The portal shimmered with a translucent violet hue, pulsing like a heartbeat.
"No wonder this one is hidden… Who in their right mind would come all the way down here, where powerful sea beasts roam freely?" Valeris said, glancing back at the many monsters they had encountered on their way.
Asher nodded, his gaze fixed on the portal. "Let's go in ten."
"Yes, but I do not sense it's Tier 10," she added, eyeing the portal carefully. "Still, the pressure and energy around it… it doesn't feel that much heavier than the Tier 5 portal we just came from."
"That's because this isn't a typical dungeon," Asher replied, eyes narrowing slightly. "This is a Multi-Grade Dungeon—not just evolved, but restructured based on the power of whatever lies inside. Its presence is tethered across several realms, and it anchors to them through this area."
Valeris frowned. "So it's not just a dungeon… It's a nexus." The latest episodes are on the Novel~Fire. (n)et
He nodded. "Exactly. A convergence point. That's why the signature feels masked. The real threat lies within."
The portal's glow intensified, responding to their mana. Around it, the currents stilled—as if the sea itself awaited their decision.
"Then," Valeris said, her tone calm but firm, "let's see what's inside."
Asher stepped forward first, his silhouette bathed in the portal's violet shimmer. With a deep breath, he let the mana of the sea swirl around him one final time before stepping through. Valeris followed without hesitation, her presence steady and unwavering.
The moment they entered, the world shifted.
There was no blinding light, no sense of falling—just a seamless transition, as if they'd walked through a curtain of water into another reality.
The air was heavy, saturated with mana so thick it felt like mist clinging to their skin. They stood at the edge of an impossibly vast temple carved into a black crystal reef, rising like a sunken mountain. Glowing runes etched the surface of the stone, pulsing with dull violet light—similar to the portal outside.
"It's like the dungeon formed a forgotten empire of its own," Valeris whispered, eyes scanning the architecture. Statues of faceless warriors stood tall, their weapons fused with their limbs as if born for battle.
Asher extended his hand, and Absolute Appraisal activated. Lines of golden script shimmered across his vision, painting the truth of this place in gold against the darkness.
[World of the Forgotten Empire]
To escape this dungeon, defeat the Eight Generals, Four Kings, and the Emperor who rules this domain.
The moment the final line burned itself into his mind, the temple quaked.
From the dark halls ahead, the shadows thickened—then poured forward like a crashing wave. Figures emerged, thousands of them. Not mindless husks, but warriors—once human, now stripped of life yet bound by unshaken purpose.
They wore the ruined armor of an ancient civilization, each etched with sigils long lost to time. Their faces were hollow, their skin pale, dry, and torn, but their bodies moved with deadly grace and unholy discipline.
"Undead…" Valeris said under her breath, drawing her curved blade as its edge hummed with soul resonance.
"No… not just undead," Asher corrected, eyes narrowing. "Peak Transcendent Realm. Every single one of them."
There were hundreds—each one bearing the aura of a being that could shatter cities with a glance. They marched in coordinated lines, swords raised, cloaks flaring behind them as if carried by the winds of the underworld.
The very air groaned under the weight of their combined power.
And they were all coming straight for Asher and Valeris.
Asher's aura surged. The air around him rippled as Void Crescent – Soul Severance ignited from his right hand, forming a blade of blackened soul energy that hummed with deadly silence.
Valeris activated Spirit Reclamation Pulse, the soul patterns circling her body like glowing vines. "Want to warm up or go all in?" she asked with a grin.
"I'm thinking…" Asher's eyes flashed with starlight, "…I'll thin the numbers a bit."
With a step forward, the world bent around him—his figure vanishing.
And then, he appeared in the middle of the oncoming horde.
Void Crescent arced through the air—silent, clean, final.
Dozens of undead warriors split apart as if cleaved from the fabric of existence. Their bodies didn't fall. They simply ceased to be.
Valeris followed suit. With a burst of motion, she vaulted upward, her blade dancing like firelight. Each strike healed her, stole their life, and unraveled their cohesion. Every soul she touched flickered and faded.
They were fast, coordinated—but the two of them were faster. Stronger. Sharper.
But there were still hundreds more.
Behind the initial wave, the second line of undead warriors raised their hands—glowing sigils forming in the air as ancient mana arts took shape. Beams of cursed flame, spears of bone, and soul-piercing arrows lit up the corridor like a storm.
Asher raised his palm. A shield formed from Soulbound Armory—a wide, semi-conscious construct of soul steel that expanded like a barrier wall, absorbing the spells in bursts of shimmering deflection.
"They're evolving," he muttered.
"Of course they are. This dungeon adapts," Valeris said, flipping back beside him. "Now let's see how it handles pressure."
She raised her hand—and unleashed Nihil Ember Collapse.
The ground cracked. A black flame surged forward, eating sound and space, burning the very soul energy from the air. Dozens more were caught in its wake, vanishing into nothing.
Asher followed up, chaining Soul Extraction and Fusion Art, breaking the mana constructs being thrown at them, absorbing them mid-combat, and crafting short-lived weapons to strike back—blades of cursed flame, spears of silence, and whips of condensed void.
For every ten enemies cut down, twenty more emerged.
And yet, neither Asher nor Valeris wavered.
They continued to fight—relentless and fluid—cutting down the undead tide like a storm sweeping through a battlefield lost to time.
Asher's form blurred once more, and in his hand, his weapon changed. His blade shimmered, reshaped, extended—and became a scythe wreathed in a dark, venomous glow. Its curved edge pulsed with an eerie violet light, coated in Soul Poison—a toxin that didn't just kill flesh, but rotted the soul from within.