The damp basement corridor smelled of stagnant water, ozone, and the unmistakable metallic reek of fresh human entrails.
"Watch your footing in the dark," the First Player whispered to himself, feeling his way along the peeling plaster.
"Don't trip over discarded junk... keep your balance steady."
His enhanced senses picked up the faint scraping of claws against floor tiles three dozen paces ahead in the darkness.
"Two targets resting near the central junction," he noted, keeping his back pressed flat against the cool wall.
"Are they feeding on casualties?"
A flickering emergency light buzzed overhead, casting pale yellow illumination across a pile of discarded backpacks and broken lockers.
Two juvenile Gobdogs crouched over a pair of fallen students, tearing into bloody limbs with frantic and greedy snaps.
"Look at those greedy mutts," the dark-haired youth murmured, crouching low behind an overturned waste bin.
"Should I burn two rounds on them right now?"
"No... bullets are irreplaceable until I locate an armory," he decided, tucking the firearm securely into his waistband.
He picked up a rusted iron rod from the floor, testing its balance with a few sharp downward practice swings.
"Let's see how much damage fourteen points of Strength can do," the youth muttered, stepping boldly into the light.
"Hey, ugly!"
The nearest hound raised its bloodstained snout, catching his fresh scent and letting out a high-pitched, warning bark.
"Come on, mutt," he taunted, tapping the rod against the floor with a sharp metallic clink.
"Get over here and taste some scrap iron!"
The beast lunged instantly, kicking off the corpse with its muscular hind legs and snapping its jaws toward his throat.
"Die, beast!"
The First Player stepped inside the creature's guard, pivoting his hips and swinging the bar with all his strength.
The solid bar struck the side of the hound's skull with a sickening crack that reverberated through the hallway.
The creature squealed in pain, tumbling across the wet tiles, but its dense bone structure prevented an instant kill.
"Their skulls are hard as solid stone," the youth grunted, his forearms vibrating from the violent shockwave of the blow.
"You have a thick skull, don't you?"
The second hound leaped from the shadow of the lockers, raking its sharp front claws across his left forearm.
"Get off me—!"
A sharp sting tore through his skin as four shallow crimson lines opened along his flesh, splattering blood onto his sleeve.
"You little bastard!" he hissed, dropping the rod and drawing his service pistol in one fluid, instinctive reflex.
"Eat lead!"
He pressed the barrel directly beneath the leaping beast's soft jaw seam before pulling the trigger twice in rapid succession.
The double gunshot roared like thunder in the corridor, twin muzzle flashes lighting up the darkness in blinding bursts.
The high-velocity lead rounds tore through the monster's throat and brainstem, instantly killing the beast before it hit the ground.
[ Hostile Slayed: Juvenile Gobdog (Rank F) | Experience Value: +10 EXP ]
[ Ammunition Remaining: 5/8 Rounds ]
"One down... one left," he muttered, keeping his eyes on the wounded predator scrambling across the floor.
The first hound scrambled back to its feet, shaking its concussed head and preparing to pounce on his injured arm.
"Don't even think about it!" the youth barked, kicking an overturned locker straight into the charging creature's path.
"Take that!"
The tall metal locker slammed into the hound's ribs, pinning its torso against the wall with a loud metallic crash.
"Try wriggling out of that cage, mutt!"
Before the beast could squirm free, the First Player drove his heel down onto its exposed windpipe with crushing power.
"Stay down!"
Bone snapped beneath his downward weight, and the creature's flailing limbs went completely limp against the bloodstained floor.
[ Hostile Slayed: Juvenile Gobdog (Rank F) | Experience Value: +10 EXP ]
[ Current Level: 1 (EXP: 20/100) ]
[ Congratulations! You have unlocked the active skill: Appraise (Rank F)! ]
"An appraisal skill?" the youth said, wiping a streak of sweat and monster ichor from his forehead.
"Show me what you do..."
[ Skill: Appraise (Rank F) | Cost: 5 Mana | Identifies basic rank, attributes, and material value of targets. ]
"Let's see what is inside these corpses," he commanded, activating the new skill with a subtle mental trigger.
A faint blue shimmer washed over the dead hound beneath the locker, highlighting a glowing sphere nestled behind its ribcage.
[ Object Identified: Low-Grade Beast Core (Rank F) | Mana Density: 12 Units | High Market Value ]
"A monster core... just like a role-playing game," he muttered, drawing a scavenged pen to pry out the crystal.
"Come out of there, little crystal."
The small marble-sized gemstone glowed with an iridescent purple light, humming faintly with raw dimensional mana.
