At first glance, one would assume the place teemed with crimson monsters or high-grade demonic beasts—creatures dripping blood and fire, lurking behind every twisted tree. But the truth was far more unsettling.
There were fewer monsters here than in most ordinary forests.
The reason lay buried in history.
Three hundred years ago, during the era of racial wars, a Red Dragon of SS+ rank descended upon this land. She chose this forest as her nest, claiming it as her territory and giving birth to her offspring beneath its canopy.
For a time, the forest remained quiet.
Then humans noticed.
An unknown disturbance. Anomalous mana fluctuations. Fear-driven curiosity disguised as investigation.
When human forces entered the forest and discovered the dragon's young, they made a decision—one rooted in ignorance and arrogance.
They slaughtered them.
They believed they were preventing a future calamity. They believed they were protecting their nation.
They were wrong.
When the mother dragon discovered what had been done, her grief turned instantly into madness. The rage of an SS+ rank dragon was not something the world was meant to endure.
Her aura alone annihilated everything within thousands of kilometers. Cities vanished. Mountains collapsed. Millions of lives were erased in a single instant—reduced to nothing more than scorched memories.
By some miracle—or cruel twist of fate—two SS-rank human awakeners were present in the region at the time, conducting an unrelated investigation. They intervened immediately, erecting a spatial domain to contain the devastation.
Had they not acted, the entire nation would have been wiped from the map.
Even so, they paid the ultimate price.
Inside that isolated dimension, the two SS-rankers fought the dragon. Numbers meant nothing. Strategy meant little. A berserk SS+ rank dragon, driven by grief and wrath, was a calamity beyond reason.
They could not defeat her.
In the end, the dragon chose annihilation.
She self-destructed.
The resulting explosion erased everything inside the spatial domain—dragon and humans alike. Not even a fragment of their existence remained. Yet because of the sealed dimension, the world beyond was spared.
Their names were later engraved into history.
And the forest where that catastrophe began was forever known as—
The Red Devil Forest.
*****
I walked through the outer plains bordering the forest—land where no humans dared to live.
Not because they feared the dragon's return.
But because the laws of reality themselves were distorted here.
An invisible pressure weighed down on the mind and body, suppressing mental stability rather than physical strength. A normal human stepping into this region would collapse instantly—mind shattered, body imploding from the inside.
Even low- and mid-rank awakeners avoided this place entirely.
I could walk here only because of my bloodline.
The resistance granted to my mind was the sole reason I wasn't already crushed by the lingering remnants of a dead dragon's power.
An SS-ranker was called a calamity for a reason.
Even in death, their presence warped the world.
As I entered deeper into the forest, another question surfaced.
If this pressure destroyed living beings—humans and monsters alike—then how did the trees survive?
They stood tall, roots deep, leaves whispering softly despite the twisted laws pressing upon them.
Were plants exempt?
Or had they adapted over centuries, evolving to endure what flesh could not?
The thought lingered only briefly.
My perception flared.
A subtle pull—like a thread tugging at my awareness.
The coordinates.
I stopped thinking and increased my pace, following the invisible guidance. After ten or fifteen minutes of walking, I came upon something unexpected.
A narrow opening in the earth.
Calling it a cave felt generous. The entrance was barely wide enough for a person to crawl through. Worse, it sloped downward at an angle that made retreat impossible once inside.
A one-way passage.
If it led to a dead end, I would die there—unable to turn, unable to crawl back.
I swallowed.
Then exhaled slowly.
"Well," I muttered, "this is where my SSS+ luck stat earns its keep."
Lowering myself to the ground, I crawled inside.
The stench hit me immediately—worse than a sewer, thick and suffocating. My clothes scraped against damp stone as I moved inch by inch, maintaining a steady rhythm to avoid panic.
Time lost meaning.
Minutes felt like hours.
Just when my patience began to crack, light appeared ahead.
An opening.
Relief surged through me, and without thinking, I hurried forward and leapt out—
Only for gravity to remind me of its existence.
The tunnel opened into a massive underground cavern, vast enough to house an entire city. I was falling from several kilometers above.
Air pressure crushed against my body. My hair whipped violently as the ground rushed toward me.
"Shit—!"
I activated my abilities instantly, reinforcing my body and slowing my descent. The impact still sent shockwaves through the cavern floor, dust exploding outward as I landed.
When the dust settled, I stood calmly, brushing dirt from my clothes.
I retrieved my sword from my storage ring and secured it at my waist.
Then I looked around.
And my perception screamed.
At the center of the cavern lay several magic circles engraved deeply into the stone—ancient runic imprints humming with dormant power. Suspended above them was something unmistakable.
A sword hilt.
No blade.
Just the hilt—floating, waiting.
Every instinct warned me not to approach.
But turning back was no longer an option.
I stepped into the runic circle.
The moment my foot crossed the boundary, reality shifted.
Not my system.
This place's system activated.
[DING!]
[Host recognized as a participant in the Trial.]
[Number of Trials: 3]
[Reward: Unknown]
[Penalty for abandoning a Trial: One Major Rank Reduction]
[Proceed?]
"Yes or No?"
I stared at the glowing interface.
"…What the fuck?"
So this was why my perception had been screaming.
Regret surfaced—brief and pointless.
Even if I had known, I would have entered anyway.
That was just who I was.
I clicked my tongue and smiled faintly.
"Well then," I said quietly, tightening my grip on my sword,
"let's see what kind of lunatic leaves behind a trial with penalties like this."
And I pressed Yes.