Time didn't just run out on us.
It turned around, smiled cruelly, and pulled the knife.
The rift tore open mid-fight.
Not gradually. Not ominously slow. It ripped.
The Corrupted Naga Queen screeched, a sound sharp enough to split mana itself, and her HP bar plunged straight down like she'd thrown it away on purpose.
"No!" I shouted, already knowing.
She sacrificed it. Every last drop.
Her body crystallized and shattered into corrupted light, all of it funneling upward into the forming rift. The dungeon screamed. The checkpoint detonated with warped mana.
Then the portal stabilized.
Not inside the dungeon.
But straight to the surface.
And monsters began to pour through.
"Damn it!" Kael swore viciously.
System messages stacked over my vision like cruel jokes.
[NAGA QUEEN DEFEATED]
[FLOOR 90 CHECKPOINT ACTIVATED]
[EXP GAINED]
[EXP GAINED]
[EUNJI KANG: LEVEL 659]
I felt the level up pulse through me. Stronger. Sharper. Faster.
Completely irrelevant.
