Thick smoke drifted around me, the air stinging with the smell of burnt hair and roasted meat.

When the haze finally thinned, dozens of charred goblin corpses lay scattered across the ground like fallen shadows.

"Haa… haa…"

I steadied my breathing and sheathed my sword, the faint crackle of leftover electricity fading from the blade.

Once I was sure no more enemies were moving, I headed toward the other two.

Elena was leaning on her sword, panting.

Lisa was wiping sweat from her forehead, her pink hair sticking messily to her cheeks.

Both of them looked exhausted—but alive.

And that was enough.

"Are you both uninjured?"

"Cough… I'm not hurt," Elena replied, brushing dust off her clothes. "Just a little tired. But Louis…"

"What?"

She didn't answer right away.

Instead, her eyes drifted past me—to the place where I had been standing only moments ago.

Her breath hitched.

The ground was torn apart, scorch marks everywhere, and the bodies of monsters lay scattered in grotesque heaps. Blood soaked the dirt, and the smell of burnt flesh hung faintly in the air.

Even I had to admit—it looked less like a fight and more like a slaughter.

"Did you… do all that by yourself…?" she asked in a trembling voice.

"Um… yeah, I guess?" I scratched my cheek, awkward.

Elena swallowed hard.

"Louis, you're… incredibly strong…"

Come to think of it, Elena had never seen me truly fight.

She'd only watched a few practice matches back at the academy—simple duels, nothing more.

She had never witnessed what I was actually capable of now.

Not the way I fought using planning, instincts, and experience forged through near-death encounters.

Her expression was complicated—not fear, but something closer to awe… mixed with confusion.

While she tried to process all of that, I stood up, dusting off my clothes.

"Louis, carry me on your baaaack~"

Lisa called from behind, her voice bright and playful—as if the battlefield around us didn't exist.

I ignored her for now.

We had more urgent things to consider.

We were out in the wild, still far from the World Tree, and night was approaching.

More monsters could show up at any moment.

And although I still had strength left, the same couldn't be said for Elena—or for Lisa, who looked like she'd collapse if the wind pushed her too hard.

I took a deep breath.

Right now, we needed to regroup, recover, and move carefully.

"…Let's figure out our next move," I murmured, scanning the surroundings.

The battlefield was quiet now, but that silence rarely lasted for long.

Most of the goblins in the dungeon had already been wiped out from our earlier battle.

Their bodies lay scattered across the stone floor, the stench of blood and smoke lingering in the air.

With the threats mostly gone, our objective was simple now—find the hidden treasures and escape.

According to the information I had gathered beforehand, this dungeon contained three treasures.

Once we collected all of them, there would be nothing left to worry about.

"Let's find the exit now."

After helping the tired, slumping Lisa back onto her feet, the three of us moved deeper into the dungeon, our footsteps echoing through the quiet halls.

---

"That's the last one."

It took far longer than expected, but we eventually unearthed all three treasures—one behind a collapsed pillar, one hidden inside a cave-like crack, and the last buried beneath a pile of debris that we almost ignored.

By pure luck, we also located the exit: a large dimensional gate suspended like a shimmering tear in the air.

The sight of it nearly made us collapse with relief.

"With this, the practical exam is finally… over," I muttered, feeling a weight lift off my shoulders.

Elena let out a small cheer.

Lisa just exhaled quietly, still drained from the fight with the goblin king.

We stepped toward the portal—toward the promise of daylight, rest, and the end of this grueling test.

The moment my foot crossed the threshold, the world twisted.

The dungeon stone walls dissolved into blurring streaks of color.

The ripple of mana distorted the air, pulling us through like a rushing current.

Then—

We were out.

But instead of applause, instructors, or the expected open plains…

"…What… happened here?"

Our excitement vanished instantly.

Students were collapsed across the ground—some groaning, some unconscious, others completely still.

The earth was torn apart as if something monstrous had rampaged through the area.

My heart sank.

And in the center of that chaos stood a girl with long red hair.

Clarisse.

She slowly lifted her head, her eyes empty—no, consumed.

Her sword dripped with fresh blood, a crimson trail marking where she'd struck moments ago.

Black veins crawled across her skin.

Her once-fair body was darkened as if burned, and from her head—

Two small, sharp horns were pushing through.

A chilling silence fell over the field.

"…Clarisse?" Elena whispered, voice trembling.

But the creature that turned toward us wasn't the Clarisse we knew anymore.

It was something else.

Something terrifying.

And it was looking straight at us.

Clarisse stared at us with eyes that weren't human anymore.

Yellow, slit pupils.

Cold. Empty. Hungry.

The Clarisse who used to get flustered over the smallest mistakes…

The girl who awkwardly greeted people with a stiff smile…

She was nowhere to be found.

What stood before us now was a monster wearing her face.

"…Step back," I said quietly.

Elena and Lisa both tensed.

Neither argued.

Crack—

Clarisse's fingers twitched around her sword.

The metal bent slightly under her grip, as if her strength had multiplied several times over.

Her body trembled, shoulders rising and falling with jagged breaths—

as if she were desperately holding something back.

A landscape that didn't feel real—

like I had stepped straight into a nightmare painted in blood.

The metallic smell hanging in the air stung my nose as I stared at Clarice, who stood in the center of the devastation. Her figure was twisted, warped… wrong.

I had seen this form before.

Blood-red eyes.

A black, tar-like substance crawling across her skin.

And the sharp, curved horns jutting from her head—

It was the same grotesque transformation I'd witnessed from the man with the red wolf tattoo, the one who had attacked the Imperial Princess.

Clarice looked disturbingly similar.

"W-what is all this…?"

Elena's voice trembled as she finally took in the scene around us.

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