Morning light broke over Havenford in pale, reluctant streaks. Lucian was already dressed and packed by the time Ryan knocked on his door at 5:45 AM — fifteen minutes early, which meant Ryan either hadn’t slept or was genuinely excited about the mission. Probably both.

"Ready?" Ryan asked through the door, his voice muffled.

Lucian opened it. Ryan stood there in academy-issued combat gear, a field kit strapped to his belt, his glasses slightly crooked, his hair uncombed. He looked like a mad scientist who had accidentally wandered into a military surplus store with a bag at his side.

"Your glasses are crooked," Lucian said.

Ryan pushed them up. "It’s your face that is crooked."

Lucian stepped back into his room and closed the door in Ryan’s face. He heard Ryan sigh on the other side.

Alone for thirty seconds, Lucian opened the system shop and navigated to the accessories section. He scrolled past enhancement rings, mana-conducting bracelets, and sensory amulets until he found what he was looking for.

╔══════════════════════╗

║ ITEM: BASIC STORAGE RING ║

║ Rank: F ║

║ Type: Dimensional Accessory ║

║ Storage Capacity: 2m³ ║

║ Cannot store living organisms. ║

║ Price: 500 SC ║

║ A simple spatial ring engraved with a basic expansion array. ║

╚═══════════════════════╝

Lucian purchased it without hesitation. 9,600 SC dropped to 9,100 SC. A small leather pouch materialized in his palm, inside which sat a plain silver band. He slipped it into his pocket.

He didn’t need a storage ring. His Shadow Storage was infinitely superior — larger capacity, faster access, and invisible to anyone observing. But Ryan didn’t have that luxury. Ryan had been lugging beast cores and herb samples around in a bulky field pack like a caveman. A storage ring would make his research expeditions immeasurably easier.

Lucian would never tell Ryan where it came from. He’d just say he bought it from a street vendor in Havenford.

He opened the door. Ryan was leaning against the wall, scrolling through his tablet.

"Here." Lucian tossed the silver ring at him.

Ryan caught it reflexively. He turned it over in his fingers, frowning. "What’s this?"

"Storage ring. Two cubic meters."

Ryan’s eyes widened. "A storage ring? These cost at least— where did you get this?"

"Street vendor in Havenford. Near the east market."

"A street vendor selling storage rings?" Ryan’s eyes narrowed behind his glasses. "That’s not suspicious at all."

"You’re welcome."

Ryan stared at the ring for another long moment. Then he slipped it onto his right index finger, pressed his thumb to the engraving, and felt the spatial connection lock into place. His field pack suddenly felt significantly lighter as he transferred half its contents into the ring.

"This is... actually really good quality for a street find," Ryan muttered, turning his hand.

"Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Let’s go."

They left the house and walked to the academy’s transportation hub — a collection of mana-powered vehicles parked near the main gate. Lucian flashed his student ID to the attendant, and they were assigned a sleek, two-seater hovercar. The vehicle hummed to life, its mana engine purring softly as it lifted off the ground.

Lucian took the driver’s seat. He was a terrible driver. Ryan gripped the armrest within the first thirty seconds.

"Slow down."

"I’m going the speed limit."

"The speed limit doesn’t mean aim for every pothole."

"That was one pothole."

"That was four potholes."

They flew east in tense silence, the academy walls shrinking behind them. The landscape below shifted from the orderly streets of Havenford to wilder terrain — dense vegetation, broken roads, and the occasional ruin from the Cataclysm. After twenty minutes, Lucian banked the hovercar toward a depression in the earth surrounded by tactical vehicles and armed personnel.

The Crown Task Force had already secured the perimeter.

The UK’s domestic security force operated the British branch of the global Task Force system, and they looked the part. Armed officers in black tactical gear formed a tight barricade around the dungeon entrance — a swirling, oval-shaped portal of orange energy that pulsed like a heartbeat. Mana rifles were slung across their chests. A few Mid Neophyte awakened officers stood at key checkpoints, their presence marked by the faint distortion of mana radiating from their bodies.

Behind the barricade, a crowd of independent hunters milled about — rough-looking men and women in worn combat gear, eyeing the portal with predatory hunger. Dungeons weren’t just threats. They were treasure troves. Beast cores, rare herbs, mana-infused minerals — all of it worth serious credits on the open market. The hunters outside looked like wolves waiting for a scrap.

Lucian and Ryan landed the hovercar near the checkpoint and stepped out. A Task Force officer — a stocky woman with a buzz cut and a scar across her jaw — held up her palm.

"Halt. Identification."

Both of them presented their academy student IDs. The officer scanned them with a handheld device. It beeped green.

"European All-Star Academy students. F-Rank dungeon. Registered duo?" She checked her tablet. "Grimaud and Duncan. Confirmed. You have forty-eight hours. No extraction teams will be sent in after the first twenty-four. If you’re not out by the deadline, you’re listed as KIA."

A/N: For those who don’t know what KIA means, it means Killed In Action.

"Understood," Lucian said.

The officer stepped aside and waved them through the barricade. A few of the hunters outside grumbled — academy students getting priority access while they waited in line.

They approached the portal.

His system pulsed.

╔══════════════════════╗

║ ⚠ — QUEST GENERATED — ⚠ ║

║ CLEAR THE F-RANK DUNGEON ║

║ Objective: Destroy the dungeon core ║

║ Time Limit: 48 hours ║

║ Reward: ??? ║

╚══════════════════════╝

Lucian dismissed the notification. "Ready?"

Ryan cracked his knuckles. "Born ready."

They stepped through the portal.

