The hum hadn't stopped.
It wasn't loud—not something that would draw attention unless you were listening for it. But once you heard it, it never quite left you.
Conner stood at the edge of the east wing's collapsed hallway, where moss-covered tiles gave way to cracked concrete and jagged rebar. Beneath it, where part of the university's floor had caved in, was nothing but shadow.
And that sound. Low, pulsing, rhythmic. Not mechanical. Not natural.
Mana.
He crouched near the edge and pressed two fingers to the ground.
The earth was warm.
"You sure it's not just residual energy?" Katie asked that evening, when Conner brought the group together.
"No," he said. "It's not leftover. It's flowing."
They were sitting around a map drawn crudely in chalk on the cafeteria wall. A rough diagram of the east wing and what might exist beneath it. Most of it was guesswork.
"You think it's a dungeon?" Joey asked, arms folded.
"It's structured mana," Neive said quietly. "Same frequency as the Scenarios."
Luc tilted his head. "Could the System have planted one under us?"
"Or maybe it was always there," Conner replied. "Waiting."
They prepared for two days.
Not rushed. Not panicked.
Measured.
Each person took stock of their gear. Joey reshaped pieces of scrap into thin, wrist-mounted blades. Katie practiced spell delay and multi-layer casting using mirrored surfaces. Neive cycled her summons to see which forms handled confined spaces best.
Conner practiced drawing and sheathing the katana one hundred times, each motion smoother than the last. His bow, polished and oiled, was set across his back.
The hum never faded.
It only got louder when you closed your eyes.
On the third morning, they stood at the edge of the pit.
A crew of ten had been chosen—main cast up front, five trained survivors in support: Mira, Luc, Taz, Briggs, Samuel and Alia.
Chadwick wasn't there. He'd gone scouting west days earlier and hadn't returned.
The pit gaped before them, wide enough for two to walk shoulder-to-shoulder. Roots hung like nooses from the edges. The air was warm, tinged with copper and damp stone.
Joey flicked a pebble down.
No sound came back.
"Well, that's comforting."
"We don't know what's down there," Katie said.
"Exactly," Conner replied. "So we plan like we'll find everything."
Neive summoned her panther-fox hybrid. "Light, flank, rearguard?"
"Perfect," Conner said.
Joey gave him a look. "You're calling the shots now?"
Conner met his eyes. "We're not winging this. We move as one. We leave as one."
Joey didn't argue.
That said enough.
The descent was steep.
Taz rigged a rope line, and they moved down one by one. The deeper they went, the colder the air became—but the mana grew thicker. Not just in the air. In their bones.
After ten minutes, they hit the bottom.
A stone corridor stretched out before them, slick with moisture. The walls were ancient brick, marked with strange circular carvings—nothing like the modern architecture above.
Katie touched the stone. "Pre-System. Old magic."
Neive's summon hissed. Its fur stood on end.
"It knows we're here," Conner said.
Nobody asked what.
They moved forward in a tight formation, torches flickering against the damp stone.
The first chamber they reached was wide—an old atrium, ceiling cracked and caved in from one side. Rubble blocked half the room.
And across the far wall was a sealed door—circular, smooth, and humming faintly.
Mira stepped forward. "Looks like a vault."
Joey approached, reaching out.
"Don't touch it," Conner said quickly.
Joey stopped.
Katie circled around the side. "It's reacting to ambient mana."
"How do we open it?"
Conner drew his bow slowly. "We don't. Not yet."
The air inside the dungeon was thick.
Not heavy. Not suffocating. Just... alive. It pressed against their skin like static before a storm. Every step echoed louder than it should have, absorbed by walls that hadn't heard footsteps in decades.
Conner's Scope Eye pulsed softly, a single blue line curving across the door. It wasn't just a vault.
It was a trigger.
"Back up," he said, not raising his voice but making sure they all heard.
Everyone moved—slow, controlled. No one questioned him now.
The moment they stepped away, the door pulsed once. A low chime echoed out, vibrating through their feet.
Then it opened.
No grinding, no dramatic rumble. Just silence, and a cold breeze that shouldn't have existed underground.
Katie summoned a shard of ice in her palm and nodded once. "Let's move."
They stepped into the new chamber together.
