Chapter 294: Ch 293: Your Mission - Part 3
Selene made it back to her base—an abandoned dungeon far from civilization, buried beneath the remnants of a long-forgotten city.
No one ca here anymore. The monsters were long dead, the loot pillaged, and the structure unstable.
But that made it perfect for her.
A place to disappear. A place to hide.
She walked slowly, dragging her feet. Her body ached from the fight, but more than that, she felt tired in her bones—exhausted in a way no rest could fix.
Once she reached the stone platform she used as a bed, she opened her system interface with a ntal flick.
[Progress Toward Awakening: 25%]
[Cores Consud: 12/1000]
[Status: Incomplete Evolution]
Her eyes narrowed at the percentage.
It felt impossibly small.
All those fights, all those swallowed cores—and she’d barely scratched the surface.
The mark on her arm pulsed faintly, reminding her again that the countdown had already started.
Selene let the system fade and collapsed onto the cold floor. Her breath fogged in the chilly air of the dungeon. Silence closed in around her, heavier than the stone walls.
’How long will I have to keep doing this?’
Her voice echoed softly off the cracked pillars, unanswered.
No one replied. Of course not.
She curled onto her side, staring at nothing, and closed her eyes.
anwhile, outside the dungeon, the world was far from quiet.
A governnt conference had been called—urgent and packed.
Inside the largest auditorium of the Capitol Sector, the top officials from the governnt, major guild leaders, and powerful independents were all seated in tense silence.
The absence at the head table was impossible to ignore.
Miss Shadow...or rather, Selene Vale’s seat remained empty.
Everyone noticed. No one ntioned it out loud.
The governnt, stripped of their silent protector, had started to panic.
Until Ethan stepped forward.
He didn’t take Selene’s seat. He stood just to the side of it, addressing the room with quiet authority.
"I’ll take responsibility until Miss Shadow returns—or until this is over—I’ll do what she would have done."
He said.
There were murmurs, questions, doubt. But no one challenged him. Not directly.
The eting’s first topic ca quickly.
The Dungeon Snatcher.
Representatives from the Silver Vanguard guild stood up. Their leader, a short, sharp-eyed woman nad Kalin, addressed the crowd.
"We were farming the boss room. Cleared most of the mobs. Then, boom. The whole dungeon collapsed. Core was gone. No boss. No loot. Nothing."
She said, arms crossed.
There was a beat of silence before soone from a smaller guild stood too.
"That happened to us three days ago!"
"And us, last week!"
"Sa here. We hadn’t even gotten to the mini-boss before it collapsed."
One by one, guild representatives began voicing similar experiences.
Dungeons closing early. Bosses vanishing. Cores missing. It was chaos.
"We thought it was system failure. Now we know—it’s soone stealing them."
One man said.
"But how? Even if soone clears a dungeon, the cooldown period should still lock others out. You’d need access inside the system to do sothing like this."
Another demanded.
"And who even has the power to solo a mid-tier dungeon? Let alone clear it in minutes."
"It’s a cheat,"
Soone muttered.
"No. It’s not a cheat. Whoever’s doing this is strong. Skilled. And probably acting alone."
Ethan said firmly. The room quieted.
Kalin scowled.
"And you’re not worried? Soone’s out there hunting cores faster than any guild, leaving nothing behind, and you’re just accepting it?"
"I never said I accepted it. I said I understand it."
Ethan said.
More murmurs.
Kalin stepped closer to the central dais.
"You know sothing, don’t you? You know who it is."
Ethan didn’t flinch.
His gaze swept the room. All eyes were on him.
"I have a suspicion. But until I know for sure, I’m not pointing fingers."
He said quietly.
A tense silence followed. Even the governnt officials leaned forward, waiting.
But Ethan said no more.
Kalin cursed under her breath and returned to her seat.
The conference descended into arguing—guilds blaming each other, small groups accusing the governnt of withholding secrets, independents making demands for greater access to dungeon zones.
The fragile cooperation that Selene had once held together now teetered on collapse.
Ethan watched it all with a grim expression, his mind already miles away.
The argunt dragged on for far too long.
Accusations were flying across the room like sparks from dry wood.
Every guild was pointing fingers, voices rising, tempers boiling over.
