More mantises poured in from side passages and upper ledges, dropping into the fray with killing intent. Bruce met them head on, releasing a focused burst of aura that staggered the weaker ones for a split second, just long enough.

He took their heads.

He crushed their cores.

He tore through them with relentless efficiency, his breathing steady, his movements economical. Sweat never formed. Fatigue never set in. Only calculation remained.

But as he moved deeper, the air itself changed.

The mana grew thicker. Heavier. Sharper.

The oppressive aura he'd felt earlier intensified, pressing against his senses like an unseen weight. It wasn't directed at him, not yet, but it was aware. Watching. Measuring.

Bruce's expression hardened.

'Still hiding…'

Another wave charged.

Bruce raised his hand, fingers curling as mana condensed tightly in his palm. He slammed it forward, unleashing a compressed mana burst that obliterated the front line of mantises and sent shattered bodies skidding across the floor. He didn't stop to admire the destruction. He stepped through it, killing anything that still twitched.

Step by step.

Body by body.

He carved his way forward, deeper into the dungeon, leaving nothing alive behind him.

And still,

No SS Ranked beast emerged.

Bruce exhaled slowly, eyes narrowing as the pressure continued to climb.

"…You're really going to make me come to you," he murmured.

The dungeon answered with silence.

But the aura pulsed once, heavier than before.

And for the first time since entering, Bruce felt something close to anticipation.

The mantises didn't give him time to savor it.

They kept coming.

From the front. From the sides. From above, dropping from jagged ledges with bladed limbs already mid swing. Their coordination sharpened further, movements tighter, attacks layered with intent rather than frenzy. Bruce moved through them without pause, his dagger flashing in tight arcs as he slipped through gaps measured in centimeters, severing joints, piercing eyes, carving through weak seams in their exoskeletons.

Holy Rupture flared again and again, his palm striking chitin only for the true damage to bloom inside, brains rupturing, nervous systems collapsing, towering bodies crashing down behind him as he advanced.

He didn't slow.

He didn't retreat.

He advanced through resistance like a scalpel through flesh.

Mana surged through his limbs as he shifted methods constantly. One moment he was weaving through scythe like foreleg strikes with pure footwork, the next he released short, compressed bursts of mana from his palms to blast enemies off balance before finishing them mid air.

Red shifted fluidly between dagger and short blade, then back to gloves as the flow of combat demanded, never lingering in one form long enough for the mantises to adapt fully.

And yet,

They kept coming.

The deeper he pushed, the more the dungeon narrowed, the passages growing tighter, the ceilings lower. The terrain itself seemed to funnel him forward, reducing angles of escape, forcing closer engagements. Bruce noticed it immediately.

Then he felt it.

A new pressure.

Different.

Sharper.

Ahead of him, the mantis horde abruptly split.

From the ranks stepped a single figure taller than the rest, its exoskeleton darker, denser, etched with faint, glowing lines that pulsed in rhythm with its movements. Its presence alone bent the air around it, its aura heavy enough to make the surrounding S Ranked mantises instinctively give way.

Bruce's eyes narrowed.

'SS Ranked.'

The mantis raised its forelegs slowly, blades crossing before its chest as its compound eyes locked onto him with chilling focus. The air shifted subtly, pressure tightening around Bruce's movements, not overwhelming, but present. A refined presence. Controlled.

Before Bruce could fully assess it, another aura flared.

Then another.

Two more SS Ranked mantises emerged from opposite passages, their auras overlapping as they moved to block his path forward, cutting off retreat and advance alike.

Bruce blinked once.

"…That was quick," he muttered.

He genuinely hadn't expected them to reveal themselves this early, not while there were still so many S Ranked mantises actively engaging him. His gaze flicked briefly around the battlefield, taking in the cramped space, the short distances, the density of enemies.

Something clicked.

'This dungeon…'

It was small.

Far smaller than it should've been for something producing pressure like this. Even one region of Axiom's Abyssal Wolf Forest Labyrinth dwarfed this entire space by comparison.

Which made no sense.

[This dungeon was originally A Rank.] Vaelith's calm voice sounded in his mind. [It seems the aura you're sensing is forcibly evolving every beast inside it. That explains the absence of A Ranked entities.]

Bruce nodded as he slipped forward, his dagger flashing as he decapitated a lunging mantis without breaking stride.

"Yes… that explains a lot," he replied internally, brow furrowing. "But forcibly evolving this many beasts at once… that's absurd. The mana cost alone, "

He paused for half a heartbeat as he crushed another mantis' skull with Holy Rupture.

" isn't that a little too broken?"

Even as the thought crossed his mind, he scoffed internally. Coming from someone with infinite mana, the complaint almost felt hypocritical. But the difference was clear to him. His power was sustained by an anomaly of existence. For someone else to achieve this through raw output alone,

Their mana pool would have to be monstrous.

[Bruce, don't underestimate the owner of that aura.] Vaelith warned. [I suspect it may be an Invader.]

Bruce's eyes sharpened.

'Invader?'

[Yes. If that is the case, you must treat this situation with utmost caution. I am still uncertain how it established a link to Velmora. Until that is confirmed, engaging it carries significant risk. And while you possess an Ex Class, you must not become complacent. Outside Velmora, beings that specialize in invading worlds, dungeons, or labyrinths may possess classes equal to, or higher than, your own. The effects of your class cannot override the effects of a higher ranked class.]

Bruce didn't respond immediately.

He ducked under a scythe strike, stepped inside its reach, and drove his palm into the SS Ranked mantis' thorax. Holy Rupture activated, but this time, the feedback was different. Resistance. Not immunity, but pushback, like detonating an organ wrapped in reinforced layers.

The mantis staggered, but didn't fall.

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