Under the flickering candlelight, Ethan quickly fell asleep.

Perhaps because the pillow and bedboard were too hard, Ethan had a rare nightmare.

It was a peculiar nightmare; he was very aware he was in a world of dreams, where he saw things that did not exist in reality. The sky was black, interwoven with sprawling roots, appearing as if the sky and ground had been reversed. Beneath his feet was a void-like darkness, yet he stood above it in defiance of the laws of physics.

In the sky composed of roots, a massive figure hung inverted, so gigantic it became the center of this dream world, filling everything within sight.

Ethan heard a faint call, coming from an unknown entity not far from him.

His walking speed in the dream also defied the laws of physics. He took just a few steps forward and reached beneath that enormous figure, which almost immediately reminded him of his conversation with Anapolis above the stars. Back then, it seemed such a colossal entity also existed above them.

However, unlike the primordial Old Gods he had seen like Anapolis and Bazatous, the giant shadow before him was full of signs of artificial alteration. Ethan saw a constantly rotating brass compass behind it, with thirteen steam copper pipes extending outwards, fading into a hidden device deeper into the darkness.

The arms bound by chains had cracked skin, exposing the bronze bones below that had been replaced. Luminous blue patterns ran along the copper pipes, invading the flesh like blood vessels, converging towards the figure's core. It was a face wrapped in countless bandages, making it impossible to recognize the features beneath.

Yet Ethan still recognized it.

Or rather, the moment he saw it, a name popped into his mind.

Argos.

An adventurer with an endless curiosity, never weary.

He could feel that this object, bound by chains and 'blue blood', was trying to reach out to him but was unable to move due to the dense chains.

This long-awaited meeting did not last long; before they could formally speak, noise from the real world invaded the dream. The void beneath his feet shook violently, fracturing the dream. When the candlelight from reality returned to Ethan's sight, he didn't know when he had rolled off the bed onto the floor.

"Ouch!"

He held his waist, sitting on the floor.

The cat also woke up from its sleep, quickly transforming into a human shape to help Ethan up from the floor, nervously massaging his waist.

It was still the dead of night, or more accurately, the middle of the night.

Outside the treehouse, firelight soared into the sky, accompanied by frantic cries and the tremors of the floor.

Some colossal entity was rapidly approaching Moon Forest City, and it seemed the city's outer patrols had already been breached.

Even Lindong was in a state of panic, though for a different reason.

"I didn't kick you out of bed."

"I know, I fell by myself."

In the midst of their conversation, intelligence master Rowena had finished her investigation. A little purple bat fluttered its wings, struggling to squeeze through the half-open window.

"A strange monster has appeared outside!"

"A strange monster?"

Rowena was well-versed, so anything she described as "strange" was likely not found in any monster compendium. As she finished speaking, another red light shot across the night sky like a signal flare, immediately awakening the entire city. The sound of doors being flung open echoed outside, and the passing Summoners, regardless of identity or allegiance, responded to the flare's call; some even burst out without collecting their clothes.

"The City Lord has issued an emergency summons."

Rowena continued to demonstrate the value of her intelligence network. Having been in Moon Forest City only a day, she had already grasped the city's culture and simultaneously fell into deep suspicion, "Could there be a jinx among us?"

She paused, adding, "An emergency summons hasn't been issued for decades, reserved only for threats that could destroy the entire city. Any Summoner who sees the summons is obliged to respond."

As expected, such a "once in several decades" threat appeared on their first night in Moon Forest City.

Unexpected, yet unsurprising.

Ethan only needed to glance down from the treehouse to clearly see the "strange" monster Rowena described—a giant beetle with a metallic shell, covered in brass pipes, and blue fluorescence flooding into its body along bronze pipes.

This creature had long lost the structure of an insect, seeming more like a war machine built by a mad scientist using a beetle as a prototype.

At this moment, the war machine was crushing the surrounding trees and anything in its path, advancing at full speed toward Moon Forest City.

The patrol squads suffered significant casualties.

The people of Moon Forest City rarely used the term "casualties" to describe battle conditions because generally, whether a guard or a member of a rogue Poacher Gang, after battling until blacking out from exhaustion, they just needed to go to the nearest recovery station to return to full blood and health. This was the promise of the Crimson Queen to everyone—a gentle kingdom that abandoned the concept of death and injury.