Bete lunged—a silver streak of feral rage—but his claws slashed through nothing but shimmering golden flakes. I didn't just move; I ceased to exist. Drawing on the Radiance's essence, I collapsed into a burst of blinding light and reappeared directly behind him.
"Right here," I whispered.
Before he could pivot, I slammed my palms together. "First lesson: Grounding."
Mimicking the Enraged Guardian, I let out a guttural roar. My skin shifted into a scorching, crystalline purple. Beneath our feet, the stone groaned as a grid of volatile, concentrated energy erupted from the floor.
"Watch your feet!" Tiona screamed, shoving Tione aside just as a pillar of light vaporized the ground where she'd been standing.
I didn't give them a second to breathe. If they wanted a monster, I'd give them the entire Bestiary. "Ooma, lend me a hand."
With a snap of my fingers, translucent, glowing orbs emerged from the Nightmare flames. They drifted lazily toward the trio, pulsating with a hum that made Bete's ears bleed.
"Don't touch them!" Tione warned, but Bete's frustration had already boiled over. He lashed out with a kick, his boot catching a membrane. The Ooma imploded instantly. A massive discharge of electric Void-energy sent him crashing into the far wall in a heap of charred fur and ego.
"Three on one seems a bit unfair," I laughed, my voice echoing with the hollow, haunting resonance of No Eyes.
The training ground plunged into a heavy, supernatural gloom. Ghostly, eyeless children drifted through the fog, singing a discordant lullaby that sapped the strength from their marrow. The trio began swinging at shadows, their senses drowning in the oppressive dark.
"Where is he?! I can't see him!" Tiona's usual excitement had vanished, replaced by a genuine, bone-deep chill.
"Look up," I commanded.
I floated high above, arms crossed, channeling the spirit of Elder Hu. Massive, spectral rings—the size of wagon wheels—materialized in the sky. They fell like meteors, slamming into the ground in a rhythmic, crushing sequence.
Thump. Thump. THUMP. The trio was forced into a desperate, panicked dance—leaping between falling rings while dodging Uumuu's lightning and No Eyes' ghosts. The training ground was gone; in its place stood a localized nightmare of the Pantheon of Hallownest.
[Host, I recommend a finishing move. Their mental fortitude is at 15% and dropping.]
I descended slowly, the Radiance's halo crown flickering above me while Nightmare flames licked at my heels. Bete struggled to stand, his legs shaking, while the Amazon sisters stood back-to-back, gasping for air.
"Still want to play?" I asked, my voice a terrifying chord of three different entities.
They didn't reach for their weapons. They knelt.
"WE GIVE UP!" they shouted in unison.
"Huh? Why?" I blinked, the supernatural aura dissipating as I looked at the absolute disaster I'd made of the arena.
They just gave me a deadpan stare, gesturing to the smoldering craters and lingering ghosts. I cleared my throat, feeling a bit like an idiot.
"Right. Well. The reason you lost was focus. You were fighting your own fear, not the enemy," I said, trying to salvage the 'teacher' persona. "I used no weapons—only magic. This is the reality of facing a high-level caster. What would you do differently?"
The silence was deafening.
"Never mind," I sighed. "Just remember: to kill a mage, you either outlast their mana or kill them before they finish the first syllable. If they use chantless magic? Watch their hands. Watch their eyes. If they smile, you're already in a trap."
I opened my mouth to continue the lecture, but a cold blue screen flickered in my vision.
[WARNING: Failure to initiate the Main Quest will result in a Penalty affecting core Host abilities.]
The blood ran cold in my veins. This was new. And "Penalty" sounded a lot more permanent than a training bruise.
"I need to leave. Now. Bye!"
I snatched my needle and nail from the rack and vanished into the shadows before they could even stand up.
The training ground was a scorched graveyard of spectral rings and lingering embers. Bete, Tiona, and Tione remained on their knees, staring at the empty air where I had just vanished.
"Did any of you understand a word he just said?" Bete grunted, rubbing a soot-stained shoulder that still smelled of burnt ozone.
"No," the sisters replied in unison, their voices flat with exhaustion and lingering shock.
"Figured," Bete muttered, his eyes narrowing. "But whatever that was... it wasn't just magic. That guy is a walking calamity."
(The Dungeon: 15th Floor)
I reappeared in the damp, monster-thick air of the 15th floor. The atmosphere was heavy with the smell of wet stone and the musk of hidden predators. I didn't breathe it in; I didn't have time to appreciate the scenery.
'Why didn't you warn me about the penalty?!' I roared internally, my mind already racing through the logistics of the kill count.
