The seventh layer was a deafening chaos of snarling monsters, and above the mass of bodies, faint motes of starlight drifted down like falling dust. Ethan triggered his wide-area skill, Starfall Barrage, and the drifting lights suddenly rained harder, flickering over the packed horde. Many of the monsters jammed at the back were already losing chunks of their health. At the same time, Leo kept swinging through his own set of area attacks, doing everything he could to hold the attention of the entire crowd.

It was a relief that Ethan only had Starfall Barrage for large-scale damage, since it merely chipped away at everything in its range. If he had possessed a true burst-type spell, Leo would have never managed to keep such a massive pull focused on him.

Minutes dragged by as they remained wedged in the corridor, repeating the same cycle of casting, striking, and waiting for cooldowns, the fight turning into a mechanical rhythm that none of them dared break.

"I'm out of Mana, you guys handle it from here, Leo, you madman…" Ryan muttered as he squeezed out his final spell. His Mana bar was completely empty. Since combat prevented him from drinking a potion or eating for a quick refill, he had no choice but to fall back and wait for the painfully slow natural recovery.

Because only two monsters at a time could actually reach Leo through the corridor choke, Victor and Evelyn followed Ethan's instructions and stayed on standby, ready to intervene but holding back for now. Kiara alone kept Leo's health stable, her healing spells flowing one after another, although even she was already down to half her Mana.

When they first committed to this enormous pull, Ethan's biggest concern had been whether they could last long enough to break it. Luckily their composition helped. They only had one caster DPS, and with three healers overall, they should be able to maintain this grind if nothing unexpected happened.

During the calmer moments between waves of casting, Ethan had also taken the chance to scold Leo for starting things so recklessly, even though both of them knew there was no turning back now.

---

Meanwhile, on the fourth layer of the Uncharted Catacomb, the situation was deteriorating fast.

"Damn it, you idiots, you dragged the monsters right to the entrance. Going down there now is suicide."

"How is that our fault, we were running for our lives."

"This isn't the time to argue. What are we doing next."

"What can we do, we need a human wave."

"Yeah, send everyone who still has their lives to the front, make a Death Squad, pull the monsters away by force."

The Blackridge Coalition was in chaos. After regrouping, they had pushed another wave of players downward, but the instant that wave stepped onto the fourth layer's lower stairs, they were met by a swarm of skeletal monsters so dense that the group was shredded within moments. Thousands of players had died like wheat cut by a scythe.

Even so, their deaths were not completely meaningless, since a handful had made it back with information about the fifth layer. As soon as that report appeared in their team chat, several guild leaders grew unsettled. They had invested far too much in this expedition to retreat now. The monsters gave decent experience, but their loot had been disappointingly poor so far, and they were clinging to the hope that something worthwhile waited deeper inside.

None of them knew that Ethan and his small team had already pushed all the way to the seventh layer, the most rewarding area in the entire Uncharted Catacomb.

Time crawled forward. More monsters fell. At last, the Blackridge coalition carved through the fifth layer and pushed into the sixth, only to freeze the moment they stepped inside. The entire floor was empty. Not a single monster roamed the halls.

Rather than relief, a heavy dread fell over the leaders.

"Send a few people to scout ahead."

It took only a short while before the scouts' message returned, and it was grim. The sixth layer's descent into the seventh was completely sealed off by an unending mass of skeletal monsters. Worse, the entire layer was patrolled by Skeletal Assassins, silent killers that repeatedly ambushed anyone trying to approach. Most of the scouts died before they even reached the sightline of the entrance, and the few who managed to get that far were instantly crushed by the rising tide of bones.

Ethan's ability to gather monsters surpassed anything they had imagined. From a distance, the dormant skeletons looked like a simple heap of white bones piled casually in the corridor, but once they were triggered, they surged to life as a single, terrifying Bone Legion. Luring them away was not something that ordinary players could manage.

The Blackridge Coalition had no choice but to grind their way through a war of attrition. They pushed forward wave after wave of players, fully aware that every death shaved off experience and levels, and they organized Death Squads without hesitation. It took more than two hours of nonstop sacrifice before the skeletal horde finally thinned enough for them to squeeze through.

"Our losses this time are insane. If we don't get something worthwhile out of this, we're finished."

"What are you so worried about, the Steele Corporation is paying for everything."

"Exactly."

"Ah… you're right."

"Say, should we…"

"What do you think…"

"Heh, how about this, I'll report double the actual cost, and I take thirty percent of whatever is extra. Everyone fine with that."

"No problem at all…"

Tens of thousands of players died, resurrected through Corpse Revival, then died again and returned again, until the cycle blurred into a dull rhythm of suffering. After three long hours, they finally managed to open a path down into the seventh layer.

Seventy to eighty thousand players had each lost about two levels on this layer alone. Many of them were shaking at the mere sight of scattered bones. Repeated deaths had left them nauseous, dizzy, and mentally drained, and the lingering fear of dying again clung to them like a heavy fog.

The guild leaders, however, were practically glowing. Heavy losses meant a larger reimbursement, and if they reported double the cost, the payout from the Steele Corporation would leave them with a handsome share to divide among themselves.

The discovery of the Uncharted Catacomb itself had been fairly recent. Ethereal had been running long enough for a few Treasure Troves and Dungeon-Activated Sanctums to appear, and when scouting parties stumbled upon this cavern system, the Steele Corporation immediately ordered a full clear. All expenses would be covered by them.

At this point, the entire Blackridge region was essentially under Steele control. Springhaven was in the same situation. Only a handful of guilds still operated outside the corporation's influence. Guild wars still occurred, but they were mostly minor clashes in the open world, nuisances that disrupted leveling but changed little on a strategic level.

Everything was about to shift once the Fortress Wars began.

The guilds that had refused to align with the Steele Corporation were now in full panic. The official website had released details about the coming event, and the rules were merciless. Within twelve hours of the event starting, every guild had to capture a fortress and move its Guild Headquarters into it.

After the event, the Capital City would no longer host any Headquarters. Every guild was required to relocate, and failure to do so within the twelve-hour window meant the system would seize their Headquarters and disband the guild on the spot.

Only Level 6 guilds would be allowed to fight in the Fortress Wars. Any guild below Level 6 could only survive by affiliating with one that qualified.

In other words, once the event began, solo guilds and lower-level groups would need to find a powerful patron or vanish from Ethereal entirely.

The announcement stunned every guild, but the solo guilds took the worst blow. This expansion felt designed to unify the war zones under stronger powers, turning the weaker ones into dependents. Anyone who refused to become an affiliate, or anyone the larger guilds simply did not want, would be erased by the system as if they had never existed.

Ethan had little concern for the fate of other regions, yet Springhaven and Blackridge were already caught in a whirlwind of fear. Countless guilds rushed to request negotiations with the Steele Corporation.

But the company, which had been expanding aggressively until now, abruptly shifted to a cold and distant posture. Any guild that had previously rejected their offers was turned away without discussion. Panic spread even faster, because players understood exactly what that meant. Only destruction awaited them.

Meanwhile, the executives of the Steele Corporation were delighted. The official announcement had turned them into the most sought-after power in the region, and they knew it.

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