It was circular, wide, and clean. The air smelled like dust and rusted blood—so dry it left a taste in the back of their throats. Etched along the walls were glyphs, faintly glowing. Mana patterns. Symbols from a system that didn't belong to the System.
And at the center stood a figure.
Still. Stone.
A statue—eight feet tall, humanoid, but twisted. Its limbs were too long, hands reaching almost to the floor. Its head was a smooth oval, no eyes or mouth, just runes carved into the surface like scars.
Taz took a step forward.
The statue moved.
Not clunky. Not slow.
It blurred.
"Scatter!" Conner barked.
The thing slammed into the ground where Taz had stood a second earlier. A crater formed in the stone, dust and debris exploding outward.
[Hostile Entity Identified: ???][Level: Unknown][Threat: Moderate to High]
Katie cast instantly—an ice barrier surged up in front of her, absorbing the next impact. The statue didn't hesitate. It struck again, shattering the wall like glass and sending fragments of mana-laced frost flying.
Joey roared and punched forward, molten metal erupting from his gauntlets mid-strike.
CLANG.
The blow landed—but barely staggered the thing.
Conner's eyes flared as he dashed sideways, unslinging his bow mid-roll. The Scope Eye locked on instantly, tagging faint glowing nodes beneath the creature's outer layer.
[Weak Points: Lower back, left hip, neck ridge]
He loosed an arrow—sharp, fast, clean.
The creature twisted unnaturally, the arrow grazing its shoulder instead of embedding.
"It's fast," Conner growled. "Don't trade hits."
Neive stepped in, summoning her dual-form panther—this one armored, with bone-plated shoulders. It lunged with a snarl, clamping onto the statue's hip.
A crack formed.
Conner didn't waste it.
He took a half-step forward and fired three times in quick succession—one to the hip, one to the exposed node, one higher.
The second shot hit dead on.
The creature finally recoiled, its body flickering like a bad signal.
[Skill: Phantom Arrow triggered]
The delayed shot curved wide—and struck its lower back from the opposite side.
The thing buckled for the first time.
"Pressure it!" Conner called.
Joey surged forward again, this time anchoring his feet. His metal didn't spike out—it spiraled around his arms, a condensed ring of heat.
He punched once—then twisted mid-strike, launching a sheet of molten steel toward the creature's knees.
They buckled.
"NOW!" Katie shouted.
She summoned three sigils at once and flung them overhead. They didn't strike—they hovered, then detonated in sequence.
Pop. Pop. CRACK.
Frost surged from above, locking the thing in a partial freeze, binding its limbs just enough.
Neive's summon leapt again, this time going for the throat.
[Skill Leveled: Bow Proficiency Lv. 3 → Lv. 4][New Skill Unlocked: Quick Reload (F-Rank)]You can now nock and fire without aim delay. +5% fire rate.
Conner didn't blink. He drew, fired, drew again.
This time, he targeted the neck.
THUNK.
The creature reeled, then let out a low, vibrational sound—no mouth, no vocal cords, just a pressure wave of raw mana.
Everyone staggered.
Joey dropped to a knee, ears bleeding. Katie clutched her head. Luc fell completely, covering his eyes.
Only Conner remained upright, and even then, just barely.
He gritted his teeth and stepped forward, katana drawn.
The Scope Eye burned with blue intensity, focusing everything into one line, one path, one motion.
He didn't think. He moved.
[Skill Triggered: Blade Footwork Lv. 2 → Lv. 3]
He vanished to the side.
The creature turned just too slow.
The blade slashed upward, directly into the fractured node beneath its chin.
CRACK.
The creature fell to its knees. The runes across its body dimmed.
Then—
[Enemy Defeated: ???][XP Gained: 1,420][Skill Scroll Dropped: Pulse Guard (F-Rank)]
Silence.
Everyone was breathing hard, some coughing, some on their backs. The dust hadn't even settled yet.
Conner stepped back, breathing heavy, katana dripping with black stone-powder blood.
No celebration.
Just relief.
Mira looked up, dazed. "That thing wasn't a regular monster."
"No," Katie said. "It wasn't."
Neive stared at the cracked glyphs along the walls. "This place… it's not just a dungeon. It's a memory."
Conner turned to the next hallway that had opened after the creature fell.
A cold wind blew from the dark.
"Then let's learn what it remembers."