The room was massive, like a cathedral hollowed out beneath the earth.
Arios stepped in slowly, each footstep echoing off the tal floor. The sound traveled unnaturally far before fading — the kind of acoustics that told him the walls weren’t ordinary stone. They had a faint tallic sheen, reinforced with mana circuits glowing faintly red along the seams. The light wasn’t steady; it pulsed like a heartbeat.
The pair of crimson eyes ahead flickered again.
A humanoid shape began to take form in the darkness. First the shoulders, then the arms — thick plates of armor materializing piece by piece, the faint hiss of steam rising as the figure solidified.
When the last layer locked into place, Arios found himself standing before sothing almost twice his height. It wasn’t a human. It was a golem — the kind used as dungeon gatekeepers for testing upperclassn. But this one looked... wrong. Its plating was blackened in patches, its arm chanisms jittered slightly, and parts of its internal runes were flickering erratically.
Arios’ system displayed a flickering readout.
[Boss Entity: Corrupted Sentinel]
[Rank: B]
[Status: Unstable]
He rolled his wrist once and adjusted his stance. "Figures. Tampering wasn’t just outside."
The golem raised its head. Its voice ca out chanical, layered, and fragnted.
"IDENTITY—UNREGISTERED. ACCESS LEVEL—VIOLATION. TERMINATE—SUBJECT."
Arios exhaled. "Great. It talks."
The golem’s chest cavity glowed red before a surge of compressed mana burst outward. The shockwave shattered the frost across the floor, sending shards spinning. Arios braced his arms, shielding his face from the debris, then darted left as a tallic fist crashed down where he had stood.
The impact cratered the floor.
He didn’t waste ti — he darted forward and struck the arm joint, his wooden sword glowing faintly with blue mana. The impact made the golem’s arm twitch violently, but its balance barely shifted. It turned toward him, faster than he expected.
He dropped low, swept under its next swing, and slamd his weapon against its knee joint.
Sparks scattered.
The golem’s leg bent inward slightly. Not enough to collapse it, but enough to slow it down.
[System Notice: Combat Data Recording Initiated]
[Sub Quest: Neutralize the Corrupted Sentinel]
"Of course," he muttered, eyes narrowing.
anwhile, in another section of the dungeon, Lucy slamd her palms against the map projection. "He’s been static in one zone for too long. What’s he doing?"
Liza glanced over. "Probably fighting. The dungeon registered a combat-tier mana surge from his sector two minutes ago."
"Then what are we doing standing here?" Lucy said sharply. "We can’t just—"
Pokner cut in, steady as ever. "We don’t move until we have the coordinates confird. If we get split again, it’ll only make things worse."
Lucy gritted her teeth. "You’re too calm about this."
"I trust him," Pokner replied simply. "You should too."
Lucy sighed, pacing again, her tone dropping to a mutter. "It’s not about trust. It’s about... I don’t like sitting still."
Liza’s eyes stayed on the map, tracing the distortions. "The interference zone is pulsing. Whatever’s tampering with the dungeon, it’s focused there. If Arios disables it—"
"Then we can reach him," Pokner finished, adjusting the dial on the runic scanner. "Exactly."
Lucy bit her lip, forced herself to nod. "Fine. But the mont we have a signal, I’m running ahead."
Pokner smirked faintly. "I’d expect nothing less."
Back in the chamber, the fight continued in steady rhythm.
Arios shifted aside again, narrowly dodging a burst of mana cannon fire from the golem’s chest. The blast hit the wall, leaving a molten mark where the runes flickered and died. He countered by channeling mana through his legs and leaping forward, striking at the core directly beneath the golem’s armor plate.
The sound of tal cracking echoed.
The golem staggered back, its systems spasming. Red sparks danced across its armor. Arios didn’t stop — he pressed the advantage, moving faster, striking with controlled precision. Each blow was asured. No wasted motion.
Then the golem suddenly stopped moving.
Arios froze mid-step, his weapon raised.
It stood still for several seconds. The red glow in its chest dimd, and its eyes flickered weakly.
He waited. Sothing wasn’t right.
[Warning: System Instability Increasing.]
[Caution: Core Overload Detected.]
He tensed. "...You’ve got to be kidding ."
The golem’s chest flared violently. Its voice broke into static.
"ERROR—ERROR—PURGE—INITIATED—"
The ground beneath him began to shake. Mana surged through the room in chaotic patterns. The red circuits along the walls started turning white-hot.
He jumped back, throwing up a mana barrier as a massive explosion of raw energy burst from the golem’s core. The entire room flooded with light.
When it cleared, Arios was crouched behind his raised arm, his uniform slightly scorched at the edges. His ears rang.
He blinked once to clear his vision — then saw that the golem wasn’t destroyed.
It was mutating.
The plating along its body had lted and re-solidified into jagged spikes. Its movents had beco erratic, twitchy. One arm was now a bladed limb. The other dragged against the floor, leaving molten streaks.
