Chapter 44: Dungeon Fall
[Memory Assimilation // 1%]
Like dragons made of razors sprinting through his skull, the memories tore their way in. Images. Voices. Pain. All of it surged, raw and uninvited. The life of the human he'd devoured poured into him.
[Memory Assimilation // 8%]
The pain vanished. Just like that. Replaced by a strange stillness. A float. Memory after memory stacked beneath him, lifting him into something warm. Gentle. Distant. It wasn't comfort. It was drowning.
[Memory Assimilation // 17%]
[!! WARNING !! // Personality Bleed Imminent]
'Seo-jin… Wohan Seo-jin… who's that?'
A boy, filthy and small. Two shadows stood towering above. Screaming. Kicking. Spitting. Then gone. Left him curled on the floor, bleeding into rot.
[Memory Assimilation // 25%]
[!! Personality Bleed Triggered !!]
Pride. His first kill. The silence afterward was too sweet. No more screaming. No more hiding while they drank. Just him and the knife. Freedom tasted like blood.
But freedom didn't last.
No shard. No worth. Still trash. So he fought. Stole. Killed. He made friends. Lost lovers. Made rivals. Buried enemies. All meaningless...until the day he found it. His A-rank shard.
[Memory Assimilation // 50%]
Pride fed on power. Each victory added to it. Each death fueled it. He learned fast, strength wasn't just freedom. It was control.
The Dead Hands. His gang. His kingdom. Built from the ground up. A corner of hell carved just for them. For him.
[Memory Assimilation // 73%]
He saw everything: miracles, monsters, the edge of the world. None of it moved him.
Until the Kings.
The day they gathered, when the strong stood tall, and the world stood still, he watched. From the dirt. From the Freelands. From nowhere.
And he wanted.
Not awe. Not worship. Just the chance to live under one of them. To know what it felt like to matter. To be protected and safe.
The battle. The roar. The chaos. The surge of power that twisted the sky and cracked the earth.
It ended in silence.
That day… everything shattered. Even his...allies...felt…
'...Weak.'
[Memory Assimilation // 93%]
The rift opened. Massive. Sudden. He couldn't run. There was no time to...void...no warning...sucked in before—
'Wohan Seo-jin?'
Fae magic. Something ancient. A curse that clawed straight through bone and soul...fractured...wrong shape...
'No.'
He'd made it out. He remembered running. Freedom.
Then—
A face. Fangs. Eyes like death.
A demon.
'No!'
The images rippled. Names lost weight. Scenes fractured like cracked glass. He reached for them...then tore them apart.
'I am not weak...'
'I am Azakh-Tur.'
[Memory Assimilation // 100%]
His eyes snapped open. Bloodlight surged, cracking through his chest and climbing his back like bloody flames.
"I seek no one's protection!"
[Personality Bleed Averted]
[Memory Assimilation // Complete]
He stayed still. Breathing hard. Watching the last of the panel blink out.
He'd almost disappeared. There hadn't been enough of him to hold the flood. Thought by thought, memory by memory, he'd been slipping. But that final feeling, that last human truth, the one that longed for shelter beneath another's strength?
No. That wasn't him. Would never be.
Feeling his revulsion to the idea settle, panting, rubbing his skull, he felt it. The danger was gone, but the weight lingered, every scrap of the human's life now folded into his. Especially the knowledge of Earth.
"That fucking hurt—"
His eyes lit up. The words felt...good.
"…Fuck… shit… fuck this shit…"
A tingle snapped up his spine.
"Cussing...Oh, I like that. Makes a huge fucking difference."
[User has now successfully completed their evolution. Congratulations.]
He lifted a claw. Turned it over. Ran it across his arm, his chest. Eyes closed. Senses pulled inward.
"So much's changed. Gonna take a while to sort through it."
When he opened his eyes, they settled on a nearby plant. Its leaves pulsed faintly, rising and falling like a sigh. Only now did it truly register.
He really was inside a dungeon.
And now, he understood what that really meant.
"…Fae Dungeon. Has to be. And considering how fast it dropped, it's D-Rank. Fuck."
He summoned Butcher's Wrath.
Rrriiip—!
The blades tore from his arms faster than ever, blood arcing out, splashing the nearby vegetation in thick, steaming trails.
"What the fuck?!"
His grimace cracked into a grin.
The cursing helped.
But staring down at the weapons, he could feel it. They were twitching. Irritated. Starved.
"Yeah, alright. I deserved that. Killed two humans without you."
Not guilt. Just acknowledging they had a point. It was way past time to feed them again.
"System, do we have anything on this dungeon?"
[Negative. Although User is able to access, until Network link is possible, certain aspects of—]
"Yeah, I get it. It's coming to me. So this run's gonna be XP only. That sucks."
[Affirmative.]
The knowledge settled fast. Earth just wasn't what he thought. It was worse. Bigger.
More fractured.
And dungeons? They were routine. Normal, and extremely dangerous.
In the Freelands, without the grace of a King, they just dropped. Random. Constant. Products of the Network. What saved humanity… hadn't saved it completely.
Accessing the human's memories was like wading through fog, but history rose through the haze like bubbles breaking the surface.
Even this Seo-jin had studied it. Obsessively.
The end of the world.
In 2025, Earth cracked. Without warning, five realms tore through the seams of reality. Rifts opened everywhere. Cities collapsed. Land warped. The Fae, Beast, Demon, Abyssal, and Heavenly realms bled through like wounds left to fester.
For years, humanity had no answers...only casualties. Entire generations erased. Billions slaughtered. For decades, survival meant hiding. Starving. Praying. Dying.
Until the Users appeared.
One by one, shards awakened. Powers flared. The strong began to push back. With each fallen monster, humanity clawed a piece of itself back from extinction.
An age of war. An age of myth. Events so vast they were known to all—and understood by none.
Then came the first King.
The first S+ shard. The first to reach S+ rank.
When he did, the Network responded.
It formed overnight. It grew faster than understanding. And soon, four more Kings emerged. Five total. Five sovereigns of a broken planet.
The Network assigned each a territory. Each kingdom fortified. Sustained. Stabilized. And most important, shielded. No rifts formed within their borders. Not ever.
Then came the dungeons. A system designed to manage the chaos. A compromise. Within kingdoms, they could be regulated. Scheduled. Farmed.
But out here?
In the Freelands?
Dungeons fell when they wanted. Where they wanted. No warning. No limits.
The imp sat with this knowledge burning behind his eyes when he suddenly caught it. A scent.
Sniff. He twitched. Sniff.
"...What's that?"
He leaned forward. Lips peeled back.
"Not human. That rabbit? No… wait—"
His jaw clenched.
Something was coming. A lot of somethings.
"Why didn't I sense them?!"
[User senses appear limited while inside current instance.]
He didn't feel the itch. Not until it was too late.
Eyes. Dozens. Maybe hundreds. Glowing. Rushing. They tore through vines and roots, bounding down the tunnel. Fast.
Memory snapped into place.
"Shit…"
He snarled as he activated Hellfire and Fiendskin. Butcher's Wrath rattled in his grip like hounds pulling at the leash.
"Elderwarren Rabbits."
His voice dropped.
"I spawned in their den."
The glow grew brighter. Closer. The sound of claws on cement, hundreds of them, echoed through the overgrowth.
And he knew, because Wohan Seo-jin knew too.
This was just the start.