The five of them regrouped at the foot of the city wall and turned back to look at the battlefield they had left behind. What had started as a skirmish had ballooned into a chaotic melee of more than a hundred players, skills flashing and bodies falling in every direction. Even from a distance, the noise and frenzy made their skin prickle with unease.
Peerless Blood-Sword broke the silence, glancing toward Let-There-Be-Light. "Boss, what's the call? Do we go back in, or do we pull out?"
He sounded calm enough, but his reluctance was obvious. Although he'd died once at the start, the respawn point wasn't far. By the time he ran back, Flynn and the others were in the thick of it with Kazehana's group. He'd managed to resurrect on a corpse, kill an Arcanist, and get his revenge, so he had no real desire to jump back into the fight.
Let-There-Be-Light shook his head slowly. "We've already wasted over thirty minutes here. Kazehana and her people are gone, and now it's just random players fighting each other. There's no point staying." He paused, then turned his gaze toward Flynn. "Let's head for the dungeon instead. Night-Stalker, what do you think?"
He asked because he was wary. Flynn had proven himself terrifyingly good in PvP, the kind of player who seemed to thrive on chaos. Let-There-Be-Light half expected resistance, maybe even enthusiasm for diving back into a fight this big.
Instead, Flynn answered without hesitation. "No problem. Let's go."
Amy blinked and shot him a sideways look. "You? The violence junkie? You're really fine with leaving?"
"Who's a violence junkie?" Flynn lifted his hands, looking genuinely wronged. "That's the biggest misunderstanding you have about me. I'm a peace-loving person, really."
It wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't a complete lie either. He had killed more people than he could count, yet the organization he once belonged to claimed, with absolute sincerity, that its ultimate goal was world peace.
"Alright, enough talking. Let's move," Let-There-Be-Light said, waving them forward.
They headed north along the city wall, deliberately skirting the edge of the ongoing chaos before circling wide and setting off toward the Ceylan Ruins.
To the west of Moster stretched a vast plain that once belonged to a powerful ruler. Under the governance of Duke Ceylan, the region had prospered. Trade flourished, the military grew strong, and for a time, the duchy's influence even threatened to rival Moster itself. Power, however, breeds ambition. Unwilling to remain under the council's authority, Duke Ceylan declared independence and raised the banner of rebellion.
The rebellion lasted thirteen days.
Moster's retaliation was swift and merciless. The duchy was erased almost overnight. Duke Ceylan, his family, and every servant who had stood by him were executed within the walls of Ceylan Castle. From that day forward, the once-grand seat of power became a cursed ruin. Adventurers later flocked to it, lured by rumors of a divine artifact the Duke had hidden away before his fall. None of them left empty-handed in spirit, at least. Those who died there rose again as undead, joining the restless souls of the Duke, his children, and his retainers, all bound to guard the secret buried within the ruins.
To players, however, no matter how grim the lore, Ceylan Castle was still just a dungeon.
Before entering, they stopped by a few scattered villages nearby to pick up quests tied to the ruins. Most of them involved clearing out wandering undead or retrieving lost belongings. The rewards were serviceable, mostly green-quality gear, but nothing that could compare to what dropped from the dungeon bosses themselves.
Ceylan Ruins offered four bosses and three difficulty modes: Normal, Heroic, and Hell. Each difficulty had to be cleared in order. For Flynn to challenge the Hell version, he would first need to complete both Normal and Heroic runs.
Thankfully, what seemed daunting to ordinary players was trivial to someone like Let-There-Be-Light. He was confident they could breeze through the first two difficulties in under an hour.
As they traveled, he gave a concise overview of the dungeon's layout and pacing. He deliberately avoided explaining boss mechanics in detail, saving that for right before each fight. Experience had taught him that too much information too early simply went in one ear and out the other, especially when Flynn was involved. Despite Flynn's frightening mechanical skill, Let-There-Be-Light still worried. The man was a PvP monster but a dungeon rookie, and a lot of standard dungeon terminology would probably sound like nonsense to him.
Even so, it was precisely because he had seen Flynn in action that Let-There-Be-Light had dared to aim for a first clear. Without him, attempting to claim the Hell-mode record with just their core group would have been unrealistic.
After more than half an hour of travel, they reached a small village on the outskirts of the ruins. It served as the last supply point before the dungeon, and it was packed to the point of absurdity. A place meant to house a few hundred people now held thousands. The area around the sole General Merchant was so crowded that players were stacked three layers deep, while those further back jumped in place, swearing loudly because they couldn't open the shop interface.