The transition was instantaneous — a gut-wrenching lurch, like being pulled through a straw — and then solid ground. Lucian’s boots hit dirt. Dry, cracked, sunbaked dirt.

The dungeon environment was a wasteland. Arid plains stretched in every direction, dotted with dead trees, bleached rock formations, and patches of thorny scrub. The sky above was a perpetual, hazy orange — not a sun, just diffuse light radiating from nowhere. The air was hot, dry, and thick with dust.

Ryan coughed, waving a hand in front of his face. "Lovely. Feels like someone’s armpit."

Lucian ignored him and closed his eyes.

Blood Sense.

The world expanded in his mind. Every living creature within two hundred meters lit up like fireflies — their heartbeats, their blood flow, their positions rendered in precise, three-dimensional detail. Small signatures. Clustered. Moving in packs. F-Rank beasts. Shadow hounds, based on the movement patterns — low to the ground, flanking formations.

Nothing above E-Rank within range.

"Northwest," Lucian said, opening his eyes. "Two clicks to the core. Multiple small signatures along the path. Nothing heavy."

Ryan nodded, cracking his neck. Twin blades of crystalline ice materialized in his hands. "Let’s go shopping."

They moved northwest. Lucian led, his footsteps silent on the cracked earth, his Blood Sense mapping the terrain ahead like a living radar. Ryan followed close behind, his ice blades dripping condensation onto the parched ground.

The first pack found them before they found the pack.

Six shadow hounds burst from behind a cluster of dead trees — matte black fur that drank the ambient light, sickly yellow eyes, jaws dripping black saliva. They were F-Rank, about the size of large dogs, but fast. They moved in coordination, splitting into two groups of three and flanking from both sides.

Three on the left. Three on the right. A classic pack tactics.

Ryan didn’t hesitate. He thrust both palms outward. Six ice spears materialized around him in a ring — sharp, gleaming, each one three feet long — and fired. Three shot left. Three shot right.

SHHK. SHHK. SHHK.

The spears punched through two hounds on the left, pinning them to the ground. One spear missed. On the right, two spears hit their marks. One hound dodged.

Lucian was already moving. Four Light Blades materialized around him — thin, glowing swords of compressed light energy that hovered in the air like obedient soldiers. With a flick of his will, two blades shot forward.

SWOOSH. SWOOSH.

The dodging hound on the right was bisected mid-leap — two clean halves hitting the ground with a wet thump. The surviving hound on the left lunged at Lucian’s throat. A third Light Blade intercepted it, driving through its skull and out the back of its head.

The last hound tried to flee. Ryan raised a hand. An ice spike erupted from the ground beneath it, impaling it through the chest.

Silence. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Six corpses. Twelve seconds.

The system chimed.

╔════════════════════╗

║ COMBAT EXP UPDATE ║

║ F-Rank Shadow Hound (Low) × 3: +150 EXP ║

║ F-Rank Shadow Hound (Mid) × 2: +200 EXP ║

║ F-Rank Shadow Hound (Peak) × 1: +200 EXP ║

║ Total: +550 EXP ║

╚════════════════════╝

Lucian dismissed the notification. The peak F-Rank one gave as much EXP as two mid.

Ryan was already crouching beside the corpses, using a small knife to extract the mana cores from their chests. The cores were small — dull gray, about the size of a marble — but they added up. He slipped each one into his new storage ring.

"This ring is a lifesaver," Ryan muttered, not looking up. "I can’t believe you found this at a street vendor."

"Lucky day," Lucian said flatly.

"You don’t have lucky days. You have suspiciously convenient days."

"Keep harvesting and stop arguing. Maybe I should have gone with Rose."

They pushed deeper into the dungeon. The terrain grew rougher — narrow ravines, jagged rock formations, and more dead vegetation. The beasts came in waves. Shadow hounds. A few giant centipedes — F-Rank, but disgusting — that exploded in bursts of green ichor when Lucian’s Light Blades cut them apart.

Ryan’s ice manipulation was devastating against the smaller beasts. He created ice spikes from the ground, froze the earth beneath packs of shadow hounds to slow them, and launched volleys of ice shards with mechanical precision. His Dual Awakener mind — enhanced by Critical Mind — processed battle data in real time, adjusting tactics on the fly.

Lucian fought with brutal efficiency. Light Blades for ranged kills. Sword of Aikis for anything that got too close. Scarlet Threads to bind the faster beasts before cutting them apart.

Thirty minutes of continuous combat. Dozens of kills. Ryan’s storage ring was filling with beast cores. Lucian’s EXP counter climbed steadily.

╔═══════════════════════╗

║ COMBAT EXP UPDATE (CUMULATIVE) ║

║ Total Beasts Slain: 34 ║

║ Total EXP Gained: 4,200 EXP ║

║ Current EXP: 13,650 / 20,000 ║

╚════════════════════════╝

They reached a narrow canyon between two massive rock formations. The walls were close — barely ten feet apart — and the shadows between them were deep. Lucian’s Blood Sense reached into the darkness.

One large signature with a heavy blood flow.

Early E-Rank.

Lucian raised his fist. They stopped.

"What is it?" Ryan whispered.

"Something bigger. Early E-Rank. Inside the canyon."

Ryan peered into the darkness. "How big?"

Lucian’s Blood Sense painted the picture in his mind — a wide, flat body. Eight legs. A long, segmented tail curving over its back. Massive pincers.

"Desert scorpion. About the size of a car."

Ryan swallowed. "Ah."

The canyon was the only path to the dungeon core.

Lucian and Ryan exchanged a look.

"After you," Ryan said.

"Motherfucking coward," Lucian muttered.