Chapter 540: Dungeons and Chaos 6

[Domain of Stories]

The most infuriating of all Mauder’s tricks.

Mauder, the clown demon, had an ultimate skill that was as irritating as it was dangerous.

It wasn’t a straightforward physical attack or some overwhelming magical nuke—it was a trap for the mind, one meticulously designed to pry open a person’s heart and exploit the smallest cracks.

The ability’s premise was simple:

Lock your target inside a pre-written story of Mauder’s own design.

Once inside, you’d be forced to play along with whatever twisted narrative he’d set for you—every word, every scene, every heartbreak carefully tailored to break you down from the inside.

The events themselves didn’t directly harm your real body.

No matter what happened inside that fabricated world, your flesh remained untouched.

But your heart… that was another matter.

Because the moment your spirit gave in—when grief, despair, or hopelessness finally took hold—was the moment the illusion stopped being an illusion.

At that point, everything that happened inside would become as real as reality itself.

The pain, the wounds, the death. All of it.

It was, in a way, similar to Cheshire’s unique skill, [Wonderland], though Cheshire’s illusions were whimsical and shifting, built on chaos and imagination.

Mauder’s [Domain of Stories] was more rigid, like an executioner’s stage play.

Every twist had already been written, every tragedy arranged well in advance.

In the game, this skill was just an elaborate gimmick.

Annoying? Yes.

But easy to counter once you knew the trick.

There were obvious escape conditions—methods to brute-force your way out or to dismantle the illusion from within.

But now…

This wasn’t the game.

And the only person inside Mauder’s “story” right now was Stacia.

She’d have to navigate it herself, without my direct interference.

“Master…!”

Lavine’s voice rang sharply in my ears, pulling me from my thoughts.

The tiny fairy zipped into view, her glowing, star-dusted wings scattering faint sparks of blue light as she landed neatly on my shoulder.

Her presence always smelled faintly of moonlight and frost.

“Yes?”

“The clown demon made a move…” she reported, voice low but thrumming with an excited sort of tension.

“I know,”

She tilted her head, strands of her sky-blue hair swaying, her violet eyes gleaming like distant stars.

“Should I proceed with precautionary actions?” she asked, already letting her mana swell faintly, a ripple of starlit energy washing over her small frame.

“No. Let it be for now.”

Lavine froze, blinking twice at me.

“What are you talking about, Master? It’s got one of your friends—you do realize your mistress was taken right?”

…Mistress?

I shot her a sideways glance.

In Lavine’s mind, I supposed Stacia held a place high enough to warrant that kind of title. I couldn’t exactly blame her.

“Don’t worry about the clown. Stacia will take care of it.”

Lavine tilted her head, brows knitting together. “Huh?”

If this had been the Stacia from before—the one I first met—she probably would’ve struggled.

Not because she lacked determination, but because her stats and abilities simply wouldn’t have been enough to handle Mauder’s mind games head-on.

But that Stacia no longer existed.

Thanks to my early intervention, her current stats were on par with—if not above—the version of her that the game’s story originally led to by this point.

She wasn’t just “strong enough to survive.” She was strong enough to win.

Especially now, with her newly acquired skill:

[Skill: Mana Burn]—a monstrous ability capable of burning through nearly anything.

It didn’t just melt steel or incinerate flesh. It devoured mana, unraveled spells, and stripped away even the intangible—concepts, rules, and constructs themselves.

In other words, domains like Mauder’s were nothing more than a lavish banquet for her.

Granted… she wasn’t at her absolute peak yet.

She was still recovering from the aftereffects of my own reckless actions. I knew I’d pushed her too far, too fast, and she was paying for it in endurance.

But that didn’t erase her advantage.

…

“You’re letting me take more than expected, Senior…” Her voice from that time still lingered in my head.

“Well, you’re about to go on a long trip.”

“Fufu~ I’m not sure if we can call a dungeon crawl a trip, but…” Her lips had curled into that sly little smile of hers. “…I’ll indulge in your generosity. Thank you very much.”

