Chapter 162: Dungeon [6]
The silence in the central chamber was absolute, a heavy blanket pressed down where a storm of light and mana had raged moments before.
The only sound was my own ragged breathing, each gasp echoing too loudly in the vast, empty vault.
I was on my hands and knees, my forehead pressed against the cold, reflective black stone. My entire body felt like it had been struck by a high-speed train.
A dull, pounding throb pulsed behind my eyes, the familiar and agonizing signature of spatial magic backlash.
Blood dripped slowly from my nose onto the floor, the metallic tang thick in my mouth. My mana core felt less like a reservoir and more like a shriveled, aching void.
But I'm alive.
The thought was a defiant spark in a sea of exhaustion. I'd faced a B-Rank construct, a guardian of light, and won.
It was a victory won by a razor's edge of calculation, a desperate gamble that had pushed my E+ body and unrefined affinities far beyond their breaking point.
