The conquest of the Solaria Grand Guild's archives granted me the geographical knowledge I craved. Solaria, a sprawling metropolis built atop ancient ruins, was riddled with Epic and even Legendary dungeons, most of which were heavily farmed and strictly segmented by the Central Authority's rigid system. My goal was simple: dominate these high-rank dungeons with speed and efficiency so terrifying it would appear supernatural, generating capital and unique essences faster than any Rank S hunter.
I began my operation in the city's underbelly, targeting the Obsidian Catacombs—a notorious Epic-rank Red Gate that opened once a week. The official clear time for a top Rank A team was eight hours, often resulting in heavy casualties due to the primary enemy: the Nightmare Stalker.
I entered the Catacombs alone, using the private access codes I had stolen.
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The Nightmare Stalker was a master of illusion, capable of inducing crippling psychological fear in its victims before delivering a fatal strike. This was its strength, but also its weakness. The fear was a psychological attack, but the underlying monster was merely a powerful, agile beast of muscle and bone.
I activated Specter Sight immediately. The Catacombs are filled with shimmering, spectral energy signatures—the illusions of the Stalkers. But beneath the psychic haze, I saw the true forms: dark, muscular figures with glowing purple cores.
I didn't waste time on illusory warfare. I activated Shadow Step and Silent Form. I moved like a black lightning bolt, utilizing the new Chain Lightning Evasion capability granted by the Storm Titan Core. I dissolved my body into pure electrical energy, moving instantly between the metallic floor plates, appearing and disappearing inside the illusory field.
The Nightmare Stalkers went into immediate disarray. Their psychological attack relies on fear and confusion, but I was moving too fast to be confused and too powerful to fear them.
When I materialized near a Stalker, I didn't engage in prolonged combat. I used a minimal, focused blast of Lich Soulfire aimed directly at its core. The Soulfire, designed to consume arcane bonds, severed the creature's mental link to its illusory energy. The Stalker would collapse instantly, its psychic camouflage dissolving into smoke.
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I moved through the multi-level dungeon, leaving behind a trail of pristine, perfectly neutralized Nightmare Stalker corpses. I wasn't just killing; I was harvesting. The clear time was not eight hours; it was 98 minutes.
The loot was astronomical: dozens of high-value Psyche Crystals (Rare-rank currency) and four Nightmare Stalker Cards—powerful Rare-rank cards that offered high-grade agility and illusion capabilities.
I placed the loot into a discrete drop-off point near the Catacombs exit. Within hours, the Solaria Grand Guild's public mission board registered the clear. The speed was so impossible that the initial clerk thought it was a clerical error. When the Guild sent a verification team, they found the dungeon completely cleared, the corpses untouched by conventional force.
The initial whispers began. They called me "The Phantom Cleaner" or "The Time Thief." They knew the dungeon had been cleared, but they could not grasp how or who. My anonymity and my power grew exponentially. I was flooding the market with high-rank loot at an impossible speed, disrupting the Grand Guild's meticulously controlled resource economy.
My next target, scheduled for the following night, was the notorious Crystal Nexus. I needed to maintain the pressure.