As the sun dipped lower over South Glade Town, the area near the town square buzzed with energy. After receiving word that the rest of the team had logged in following their martial arts training, Kaito returned immediately.
Without wasting a moment, he gathered everyone.
"We're clearing King-level Echoing Deep today," he announced.
A wave of excitement and apprehension spread across the group.
He reached into his inventory and brought out a shining set of 25 Vanguard Ember Plates—each one infused with defensive enchantments earned through battle.
"Frontliners, distribute these. You'll need them."
But not everyone shared his enthusiasm.
A few members—especially those outside the core team—visibly hesitated.
"Isn't it better if we go for Hard Mode first… or at most Horror?" someone whispered.
Even Ravenblade stepped forward.
"Brother Kaito, you're strong, we know that. But isn't it risky? Why not lead us through Horror instead?"
"You don't need to worry about it, just follow me."
"Also Echoing Deep allows only six players per run. This isn't a team dungeon—so I'll take each group of five through it, personally."
"Meanwhile, the rest of you will go through Elite Mode repeatedly. You'll be split into groups led by the core team—Meirin, Kaede, Aika, Daichi, and Hiroto."
The plan made sense. His voice carried no room for debate.
And so, the system began.
...
The First King-Level Run: Group 1
Kaito led the first team of five into the scorched depths of Echoing Deep.
Wave One: Emberclad Ravagers
Towering humanoid monsters with magma-forged limbs and explosive death bursts. Kaito tanked the aggro, rotating them away from his teammates while calling precise dodge timings.
Wave Two: Blaze Maw Shredders
These stone monsters lunged across terrain with flaming claws, forcing the team into tighter formation. Kaito used his Mana Step to flank and disable them mid-leap.
Final Encounter: Echoflame Sovereign
With fiery chains and glyph-cracking roars, the Sovereign brought chaos to the arena. Kaito expertly dictated positioning and mechanic counters, dodging Inferno Cages and canceling Ashen Cataclysm with a perfect Flame arc slash.
With the first team victorious, the dungeon cleared.
Five Hours Later
One after another, Kaito completed seven full King-level clears, taking different groups of five members through the same firestorm of enemies and bosses. Nearly every member even though stunned was visibly improving.
By the time the seventh group exited the dungeon, Kaito's face was blank—dazed from the repetition.
The fiery halls. The same shattering roar. The timing of the ultimate.
Over. And over.
He wasn't tired—but he was absolutely bored.
Still, he endured it.
For the guild.
For Genesis.
....
But now, every member of Genesis had experienced firsthand what it meant to fight through King Difficulty.
They knew the timing. They understood the formations. They had felt the Sovereign's fury—and survived.
It was time for the next phase.
Kaito stepped back and spoke to the core team.
"Now, it's your turn. Split into pairs. Each of you will lead a group of four through the dungeon."
The Genesis core quickly formed their leadership squads:
Meirin and Daichi
Kaede and Aika
Hiroto and Suzune
Even Ravenblade and Nina were assigned a squad—paired together to command a unit of four. Since Genesis had 47 members, one group only had five—but it was balanced by including two of the core members as damage dealers.
Kaito watched as the teams headed back into Echoing Deep—now leading the charge themselves, replicating the flow he'd shown them.
...
With everything set in motion, Kaito quietly departed from the field.
There was still work to do. He still had an important forging order for Selvera to complete—and tomorrow, he would need to leave town to attend his ancestral worship.
Which meant…
If the forge wasn't done today, it wouldn't be done at all.
Kaito departed quietly from the entrance of Echoing Deep, his footsteps steady as the blazing dungeon slowly faded into the background. His next destination: South Glade Town.
But this time, he wasn't in a rush.
Due to stamina management mechanics within Glory, sprinting continuously drained stamina at an accelerated rate. And once it hit zero, even walking would become sluggish.
However, there existed a sweet spot—a delicate running threshold where stamina regeneration matched consumption perfectly.
Kaito had long mastered it.
He kept his pace just beneath that invisible line. Not too fast. Not too slow. A perfect balance where his stamina bar hovered steadily, neither increasing nor depleting.
This threshold wasn't something an average player could find easily. It depended heavily on individual attributes like Agility, Vitality, and Movement Efficiency, making it a technique only seasoned players could truly exploit.
As Kaito moved along the winding route, he soon approached a Level 11 hunting zone—a vast stretch of land known as the Whispering Prairie, home to wind-sensitive monsters.
A low breeze rustled through the knee-high golden grass, and in its midst, Kaito spotted the Lupshade Howlers—canine-type monsters with sleek black fur, known for their ambush tactics and silence-based buffs.
But what drew Kaito's attention wasn't the monsters.
It was the strewn corpses lying amidst the grass—players.
Their gear glinted faintly beneath crimson smears. Some were twisted unnaturally. Others had claw marks seared into their chests. From a glance, most of the dead were solo players. A few, from the party layout, had clearly tried to fight in small groups and failed.
Still too early for casual grinding here, Kaito noted.
As he went deeper—several hundred meters into the prairie—the thick grass suddenly trembled violently.
Kaito stopped.
His hand went to his sword instantly.
A moment later, two players burst from the brush, sprinting like their lives depended on it. Both were Level 11. Their appearances were disheveled—torn cloaks, missing weapons, blood staining their sleeves.
Their eyes locked onto Kaito.
Without even a word, both dashed toward him with panic-stricken faces.
Just seconds after the two players burst from the thicket, the grass behind them surged violently—and from within, a pack of monsters erupted.
A half-dozen Level 11 Lupshade Howlers leapt out with terrifying speed, their sleek, shadow-black fur glinting with red streaks. Their eyes burned with a primal hunger as they howled sharply, announcing the position of their fleeing prey to the rest of the hunting pack.
Lupshade Howler ( Common)
Level: 11
HP: 1040 / 1040
Their cries echoed across the prairie, a chilling chorus that promised only death.
Kaito's eyes narrowed slightly.
He'd seen this kind of behavior before.
So that's what this is.
The moment the two panicked players saw him, they made their move. Rather than trying to outrun the monsters, they charged directly toward him.
"Brat, count yourself unlucky for running into us!"
One of them, an assassin, sneered grimly.
"Since you're going to die anyway, at least lure these mutts away for us!"
Their plan was clear.
They were trying to transfer aggro to Kaito—throwing him in front of the howlers to buy time to escape.
But they had greatly underestimated who they were dealing with.
Just as the two players were about to dash past him, Kaito's arms shot out like lightning.
He grabbed both of them by the collarbones—his fingers like steel vices.
"You picked the wrong bait."
With a twist of his core and a surge of strength, he swung both players through the air like dolls—hurling them back toward the charging Lupshade Howlers in one smooth, brutal motion.
The pair screamed as they crashed midair into the oncoming pack, colliding with several howlers in a tangle of limbs and snarls.
The sudden impact disrupted the pack's charge, but only for a second.
Then, blood sprayed across the grass.
The assassin barely had time to curse before a howler's jaws snapped onto his shoulder. Another clamped down on his thigh, dragging him screaming to the ground.
He flailed, screeched, tried to roll—but his body was being ripped apart in real time, chunks of armor and flesh flying as his HP plummeted like water down a drain.
-246! -318! -417!
His cries echoed through the prairie as the other player, already limping, tried to crawl away—only for another howler to lunge at his spine.