Occasionally, he opehe doors lining the hallway to ihe rooms beyond. Most were empty, abandoned shells radiating the same uling atmosphere as the rest of the dungeon. Some, however, tained monsters he swiftly dealt with.

  He carried on like this until he noticed something strange. “Uh, isn’t that the same ghoul from earlier?” he muttered, approag the body.

  His unease grew as he realized the ghoul’s corpse was nearly identical to the one he had killed earlier. Sing his surroundings, he searched for any differehat might indicate he was in a new area, but everything seemed eerily the same.

  After a brief iigation, a dreadful realization hit him: he was back where he started.

  ‘How? This doesn’t make sense. I followed the corridor in a straight line—I didn’t turn at all! How could I end up back here?’ He paused to think. ‘Is this some kind of spatial anomaly? Maybe the dungeon’s yout loops ba itself, telep you to the ter if you stray too far... or something like that.’

  With no clear answers, Mikael retraced his steps toward the hall, only to find himself once again standing by the ghoul’s corpse.

  “Fuck,” he cursed under his breath, his frustration mounting. He g the doors lining the corridor. ‘The only option now is to explore these rooms. If I don’t find anything, I’m screwed.’

  Suppressing the rising fear of being trapped, he entered one of the side rooms. Inside, a group of wraiths awaited him, but he dispatched them with ease. Before leaving, he sshed an “X” onto the door to mark it.

  He returo the corridor, running straight ahead, only to end up back at the same ghoul’s corpse once more. He turo the marked door and reope.

  The room was y of monsters, which gave him a small sense of reassurance. ‘Maybe if I clear out all the monsters in these rooms, I escape. If that doesn’t work...’

  Not wanting to dwell on pessimistic thoughts, he began systematically clearing ea of monsters, marking the doors as he went.

  After what felt like ay of fighting and marking doors, he stood before the st unmarked door. ‘I think this is the st roht?’ he thought, gripping his swords tightly as he prepared to enter.

  He opehe door, and three heads soward him. It was three ghouls.

  “Of course, the st room had to be a ‘miniboss’ room…” Mikael muttered as the trio let out feral roars and luoward him.

  He didn’t stay idle. With practiced precision, he summoned multiple aura threads, setting them in the ghouls' path. One of the moripped and crashed to the ground, but the other two tore through the threads, almost upon him.

  ed Sword Style – 1st Form: Bde Tempest

  A whirlwind of sshes erupted around Mikael, creating dozens of small cuts across the ghouls’ bodies. Their advance faltered as they struggled to defend themselves, but their attempts were futile—deep gashes littered their limbs.

  By the fifth sed of sustaining Bde Tempest, Mikael felt a burniion spread through his arms. He gritted his teeth and pushed through the pain, but by the eighth sed, the strain was too much. He was forced to stop the onsught, his arms trembling from exhaustion.

  The two ghouls were now in a pitiful state, bleeding from tless wounds. Their arms hung limp, practically useless.

  “CRACK!”

  The sound of splintering wood jolted Mikael. The third ghoul, which had remained unnoticed while waiting for an opening, uself with terrifying speed. In an instant, it was in front of him, cws exteo strike.

  Mikael’s eyes widened in surprise, but his reflexes saved him. He raised his ag arm just in time to block.

  “g!”

  The csh of sword and cw echoed loudly. Mikael grunted as the force of the attack pushed him back; the ghoul’s momentum was overwhelming. Yet, he wasn’t defenseless. eling his frustration, he delivered a powerful aura-infused kick to its ribs.

  The ghoul was sent flying, crashing into a nearby wall with a dull thud. But there was no time to rest. The two remaining ghouls, despite their ruined arms, lu him with feral desperation, aiming to tear him apart with their teeth.

  Seeing the immi danger, Mikael swiftly shifted to the side, repositioning himself so that the ghoul would nd on his shoulder instead of his neck likte it was aiming for, and drove his sword into the houl's heart as it charged.

  A notification fshed in the er of his vision, but he couldn’t afford to focus on it.

  A searing pain shot through his shoulder. The ghoul he hadn’t been able to evade had sunk its sharp teeth deep into his flesh.

  Mikael roared in pain, not with fear but pure rage. Gripping the ghoul’s head, he tried to pull it off, but the monster refused to let go, tearing further into his shoulder.

  “You want to eat? Eat this, motherfucker!” Mikael snarled. He drove his sword sideways into the ghoul’s neck. The bde cut through, ending the creature’s life. Dug quickly, he avoided a cw strike from above that narrowly missed him.

  With his free hand, he maniputed his sed sword using his aura threads and u upward.

  “Schk!”

  The airborne sword impaled the third ghoul that had leapt from above, pinning it to the ceiling.

  Momentarily safe, Mikael focused on the dead ghoul tched onto his shoulder. Even ih, its jaws remained locked. With a growl of determination, he wrehe head off, grimag as ks of flesh were torn away in the process.

  “Hiss…” He inhaled sharply at the sight of his bloody and mangled shoulder. “Fuck,” he cursed, his voice dripping with frustration.

  Just as he was about to tend to his injury, he heard movement above him. The st ghoul, still ging to life, began to stir. Without hesitation, Mikael directed his other sword, pierg its skull and ending its struggles instantly.

  Finally free from immediate danger, he turned his attention to healing. Retiring his vitality limiter, he began to t:

  “Blessed light, mend the wound, restore the flesh!”

