Bright.
That was the first thing Ray saw as his eyes cracked open. Blinding, sterile light bled into his vision, forcing him to squint.
He blinked—once, twice—each movement dragging like molasses through fog. The world stitched back together—blurry, broken, like a dream clawing into reality.
His body screamed in silence. Every nerve felt like it had been shattered and reassembled with fire and wire.
"…Ugh."
The groan slipped out—dry, cracked, raw. His lips were chapped. His throat, parched like a desert scorched beneath twin suns.
He tried to sit up, but pain lanced through his ribs and spine like a lightning spear driven straight through his lungs.
"That's not wise," came a voice—soft, calm, yet undeniably firm.
A woman stood beside the bed. Middle-aged, draped in healer's robes of white and green. Her eyes held the practiced calm of someone who'd seen far too many brush shoulders with death.
"You're lucky to be alive. Let me alert the principal—he asked to be notified first after you woke up" she said before turning and leaving the room in a rush.
Her sudden urgency left a ripple of confusion in his chest.
He turned his head slowly, wincing, and looked out the window. There it was—the familiar courtyard, the towering spires, the training fields swaying under morning light.
This is... the Academy?
But... I was in the dungeon.
The memory clawed at him.
Right...that demon... I lost control. Rage swallowed everything. After that...i don't remember.
Did I kill it? Did I finish the quest? Or... did someone else?
The silence answered nothing.
With a sigh, Ray opened his status window, hoping for clarity.
Instead, a cascade of system messages unfolded before him like a verdict:
***
[Quest: Clear C-Rank Dungeon ~Frost fang Grotto~]
[Completed]
[Rewards Generating....]
[WARNING!!!!!!!]
[Host's Body and core is collapsing due to a huge burden]
[WARNING!!!!!!!]
[WARNING!!!!!!!]
[Host's condition is becoming critical.....]
[Emergency protocol initiating...]
[Rewards changing.....]
[Reward: 10,000 system points]
[Consuming System points to stabilize and treat host's body and core.....]
[....]
[....]
[Removing crippled status.....]
[Estimated recovery time: 1 month]
**
Ray stared at the glowing text, his breath caught somewhere between disbelief and dread.
"Emergency protocol?"
"Crippled status… removed?"
What the hell… what even happened to my body?
The system… it changed my rewards to save me?
His gaze drifted down to his hands. They looked fine now—no cuts, no blood, no frostbite—but something felt off.
Like he was a borrowed version of himself, stitched together by something ancient and cold.
"Crippled status…"
The words repeated like an echo in a cave.
I was crippled. For real. The effect of Overclock plus Void severance must have made me cripple...
A knot formed in his stomach.
That meant the damage had been beyond what healers could fix. Beyond potions and healing magic.
But that was not the end to the messages,
***
[#%@$^# has been detected near the host...]
[Unusual fluctuations in the web of fate have been recorded.]
[From the information recorded.....the unknown individual is the cause behind the change in the host's fate...]
[Attempting identification...]
[...]
[Failed. Interference detected from %%#$#$%. Identification blocked.]
[Proceeding with system override...revealing the information to host ahead of time..]
[The individual has taken the runes that were meant for you.]
[That have disrupted the natural order.]
[A foreign rune is suppressing the system's identification protocol. Identification remains impossible]
[If the host wishes to reclaim his fate—and restore the balance of the world—]
[—Kill the unknown individual.]
**
[Quest Generated: Kill the Fate Disruptor]
[Time Limit: None]
[Reward: ???]
***
Ray stared blankly at the glowing text still hovering before his eyes.
Kill the Fate Disruptor.
It lingered, unmoving—final. Like a verdict etched into stone.
He didn't blink.
Runes.
The word echoed in his skull like a forgotten name suddenly spoken aloud.
No. That couldn't be right.
Runes weren't real. They were legends, pieces of old stories passed around campfires and bedtime tales. Markings of power left behind by ancient gods—fables meant to scare children or give them something to dream about.
He remembered scoffing at them as a kid.
His breath caught in his throat.
But if the system was telling the truth… if those runes were real… and they were meant for him—
Then someone had taken more than just a reward. They had taken what was supposed to be part of his soul.
But who was that person…
Was there someone else other than his team members and the demon?
A chill swept down his spine, colder than the dungeon frost. A heavy silence filled the room, one that made his own heartbeat feel too loud, too slow. His thoughts kept spinning, circling the same question again and again, without an answer.
He couldn't breathe. His heart thudded in his chest, each beat heavier than the last.
How? Why?
He tried to sit up again, ignoring the stab of pain that tore through his ribs like a jagged blade.