She’d pressed her mouth to mine without hesitation, warmth giving way to heat as she drew in my mana with every kiss. Her tongue brushed against mine.

“Senior… if something unexpected happens… can I trust you to be my hero then?”

“Sure.”

…

The mana she’d taken from me that time should’ve been enough to keep her going for days beyond our usual “kiss deadline” each week—unless, of course, she’d deliberately burned through it all early.

Knowing her… that wouldn’t surprise me.

I could feel it—like a faint ripple beneath the skin of the world.

Demonic mana.

It was subtle, layered so carefully beneath the natural flow of ambient energy that most people—hell, even highly trained demon-sensitive individuals like Lucas or Emilia—wouldn’t detect a thing. It was invisible to them.

But not to me.

Why?

Maybe it was because I was in the middle of changing. Becoming… something more. Something closer to a divine being.

Probably.

But right now, the reason didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was what that presence meant.

[Note: Extra Effect of [Ultimate Skill: Divine Will] will automatically take effect upon present command of user soul interface.]

[Warning: Demonic entities within user interface may interfere with soul sequence.]

[Recommendation: Threat Elimination is advised.]

[Alert: All skills will automatically activate upon detection of demonic presence exceeding 20% threat expectancy.]

[Note: User is advised to leave the area immediately.]

The system notifications echoed in my mind, each one more urgent than the last.

I ignored them.

Pushing myself up from the small, cold stone I’d been sitting on, I looked down toward the lower levels.

From this vantage point, I could see Lucas and the others continuing their small breakfast, unaware that Stacia had already been taken.

That wouldn’t last long.

Flamme’s spirits were still active in the area. Once they go and tell Flamme, whole panic would probably spread in the group like chaotic wild fire.

“Are you really not going to do anything, Master?”

Lavine’s voice broke through my thoughts, her irritation barely hidden.

“We are going to do something,” I said, brushing dust from my coat. “Just… not right now.”

She folded her arms. “Stop being so damn secretive already. It’s annoying!”

I glanced at her annoyed face and smiled faintly.

“For now, just stick to my initial instructions. Make sure those five down there have a much harder time getting through each floor of the dungeon, if it’s too much trouble you can focus on Lucas if you want, you can also take as much mana from me as you need—but…”

Her violet eyes narrowed in suspicion. “…But?”

“…make sure they don’t recognize you. And make sure you wear the costume I brought you. Okay?”

Lavine stared at me for a long moment. “…You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.” I started walking. “Not at all.”

“Wait master are you really going to leave me with all those brats?”

“Yes have as much fun as you want… though be a bit more lenient with Reina”

“…”

“Oh and before I go did you feel any strange energy the moment Stacia got taken?”

“No not really.”

“I see…. I’ll go now….”

“Hey master Wait-!”

Wearing the dark mask I’d purchased, I stepped off the cliff without hesitation, letting the cold, stagnant air rush past me as I descended into the dungeon’s blackened depths.

My boots met stone with the faintest tap, silent enough to be swallowed instantly by the surrounding gloom.

[Hidden Blade Technique]

[Second Form]

[New Moon]

Switching into the second form of the Hidden Blade technique, I moved without a trace—sliding between shadows, hugging uneven walls, and stepping over the jagged stone ridges with precision.

No mana, no light, nothing to betray my presence.

The winding, half-forgotten pathways beneath this place were a labyrinth to most, but to me, they were as familiar as an open field I’d already crossed a hundred times.

Hidden passages, concealed doors, false walls—each one a shortcut leading me deeper between the dungeon’s floors.

Here, treasure was everywhere.

Glittering artifacts half-buried in dust, rare relics tucked behind illusory stone, even ancient chests humming faintly with protective wards.

This place was a mine-swept treasure field.

But I didn’t so much as glance at them for long.

Most of these spoils weren’t meant for me—they were planted for Lucas and the other main heroines.

