Every eye turned to him.
Red, unblinking, countless orbs staring down from branches, stones, even the leaves themselves. It wasn't just sight—it was judgment. The weight of thousands of gazes pressed down on Airen, and for the first time since stepping into this cubic world, he felt something… different.
Not fear. Not danger.
But the uncanny, crawling feeling of being watched.
Airen exhaled, his lips curling into a faint smirk. "Heh… creepy."
He took one step forward.
Every eye shifted with him.
Their pupils slid unnaturally in perfect unison, following the rise and fall of his boots. Step after step, their gaze clung to him. Minutes passed in silence as he walked deeper into the pale forest, and yet nothing changed—the trees stretched endlessly in every direction. When he finally leapt high, eyes sharp, all he saw was more forest.
An infinite cage.
"Tch," he muttered, landing smoothly. "So everything here is tracking me."
The ground was quiet for only a heartbeat.
Then—
Ssshhk!
An arrow whistled through the trees, so fast it blurred into silver light.
Airen's sword snapped up.
CLANG!
The steel rang as he deflected it, the arrow snapping in half against his blade.
His eyes narrowed. The weight behind that shot… wasn't weak at all.
Ssshhk! Another arrow. From a different tree.
Airen slashed, deflecting it effortlessly.
Then another. And another.
The forest itself seemed to fire at him, the arrows coming from every angle, each one faster, sharper than the last. His blade blurred, ringing out with every deflection, sparks scattering against the pale bark.
Tch. This is getting irritating, Airen thought, his brows twitching as the next arrow slammed into his guard.
By the tenth shot, his grin faded into a thin line. The arrows were no longer simple. Their speed had doubled, their impact heavy enough to rattle his arms on contact. No longer just deflection—now, he had to brace himself with full defense.
Each block sent vibrations down his sword. Each clash proved the truth: the archer in this forest was no ordinary hunter.
Airen's eyes sharpened. "Enough."
He thrust out his palm, mana bursting.
FWOOOSH!
A fireball screamed forward, slamming into the cluster of trees where the last arrow had come from.
BOOOOM!
The blast shattered the trunks, splintering wood into jagged shards. The ground quaked under the force, splitting into cracks that spidered across the soil. For a moment, the arrows stopped.
But then Airen's eyes caught it.
In the fissures beneath the broken trees, their roots weren't just buried. They were moving. Pulsing. Expanding and shrinking like veins, as though the forest itself was alive—breathing.
[Warning,] the system's voice cut in, calm yet sharp. [This is not natural. What you see is a fusion of two parasites.]
Airen's eyes narrowed. "What?"
[The roots belong to a Tier 2 tentacle-type parasite. The eyes… those are Tier 1 parasites. Together, they've devoured this entire forest. By fusing and feeding endlessly, they've reached the level of a low Tier 3 parasite.]
Airen's lips pressed into a thin line. "So that's why this place feels alive…"
Before he could move, another arrow screamed through the air.
But this one was different.
The shaft glowed with a hellish crimson aura, flames of raw vitality licking across its surface. The moment it cut through the air, the very trees it passed split open from the shockwave, leaves vaporizing to ash.
Airen raised his crimson-handled sword instinctively—
CRAAAAACK!
The blade snapped in half the instant it met the arrow. The explosion that followed tore through the clearing, blasting him back with a wave of raw energy.
BOOOOM!
Airen's body slammed against the ground, dirt and splinters raining across his torn clothes. His chest burned, his arm ripped open with shallow cuts, his skin marked with crimson scars from the explosion's bite. Steam hissed off his body, smoke curling from the fresh burns.
For the first time in this dungeon, his eyes widened.
"What the hell was that?"
[The archer is channeling the forest's stolen life energy into each shot. That arrow carried the strength of everything it devoured.]
Airen spat blood, his jaw clenching as realization hit. If he delayed even a moment longer, the power of the parasite would only continue to grow, feeding off its endless forest.
"Tch…" His teeth ground together, his sharp gaze burning with rage. "So if I drag this out… I lose."
His voice dropped, sharp as steel. "Nyx—time to work. Don't attack the archer. Just track it."
From his chest, shadows erupted. Nyx slipped free, his single eye glowing faintly before dissolving into the darkness. Not even the forest's countless eyes could follow him—his form melted seamlessly into the living shadows until he was gone.