The sheets rustled under him, damp with sweat. His hand reached toward the system window as if he could force it to give him more, to explain, to justify.
But there was nothing else.
Just silence.
And that one damning line:
They have taken the runes that were meant for you.
His hands fell to his lap, his fingers curling slowly into fists.
He didn't realize he was clenching his teeth until the muscles in his jaw began to ache. His mouth tasted of blood—he must have bitten his tongue.
Myths. Stories. Lies.
All of them were real.
And someone had stolen his fate.
His vision blurred—not with tears, but fury. A quiet, growing scream stuck in his chest, one that made his whole body feel too small to contain it.
He wanted to break something.
Shatter the window. Tear the truth out of the walls. He needed something, anything, to ground him—but all he had was silence and a stolen truth.
But before he could even move—
The door slammed open.
The sound cracked across his mind like thunder, sharp and sudden.
Ray flinched hard, instinctively reaching toward his side for a weapon that wasn't there.
The Principal stood in the doorway.
His eyes locked on Ray like a hawk finding prey—burning, cold, furious.
"You. What the hell did you do in that dungeon?"
Ray flinched after seeing him in anger.
"M-Master... l-listen, it was not my fault..."
He tried to defend himself but—
A fist slammed onto the crown of his head.
BAM!!!
"Not your fault, my ass, bastard. I heard how many times you used the move I taught you..."
"It was a move to be used once, but you... how many times did you use it… more than ten fucking times."
"It's a miracle you are not crippled..."
Well, in a sense I was crippled...
Again, a fist slammed onto the crown of his head.
BAM!!!
"Why are you not replying, brat..."
"I-I am s-sorry, Master..."
"Sorry, my ass. You have been unconscious for three whole weeks..."
Nichole continued to lecture Ray for a long time, also hitting his head repeatedly with his fist, making his head swell up.
Only after a full hour did he stop.
"Do you know how much pride I had to swallow to get you into that dungeon?"
Ray blinked. "Wait, what?"
It was true.
After talking to Ray before he entered the dungeon, Nichole had to request the city head of Iron Hold to allow Ray to participate in the raid.
If he had wanted to, he could have used his authority as a Saint, but the City Head of Iron Hold was his childhood friend. Even if he had used his rank, the man would not have agreed to let a kid enter a dungeon two ranks above his level.
Nichole also didn't want that. Who would willingly let his own disciple enter such a dangerous place? But it was only after hearing Ray's voice—his stubbornness, the weight of determination in his tone—that he agreed.
Ray lowered his gaze. "...Are the others okay? How did the demon die? I've been listening to your rant for an hour now."
"You ungrateful brat..." Nichole muttered, but relented.
After Ray lost consciousness, an unknown individual appeared and engaged the demon.
He was peculiar in many ways... his body healed itself every time he was injured. He was still weaker than Ray, but somehow his attacks struck deeper, hit harder, and carried weight far beyond his physical strength.
He radiated an ancient aura—one that make you feel fear from deep within. But it was not the aura of power... if it was, the fight would have ended without a struggle.
And yet, in the end, that unknown person killed the demon by sacrificing his arm. The most terrifying part was not the sacrifice—but what he did after. He took the severed limb and reattached it, treating his own flesh like a mere tool.
And the most unusual part... he used both magic and sword.
Ray frowned. "That's… impossible."
"Exactly," Nichole said. "Everyone was shocked."
But for different reasons…
Nichole didn't share everything. He knew far more than he let on.
He knew that demons had begun invading this world from somewhere unknown. At first, it was subtle—small incursions through low-rank dungeon breaks.
A handful of creatures slipping through, barely enough to raise alarm.
But then, the waves grew larger.
They started pouring in through dungeons that had never been recorded—unmapped, unmonitored, as if they had appeared overnight.
And these dungeon breaks… they weren't normal.
Typically, a dungeon only broke after being neglected for a long period. It was a slow process, predictable and preventable—there was always time to intervene.
But these new ones didn't follow that rule.
The moment they manifested, they collapsed—ripping open a passage for demons to pour through with nothing to stop them.
As if something—or someone—was forcibly tearing through the fabric of reality.
As if they had discovered a method to travel between dimensions freely, bypassing the natural laws altogether.
And it wasn't just invasion anymore.
They were beginning to unite. Not as scattered threats, but as an organized force.
Somewhere—still unknown—they were building a base.
And among them… there was a certain demon.
Nichole had fought against him once, alongside the other Seven Saints.
Even then, they could barely hold their ground.
That demon had used both sword and magic.
So Nichole knew the truth.
There were demons who could wield both.
Dual-class monsters from another world.
The demon rumored to be the Son of the Demon king.
***