The gate loomed in front of us like a tear in reality itself—which, I supposed, it essentially was. Purple energy crackled around its edges, and the air nearby shimmered with dimensional distortion. It was smaller than I'd expected for an A-rank dungeon, maybe twelve feet tall and eight feet wide.
"Standard A-rank dungeon," Cha Hae-In said, checking her equipment. "Probably orcs or trolls, maybe some higher-tier demons. Nothing we can't handle."
I watched the Association team set up their perimeter. Portable barriers, monitoring equipment, medical stations—they had this down to a science. A few dozen civilians had gathered at the safety perimeter, phones out, recording everything. Word had already spread that the mysterious new hunter was about to enter his first dungeon.
"Nervous?" Cha Hae-In asked.
"Should I be?"
She studied my face for a moment. "Most people are, their first time. Gates are... different from the testing facility. Monsters don't follow safety protocols."
I nodded like that made sense, but honestly, I was more curious than nervous. The system had given me all the relevant knowledge about this world's monsters, their behaviors, their weaknesses. What I was really interested in was seeing how experienced hunters operated in the field.
"Mr. Cross," Gun-hee approached with a tablet in hand, "this raid is being monitored remotely for evaluation purposes. Don't feel pressured to take unnecessary risks."
Translation: don't do anything stupid that might get you killed before we figure out how to use you.
"Understood."
Cha Hae-In drew her sword—a beautiful piece of craftsmanship that hummed with magical energy. "Ready?"
We stepped through the gate together.
The transition was... interesting. Like stepping through a soap bubble, except the bubble was made of dimensional energy and your entire body tingled for a moment. On the other side, we found ourselves in what looked like a massive underground cavern system.
"Classic dungeon layout," Cha Hae-In murmured, moving forward with practiced caution. "Multiple levels, probably a boss chamber at the bottom."
The first wave of monsters came about thirty seconds later.
I saw them before she did—six orcs, each about eight feet tall and built like linebackers, charging down the cavern tunnel with crude weapons raised. They moved fast for their size, but to my enhanced perception they might as well have been standing still.
Cha Hae-In was already in motion, her sword flowing in elegant arcs that seemed almost like dancing. She took down three of them before they even realized there were two targets.
I decided to keep things simple for my debut. When the remaining three orcs reached me, I opened a small rift directly in front of the first one's charge. He ran straight through it and emerged from another rift I'd opened twenty feet above the ground. Gravity took care of the rest.
The second orc swung a massive club at my head. I shifted the space around myself, compressing it just enough that his weapon passed harmlessly through where I'd been a split second before. Then I grabbed his wrist and applied a localized gravity field that sent him crashing into the cavern wall hard enough to leave a crater.
The third orc was smart enough to try running. I opened a rift directly under his feet. He fell through it and came out of another rift that deposited him gently at Cha Hae-In's feet, where her sword was waiting.
"Impressive," she said, wiping orc blood off her blade. "You make it look effortless."
"Good teamwork," I replied.
What followed was two hours of the most one-sided dungeon clear I'd ever seen. Cha Hae-In moved like a force of nature, cutting through monsters with surgical precision. I played support, using my spatial manipulation to control the battlefield—redirecting attacks, repositioning enemies, creating shortcuts through the dungeon's maze-like layout.
By the time we reached the boss chamber, I was starting to understand why she had such a reputation. The woman was a perfectionist, and her combat style reflected it. Every movement was calculated, every strike placed with mathematical precision.
The boss turned out to be a Greater Orc Chieftain—fifteen feet of muscle, bone, and bad attitude, wielding a two-handed axe that looked like it had been carved from a single piece of black stone.
"Standard pattern," Cha Hae-In said quietly. "I'll take point, you provide support. Try not to—"
She never finished the sentence because the Chieftain decided to skip the dramatic posturing and went straight to trying to flatten us with his axe.
I opened a rift that swallowed the weapon mid-swing, then closed another rift that dropped it harmlessly on the other side of the chamber. The Chieftain stared at his empty hands with what I could only describe as confused rage.
Cha Hae-In didn't waste the opening. Her sword found the gap between the monster's ribs with surgical precision, and the fight was over before it really began.
"Well," she said, pulling her weapon free, "that was anticlimactic."
We collected the magic crystals and monster materials in comfortable silence. The dungeon's natural dissolution process had already begun—walls were starting to fade, and the air itself seemed to be getting thinner.
"Question," I said as we headed back toward the entrance. "Do all A-rank dungeons go down this easily?"
"With the right team? Usually. Though I should mention that what we just did probably set some kind of speed record."
We emerged from the gate to find a much larger crowd waiting. News vans, Association officials, and what looked like representatives from several major guilds. My first dungeon raid had apparently become a spectacle.
Gun-hee approached us immediately. "How did it go?"
"Clean sweep," Cha Hae-In reported. "Mr. Cross's abilities are well-suited for dungeon environments. His spatial control provides excellent tactical support."
"And his combat performance?"
"Professional. Efficient. No wasted motion or unnecessary risks."
I appreciated the assessment, even though we both knew I'd been operating well below my actual capabilities. But that was the point—establish competence without revealing the full scope of what I could do.
"Excellent," Gun-hee said. "Mr. Cross, several guild representatives would like to speak with you. If you're interested."
I glanced at the waiting crowd and sighed internally. More politics, more careful conversations, more time spent away from my actual mission. But establishing my cover identity required playing the game.
"Sure. Let's get this over with."