Gray didn't waste any time before turning on his heel and rushing back towards the exit door. Just as he had mentioned, the stairway was fucking huge.

To get to the end... he'd probably even need to fight against King-level creatures, and his power was nowhere close to that!

"Yeah, nope... fuck this," he hissed under his breath. "I'm not climbing to the top just to get some reward!"

He rushed down the final steps and reached the same platform where he'd entered. The wall of packed snow should've been right there.

The little wooden door hidden in the tree bark should've been right there.

But when he reached the exact spot...

"…Huh?"

There was nothing.

The wall was smooth, completely sealed as if no door had ever existed.

His eye twitched.

"No… no, no, no. Don't fucking DO THIS TO MEEE!"

He pressed his palm against the wall, feeling nothing but cold. No gap, no seam, no latch. Panic crawled up his throat, but he crushed it down and closed his eyes.

"Fine. I'll just swap out."

He raised his hand, focusing on the mark he'd left outside.

"[✧Swap✧]"

But before the teleport could trigger, a glowing panel abruptly flashed before his eyes.

A system window.

[In a Special Hidden Room, you cannot use skills that exit the room.]

[Escape-type abilities are sealed.]

[You cannot leave until you fully cleanse the room.]

Gray stared at the message for a long time.

"Of... fucking course," he clenched his fists tightly.

Climbing the stairway was just a way for him to die... and worse, the food he had was only able to sustain him for... maybe two days.

And even if the professors entered, he wouldn't be able to leave the room.

In other words... it was a true dead end.

"....."

A small tremor ran through his right hand.

"…This place… really is a fucking grave," he muttered, his voice shaking with an anger he could barely contain.

His breathing grew rough, deeper, heavier.

The more he forced air into his lungs, the more it felt like his ribs were pressing back against him.

He raised both hands to his face, clamping them over his expression as if trying to hold himself together.

His fingers dragged down along his cheeks, pulling at his skin, digging into it, not drawing blood, but enough pressure to leave his face burning with pain.

It grounded him for a second... but only for a second.

Then everything broke at once.

"Hagh...!"

His breath hitched, catching in his throat as the inside of his chest tightened like a vice.

"Hahah... GAHAHAHA!"

A strange sound escaped his lips, sounding part laugh, part gasp, part broken noise that even he couldn't recognize.

It slipped out again, louder this time, a warped and unstable noise with no pattern, just a pure, raw emotion bursting through the cracks.

He staggered back a step, shoulders shaking violently, and leaned against the wooden wall of the towering interior, gripping it with both hands.

His nails scraped uselessly against the surface as though he was trying to tear something out of it, whether that was anger, fear, despair, or anything that wasn't stuck inside him.

"One staircase… one FUCKING staircase…"

His voice cracked halfway through, and he let out a long, shaky breath that turned into another unstable laugh.

"I step into a tree for one second, AND THIS IS WHAT I GET?"

He pushed both hands into his hair and pulled back hard, his scalp burning from the force.

His head tilted back as he sucked in a deep breath, one that trembled violently all the way into his lungs.

His mind raced, spinning around the same thoughts in a tight, suffocating circle.

There was no exit.

No way he could escape from there.

No one would be able to find or help him.

And also... each time a second passed, the closer he was to his death because of starvation.

Thump!

Thump!

THUMP!

His pulse hammered in his ears, and for a moment, he felt like the walls were coming closer, like the vast interior of the tree was shrinking around him.

Hallucinations.

He could already hear the other Gray mocking him.

"What? You barely managed to survive a single year with my body?"

"How pitiful~"

But just at that moment... a familiar voice made the other Gray's dark figure disappear in an instant.

[Gray… Gray, listen to me. It's alright. Just climb it. If the worst happens, you will not die. You will not truly die.]

She just said a few words, but that was enough.

His mind instantly snapped in a controlled yet terrifying way.

"Huff... huff... His breathing evened out, but it became disturbingly shallow.