Airen straightened, aura still blazing around him—just in time for another arrow.
Ssshhhk!
This one was faster, sharper, deadlier. It whistled through the forest, splitting the trunks it passed with shockwaves alone. Airen's instincts screamed. He leapt aside, boots cracking against stone, but—
The arrow turned midair.
"What…?" His pupils shrank. The shot curved unnaturally, tracking him like a predator scenting blood.
No time to think. He thrust out his hand, conjuring a massive block of ice. The boulder slammed down between him and the arrow.
KRRSHHHK!
The arrow pierced straight through, shattering the ice like glass.
Airen roared, mana surging through his veins as he reinforced his body with everything he had. The arrow slammed into his chest—
THUNK!
His muscles screamed as the tip drove in several inches before stopping, mana veins glowing white-hot across his skin. The pain seared through him, blood spilling across his torso, but the arrow didn't push deeper.
Airen's head tilted down, his face cast in shadow, eyes burning like cold fire. His expression twisted into one of raw fury, lips curling into a savage grin that showed his teeth.
"…Enough," he muttered, voice low, trembling with restrained rage.
His jaw tightened. His aura flared violently, rippling the air like a storm barely restrained. The ground beneath him cracked as if bowing to the pressure.
"I'm ending this now."
Nyx's single eye glowed from within Airen's chest. The shadow spread along his arm, forming into a sharp black finger that extended outward. It pointed silently, unwavering, toward a cluster of pale trees deep within the forest.
Airen's gaze followed. His lips curved into a predatory smirk. "So… that's where you're hiding."
With a swift motion, he pulled out the blackwood bow he had looted from the Goblin Chief's treasures. The weapon thrummed as if recognizing its master, the silver-string shimmering faintly under the surge of mana pouring into it.
Airen conjured an arrow, condensing his mana until it burned with blue flame. He tried channeling power into both his body and the arrow at once, but quickly realized—he couldn't maintain both. So he poured everything into the shot instead.
He drew. The bow groaned, bending to its absolute limit.
"Let's see whose hunt ends here."
He released.
FWOOOOOSH!
The mana arrow ripped through the air, glowing blue like a comet.
And from the trees—another arrow streaked forth, blood-red and writhing with stolen life energy. The crimson shot screamed forward like a beast unchained.
The two arrows met midair.
KRAAAASHHHHHHH!!!
The collision detonated with the force of a 4-5 floor building collapse. A wave of destruction rippled outward, ripping trees from their roots and reducing them to splinters. Shockwaves tore across the ground, carving craters into the soil, the blast flattening everything within dozens of meters.
Airen stood his ground, his aura shielding him. Not a scratch. His hair whipped wildly, his black coat torn by the gale, but his eyes remained calm—cold and sharp.
From the smoke, the enemy finally revealed itself.
A figure stumbled forward, hunched and malformed. At first glance, its body resembled that of an elf—long limbs, elegant frame, and faint remnants of pointed ears. But its beauty had been devoured by corruption.
Its eyes were gone—nothing but hollow sockets where tears of thick, black liquid rolled down like endless streams. Its lower body had been replaced by writhing tentacles, slamming into the ground and rooting themselves deep into the soil like veins feeding from the earth. Every twitch pulsed the forest around it, as if it were one with the parasite-infested trees.
The explosion had torn away half of its side. Flesh dangled in grotesque strips, meat falling from its body like wet cloth. But even as Airen watched, the wounds bubbled and writhed—flesh knitting itself back together unnaturally fast.
Yet… as it regenerated, something else happened.
Airen's sharp eyes caught it—the surrounding forest dimmed. Several of the crimson eyes embedded in the trees flickered once, then shut down entirely, going dark forever.
And through it all… the archer cried.
The sockets where its eyes should have been overflowed with black tears. Its body shuddered, as if each regeneration came with unbearable agony.
Airen tilted his head, voice flat but curious. "…Is it crying because of the pain… or something else?"
The corrupted archer raised its head. Its hollow face twisted with rage, sorrow, and madness all at once.
Airen's grip on his bow tightened. His grin returned, sharper than before. "Doesn't matter. Cry all you want. You'll still die here."