[ Item Stored: 1x Rank F Beast Core ]
"That makes one core in the bank," he said, tucking the warm crystal into his front jacket pocket.
He tore a clean strip of cloth from a fallen student's shirt, wrapping his bleeding forearm tightly to stop the flow.
"Just a surface scratch... nothing to whine about," he said, flexing his left fingers to ensure full mobility.
"My tendons are completely fine and functioning normally."
A sudden rustling noise came from the ceiling duct above, sending a shower of white plaster dust onto his broad shoulders.
"Who is crawling around up there in the ventilation system?"
A third juvenile Gobdog dropped from the broken vent grate, landing with bared fangs directly onto the bloodstained floor tiles before him.
"Another one trying to ambush me from the ceiling?"
"Grrrr—!" the beast snarled, snapping its jaws in an aggressive display of territorial hunger.
"You picked the wrong target to hunt," the youth said, raising his iron rod with both hands.
"Try biting this iron instead!"
The creature leaped forward, attempting to bite his uninjured right thigh with frantic and vicious lunges.
The youth stepped gracefully to the side, utilizing his thirteen points of Agility to slip past the predator's claws.
"Too slow, ugly!"
He brought the solid rod down across the monster's spine with all fourteen points of raw Strength, breaking its back in midair.
The creature crashed onto the floor tiles, whimpering as its hind legs dragged uselessly behind its broken body.
"That finishes your little ambush," the youth muttered, delivering a swift and decisive stomp to its skull.
"Rest in pieces, mutt."
[ Hostile Slayed: Juvenile Gobdog (Rank F) | Experience Value: +10 EXP ]
[ Current Level: 1 (EXP: 30/100) ]
"Let's harvest that core as well," he said, extracting a second iridescent crystal with his pen.
"Two beast cores collected so far."
[ Item Stored: 1x Rank F Beast Core ]
"Two beast cores and thirty experience points gathered in under five minutes," he whispered with satisfaction.
"I need seventy more points to hit the next level milestone."
He climbed the emergency stairwell to the ground floor landing, approaching a tall window overlooking the front entrance.
"Let's see what the outside world is doing right now."
Outside the school gates, the entire metropolitan avenue was engulfed in absolute chaos and military pandemonium.
Dozens of police cruisers, ambulances, and tactical vans were parked in a wide perimeter along the outer boulevard.
Officers and tactical units were firing assault rifles and shotguns at the school, but their bullets flattened against an invisible wall.
"Look at them firing out there... totally useless," he whispered, watching the lead slugs flatten into shiny pancakes.
"Those weapons can't penetrate dimensional mana."
Firefighters used hydraulic cutters and circular saws against the perimeter gates, showering the street in useless white sparks.
"They are wasting all their fuel on a magical barrier," he muttered, leaning against the window frame.
"No power tool on Earth will cut through that field."
A translucent purple dome of solidified mana shimmered across the entire campus boundary, completely repelling all outside physical interference.
"Look at that barrier," the youth whispered, pressing his palm against the reinforced windowpane.
"They can't get in... nobody is breaking through that dome from the outside."
"Attention all survivors inside Zone 004!" a police chief shouted through a high-powered bullhorn from across the street.
"Listen to that megaphone blaring..."
"Remain calm and stay inside your classrooms!" the bullhorn blared against the roaring sirens.
"The National Guard is deploying specialized breaching charges to break the dimensional containment field!"
"Those breaching charges won't do a single thing," the First Player muttered, watching the military explosives detonate against the field.
"That entire military blast was completely ineffective against the barrier!"
The fiery blast vanished in a ripple of purple light, leaving the translucent mana shield completely pristine and unscratched.
"Not a single scratch on the barrier," he said, shaking his head with a cold smirk.
"The world outside is totally useless right now."
"Nobody from the city government is coming to save this school," he noted, turning away from the window.
"If anyone is getting out of here alive, we have to clear the dungeon from within."
"Five bullets left in the magazine," he said, inspecting the copper casings through the witness holes.
"Five bullets for sixty monsters means I need better tools."
"Where is the chemistry wing from here?"
"I think Lab 304 is just down the hallway on the left."
[ Subzone Quest Status: East Wing Purge | Hostile Signatures Remaining: 59 ]
[ Next Cluster: Chemistry Wing & Science Laboratories ]
"Time to raid the science department," the dark-haired youth muttered, adjusting his collar with a determined grin.
"Let's see what kinds of lethal acids are sitting in those storage cabinets."
He turned back toward the shadowed corridors, his steps silent and purposeful as he descended deeper into the hunting grounds.