His hands lowered from his hair, fingers twitching slightly from leftover adrenaline.

And then, slowly, his eyes lifted toward the stairway.

"…Jasmine."

His voice was empty, stripped of everything that had been boiling inside him moments before.

"You better be telling the fucking truth."

He straightened his back, adjusted the grip on his rapier, and then, without a word, he turned toward the place where he had fought the creatures earlier.

Of course, Jasmine wasn't lying to him about the fact that he wouldn't die.

He probably had forgotten about it because of the recent hallucinations he was experiencing, but he still had some peculiar... looping earrings in his ears.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Meanwhile...

"…Guys, did any of you see Gray?"

Lyra returned from her cheerful chat with Adrian, her smile fading the moment she noticed the empty spot where Gray had been.

She walked straight toward the three girls who were still sitting around the campfire, happily eating their skewers.

Selene paused mid-bite, raising an eyebrow before slowly chewing and swallowing.

"Hm? What do you mean? Shouldn't he be over by the make-shift barbecue area?" she asked, tapping her skewer lightly against her knee.

"Yeah, he was there just a minute ago. Didn't he say something like wanting to check the meat or… whatever?" Selina glanced up as well, licking a bit of sauce from her thumb.

Claire also nodded at their words.

"…He isn't there," Lyra muttered, shaking her head.

"I went around the whole camp. He's nowhere close."

"That idiot didn't wander off alone, right? He wouldn't do that. Not after all the crap we've dealt with in this dungeon." Selene frowned, leaning forward a little.

"Please. It's Gray. Of course, he would wander off alone. He probably saw something that looked valuable and decided it was worth dying for," Selina sighed, rolling her eyes.

Claire only looked a little puzzled at how worried they were, but didn't participate in their chat whatsoever.

After all, in her view, Gray was strong enough to survive on his own. And perhaps, he had just gone away to take a piss or something.

"What if a monster dragged him away?"

Lyra stiffened slighly.

"No. He's too strong to just be grabbed. Something else happened. Maybe he saw a trail or a strange path. Or maybe he found an item… or... uh..."

"Or he just didn't want to deal with all your chaos." Selene snorted, earning a swift glare from Lyra.

But before Lyra could snap back, another voice cut in.

"…I saw him wander into the snow forest."

Everyone's heads snapped toward Leon, who was sharpening a knife while watching them with his usual bored expression.

"You WHAT? And you didn't stop him?!" Lyra marched toward him instantly.

Selene stood as well.

"Leon, seriously? You just let him walk off alone?"

"Are you actually dumb or just pretending? Why didn't you call him back?" Selina pointed her skewer at him accusingly.

Leon shrugged with the expression of a man who couldn't care less if the world froze over.

"Gray goes where Gray wants. Not my business. If he wanted company, he'd have said something."

"Unbelievable..." Lyra furrowed her eyebrows.

"He could be fighting a group of monsters now!" Selina frowned deeply.

Leon remained unmoved at their words, dismissing them entirely.

"And? He can handle himself. Relax."

He didn't like to admit it... But Gray was really fucking strong, and so, worrying about him was a simple waste of time.

But as he turned slightly, as if his mind caught on something familiar, his expression changed just a bit, barely noticeable, but not entirely indifferent anymore.

"…Hold on," he muttered, scanning the camp.

"Where's Maelis?"

The entire group froze.

"She… was here a while ago. Right? I thought she was sitting next to Selene." Claire blinked rapidly, turning to look at Selene.

At her words, Selene, who had been sipping melted snow water, almost choked violently.

"What?! ME?! I thought she was sitting next to you!"

Instantly, all of them started searching around the small area around their little base, and unfortunately, they didn't find either one of them.

Just then, Adrian had also returned to the snow "house".

"...What's up with the heavy faces?"

All of them stared back at him.

"Gray and Maelis... disappeared."

His lips also curled up at the mention of the first name, but at the second, his eyes instantly widened as the deer he had found while he was taking a piss fell onto the ground.

"WHAT?!"

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