Dawn in the dungeon never truly felt like sunrise.
The violet haze above Floor 2 simply grew a shade lighter, revealing the battlefield more clearly.
The courtyard of the Wraith Fortress was a mess.
Hundreds of torn Mushroompire bodies littered the stone ground. Spores drifted through the air like sickly snow. Broken barricades leaned against cracked walls, and the smell of fungus and iron hung heavy in the humid cavern air.
Dominic leaned against his tower shield, breathing hard.
Jake wiped green fungal blood off his dagger.
Camille sat on the wall edge, legs dangling, shaking her arms loose after hours of combat.
Janet distributed the last few Sympathy Enoki to patch minor wounds.
Everyone was exhausted.
They had fought the Mushroompire swarm almost the entire night.
The fortress was finally quiet.
Or so they thought.
A pair of slow claps echoed from the entrance.
Clap.
Clap.
Clap.
Everyone turned instantly.
Two figures stepped out of the shadows.
Josh.
And Emma.
Josh's applause continued as he walked forward.
A smug grin stretched across his face like he had just watched a particularly entertaining show.
"Well," he said casually, "that was impressive."
Dominic's expression hardened immediately.
"You've got five seconds to explain why you're here."
Josh stopped clapping and looked around the fortress courtyard.
The corpses.
The exhaustion on everyone's faces.
The broken barricades.
His grin widened.
"Simple."
His voice carried the tone of someone used to being obeyed.
"You give up the fort."
He pointed back toward the tunnel leading to Floor 1.
"And escort me back to the gate."
Silence filled the courtyard.
Josh shrugged lightly.
"Otherwise I'll kill you all."
He gestured lazily toward the battlefield.
"You're exhausted."
His eyes landed on Dominic.
"Your team's resources are mostly spent."
Then he glanced toward Alex.
"And even your golden prodigy here can barely stand."
His voice dripped with entitlement.
"Don't make this harder than it has to be."
Emma stood beside him quietly.
Arms crossed.
Expression neutral.
Dominic cracked his knuckles slowly.
"…you always talk this much before getting punched?"
Josh laughed.
"You really think I'm the same guy from last year? How dense must you be?"
Then he disappeared.
Flash!
Josh reappeared behind Dominic. His fist slammed toward Dominic's ribs.
Dominic barely turned in time, raising his shield just enough to absorb the blow.
The impact still shoved him two steps sideways.
"Fuck that Em thing," Jake muttered.
Alex stepped forward.
"I'll take him."
Dominic didn't argue.
"Everyone else hold perimeter."
Emma leaned casually against the tunnel wall.
"I'm not participating."
Camille narrowed her eyes.
"Really?"
Emma shrugged.
"This is classless."
Her gaze shifted briefly to Josh.
"Even for him."
Josh appeared ten meters away from Alex.
His new ability flickered constantly.
A distorted ripple followed every movement like space itself was snapping around him as he snapped in and out spatially, looking for an opening. Despite having the aura of a sadistic muscle brain, Josh fought efficiently dirty. He circled Alex with his spatial steps like a raptor looking for an opening.
He vanished once more.
Then appeared behind Alex.
A punch gunned straight for the back of her head.
Alex ducked.
Her floating vajra construct slammed backward like a hammer.
Josh teleported again before the blow landed.
He appeared on the fortress wall.
Then the ground.
Then behind her again.
His movements were chaotic.
Unpredictable.
Blink.
Blink.
Blink.
His fists struck like sudden lightning bolts. Each strike imbued with enough mana to shatter rocks on impact.
Alex controlled her constructs like a swarm of defensive satellites, stopping Josh deadly punches before it could land on her.
But even she struggled to keep up.
Emma watched the exchange calmly.
"She'll adapt."
Dominic glanced at her.
"What?"
Emma pointed toward Alex.
"Her class... Mindblade."
"We only suspect it now, but it seem the minimum requirement to awaken this class is having brain capability at least 50% more than the average human. In simpler words, those who awaken mind blade are not just smart, but mentally resilience, observant, quick thinking... In short, it's a class that is exclusive to geniuses, at least that is top researchers working model."
And she was right.
Slowly.
Gradually.
Alex's movements began to anticipate Josh's patterns.
She started reacting before he finished teleporting.
Her constructs shifted positions faster.
Her rapier strikes landed closer each time.
Alex was gaining control, slowly shifted from defense to offense.
