"Formation! Don't let them surround us!"
Shouts echoed through the cavern as beams of lantern light flickered against jagged stone. The air was thick with the smell of damp rock and fresh blood. Dozens of hunters clashed with a swarm of creatures — twisted abominations with crooked limbs and jagged teeth.
Among them fought **Kael Ardyn**, clutching a rusty short sword. His grip trembled as he swung, the blade barely grazing a monster's hide. His breath came in ragged gasps, his heart pounding like a war drum.
"Damn it, Kael! Stay out of the way if you're just going to be useless!" a guild member barked before shoving him aside.
Kael bit his lip, shame stinging deeper than the monsters' claws. He was an **E-Rank nobody**, the weakest of the weak — here only because the guild needed bodies to fill their numbers.
But numbers meant nothing here.
The deeper they ventured, the stranger the dungeon became. Symbols pulsed faintly on the walls, glowing like veins of fire, and the creatures grew unnaturally strong.
Then the ground shuddered.
At the far end of the hall, a massive stone door etched with ancient runes rumbled open. A frigid wind poured out, carrying with it a suffocating aura that froze every hunter in place.
Kael's voice cracked in a whisper. "What… is this place?"
Inside loomed an enormous chamber. Statues of armored warriors stood lined against the walls, their stone eyes glowing faintly in the shadows. At the center, upon a throne, rested a colossal figure — a giant statue gripping a greatsword.
The stone door slammed shut behind them.
Panic spread. "It's a trap!"
Cracks split the silence. Dust rained down as the statues stirred, stepping down from their pedestals. Their eyes flared red. Weapons lifted.
Then, they attacked.
The chamber erupted in chaos. Screams echoed as hunters were struck down like insects. Kael stumbled, barely dodging a massive blade that cleaved the air where his head had been a second earlier. He crawled behind a broken pillar, his entire body shaking.
*I'm going to die… I'm really going to die here.*
Blood trickled from a cut along his arm. His vision blurred. Around him, comrades fell one after another. No escape. No hope.
And just as his strength began to fade—
**DING!**
A cold, mechanical voice rang in his head.
> \[System Detected.
> User: Kael Ardyn.
> Awakening Sequence Initiated.]
Kael's eyes widened in shock. "System…? What's happening to me?"
The dungeon itself trembled as though in response. The statues closed in, weapons gleaming under the faint light.
But for the first time in his life, Kael felt something ignite deep inside him—
a spark, raw and fierce.
The beginning of power.
⚡ **End of Chapter 1** ⚡