Yun stood at the dungeon's shattered entrance, the cold wind brushing past his face like the whisper of the dead. The world was silent. Too silent. The kind of silence that only followed death.
He glanced once more at the system window before him:
[Memory Absorption Complete: S-Rank Hunter – Raze Luthan][Combat Skill Acquired: Phantom Step][Passive Trait Acquired: Predator's Focus]
His breath caught. The skills felt foreign, like wearing someone else's skin, yet they pulsed with raw, dangerous power.
"Raze Luthan… you were supposed to be invincible," Yun muttered, his hand tightening around the rusted dagger at his side — the only weapon he ever carried, more for show than use. But now, with his body buzzing from absorbed skills, even the blade seemed to shimmer with purpose.
He turned back into the dungeon, stepping carefully onto the bloodstained path left behind. The once-vibrant walls were cracked, the runes flickering like dying embers. Every few meters, he found another piece of armor, a broken blade, or worse — a scorched remnant of a Hunter.
"Why didn't they run?" Yun asked aloud.
[System Alert: Death Echo Detected][Would you like to view?]
"Yes."
The world twisted.
Suddenly, he was there, behind Raze, as if watching through a ghost's eyes. The S-rank party had gathered in a formation, facing something in the dark. A creature… no, a being. Towering, featureless, surrounded by a swirling aura of shadows.
Raze shouted something — words Yun couldn't hear — before charging forward, blade drawn.
In an instant, darkness swallowed them all.
The vision ended.
Yun staggered back, nausea twisting in his gut. It wasn't just a fight. It was a massacre. They were outclassed from the beginning — something beyond the dungeon's tier had breached in.
But how?
"I need answers," Yun said, breathless. "And I'll find them… through their deaths."
He pressed forward, deeper into the dungeon. Each step brought more memories, more fragments. A healer whispering apologies before being torn apart. A scout crying for her mother as the shadows took her. A tank cursing the world for sending them into a trap.
[Skill Fragment Acquired: Mana Disruption Field – 32%][Skill Fragment Acquired: Titan's Guard – 67%]
The system was piecing them together — slowly building power from tragedy.
But the further Yun went, the more he felt it: something was watching.
And then he heard it.
Footsteps. Soft. Bare. Echoing from the end of the corridor.
Yun froze.
A girl stepped out. No older than fifteen, draped in ceremonial robes stained with dried blood. Her eyes were pitch black, void of emotion.
"You saw them die," she said flatly.
Yun's heart pounded. "Who are you?"
"The dungeon watches through me."
Before he could react, the girl raised her hand — and the dungeon trembled.
[System Alert: Unknown Entity Detected][Survival Probability: 3%]
Yun stepped back instinctively, mind racing.
But even with fear rising in his throat, he felt something else… something inside him shifting. The memories. The skills. They weren't just data anymore. They were becoming him.
"I won't run," Yun whispered, lifting his dagger.
The girl's eyes narrowed. "Then die like the others."
And with that, the corridor exploded into chaos.