Morning sunlight spilled through Fenrik's window, warm and ordinary—so ordinary it felt almost wrong after the nights in the dungeon.
Fenrik sat on his bed, staring at his arm. The faint markings from the axe pulsed slightly, a quiet reminder that the dungeon would return, but for now… nothing.
He sighed.
"Just a normal day. Please. Just one normal day."
At school, Fenrik struggled to blend in.
Bullies, chatter, and the familiar hallway noise hit him like a wall. But he noticed things differently this time:
A small symbol carved into a locker—like a claw mark—faint, almost invisible. He squinted.
A reflection in a window lagged for a fraction of a second.
"…It's still there," Fenrik muttered under his breath.
He walked to class and found Aoi Kanzaki waiting for him.
"You look like hell," Aoi said bluntly. "Did you even sleep?"
"I was busy… surviving," Fenrik replied dryly.
Aoi smirked. "Survival is exhausting, apparently."
Fenrik shook his head.
"You don't get it. It's not just survival. It's—"
He paused, realizing he couldn't explain the dungeon. Not yet.
Instead, he said quietly, "Something's happening… something bigger."
At lunch, Koharu Tsukino joined him.
"You're quiet today," she observed.
Fenrik shrugged.
"I'm trying to act normal."
Koharu smirked.
"You're failing."
They shared a small laugh. For a moment, the world felt like any normal day—until Fenrik noticed a shadow flicker at the edge of the cafeteria, moving against the light.
He blinked.
Nothing was there.
"Just my imagination," he whispered.
But he knew it wasn't.
After school, Fenrik wandered through the garden near the campus, thinking.
If the dungeon returned every night… if he was being tested… then he had to prepare.
"I can't just survive. I have to understand," Fenrik muttered.
"Every clue… every little thing in the real world might matter."
He noticed a strange pattern in the grass, almost like faint rune-like markings pressed into the soil. He crouched and traced them with his fingers.
"Are you… sending me messages?" he asked the wind.
Night fell, and Fenrik returned home.
He stared at the city skyline, thinking about the other chosen ones.
"Aoi, Koharu… and the others I haven't met yet," he whispered.
"I have to find them. Before whatever's coming finds us."
The faint pulse in his arm reminded him: the dungeon would return, but for now… the real world was his classroom, his friends, his life.
And soon, it would be the battlefield.