Varik nodded once. Then, without another word, he strode directly toward the breach.

Lucen fell into step beside him. "No pep talk? No 'be careful, kid'? I'm hurt."

Varik didn't look at him. "If you needed a pep talk, you wouldn't be here."

Lucen's grin widened. "'Flattering. Keep it up and I'll think you care."

Then they stepped through.

—

The shift hit like a punch to the gut. Air pressure collapsing inward, light folding in on itself, and then—

They were standing ankle-deep in black water.

The dungeon stretched wide around them, a swamp under a false blood-red sky. Dead trees jutted like spears from the mire, their branches clawing upward. The air smelled of rot and iron.

Lucen wrinkled his nose. "Charming. Think they'll let us leave a bad review?"

Something moved in the water nearby. Slow ripples spreading outward.

Varik's hand went to his sword. "Stay alert."

Lucen rolled his shoulders, mana already pooling faintly at his fingertips. His eyes scanned the surface, catching flickers of shapes sliding just under the waterline. Too big. Too fast.

The first one lunged without warning. A serpentine body, scales glistening black, jaws wide enough to swallow a man whole.

Varik's blade flashed once, severing the thing mid-leap. The water exploded outward, spraying Lucen with foul droplets.

He groaned. "Ugh. Figures you'd make me smell like this swamp in the first five seconds."

Another ripple, then another.

The surface broke in at least half a dozen places at once.

Lucen's smirk sharpened. "Guess they want round two."

Mana flared hot at his palms.

'Perfect. Let's play.'

—

They fought in tandem without speaking.

Varik waded forward, every swing of his sword clean, deliberate, cutting through serpents before their teeth could touch him. His movements were efficient, no wasted motion, as though he'd already calculated every strike before it landed.

Lucen circled, weaving blasts of condensed mana into lances that tore through scaled hides, lighting up the swamp in brief flashes of blue-white. His strikes were less precise, but they didn't need to be. The sheer force behind each one was enough to rupture water, bone, and scale alike.

The creatures shrieked, thrashing as their numbers dwindled. Black water frothed with blood and broken bodies.

Lucen laughed under his breath, a sharp edge to it. "'Not bad for a warm-up."

Varik didn't reply. He didn't need to.

Because more ripples were coming. Dozens this time. Maybe hundreds.

Lucen's grin didn't falter. He raised one hand, mana coiling tighter, brighter, hungrier. 'Let's see how far I can push before he calls me out.'

The system flickered at the edge of his vision.

[Warning: Output approaching SSS threshold]

[Concealment at Risk]

Lucen's smirk only grew sharper.

'Let him watch.'

—

The swamp boiled.

Lucen's hand was still raised, white-blue mana writhing around his palm like a living flame. The swamp's surface rippled with the weight of serpents rising, dozens, maybe hundreds, scales breaking the waterline, eyes glowing faintly red under the blood-colored sky.

They were coming fast.

Varik shifted his stance, boots sinking an inch into the black muck, blade low and steady. No panic. No wasted breath.

Lucen flicked his wrist. The sphere of mana he'd been holding condensed into a razor beam and fired, splitting one of the serpents in two before it even left the water. The smell of cooked flesh hit instantly.

'Level twenty-eight, huh? Cute number on a paper. Wonder how long it'll take them to realize numbers don't mean a damn thing.'

More shadows surged toward him. Lucen didn't even move his feet, he just spun his hand once, and arcs of mana cut out in a wide fan, vaporizing anything that crossed.

The system blinked faintly in the corner of his vision:

[XP Gained: +1,200]

[XP Gained: +1,400]

[XP Gained: +900]

But the numbers were trivial. The swamp was still alive with movement.

Varik cleaved through one serpent, then pivoted, sword arcing upward to split another's skull. His movements were measured, exact, the clean efficiency of a man who'd cut down armies.

Lucen didn't try to keep pace. He didn't need to.

He flung his hand wide. Mana coiled and erupted, a shockwave rolling out across the swamp. The blast carved a clear circle of steaming water around him, serpents flung backward into the trees.

For a moment, the dungeon was silent, just hissing steam rising, and the faint thrum of energy fading from his palm.

Lucen grinned. "Not bad for a level twenty-eight."

Varik glanced his way. Not surprised. Just watching. Always watching.

Then the ground trembled.

From deeper in the swamp, something massive stirred. The water vibrated in concentric ripples. Branches snapped. The sky above flickered faintly, light pulsing like a heartbeat.

Lucen muttered, "And here comes the big brother."

