Kaelen stumbled out of the underground tunnel, filthy, bleeding, and pissed off. He didn’t stop running until the damp air of the surface hit his lungs. Behind him, the Ghoul Nest was in chaos—hundreds of those ugly things crawling out from cracks and shadows like a flood of nightmares.They weren’t dangerous. Just annoying.It wasn’t like Kaelen couldn’t wipe them out if he wanted to. He just didn’t see the point. The nest had been found, job done. Grinding inside that cramped hellhole for a bit of XP? Waste of time. At level 12, those level-12 ghouls barely gave him anything anymore.If he wanted real progress, he needed tougher prey. Monsters stronger than him—two levels up, minimum. That’s where the real growth was.He finally stopped once the boundary faded behind him. The ghouls hissed after him, a few dragging their rotting feet a little too far, but after ten meters, they gave up. They stood there snarling, yellow eyes glowing in the dark, before retreating into their pit like

In the last hours of the double-vote event, even the undead could use a little support. Brothers and sisters, don’t forget to show some love.Kaelen didn’t bother with subtlety. He grabbed the warrior-class adventurer and shoved a bottle of potion into his mouth. No warning, no finesse—just brute force. He tilted the man’s jaw open and pressed the bottle in until it fit.The green liquid trickled slowly, filling the warrior’s mouth. When the bottle was empty, Kaelen flicked it aside. It sailed across the courtyard and smashed against the stones, shards scattering like tiny glass meteors.Even in his daze, the warrior coughed violently. The harshness of Kaelen’s handling left him reeling.“Cough… cough… cough…”The sounds rang out, ragged and endless. Kaelen didn’t move. He waited. The potion took hold. After a tense minute, the warrior’s body began to straighten. Calmly, Kaelen lifted a jug of water and dumped it over the man’s head.“Shhhhhh…”Cold water slammed down, drenching him.

Warm sunlight draped itself over the front gates of Purple Thorn Castle, turning the old stone a soft gold. It looked peaceful—almost cozy, honestly—which really didn’t match the mess happening underneath it.Black-lined snakes lay everywhere, limp and piled up like someone had tossed a bunch of dead ropes across the ground. And beyond them? Adventurers. A lot of them. They stood in a wide half-circle around the gate, each claiming their own little bubble of space. The whole area buzzed with voices, arguments, and the kind of irritated mumbling you hear when a crowd’s been waiting way too long.“Where’s Kaelen? Didn’t he say he’d show up right here, today?”The guy shouting was a walking slab of muscle. His armor looked like it was one flex away from exploding off his body. He crossed his arms, veins bulging, eyes flashing like he was seconds from throwing someone through a wall.“You spread the word,” he growled at a much smaller warrior. “If Kaelen doesn’t show, you’d better have a

The summer sun spilled over everything like molten gold, scattering light across the day in shimmering waves. Even the quiet, sorrowful corners of the world seemed touched by warmth.Above, the sky stretched endlessly, deep blue and infinite. A single white cloud floated like a lone sail on a turquoise sea, its edges glowing gold as if stitched by some celestial hand.At the gates of Purple Thorn Castle, the adventurers froze. Kaelen was charging straight at them. Every eye tracked him. Every mind thought the same thing: he’s lost it. Even Shia and the others, stationed at a distance, gasped at the sight. But nobody cared about them. Kaelen had everyone’s full attention.“He’s asking to die,” one adventurer muttered, his voice low.“Exactly! Let him!” the level-15 warrior who’d already lost an arm to Kaelen bellowed, twisted joy lacing his shout.“Insane… completely insane. Who does he think he is, charging all of us alone?” another sneered, disbelief etched on his face.“Bold… maybe

The sudden, brutal chaos right outside the Purple Thorn Castle gates finally died down. Thank the gods. For Kaelen, it wasn't just a fight; it was a cold, efficient win. He'd used the sheer, terrifying power of those black-lined snakes not just to send a mob scattering, but to completely wipe out the majority of the petty mercenaries and greedy fools who had been eyeing the Divine Artifact. Honestly, seeing that mass of writhing venom and death—a truly sickening sight—must have etched a lesson deep into the minds of the few survivors. Kaelen was absolutely convinced: hardly anyone would be crazy enough to challenge him or the memory of those snakes again.There was just one thing bugging him, though: Greg was nowhere to be seen. In his personal blacklist of enemies in Faust, Greg’s name sat right at the top, along with the one-armed warrior. That guy had been a real pain, a recurring thorn in Kaelen’s side. Thankfully, Theron, another nuisance from the past, was already dead. So, the e