Josh frowned slightly.
"Getting used to it?"
Alex didn't respond.
Her breathing was already heavier.
The night-long battle against the Mushroompires was catching up.
Her stamina was draining.
Emma sighed softly.
"In a fair fight she wins eventually."
Dominic looked at her.
"But this isn't fair."
Emma nodded.
"Exactly."
Josh noticed it too.
Alex's reactions slowed slightly.
Her shoulders dipped.
Her breathing grew deeper.
He grinned again.
"You're tired."
Blink.
He punched at her ribs.
She blocked.
But the impact forced her back.
Blink.
Another strike from the side.
Blink.
Another from behind.
He wasn't trying to overpower her anymore.
He was wearing her down like an one man pack of wolf biting at something larger, trying to bleed the game until it die of exhaustion and blood lost.
Dominic charged.
"Enough."
Josh teleported away instantly.
Appearing fifteen meters away with a laugh.
"Still think you can win, you fucking baboon?"
He blinked again.
Appeared above the wall.
Then behind Jake.
Then near Camille.
Every time someone tried to engage him he vanished before the blow landed.
A perfect guerrilla fighter.
Annoying.
Untouchable.
"It's futile," Josh said mockingly.
"Fact is, you all are born beneath me."
Then Dominic moved.
He slammed his shield down beside Alex.
"Take a breath."
Josh blinked behind them again. His punch got the better of Dominic, sending the giant reeling back. Josh grinned. He never forgot that moment when Dominic punched him hard in the face.
The fact he had beaten Phong to death door first didn't even cross his mind.
"Touching moment."
He raised his fist—
Then Alex moved.
Her hand slipped briefly into her pouch.
A single red berry.
Berserking Strawberry.
She swallowed it instantly.
Dominic saw.
His eyes widened.
Josh did not.
The effect hit immediately.
Her stats doubled.
Every muscle tightened.
Her mind sharpened.
Josh teleported again.
Appearing directly beside her.
Expecting the same exhausted opponent.
Instead—
Alex's rapier flashed like lightning.
The blade struck his hand mid-punch.
He screamed.
Her psychic constructs created pure, unbearable pain just by hitting an opponent, an ability she had after evolved into Arbiter Mindblade. The pain wasn't physical. All of Josh defensive buffs and stats from his class: Pugilist, was useless against it.
A raw, shocked sound.
Teleportation triggered instantly.
He vanished.
Reappearing twenty meters away clutching his broken hand.
"What the—"
His voice shook with pain.
Blood dripped from his mangled fingers.
Alex stood still.
Rapier raised.
Eyes cold.
Josh stared at her.
"You—"
He didn't finish.
Instead he teleported again.
This time far away.
Near the tunnel leading back to Floor 1.
Emma pushed herself off the wall.
"Well," she said calmly.
"That escalated."
Josh's breathing was ragged.
His broken hand trembled.
He looked furious.
But also cautious now.
Emma walked toward him.
"We're leaving."
Josh glared back at Alex.
"This isn't over."
Then he teleported again.
Disappearing into the tunnel.
Emma followed at a normal walking pace.
Before entering the tunnel she paused.
Looking back toward Alex.
"You're impressive."
Her tone was honest.
"But don't get comfortable."
She gestured vaguely outward.
"The divers below you are closer than you think."
A slight smirk crossed her lips.
"And that's just the East Coast."
She turned.
Then disappeared down the tunnel.
The courtyard fell silent again.
Dominic exhaled slowly.
"…well."
Jake whistled.
"Those strawberries are insane."
Alex's shoulders suddenly slumped.
The one-minute boost faded.
The Extreme Weakness debuff crashed down on her immediately.
Her knees nearly buckled.
Dominic caught her before she fell.
"Easy."
Alex managed a tired smile.
"He didn't see it coming."
Dominic laughed.
"No."
He looked toward the tunnel where Josh had fled.
"And he thinks it's your evolved class ability."
Jake grinned.
"Let him."
Dominic glanced around the fortress.
Then nodded slowly.
"Fort's still ours."
The escape from the Wraith Fortress had been messy, but effective.
Josh and Emma moved through the dungeon using his new ability with ruthless efficiency.
Blink.
A ripple of distorted air.
Then they appeared somewhere else.
Blink.
Again.
And again.
Josh's multiclass ability allowed him to short-range teleport repeatedly, even carrying someone else with him, though not without limits. Each jump strained his body and drained mana, but it was still enough to bypass most threats if used carefully.