  A warm, golden glow enveloped his shoulder, and the pain started to subside. The spell, Minor Heal, was a first-circle light-attribute spell—basid not particurly powerful, but suffit for minor injuries. He repeated the t several times until the wound closed pletely, though the process was slower due to the serious nature of the injury.

  Once healed, Mikael searched the ghouls’ chests for monster cores. To his satisfa, he found one and pced it in his ste ring.

  Feeling drained, he sat cross-legged aered a meditative state. His aura reserves were at 40%, and his mana at 70%, despite Mobile Meditation boosting his regeion rate during bat. Meditating now would restore his resources more effitly.

  After nearly an hour, Mikael’s reserves were back to full. He stood, stretched, aed the room, ready to press on deeper into the dungeon.

  As he exited the room, he prayed, ‘Please don’t be stu the loop. I’ve even cleared a ‘miniboss’ room, so it should be clear, right?’

  Oside, in the dark corridor, he began walking and soon found himself ba the abandorance hall. Relieved to be out of the loop, he thought, ‘Now that I’ve cleared the corridor and didn’t see any boss, there’s only this.’ He looked at the stairs leading to the sed floor.

  He didn’t waste any more time and asded the stairs, which creaked under his footsteps. Coupled with the total darkness and the silehe eerie atmosphere made him stay on high alert, expeg an ambush at any moment.

  Surprisingly, he reached the top of the stairs without being attacked and stood before a rge set of double wooden doors. Though abahey still retained a trace of the majesty they once had.

  ‘If this doesn’t scream boss, I don’t know what will,’ he thought, before approag the door and opening it, stepping into the new room.

  He had only taken two steps when he heard a loud “SLAM.” Turning around, he saw that the two wooden doors had closed behind him.

  “That’s reassuring,” he muttered sarcastically before coating one of his swords in aura and unleashing a full-powered ssh at the now-closed door.

  “k.”

  His sword, strong enough to cut through steel, harmlessly bounced off the door without leaving a scratch.

  Seeing this and realizing he was trapped with no way to escape, he turo survey the rge room he was in.

  At that moment, the torches on the walls began to emit light, one by one.

  As the light gradually illuminated more of the room, Mikael could see the ter, previously hidden by the supernatural darkhat had pervaded the dungeon.

  When he saw what y at the ter, his alertness doubled. At the ter of the room was a satanitagram, seemingly drawn in blood. That was enough for Mikael to realize that if entering the manor had beeart of a horror movie, he was now essentially in the final se, where everyone dies—and he retty much screwed.

  He stayed on high alert, expeg a moo appear at any moment, especially from the satanitagram. However, the light tio illumihe room, and soon it was fully lit, yet still, no monsters appeared.

  Despite the illusion of safety, he wasn’t foolish enough to think he was truly safe, and it would be proven soon enough.

  The sound of a woman wailing began to echo faintly around him. It was so soft at first that Mikael couldn’t tell if he was hearing it correctly or if it was just his imagination. Gradually, the sound grew louder and more distinct, firming it was indeed a woman g. The weeping became more intense, morphing into a tinuous, pierg scream that reverberated through the room.

  At that moment, the bloody pentagram at the ter of the chamber began to glow ominously. Mikael tightened his grip on his swords, brag himself for what was to e.

  From the pentagram, a bloody figure emerged—a woman, or at least something that resembled one. What made it horrifying wasn’t her blood-soaked appeara the unnatural way she moved. She was crawling on all fours, but her body was ied, her back arched toward the ground as her head twisted unnaturally to face Mikael. Her wide, uling grin only added to the terror.

  ‘This is nothing like Kiara’s smile,’ Mikael thought. ‘This one is just creepy as hell.’

  The woman began to ugh—a grating, unnatural sound, like two pieces of sandpaper being rubbed together.

  Mikael didn’t hesitate. He lunged into a, initiating the fight with a powerful attack.

  ed Sword Style – 1st Form: Bde Tempest!

  The woman moved with startling speed, dodging his flurry of strikes. Still, a few of his attacks mao graze her, leaving minor cuts. Mikael frowned. ‘Those should have been deep wounds or even fatal strikes. It’s not that her body is particurly durable—it feels like the strength of my attacks is being drained before they hit her.’

  The woman rushed at him, moving like a rabid animal. She leaped at him with uny agility, and Mikael crouched low, ung a powerful aura-infused kick.

  “Thwack!”

  The kick ected, sending her flying across the room. But instead of feeling relief, Mikael scowled. ‘Again, the power of my attack was diminished. She’s not hurt, just pushed away.’

  “Hihihihi!”

  Her eerie ughter echoed as she charged at him again. Mikael engaged her in bat, trading blows while trying to analyze the situation. Statistically, she wasn’t overwhelmingly strong—her raw power and speed were just slightly higher than his. She seemed ner than the ghouls he had fought earlier. But the strange barrier sapping his attacks made her far more challenging.

  “g!”

  Her elongated cws cshed against his sword, sparks flying with each parry. ‘I o figure out how to get past that barrier,’ he thought, holding his ground ialemate. ‘Could light magic work? Creatures with a dark affinity are often vulnerable to light, and she definitely seems to be of the dark attribute. But all I have is Minor Heal. Still, it’s worth a shot.’