CHAPTER 1184: FIRST LEVEL

Erend walked a few steps ahead, the grass trembling beneath his boots before he unfurled his Dragon wings with a single sharp motion.

The black and crimson membranes snapped open, catching the air.

He pushed off the ground and soared upward in a smooth rise.

Behind him, Eccar followed with a burst of wind, his own wings spreading wide as he ascended to Erend’s flank.

From above, the battlefield looked like a scattering of raging storms. Fire spiraled from Arty, lightning streaked from Adrien, golden arcs carved the air around King Gulben, and shards of ice burst from Sylmira’s and Aesa’s side. Everyone was still fully engaged, dealing with their own wave of monsters.

Erend lifted a hand, gathering a pulse of Magic in his throat before releasing his voice.

"Excuse me."

It boomed across the meadow like rolling thunder, reaching every fighter without disrupting the space.

All heads tilted upward toward him, but none of them stopped moving. The monsters were still lunging, clawing, and snarling around them so they couldn’t let their guard down too much.

"I think it’s time to move further," Erend called out, his voice echoing through the place. "This place is too easy for all of you. I only wanted you to taste the first level. But after seeing your battles, I’m certain you’re ready for a real challenge."

Below, King Gulben fought as calmly as ever. Aurdis unleashed a blade of lightning. Aerchon cut down another reptilian beast. Adrien and Billy blasted a wave of monsters away. Arty crushed an incoming wolf in a spiral of fire. Sylmira shattered a ghostly construct with frost. And Aesa calmly killed monsters with the wave of one of her hands.

None of them disagreed about the idea. Their hearts burned with the same acknowledgment that Level 1 was nothing. If they wanted to grow and sharpen themselves into stronger versions of themselves who fit for what lay ahead, then they needed more.

"When do we start?!" Billy shouted back, grinning even as he burned another monster to ash.

As if answering him, a ripple tore through the air a few meters away.

A new door materialized. It was tall, black, and carved with glowing markings. It was the gate to the next level.

Erend had spoken with Veyrun just moments earlier through the system and the Dungeon World acknowledged him.

As long as he stayed within these first twenty levels, he now held the authority to open them as he saw fit. From there, they need to face the Boss to advance.

The fighters began to move toward the gate, cutting down the last monsters in their path.

Erend descended in a smooth glide, Eccar landing beside him. Their wings folded away as they touched the earth.

Without hesitation, Erend stepped through the black doorway, vanishing into the next realm.

Eccar followed right after him.

Then the others entered one by one, leaving the trembling remnants of Level 1 behind them as the gate sealed shut.

They emerged into Level 2 with a shimmer of shifting light and the world around them changed again in an instant.

The air grew heavier and warmer with the scent of moss and something metallic beneath it.

When their vision steadied, they found themselves standing on a broad platform of dark stone suspended above a vast jungle.

But this was no ordinary jungle.

The trees towered dozens of meters high, their trunks coiled like giant snakes and their leaves glowing with bioluminescent veins.

The vines were pulsing as though they carried light, stretching across the canopy in webs of green and gold.

Far below, the ground was swallowed by mist, swirling like a living creature hiding whatever lay beneath.

Giant flowers opened and closed slowly, breathing in the warm air, some revealing rows of teeth within instead of petals.

Aesa looked around with narrowed eyes. Aerchon instinctively raised his guard. Even King Gulben paused to take in the strange biome.

This wasn’t the Level 2 Erend once knew. Veyrun had rebuilt it entirely again and transformed it into something vast enough to hold all of them at once. This turned into a place designed to push a group rather than a single fighter.

Platforms floated at different heights like islands suspended in midair, connected by natural bridges of hardened root and glowing vines.

They didn’t even have time to speak.

A distant rumble echoed through the shimmering jungle. Then another one.

Leaves trembled, vines recoiled, and the mist swirled.

The sound came again but this time it was closer.

A chorus of low growls rolled through the air, followed by the thudding of many heavy bodies moving at once.