The deeper parts of Floor 2 were dangerous, but Josh had no intention of fighting anything he didn't have to.
So he didn't.
Every time a monster appeared, he blinked past it.
Emma followed close behind, letting him do the heavy lifting.
They passed through fungal groves, broken ruins, and narrow ravines filled with glowing moss.
A pack of shadow wolves tried to intercept them once.
Josh blinked twice and they were gone.
A swarm of floating mana insects drifted into their path.
Blink.
Gone again.
Emma stayed silent for a while.
Eventually she said, "You're burning through stamina."
Josh wiped sweat from his forehead.
"Worth it."
His broken fingers throbbed with pain, hastily splinted by a crude mana brace Emma had conjured earlier.
Alex's strike still haunted him.
The humiliation.
The shock.
But rage pushed him forward.
"I'll deal with her later."
Emma didn't respond.
As they climbed toward Floor 1, the dungeon ecology worked strangely in their favor.
The Greencap Cavalries had moved closer to the gate zones after their migration conflicts with divers.
The trolls were temporarily disorganized due to the king's recent sporing event.
That meant the region between the gate and Camp Stymphalian was unusually quiet.
Almost a vacuum.
Josh blinked again.
And suddenly—
They were through the tunnel.
Floor 1.
One more teleport carried them forward.
Then another.
And then—
Josh blinked directly through a line of bushes.
The air changed.
The smell hit them first.
Capsaicin.
Garlic.
Fresh soil.
Cold light that wasn't from fire. Familiar sounds of generators humming.
They stepped directly into a perimeter of red plants.
Emma stopped immediately.
"…what is this?"
Josh looked around.
Rows of strange crops stretched across a hidden clearing.
Chilies.
Potatoes.
Garlic.
Sunflowers.
And in the middle of it—
Structures – buildings built by trolls and designed by lizardmen.
A raccoon sitting on a rock drinking coffee.
And a farmer holding a shovel.
Phong.
Rico blinked.
"…uh."
He slowly lowered his soda.
"Farm boy?"
Phong turned.
His eyes widened.
Josh.
Standing in the middle of the Chili Perimeter.
For a moment nobody spoke.
Then Josh started laughing.
He laughed loudly.
Openly.
Like he had just stumbled onto the greatest joke in the world.
"Well well well."
His eyes swept across the farm.
The crops.
The defenses.
The structures.
"So this is where you've been hiding."
Emma looked around more carefully.
Her expression slowly changed from curiosity…
To realization.
"…must be my lucky day."
Josh pointed at Phong.
"Perfect."
He stepped forward with the swagger of someone who believed the world belonged to him.
"Here's what's going to happen."
His tone turned commanding.
"You let me stay here."
He gestured lazily toward his wounded hand.
"And you treat these injuries."
Then he looked around the farm again.
"And this place?"
His grin widened.
"I'm taking it."
Rico stared at him.
"…this guy serious?"
Josh continued talking like Phong hadn't even spoken.
"You know what happened earlier?"
He chuckled.
"I ran into your girlfriend."
Phong's expression stiffened.
Josh leaned closer.
"I beat her."
The lie rolled off his tongue easily.
"She fought well."
He shrugged.
"But she lost."
He smirked.
"Guess that's what happens when you try to be a hero in the dungeon."
Something snapped.
Phong had been holding a shovel.
His grip tightened.
In the past week he had endured:
Em threatening to break Alex's mind.
Nightmares of losing everyone.
And now—
Josh stood here.
Mocking Alex.
Mocking everything.
Bragging to him the same bastard that had taken his aunt and uncle away had hurt his love, his friends, Nyx and Bruno.
The nightmare image of his friends dying flashed across his mind again.
Something inside him cracked open.
Rage. Uncontrollable rage spilt out from the heart of a once calm and humble farmer.
The plants felt it.
The entire farm felt it.
The garden responded to the will of its creator.
Not defensively.
Not reactively.
For the first time—
They assumed the role of predators.
The first shot came from the mushrooms.
Enoki.
A cluster of thin white stalks bent like machine guns.
Then—
Rata ta ta ta ta.
A barrage of hardened mushroom projectiles fired at impossible speed.
They punched straight through Josh's legs.
Blood exploded outward.
Josh screamed.
"What the—"
Before he could blink away—
The Chilies fired.
But they didn't even bother trying to hit Josh.
