PING!
[A new Side Quest will start soon!]
"HUH?"
Jaemin blinked, still catching his breath.
"A side quest?! In the middle of the main quest?! QUIT TROLLING ME!"
He almost threw his Focus across the room if it were a real object. His brain was fogged with exhaustion—not just physical, but the kind of soul-deep mental fatigue that made you want to curl up and sleep for a week.
"Man… I wanna go home."
"Take a nap. Just ten minutes. Fifteen, max."
FWIUP—PING!
The iridescent ring flickered back near his temple as the Focus Interface lit up again. He brought his hand up and swiped toward the Quest tab.
Active Quests: Main Quest:
Lapis Chamber: Survive the Chamber (Wave 4 of 5)
Side Quest:
Incandescent Resurrection: Clear the main quest to unlock a new skill and an evolved status.
"...What the hell is this now? Where are these quests coming from? How does this thing even function...?"
He stood still for a second, rubbing his temples; the violet hue of his eyes dimmed slightly. Jaemin felt something—something in the system evolving, shifting beneath the surface. Almost like the system itself was adapting to him.
But there wasn't time to think.
Because that's when the rumble started.
Wave Four.
He could hear them. Dozens—no, hundreds—pouring into the chamber.
He turned to face the new tide.
Vanguards, Iron Bisons, and—
Something new.
Figures in long, abyssal cloaks, hoods shadowing what little was left of their faces. Each of them held a floating core fragment in one hand—dark, unstable, leaking black mist—and in the other, a glowing sigil ready to cast.
Abyssal Arcanists.
They weren't charging. They weren't screaming.
They were just... standing.
Still.Quiet.Waiting.
"That's not good."
Jaemin muttered.
"Mages that don't move are either fakes… or nukes."
One raised both hands.
A whisper of an incantation left its lips, twisting, raspy, ancient.
And then, A dark green cloud began to form. A rolling fog of smoke poured out from the air above him.
PING!
[ALERT: Harmful toxins detected. You have been DEBUFFED.]
"Shit."
Jaemin hissed, staggering backward, his throat tightening.
PING!
[ALERT: Debuff has been overridden.]
"...What?"
"It just got… wiped?"
He took a breath. No pain. No dizziness. No organ failure. The Focus glowed faintly as if something behind the scenes just protected him.
"Okay. That's new."
"Can I just… ignore toxins now?"
No answer from the system. Just silence. Fine. He'd test it later.
The horde of Vanguards and Bisons charged.
Jaemin charged too.
With low fatigue and full HP, it was almost unfair. He slid under a charging Bison, his daggers gleaming in his grip.
SLASH!
SLASH!
SLASH!
Armour meant nothing now. Not with—
[Binary Stars]
Status Effect: Piercing Radiance of Stars{Daggers can pierce armour and tough scales.}
Vanguards fell fast. Their helms were sliced clean in half. Bisons crumbled with slashes across their cores. Jaemin weaved through them like a storm made flesh, striking with precision.
But his eyes kept flicking back to the Arcanists.
They still weren't moving. Not casting. Just... standing.
"The hell are you all planning?"
Jaemin muttered under his breath.
One Arcanist turned slightly—barely a twitch of the head—but Jaemin felt it. Like the temperature had dropped ten degrees.
They were waiting. Not to attack.
To finish something.
Something bigger than a simple spell.
And in that moment, Jaemin realised—
This wasn't just wave four.
This was a setup.
PING!
[Notice: Survive the Iron Golems.]
Jaemin squinted at the new system prompt.
"...What?"
"There's no golems here—unless…"
He turned, eyes darting to the Abyssal Arcanists. Still hooded, still chanting in silence, pretending they weren't the most annoying bastards in the Rift.
"They're summoning a domain."
Jaemin muttered.
"Fucking of course they are."
The air warped. Colours bled. Space twisted like water poured into fire.
Then, without warning, the world snapped into place.
A massive open dojo.
Polished obsidian floor.Flickering lanterns that cast no real light. And—
Thud. THUD. THUD.
Colossal, iron-clad feet stepped into view.
"Yep."
Jaemin sighed.
"Here comes the golems."
PING!
[Notice: Time Remaining — 2:22:22]
[Objective: Survive the Iron Golems.]
"Man, give me a break. Those creepy robed bastards dropped me into a hellish dojo survival sim."
A dozen Iron Golems marched out from every side. Hulking. Featureless. Covered in thick plates of Rift-born steel.