The governnt officials seated at the front tried to calm everyone down, but their words only added fuel to the fire.
"You should’ve had control over the dungeon rotation!"
"You promised stable system access!"
"Where’s Miss Shadow? Hiding now that things are falling apart?"
The mont that na was said aloud, Ethan’s expression shifted.
He stepped forward, raising a hand to speak, but his voice was drowned out by the roar of angry voices—leaders from small guilds blaming the big ones for hoarding resources, and larger guilds accusing each other of sabotage.
When one of the officials tried to speak again, demanding order, several guild mbers began yelling at him directly. The tide had turned.
The guilds weren’t just against each other—they were turning on the governnt.
Ethan didn’t wait another second.
His aura exploded outward, rippling through the room like a silent shockwave. It wasn’t a skill in the traditional sense—it was presence.
Pure, raw authority laced with power.
The room fell into a stunned, choking silence.
A few weaker guild leaders dropped to their knees under the pressure. Most froze in place, eyes wide, suddenly reminded of exactly who Ethan Roth was.
But not everyone submitted.
Several hotheaded individuals from the more militant guilds drew their weapons, attempting to break through Ethan’s pressure with force.
They activated their systems, skills flaring in desperation.
It didn’t work.
Ethan didn’t even flinch as their powers fizzled against the force of his aura. Within seconds, he had every would-be attacker slamd back into their seats, panting and disard.
And still, the tension lingered.
That was when Nora stood.
She slamd her fist into the table hard enough to crack the polished surface.
The sharp sound cut through the remaining whispers and muttering.
"Enough. This isn’t helping anyone. This isn’t fixing anything."
She said, eyes blazing.
The surrounding guild mbers went quiet, startled more by her anger than the outburst itself.
But a few weren’t willing to give her that respect.
"Tch. Of course you’d speak up. The Vale family’s falling apart and you’re scrambling to look important."
"Isn’t your father missing? You should be worrying about that instead of playing politics."
Laughter rippled through the room. Mocking. Cruel.
Nora t their gazes head-on, unfazed.
"The Vale family will not fall apart. Whether you believe it or not is irrelevant. We don’t need your approval, and we certainly don’t need your concern."
She said, her voice cold and controlled.
The mockery stopped.
Red-faced and silenced, her critics turned away.
Noah, seated beside her, gave her a subtle nod of support. Ethan took a step forward again, using the mont to regain control of the eting.
He spoke loud and clear.
"From this point on, every guild will report any case of premature dungeon collapse. If your team encounters anything unusual—missing cores, disappearing bosses, strange system errors—you docunt it and report it directly to the task force."
Murmurs of reluctant agreent rolled through the room.
"And if you encounter the dungeon snatcher, you do not engage unless necessary. Try to capture them alive. We need answers, not another dead end."
Ethan continued,
A few people grumbled under their breath, but the tension had deflated.
No one was willing to go against Ethan again so soon after that display of strength. Slowly, grudgingly, the eting began to wind down.
By the ti most of the guild leaders were filing out of the conference room, the atmosphere had changed.
There was still resentnt and suspicion, but the chaos had been contained—for now.
Ethan remained at the front, his arms crossed and eyes narrowed. He was already thinking several steps ahead when a familiar voice called out to him from the side.
"Got a mont?"
Ethan turned.
Solomon Kane approached, dressed in his usual sleek uniform, a sly smile tugging at his lips.
He was one of the few who hadn’t panicked during the argunt, quietly observing everything like a man who knew too much.
Ethan gave him a curt nod.
"What is it?"
Solomon’s smile widened slightly.
"Where’s Selene? And when are we launching the guild? You know we’re past the deadline."
Ethan exhaled slowly.
"She’s out on a mission."
Solomon raised an eyebrow.
"Still? That’s what you said last ti too."
"She’s doing sothing important. She gave
instructions before she left. We’re going to launch the guild without her. She wanted it that way."
Ethan said, his tone firm.
Solomon paused, thoughtful.
"You sure about that?"
"She trusted . That’s all I need."
Ethan said.
There was a mont of silence between them.
Then Solomon nodded, his expression unreadable.
"Alright. I’ll get things moving."
As Solomon walked away, Ethan looked back at Selene’s empty chair.
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