, and Karl found himself standing near the entrance of The Last Lament once more.
Victor was still waiting beside the jeep.
He had apparently been sitting against the hood, but the moment the three appeared, his eyes moved toward them.
Leon immediately raised both arms.
"We survived."
Victor looked over the three of them before stopping upon Leon’s blood-covered clothing.
"Barely, apparently."
Leon lowered his arms.
"That part isn’t important."
Victor gave him a flat look before turning toward Karl.
"You cleared?"
He had expected them to enter Insane Mode, test how far they could progress and eventually use one of the dungeon’s forced evacuation mechanisms once the difficulty became unreasonable.
Clearing the entire thing on their first attempt had not been part of his expectations.
Before he could ask anything further, a large stone monument standing near the dungeon entrance suddenly emitted a bright blue light.
The leaderboard was changing, names shifted downward across the surface before a new entry appeared at the very top of the Insane Mode section.
[The Last Lament — Insane Difficulty]
[First Clear Recorded.]
[Team Name Required.]
Leon immediately looked toward Karl.
"Don’t you dare let Mira name it."
Mira slowly turned toward him.
"What exactly is wrong with my naming?"
"I value my reputation."
"You don’t have one."
Karl ignored both of them and looked toward the empty field waiting for their registration.
A stupid idea entered his head.
"Record Hoarders."
Leon stopped arguing with Mira.
Then he grinned.
"Actually, that’s pretty good."
Mira looked between them before sighing.
"Of course you two like it."
Karl confirmed the name.
The leaderboard changed again.
[The Last Lament — Insane Difficulty]
[1. Record Hoarders — First Clear]
Several conversations around the dungeon entrance stopped almost immediately.
Victor stared at the new entry before slowly looking toward Karl.
"Record Hoarders?"
Karl shrugged. "It sounded funny."
Victor did not answer as his gaze returned toward the leaderboard.
The name itself was meaningless, but something about it bothered him considerably more than it should have.
First the awakening incident and then the ridiculous dungeon route Karl had chosen.
Now an Insane Mode first clear immediately after leaving the city for the first time.
Victor’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Is he actually trying to collect all the records?
The thought sounded absurd until he remembered how confidently Karl had selected Insane Mode despite knowing exactly how dangerous The Last Lament could become.
Even earlier, Karl had moved through several encounters as though he already understood where the most valuable opportunities were located.
Victor looked toward him again, that route wasn’t random at all.
His suspicion, which had remained little more than an uncomfortable feeling until now, suddenly became considerably harder to dismiss.
Karl was doing something deliberate.
Victor just had no idea how he knew where to look.
Then his expression changed, the shift was so sudden that Karl barely noticed it.
Victor’s relaxed posture disappeared and an overwhelming killing intent swept across the clearing from somewhere beyond the surrounding trees.
His hands moved immediately as several hand seals formed in less than a second.
"Down!"
Black energy exploded outward and a thick barrier formed around Karl, Leon, Mira and Victor just as three sharp impacts struck its outer surface.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
The barrier trembled violently, Leon instinctively reached for his weapon while Mira disappeared halfway into the nearest shadow.
Karl’s eyes moved toward the outside, three distorted marks had appeared across the black barrier.
For barely an instant, he did not understand what had caused them.
Then something metallic fell onto the ground outside.
A flattened bullet.
Leon stared at it.
"Sniper?"
Victor did not answer as his attention remained fixed upon the distant forest while additional hand seals formed between his fingers.
Another shot arrived and the bullet struck the barrier hard enough to produce a visible crack across its surface.
Karl’s expression immediately changed this was not an ordinary firearm.
Whoever had fired it possessed enough power to threaten even Victor’s defensive technique.
A second bullet followed almost instantly and struck the exact same point.
The crack widened and Mira’s face had already lost every trace of humour.
"If that barrier hadn’t appeared..."
Leon looked toward the bullet embedded outside and finished the thought himself.
"We’d be dead."
Karl said nothing the first shots had arrived before any of them except Victor even realised someone was attacking.
Had Victor reacted half a second later, one of those bullets could have passed directly through Karl’s head.
The thought left a cold feeling across his back.
Victor stepped in front of the three without turning around.
"Stay behind me."
The killing intent outside the barrier became stronger.
Trees several hundred metres away moved slightly and Karl immediately felt several more presences beginning to surround the clearing.
Victor’s eyes became completely cold.
"Show yourselves."
For several seconds, nobody answered.
Then a man’s voice travelled across the wilderness, filled with unmistakable hostility.
"Time for you to die, Reed."