"Lively," Flynn said, his eyes widening as he took it all in. It felt more chaotic than Moster's market district.
"Don't get distracted," Let-There-Be-Light said quietly. "Grab the quests and let's move. We don't wanna hang around here."
He gestured toward the ground, where faint skeletal remains littered the dirt. "Those are from players who died and respawned."
This wasn't a starter zone, and it wasn't Moster. There were no guards here and no restrictions on PvP. Many high-level players had already failed Hell mode runs and were in foul moods. One wrong glance or careless word could ignite another fight, and that was the last thing they needed.
Flynn and Amy squeezed through the crowd to an old man standing off to the side and accepted two dungeon quests. One required them to clear wandering ghosts inside the ruins, while the other asked them to retrieve a necklace from one of the dungeon bosses. Dungeon quests paid well, offering more experience and coin than ordinary tasks, and the second quest even rewarded a piece of green-quality gear.
Once that was done, Let-There-Be-Light wasted no time ushering them north toward Ceylan Castle.
Under the night sky, the castle loomed like a slumbering beast. Crows circled overhead, their harsh cries echoing across the ruins, and the broken silhouette of the structure looked like a gaping, bloodstained maw waiting to swallow anyone foolish enough to approach.
Up close, the decay was even more obvious. The iron gate had been smashed apart, the walls were cracked and crumbling, and stones had fallen from the ramparts. Near one section of wall, a lone figure crouched and muttered to himself. His words were unintelligible, and he didn't react to any attempts at conversation..
At the shattered gate, a swirling magical vortex marked the dungeon entrance. Flynn had seen similar portals before. Stepping through always felt like crossing a threshold into a different world.
Ceylan Castle had once been the heart of a duchy that barely existed. In preparation for his rebellion, Duke Ceylan had expanded the castle dramatically, more than doubling its size. Just beyond the entrance lay a short corridor no more than ten feet long. Three translucent figures drifted there, moaning softly as they patrolled the narrow space.
"Wandering Ghosts. Level fifteen elites, and around twenty-seven hundred HP," Let-There-Be-Light said calmly. "Their stats are standard. Just burn them down."
It was only Normal mode, so they didn't even bother with potions.
Twenty seconds later, the ghosts dissolved into nothing with hollow wails, leaving behind a small scatter of coins.
Amy puffed out her cheeks. "That's it?"
"Normal mode is like that," Let-There-Be-Light replied with an easy smile. "Any half-decent group can clear it. If trash mobs gave us trouble, we'd have no business thinking about Hell mode."
Beyond the corridor, the dungeon opened into a broad courtyard swarming with more wandering ghosts. Standing among them was the first boss, Agud, the Castle Guard Captain. His aggro was linked to every ghost in the courtyard. Attacking him before clearing the area would pull everything at once, leaving no room for shortcuts.
Let-There-Be-Light explained the situation briefly. "Normal bosses are basically practice targets. Agud has two skills and a possible enrage near the end. We won't bother with detailed mechanics. Bystander, pull when ready."
Flynn and Amy nodded. They could tell Let-There-Be-Light was pushing the pace for the sake of the first clear.
Once the courtyard was cleared, Not-A-Bystander charged straight in without hesitation. Two minutes later, Agud collapsed with a resentful groan, dropping two pieces of green-quality gear.
They didn't slow down after that. One by one, the remaining Normal-mode bosses fell: Rhaess, the Head Maid; Gaimer, the Sword Master; and finally Prince Markel. Aside from Markel, who was level eighteen, the others were level seventeen, and their drops reflected that. The equipment they dropped matched their levels, but in terms of raw stats, it was noticeably inferior to the green items Flynn had obtained from Kolut, the Bear King.
That difference made sense. Kolut, despite being in a starter zone, was classified as a pseudo–world boss. True world bosses were notoriously difficult, not just because of their strength, but because their appearance drew players from every faction, inevitably turning the fight into a massive PvP bloodbath. As a result, their drops were often superior to those from standard raid dungeons. Only Hell-mode dungeon loot could truly compete.
Kolut didn't have the long respawn timers of a true world boss, reappearing every three hours instead of every few days, which kept his loot from being too powerful. Even so, it still outclassed anything from a five-man Normal or Heroic dungeon.
By the time they finished clearing Normal Ceylan Castle, the only upgrades were a green dagger for Flynn and a pair of green boots for Amy. The rest of the loot went unclaimed.