Time, in that freezing underground arena, had quite literally frozen.
The Ancient Glacier Shackles, a magical attack as hard as diamond, imprisoned Hope's legs and the arms holding his scythe, forming an absolute cage that allowed him no movement. The massive Echoing Avalanche attack unleashed by the gigantic Ancient Glacier Yeti, gathering all of its strength and the surrounding cold mana, was descending straight toward Hope, tearing through the air.
The physical weight of the attack alone was terrifying, but the freezing mana it carried was lethal enough to shatter Hope's body into thousands of pieces within seconds.
"HOPE!"
Lypin's scream echoed across the cavern walls.
The fist was only centimeters away from Hope's face. The freezing breath of death met his emerald-green eyes.
But at that moment, a small variable entered the equation, something neither logic nor the System had predicted.
The small silhouette standing on Lypin's shoulder, thought to be frozen in fear…
Mira.
The little fox completely ignored her exhaustion and limits in the instant her master stood face to face with death. Mira's tiny body suddenly transformed into a blinding storm of golden-yellow and blood-red electricity. The current she released was so intense that even the air inside the cave burned with the smell of ozone.
[ANCIENT STORM]
Mira leapt upward from Lypin's shoulder at incredible speed and hurled herself like a bullet directly toward the Yeti's descending massive fist and face.
CRACK!
BZZZZZT!
Thousands of volts of pure, uncontrolled lightning energy surged through the Yeti's rotten fur and struck directly into its blue magical bones. The gigantic monster let out a deafening scream of agony in the face of that sudden and unimaginable voltage. Its nervous system and mana flow were completely paralyzed by the split-second shock.
The world-destroying fist of the Yeti froze in midair, trembling just a millimeter away from Hope's face.
That was the single millisecond of space Hope needed.
As the deadly green flames in his eyes flared brighter, Hope reached out in his mind to Ignis's massive, weary silhouette. But this time, he would not summon him into the outside world. Manifesting him as a spirit in the physical world could burn Lypin alive in this narrow cave.
No.
This time, he would wield the power himself.
Not as a summoner.
But as the very vessel of that power.
Hope gripped the shaft of his scythe tightly and began drawing Ignis's power from the weapon into himself.
[WALKING SUN]
Hope's mind exploded like a supernova.
The ancient ice, as hard as diamond, that imprisoned his body began to hiss and evaporate the moment it made contact with him. It did not even melt into water. It turned directly into pure gas and vanished.
Lypin held her breath at the sight before her. Her hands trembled in shock.
Because the person standing before her was no longer just a young boy in black leather clothing.
Hope's entire body, his skin, hair, and armor were engulfed in blazing, eternal emerald-green flames, just like Ignis. His eyes had turned into bottomless green pits, and with every breath he exhaled, green sparks spilled from his mouth.
In the middle of the dark glacial cave, he shone like a walking sun in human form.
Like a green apocalypse.
When the Yeti broke free from paralysis and pulled back its massive arms with a roar of pain, Hope had already begun to move.
Hope focused the terrifying concentration of flames in his body into a single point: the soles of his feet. With enormous jets of flame erupting from beneath his feet like rocket thrusters, he melted the snow and launched himself forward.
BOOOOM!
Hope's speed shattered the laws of physics. Accelerating at a velocity competing with the speed of sound, he slipped into the Yeti's blind spot. Behind him remained only a trail of melted ice and a streak of green fire.
Before the Yeti even understood what had happened, Hope had already appeared behind the gigantic creature.
Gripping his scythe with both hands, he swung the blazing weapon toward the tendons of the Yeti's legs.
SLASH!
The green-flamed blade sliced through the Yeti's rock-hard flesh and icy bones as smoothly as a hot knife cutting through butter. The Yeti's right leg was completely severed below the knee.
The Region Boss roared in pain as its massive body collapsed to the ground, losing its balance. With its remaining arm, it slammed the ground and hurled enormous ice spikes toward Hope.
[Glacial Spears]
Dozens of gigantic, razor-sharp ice spears tore through the air toward Hope.
But Hope did not even bother to use Shadow Step.
He simply stood where he was and waited, that wild, dangerous smile on his face.
The moment the ice spears touched the absolute emerald flame aura surrounding Hope's body…
They melted before they could even reach him.