Pod of chilies detonate in mid air, sprinkling capsaicin at Josh's face.
His eyes burned instantly.
He gagged.
"AAAH—!"
Then the Bonktatoes moved.
Their vines snapped up from the soil like living whips.
One wrapped around his waist.
Another coiled toward his neck.
A third struck his shoulder like a club.
Josh blinked away.
But the plants didn't stop. Unlike when the trolls, the lizardmen, the Black Ant attacked... this time, the bonktatoes went hunting.
The Lime-Oak Tree shook violently.
Its branches released a rain of frozen fruit.
ICE LIMES
They slammed into the ground around Josh like grenades.
Shards of ice exploded across the clearing.
And then—
The Carrockets.
A carrot missile launched from the field. Then 2 other came. Then a whole dozen.
Josh teleported again—
But the accumulated shockwave still caught him mid-blink. He spun on the air like a human pinwheel and slammed head first into the ground.
Josh panicked.
He had fought strong divers.
Monsters.
Bosses.
But this—
This was a war machine in the form of a garden.
A fucking automated arsenal of modern artilleries disguised as plant life.
The entire farm was trying to kill him. Tried to hunt him. To them, Josh was a stubborn and elusive rabbit, afraid and powerless.
He started blinking wildly.
Left.
Right.
Forward.
Backward.
Each teleport barely avoiding another strike.
Emma grabbed his arm.
"We need to leave."
Josh's eyes were wide with fear.
"I KNOW!"
Then a Bonktato vine snapped forward like a spear.
Straight toward Josh's chest.
He knew he wouldn't dodge in time. He had lost too much mana. He need a fraction of a second more to recover just enough to blink once final time.
So he did something worse.
He grabbed Emma.
And threw her into the path.
The vine smashed into her torso.
The impact launched her into the dirt.
Josh blinked away instantly. He went for the same direction where Emma was sent flying.
Reappearing near the edge of the clearing, Emma was lying at his feet, gasping for every bit of air she could.
Josh was bleeding.
Burned.
Half-blinded by chili vapor.
But alive.
He pointed at Phong.
"You're finished."
His voice shook with fury.
"I'm exposing this place."
His grin returned despite the pain.
"You think this farm is yours?"
"Wait until the elites see it."
"Governments."
"Guilds."
"Corporations."
"They'll strip this place clean."
He laughed again.
"You'll lose everything."
Then he blinked.
That monologue bought him just enough time for another burst.
Gone.
The next Carrocket was already flying.
But Emma lay directly in its blast radius.
She had taken the Bonktato hit full-force.
Her breathing was shallow.
Her ribs clearly broken. Her lungs might be contused too.
If the missile exploded now—
She would die.
Phong froze.
One fraction second.
Two.
The garden still pulsed with killing intent.
Revenge was right there.
Josh.
His parents' killer's son.
The bastard responsible for everything.
But Emma had warned him before.
About the assassination attempt.
Did he need it? He doubted that. But it was the thought that count. Emma didn't know about any of his arsenal. To her, he was a lv1 farmer, defenseless on his own, and she had gone against her own interest to help him.
Phong exhaled.
If he killed Josh, but at the cost of someone else, someone who he owed one, his uncle would surely looked down upon him. Phong despised force humanism in media. But taking the life of some stranger who had shown him no hostility in the name of vengeance was a line he did not want to cross.
His uncle said the biggest debt to owe someone wasn't monetary, but rather a favor.
Now Phong had understood what he meant.
"Stand down."
The plants obeyed.
The Carrocket detonated harmlessly in the air.
The vines withdrew.
The guns went silent.
Phong ran forward.
Emma coughed weakly.
"…guess I d...eserved that."
Phong knelt beside her.
"You're alive."
She looked toward the direction Josh had escaped.
"You should have let him die."
Phong shook his head.
"Not if it cost your life."
Far away.
Josh kept teleporting.
Over and over.
Trying to put as much distance between himself and the farm as possible.
But somewhere in the forest…
A different group was already moving.
The Greencap Cavalry.
If they caught him—
Josh might never reach the gate.
Back at Camp Stymphalian…
Phong stood silently beside Emma.
The plants slowly calmed.
The garden returned to quiet.
But the damage had already been done.
Josh had seen everything.
The farm.
The defenses.
The impossible ecosystem.
And if he reached civilization—
The world might soon learn about Camp Stymphalian.