The glow between the trees intensified as shapes began to emerge from the mist below, climbing, leaping, and scrambling upward toward the platform where the group stood.

Many monsters were coming at them.

King Gulben was the first to move.

The instant the first monstrous silhouette broke through the mist he stepped forward without a flicker of hesitation.

His golden aura pulsed outward, expanding around him before he thrust his palm forward. A wide arc of shimmering force burst from his hand, slicing through the air and slamming into the climbing creatures with a thunderous crack.

The nearest monsters were thrown back into the jungle, their bodies crashing through glowing leaves and snapping branches like dry twigs.

The king did not pause. He drew in another breath in a calm manner, lifted his arm again, and unleashed a second faster and heavier attack.

He fought like someone who had survived countless wars, someone who knew instinctively how to handle overwhelming numbers.

The others began to move as well, spread out across the enormous stone platform.

The monsters finally emerged into full view. They were shaped like twisted ape beasts with four arms and elongated jaws.

Their fur shimmered in patches of green and silver, their eyes glowing with red light. Long bone spines jutted from their backs, clattering together when they moved.

When they opened their mouths, a shrill metallic scream tore through the air.

Aurdis summoned a wave of lightning that crashed down in a branching pattern, scattering three beasts at once.

Aerchon vaulted past her, his sword crackling with blue fire as he severed the head of the nearest creature.

Arty took a deep breath. Her eyes burned a bright molten red before she exhaled a spiraling torrent of fire that engulfed a cluster of the beasts in the middle of their leap.

Aesa flicked her wrist and a cold wind unfurled in a thin crescent, cleaving two monsters cleanly in half.

Adrien hurled a bolt of lightning that detonated like a small storm.

Billy roared in excitement, conjuring a blazing pillar of fire as tall as a tree.

Sylmira slammed her hands together, forming spears of glacial ice that shot outward like arrows.

Erend and Eccar stayed perched on one of the higher floating platforms with their wings folded, letting the others tear through the swarm below.

They weren’t resting. They were observing. And Erend’s gaze, sharp and golden with Dragon sight, kept drifting to one person in particular.

Aesa moved like someone strolling through a quiet garden rather than a battlefield. Every gesture she made killed something. A flick of her fingers froze multiple monsters and a lazy wave of her hand sliced through them.

She didn’t even bother adjusting her footing. Her expression barely changed.

Eccar exhaled through his nose in amusement. "She doesn’t need to be here. Honestly, her strength might be on the same level as us."

"Yeah," Erend said quietly, watching another beast dissolve into a cold mist under Aesa’s casual attack. "She’s also much older than us. She’s had centuries of practice and experience. For her, this isn’t training, it’s probably more like a chore."

It was painfully clear that Aesa wasn’t struggling. She was simply bored.

"I’ll talk to her," Eccar said.

"Okay," Erend replied, not taking his eyes off the battlefield.

Eccar spread his wings and flew down to her.

Aesa glanced at him the moment he arrived, her expression the same unreadable flatness. But this time with a hint of visible boredom beneath it.

"Are you bored?" he asked.

Aesa sighed softly, the slightest tilt of her head confirming everything without a single word.

Eccar chuckled. "Then you don’t need to fight here. Come with us."

He turned and flew back up toward Erend.

Aesa followed without hesitation, drifting upward as effortlessly as a falling leaf carried by wind, and landed beside them.

Together, the three of them quietly watched the chaos unfold from afar while the rest continued carving their way through the monsters.

Aesa’s eyes stayed on the others below and said in her usual calm monotone. "Can’t we go further without waiting for them?"

Erend shook his head. "For now, we can’t. The system still locks the group together within these early levels. After Level 20, we’ll be able to split paths freely."

Erend continued, his gaze steady on the glowing jungle ahead. "After that, the three of us will go straight to Level 55. That’s where the real trouble waits."

Aesa slowly turned her head toward him, her jaw tightening just a little at the mention of a much higher level. "Alright," she replied quietly.

She didn’t question it.

She just accepted it like someone long accustomed to facing whatever came next, no matter how dangerous.

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