The water that formed from the melting ice boiled within seconds and turned into vapor.
Hope walked out from the cloud of steam like a god of fire.
The cold could not touch him.
Even the Yeti's strongest attacks were powerless against that absolute heat.
"Your kingdom," Hope said, his voice deep, resonant, and heavy enough to shake the air, just like Ignis's.
"…ends here."
Hope ignited the flames beneath his feet once more and leapt into the air.
He rose toward the ceiling of the cave, bending gravity entirely to his will, flipped in midair, and began his descent straight toward the struggling Yeti below.
He raised the scythe above his head with both hands.
The green flames around the weapon extended so far that the blade of the scythe transformed into a seven-meter-long massive energy guillotine.
When the Yeti saw that hot, green face of death descending upon it, pure terror appeared for the first time in its bottomless black eye sockets.
In a final desperate attempt, it raised both arms to protect itself.
It was useless.
[FALL OF THE SUN]
Hope brought the massive green flaming guillotine down upon the Yeti's chest in a perfect arc.
CLAAAANG!
The scythe shattered the Yeti's arms, its thick rotten fur, and the blue magical bones beneath them in a single strike before piercing directly into its heart.
The explosion was deafening.
The green flames that entered the Yeti's chest began burning the monster not from the outside, but directly from within. Pillars of green fire burst from its eyes, mouth, and severed leg, illuminating the cave.
After letting out that massive, blood-curdling final scream…
The Yeti went completely rigid.
Its body rapidly carbonized, turning into a pile of coal before breaking apart into thousands of fragments and scattering into ash.
The dungeon's undefeated Boss had been erased from the map in mere seconds by a completely one-sided display of power.
Hope slowly rested his scythe on his shoulder as his feet touched the ground.
The intense green flames surrounding his body slowly receded like a storm calming down, returning to the familiar emerald glow within his pupils.
He took a deep breath.
Controlling this power did not harm him physically, but mentally it produced an incredible pleasure, almost like a dangerous drug.
"This power…" Hope thought, looking at his hands.
"I didn't even realize my own limits."
At that moment, from the very center of the Yeti's ashes, a massive dark soul orb, pitch-black but pulsing with blue veins, rose into the air.
Hope lightly swung his scythe toward it.
[SYSTEM NOTIFICATION: NEW SOUL ACQUIRED – Ancient Glacier Yeti]
This was an enormous, tank-class pawn for his dark army.
But before Hope could even enjoy the victory, his mind was shaken by a flood of System notifications ringing one after another like sirens.
Red, green, and golden screens began opening before his eyes in rapid succession.
Clearing a Dynamic Dungeon, especially a Level 5 dungeon, with only two people had created an unimaginable explosion of XP.
[CONGRATULATIONS!]
[SNOW DUNGEON (LVL 5) CLEARED!]
[SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT: REGION BOSS DEFEATED SOLO]
[MASSIVE EXPERIENCE POINTS ACQUIRED]
Then came the satisfying, mind-numbing sounds of level-ups echoing one after another.
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL UP!]
…
[LEVEL UP!]
The notifications flowed so quickly that Hope struggled to read them.
For the first time, he had access to the System like this.
In Atlantis, he had never been able to see any of these.
But he realized something…
He had not suddenly gained many levels.
His achievements in Atlantis had been recorded late by the System. When combined with defeating Ignis and clearing this dungeon, his level had shot upward like a rocket.
Finally, the notification sounds stopped.
[CURRENT LEVEL: 30]
Hope smiled tiredly.
"Level 30…" he murmured.
But his smile froze the moment a massive System panel appeared before him, one he had never seen before, completely covering his vision.
It was pitch-black.
Decorated with gold.
This was not an ordinary status screen.
This was the sound of an approval rising from the deepest roots of the System.
The opening of a gate.
[WARNING!]
[USER 'HOPE' HAS REACHED THE LVL 30 THRESHOLD]
[ARCHITECT CLASS – FIRST STAGE LOCK RELEASED]
Hope's eyes widened in shock.
At the center of the panel, there was only a single button.
And beneath it, a line of text capable of changing the balance of the entire universe.
[ACCESS TO SYSTEM DATABASE AUTHORIZED]
[WOULD YOU LIKE TO VIEW YOUR STATS? (Y/N)]
The surface world had offered him not only enemies…
but the key to the System itself.