"Clara," I said, adjusting my collar with the kind of grace that only comes from tripping over your own shadow. "Take out the cube. You might need a few artifacts inside it."
She reached into her storage pouch and pulled out the black cube, its sides humming faintly like it knew something I didn't.
"Aren't we heading straight to the transfer glyph?" she asked, one brow raised. "Why would I need artifacts?"
"Because," I said, slowly and dramatically, mostly to buy myself a few seconds to find words that sounded smart, "the ogre got the glyph from the previous party."
"If that's the case." I continued, "unlike us, the previous party didn't just randomly enter the Sanctum from a higher floor. They entered it from the floor it's actually located on."
I paused for emphasis. You know. The kind that makes people think I've read three strategy books and survived four disasters.
"In other words," I said, lowering my voice slightly, "they were capable of going deeper. Stronger than us, probably. Yet they failed to go through with their plan."
I let that sit in the air for a second. It sounded cooler in my head, but I think I sold it well enough.
"There must be a reason for that," I added.
Clara nodded. "We'll be finding that out once we head inside, then."
I looked at her for a moment. "Are you scared?"
She smirked. "Not if you can get out alive."
I smirked. "No can do. I'll need you even after getting out."
"You should really change your self-sacrificial mindset, Clara" Sylvia chimed in, arms crossed and expression very princess-lecture-incoming.
"Yeah, no kidding," I muttered, shooting Clara a look.
"I understand," Clara replied calmly. "But we are running out of time."
She just said she wasn't going to change, didn't she?
"Clara," I said, drawing her attention again, "only you can use the artifacts from the sanctum. So here's the plan."
I asked her to pull out the Veilstep Token from the cube.
Just as we wrapped up our little war council, a familiar voice interrupted us.
"We're willing to come with you to the boss room. Please take care of us."
It was Darren, flanked by his team, they all had that same look, forced humility. Like those interns who trashed me over sandwiches and then tried to bow lower than HR when I showed up.
Sylvia raised an eyebrow. "You speak as if you people are doing us a favor."
Oof.
Zephyr didn't waste a second. "See? We can't trust them."
Sylvia shot back, cool and dismissive, "We never asked you to trust us, though."
Seems like Sylvia had a grudge against these guys. Well.. they earned it.
Darren bowed his head deeply. "I apologize on his behalf. Please, let us be in your care."
"Whatever. Don't slow us down," Sylvia said without sparing him another glance.
That's when I caught it—Zephyr clicking his tongue.
Tsk.
He threw Sylvia a quick glance. Eyes that looked a bit too calculating for my taste.
Meanwhile, Clara was checking the artifacts she had arranged across her belt. A silent inventory. She then closed her eyes and took in a deep breath… then slowly let it out.
Sylvia, standing close, patted her on the back. "Clara, you got this."
I added, "Well, be careful. You have my life in your hands."
"Young Master…" Clara said.
"Lord Hugo…" Sylvia added.
Both of them suddenly had the same stern expression.
"It's not the time to joke."
What? I wasn't joking. She literally had our lives in her hands.
I cleared my throat. "Just kidding. You can kill us if you want."
Both women exchanged a look. Then stared at me.
"Wait. You are not seriously.." I panicked.
pfft.
A puff of laughter escaped them.
Smirks. Matching, unholy smirks.
Clara tilted her head. "Don't worry, Young Master. We won't kill you yet."
What the hell do you mean by "yet," lady? That's not a timeline I want defined.
Before I could lodge a protest, Clara's face shifted. Calm, composed, sharp.
She turned to Darren and his group.
"The four of you, when the portal opens, make a run for it. Don't hesitate."
Darren nodded immediately. No objections. Smart elf.
"Ahh. Before we go…"
I reached down to my belt and pulled out a stamina potion, handing it to Sylvia.
She looked at it, then at me, her brow slightly raised. Which probably meant 'What's this for?'
"Lady Sylvia," I said, half-smiling, "think of it as… another me. Please keep it with you until we get out of here."
For a second, she blinked. Then, to my surprise, she smiled. "I didn't know you believed in lucky charms, Lord Hugo."
Well… you're seventeen, so you probably should too.
She held the potion a little tighter. "Thanks for the sentiment."
She looked oddly happy. Over a potion?
Then Clara side-eyed me from the corner, a slight pout with a tone dry as desert wind. "I'll be doing most of the work, though."
I tilted my head. "You want one too?"
"Tsk." She clicked her tongue and turned away like I'd just insulted her cooking.
Sylvia smirked at the scene.
Yep. Women.
"Alright," she said. "Here we go."
Clara stepped forward and, without hesitation, pushed open the massive sanctum doors.
As the dungeon doors creaked open, a vast chamber revealed itself. Same architecture. Same eerie silence. Except this time... the ceiling stretched far higher than the others.
Clara, Sylvia, and I stepped in first, with the four elves trailing behind. I kept one hand resting on the hilt of my sword, fingers curled just enough to to pull it out if something even twitched.
At the center of the chamber, it lay sleeping.
A lion-type beast. Massive, regal, majestic. Its mane flickered with embers, a steady blaze coiling around its body. Each breath it exhaled came as a warm gust across the floor.
Sylvia whispered under her breath, "the Flameborne Guardian—Solflare Ignivra."
Great. A legendary monster with a name fancy enough to be on a wine label.
"Lord Hugo," Clara said quickly, "there's the transfer glyph. We can make it if we pass quietly. It hasn't noticed us." she said, her voice bubbling with joy..
