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Jin reached out with his Mantle's essence, invisible chains of harvest latching onto the golem. But instead of power flowing into him, it was the construct's raw, alien fear that hit him first.
Ugh... fuck.
Since when do golems feel fear?
The emotion crashed into his mind like a sledgehammer. Jin clawed at his head, gasping as foreign terror flooded his consciousness. But he didn't let go of the harvest chains—something told him that if he released this power now, he'd likely faint from all the internal damage he'd sustained.
His mind reached out desperately, triggering [The Reader's Dominion] without conscious thought.
Instantly, it was as if someone had lifted a crushing weight off his shoulders. The skill filtered the emotional feedback, turning chaos into manageable information streams.
Better. Much better.
The golem tried to step back, its damaged systems screaming warnings that its mechanical mind couldn't process. For something designed to be an unstoppable killing machine, the concept of fear was as foreign as breathing underwater.
"What's wrong, you oversized pile of scrap?" Jin called out, his voice carrying new confidence now that the burden was manageable.
The golem's remaining arm swung toward him in a desperate haymaker that could have pulverized stone. Jin didn't dodge—he didn't need to.
He reached out with his harvest chains, piercing deeper and deeper until he was touching the construct's essence. Its core.
"Let the harvest begin," he whispered, silver light crackling along his skin. "And may none be spared."
And then Jin began to truly harvest.
It started as a trickle—wisps of dark energy flowing from the golem's cracked armor into Jin's glowing form. The construct's movements became sluggish, its red visor dimming as something fundamental was being drained away.
Jin could feel it all flowing into him—raw statistics that his Order 0 body couldn't use yet, compressed experience representing decades of combat data, magical resistances accumulated through countless battles. And underneath it all, something incredibly precious.
Latent aura. The refined essence that came from surviving countless conflicts.
Holy shit. Harvest is broken...
Rudy and I are still Order 0 for a reason... The amount I can harvest is very low, but if I keep consistently harvesting things, then...
His body began to vibrate with overflow energy. Power coursed through his veins like liquid starlight, and Jin realized with growing alarm that he was approaching his breakthrough threshold.
"Oh shit! No, no, no," he muttered through gritted teeth, silver light beginning to crack along his skin like fractures in glass. "Not yet."
Ascending to Order I would ruin my plans... I need to accumulate as much latent aura as possible first. Only then would I be able to ignore rank suppression and punch above my weight.
I need more preparation, more resources, and a better understanding of my Mantle before I take that step.
The harvest was accelerating. The golem's bounty poured into him faster as the construct grew weaker, and Jin could feel his spiritual boundaries beginning to crack under the pressure.
I'm going to break through whether I want to or not. Unless...
"Rudy!" he called out desperately, his voice distorting as power threatened to tear him apart from within. "Finish it! Now! I can't hold this much longer!"
"Understood… I was just catching a break!"
His friend didn't hesitate. The Greatsword of Forlorn blazed with the last of Rudy's strength as he channeled everything into one final attack. The blade sang through the air in a perfect horizontal arc.
"For both of us!" Rudy roared.
The sword met the golem's damaged torso and carved clean through ancient stone and metal like paper. Sparks cascaded as magical conduits severed, and the massive construct's death scream filled the chamber with grinding, mechanical agony.
The top half of the floor, one boss toppled backward, crashing to the floor in a shower of dissolving fragments. The bottom half swayed before collapsing as well.
But the harvest wasn't stopping. If anything, the golem's destruction had accelerated the process. Power continued flooding into Jin's system, threatening to push him over the edge into Order I whether he wanted it or not.
Think, Jin. Think like the reader you are. What would a protagonist do here? How do you redirect overwhelming power when containment fails?
"Damn it," Jin growled, making a decision that would have been impossible without his evolved understanding.
Instead of trying to contain the overflow, he redirected it. All that excess power, all those precious stats and latent aura, flowed not into his own advancement but into the living spirit bonded to his armor.
Reduvia. Take it. Take it all and grow.
The infant spirit responded like a flower opening to sunlight.
Jin felt Reduvia's consciousness expand in real-time, its understanding deepening, its power growing. What had been little more than instinct and hunger was rapidly becoming something approaching true intelligence. The spirit's gratitude washed over him like warm waves.
The armor itself began to change. The simple leather and metal took on new properties as Reduvia integrated the harvested power. Patterns of silver light traced across its surface like living circuitry.
