The world returned in silence.
No burst of light. No resounding thud. No dramatic flair.
Just... quiet.
Alden blinked as his vision settled.
Cool air touched his face. The familiar earthy sll greeted him.
He was back in the cave where he entered the dungeon from.
Not a single thing had changed.
Except for one thing.
The lake.
The lake, which was previously glimring slightly, was dim. Its water still looked clean.
Still, it didn’t feel the sa. It felt colourless and lifeless.
Alden stood beside the calm lake.
Kyun was held delicately in his one hand, sleeping peacefully. Her breathing was soft and calm.
While his other hand held the ring.
A parting gift from his elder sister.
The ring wasn’t just a gift.
It was a promise that she would find him again.
Obviously if I’m alive till then.
Alden made a sarcastic remark as a chuckle followed.
The words weren’t funny. Not remotely so.
But saying them cracked the eerie calm in his mind.
There was no threatening presence pressing down on his shoulders.
Just heavy... stillness.
His eyes drifted to the lake again.
That was where it began.
A doorway to sothing ancient, sothing buried and sothing forgotten.
And now?
Now it was just water.
Water without mory.
Without light.
Without magic.
The dungeon had taught him many things.
The first truth: He had been wrong.
He had told himself he wouldn’t follow the novel’s path. That he was carving his own.
But deep down, a part of him still expected things to be the sa.
The plot points to be the sa.
He’d been clinging to the idea that he had so control because he knew the story.
But the dungeon had shattered that illusion.
It made one thing clear: this wasn’t the sa world. It hadn’t been for a long ti.
The novel had diverged too far for even small things to be similar anymore.
The second thing is, he had been overestimating himself.
No—not in a shallow way.
He didn’t think he was unbeatable.
It was subtler than that.
It was the belief that he had to be strong.
That he could be strong.
Now that he was back.
He asked himself a single question.
Why?
Why did I rush to this dungeon?
What did I want?
Cores. Skills. Training.
No.
That was the lie he made himself believe.
The truth was far simpler and pathetic.
The reason he rushed to solve this dungeon was because he was running away.
Running away from his weakness.
Running away from his failure.
Running away from himself.
After what happened in Lustra. Alden made himself believe he wasn’t affected.
He wanted to believe he wasn’t broken.
That what happened back there didn’t matter.
That he was strong.
But all of it was plain bullshit.
He was as human as anyone else.
He wasn’t so protagonist who didn’t have a single flaw.
He never was.
Even when he didn’t want to accept it. He was afraid of death.
He had died once, but that didn’t make him immune to fear.
He was afraid of soone close to him dying... leaving him alone again.
He wanted to believe everything was okay when it wasn’t.
He ca to this dungeon to run away from those feelings.
He wanted to solve this dangerous dungeon and feel superior for once.
To feel he wasn’t a complete failure.
Even if only slightly.
He lowered himself slowly, sitting on a flat stone by the water’s edge.
The surface barely rippled.
The reflection of his face stared back—a little older and a little more worn.
But the dungeon only made those fears co closer.
Again he was at the doorstep of death.
On the verge of losing soone important.
But this ti he didn’t run away from those fears.
He asked himself genuinely.
What do I want to do?
Ever since he arrived in this world.
Everything had been about getting stronger... surviving.
He had been walking that path. But he never stopped to ask himself.
What do I want?
And ultimately he didn’t know the answer himself.
He felt lost.
He didn’t know what to do with his life.
Just then he recalled a mory.
A voice he hadn’t let himself rember in months.
Elene.
"You think too much, Damien. And that’s your most annoying flaw."
Her soft, teasing voice felt vivid for so reason.
"Why can’t you just live life without overthinking every other small problem?"
"Life’s not so masterplan. You live it. Then you figure it out. Not the other way around."
He ran a hand through his hair.
Yeah... Why can’t I?
A chuckle left his mouth.
For the first ti in a long ti, he didn’t feel like he needed to solve everything.
He looked again at his reflection.
Still tired. Still lost.
But in his eyes, a spark.
Maybe he didn’t know what he wanted yet.
But he would find it.
That would be enough.
A sigh left him.
Enough moping and self-reflection.
He understood this introspection was very much needed.
If he avoided his fears again, they would have just grown more in the future... and one day shackle him down.
He looked at the small ring in his hand.
He gently chanelled mana into it as the ring recognised him as owner.
