2025-04-08 20:16:39Leo walked with calculative steps, his grip tight around the hilt of his light dagger. Before him stretched a gaping, worm-like tunnel, wide and pulsating faintly with an unnatural energy. The air felt colder the closer he got to it, as if the tunnel exhaled death itself. He paused at the entrance, his eyes narrowing at the darkness that stretched downward in a spiral.
"If this is the second floor," he muttered, "then it's probably ten times worse than the last."
Every sense screamed caution, but Leo knew he had no choice. The mission must be completed—and besides, that damn internal backlash wasn't going to give him much of a break. He tiptoed forward, dagger poised, feet silent against the stone.
The walls shimmered faintly with embedded stones—some dull, others glowing faintly with colors ranging from icy blue to pale green. As he walked deeper, he noticed the luminous stones were getting smaller.
"Wouldn't hurt to take a few," he muttered, reaching up to pry three larger stones from the wall. He weighed them in his hand. "Might be worth something."
But then he frowned. "Where the hell do I keep these? I can’t carry them forever."
Ding!
[System Notification: Host has access to a Personal Vault. All non-consumable items may be stored safely.]
Leo smirked. "About damn time you said something useful. Store stones."
The stones glowed and vanished into digital particles before disappearing into the air. The tunnel was darker now without them, but he pressed on.
Five steps further, a noise stopped him cold.
SSSSLLLRK—SSHHH—SSSSSSK—
Slithering. Multiple. Quick. Close.
Ding!
[WARNING: Multiple Nightscale Crawlers detected ahead.]
[Objective: Eliminate all Nightscale Crawlers to unlock floor access.]
[Reward: +1 Stat Point | Night Hunter Passive Skill Scroll | 100 EXP]
Leo clenched his dagger and cursed. "Couldn't be something that sleeps peacefully, huh?"
From the shadows ahead, the beasts emerged—dozens of them. Each crawler was nearly the length of his torso, sleek and pitch black with reflective scales. Their mouths split open vertically, revealing rows of shimmering, curved fangs. Neon green venom dripped from their fangs onto the floor, burning small holes in the stone.
The first one lunged.
Leo sidestepped, slashing down with his dagger, but the crawler twisted midair and slithered up the wall like a serpent. Another came from behind, and another from the side. He barely parried one before being knocked to the floor by another.
His back hit the ground hard, the air rushing from his lungs. A crawler leapt at his face—he rolled and stabbed blindly, feeling his blade sink into something soft.
Screeeee!
The creature screamed and convulsed before bursting into a sickly green mist.
Leo scrambled to his feet, breathing hard. "They're coordinated... dammit."
He slashed, dodged, ducked—one cut across his arm made him hiss in pain. The venom from the tip of a fang grazed him, and his muscles spasmed slightly.
"One more hit and I’m toast..." he muttered.
They were too many. He couldn't keep up. His lungs burned. His dagger felt heavier with every swing. A crawler sank its fangs into his boot—he screamed and kicked wildly, stabbing down.
[HP Critical.]
[Vital Signs Unstable.]
"Is this it?! Is this where I die?!" he yelled through clenched teeth.
Ding!
[Emergency Protocol Activated. Temporary Skill Awakened: Arc Spark Blade]
[Duration: 3 Minutes. Cooldown: 24 Hours.]
Suddenly, Leo’s dagger pulsed with electric blue energy. Sparks danced along the blade, crackling in the silence.
He blinked. "Whoa. This—this feels—"
He didn't finish. A crawler sprang at him, but Leo swung the now-sparking dagger. The blade slashed through the air—and the creature exploded into ash, its body disintegrating with a shriek.
He didn’t hesitate.
With a feral roar, Leo spun into motion, his limbs fueled by adrenaline and the strange energy. Each strike was followed by a burst of electricity that burned through the creatures. Their shrieks echoed like dying sirens.
One leapt from above. Leo twisted, impaling it mid-air. Another crawled along the wall. He threw the dagger like a javelin—crackling energy split the tunnel and the crawler combusted mid-crawl.