Their growth, their fated trials, their rewards.

Sure, they would’ve been useful to me, but taking them would be… wasteful.

As items hardly matter at my current status.

Even so, as I passed one shadowed corridor, my senses caught on something—

A faint, dormant pulse.

A piece of the Holy Sword’s hidden sequence.

Lucas’s sequence.

If Lavine played her part right, he would stumble into it soon enough.

Especially now—reckless as he was, and more reckless still when panicked.

A faint smirk tugged at my lips.

The air grew heavier the deeper I went, and in the deep black covens of the dungeon, I finally allowed a controlled stream of my mana to seep outward.

It curled and sank into the stone, sliding unseen through the cracks and tunnels, a silent whisper against the sleeping walls.

It didn’t take long to reach the entry field to the last floor—a yawning portal, its edges rippling like ink disturbed by an unseen current.

From its center, a slow pull, like gravity itself was trying to drink me in.

Without pausing, I stepped through.

A violent shift hit me instantly—gravity turning sideways, then plunging down.

The world fell away.

I was falling.

A deep, bottomless pit of absolute black. No walls. No light. Only shapes—faint, skeletal silhouettes drifting far in the abyss.

Then, impact

Soft, but solid.

I landed atop a hill.

A hill… made of something brittle that crunched under my boots.

Ashes.

Bone dust.

An entire slope of the dead, their remnants ground into black powder over countless years.

The air here was stale, sharp, and old enough to taste like rusted iron.

I looked around.

This place was exactly as I remembered it from the game—eerily, suffocatingly dark, as though light itself refused to exist here.

The shadows weren’t still. I could feel them moving.

Presences—many of them—lurking just out of sight.

In the game, this abyss had been described as an endless pit, a void where the brave went to die and the foolish vanished without trace.

But the truth… was a little different.

This wasn’t a natural abyss at all.

It was a dungeon—a hollow shell forcefully opened by the clown demon—and within its yawning depths, the original boss of this floor lay waiting, its will bound entirely to the clown’s command.

And soon, the “empty” darkness would begin to stir.

An almost infinite army of evil entities would rise from below, called up to swarm endlessly, drowning intruders beneath a tide of grotesque bodies before they could even see the clown.

I didn’t need to guess where she was.

A faint pulse of red—like a star bleeding in the far distance—flickered at what I assumed was the true “end” of the abyss.

That light wasn’t just her position.

It was the heart of her domain.

Then—

GROOAAAGHHH!!

The silence broke.

Roars and sickly, creaking cries filled the abyss, the sound bouncing endlessly through the cavernous dark until it felt like they were screaming from every direction at once.

I smiled.

There was a reason this place had been considered one of the top-tier EXP farms in the game.

As long as the clown remained alive, this pit would never stop producing monsters.

The “boss” itself fed on the demon’s mana, birthing wave after wave of grotesque creatures—warped humanoids studded with jagged tentacles, slick black skin glistening with some foul secretion.

[Note: Evil and demonic entities detected within user’s present area.]

[Automatic activation of Ultimate Skill: Divine Will.]

“Cancel it.”

[????]

I didn’t need a radiant beacon announcing my presence.

Not yet.

Lucas and the others didn’t need to know I was here, not until I wanted them to.

The length of time I could grind here depended entirely on one thing—

Stacia ending the clown’s little performance.

KRRROOOAAAHHHHH!!

The first wave came into view—dozens of them, spilling from the black fog, running low and fast, bodies twitching unnaturally as their tentacles scraped and cracked against the bone ground.

I exhaled slowly, my hands tightening.

The martial stance came naturally, the familiar stillness before the kill.

The corner of my mouth tugged upward.

It was time to test out just how physically stronger I’ve become.

[Name: Riley Hell]

[Race: Human… (????)]

[Level: 186]

[Strength: S (???)]

[Agility: A (0/100)]

[Endurance: A (0/100)]

[Luck: 0 (????)]

[Power: A (0/100)]

It was time to level up.

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