And then, once the formation was broken, everything unraveled like a frayed rope.

Boom!

The roots didn’t just strike again, they surged through the ground like burrowing worms, pouring out from the torn earth in swarms, twisting and writhing like living chains. 

The group previous advantage in numbers collapsed in an instant, crumbling like brittle ash underfoot.

What was once a strength became deadweight.

The crowd that was meant to overwhelm the boss only ended up clogging each other’s paths, and one by one, they fell, skewered, crushed, or dragged under screaming. 

The roots showed no mercy, precise machines that were meant to kill. 

What a design!

They tore through bodies with terrifying brute force, shattered limbs, severed face with horrified expressions lingered, and even scattered fleshes.

Driven by fury, the three tier 5 cultivators moved at once.

Their figures flared with light as they shot into the sky, rising above the chaos like streaks of fire. 

A moment later, they descended with a violent crash, colliding against the towering wooden guard in perfect sync.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The blows thundered through the forest. Trees bent. The wind howled. 

Even the ground trembled under the sheer weight of their clash. 

Like three metallic sledgehammer slamming down onto a single target, hard. The noises echoed back into the distant far off, thunderous. 

But after a few more exchanges, the realization began to set in, and it was grim.

“...What kind of monster has this kind of raw strength?! How the hell are we supposed to bring it down?”

“No way. This thing can’t be invincible.”

“Group tactic’s useless, disband the formation! Get out of here! We’ll handle this!”

Their command whipped through the noise like a whip, reaching those scattered Awakeners on the ground.

Instantly, the scattered survivors bolted, scrambling away through the battered forest.

Some managed to retrieve fallen comrades, others were too slow. 

The roots swallowed the unlucky ones whole, dragging their corpses into the dirt like they’d never existed.

The three tier 5 experts didn’t waste time grieving, their expressions grim. 

They attacked again, striking in tight rhythm.

The battle between them and the wooden guard became a war of shockwaves. 

Trees splintered into toothpicks, the earth split in jagged lines, and each spell they cast lit up the air with blazing arcs of destruction.

Searing heat waves pulsed and rippled under their powerful gestures. 

But no matter how hard they hit, no matter what weapon, technique, or spell they used, the wooden guard didn’t falter.

Not a crack. Not even a dent.

The physical defense of this monster was simply a nightmare against most physical path Awakeners. 

“Damn it! This thing’s physical defense is off the charts! Our warrior-class attacks are barely tickling it!”

“Fuck... we lost too many people for nothing!”

“That old bastard lied to us! Never said anything about this"

"We should've bring old 4 with us, he's the only one of us that didn't take a physical proffesion"

Reality finally sank in. They weren’t going to win.

Grinding their teeth, the three turned to retreat, soaring into the sky with every ounce of speed they could muster. 

But the wooden guard?

It wasn’t about to let them go so easily.

You barged into its domain. You broke its slumber. And now, you dared to run?

Unforgivable.

With a low rumble, the wooden guard lifted its right hand. 

The space around it warped, rippling like water, as the arm morphed, reshaping into a massive blade that gleamed with a faint green hue under the sunlight. 

The moment they saw it, the trio’s instincts screamed.

Like a sting on the back of their necks, their heart screamed danger!

“Not good!”

“Shit, it’s a lock-based technique, brace yourselves!”

They stopped mid-air, shoulder to shoulder, forming a tight triangle. 

Their arms crossed forward as spiritual energy surged, and in front of them, a shimmering turtle-shell barrier emerged. 

The surface was covered with dull grey light, dense and heavy, drawing in wind from every direction.

But the wooden guard didn’t flinch when it saw this, instead, it became excited. 

Its blade-arm lit up, glowing brighter, then blurred like a broken TV scene. 

Too fast. Way too fast for normal eyes to follow.

It struck.

No noise.

The impact was instant. 

The air itself ruptured, exploded in the place.

Stationery... 

In a flash, blinding. 

As the wind passed through them... 

The turtle-shell shield shattered like brittle glass. 

The middle aged man in the middle jerked as blood exploded from his mouth, eyes wide in disbelief.

“Was that, spatial compression?!”

His voice groaned, hands reaching up to his forehead, in the middle, trailing down a bit as he felt it... 

“No... it was pure speed. It pierced straight through before the barrier even registered it"

Then, without much thoughts, he pushed the other two aside, and kicked the air, bulleting forward.

