The statue approached closer and closer, while the sharp pain in my chest continued. The warning message continued to repeat in my head — constantly retrying to resist something. I didn't understand this at all.

  It had stated something about 'corruption' levels building up because of a continued connection to the Abyss... Could it be – that somehow, my link to Arabor or rather, my vow to him, had somehow caused an unforeseen side effect?

  I did not remember the Dragon mentioning anything about...

  Then it clicked.

  " These beings, who called themselves 'Deities', unleashed an ancient concept that we had imprisoned from its seal and released it into the world — more specifically, the Abyss — from which I was born.

  This concept was known as 'The Evil' — a shapeless and powerful creature that had an unsatisfiable hunger for destruction and chaos.

  As soon as it was released into the abyss from which I was born from, it infested it with its roots - gaining power while also poisoning anyone with a deep connection to the Abyss. And I — was the greatest victim.

  I lost my sense of self - I lost all sense of reason and began to blindly rampage, destroying the world that me and my siblings had once shaped. "

  "Arabor had mentioned it... an ancient concept had been released into the element of Abyss, which caused him to lose his sense of self and go on a blind rampage..." I thought, shedding a cold sweat. "Was that it? Was that the 'corruption'?"

  It seemed like it would be the most logical conclusion.

  If I had to make a guess, any being with a too deep connection to the Abyssal element, was at risk of being 'corrupted' by the 'Evil' — that was still inside of the element.

  The statue grew closer, raising its scythe up into the air above me, about to strike me down. However, before the weapon was sent down at me, Arvalor leapt out of the shadows and blocked the attack, before looking at the angelic statue and roaring loudly. The statue moved back, remaining in the air, while gazing at the chimera.

  "Intruder.... Must be eliminated." The statue echoed its earlier statement. Arvalor growled with its three heads, standing as a guard in front of the collapsed and unmoving Faofa, before charging at the statue.

  The Dungeon Boss didn't flinch and simply reflected the Chimeras leap attack, before beginning to exchange blows with it – pushing the Shadow Beast back with each one of its swings of the scythe, while at the same time, being kept busy by the creature - which most likely had been its intention.

  To make sure — that the dungeon boss didn't pay attention to Faofa and simply kept its attention on it.

  I breathed heavily. It felt like my heart would burst from my chest at any point and I would die right there and then. The resistance attempts kept getting announced in my head, however, by now — I had tuned them out. My head felt heavy. It felt like I was suffering a horrendous fever.

  "I have to at least... get into the Shadow world. I can't die here and Arvalor is nowhere near strong enough to take down that thing..." I thought, moving my gaze and head slightly up, to look at the two clashing creatures. It was clear that the Shadow Beast was just barely managing to stand its ground, while the statue looked like it wasn't even trying.

  It felt like he and the chimera were just jokes to the thing.

  "I overestimated my strength... I should not have entered an A-Rank dungeon at my current strength..." I thought, scuffing, before trying to force myself to stand up, only to collapse back onto my knees. "I should not have gotten ahead of myself..."

  I felt an even sharper pain strike me suddenly. It felt like my heart had just been torn in half, while it was still inside my body. I suddenly felt my consciousness slip. My vision blurred and I hung my head low. "No..." I thought, trying to keep myself from falling down to the ground completely. "I can't fall unconscious... Not now..."

  I thought.

  The sound of Arvalor in pain roared through the room, as the Reaping Angel tore apart the Shadow Beast with its scythe. The Chimera returned to the shadows, disappearing. I cursed to myself, falling to the ground completely.

  "God damnit... Is this really..."

  Corruption has reached a critical level.

  Starting a system reboot...

  "How I die...?"

  The Reaping Angel began to approach Faofa again, its scythe tightly gripped in its hands. It wasn't long before it was over the passed out man, raising its scythe high up above him – preparing to deliver a fatal blow.

  ...

  And then...

  I can see you.