A little investment for the future... but damn, you are a greedy one.
And then, as suddenly as it had begun, the harvest was complete.
The golem's remains crumbled into dust that sparkled with traces of precious metals and crystallized essence. A few items remained behind—materials that would have been impossible to obtain any other way.
Jin swayed on his feet, drained but intact, still Order 0 but with foundations that would make his eventual breakthrough spectacular if he survived that long.
"Is it over?" Rudy asked, his voice heavy with exhaustion as he leaned on his greatsword.
"Yeah," Jin gasped, wiping blood from his nose. "We actually fucking did it."
Before either could say more, the chamber around them began to transform.
Light erupted from every surface as ancient mechanisms suddenly activated. The damaged floor sealed itself, scorch marks fading as if they had never existed. Cracked pillars straightened and repaired themselves. The air itself seemed to freshen, carrying hints of healing magic that made their wounds begin to close.
Environmental restoration. This place really is pulling out all the stops.
And in the center of it all, a presence manifested.
It wasn't quite a spirit, wasn't quite an AI—something between the two, old beyond measure but carrying an unmistakable sense of loneliness. It appeared as a slowly rotating orb of soft blue light, beautiful and somehow melancholic.
"Magnificent," the presence said, its voice carrying harmonics that resonated in their bones. "Truly magnificent. Our decision to pour all our resources into fueling your growth was the correct one."
Jin struggled to his feet, a question that had been nagging him since the dungeon's first conversation finally demanding an answer.
"Why, though? Dungeons are supposed to kill challengers, not help them. You literally transformed yourself into a one-time instance just to make us stronger. What's your game here?"
The presence paused, its light dimming slightly as if the question had touched on something painful.
"You ask difficult questions, O Beyonder. Yes, normally that would be the case. Dungeons exist to test, to challenge, to claim the lives of those who would dare their depths. We are meant to be obstacles, barriers that separate the weak from the strong."
"But?" Rudy prompted, sensing there was more to the story.
"But this is not a normal dungeon," the presence continued, its voice taking on an almost wistful quality. "This is a Conquest-type dungeon. We do not exist merely to kill—we exist to be conquered. Clear all floors, defeat all guardians, prove your worth beyond question, and earn the right to claim what lies at our heart."
Jin's mind immediately went to the novels he'd read, the games he'd played, the stories where special dungeons contained prizes beyond imagination.
That damn author never went too much into worldbuilding. Even the main cast wasn't interested in understanding the world and its wonders.
To them, only power and the eradication of demons mattered.
"And what exactly lies at your heart?" he asked, though part of him suspected he already knew the answer would be significant.
The presence's light pulsed brighter, almost eagerly. "That, dear inheritors, is not important for now. What matters are the rewards you have earned through your victory today."
The orb began to glow more intensely, and Jin could feel something building in the air around them—power waiting to be distributed, treasures ready to be claimed, possibilities that made his reader's instincts practically vibrate with anticipation.
"But first," the presence added, its tone shifting to something almost parental, "rest. Heal. You have pushed yourselves beyond reasonable limits and have earned true respite."
Jin looked at Rudy, saw his own bone-deep exhaustion reflected in his friend's purple eyes, and felt something tight in his chest finally relax. They'd done it. They'd actually survived and won against impossible odds.
We're alive... this dungeon scale already went way beyond what I expected.
I've got to keep in mind this is not a novel and definitely not an imaginary fictional world. People here are real, and as such, there would be variations I never anticipated.
"Whatever comes next," Jin said, his voice quiet but carrying absolute certainty, "we face it together."
Rudy's tired grin was answer enough.
"But honestly," Jin continued, unable to stop himself from rambling despite his exhaustion, "the anxiety is gonna be the end of us if we don't see what we earned soon. I mean, we just killed a Peak Order II construct. The loot better be worth nearly dying for."
"Indeed, as my stupid genius friend says," Rudy chimed in with a weak laugh, "show us the shiny things before we collapse."
"Yeah, show us the shinies!"
The dungeon presence laughed—a sound like wind chimes in a gentle breeze, warm and oddly comforting.
A soft glow materialized in front of them, taking the shape of three floating pedestals.
"Each pedestal represents a path," the presence spoke, its voice carrying the weight of destiny itself. "And dear Jin, we believe you will make the right decision for you and your companion."
Path?… wait a fucking second… is this what I think it is!!!
~~~