The sun was setting, painting the sky in bruises of purple and orange.
Riku Kamishiro paced back and forth near the dungeon entrance, his boots kicking up dust. He checked his monocle for the hundredth time. The mana readings from inside the cave were erratic—spikes of "Active" radiation followed by strange, deep lulls.
"It's breathing," Riku muttered to himself, tapping the side of his device. "The whole mountain is breathing like a sick animal."
He didn't like it. He didn't like that his classmates had been down there for six hours. He didn't like that the ground was vibrating at a frequency that suggested massive structural shifts deep underground.
Then, the heavy iron gate of the elevator shaft rattled.
Riku stopped pacing. "Finally."
The gears groaned, pulling the cage up from the abyss. Riku adjusted his monocle, expecting to see Ren's messy hair or Daigo's stupid grin. He expected to see them battered, maybe complaining about the smell, but safe.
The gate clattered open.
Riku's stomach dropped.
It wasn't the students.
Vance stepped out, looking like he had just run a marathon. Behind him, five mercenaries dragged the unconscious body of Grog. They were moving fast, their eyes darting around like thieves leaving a crime scene.
They were alone.
Riku froze behind a cluster of supply crates. His mind, usually a chaotic storm of equations and variables, suddenly went deadly quiet.
Variable A: The Mercenaries are here. Variable B: The Students are not. Variable C: Grog is incapacitated.
Conclusion: Abandonment.
"Move it," Vance hissed to his men, checking his watch. "Get to the wagon. We stash the crystals, we leave Grog at the nearest healer in the village, and we disappear before the Royals ask questions."
"What about the kids?" one of the men whispered, looking back at the dark tunnel.
"Forget them," Vance snapped. "They wanted to play hero. Let them rot."
Riku felt a cold spike of rage pierce through his fear.
He left them.
Riku didn't confront them. He knew his stats. Strength: 4. Agility: 5. If he stepped out now, Vance would just put a bolt through his chest and claim a monster did it. Riku was a genius, not a fighter.
He turned and sprinted.
He ran toward the white tents erected at the edge of the forest—the Royal Encampment.
Sir Caelric Valdorn stood in the center of the camp, his arms crossed over his chest. He wasn't wearing his helmet. His face was a map of scars, his eyes the color of steel. He stood perfectly still, like a statue carved from war itself.
"Captain!"
Riku crashed through the bushes, gasping for air, his glasses askew.
"Riku Kamishiro," Valdorn didn't turn. His voice was a deep rumble. "You are hyperventilating. Report."
"They're... they're back," Riku wheezed, pointing toward the dungeon entrance. "The Iron Hounds. They came up alone. They left Ren. They left everyone!"
The ambient noise of the camp—knights sharpening swords, squires tending horses—stopped instantly.
Valdorn slowly turned his head. His expression didn't change, but the air around him suddenly felt heavier. The pressure was physical. Riku felt the gravity increase, forcing his knees to buckle.
"Alone?" Valdorn asked softly.
"Vance is trying to run," Riku managed to say, fighting the pressure. "He's heading for the forest road."
Valdorn closed his eyes.
He didn't use a skill. He didn't look at a map. He simply extended his senses.
To Riku, it felt like a wind had picked up. But to Valdorn, the world became a web of mana signatures. He felt the dying, chaotic energy of the dungeon. He felt the frantic, fearful heartbeats of three men moving rapidly through the treeline, two kilometers away.
"Found you," Valdorn whispered.
He opened his eyes.
"Stay here," he ordered the knights.
Then, he vanished.
It wasn't teleportation. It was pure, terrifying physical speed. The ground where Valdorn had been standing exploded, kicking up a cloud of dirt. A shockwave rippled through the tents.
By the time Riku blinked, the Captain was a blur on the horizon.
"Follow him!" Riku screamed at the stunned knights. "Go!"
[Location: The Forest Road - 2 Kilometers Away]
Riku arrived five minutes later, his lungs burning. He found the knights standing in a circle, their hands on their hilts, watching the scene in silence.
Vance was on the ground.
The mercenary lieutenant wasn't dead, but he wished he was. His crossbow was snapped in half. His nose was broken, and his left leg was bent at an unnatural angle. The other five mercenaries were face-down in the dirt, groaning, their hands behind their heads in surrender.
Grog lay nearby, still unconscious, untouched.
Standing over Vance was Sir Caelric Valdorn. The Captain hadn't drawn his sword. He didn't need to.
"Please!" Vance blubbered, blood bubbling from his mouth. He reached into his pouch and pulled out a handful of glowing blue stones. "Take them! Azure Crystals! Pure mana! They're worth a fortune! Enough to buy a castle!"
Valdorn looked at the crystals as if they were gravel. He stepped on Vance's wrist.
CRUNCH.
"GAAAAH!" Vance screamed, the crystals scattering into the mud.
"I do not care about rocks," Valdorn said, his voice calm and terrifyingly devoid of anger. "I asked you a question, mercenary. Where. Are. My. Students."
"They wouldn't come!" Vance sobbed, clutching his shattered wrist. "I swear! The big one... the Guild Master... he got poisoned! We had to evacuate! The kids... they insisted on staying! They wanted to go back down!"
"Back down?" Valdorn's eyes narrowed. "Why?"
"Three of them ran off! Into the West Tunnel! The nest!" Vance cried, spit flying from his mouth. "But it wasn't just the monsters, Captain! You should have seen them! The Paladin—Reiji—his chest was caved in, he was coughing up buckets of blood!"