The storage ring didn’t belong to his sister.
Well, if you think logically, what kind of idiot would seal soone with their storage ring with them?
This ring was probably extracted from so unfortunate adventure.
Alden peered inside it.
First, cores.
Dozens of them. Blue. Red. Green.
But all at the most ascendant rank.
"...Huh?"
He pulled out a few to inspect.
Still the sa.
Coincidence?
He tried more.
Every single one was stuck only at that level.
Well, whatever.
It’s not like I could have used them anywhere anyway.
Maybe the dungeon only attracted soone till that rank.
Or maybe the dungeon didn’t allow Caera to extract anything more than that.
This seed to be the most plausible reason for now.
Either way, the cores were junk.
He set them aside and checked the rest.
A healthy collection of potions — healing, mana recovery, and resistance enhancers.
He kept all of them.
Except the stat-boosting ones.
Garbage.
There were so artifact in it as well. Mostly weapons. Which he ignored.
He had the highest-ranked weapon.
Why would he need anything else?
He just decided to sell them later after taking out any useful ones.
Then he saw them.
Skill Books.
About a dozen or so.
Not many — but each glead with that subtle "power".
Most of them looked... unimpressive. He didn’t expect much.
Still, he picked the highest-ranked one with idle curiosity.
[A-Rank Skill: Subtle Charisma Bloom]
Alden blinked.
Wait. I know this one.
Increases passive charm when making first impressions. Scales with mana control.
Seles.
It was the skill she found in the novel.
So the extraction shown in the novel was from Caera?
He still felt confused.
Anyway, he didn’t need the charm-boosting skill.
But from the way he kept sneaking glances at the skill book suggested otherwise.
Finally, he nodded slowly, setting it aside with care.
But not without a suspicious comnt.
"Definitely not going to use it."
__
anwhile, sowhere else on an abandoned planet.
Caera blinked into existence.
She looked around herself in confusion.
"Where am I?"
The place looked unfamiliar.
Caera frowned.
It was definitely not the place she rembered from her mories.
She took a breath, then exhaled slowly. Her power surged outward instinctively.
The dungeon’s suppression was lifted.
One level.
Two.
Three... Six...
Power rushed back into her like breath — but not all of it.
She steadied herself.
Still... not full strength.
The dungeon took more than I thought.
Still, it was enough. For now.
She recalled her little brother.
He was still too weak.
Barely at Apprentice Rank.
She wanted to help him. But giving him the useless cores and skills was all she could do.
The dungeon didn’t really allow her to extract anything of value. It absorbed everything.
The cores and so skills were all she had managed to extract.
Her focus shifted to her surroundings next.
The sky was strange.
Then she paused.
A sound...?
She tilted her head.
Music?
No, not music. Sothing... worse.
A distant thump echoed across the land.
She narrowed her eyes and stepped forward cautiously.
Then she saw it.
And for a mont, her mind failed to comprehend what her eyes were seeing.
In the middle of the wasteland stood a female gorilla.
She was dressed in noble attire.
But the absurdity didn’t stop there.
She was dancing.
With passion. With precision. With dramatic flair.
To an invisible beat.
In front of her sat a chubby panda, wearing a tiny top hat and an earnest expression.
He seed to be appreciating the horror.
Caera just stood there.
Frozen.
Blank-faced.
The wind moved her white hair slightly.
"...What," she finally whispered.
The female gorilla didn’t even turn to look at her.
"We have a guest, Mistress Gretta." The panda squinted. "And she doesn’t look like she can dance."
The female gorilla finally stopped dancing as her eyes fell on the intruder.
She had felt the presence the mont it appeared, but she ignored it for one reason.
The intruder wasn’t soone unfamiliar.
"Caera? Is that you?" Gretta said. Her voice was soft and warm.
Caera blinked.
She couldn’t stop her trembling for a mont.
The form was definitely different. Sothing she didn’t recognise.
But the voice. The na that panda uttered.
They were familiar.
"A–Aunt Gretta? Is that... you?" Caera whispered, her voice cracking, tears threatening to spill.
Gretta smiled gently. "Yes, my dear."
___
Author’s Note:
Alden found clarity. Caera found... a dancing gorilla.
If this Chapter gave you a mont worth rembering (or laughing at), consider supporting the journey with a Golden Ticket, Power Stone or even a Gift.
Every little bit helps this story (and the author) keep dancing too.
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