Caelen's breathing was heavy, his arms sore and his stance still clumsy. But he didn't fall.
Not this time.
The kobold hissed, pacing around him with renewed aggression. Its red eyes glowed faintly beneath the dim light of the cave, jagged blade still raised. It knew Caelen was inexperienced. It had seen hundreds like him. But now… there was hesitation.
And that gave him a moment.
Caelen shifted his grip again, loosening his fingers around the hilt the way he remembered the guards at the church doing. He adjusted his footing—wider, more stable. The pain in his forearms still throbbed, but he could ignore it now.
"Okay," he whispered to himself, "just move. Watch the shoulders. Don't overstep."
The kobold charged again, lunging forward with another wide swing. This time, Caelen didn't panic. He sidestepped not perfectly, but enough. The blade missed by inches, dragging sparks against the cave floor.
He didn't try anything fancy. He let the kobold reset, watching it. It wasn't a genius tactician. Its swings were wide and aggressive, made to overpower not outthink.
Good.
He kept moving, always circling, always just outside the arc of its blade. His heart was pounding, but his mind was clear now. Then it came again a downward chop. He pivoted, ducked, and brought his sword up just in time to deflect.
Their blades scraped violently, and Caelen used the recoil to leap back.
"Not bad… not good, but not bad," he muttered, chest heaving. "Now… let's test this."
He focused, gathering energy to his right arm. A tingling buzz rose beneath his skin wild, unstable. But it came. Electricity danced along his forearm, wrapping his fingers in a flickering shroud of blue and white.
The kobold snarled and came again.
Caelen dashed forward, reckless but committed. As the kobold swung down, he dropped low, sliding on one knee under the slash. He let go of the sword with his right hand, switching it smoothly to his left. The blade dragged awkwardly in that hand, but he didn't need it just yet.
The kobold turned to track him but too slow.
Caelen's electrified fist slammed into its exposed back.
Crack!
A jolt surged through the monster's body, and it howled in pain, stumbling forward. The impact wasn't lethal, but it rattled the creature hard. Its muscles tensed, nerves spasming uncontrollably.
Caelen was already moving.
"Now!"
With all the strength his tired body could muster, he gripped the sword in both hands and swung—aiming at the exposed neck as the kobold twisted toward him in pain and rage.
Whff!
The blade connected.
For a split second, nothing happened.
Then the kobold's head dropped, rolling to the side. Its body collapsed like a puppet with strings cut.
Silence.
Caelen stood there, panting, blade shaking in his grasp. His muscles burned. His palms were blistered. But he stood.
He'd done it.
A slow smile crept across his face. He lowered the sword, pressing its flat against the stone to steady himself.
"…Yes," he muttered, laughing breathlessly. "I did it. My first monster kill."
Observation Room
Emma stood at the screen, a grin creeping onto her face. "He did it. He's getting it… finally."
She leaned closer, her eyes shining with pride and relief. "He's actually learning."
Silver, standing quietly to her right, remained expressionless behind the mask. She gave no comment.
Evelyn, however, didn't look as pleased.
She leaned forward, eyes narrowing at her display. Her voice was tight. "That's not good."
Emma blinked, confused. "What do you mean? He survived. He fought smart."
"That's not the issue." Evelyn swiped her fingers across the console, switching to a wider display of the dungeon network. "This is a cave-type dungeon. It follows cycle logic. You kill one monster…"
The screen blinked as new heat signatures began to appear on Caelen's level.
"…the dungeon sends more. Then more. Eventually a boss appears. It's standard behavior. But we didn't account for him surviving this long."
Emma's smile faded.
Silver tilted her head. "It's escalating?"
Evelyn tapped the control board with irritation. "Yes. Why pull shit like this when you're so weak?" she muttered, voice sharp with frustration. "He should've known better than to pick Hell difficulty."
Emma folded her arms, voice tight. "You're the one who told him to pick something challenging."
"And now I have to balance the entire damn network to make sure this floor doesn't spawn something he can't even blink at without dying."
Evelyn turned toward another monitor, switching to the secondary route.
Lucy.
—
Elsewhere in the Dungeon
Lucille was gliding through her route like she was in a training simulation. A flash of frost snapped through the air as she threw a spear of ice, impaling two goblin-like creatures in one motion.
Her movements were smooth, sharp, and efficient and barely breaking stride between floors.
The system recorded her progress: Floor 3. Less than ten minutes in.
She dusted frost off her sleeve, eyes calm, and stepped forward without pause.
Evelyn's voice dropped. "Of course she's this fast."
She dragged another dungeon structure into the rendering matrix, stacking floor layouts.
"She's going to reach the center before he even finishes Floor Two. I need to slow her down." Her hands flew across the keys. "Add five buffer floors. Harder. She'll notice, but it'll hold her."
Emma raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that... manipulating her trial?"
"It's survival," Evelyn muttered. "And management. He's not ready to meet her yet not until he stops flinching when he swings a sword."
Silver said nothing, still watching Lucy's footage.
Her arms remained folded behind her back, but her shoulders were tense.
—
Caelen leaned on his sword, still catching his breath. The cave was quiet now, save for the faint echo of water dripping in the distance and his own exhausted wheezing.
"That was close…" he muttered.
His victory felt hard-earned—but only barely controlled. His arms still trembled from the weight of the sword. Sweat matted his shirt to his back. Every step forward had been guesswork, every dodge a half-lucky reflex.
And now, silence.
He took a shaky breath and looked up…
…just in time to see a new hole open in the stone wall.
Three kobolds emerged with low growls.
His heart sank. "What no…"
Then two more climbed out from behind them. Then five.
In seconds, ten kobolds stood before him. Each one armed. Each one drooling, snarling, glaring directly at him.