[You didn't ask, Host. Information is provided on a "need-to-know" basis. Currently, you need to know you are failing.]
'Forget it. Show me the quest.'
[Main Quest: The Great Cull]
Objective: Kill 10,000 monsters in the dungeon.
Time Limit: 48 Hours.
Penalty for Failure: Severe ability degradation (Permanent "Status Reset").
Rewards: > The Hunter.
Ability: Monster Scream (Full Potential).
Ten thousand. In two days. The math was simple, and the reality was brutal. If I stayed on the upper floors hunting Goblins, I'd be wasting my time on low-density spawns. I needed a slaughterhouse. I needed the deeper levels where the Dungeon's "will" was aggressive enough to keep the conveyor belt of meat moving.
'Update or not, System, this is insane.'
[The update refined your power, Host. It expects you to use it. If you wish to remain a "Higher Being," prove it.]
{Stop whining and let me out,} the Seed hissed, its orange influence bleeding into my peripheral vision. {Ten thousand is just a warm-up.}
I didn't waste another second. I didn't reach for my Nail or my Needle. They were precision instruments; I needed weapons of mass destruction. I closed my eyes and let the Void within my shell expand, feeling the "Infection" and the "System" align for a singular, murderous purpose.
"Forty-eight hours?" I whispered, my voice dropping into a distorted, hollow register. "I'll do it in twelve."
11:00 PM – The 17th Floor
I didn't run; I became a Great Slash of pure energy, blinking through the halls using the Radiance's teleportation. I tore through a pack of Minotaurs like a hot wire through wax. They didn't even have time to bellow before their heads were separated from their shoulders.
[Kill Count: 48 / 10,000]
"Too slow."
I hit the 17th floor—the Floor Boss room. The Goliath began to spawn, its massive stone form dragging itself from the wall in a cacophony of grinding rock. Usually, this was a multi-hour raid for a Level 4 party. To me, it was a speed bump.
I didn't wait for it to fully manifest. I summoned the Nightmare King's pillars, but instead of four, I unleashed a forest of them. Crimson fire geysered from the floor, melting the Goliath's legs before it could even take a step. As it shrieked, I appeared above its head, my hand crackling with Enraged Guardian energy.
"Stay down."
A beam of violet light punched through its skull, detonating the magic stone inside. The giant crumbled into dust before its first roar had even finished echoing.
[Kill Count: 49 / 10,000]
I didn't stop to collect the drop. I dived deeper.
2:00 AM – The 24th Floor
I hit the 18th floor—the Under Resort—and ignored the safety of Rivira entirely. I bypassed the panicked adventurers who saw a blur of silver silk and golden light streak past their camp. By the time I hit the 24th floor, the "massacre" had become a factory setting.
I began to use Hornet's Silk not as a trap, but as a web of systemic execution. I strung the hallways of the 24th floor with razor-thin threads. When the monsters charged, they didn't hit a wall; they passed through the silk and fell apart in neat, organized cubes.
[Kill Count: 1,450... 1,890... 2,200...]
I was no longer looking like a man. I was a whirlwind of Void-energy and Nightmare flames. I was harvesting. Every time a massive group spawned, I used Desolate Dive, slamming into the ground with the weight of a falling star. The shockwave shattered every monster in a fifty-yard radius, turning them into a rain of black ash and magic stones.
6:00 AM – The 27th Floor (The Water Capital)
The dungeon seemed to realize it was being purged. The walls pulsed with a sickly light, spawning monsters at an accelerated rate to try to drown the intruder. Huge swarms of Aqua Serpents and Blue Crabs surged from the water.
I smiled, a jagged, terrifying expression that didn't belong on a human face.
"That's it," I laughed, the sound echoing through the cavernous halls. "Bring me the whole floor. I have a quota to meet."
I threw my hands out, manifesting a dozen Zote Bombs that floated like morbid balloons. As the monsters closed in, I detonated them all at once, the concussive force creating a vacuum that sucked the water—and the monsters—into a crushing center point.
Then, I channeled Elder Hu.
Spectral rings slammed down in a rhythmic, merciless beat, crushing everything that survived the explosions. I was a conductor, and the screams of the monsters were my orchestra.
[Kill Count: 5,102 / 10,000]
[Time Remaining: 39 Hours 12 Minutes]
The halfway point. My clothes were shredded, my skin was coated in monster gore, and the orange glow in my eyes was bright enough to illuminate the darkest corners of the floor.
The massacre wasn't just beginning—it was reaching a fever pitch. I wasn't an adventurer anymore. I was the very thing the Dungeon feared.
I was its worst nightmare.
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