“Go! Get out now! I’ll hold it!”

He didn’t wait for them to argue. 

The other two hesitated, but survival kicked in, and they turned, darting away at full speed.

Behind them, the one who stayed barely had time to scream, but without a chance to fight back. 

With a roar as his body split apart mid-air, neatly, cleanly, and fell in pieces toward the ground.

Then, it exploded. 

Boom! 

A huge mushroom cloud kicked up into the air, billowing. However, the impact was minimal.

The forest was silent again.

High above, the remaining two didn’t look back. They vanished beyond the tree line, streaks of panic trailing behind them.

And the wooden guard? It just watched.

Expressionless throughout the time, then... Its eyes dimmed, and it returned to the massive hole in the center of the field. 

Its limbs reshaped. Its body hardened. And without a sound, it settled back into place, rooting itself into the earth once more.

The monster became a tree again.

The terrain, ravaged just moments ago, began to shift subtly.

With no Awakeners left nearby, the dungeon’s auto-repair kicked in. 

The broken earth knit itself. Flowers re-sprouted in clusters. 

Bent trees straightened slowly. Leaves returned to branches.

Within minutes, the battlefield looked… untouched.

Except for the blood. The twisted bodies. The torn limbs scattered across the grass.

And that was the strangest part, the air was calm again, like nothing had ever happened.

And yet the smell of death still lingered there, a warning to those who would be foolish enough to come here.

You want to uncover the rewards by killing this boss? Then be prepared to be killed in return. 

“A pity,” Mize muttered.

She hovered in the air, high above the treetops, arms folded loosely as her gaze swept over the battlefield below. 

The aftermath was still fresh, broken bodies scattered across refreshed soil, the acrid stench of blood mixing with the damp forest air.

“And here I thought someone might finally figure out the real benefit behind defeating that boss monster I planted…”

She exhaled slowly, a little shake of the head following. “Looks like it'll be a while before anyone manages it.”

Her tone wasn’t mocking, just disappointed.

Still… a part of her found it satisfying.

At the very least, they were using her dungeon properly. 

The monsters she’d painstakingly designed weren’t just background props anymore, they were actually doing their job. 

Her eyes lingered on the field below, on the lifeless corpses crumpled like discarded dolls.

“Came here hoping to live another day,” she murmured under her breath. “Ended up dying without a clue.”

She raised her hand and pinched the bridge of her nose, letting silence fall for a beat.

Then, with a more thoughtful tone, she added, “Well, next time they’ll think twice before throwing weak Awakeners at something far beyond their level"

"Crowd tactics against a boss like that? Ridiculous.”

Her fingers tapped lightly against her arm.

Ideas were already forming, refinements, adjustments, entire new scenarios for both this dungeon and the one hidden beneath it.

Especially the storyline she’d started weaving for Klein… she couldn’t afford to waste any inspiration now that it struck.

With a soft snap of her fingers, her body blurred, slipping through a crack in space. 

A moment later, she reappeared high above a slow-moving ship sailing through the sky, its hull glowing faintly with runes, formations keeping it afloat through the air. 

“Ooh, they’re finally arriving at the altar,” she said, grinning as her eyes scanned the vessel below. “Took them long enough. Hahahaha.”

She couldn’t help but laugh, clearly amused, arms wide open as if theatrically welcoming them to the grand finale.

“Welcome, welcome! To the edge of this island-continent dungeon!”

Of course, no one could hear her, not even herself. 

It was just for fun.

Down below, the deck was packed. 

People stood shoulder-to-shoulder along the rails, crowding the upper level to get a view.

Klein and Esmeralda had stepped out too, standing at the front with the wind tugging at their clothes and hair.

Their expressions glimmered with anticipation.

A week. 

They’d been cooped up on that ship for an entire week, flying across this vast and bizarre dungeon-world. 

Every day brought something new, and dangerous.

Wild experiences. 

Sometimes, enormous bird monsters soared just past the ship, close enough to feel the gust of their wings. 

The pressure from their tier 6 auras alone had nearly crushed the hearts of everyone on board.

But, by some stroke of luck, or clever design, the birds never attacked.

Unbeknownst to them, not all monsters here were carnivores. 

Some were designed to eat only plants.

Unless provoked, they will never attack first. 

