The chamber was a bowl of shadow and water, a dome vast enough to swallow the sky. Its black walls arced up and curved away until they blurred into dripping gloom; from the ceiling the dungeon wept in thin, acidic rain that fogged breaths and burned at exposed skin. The air tasted of salt and old iron—a maritime memory dragged into stone.
Kikt_Zero1 stood center stage, silver hair like a thrown coin in the dim. Around him, the guild's formation resembled a broken constellation.
Before them moved a thing that made the sinew in everyone's neck tighten: Thalyssra, a monstrous woman in whose throat nested a dozen ravenous mouths.
She crawled along the ceiling with sinuous, predatory grace. Where her human-like shoulders showed, they were too smooth, too familiar and where her neck divided into maw after maw, the uncanny truth of her hybrid body rippled. His gaze was fixed on the monstrosity that had already claimed the lives of three of his guild members. He knew he couldn't afford to lose any more.
Right after all the players had entered the room and got into formation, the doors slammed shut with a crack like breaking seashells. There would be no mercy.
All of a sudden, Thalyssra dove like a falling cliff. Her leathery wings, relics of an ancient sea that still remembered flight, slammed three players into the floor like they were driftwood and dropped their life points to zero as they were flung back from the attack.
Their lifeless bodies slammed against the cold stone, shattered like glass, and bounced back toward the remaining players, who could only watch as the death sounds rang out and overlapped one another.
The boss, crowned, in the guild log, as
"Eeeeek!!" One of the players squealed.
"Shit!" yelled another. "Everyone! Fall back!"
One of the monster's black tails began to harden, transforming the once fluid appendage into a spiked iron pillar before raising it high into the air.
Just before the tail came down on the group, a figure jumped right above the steel-like limb. It was the boy with silver hair that dashed straight above the beast's incoming attack.
He spun, three tight rotations in half a second, momentum wound to breaking before thundering his heel into the iron limb. The impact rang like a struck bell; toxic seawater exploded in a green spray.
"Holy shit! He countered it without using his Leere! That's insane!" One of the guild members was amazed by his raw display of power.
But even after his counter, two heads lunged forward like hungry sentences, and more tails uncoiled from the beast's watery frame. He knocked aside the first strike, but the second came down for the kill while he was still reeling in midair.
"Dammit, Kitan! Another one is coming!" Yelled a voice from below.
"Trick." he mumbled, the word was a small razor. With it his body birthed a perfect, still double; the clone could not walk, but it could be a step.
The ability Trick, part of a skill tree that can be utilised without the activation of a Leere; only those who have fully mastered stealth combat can unlock this skill. The ability allowed the user to create an identical copy of themselves with limited movement.
Zero planted a foot on his clone's stomach and launched himself upward with explosive force. He shot past the beast's thrashing tails, twisting his path to slip through the opening, and in the next instant he had vaulted from the double and clung to the ceiling with bloodless fingers. From there he moved unseen above the monster, so swift that his guildmates could only stare in stunned silence, mouths hanging open in awe.
Zero's fingers flew across his face as he began to trace an invisible circle. For a heartbeat it flared—clean, white—then detonated into a flash that stunned the monster.
He shoved his arm straight into the hovering circle and it took him. From the side, it looked wrong—like the rim had swallowed his forearm to the elbow, skin warping at the edge as if dipped through glass. The light around the cutout puckered and rippled, swallowing more as he reached deeper.
He gritted his teeth and pulled. Whatever he'd latched onto was heavy and stubborn; tendons stood out in his neck as he had to torque his whole body, hips turning, shoulders rolling, to wrench it free—dragging a gigantic white shape out into existence.
"Behold, this is
"Now go, Viper, devour." The whisper folded into a spear.
He whispered, slashing the weapon horizontally towards the boss' midsection and severing two of Thalyssra's heads. The weapon moved like it had a mind of its own, with the edge of the blade twisting and coiling organically. It was a demon forged in the depths of virtual reality, the Leere itself were a monster.