They weren't flashy. They weren't fast.
They were just stupidly tanky, and everywhere.
Jaemin cracked his neck.
"Guess it's time to test the new toys."
Active Skill: Divine Winds.
[Movement Speed and Attack Speed increased by 45%. All attacks gain knockback.]
A rush of wind burst from his body, his clothes fluttering violently behind him. His Binary Stars hummed with pressure.
"Oh, this is gonna be fun."
Jaemin blurred. Literally. One blink and he was in front of the first golem.
SLASH!
A single clean strike—The air behind it exploded in a compressed shockwave, sending the nearby golems flying backward like bowling pins.
Jaemin zipped forward again.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
Golems dropped like iron trees, falling in thunderous wrecks. Their weight made the ground shudder, but Jaemin didn't stop.
Active Skill: Thunderbolt.
"Let's light it up."
A massive bolt of lightning spun to life in his palm, arcing with violet and electric blue sparks. He hurled it overhead—
FWIP—BOOM!
The explosion split the dojo floor, sending molten cracks through the structure.
Jaemin flinched at his own power.
"...Shit. Where did that come from?"
Skill Information:
WRAITH: Become invisible to all enemies and sensors. Allows phase-step through objects. Attacks during WRAITH inflict Terrormark: -20% enemy reaction time, +10% received damage from entity.
"Sweet. Shit."
Active Skill: WRAITH
His body dissolved into shadow-glass.Soundless. Colorless.Like a glitch in the world's rendering.
The golems couldn't react—he was already gone.
One after another—
SLICE. PHASE. STRIKE.
They dropped in staggered heaps, dented and marked with strange black glyphs glowing on their iron bodies.
PING!
You have levelled up!
Current Level: 38
New Panel Unlocked: Synergy Burst
Jaemin felt his fingers twitch. He wanted to open it. He did.
"What the hell is Synergy Burst…"
But the golems weren't done.
More were stomping forward from every corner of the dojo.
And the clock was still ticking.
2:07:31.
Jaemin exhaled and gritted his teeth.
"I'll deal with the new panel later—I need to get the fuck out of this domain."
Binary Stars gleamed back into his palms.
And the wind howled.
SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!
The golems didn't even scream. Jaemin tore through them one by one—metal, stone, core, all cleaved by his daggers like butter. But he knew deep down—
This wasn't about killing.
It was about waiting.
The timer was ticking, and no matter how many fell, there was no "win" here until that countdown hit zero.
He exhaled hard.
[Status Window]
Name: Han Jaemin
Current Status Effect: Null
Fatigue: 23/100
Valour Surge: 950/1000
Title: Sacred Swordsman
HP: 12,000/12,000
XP: 13,120 / 14,500
His brow furrowed.
"Huh? My Valour Surge went down?"
FWIUP–PING!
He pulled up the Skill Info tab, eyes narrowing.
Skill: WRAITH Consumes Valour Surge continuously while active. Drain rate depends on duration.
"Tch. That explains it."
He clicked his tongue and flicked the window away. Even standing still, his fingers were twitching, ready to move again.
So he did.
Over the next period, Jaemin treated the chamber like a training ground. The golems were slow—predictable. Good for testing his full kit.
Thunderbolt. Divine Winds. Super Jump. Dash. Telekinisis.
Each skill carved out a new possibility.
Each move taught him something new about this weird-ass system he was stuck with.
He even got creative, telekinetically grabbing debris mid-air and launching it back at the golems to conserve stamina. He tried summoning Binary Stars into and out of his arms instantly, figuring out the frame delay.
Tried using Wraith mid-air. Worked.
Tried pairing Dash with Super Jump in a corkscrew dive. Worked even better.
By the time his arms finally started to ache, and his breathing began to slow, he noticed it—
A faint shimmer in the distance.
The timer. Finally running out.
Only 00:00:12 left.
"…good."
Jaemin muttered. He twisted his neck, cracking it.
"Then I'll end this in style."
BOOM!
He hurled a Thunderbolt at the last cluster of golems, followed by a spinning slash that cleaved three clean through the chest.
CRACK!!
The dome trembled, shattered like glass breaking under pressure.
He landed hard, knees bent, as he skidded back into the Lapis Chamber—
Back to the real fight.
And it was FILLED.
Wave Four was still ongoing. Arcanists in the distance. Abyssals swarming like insects. And Jaemin, still glowing faintly from Wraith's aftereffect, stood right in the middle of all of it.
"…guess break time's over."
He whispered.