Meanwhile, Bruce followed the map with effortless velocity, the world blurring past him in seamless streaks of color. The capital's stone roads vanished beneath his feet, forests, fields, and trade routes flickered by like fading memories. Ash clung to his shoulder, claws lightly sinking into his clothes, pupils stretched thin in exhilaration as the wind roared past them.

Thousands of kilometers?

For him, it may as well have been a street corner.

In only a few minutes, Bruce slowed, boots grinding into the thick soil at the edge of the outer territories.

The portal stood ahead, a massive vertical rupture in space, shimmering with dark blue ripples. It pulsed like a breathing beast, exhaling an unsettling chill that crawled across Bruce's skin.

He inhaled slowly.

A faint, unnatural cold leaked from it. Not the ordinary kind. A chilling aura… familiar yet ancient, like the dungeon itself was hungry.

"Mm," Bruce murmured, eyes narrowing. "So this is it."

He lifted his wrist slightly, the holographic map flickered away.

He summoned Red.

ZZZIP!

The twin daggers snapped into existence and shot into his palms as though his hands were magnets drawing them home. Their crimson edges gleamed, vibrating with excitement, or bloodlust. Hard to tell.

He twirled them once, then glanced at Ash.

The little dragon stared at the portal, chest rising and falling, anticipation humming through its scales.

Bruce let out a small, wolfish grin.

"Let's have some fun… shall we?"

Ash chirped sharply, agreement.

Together, they stepped into the portal, and Darkness swallowed them whole.

Then,

WHOOOOSH!!

A howling cold wind slammed into Bruce's face the moment his vision returned. The gravity hit immediately after, smashing down on his shoulders with crushing force.

Bruce didn't flinch.

But the weight was real.

He exhaled softly, watching the breath freeze in front of him.

All around them… a white world.

A freezing blizzard raged endlessly, snow swirling in violent spirals. Jagged ice formations jutted out of the ground like ancient fangs. The sky was nothing but a storm of silver and frost.

A prompt materialized in front of him:

──────────────────────

[ Gravity Field Detected ]

[ Force Applied: 50,000 tons ]

[ Your body is strong and resistant to this pressure ]

──────────────────────

Bruce's left brow twitched.

"Fifty thousand tons, hm…?"

A quiet sigh left him. Not annoyance, amusement. The dungeon was trying to intimidate him. Cute.

But Ash,

FWOOOM!

The dragon leapt off his shoulder and transformed in a blur of expanding light and shadows. In the span of a heartbeat, the tiny creature was gone, replaced by a fully grown beast of majesty and terror.

A fifteen-meter-tall dragon, scales shimmering like molten starlight, wings stretching wide enough to blot out the storm.

But the moment Ash tried to move,

THUD!

Its limbs buckled.

The massive dragon snarled in frustration, unable to lift its own weight under the crushing gravity. The ground cracked beneath its mass, snow exploding outward in a violent spray.

Bruce's expression tightened.

So the dungeon was layered with gravitational suppression. And the scouting data had omitted that very important point.

"Figures," Bruce muttered. "Dual-dungeon… unstable environment… Scout records were probably incomplete."

He glanced at Ash, whose enormous form trembled, muscles straining against the downward pressure.

"This gravity isn't an issue for me… but for Ash…"

For Ash it was a real problem.

He turned the possibilities over in his mind, calculating, analyzing, adjusting. He needed Ash mobile. Against direwolves, especially S-Ranked abyssal variants, mobility was life.

The storm howled, as if the dungeon itself was mocking them.

Bruce looked into the blizzard, eyes narrowing. Something was out there. Watching them, measuring them.

And he had seconds, maybe less, to decide how to counter the gravity before the first wave arrived.

But Then...

AWUUUUU!!!!!

A distant howl tore through the blizzard.

Long.

Cold.

Hungry!!

Bruce's eyes narrowed as the wind shifted, carrying the echo of something feral and ancient. The first predator had found them.

He glanced at Ash.

The dragon was pinned by the gravity, its massive body trembling under the oppressive force. Instinctively, Bruce raised his hand, intending to use Heal to counteract the pressure, lighten the load, or assist in stabilizing Ash's form,

But Ash shook its head.

A sharp, deliberate movement.

Bruce froze mid-cast, eyebrows lifting slightly.

'You don't want my help? You want to handle this yourself…?'

That realization hit him harder than the wind.

Ash… was choosing to grow.

To resist.

To stand on its own power.

To evolve.

Just as this thought ran through Bruce's mind, Ash's low growl deepened into a violent rumble that vibrated through the icy ground.

Then,

ROOOOAAAAAR!!!

Ash bellowed into the storm, forcing its voice out against the crushing gravity. The blizzard shuddered. Snow burst outward in rippling waves.

Flames burst from Ash's throat,

But Bruce immediately frowned.

This wasn't normal dragon fire.

Yes, there was the familiar incandescent heat, molten gold and crimson swirling at the edges, but woven through it was something else entirely.

A second flame.

Silent.

Transparent.

Colorless.

It flowed like water, yet burned like flame, bending the air around it without emitting light.

And yet Bruce could see it perfectly, a flame with no color, no hue, only a distortion, like reality bending.

He stared, eyes widening slightly.

'What… is that?'

Right then, the system chimed.

──────────────────────────

[ Your pet Ash has awakened a new flame ]

[ Source: Devourer Dragon Bloodline — Library of Flames ]

[ Ash has awakened: SOUL FLAME ]

A flame that directly targets the soul of a living being.

[ Ash has gained an Exceptional Title! ]

[ Ash has Evolved ]

──────────────────────────

Another chime followed,

──────────────────────────

[ Congratulations! Ash is now A–Ranked! ]

──────────────────────────

Bruce's expression shifted.

From surprise…

to realization…

to something dangerously close to pride.

'A Soul Flame.'

A flame with no color, no shadow, no physical trace, a flame that burned the soul itself.

He looked at Ash again, the dragon still straining under the 50,000-ton gravity, eyes blazing with a fierce, stubborn will.

Ash had chosen this moment,

under crushing pressure, in a frozen wasteland, in the presence of a predator,

to evolve.

Bruce exhaled softly.

"…Good."

His words were swallowed by the wind.

But Ash heard him.

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