The remaining maw inhaled, and water in the vaulted dome began to rise, condensing into a bright, humming orb above the monster's throat. The cavern's water, obedient to the beast, streamed up as if tide itself had been rewired.
However, his Leere struck first; it compressed itself into the hilt like a spring before extending straight out, intercepting the attack with inhuman precision that defied its inanimate nature. The serpent's head coiled rapidly around the lower jaw, shutting off the charging sequence and negating the incoming attack.
With a swift movement, he dove downward, his Leere sinking its fangs into the boss's flank as it sundered everything apart. He dragged the creature across the domain, gashing out its remaining head before flinging its liquid form into the dungeon's ceiling.
What had been a monstrosity was now nothing but lifeless limbs, its headless body dragging down the worn walls.
The boss's remaining health finally disappeared, and its mutilated corpse exploded into tiny, glimmering shards.
A collective cheer erupted throughout the room; however, it was immediately shot down by the sound of zero crashing down through the floor, creating a small crater where his body lay.
"Shut up! All of you." He said, letting out a tired growl from the dust and debris. "That was just the first Delve boss, and we've already lost six people."
"Sorry, Kitan," one of the members apologised.
"Don't call me that." He pushed himself up with slow economy, the name a razor. He crossed to the labyrinth door and opened it, opening an old wound.
A quick footstep sounded behind him, followed by a hesitant voice. "Yo, Kit—I mean, Zero. What about that girl?"
Zero stopped, his back rigid, his breath catching before he turned his head slightly. His voice came out flat, lifeless. "We need to focus on clearing the game. The longer we stay here, the longer she will suffer. If she's here on the first floor, it's safer than being on the second."
There was no pause, no warmth in his words, just a cold practicality that filled the space. He continued without looking back. "Hurry up. We clear the game. If she's there, then we find her."
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SYSTEM ANNOUNCEMENT: THE FIRST DELVE BOSS HAS BEEN CONQUERED BY THE JAPANESE TEAM.
SYSTEM REMINDER: ONLY THE GULID THAT DEFEATS THE FINAL BOSS CAN LEAVE THE GAME. ALL OTHER PATICIPATIONS WILL NOT BE AUTOMATICALLY LOGGED OUT WHEN THE GAME IS CLEAR.
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Tang-Ji shivered, half regretting how she forgot to purchased a warm jacket and half debating asking Kazami for his.
The walk through the snowfield was completely silent, with a lingering sense of tension hanging in the air after she and Kazami found out about Ukiyo's true identity. 'She had been deceiving us the whole time,' she thought silently.
"She must have had a good reason to do so. Right?"
"…Ukiyo. Thank you for saving us." Tang-Ji said as the fumes escaped her mouth.
The girl with blue hair did not reply, choosing to remain silent.
She has not said a single word for the past five hours, and neither has Kazami, who was trailing behind. The situation has now become awkward and dire for everyone. In their minds, they knew that they were running out of time.
'If what the system reminder said was true, then we need to form a guild right away. I hope Kang and Azuki-san are alright. Our best bet is that they are heading towards the first Devle teleporter. Fuck! This has to be a joke or a sick, twisted dream.' Kazami thought to himself, clenching his fist in silence.
The journey through the snowy plain continued.
Despite their discomfort, the cold weather was somewhat refreshing and delightful to her.
'I must have gotten used to it since we've been in the cold for so long,' Tang-Ji thought.
She held out her hand, palm up, and watched curiously as a snowflake drifted down and melted on her hand. It had been a while since she had stopped to watch the snow.
Around her, everything was covered in all shades of white, with a perfect field of snow extending as far as her eye could see.
Ukiyo took the lead, leaving a delicate path in the fine drifts behind her. Her once-pure pastel garment now showed signs of their tough trek.
It showed evidence of wear and tear at the base, and it was fortunate that no lethal poison got on it since otherwise it would have been entirely destroyed. However, despite the rough condition that it was in, she couldn't help but admire Ukiyo's beauty in her dress.
