Choi Kangmin arrived at the deepest route without fanfare.The first thing he saw was that the surroundings were very ruined.The stone corridor was torn apart, walls cracked open as if something massive had forced its way through. The air was heavy with unstable mana, thick enough that even breathing felt wrong.Then he saw the body.The Vice Guild Master lay collapsed near the center of the ruined passage, armor shattered, staff snapped in half beside him. His chest rose weakly, each breath shallow.Kangmin knelt immediately.“Check him,” he ordered, his voice calm but sharp.A healer rushed forward, hands glowing as she placed them over the Vice Guild Master’s chest. The seconds stretched painfully long.“He’s alive,” she said at last. “Unconscious. Severe mana depletion and internal damage.”A quiet exhale left Kangmin’s lips.Alive was enough.Then the dungeon reacted.The mana around them twisted violently, spiraling toward the darkness ahead. The ground trembled, small stones b

The three-headed beast convulsed violently.Kangmin’s blade was buried deep within the cracked center skull.Mana compressed around the sword, drilling through bone, through flesh, through the unstable current feeding it from below.The beast screamed.Flame shattered into sparks.Black decay dispersed into nothing.The crushing pressure collapsed all at once.Then the massive body split apart.A shockwave tore through the corridor.Hunters were thrown backward. Stone cracked. Dust filled the air.And then—Silence.The corpse disintegrated into ash.No regeneration.No pulse of mana.Nothing.Kangmin slowly pulled his blade free.Blood ran down his arm, but his breathing was steady.Footsteps echoed from behind.Lee Taeyun stepped into the ruined battlefield, aura restrained but ready.Their eyes met.“What are you doing here?” Kangmin asked.Lee scanned the surroundings in one sweep.“I felt a strong aura from outside,” he replied calmly. “It didn’t feel right. So I came back.”Kang

The humanoid vanished.Not forward.Not backward.Gone.Kangmin’s blade sliced through empty air where the servant had stood a moment ago. The momentum carried the strike forward, carving a clean arc through drifting dust and unstable mana.Lee Taeyun’s eyes narrowed.“…Wait.”Something felt wrong.Kangmin had already realized it.His gaze snapped toward the shattered corridor behind them.“…It’s not attacking us.”The realization struck too late.Far behind the battlefield, Jiwoo pressed himself against broken stone, his breathing shallow as the echoes of the clash faded into an uneasy silence.Then the air behind him twisted.The space bent inward like glass under pressure.A presence emerged from the distortion.Jiwoo’s blood ran cold.The humanoid servant stood only a few steps away.Its dark armor reflected faint fragments of light from the fractured dungeon walls. Black blood still ran down one arm where Kangmin’s blade had cut earlier, yet its posture remained calm.Observant.

The transition from the depths of a collapsing dungeon to the outside world was not a relief. It was a chaotic blur of noise, flashing lights, and suffocating tension.Sirens wailed in a deafening chorus across the cordoned-off perimeter. Overhead, the heavy thrum of media helicopters chopped through the night air, their piercing searchlights cutting through the thick clouds of dust billowing from the dungeon's entrance. Veilbound security personnel and emergency response teams panicked, struggling to maintain boundaries as the ground beneath them continued to shudder.Hunters stumbled out of the cavernous threshold, dragging the injured and carrying shattered weapons.But behind them, something abnormal was happening. The dungeon gate wasn't just closing; it was imploding. The massive stone archway warped inward like melting plastic, its spatial coordinates collapsing until the entire structure simply vanished into nothingness."The mana readings..." a technical handler stationed at t

Morning came quietly.Too quietly.Jiwoo stood in front of the bathroom mirror inside the temporary Veilbound residence, staring at his own reflection.Nothing looked different.Black hair slightly messy.Tired eyes.An ordinary seventeen-year-old student.Yet somewhere beyond the sky, beings powerful enough to destroy worlds had apparently noticed him.The thought felt absurd.Until he remembered the servant’s eyes.“…Confirmed.”Jiwoo shut the faucet tightly.The water dripping suddenly sounded unbearably loud.A knock echoed from outside his room.“Jiwoo.”Kangmin.Jiwoo immediately straightened himself. “Coming.”When he opened the door, Kangmin stood there already dressed in fresh black combat attire, his injuries hidden beneath a long coat. Only the faint stiffness in his movements revealed how severe the battle had actually been.“We’re leaving,” Kangmin said.Jiwoo blinked. “Leaving?”“The Association wants a direct statement.”Of course they did.A dungeon disappearing entire