Mason opened his eyes to the sound of his blood dripping onto the stone.
The strain in his arms told him his hands were cuffed and held above his head. The bone-deep chill in his back and hips made it clear he'd been sitting for a while, slumped against a frigid wall.
Because he hadn't been healed after fighting the Nine-Headed Hydra, Mason didn't know how he was supposed to survive this.
Where am I?
"Where… am… I?" he repeated aloud.
No one answered.
He lifted his chin and scanned the darkness. It was a prison so cold his breath fogged into white clouds. Naked, literally and figuratively, Mason was as helpless as he'd ever been. The memory of his team's betrayal surged up, and he yanked hard against the steel cuffs, fury heating his body as he struggled.
Blood streamed down his scalp and shoulders, cooling his rage.
They're making the world forget me somehow… I don't know how it works, but I refuse!
Once, he'd been just another face in a small village. Now he was a famous hero, known for dangerous dungeon raids and record-breaking clears. He wouldn't die in a miserable hole. He wouldn't die forgotten.
He pulled harder against the cuffs, and more blood spilled, spreading across the floor. That was when he noticed something strange. Irregular cracks ran through the stone, and as his blood filled the crevices, a message emerged.
He forced himself to calm down and traced the lines with his eyes. He couldn't make sense of it at first, but hope flickered, and he strained to decipher it.
Bleed… more… save… blood… for… the… chosen…
Mason narrowed his eyes. A sacrifice array, passed from one betrayed hero to the next? Wait for the chosen one? You want to use me again for someone else's sake? Fuck you.
Arrays… I don't know much about them.
Veloria handled arrays and anything tied to mana. The others covered the rest, leaving Mason to focus on swordsmanship. He'd been kept away from everything else, and it stung now.
But… I do know that two arrays used against each other can negate each other to some extent. This prison must be an array too—one that makes me forgotten. If this other array wants blood, it must be storing it beneath the floor.
Right or wrong, he didn't know what to do next. All he had was pain, betrayal, and the sick realization of how dependent he'd been made.
Helpless, Mason lowered his head and went still, like a broken marionette. It was the death he'd wanted to avoid most, yet the truth hit him all the same.
No. I won't give them the satisfaction of seeing me defeated.
After a few ragged breaths, he forced himself upright and lurched forward, ripping his arms free of the chains as he stumbled ahead. His ice-cold feet gave out after a few steps, and he dropped to his knees away from the pool of blood. He slammed his forehead into the floor. Pain exploded, his vision spinning. He slipped in his own blood and pitched forward, but he didn't care. He pushed himself up and struck the stone again. And again.
Activate. I don't care how. Just fucking activate!
I swore to destroy those dungeons! I don't care if I do it as Mason or as anything else! I won't let this shit happen again! I'll learn more than swordsmanship. Just activate!
Nothing happened. He only bled more, speeding his own death. At last he collapsed flat on the stone, staring ahead as the light in his eyes began to fade. His breaths grew shallower, thinner, until they barely seemed to exist.
Then cracking sounds snapped through the cell.
White runes drew themselves across the darkness. A second light rose from deep within the prison, washing over the room and turning the runes crimson. Mason's blood shone, stirred, and surged into the symbols, filling them.
A new array of crimson runes completed itself across the cell. Mason's mind sharpened, startlingly clear despite his powerless body. He tried to look around.
A moment later, his body burst into chunks of flesh that liquefied and flowed into the cracks.
His consciousness was forced shut.
An unknown time later, Mason woke again.
[You have been reincarnated into the Eternal Grave Dungeon as a Lv. 1 Skeleton.]
[You have received a new skill: Dungeon Destroyer (Mythic)]
[Name: Nameless]
[Level: 1]
[Race: Skeleton (Common)]
[HP: 100]
[MP: 100]
[Stamina: ∞]
[Stats: STR 1 | INT 1 | VIT 1 | DEX 1]
[Skills: Dungeon Destroyer (Mythic) |
Reincarnation? It's real? I… I'm reborn… and I remember… everything…
A glaring red light ignited in the empty sockets of Mason's new skeletal body. He might have been erased from the world, but he remembered. And he wouldn't let the traitors rest.
He would repay them. He would fulfill his oath to destroy every dungeon in the world, even if it meant dragging everything down with him.
He rolled and pushed himself up, staring at his bony hands.
A skeleton. And I'm in a dungeon.
He couldn't have asked for more.
Time to level up.