The silence after the battle didn't last.
Something moved deeper inside the ruins.
The evolved goblins they had just slain were strong, coordinated but whatever was walking toward them now was heavier. Each step landed with a weight that rattled the old stones. The air grew colder, pressing down on the party's lungs like an unseen hand.
Ji-hoon raised his spear slowly. His pupils narrowed to slits, the dragon's heartbeat thrumming inside his chest.
[Warning: High-level Entity Detected][Entity: Necrolin Evolved Goblin (Necromancer)][Level: 17][Threat Level: Critical]
A name tag flared above the darkness bright crimson.Rina muttered, "That's….thats…not good."
Sori instinctively raised her shield. Woo-jin froze, eyes wide. Even Min-jae's grin faltered a little.
Then it stepped out.
The Necrolin stood a head taller than the other evolved goblins, gray skin almost translucent, black veins crawling up its neck like living ink. Its eyes burned a deep, unnatural red. Tattered robes clung to its thin frame. In its hand a bone staff topped with a cluster of green fire, dripping mana like liquid venom.
It opened its mouth, and a sound like dozens of whispers spoke at once. Not a roar. A spell.
Bones shifted on the ground. The corpses of the goblins they'd just killed twitched like bad.
[Skill: Raise Lesser Dead][Lesser Goblin Revenant x6 has appeared.]
The air filled with the scraping of bone and flesh.
"Of course it's a damn necromancer," Rina hissed.
Woo-jin's voice cracked. "Level seventeen. We can't-"
Ji-hoon stepped forward.
His title pulsed.
[Title: Fragment of Oblivion:Passive effect triggered][Facing a stronger enemy:Stat increase: +300%][Dragonization Bonus Multiplier: 4x][Effective Level: 28]
The pressure shifted like the dungeon itself exhaled. Rina and the others flinched instinctively as Ji-hoon's aura flared outward, heavy and sharp.
"Woo-jin. Buffs. Now."
He didn't shout. He didn't need to. His voice alone cut through the rising panic.
Woo-jin snapped out of his stupor, mana circles blooming at their feet.
Sori set her shield. "Frontline."
Min-jae spat on the ground, grin returning. "Guess we're doing this."
Rina's blades caught the dim light. "Let's make it bleed."
The Necrolin raised its staff. The revenants rushed forward, shrieking.
Ji-hoon was faster.
He slammed into the first revenant, spear piercing through its chest like paper. The second got a kick to the skull, splintering bone into dust. A third raised a rusted blade Ji-hoon cut it clean in half before it could blink.
[Lesser Goblin Revenant:Defeated] x3
But the Necrolin didn't care. It waved its staff once more, and three new corpses rose from the ground.
"This thing can keep summoning!" Woo-jin shouted.
"I'll deal with it," Ji-hoon answered.
The real fight began.
Ji-hoon charged, but the Necrolin met him with a pulse of sickly green energy. A wall of bone erupted from the ground, intercepting his strike. He smashed through it, but by then, two revenants had clawed toward his flank.
Sori intercepted them, shield glowing faintly as she braced the impact. Min-jae followed up, spear thrust cracking bone. Rina darted through the chaos, slashing tendons and throats with surgical speed.
Woo-jin chanted faster now, his support magic keeping them on their feet. He was sweating, mana flickering around his fingers like sparks from a strained wire.
The Necrolin moved again. Its staff pulsed.A black spear of mana screamed across the battlefield.
Ji-hoon barely twisted aside. The attack carved a crater where he'd been standing.
[Skill: Dark Lance]
"That thing hits like a truck!" Min-jae barked.
"It is a truck," Rina shot back.
Ji-hoon lunged forward again, pushing through the bone wall the Necrolin conjured. He met its burning red eyes head-on.
His spear cut upward. The Necrolin blocked with its staff metal on bone, a sharp crack. The impact sent shockwaves through the room.
The creature screeched, and its summoned undead swarmed toward the others.
Sori held the line with her shield. Min-jae smashed revenants apart with brute force. Woo-jin kept barriers alive just barely. And Rina
Rina vanished.
She reappeared a heartbeat later behind the Necrolin, mana swirling around her blades. Her skill triggered instinctively the one she'd barely managed to use in training.
[Skill: Shadow Fang:Critical Multiplier x2.5]
She drove her blade deep into the creature's lower back, right below its ribs.
The Necrolin screamed.Its staff faltered.
That one second was all Ji-hoon needed.
He thrust forward, spear piercing its throat. The creature staggered, choking on its own magic, and Ji-hoon drove it down into the stone floor with a final blow.
[Necrolin:Lv. 17 Defeated][EXP Gained.][Level Up.][Rina Lv. 8 → 10][Sori Lv. 7 → 10][Min-jae Lv. 8 → 10][Woo-jin Lv. 7 → 10][Ji-hoon Lv. 14 → 15]
The Necrolin's body twitched once, then dissolved into smoke. The revenants collapsed, their bones clattering like dice on stone.
No one spoke at first. Their breathing filled the room.
Woo-jin slumped to his knees, panting. "I…I thought we were dead."
Min-jae sat back against a wall, laughing breathlessly. "Level seventeen. Holy crap."
Sori leaned on her shield. "We actually did it."
Rina's hands were shaking slightly. She hid it by cleaning her blades. "Lucky hit," she muttered.
Ji-hoon didn't answer.
Because right then, his system flashed something new.
A single message burned across his vision.
[Condition One: Complete][Path Progression Unlocked]
"….Condition one?" Ji-hoon whispered.
The light faded.
And the chapter ended with the cold pulse of a new path opening before him.