Sylvia too, trembled with joy beside me.
Behind me, the two Elvian girls basically pounced on Darren like he was a hero who just solved poverty.
Tsk... popular kid.
Still, no one celebrated too soon. Clara, always composed, was first to pull herself together.
"Normal portal activation time is thirty seconds," she whispered. "Once I start it, we need to move fast. Be ready."
I nodded, and so did the others.
But something felt off.
Even if the boss was awake, a party made up of proper powerhouses should've been able to reach the sanctum glyph. So why did the previous team fail?
I activated Perception but nothing stood out. No hidden mana traces, no extra presence. Just the quiet hum of a sleeping beast and the flicker of flames from its mane.
Still… the silence felt too clean.
I paired it with Inspect.
.......
I froze mid-step.
My hand shot to Clara's arm, halting her.
"Everyone," I said, voice tight. "Don't move."
Clara instantly drew her dagger and infused it with mana. Sylvia was just as quick, sword drawn and back brushing against mine. Their energies rose in sync, clean and deliberate.
Darren blinked. "Why aren't we moving?"
I drew my blade.
"Formation. Now."
He obeyed without another word.
"There are over thirty of them," I said, scanning the corners of the room. "Same species. Camouflaged. All around us."
Clara narrowed her eyes. "They're.. Scaleblends," she muttered, recognizing the species. "I didn't sense them at all… No wonder the previous team failed."
Can't blame her. Camouflage like that didn't just hide the body, it masked mana traces too.
It was closer to Sebastian's Phantom Cloak in concept, but not nearly as broken. Though it didn't erase the presence like phantom claok, it still blurred their presence well enough that normal detection wouldn't catch them unless up close.
Clara adjusted her stance. "Three directly above us."
"Wall behind Lyra," Sylvia said, her voice composed but edged with tension. Focusing to find more of them.
I sighed.
"Eight ahead. Seven on the ceiling. Three near the guardian. Two by the glyph. Five chilling near ogre camp… a few more just moved out of my detection range."
Clara nodded, pleased. "Scaleblends aren't strong individually. If we act fast, we can clean them up without alerting the guardian."
Sylvia turned to Darren. "Avoid earth magic. Too loud. Assist Lyra, the wind user. Keep it subtle. If there's a fire user, use the fire to repel, not provoke."
The elf girls responded with quick nods.
Sylvia turned to Zephyr. "I know you're DPS, but leave close combat to us. Protect your party from behind."
"I know what to do," he muttered, but didn't move.
Sylvia frowned and stepped toward him, but I caught her arm and pulled her back.
A thud echoed where she'd just been.
A Scaleblend dropped from the ceiling like a murder pinata.
I drove my sword through its tail. Disabing its camouflage. Sylvia's blade came down in the same beat, severing its neck before it could even screech.
"Move," I said, tightening my grip on my sword. Clara gave a short nod, and in the next second, she blurred into motion.
These scaleblends weren't really a threat to Clara. With her sensory range, any that got too close were basically asking to be erased.
So, I stuck close to Sylvia, along with Sira, an elvian girl with a flame affinity that made the scaleblends hesitate, just enough to think twice. I whispered their positions to Sylvia, and we moved in sync.
One thought, one breath, one strike.
Honestly, using inspect and working with her made this feel almost too easy., I could adjust to her rhythm since we'd trained together for months.
That said, it wasn't about killing them.
It was about killing them quietly.
If the boss woke up… well, we could kiss our sweet lives goodbye.
It's not just strong. Its raw stats could probably one-shot both me and Sylvia before we even realized we were in combat. If my guess is right its agility is on par with Wulfric or even Sebastian. And don't get me started on that flaming skin. Getting within range would basically be volunteering to be barbecued. Alive.
I drove my blade right through a scaleblend's throat before it could let out even a grunt. Beside me, Lyra lifted one into the air with a quick gust of wind, throwing it off balance. It almost shrieked.
Almost.
Sylvia's blade separated its head from its body like she was drawing a smooth line on paper. Both of them locked eyes for half a second and gave each other a nod for their teamwork.
On the flank, Darren used his Elvian-grade Perception. Sure, he couldn't detect the idle ones, but the tiniest movement? He caught it.
He called out quick, precise commands to Lyra and Sira the same way I did with Sylvia.
Meanwhile, Clara had cleared most of the path ahead. Only a few scaleblends lingered behind us or beyond the sanctum glyph.
Clara gestured with a sharp nod. I returned it. All set.
We were almost there.
And then... we heard it.
The screech.
Too loud.
Too damned loud.
Everyone froze. We turned.
Zephyr's blade had torn through a scaleblend's guts… It wasn't dead. And it screamed.
For a few seconds, everything just… stopped.
Then, we heard it.
A low growl, not just a sound, but something that pressed down on the bones. A rumble that could shut thunder up mid-roar.
I turned, slowly, to the boss.
It was rising.
Deliberately. Unhurried. As if it was measuring the distance for a single leap that could erase everything between us.
Its mane, already blazing, intensified, casting dancing shadows along the cavern walls.
It looked at me.
Its pupil narrowed.
A blue trajectory spawned before me.
Blur.
A second later, everything was black.
Not from passing out but from the massive paw shadowing over my entire body, rushing toward me faster than instinct could even scream.
No time to run. No time to draw my blade.
Time slowed to a crawl.
Every sound collapsed into a dull, ringing beep.
I stood there, frozen. Eyes locked with the majestic beast right infront of me.