"Come on! Who’s next?!" he screamed.
He slashed. Sprinted. Jumped. Rolled. He became a blur of motion, a deadly force of light and sound.
And then...
Silence.
The tunnel was littered with burnt scales and twitching remains.
Leo panted, falling to one knee.
[All Beasts Eliminated. Objective Complete.]
[Reward Unlocked.]
[+1 Stat Point Earned.]
[Item Received: Night Hunter Passive Skill Scroll]
[EXP Gained: 100. Level Progress: 100/200]
Leo stared at the notifications, then at his shaking hands. The light from the Arc Spark Blade faded, and the dagger returned to its normal, dull glow.
He exhaled deeply. "I... actually survived."
He wiped blood and grime from his face and looked around.
"System... show me the scroll."
[Item: Night Hunter Passive Skill Scroll]
[Effect: Increases visibility in low-light environments, boosts evasion against dark-aligned creatures by 15%. Permanent once activated.]
Leo grinned. "I’ll take it. Activate."
The scroll disintegrated in his hand, the energy seeping into his skin. His eyes shimmered briefly before returning to normal.
[Skill Acquired: Night Hunter (Passive)]
He leaned against the wall, finally able to breathe without fear of being attacked.
And just as he started to rest...
The ground beneath him shook.
KRUMMMM—
From the darkness ahead, a larger presence stirred.
Ding!
[Warning: Mid-Boss Creature Approaching. Prepare for Battle.]
Leo’s grin faded.
"You’ve got to be freaking kidding me."
He stood up, wiped his dagger clean, and squared his shoulders.
"Alright, bring it on. If I’m gonna die, I’m taking something ugly with me."
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 45: Dressed in comedy
Chapter 45: Dressed for DisasterBack in the city—The room was cloaked in luxury, the kind that carried danger in its perfume. The long glass windows reflected the city skyline, and at the head of the oval table sat a woman in crimson heels and a tailored black suit. Her manicured nails drummed rhythmically against the surface as her voice—low, smooth, and lethal—cut through the silence.“So,” she began, her words dripping like venom, “the person who dares to stress my dearest nephew… was an E-class hunter? Not even a C-class?”Kael swallowed hard, his back straight but his spine cold. “Y-yes, Aunt.”The woman—Therese Valtoria, one of the most feared guild executives in the continent—slowly rose from her chair. Her movements were deliberate, feline. “Well, well, well…” she murmured. “Should I be disappointed… or enraged?”Kael’s heart raced. He wasn’t sure which answer would spare him, so he did what he did best—he improvised. “Aunt, he isn’t a normal E-class hunter!”Therese raised
Chapter 44: Tea party of doom
The moment they stepped into the tower, silence swallowed them whole.The air inside was heavy — thick with dust, heat, and the metallic tang of blood. The first floor stretched before them like a battlefield long abandoned. The flickering red runes on the walls cast distorted shadows across the piles of corpses — the slain maws of the tower.Their bulbous bodies lay scattered like deflated carcasses, their mouths gaping wide even in death, fangs frozen mid-snarl. Steam still rose faintly from a few of them.Tessa stopped short. “By the Ancients…” she whispered. “Did he… do all this?”Dean’s boots crunched lightly over a trail of dried ichor. His expression didn’t change, but his eyes took everything in — the placement of each corpse, the clean slices, the patterns of impact across the stones.Rurik whistled low. “Well, the kid’s got guts — and apparently, skill to back it up.” He kicked one of the corpses lightly, its gelatinous body collapsing inward with a sickening squelch. “Damn.