Vance looked up, his eyes wide with a genuine, lingering horror.
"And the Hero... Ren... he was finished! He looked like a walking corpse! His skin was turning grey, and he was bleeding from his eyes... it was the Sickness, Captain! The Mana Radiation! He looked like he was going to melt if he cast one more spell! It was suicide! I couldn't stop them!"
Valdorn lifted his boot. He looked at the forest, then back at the dungeon looming in the distance.
"They went into the nest," Valdorn repeated. "Against a B-Rank ecosystem. While injured."
"Yes!" Vance nodded frantically. "They're probably dead already! You can't blame me for—"
Valdorn kicked Vance in the jaw.
It was a precise, controlled kick. Enough to silence him, not enough to kill him. Vance's head snapped back, and he slumped into the mud, unconscious.
"Bind them," Valdorn ordered the knights. "Drag them back to the capital. If the students die, these men execute at dawn."
"Yes, Sir!" The knights moved instantly.
"Captain!" Riku ran up to Valdorn, grabbing the massive man's cape. "You have to go in! You have to help them!"
Valdorn looked down at the Artificer. "Release me, Kamishiro."
"No!" Riku tightened his grip. "You heard him! Reiji is injured! Ren is down! They're walking into a monster nest! You're a Royal Captain! You can clear that cave in an hour!"
"I could," Valdorn agreed.
"Then why aren't you moving?!"
"Because this is their war," Valdorn said.
Riku stared at him. "What?"
"We summoned you to save our world," Valdorn said, his voice hard. "We did not summon you to be babysat. If I intervene every time they face death, they will remain children. And children cannot kill the Demon Lord."
"They are children!" Riku screamed, his voice cracking. "Ren is seventeen! Reiji is seventeen! They aren't soldiers! If you leave them down there, they will die! Is that your lesson? Natural selection?"
Valdorn looked at the dungeon. His expression was unreadable, but there was a flicker of conflict in his steel-grey eyes.
He knew the boy was right. A B-Rank nest was a death sentence for fledglings. But he also knew the prophecy. The Heroes needed to break. They needed to shatter and reform into something harder.
"The dungeon is Active," Riku pleaded, seeing the hesitation. "My sensors... the mana density is toxic. It's not just monsters. The environment itself is killing them. Ren... Ren ran out of mana. He's defenseless against the radiation."
Valdorn stiffened. "Radiation?"
"The mana fallout!" Riku explained frantically. "It's Entropic! It's poisoning them slowly. You can tank it. They can't!"
Valdorn sighed. A heavy, weary sound.
"I cannot take a platoon of Knights into the dungeon without Guild authorization," Valdorn stated. "It would cause a political incident between the Crown and the Adventurer's Guild. Bureaucracy binds my hands."
"Screw bureaucracy!"
"However," Valdorn cut him off. "I can authorize a search and rescue party for 'lost assets.' A small team. Unofficial."
"I'll go," Riku said immediately. "I can track them. I have the scanners."
"You are a non-combatant," Valdorn said. "You will die in five minutes."
"I don't care!"
"I do," Valdorn put a hand on Riku's shoulder. It was heavy, grounding. "You are valuable, Riku. I will not throw you away."
Valdorn looked at the knights gathering the prisoners. He looked at the setting sun.
"I will allow you to enter," Valdorn decided. "But you cannot go alone. And I cannot send a Knight. It would be seen as a Royal intervention."
"Then who?" Riku asked, desperate. "Everyone else is down there!"
"Not everyone," Valdorn said.
The Captain turned his gaze toward a tree near the edge of the clearing. A figure had been sleeping on a thick branch this entire time, ignoring the commotion, ignoring the violence, ignoring the screaming.
"There is one who fits the nature of this dungeon," Valdorn mused. "One who is untouched by the mana poisoning. One who does not care about politics, or glory, or heroism."
Valdorn pointed a gauntleted finger at the sleeping figure.
"He returned this morning," Valdorn said quietly. "Just before you arrived."
"Who?" Riku blinked, wiping sweat from his glasses. "We don't have any reserves. The entire class is accounted for except..."
Riku trailed off. He realized who was missing. That person hadn't been seen in the Royal Castle for weeks. Not even since the first week of training.
"Wake him up," Valdorn ordered. "Tell him his nap is over."
Riku followed the finger. He squinted at the tree.
The boy who had zero mana. The boy who was basically a ghost.
Lying on the branch, one arm dangling loose, the boy was wearing armor. It wasn't the shining silver plate of the Paladins or the standard leather of the Scouts. It was a custom job—a patchwork of matte-black composite plates and hardened grey leather, strapped tight against his body. It looked scavenged, scratched, and utterly practical. He wore it with a strange, careless style, the collar popped high, straps hanging loose, looking less like a soldier and more like a survivor from a wasteland.
"Him?" Riku whispered, a laugh bubbling up in his chest before he could stop it. "Oh, come on. He'll just complain and go back to sleep."
"Make him go," Valdorn said flatly. "He is the only one who can walk through the radiation without burning."
Riku looked at the dungeon, then at the tree, a confident smirk finally breaking his grim expression. It was the best news he'd heard in weeks.
"Amano Sora," Riku muttered, adjusting his gloves with renewed energy. "Wake up. And don't you dare be useless today."