Word of Aria's involvement in Dungeon Exploration Team spread through the gathered Hunters faster than anyone at Unique had expected. By the time Jason and Aria arrived at the filming site, the whispers had already taken root, low murmurs passed between strangers who didn't bother lowering their voices."Reserve spot," one Hunter muttered to another, just loud enough to carry. "Desperate move if you ask me. Riding a viral clip won't save a sinking company.""She'll wash out in two episodes," the other replied, shaking his head. "Hunters who try this entertainment angle never last. They burn bright and disappear."A third voice joined in further down the line, someone Aria didn't recognize, his tone dripping with condescension. "Honestly, it's a little sad. The Great Mage, reduced to whatever this is. Should've stayed retired."Aria heard every word and kept her face perfectly still, though her jaw tightened just slightly. She'd grown used to this kind of treatment over the past three

The briefing room buzzed with restless energy, Hunters shuffling into rows of folding chairs while staff checked equipment and cameras adjusted their angles.Aria's seat at the reserve section sat conspicuously empty, drawing more attention with every passing minute than her actual presence ever could have."Where is she," one producer muttered, scanning his clipboard, tapping his pen against the edge in irritation."We're supposed to start the introductions in five minutes.""Maybe she chickened out," someone else offered, not bothering to hide the smirk in his voice. "Wouldn't be the first hunter to fold once the cameras actually showed up."Whispers rippled through the room, mocking speculation building on itself the way it always did when nobody had real information to work with.A few Hunters exchanged knowing glances, already constructing the narrative in their heads. The Great Mage, too afraid to face the lens after three years hiding from it. The story practically wrote itself

Aria reached her seat among the reserve Hunters and sat down as gracefully as the unfamiliar armor allowed, acutely aware of every eye still locked onto her.Her face had gone faintly pink the moment the doors closed behind her, embarrassment creeping up her neck despite her best efforts to appear composed, her hands folding tightly in her lap as though that might somehow make her smaller.The Hunter seated beside her, a woman with sharp eyes and an unreadable expression, leaned over slightly, her gaze sweeping the armor with open curiosity. "Bold choice for a comeback. Most people wouldn't risk looking ridiculous on national television.""It wasn't really my choice," Aria muttered, not quite meeting her gaze."Could've fooled me."Aria said nothing further, staring straight ahead at the staging area, mentally rehearsing every excuse she could offer if anyone asked her directly why she'd shown up looking like she'd walked off a game loading screen.She thought about the headlines that

The horde surged forward in a wave of claws and snarling mouths, dozens of creatures pressing into the narrow corridor at once, desperate to close the distance before Aria could organize any real defense. She didn't retreat a single step.She raised both hands, magic gathering at her fingertips in patterns the other Hunters had never seen, formulas that belonged to no circle based system taught anywhere on Earth. The spell she cast wasn't elegant or precise, deliberately oversized, far larger than the situation strictly required, the kind of brute overkill nobody trained in modern magic would have considered efficient.The ground in front of her split open in a massive trench, swallowing the charging horde whole, dozens of creatures tumbling into the gap before they could register what was happening. Dust and debris filled the corridor, the sound of furious shrieking echoing up from below as the trapped monsters clawed uselessly at the trench walls, unable to find purchase against t

A few days later, Ryan showed up at Unique's office, his right sleeve hanging empty where his arm used to be, the absence still raw enough that he flinched whenever someone glanced at it for too long.He found Jason in the back office, sitting behind a desk cluttered with documents, and stood awkwardly in the doorway for several seconds before forcing himself to speak."I wanted to apologize," Ryan said, his voice rougher than usual, the bravado that once defined him noticeably absent. "For everything. The hallway. Whatever I did to encourage what happened in that dungeon."Jason studied him for a long moment, gauging the sincerity behind the words, before gesturing toward the chair across from him. "Sit."Ryan sat, his missing arm a constant, visible reminder of everything that had gone wrong, the kind of reminder he clearly hadn't yet learned to live alongside comfortably. He kept glancing down at the empty sleeve, then forcing his eyes back up, as though still relearning how to e