A heavy silence draped over the sky as dusk fell. The sun, dipped in scarlet, seemed to bleed across the horizon. Somewhere far beyond the reach of humans, in a forest sealed off from time and natural order, something ancient stirred.
Divine beasts—creatures of unimaginable power, their names whispered only in myths and the oldest of hunter tomes—stood gathered in a glade crowned with silver trees. Each beast shimmered with an aura of raw destruction. Their eyes gleamed not just with intelligence but with intent.
A ten-tailed wolf let out a guttural growl that shook the trees.
"They grow bolder," it rumbled, fangs flashing beneath moonlight. "The humans. They defile the balance."
A fire phoenix perched above flared its wings, embers falling like tears. "It's not just the humans—it's him. The one who rose from death. The one the shadows follow."
"The Golden Blood," a serpent dragon hissed, coiled in divine authority. "We must find it before the kings are all... consumed."
One by one, heads turned. Dungeon kings—beings who ruled the spaces between realms—had begun vanishing. Not falling in war. Not slain. Just... gone. Their essences extracted, their thrones empty.
Who had the power to do that?
---
Juno bolted upright in his bed, gasping.
The dream had felt too real. Like his very soul had eavesdropped on a meeting not meant for mortals.
System Notification: A-Rank Mission Detected. Location: Forest of Hollow Echoes. Accept? [Yes/No]
He blinked, confused.
It was the dungeon in which he failed to extract its king.
"This again? I already completed an A-rank mission. Why is the system pushing this one so hard?" he muttered, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.
There was no answer. Just the blinking prompt.
He tapped 'Yes,' heart thudding. "What's going on...?"
---
The Forest of Hollow Echoes looked different this time. The air was thicker. Every shadow longer. The trees whispered with voices that weren't just wind.
He moved cautiously, his blade drawn. Every sense sharp.
Minutes turned to hours. Wolves with eyes of blood and silver fangs launched at him. He danced between them, slicing and shifting through shadows. Elven assassins emerged from the trees, magic crackling in their palms. One incantation nearly tore through his shoulder.
"System!" Juno shouted, rolling to dodge a rain of arrows. "Why the hell am I doing this again?!"
No reply. Only the sound of a looming presence ahead. An enormous obsidian throne emerged within a glade. And sitting on it...
The Dungeon King.
Its body was shaped like a human but with the skull of a stag and arms wrapped in vines of corrupted magic. A crown of bone hovered above its head.
"You return, Shadow Born. But do you understand what you've become?"
Juno gritted his teeth and lunged.
The battle was brutal. Juno's shadow soldiers were torn apart. His strength wavered. Blood soaked the earth.
"[Shadow Reinforcement]!" he cried, pouring all his essence into the strike. The king deflected it—barely.
It took every ounce of his intelligence stat, every dodge, every last potion from the system shop. Finally, the king stumbled. He sliced its chest open, then its throat.
"[Extract Shadow]."
Nothing.
"What...?"
System Notification: Prerequisite requirement met. Extraction unlocked.
The king's body twisted in a dark spiral and vanished into Juno's shadow.
Juno fell to his knees, panting.
---
The next day, Jaemin burst into Juno's room with a grin. "Dad officially wants you and Hanni to join the guild. Full badge. Full pay. Full perks."
Juno blinked. "Wait—what? He saw my fight?"
"Of course," Jaemin said. "He's had eyes on you since our first mission together." He paused. "But also... he thinks you're special, Juno. Like, seriously special."
"Why?"
Jaemin leaned against the wall. "Because people who touch S-rank power at E-rank level aren't... normal. And because the guild's seers have started seeing golden shadows in their visions."
That evening, as school resumed, a new student arrived.
He was tall, pale, with eyes like mercury and a strange silence about him. When he walked past Juno in the hall, he paused.
"You're not supposed to be alive," he whispered with a smile.
Juno froze.
The boy walked away.
Something darker had just entered the game.