She continued to stroll along the icy path, trailing behind radiant teal.
An ache was blooming in Tang-Ji's chest—sharp and sudden—like the kind that makes you want to cry for no reason at all.
This feeling was strange to her; she didn't know why she felt the sudden, intense urge to cry when she thought about Ukiyo. It was as if she had known her for many lifetimes.
Tang-Ji looked down the trail in front of her as she attempted to walk inside Ukiyo's footprints, but the print was too small, perhaps half of her own shoe.
As she followed the string of footprints that slowly led to the barren polar desert, the trail began to curve, veering into a grove of trees that grew along the perimeter of the forest.
The trees were a dark, leafy green but had been caught in the snowfall as well, leaving their edges sprinkled with bits of shimmering white. They soon discovered the stunning beauty ahead to be covered in a veil of mist as it slowly began to accumulate around them.
Tang-Ji finally reached the end of the footprint trail and looked up from the ground disappointedly. Her eyes widened as she was greeted with a large wooden sign that hung over the entrance to the forest.
The sign read, "The Forest of Wavering Green Giants."
"Follow me and avoid getting lost in the mist." Ukiyo called.
"I know a shorter route out of this place. After that, we should arrive at the first Delve."
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Deep in the trees the path went narrow and mean, light strangled to a smear under the canopy. Mist threaded low between roots; every step sank into mulch that remembered storms. The giant NPC moved like the forest had been built around him—shoulders brushing boughs, bark rasping along the plates of his stony hide. Vines had taken him for a hill long ago; ferns rode his spine like pennants.
Emiko, Ji-Soon, and Kompto sat high on his back, legs tucked against the sway. From up there the mist looked like a slow river. The HUD marked a faint route ahead—breadcrumb pips winking and then dying, the forest ate even light. Every so often the giant turned his head with the creak of an old mill. "Slope ahead. Hold." His voice came like gravel poured from a bucket: procedural, not unkind.
They passed under a lattice of roots that had lifted the path like a rib cage. Somewhere to the left, something clicked and went quiet. The giant adjusted his gait, three strides wide, one careful. Ji-Soon scanned, the little ring of his cursor bathing trunks in ghost-blue and finding nothing. Kompto kept count of the giant's steps under his breath—habit more than tactic—while Emiko watched the crowns above for the first clean scrap of sky.
"Bridge soon," the giant reported. "Weight limit: acceptable." He stooped, letting a webbed limb test the slick boards of a fallen log. Water whispered below, dark and quick. When he rose, the three riders felt the lift through their bones. Onward he went, steady as a metronome in fog, carrying them where feet alone would have failed.
"Are we there yet?" Emiko asked for the fifteenth time. The older man, seated beside her on the giant's back, clenched his jaw—his brow tightening.
"Right… because I know exactly when we'll get there," he said sarcastically.
"Could you shut up? Gosh, men are so annoying and dumb," she huffed, now crossing her arms.
The braid twitched as he half-turned, counting the giant's steps under his breath—three, five, seven as if numbers could pin the world in place. "Ah yes," he murmured, "because yelling in the middle of the forest is considered a smart thing to do."
"Why you!"
"Wow, it seems like you two are getting along." Ji-Soon sighed, now tired of the constant, childish bickering.
"Not funny." Emiko groaned. "You're starting to sound dry with these boooring comments you've been making. In fact, you're starting to sound like Tang-Ji. No girls would be into you."
Ji-Soon chuckled. "Yeah, I won't be attracting girls like you."
From the sidelines, Kompto chimed in with a lazy smirk, "Talking behind someone's back? It sounds like you're all just a bunch of close-knit friends. After all, they say, if you're not getting the gossip, you're not in the loop!"
Emiko didn't even glance over. "That's such an out-of-date thing to say, Grandpa—"
"—seriously," Ji-Soon started, and then the overlap snapped into place:
"Shut up," they said together.
The group continued making snide remarks at each other for a while before noticing the sunlight slowly began to trickle in from gaps in the trees.