Professor Aldwin sat on the makeshift bench outside the dungeon entrance, flipping through his clipboard like it had insulted his mother. His quill scratched rapidly, quick notes, then annoyed scribbles as he crossed half of them out.

A few steps away, the gray-haired woman inspected the wards lining the dungeon gate. Her fingers glowed faint blue, expression calm.

Meanwhile, the youngest instructor, paced back and forth, muttering curses as he juggled a crystal tablet and a mana-gauge device.

"Should've been my assignment," he grumbled. "But no. Aldwin has to supervise everything—"

Aldwin didn't look up. "Did you say something, Taryn?"

Taryn froze mid-step. "N-Nothing. Just… calibrating readings."

Aldwin gave him a slow, skeptical glance then returned to his notes.

Taryn exhaled. Almost relaxed—

Then, the ground shivered.

His eyes snapped to the mana-gauge. The device shrieked, numbers spiking once, twice, then rocketing past limits they had no business reaching.

"Uh... Professor?" His voice cracked.

Aldwin stood. The woman turned sharply, calm evaporating.

The shimmering barrier over the dungeon entrance flickered, not the comfortable, lazy pulse of a Rank-E dungeon, but a violent surge like something inside had woken up.

The reading on the artifact stabilized.

"Rank... C? That can't be right," Taryn whispered, stepping back.

Aldwin's jaw tightened. "C-Rank dungeon, damn it. He can't clear it alone. He's just a first-year student."

The woman's gaze darkened. "We can't go inside either. It gets locked when one party enter and can't be accessible until cleared or the ones inside die."

Taryn swallowed. "Then... the only option he has is to use the emergency artifact we gave him."

Aldwin didn't answer.

He didn't need to.

He knew Jin was in serious trouble.

*****

{Jin's POV}

My lantern was the only thing pushing against the shadows. It was like a pool of light fighting against a sea of black.

Each breath came out visible. The air here became colder.

The tunnel sloped slightly downward, cut from rough stone, the walls beaded with moisture.

Tip! Tip!

Water dripped from somewhere above, each drop echoing too loud, making the silence heavier.

Stay alert!

I kept the lantern low, and sword ready. The ground here wasn't flat, uneven stones forced me to watch every step.

Then I heard it... a faint rustle.

Ahead? Behind?

I couldn't tell, just stood there, listening.

But nothing followed.

I forced my breathing into control again and moved forward.

Finally, the passage widened into a dead-silent chamber, the lantern glow catching sight of a massive oak door bound in dark iron. I pressed my hand against it, feeling the cold seep through my glove.

Then pushed.

The door swung open with a groan.

And something massive stepped through from the other side.

I had half a second to register what I was seeing something humanoid.

Then it attacked.

The blade came at my throat in a horizontal slash.

I threw myself backward, my own sword coming up on pure instinct.

CLANG!

The impact rattled through my bones. My boots skidded on stone as I stumbled back, arms screaming from the force.

Oh, that's not a skeleton or even a ghoul.

The thing advanced through the doorway, and my lantern light revealed what I was dealing with.

A Wight?

Had to be.

It was six and a half feet tall, wrapped in dark plate armor. The helmet's eye slits glowed with a sickly green light, and beneath the armor I could see dried, leathery skin stretched tight over bone.

It raised its sword again, a proper longsword, held with the confidence of someone who'd used it a thousand times.

Why the fuck is something like this here?

My Debug Vision flared automatically:

[Entity Analysis]

entity_id: "blackwood_wight_B07"

type: "undead_commander"

hp: 280/280

threat_level: "high"

abilities: {

command_undead

necrotic_strike

tactical_combat

}

weaknesses: {

decapitation

holy_magic

sustained_physical_damage

}

Fuck this shit!

The wight came at me again with a thrust aimed at my chest. I parried, blade scraping against blade, and tried to riposte.

It batted my counter aside effortlessly and kicked me in the stomach.

The air exploded from my lungs. I flew backward, crashed into the wall, and barely got my sword up in time to block the next strike.

Steel screamed against steel.

The wight pressed forward, driving me back step by step. Each impact sent jolts of pain up my arms, my muscles screaming, my grip weakening.

It feinted left, I bought it, and the real strike came from the right that caught me in the ribs.

Crack!

Pain flared white-hot.

I staggered, gasping, and the wight's blade came around in a horizontal slash—

I threw myself flat.

The sword passed inches above my head and buried itself in the stone wall with a crunch.

I rolled, came up on one knee, and ran.

Not toward safety, there wasn't any. Toward the doorway the wight had come through. It was a narrow space. Limit its movement.

Though my side screamed with every step, but I made it through and spun, sword raised.

The wight pulled its blade free and followed methodically. Not rushing.

It's not mindless. It's thinking. Waiting for me to make a mistake.

We faced each other in the narrow doorway, maybe four feet wide, enough for one person but cramped for a real fight.

Just what the hell is going on? How the fuck can a E-Rank dungeon be this difficult?

The wight attacked again, but this time the confined space worked against it. The overhead strike it tried caught the doorframe. It had to pull back to adjust.

There. That's something.

But "something" wasn't enough. It came at me again, thrust, slash and I was purely defensive now.

My arms were going numb from the impacts.

I needed an edge. Literally anything.

Then focused on the wight's sword mid-combat.

[EDIT: Wight's Sword → Balance Off-Center]

The blade shimmered faintly. The wight didn't seem to notice.

It swung again.

And the swing went wide.

I lunged into the opening, driving my sword toward the gap between its chest plate and helmet.

My blade scraped against armor and skidded off.

Fuck!

The wight backhanded me with its free hand.

I crashed into the doorframe, stars exploding across my vision, and felt something wet running down my temple.

My blood.

Can't penetrate the armor.

Think, dammit. Think!

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