"Wha…?!" Caelen blinked at the horde, lifting his sword weakly. "You've got to be kidding me…"
He felt something stir in his gut panic, frustration, desperation.
"I just killed one of you… Now you send the whole damn family?!" His voice cracked slightly.
His eyes darted to the back tunnel, but there was no escape. Just more shadows.
He glanced down at his right arm. Lightning. That had worked before… But now, just trying to summon it. No control. His magic wasn't refined. Not enough.
But there was something else. Something that wasn't physical or elemental.
He opened the skill list.
[Demon's Allure]
A demon ability. He frowned.
"…It's fine," he muttered to himself. "Can't be worse than this, right?"
He activated it.
A wave of unseen energy pulsed from his body—like perfume on a battlefield. He felt it radiate from him, intangible but heavy. His muscles loosened. His stance straightened. His chest puffed slightly.
Then silence.
For a moment, the kobolds blinked—then began to sniff the air.
One tilted its head. Then another.
And suddenly, they all began breathing harder.
"Wait… They're not goblin I doubt they wou-?"
They started running.
"Wait—no!"
They weren't charging with weapons raised.
They were sprinting at him with arms open, weapons discarded, eyes wide and glassy with… desire?
"SHIT!"
Caelen screamed as the first one lunged—not with a slash, but with a grabbing motion, claws extended like a kid begging for a hug. He panicked, lifted a foot, and kicked it square in the chest.
It flew back with a yelp, crashing into the cave wall.
"STAY BACK! I'M ARMED AND—NOT INTERESTED!"
He scrambled to the side as another one tried to pounce, claws extended like it wanted to pet him.
The look in their eyes wasn't hunger—it was thirst.
"Oh god—they're horny?!"
He flew up using a burst of demon wings which used energy, trying to take to the air as one of them leapt under him with a horrifying grunt. He caught a glimpse of their lower halves.
Bulges.
Visible.
He shivered, mid-flight.
"This skill is cursed!" he shouted, slashing wildly at a kobold trying to grab his ankle. He hit its neck—it didn't slice clean through, but it died from the wound of the blow.
He flailed, turning in midair to slash at another one lunging from the left. The blade only chopped half its side—but again, the monster dropped.
"I'M NOT EVEN HITTING THEM CLEANLY!"
A third one jumped—and Caelen, desperate, just swung downward with all his force.
It dropped.
Three more remained. Still in a daze.
He deactivated the skill.
The aura vanished in an instant. The kobolds blinked, visibly confused—then anger surged back into their eyes.
"Well that's better," he muttered, dropping from the air and landing roughly.
The last three snarled and charged.
This time, Caelen ran into the fight.
He dashed at the one in the center and stabbed forward—not cleanly, but with intent. The blade rammed into its chest and it shrieked before collapsing.
The second recovered from the lust haze just in time to raise its weapon—Caelen twisted and slashed across its arm. The kobold's head jerked back, trying to bite. Caelen spun wildly, blade out, and by sheer luck, it connected.
CRUNCH.
The head dropped.
The third stood frozen.
He stepped forward, breathing hard, and stabbed it in the shoulder—not to kill, just to provoke it.
"Come on. Don't make this weird."
The kobold snapped out of the daze and lunged, swinging a claw. Caelen parried, side-stepped, and brought the blade across in a wide arc.
SHUNK.
It split diagonally. The upper half slid off with a wet thump.
Then silence again.
Caelen fell backward, landing hard on his ass, panting.
He was about to rest when a shadow loomed.
A massive arm, half as thick as his entire body, cocked back with a fist the size of a watermelon.
WARNING: LETHAL FORCE DETECTED
The system's voice was the last thing he heard before—
WHAM!
The punch sent him flying.
He smashed into the cave wall with a boom that echoed across the entire floor.
Observation Room
"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Emma shouted, standing bolt upright.
Silver leaned forward, for the first time tensed. Even Evelyn, who'd been smugly sipping her drink, dropped the glass.
"The dungeon was supposed to teleport him if he was about to die," Evelyn muttered, furiously typing. "That was a critical hit. He should've been pulled out!"
But on the screen…
The body that lay in the debris wasn't broken. It was… changing.
His hair turned silver.
His skin paled.
His aura thickened like a stormcloud gathering under flesh.
Then he stood.
And he wasn't Caelen anymore.
At least—not in the face.
His features had sharpened, his eyes demonic red. His posture straightened, regal, cold. Power rolled off him in waves.
Silver, standing behind them, exhaled softly. "...Wow."
Emma could only whisper, "Caelen, so that's what he looked like"
Back in the Cave
He opened his eyes slowly.
His fingers flexed, numb, but functional.
He stood, looking at his hands. Pale. Clawed. Not human.
"These clothes are… tight," he muttered, frowning.
He glanced at the monster standing before him.
A mutant kobold—twice the size of the last ones. Lizard-like skin. Massive arms. Cold, intelligent eyes.
It growled low, then picked up one of the dropped blades from the floor and threw it like a spear to test.
Caelen didn't flinch and looked up at it.
He raised a hand.
CLINK.
He caught it.
The blade stopped inches from his face.
The kobold froze, caution slowly replacing its aggression.
Caelen blinked.
"…What?"
Then something clicked. A scent. An aura. A sensation.
His eyes narrowed.
"…Lust?"
He could see it.
Waves of it.
Rolling off the kobold like heat.
His face twisted into disgust. "Talk about disgusting," he muttered.
He flipped the blade in his hand. Lightning gathered—only now, it was black, tinged with something deeper. Something demonic.
He threw the sword.
It screamed through the air, a bolt of dark lightning trailing behind it.
The kobold's head was gone before it even moved.
The sword stabbed into the wall behind it with a final thunk.
Caelen dusted his hands.
"Even monster want now."
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