[Corruption Level: 78%]
[Threat Assessnt: Increasing]
"Perfect," Arios muttered dryly. "Just what I needed."
He stepped sideways as the mutated golem lunged. The sound was deafening. He blocked the first swing, then ducked under the second. His counterattack struck its torso, splintering one of the glowing lines. The creature roared, a sound like tal scraping glass.
For a brief mont, the whole chamber trembled again. A pulse wave ran across the floor — a signal ant for sothing deeper in the dungeon. Arios didn’t catch it, but his system did.
[Alert: Signal emission detected.]
[Possible external trigger.]
So, it was calling sothing — or soone.
He grimaced and kept fighting.
Minutes turned into an hour.
The fight wasn’t flashy; it was technical, repetitive, and grueling. Each motion wore down both the golem and himself. But Arios had endurance. Calm, chanical focus. He used the repetition to study the rhythm, timing every parry and counter.
Finally, he saw the opening — a flicker in its core alignnt, visible for only a heartbeat.
He stepped in and slamd his weapon directly into that point, pouring all his remaining mana into the strike.
The sound was sharp — tal cracking, then shattering.
The golem froze mid-motion, its head lowering slightly.
Then it collapsed, the red glow fading entirely. The room fell silent.
Arios straightened, his breath steady. His uniform was torn at the edges, his mana reserves low, but his posture remained composed. He looked at the fallen golem for a mont, then his system chid.
[System Notice: Sub Quest Complete — Corrupted Sentinel Neutralized.]
[Experience Gained.]
[Special Flag Triggered: "Interference Node"]
He frowned. "Flag?"
The ground behind the golem shifted. A small panel slid open in the wall, revealing a glowing core — pulsing faintly blue.
He approached carefully and examined it. The core was spherical, encased in glass, with thin black wires leading upward into the ceiling.
When he touched it, the system reacted again.
[External Device Identified: Unauthorized Data Relay]
[Origin: Unknown]
[Trace Initiated.]
He waited as the display flickered, tracing streams of code-like text.
[Trace Complete: 43%]
[User Signature Detected — CHASE LEXON.]
Arios’ eyes narrowed.
He whispered to himself, "So it was him."
anwhile, Lucy’s scanner beeped.
"I’ve got movent!" she said, jolting upright. "His signal’s back!"
Pokner’s eyes lit up slightly. "Finally."
Liza was already reconfiguring the map. "He’s on the central grid — coordinates forty-six delta. That’s not supposed to exist."
Lucy didn’t even wait. "I’m going."
Pokner grabbed her shoulder. "Wait. The field’s unstable. If the core’s been disturbed—"
"Then he needs backup," Lucy interrupted. "We’ve wasted enough ti."
Liza muttered sothing under her breath but nodded, grabbing her staff. "She’s right. The readings are fluctuating fast. If we don’t move, he’ll get trapped again when the system resets."
Pokner sighed, packed her tools, and followed. "Fine. Just don’t run ahead this ti."
Lucy smirked faintly. "No promises."
Back in the chamber, Arios had just finished disabling the device. He knelt and pried out one of the dark wires, letting the mana drain out slowly. As the glow faded, the entire dungeon seed to exhale — the vibration that had been constant in the background slowly quieted.
He stood, checking his interface again.
[Field Stabilization: 62% and rising.]
[Signal Link: Restored.]
He nodded once, then spoke quietly. "System, open team comms."
Static, then— "Arios! Are you okay?!"
Lucy’s voice ca through first, slightly distorted.
"I’m fine," he said. "I found the source of the problem. It was external interference — soone injected unauthorized relay nodes into the dungeon field."
Pokner’s voice followed. "Can you trace it?"
"I already did," he replied. "And I’ve got a na."
"Who?" Lucy asked.
Arios looked toward the now-dark core. "Chase Lexon."
There was silence for several seconds.
Then Pokner’s tone shifted — calm, analytical. "That’s serious."
"Yeah," Arios said quietly. "It ans this wasn’t a random malfunction. He was testing sothing — maybe trying to isolate ."
Lucy’s voice was sharp again. "He’s crossed a line."
"Don’t jump ahead," Arios said firmly. "We’ll handle it through the proper channel."
She exhaled hard, but didn’t argue.
He glanced around once more, noting the faintly glowing runes beginning to fade. The door on the opposite side of the chamber was slowly opening now that the guardian was gone.
"et on the next floor," he said. "We regroup there and report this."
Pokner replied simply, "Understood."
The connection cut.
Arios stepped through the gate, into the next corridor, the faint sound of machinery still humming above. The light dimd again, returning to the dungeon’s usual calm atmosphere.
He could finally breathe properly.
But even as he walked, his mind was still processing the trace log in his interface.
[Trace Signature: Confird — Chase Lexon]
[Evidence Stored.]
He closed the display and muttered under his breath.
"This isn’t over."
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