Then there were the storms, downpours and gales that came out of nowhere, often without a single dark cloud in the sky. 

The weather here was chaos. Try as they might, they could never guess what would come next.

And then there was the sky.

It didn’t seem that far from the ground when seen with the naked eye. 

But when a mountain nearly thirty kilometers tall appeared below them and still didn’t reach the ceiling, the truth became painfully clear.

The ceiling was over a hundred kilometers up.

Another of Mize’s tricks, a little illusion to keep their sense of scale in constant doubt.

Over the past few days, they’d seen beauty and terror in equal measure. 

Especially after leaving the inner layers of the island, the second layer ecosystem was something else entirely.

A surreal landscape of blue-green spread beneath them. 

What looked like an endless ocean was actually filled with trees.

Forests flowed like water, and sea monsters, massive, terrifying creatures, rose and crashed into the depths. 

Some had legs. Some flew. None made sense.

The sheer scale of it all redrew their understanding of the world.

No dungeon they’d ever seen could compare to this. Not in a million years.

Here and there, ancient ruins appeared, half-sunk into strange terrains, watched over by powerful monsters.

No one dared to even suggest exploring them. 

They all knew better.

Eventually, the third and outermost layer of the island dungeon came into view.

This one resembled the surface dungeon. 

Compared to the chaos they had passed through, it felt almost… normal. 

But that was deceptive.

The trees here made the forests above look like bushes. This was a land built for monsters the size of mountains. 

Just the idea of stumbling into one of them made everyone's stomach drop.

Unless you were at least tier 3, you didn’t belong here.

Not long after, the scenery shifted again. A stretch of low grassland appeared, circular in shape. Just beyond it, the edge dropped away into the endless ocean.

Then they saw it, the altar.

It stood right on the edge of the land, strange and quiet. An oddity, a sore thumb that sticks out. 

The ship descended gradually and finally touched down. 

The tension eased immediately. 

Everyone stepped off with grateful sighs, their boots crunching softly on the grass as they descended down the ship. 

"Thank god, finally stepping on land"

"Yeah, I had been puking as long as I could remember, it was rough"

A whole week in the sky. Even with magic, it took a toll.

Especially with weather like that. For many, this place had felt like a waking nightmare.

Now that they were on solid ground, the group gathered their gear and began their work. 

Strange instruments were unloaded as they made their way toward the altar.

Klein stepped aside, his task completed.

His job was completed, guiding them to this place, and it wasn't that hard by following his memories. 

He wandered toward the edge of the land and sat down, silently watching the vast blue ocean ahead.

At the altar’s center, Esmeralda knelt before a weathered stone stele. 

She brushed away curling vines with swift movements, squinting at the faded inscriptions.

She had a thing for ancient scripts. 

Nerdy as it was, studying old languages was her favorite pastime.

But no matter how long she stared, none of the words made sense.

“This isn’t natural,” she murmured. “This place… it feels artificial.”

The old butler turned toward her, eyebrow raised. “Artificial, my lady? You mean, created?”

Esmeralda nodded and glanced briefly toward Klein, still seated in silence.

“It’s just a theory, but, this altar seems to be created deliberately… probably the angel's work?"

“the angel?” the old man echoed.

“Exactly.” She nodded again, but then gave a small shrug. “But who cares? As long as it benefits mankind, does it really matter"

She smiled, dusted off her hands, and turned to help oversee the rest of the group.

Their mission here was clear: establish a teleportation channel between the sky platform and this exact location.

As for connecting it to the outside world?

That part was still a mystery. She doesn't even know whether any formation master under them or even in the inner region would be able to pull this off.

The teleportation array they brought hadn’t been purchased. It was an ancient relic, unearthed over a century ago by one of the founders of the Adventurer Guild.

There were only a few of these relics left, and each was used sparingly, only when absolutely necessary.

Like now.

“There’s also a rumor,” Esmeralda added casually, “that the lord of this territory owns a teleportation formation.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised, my lady,” the butler said. “They’ve installed space formations all over their land. Having a teleportation one isn’t out of reach.”

“Then start negotiations,” she ordered lightly. “See if they’ll sell us a few. It’s about time we established better ties with this place.”

The old man gave a simple nod, making a mental note. Whether it would succeed or not didn’t really concern them.

For most forces, teleportation formations were rare. But for them?

They just needed to find more ancient ruins… and take what they needed.