  A powerful force was suddenly sent from Faofas body — so strong, it blasted the statue back over at the sarcophagus and pressed it against the wall, keeping it pressed up at it for a bit, before the force eased. Then, a large, pitch black aura exited Faofas body as he rose back up to his feet, his arms and head hanging low.

  The statue looked at the man. "Intruder... Must be eliminated—"

  Before it got to finish its sentence, Faofa suddenly appeared in front of it – grabbing it by its head and smashing it into the wall, with so much force, it caused the entire dungeon to tremble, while at the same time, causing the wall to crack, before falling apart. Faofas eyes were pitch black, with no pupils in them — and his movements, it was as if he was possessed.

  The statue tried to grab a hold of Faofas wrist, however the man simply tossed the statue across the room, before dashing after it. The Statue caught itself, flying again, however didn't get much time to do anything, as Faofa leapt up at it and pummelled it in the face, sending it flying straight into another wall. A moment later, he landed back down, rising up slowly and looking at the Dungeon Boss with an empty glare.

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  The statue trembled, struggling to stand back up, while its black, feathered wings fell apart. "Int... ruder..."

  Faofa once again pummelled it in the face, however instead of sending it flying, he immediately followed the punch with another one, then another, then another – starting to throw out a flurry of punches, pummelling the statue all over the place, slowly breaking apart its stone like body and revealing a black figure inside the stone exterior.

  Faofa grabbed the statue by one of its legs, tossing it into the dungeons ceiling with so much force, that the entire dungeon shook again, before the ceiling began to fall down – with the Reaping Angel crashing back down into the ground, with all the debris from the ceiling falling down on top of it.

  Faofa stood at a distance for a moment, before beginning to approach the creature.

  The statue rose out of the debris, knocking it off it and revealing a much less statue-like appearance, instead, now it looked like a black humanoid figure, with a body that seemed to be made of feathers. The being looked at Faofa – small white pupils on its head shaking lightly, as if it was afraid.

  "In—" Faofa grabbed the scythe and sliced its head clean off, sending the head flying away, before it hit the ground and rolled a bit. The rest of the creature's body collapsed down onto the ground, while Faofa lowered the scythe back down, dropping it from his grip.

  Experience threshold has been reached.

  You have risen to level 73.

  System reboot successful.

  Corruption has been resisted.

  Faofa suddenly collapsed to the ground, before slowly opening his eyes.

  I groaned, weakly pushing myself up from the ground and onto my right knee, grabbing a hold of my head lightly. "What... had just happened..?" I thought. It felt like I had temporarily died and lost all sense of existence for a bit.

  Then, I took a look around, shedding a cold sweat. The Dungeon was trashed and the dungeon boss that was about to kill me — it was... defeated? Did... did someone save me? I shook my head.

  "Impossible... Once a fight within a dungeon is started, no one can enter or exit it until the dungeon has either been cleared or the challengers of it have perished.." I scratched my head, looking over at the pitch black head of the dungeon boss. I couldn't quite wrap my head around the fact that it had somehow been defeated.

  It couldn't have been me... could it?

  I mean, I had lost consciousness because of the corruption...

  "Oh right! The corruption— Am I... fine?" I looked at my body, examining it as closely as I could, even using 'Enlightened' to get some more information, however my body and soul... was fine. There wasn't a single sign of anything that would count as 'corruption'...

  Was I imagining things about corruption?

  I shook my head — foolish idea. There was no doubt that I had felt a sharp pain and heard an announcement about me falling to 'corruption' due to a close continued connection with the Abyss...

  But then... How did the dungeon boss get defeated...?

  For a second – I felt uneasy. However, then I sighed.

  "I shouldn't worry about it for now... Not like I will be able to figure it out anyway." I rose up to my feet, stretching out a bit. Did I level up? I felt rejuvenated and my magical energy reserves felt full again.

  "Status open."

