The air changed the moment Vorn started walking deeper into the dungeon.
The cave narrowed like it was trying to squeeze him to death, jagged rocks scraping against his shoulders. No light this time - not even that red glow from the moss. Only what his glasses showed him, which honestly wasn't much comfort.
A soft pulse lit up the edges of his vision.
[PATH: INITIATED]
[THREAT LEVEL: UNKNOWN]
[REWARD: ???]
[WARNING: DEATH RATE — 89%]
"Oh, fantastic."
Every step he took sounded way too loud in the silence. Every breath made his ribs creak like old floorboards. And from somewhere up ahead came this chittering sound that made his skin crawl.
Sniff sniff sniff
Multiple things, fast, low to the ground.
'Shit.'
Vorn dropped into a crouch, palm pressed against the warm card. It pulsed like a heartbeat, waiting for him to use it again.
"Not yet," he whispered. "I'm not gonna sacrifice my memory..."
The card stayed still, Good.
'wait how did I even know that'
His glasses flickered - one lens cracked for a split second, then reformed itself. Static whispered in his ear.
[NEW ZONE REACHED: TRIAL CHASM]
[OBJECTIVE: EXIT ALIVE]
[TIMER: 3:00:00]
"Trial? Why not just call it what it is - a death trap."
The smell hit him as he crept forward. Not just blood this time. Something like meat left out in the sun for way too long.
Then he saw them.
Six creatures that looked like pigs, ones that had grown to the size of children and developed serious anger issues. Each one had arms instead of front legs - long, clawed fingers that scraped against the stone as they moved. Their eyes glowed dull yellow in the darkness.
[GUTTERSPAWN]
[THREAT LEVEL: F+]
[GROUP AGGRESSION: HIGH]
[SPEED: 63%]
[STRENGTH: 70%]
[WEAK POINT: BEHIND SKULL]
They were feeding on something...someone.
A corpse in a Bureau uniform, face completely torn off by the pack of monsters. Only blood and fabric left to identify what used to be a person.
'That was an Awakened,' Vorn realized, it just popped into his head, stomach dropping. "A trained professional, and they're dead."
One of the pig-things raised its snout, sniffed the air, then looked directly at him. Its ears twitched.
"Oh shit."
Vorn ran.
No plan, no strategy, just pure panic and adrenaline driving his legs. The Gutterspawn screamed behind him - high-pitched and hungry as hell.
SKREE! SKREE! SKREE!
Their claws scraped against stone as they gave chase. Vorn twisted into a side passage, hoping to lose them.
Too narrow.
SMACK!
His shoulder slammed into the wall hard enough to draw blood, but he didn't dare stop. They were faster than him, and getting closer.
He called on to his card.
"MOVE!"
Nothing.
"MOVE, DAMN IT!"
The card finally responded, floating out of his grip and spinning like a deadly projectile.
SLICE!
The first Gutterspawn's legs got cut clean off.
TWIST!
The second one folded inside-out with a wet scream before dissolving into black dust.
The others stopped, confused and snarling at their dead packmates.
Vorn collapsed to one knee, eyes burning like someone had poured acid into them. The pain behind his skull was...
Burning.
A sharp crack echoed inside his mind. Another memory - gone. His mother's face was still there, but he couldn't remember her voice anymore.
He bit his lip until he tasted blood.
"Dammit—"
The remaining Gutterspawn decided they didn't care about their dead friends. They wanted fresh meat, and Vorn looked delicious.
He turned and ran again, but he was slower now, dizzy. The world kept tilting sideways.
[IMMINENT DEATH PROBABILITY: 96%]
[ANALYZING...]
"No, come on—"
CRACK!
The ground gave out beneath him. The stone floor just collapsed, sending him tumbling into darkness.
THUD!
CRACK!
Vorn hit bottom hard. He didn't know how long he lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness, his ribs felt cracked, one eye was swollen shut.
But the Gutterspawn hadn't followed him down, small mercies.
He rolled onto his side and coughed up blood.
"I can't keep doing this..."
The card lay beside him on the ground, silent now, Like it was satisfied with its meal of memories. He recalled it.
His glasses flickered back to life.
[HIDDEN ZONE REACHED: SEALED ENTRANCE CHAMBER]
[ENTITY APPROACHING...]
Vorn sat up fast, adrenaline cutting through the pain.
Footsteps, but not of monster footsteps - these sounded like boots on stone.
A flashlight beam sliced through the darkness, way too bright after all that time in the dark.
"Over here! I found someone!"
Voices, more than one, uniforms, masks, rifles. Each one marked with the Awakener Bureau crest.
"Is he alive?"
"Barely. He's bleeding from the nose, looks low-rank."
"Wait... is he even Awakened?"
They surrounded him in a circle.
One agent leaned down. "You. What's your name?"
Vorn opened his mouth, tasted blood.
"Vorn."
The agents looked at each other.
One stepped back and pressed something on his earpiece.
"We found another survivor. But he doesn't look Awakened."
Silence. Then:
[NEW TITLE UNLOCKED: VEILED NOIR]
[CLASS REGISTRATION: DENIED]
[CAUSE: AURA - NONE DETECTED]
Only Vorn heard the mechanical voice. One of the agents stared at him harder.
"This your first dungeon?"
"Yeah."
It wasn't exactly a lie, technically true.
They didn't believe him. Another agent raised a tablet and scanned him.
"No mana signature."
"Artifact user maybe?"
"Could be, bag him. HQ will want to run tests."
They grabbed him by both arms and dragged him out of the pit. Vorn didn't resist - partly because he couldn't, but mostly because something told him this was just the beginning.
'Besides, free medical treatment sounds pretty good right about now.'
He looked down. He could still feel the card, still pulsing with that weird warmth, like it knew him.
And in the corner of his glasses, a new notification appeared:
[CURRENT LEVEL: 1]
[EXP GAINED: 45/100]
[DROP ACQUIRED: GUTTERSPAWN BLOOD - RANK: MINOR]
[TITLE: VEILED NOIR]
[PATH: UNREADABLE]
The screen faded as they carried him toward whatever came next.
'At least I'm still alive, at least for now.'