A shape rose from the mire, easily thirty feet high, a grotesque amalgam of scale and bone, with six jaws lined around its head like a blooming flower. Its roar rattled the sky.

Lucen tilted his head back, eyes narrowing. "'Well, shit.'"

Before Varik could move, Lucen stepped forward.

Mana flared, brighter than before, coiling around his arms, licking across his shoulders like fire. His boots sank into the muck with the weight of it, but he didn't falter.

The monster lunged.

Lucen met it head-on.

He thrust his hand forward, raw mana condensing into a spear so sharp the air screamed as it ripped through. The spear tore through one of the creature's open jaws, out the other side in an explosion of light.

The beast reeled, thrashing wildly, knocking trees flat.

Lucen was already moving, sprinting low across the muck, leaping onto one of its exposed limbs, boots skidding against slime-slick scale. He drove another blast of mana directly into the joint. Flesh and bone shattered, and the limb collapsed inward with a wet crunch.

The system blared:

[Warning: Output at 87% capacity. Efficiency unstable.]

Lucen ignored it, teeth bared in a grin. 'Come on, show me how much you can take.'

The beast swung its bulk toward him. He ducked under a snapping jaw, vaulted off its lower mandible, and unleashed a third blast point-blank into its eye.

The explosion painted the swamp in white light.

When it cleared, the monster was staggering. Half-blind, half-crippled, but not down yet.

Varik's voice carried calmly over the chaos. "Leave it."

Lucen glanced back mid-leap. "What, jealous?"

Varik didn't answer. He was already moving, faster than seemed possible for someone that size. His blade cut upward once, clean, and the beast's head separated from its neck in a single arc.

The swamp fell still.

[Boss Defeated]

[XP Gained: +22,000]

Lucen landed lightly, mud splashing up his boots. He let out a low whistle. "Guess you do like to finish my work for me."

Varik wiped the blade clean against the air, as though blood dared not cling to it. "You were dragging it out."

Lucen's grin widened. "'Maybe I was having fun.'"

—

The dungeon trembled again.

But this time, the sound wasn't from inside.

A sharp crack ripped across the sky, the false light warping, folding. And then, blinding white spilled across the swamp as a tear opened overhead.

Varik's eyes narrowed. "Breach collapse."

Lucen raised a brow. "Already? That was fast."

Figures dropped through the light. Hunters. Four, five, then more, boots hitting the mire with splashes. Their armor gleamed with Association crests, weapons at the ready.

The lead hunter, a woman with cropped silver hair and an axe bigger than she was, looked between the corpses littering the swamp and the two of them standing at the center.

"What the hell—" She cut herself off when she recognized Varik. Her jaw tightened.

Lucen smirked faintly. "Surprise. Party's already started."

One of the younger hunters behind her muttered, "Level twenty-eight, my ass…"

Lucen's head tilted lazily toward him. "'Want me to demonstrate again?'"

The kid shut up instantly.

Varik sheathed his sword. "Perimeter secured. Core still ahead."

The silver-haired woman hesitated, then nodded. "Understood. We'll back you."

Lucen chuckled under his breath. 'Of course you will. Everyone always does.'

—

The march to the dungeon's core was slower now. With the other hunters crowding around, Lucen let his pace slacken, half-lidded eyes pretending at laziness. The others whispered when they thought he wasn't listening.

"Level twenty-eight, right? Did you see what he—"

"No way. Must be a bug in the system."

"Or a fake ID. Can't be real."

Lucen smirked faintly at their backs. 'Let them choke on it. They'll spend the rest of their lives trying to rationalize what doesn't add up.'

Varik walked silently ahead, ignoring them. Or maybe not ignoring, maybe cataloguing. Watching. He always was.

When the core finally came into sight, a spire of black crystal rising from the heart of the swamp, pulsing faintly with red light, the group slowed. The air around it was thick, suffocating, pressing against lungs with every breath.

One of the hunters gagged. Another swore under his breath.

Lucen rolled his shoulders, mana already prickling faintly at his fingertips. "Shall we?"

Varik's voice was calm as ever. "Stay close."

—

The core's guardians rose before they could take another step, hulking figures of bone and swamp muck, stitched together with threads of red energy. Dozens of them, clambering forward with jerking, unnatural motions.

The silver-haired woman swore. "This is… more than crimson-class."

Lucen's grin sharpened. "'Guess we'll find out what color comes next.'"

And with that, he leapt forward, mana flaring bright enough to paint the swamp in daylight.