Era of Players: Death God-Chapter 296: The Hidden Ruins Beneath the Forest

The forest was silent.

Silent in the way only death could bring.

The corpses of monsters lay scattered across the battlefield, painting the moss and dirt in shades of crimson and black. Broken trees leaned at odd angles where ogre clubs had shattered their trunks. Blood dripped steadily from Nemesis, black steel gleaming faintly under the moonlight.

Noah stood among it all, chest rising and falling in a steady rhythm. He looked calm, but every muscle in his body hummed with the aftershocks of battle.

"...Over."

The word left his lips like a sigh.

The seventh floor had thrown a wave at him, a storm of steel, fang, and muscle — and he had cut through it all. Yet, even in victory, Noah’s golden eyes flickered with unease. The system wouldn’t place a horde like this without reason.

And the egg...

His gaze flickered briefly toward the golden egg nestled safely inside his item box. Even now, he could feel it pulsing faintly against his mana core, as if feeding off the carnage, siphoning strength from the slain monsters.

He shook his head, gripping his sword tighter. "No time to rest."

As he pushed deeper into the seventh floor, the forest changed.

The air grew heavier, colder. The scent of iron thickened, clinging to his skin. The canopy blotted out the moonlight entirely, leaving only darkness. To others, it would be suffocating. To Noah — under Night of Death — it was clarity.

He walked in silence, boots sinking into moss. Around him, strange symbols began to appear on the trees — carvings, not natural patterns. They spiraled upward, etched with precision. Some glowed faintly with residual mana, pulsing like veins.

"A warding...?" Noah muttered, running his hand across one. The wood was cold, unnaturally so.

The deeper he went, the denser the carvings became, until finally, the trees gave way to a clearing.

At the center stood something impossible.

A massive ruin, half-buried in the earth, its stone walls cracked and weathered by centuries. The architecture was unlike anything Noah had seen — towering spires carved with intricate runes, gates of obsidian stone covered in chains of mana.

It pulsed. Alive.

Noah’s eyes narrowed. "A hidden dungeon..."

The moment he stepped into the clearing, the ground responded. The runes on the ruin walls ignited in crimson, one by one, like the heartbeat of a slumbering beast roused from dreams.

A voice, deep and ancient, whispered through the air.

[Intruder Detected.]

[Test Commencing.]

Noah’s hand instinctively tightened on Nemesis.

The ground cracked — jagged lines of light burst outward, forming a circle beneath him. The chains around the ruin gates rattled, shattering into shards of glowing mana. From within the cracks, shapes began to rise.

Figures.

At first humanoid, then monstrous.

Armored warriors with hollow eyes and rusted swords. Stone golems with glowing cores beating like hearts. Winged serpents slithering from cracks in the walls. Dozens. Hundreds.

Noah exhaled slowly, golden eyes gleaming with fire.

"So this is your test?"

He raised his blade. Shadows curled eagerly along its edge.

"Fine. Then let’s begin."

The undead warriors came first, rushing in tight formation, rusted blades raised. Their movements were mechanical, but precise, remnants of training still etched into their bones.

Noah blurred forward. His blade sliced through armor and bone with effortless precision. One fell, then two, then five. He weaved between strikes, cutting joints, decapitating skulls, his movements a dance of lethal grace.

But behind them, the stone golems advanced. Each step shook the earth, their bodies cracking but reforging as mana pulsed through them.

One raised its massive arm, crashing it down like a hammer. Noah dodged, shadows flickering around his feet, and countered with a slash aimed at the glowing core in its chest. Nemesis bit deep — the golem convulsed before shattering into rubble.

The winged serpents descended next, their screeches splitting the air. They spat globes of corrosive acid that sizzled against the ground, eating through stone. Noah spun, slashing one mid-air, its body unraveling into mist. Another dove, fangs bared. He thrust upward — the blade skewered its skull, pinning it against the ruin wall.

But still, they came.

Wave after wave, as though the ruin itself was vomiting forth centuries of guardians to repel him.

Mid-battle, Noah felt it.

The egg inside his item box pulsed violently, almost... hungry. His mana was being siphoned faster, its glow leaking into the air. For a brief moment, the battlefield itself seemed to bend toward him, shadows lengthening unnaturally, monsters flinching as if repelled.

Noah’s eyes flickered to the horizon of enemies. His lips curled into a grin.

"Are you feeding on this?" he muttered, voice low. "Fine... then grow stronger with me."

He raised Nemesis, letting his mana surge unchecked. The black aura roared to life, expanding outward like a tidal wave of night.

Undead warriors froze. The serpents shrieked. Even the golems cracked under the suffocating weight of his aura.

The waves slowed.

From the ruin’s cracked gates, a figure emerged — not monstrous, but humanoid.

A knight, clad in jet-black armor etched with glowing red runes. In its hands, a massive greatsword, taller than Noah himself. Its visor burned with twin crimson lights.

The ground quaked as it stepped forward, its voice a hollow echo.

[Final Guardian of the Ruin.]

[Prove yourself, or be annihilated.]

Noah’s grip on Nemesis tightened. His golden eyes burned brighter.

"...Perfect."

The knight charged, the greatsword descending like a falling star. Noah’s blade rose to meet it, and the clash detonated the air in a burst of shadows and crimson light.

The ruin itself shook.

And Noah... smiled.

Meanwhile, in the lower floors, a certain silver haired cold beauty was sweeping through the floors at astonishing rate, she took four hours to conquer two floors and after that her speed increased, naturally it was because of her level increasing, her strength increased, she acquired new skills and mastered the ones she had, making her overall strength to skyrocket. If she were to fight Noah right now despite him being ahead in term of level he might not necessarily win.