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Name: Faofa Shin

  Species: Dark Snake

  Level: 73

  Rank: C

  Stats:

  Health; 39,800/39,800

  Strength; 3950

  Defense; 4000

  Magical Energy; 64,700/64,700

  Stamina; 4100

  Intelligence; 200

  - Overall Power; B+

  Skills:

  -Speech; Active Skill

  -Venom; Passive Skill

  -Translator; Active Skill

  -Enlightened; Individual Skill

  -Devourer; Individual Skill

  -Reaping; Epic Skill

  -Venom Mastery; Epic Skill

  -Trickster; Common Skill

  -Presence Erase; Common Skill

  -Shadowlord; Individual Skill

  -Beasts Will; Individual Skill

  -Fractured; Rare Skill

  -Djinn; Arc Skill

  -Mimic; Rare Skill

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  "I did level up... an entire five levels no less. Then does that mean..." I threw a nervous look at the severed head of the dungeon boss for a second, before shaking my head and looking back at my status window.

  My stats had also gone up, though I don't know if by a lot or not. Another notable change was the 'overall power' rating — it had changed from a number to now displaying a letter with the plus sign next to it...

  Why did that occur?

  Perhaps it was a new change that had happened due to my level ups? I wouldn't be surprised if this status window began to slowly change its appearance and how it displays my power over time as I got stronger.

  It only made sense for it to do so after all.

  Other than the stats and the new rating for the overall power, it didn't seem like anything else had changed in the status window. Everything looked to be mostly the same. Exhaling, I closed the status window before taking a look around.

  While I know it's a bit silly to question a dungeon, this place was quite heavily packed with some unique and strong opponents, especially with their ability to literally regenerate from almost nothing. It just begged the question in my mind – just what was located inside that sarcophagus that so much protection was applied?

  Shedding a sweat, I approached the aforementioned sarcophagus, before gently placing my hands onto its lid. For a split second, I saw visions – of a burning kingdom and a man, standing and overlooking it all.

  It startled me, causing me to pull my hands back for a second.

  However, after a quick moment of catching my breath, I placed my hands back onto the sarcophagus' lid, slowly pushing it off of the rest of it. The lid felt heavy and was quite resistant to movement – clearly, whoever had made this sarcophagus, had not wanted anyone opening it.

  Once the lid was off, I looked inside the sarcophagus itself. My eyes widened for a second — however, at the same time, I couldn't help feeling like it made complete sense.

  Inside the sarcophagus were the mummified remains of what looked like an important individual. The remains had dusted and dirty, royal clothes on it, with golden accessories on it. On the head of the remains, was a crown and in the hands of them, was a book.

  Immediately, I used 'Enlightened' on the mummified remains and the book — just to make sure that neither was cursed or anything.

  However, after it was shown that both the remains and the book were completely ordinary, I moved to the side of the sarcophagus and reached for the book, gently taking it out of the hands of the remains. "Apologies, your highness, but I don't think you can use this book anymore..."

  I thought. Once I had gotten the book, I took a look at it. Its cover was simple, black with a small red gem in its center. When I flipped it open, inside was a signature, of what I could only assume was the name of the one who this book had belonged to.

  However, the signature was in a language I could not read.

  And after giving the rest of the pages a quick flip through, I realised that none of the book's contents were in a language I could understand. Exhaling, I closed the small book and slid it into my bag, before looking at the mummified remains again.

  For a second, I stood there frozen, before placing my hands together and gently closing my eyes – praying for the deceased individual in front of me.

  Though what I had just done most definitely counted as 'grave robbery' – I still wanted to at the very least, pay my respects to the dead individual. After all, I knew better than anyone else, that you are supposed to treat the deceased with respect.

  After paying my respects, I turned away and quickly made my way out of the dungeon, not throwing back even a small gaze.

  Far away...

  Deep inside a different dungeon, within the darkness, a lone figure was sitting on a throne, its head low. Suddenly, flames ignited in the darkness, lighting it up and revealing a darkened, ruined hallway of what once had to be a throne room.

  The figure on the throne moved a little, raising its head up, a pair of shining red eyes piercing through the shadow that was cast over it.

  "....It's time. Hope has come at last."