The air inside the gate was heavy, burning Aryan's throat with the stench of sulfur and ash. The dungeon's stone walls pulsed like veins, faint light seeping through their cracks.
Liana raised her staff, summoning a hovering blue flame. "Be careful. Dungeons are alive. They can shift, close, or even swallow hunters whole."
Their footsteps echoed. Shadows crawled along the walls, breathing, moving on their own.
The system chimed:
> [Dungeon Status: Active.]
[Objective: Survive the First Floor.]
Aryan gritted his teeth, hand gripping the half-glitched sword. The blade flickered with unstable light.
A guttural growl rose from the darkness. A wolf-like beast, its body bound with broken chains and its eyes burning red, emerged from the void.
Liana whispered, "A Shadowbound Wolf… that's a level 10 monster!"
The beast lunged, shattering the wall as it struck. Aryan raised his blade, and the system screamed:
> [Skill Activated: Glitch Strike Lv.1]
The sword trembled, glitching with jagged streams of light. His strike tore through the wolf's chains, sending it crashing to the ground with a furious howl.
Aryan gasped, trembling. "This power… I can't control it!"
"Don't control it!" Liana shouted. "Let it flow!"
The wolf rose again, its eyes glowing even brighter. Aryan stepped back, then roared as he swung his sword down.
A blast of golden and azure light consumed the hall.
Silence.
When the smoke cleared, the wolf was gone. Only a fragment of its cursed chains hovered in the air before fusing into Aryan's hand.
> [Item Acquired: Cursed Chain Fragment]
Aryan staggered for breath. The walls rumbled around them.
Liana's face went pale. "That was just the gatekeeper…"
— To be continued —