The axe began its descent.
Then the entire dungeon shook.
Stone cracked. Dust rained from the ceiling. The pillars groaned like they were about to collapse. The Warchief stumbled, its axe swing going wide.
Outside, a voice boomed through the walls: "BOY! HURRY UP IN THERE!"
That bastard.
But the distraction was enough. The goblins froze, looking up in confusion. The Warchief tried to regain its balance.
Asher didn't waste the opening. He gripped the rusted dagger, took aim, and threw.
The blade spun through the air and buried itself in the Warchief's left eye.
The creature shrieked, stumbling backward, clawing at its face.
The goblins panicked, scattering in confusion. Some ran for the exits, and others fired arrows wildly into the air.
Asher forced himself up, ignoring the arrow lodged in his side. He snatched a fallen club from a dead goblin and charged.
The Warchief roared, half-blind and enraged, swinging its massive axe in wide, desperate arcs. Asher ducked under one swing, rolled past another.
Get close. Stay close.
He brought the club down on the creature's knee. Bone cracked. The Warchief dropped, bellowing in pain.
Asher didn't hesitate. He grabbed the dagger still stuck in its eye socket and twisted.
The Warchief's scream cut off. Its body went limp, collapsing forward.
[Boss Defeated: Hobgoblin Warchief] [Time Remaining: 45:12]
Asher yanked the dagger free, blood dripping from the blade. His eyes scanned the chamber, goblins fleeing in every direction, their courage broken.
"Where are these ugly heads going?"
He limped after the nearest archer, club in one hand, dagger in the other. The goblin squealed, trying to nock an arrow with trembling hands. Too slow.
Asher's club caved in its skull. He moved to the next one. Then the next.
The ones that made it to the exits found the wooden barriers had sealed shut again. They clawed at the wood, screeching in panic.
Asher walked up behind them, methodically. Efficient. One by one, the chamber fell silent.
He stood there, chest heaving, surrounded by corpses. Green blood pooled around his boots. The arrow in his side throbbed with each breath.
A notification blazed across his vision:
[Level Up!] [Level 5 → Level 8] [Bonus Stats Awarded for Boss Kill]
[STR: 17 → 22 (+5)] [AGI: 15 → 20 (+5)] [VIT: 16 → 21 (+5)] [INT: 11 → 13 (+2)]
Warmth flooded through his body. The pain in his side dulled. His muscles stopped screaming. The arrow wound closed slightly, bleeding slowing to a trickle.
Asher stared at the notification, eyes wide. "Level 8? I spent years grinding to level 5, and I just jumped three levels in one fight?"
He flexed his fingers, feeling the raw power coursing through them. The fatigue in his limbs had vanished, replaced by a strength he'd never felt before. This was insane.
But something was off. The dungeon should've opened by now.
"Wait, why isn't the dungeon opening?" He frowned, looking around the chamber. "I already defeated the boss, didn't I?"
He pulled up the mission screen.
[Survive for 1 Hour to Unlock Your Class] [Time Remaining: 44:38]
The timer was still ticking down.
"Survive? Not defeat the boss?" Asher's eye twitched. "So I have to just... wait here for forty more minutes?"
He looked around the blood-soaked chamber. "Looks like there's no other choice."
But then something clicked. A memory surfaced: his father, drunk one night, mumbling about dungeons. Something about hidden bosses. Dungeon cores. The thing that maintained the dungeon's existence.
Asher's eyes narrowed. "If I destroy the core, does the dungeon collapse?"
He began to move forward. It wasn't as if he had anything better to do.
The corridor beyond the Warchief's chamber sloped downward, the air growing colder with each step. The torches along the walls flickered weakly, barely pushing back the darkness.
The corridor opened into a vast cavern. In the center, suspended in the air by chains of dark energy, floated a crystalline sphere, the dungeon core. It pulsed with that sickly purple light.
And coiled around its base was something massive.
A serpent, easily thirty feet long, its scales gleaming black and purple in the core's glow. Its eyes, slitted and yellow, fixed on Asher.
It hissed, the sound echoing through the cavern.
Asher raised his dagger, muscles tensing.
"Peace, young one." The serpent's voice slithered into his mind, smooth and ancient. "I mean you no harm. I am but a harmless guardian, bound to this place. If you wish to destroy the core and leave, I will not stop you."
Asher didn't lower his weapon. "Just like that? You'll let me destroy it?"
"I have no love for this prison." The serpent's head swayed lazily. "Do as you wish."
Easy. Way too easy. But Asher moved forward anyway, eyes locked on the creature. If it tried something, he'd—
He reached the core, raised his dagger.
The serpent struck.
Not at him, at the core itself.
The crystal shattered. Purple energy exploded outward, and the serpent's form began to dissolve into that same energy, spiraling around Asher like a vortex.
"Fool," the voice hissed in his mind. "Did you think I wanted freedom? I wanted you."
The energy wrapped around him, burning into his skin. Asher tried to move, tried to dodge, but it was everywhere, seeping into his pores, his blood, his bones.
[WARNING: Dungeon Core Corruption Detected] [Curse Protocol Initiated]
The serpent's laughter echoed as its form completely dissolved, pouring the dungeon's entire power into Asher.
"A curse... born from a dungeon's dying breath. Enjoy your gift."
Pain exploded through every nerve. His vision went white.
**
Asher's eyes snapped open.
Every muscle in his body screamed. He groaned, trying to move, but even breathing hurt. His whole body felt like it had been run over by a stampede. He was lying on the grass. A blue sky above.
Just then, notifications flooded his vision:
[Congratulations!] [You have unlocked a Unique Class: Gambler]
Asher stared at the words, his brain struggling to process.
"What the hell...?"