Chapter 43: Alive
The tower loomed against the bleeding dusk like a dagger stabbed into the world with its black stone gleaming faintly under the crimson sky. Mist swirled around its base, alive with whispering echoes. Every few minutes, a strange pulse shivered through the air as if the tower itself was breathing.Tessa paced near the ridge, her cloak whipping behind her as she muttered under her breath. “He’s been gone too long,” she said for the tenth time, her eyes darting between the trembling horizon and the tower’s glowing entrance. “It’s been hours. What if something happened to him?”Rurik, leaning lazily against a half-fallen pillar, grunted. “You’re talking about that guy again? The one who just walked in without backup?” He snorted. “Then yeah, something probably did happen to him. Like, oh, I don’t know, maybe death by stupidity.”“Rurik!” Tessa snapped, glaring at him. “He went in alone. You saw what we all experienced the last time we tried that!”Rurik shrugged. “Yeah. And I saw how w
Chapter 42: Next level
The air was thick with blood.It wasn’t just the smell, it was in the walls, the floor, the sound. The entire chamber pulsed like a living wound.Leo swung his blade, teeth gritted, as the Corruption Warden lunged again. The thing looked like it had once been human—a hulking knight now fused with black armor that oozed like tar. Its sword was jagged bone, dripping with crimson energy that hissed whenever it hit the air.“Stay down, damn it!” Leo snarled, parrying the monster’s downward strike. Sparks spat as metal screamed against bone. The impact forced him back, his boots scraping over slick stone.Mira darted around his shoulder, glowing with frantic blue light. “You call that staying down? That thing’s regenerating faster than your brain cells!”“Not helping, Mira!”The Warden’s helmet twitched, letting out a growl that sounded more like a dying cathedral’s bell than a voice. It swung again. Leo ducked, rolled, and barely avoided the blade as it sliced a stone pillar in half like p
Chapter 41: Crimson sand
The light consumed them, dragging them upward as the world faded once more.When the glow dimmed, Leo blinked and immediately regretted it.The floor beneath him was slick and crimson, not with carpet or stone—but with dried, flaking blood. The air reeked of rust and something sweeter like decay masked by perfume. The walls stretched high, forming a massive circular coliseum. Cracked pillars jutted from the ground, and faint silhouettes—like afterimages of long-dead warriors—stood frozen mid-battle, half-formed and fading with each breath of the wind.Mira floated out of the ring, looking around. “Okay. Creepy points: ten out of ten. Smells like someone murdered a perfume shop.”Leo wrinkled his nose. “You’re not wrong. Smells like death… and regret.”The system chimed:[Welcome to Floor 3 – The Crimson Arena][Objective: Cleanse the Arena of Remaining Corruption][Bonus Reward: ???]“‘Remaining corruption,’” Leo muttered. “So… clean-up duty. Great.”The echo of his voice bounced back,
Chapter 40: The tower’s bad sense of humor
Leo flopped onto the cold stone floor, panting like he’d just wrestled a mountain. The boss’s carcass—a grotesque mashup of centipede legs, knight armor, and bad life choices—was already dissolving into black dust. His sword hand trembled as he raised it in mock victory.“Finally,” he wheezed, raising both arms dramatically. “I’m alive. I’m actually—”Mira’s disembodied voice cut through his celebration like an overcritical gym trainer. “I don’t think you should rest though. You’re short on time, you’ve got four NPCs to heal, and—oh yeah—you need to survive a night in whatever horror zone that place was.”Leo groaned and let his arms flop down. “You know, Mira, for someone who technically lives rent-free in my jewelry, you’re awfully demanding.”“I call it moral support,” she said sweetly. “You should try it sometime.”Leo sat up, wiping sweat from his forehead. “Moral support doesn’t usually come with emotional damage.”Before Mira could respond, a low rumble vibrated beneath him. Th
You may also like
The Clan Head System.
Great49.5K viewsUnparalleled Demon System: Tales of the Lost Demon
Dark Crafter20.7K viewsThe Ultimate Man
M. K. Diana69.7K viewsSecretly Godly
Chessman78.8K viewsWARSAW-the sons of war
Scenario4.9K viewsParallel System
titiksua7.1K viewsTHE GREATEST REVENGER SYSTEM
MELODEAROSE1.4K viewsDemonic System: Harem in Medieval World
Kiyen12.5K views