The world was silent.
When Lee Shin opened his eyes, all he saw was darkness. Thick, suffocating darkness — broken only by the faint glow of blue crystals embedded in the shattered ceiling above. Dust drifted slowly through the air, glimmering like dying stars.
He moved his fingers first. Pain burned through his right arm, but it wasn't broken. His body ached from the fall, though the ring on his finger faintly pulsed — its soft light knitting torn muscle and sealing small wounds.
"…Tch."
He pushed himself up, coughing as the dust cleared. Around him stretched a wide chamber — ancient, circular, its walls carved with runes that hadn't seen light in centuries. Water dripped somewhere in the dark, echoing endlessly.
The floor was cracked, littered with remnants of broken weapons and shattered armor. This wasn't part of the academy's artificial labyrinth. It was older — far older.
His eyes narrowed.
"This is… a real dungeon."
The realization sent a chill down his spine.
He touched the wall, feeling the mana humming beneath its surface — wild, untamed, nothing like the academy's controlled environment. The labyrinth's magical foundation must have collapsed, merging with an unsealed dungeon buried below.
He was no longer in an exam.
He was in a death zone.
A faint growl rolled through the chamber.
He froze.
Something moved beyond the shadows — heavy, slow, deliberate. The faint scent of blood filled the air.
From the far corridor emerged a beast unlike anything the academy would ever release: a massive, serpentine creature cloaked in black scales, its eyes glowing molten gold. It slithered forward with an ancient grace, jaw splitting to reveal rows of jagged fangs.
A Wyrm Guardian — an evolved dungeon monster.
Its gaze locked on him.
"Of course," Shin muttered under his breath. "It had to be something like you."
He drew his sword, the faint blue aura flickering weakly along the edge. His mana was running low from the earlier fights, and the healing drain from his fall hadn't helped.
The wyrm hissed, lowering its head.
Then it lunged.
He rolled aside just as the ground split where he'd been standing, stone shards exploding in every direction. The shockwave nearly threw him off balance, but he steadied his stance, breathing sharply.
"Stay calm," he told himself. "Read the flow. Find the rhythm."
The creature turned again, coiling its massive body around the chamber, blocking his escape routes.
The ring pulsed.
A whisper echoed faintly in his mind.
"Do not fight it as a boy. Fight it as the man you once were."
His breath caught.
For a heartbeat, the world blurred — and he saw flashes.
A battlefield.
A sky split by lightning.
Himself — older, stronger, his blade glowing with the same blue light, standing atop fallen monsters.
Ryu Min-Seok, Commander of the 3rd Expedition Division.
The memory vanished as quickly as it came, but it left behind something tangible — a burning awareness deep in his core.
His mana began to circulate differently. Sharper. More efficient.
The wyrm lunged again. This time, Shin didn't dodge completely. He stepped into its movement, sliding under its neck and slashing upward with all his strength.
The blade cut deep, sparks and blood spraying across the stone. The wyrm shrieked, tail whipping toward him. It caught his side, sending him crashing into a pillar — pain flaring white-hot.
He spat blood, forced himself up, and gripped his sword tighter.
"Not yet…" he hissed. "I'm not dying again."
The ring flared bright blue. A surge of mana roared through his body, painful and exhilarating all at once. The floor beneath him cracked from the pressure.
He moved.
Faster than before, faster than his body should allow. His sword traced a gleaming arc through the air, slicing through the wyrm's scales again and again — precise, surgical strikes aimed at the joints and weak points he'd studied from years of battle experience.
With a final roar, he leapt, twisting in midair, and drove his blade into the beast's eye.
The wyrm screamed, thrashing violently, before collapsing with a thunderous crash.
For a long moment, Shin just stood there — chest heaving, body trembling, blood trickling from his lips. Then, as the creature's body began to dissolve into glowing mist, a notification flared in the air before him.
[System Notice: Unknown Dungeon Entity Defeated.]
[Special Awakening Progress: 17%]
[Stat Increase: Mana +12 | Strength +9 | Agility +6]
He stared at the glowing message, then exhaled slowly.
"So… that's how it works."
He wiped the blood from his mouth and sheathed his sword, the ring on his finger still faintly glowing. The whisper returned — softer this time.
"You are not yet what you were, but the path opens once more. Seek the second fragment."
"Second fragment?" he murmured. "So there's more of you."
Silence answered him.
He sat down against the wall, exhaustion washing over him like a tide. His body screamed for rest, but his mind was alive — alert, calculating.
Above him, faint vibrations echoed through the stone — distant sounds of battle. That meant the others were still fighting somewhere higher up. Probably against Class A.
And his half-brother was among them.
Shin clenched his fists. "Let's see how well you cheat without your father's shadow to hide behind."
He looked up toward the faint blue light above, where cracks revealed glimpses of the higher floor. He could sense faint mana signatures — one of them familiar.
Ryu Ahra.
Her presence pulsed softly, faint but alive. Relief flickered through him.
"Good," he whispered. "Stay safe."
Then he rose again, wiping the dust from his uniform. "If the labyrinth wants to bury me, it'll have to try harder."
He stepped deeper into the darkness, following the path that pulsed faintly with the ring's glow.
The tunnels stretched onward, leading to an ancient stone gate engraved with the same crest that once belonged to his expedition unit — the Ember Division.
Shin's breath caught.
"What… is this place?"
The gate pulsed, recognizing him somehow.
"Welcome back, Commander Ryu Min-Seok."
The voice was mechanical yet sorrowful. The ancient gate shuddered and opened, revealing a spiral staircase descending into endless light.
Shin stared into it, heart pounding.
"Looks like the past isn't done with me yet."
He took his first step downward.