The cavern was a screaming, sizzling nightmare.
"Back! Get back!" Goran shrieked, swinging his massive 'King Slayer' axe wildly.
He wasn't slaying anything. The Crystal-Acid Scorpions were too fast, skittering over his shield and clamping onto his oversized armor. One scorpion drove its stinger into Goran's pauldron. The acid hissed, eating through the steel like butter.
"My armor! That cost 500 credits!" Goran wailed, kicking the beast off.
"I can't aim!" Jinx yelled from the back, shooting fireballs that exploded harmlessly against the stone walls. "They're everywhere!"
Silas, the rogue, had already vanished into stealth, hiding in a crevice and leaving his teammates to die.
"Mask-Boy!" Goran roared, spotting Kael standing still amidst the chaos. "Don't just stand there! Be a meat shield! Die so we can run!"
Kael didn't move. He watched a scorpion lunging at him, its stinger dripping with green death.
[ Durability of Shadow-Shard: 10/10 ] [ Hostile Count: 52 ] [ Tactics: Surgical. ]
"Sorry," Kael's distorted voice rasped through his mask. "I don't do 'dying'."
The scorpion struck.
[ Blink Step ]
There was a sound like tearing paper—ZZZT.
Kael vanished. The scorpion's stinger hit empty air.
Before the creature could retract its tail, Kael reappeared directly above it, gravity inverted for a split second. He drove the jagged Shadow-Shard straight through the scorpion's carapace, severing the nerve cluster.
The beast collapsed instantly.
Kael didn't land. He kicked off the dying carcass, blurring into a violet streak.
ZZZT. ZZZT. ZZZT.
To Goran and Jinx, it looked like the cave was glitching. The "porter" was teleporting in short, jagged bursts, appearing only long enough to deliver a killing blow before vanishing again.
Kael was a ghost in the swarm. He didn't hack or slash. He punctured. Eye. Neck. Joint. Eye.
[ Shadow-Shard Durability: 8/10 ] [ Shadow-Shard Durability: 5/10 ]
He moved with a cold, mechanical efficiency that made the D-Rank "elites" look like children flailing with sticks.
Goran lowered his axe, his mouth hanging open. "What the hell..."
A massive scorpion, the Alpha of the pack, lunged at Jinx from the ceiling. The mage screamed, freezing in place.
Kael blinked. He appeared between the mage and the monster.
He didn't stab this time. He grabbed the Alpha's tail mid-strike with his bare hand, his Ash Phase activating just enough to turn his skin into smoke, letting the acid pass harmlessly through his grip.
He yanked the scorpion down, slamming it into the stone floor with a crater-forming impact.
Then, he drove the shard into its brain.
[ Shadow-Shard Durability: 0/10 ] Snap.
The makeshift weapon shattered in his hand, turning into dust.
Silence fell over the cavern.
Fifty-two scorpions lay dead. The air was thick with the smell of burnt ozone and sizzling acid.
Kael stood over the Alpha, shaking the dust off his hand. He turned to the stunned party. His gas mask stared at them blankly.
"You missed a spot," Kael said.
The Loot
Goran was the first to recover. He scrambled over the carcasses, his earlier arrogance replaced by a sweaty, desperate ingratiation.
"By the Gods!" Goran laughed nervously, clapping Kael on the shoulder (but flinching when Kael looked at him). "I knew it! I knew you were special! That was a test! The 'Meat Shield' thing? A test of character! You passed, brother!"
Jinx peeked out from behind a rock. "You... you killed them all. Are you really E-Rank?"
"Sure," Kael lied. He walked past them, ignoring their praise.
He went straight to the back of the cavern, where the Alpha had fallen. Beneath the moss and sludge, a vein of dark, jagged rock pulsed with faint mana.
[ Item Detected: Abyssal Ore (High Purity). ]
Kael pulled out a mining pick from the bag he had been forced to carry. He swung it. Clang.
He harvested the ore quickly, filling a small pouch with the black rocks. This was the material for his Soul Weapon. The key to the Sanctum's forge.
"Hey," Silas's voice came from the shadows. The scout had finally un-stealthed. He was leaning against the wall, twirling his knife. His eyes weren't filled with awe like the others. They were filled with calculation.
"That wasn't normal movement," Silas said softly. "Short-range teleportation. No incantation. No cooldown. That's a Rare Skill. Maybe even Unique."
Kael stopped mining. He turned slowly to face Silas.
"And?" Kael asked.
"And," Silas smiled thinly, "people would pay a lot of money to know who's hiding under that mask."
Kael walked up to Silas. He moved normally, but the threat radiated off him like heat. He leaned in close, his gas mask inches from Silas's face.
"Listen closely," Kael rasped. "I killed fifty monsters in two minutes. Do you really want to negotiate with me?"
Silas's smile faltered. He saw the cold, dead look in the lenses of the mask. He realized, suddenly, that he wasn't talking to a hunter. He was talking to something else.
"No," Silas swallowed. "Just... making conversation."
"Good." Kael strapped the ore pouch to his belt. "This ore is my share. You keep the rest. The scorpions, the cores, the credit. All of it."
Goran's eyes bugged out. "All of it? That's thousands of credits!"
"Take it," Kael said, walking toward the exit. "But here is the price: You never saw me. I was never here. You cleared this dungeon yourselves."
He stopped at the tunnel entrance and looked back one last time.
"If I hear my description on the news... I won't come back as a porter."
He vanished into the shadows of the tunnel.
The Betrayal
Goran and Jinx spent the next hour cheering, harvesting scorpion cores, and talking about how rich they were going to be.
"We're heroes!" Goran shouted. "I'll tell everyone I used my 'King Slayer' whirlwind attack!"
Silas didn't join them. He stood near the entrance, staring at the spot where Kael had vanished.
He pulled a small, sleek device from his boot. It was a encrypted communicator, stamped with a golden insignia: The Protectorate Intelligence Division.
Silas wasn't just a D-Rank scout. He was a 'Spotter'—a low-level informant paid to find rogue talents for the Vanguard.
He pressed the transmit button.
"Handler," Silas whispered. "This is Spotter 49."
"Report," a cold voice answered.
"I found him. The Anomaly from the arena. The one who refused the contract."
"Location?"
"Weeping Mines. He was wearing a disguise, but the skill set matches. Teleportation. High combat efficiency. He just solo-cleared a D-Rank swarm in under 120 seconds."
There was a pause on the other end.
"Did he engage you?"
"No. He threatened us and left. He has Abyssal Ore. He's probably heading to a forge."
"Excellent work, Spotter 49. The bounty is yours. Transferring coordinates to the Intercept Team now."
Silas smirked, closing the device. He looked at the pile of scorpion loot Goran was hoarding.
"Sorry, Mask-Boy," Silas muttered. "But 500 gold pays better than fear."