Recruitment.

The guild headquarters of Eclipse was… underwhelming.

A single, rectangular room made of dull stone, about the size of a small training hall. No banners, no personal quarters, no storage vaults—just a table, a few chairs, and a guild interface crystal mounted on the wall like a mockery of their situation. It was as bare-bones as it could get.

Elias let out a slow sigh, dragging a hand down his face. "Okay. So, just to be clear… this is it?"

Rael didn't even look up. "This is it."

Elias ran a hand along the rough stone wall, as if expecting a hidden compartment to pop open and reveal anything of value. Nothing. "This is so sad. We're a guild. We should have, I don't know, an actual building. Maybe a second room? A rug?"

Leon, comfortably sprawled in one of the rickety chairs, smirked. "Welcome to Eclipse."

Elias groaned. "I feel like I just got scammed."

Gale, ever practical, leaned against the wall. "That's what happens when you start at Level 1. No perks, no resources, just a name and a place to sit."

Elias gestured broadly. "Right, but this is a guild. Shouldn't we have more than four people? You guys have been playing for a while—why not recruit?"

Rael finally looked up from the interface. "Because we weren't ready."

Elias gave him a look. "Not ready for what? You and Leon were top players. Shouldn't people be lining up to join?"

Rael tapped on his system interface a few times before sharing the information with everyone.

65,214 recruitment requests.

Elias stared. Then squinted. Then rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. "...Huh."

Leon let out a low whistle. "Yeah, that tracks. Your name alone draws attention, and since people know I'm here too…"

Gale frowned. "Still. That many?"

Rael leaned back in his chair. "Most of them are bandwagoners. Players who just want in because of reputation. We're not looking for that."

Elias whistled. "I was expecting, like, a couple hundred. But this? This is a damn army."

Leon smirked. "Too bad we can only take in a few."

Gale sighed, scrolling through the sheer volume of applications. "There's no way we can manually go through all of these."

Rael leaned back, tapping his fingers against the table. "We need a system. Something fast and effective."

Elias nodded. "Right. Step one: filter out the weak."

Gale raised a brow. "Define weak."

Elias grinned. "Level 10s applying to a level 20+ guild. Sorry, little bro, but we are not a charity."

Rael shook his head. "Level doesn't determine skill."

Leon leaned forward. "Agreed. Some of the best players started off at the bottom. It's about potential, not numbers."

Elias scoffed. "Okay, first of all, that sounds real inspiring and all, but we literally do not have the time to check if some level 10 is the next prodigy. Second, if they don't even meet the minimum entry requirements, why waste a slot?"

Rael sighed. "Fine, we'll set a baseline. Level 15 and up. Anyone below that, auto-reject unless they have a really good reason."

Gale nodded. "That's fair. What about classes?"

Elias immediately jumped in. "Yeah, let's filter out the weirdos. No offense, but I do not want some dude rolling up as a 'Pacifist Monk' or whatever."

Leon frowned. "You're the one who says weird builds are underrated."

"Yeah, when I do them," Elias shot back. "Not when some random guy who named himself 'HideOnBush' tries to convince me his unarmed stealth build is viable."

Gale nodded. "Honestly, he has a point. Some classes just don't work in actual combat."

Rael considered it. "We'll filter based on roles instead. If they can actually contribute—tanks, damage, support—we give them a shot. No meme builds unless they can prove they're competent."

Elias grinned. "So, you mean meme builds allowed if they're good?"

Rael sighed. "Yes, Elias. If someone can solo a dungeon with nothing but bare pinkies, I am willing to reconsider."

Elias threw his arms up. "Thank you! Finally, some vision."

Leon ignored him. "Okay, so we've got a level cutoff and a class viability check. What else?"

Rael hesitated. Then, after a beat, he said, "I asked them to send a reason for applying a while ago."

Silence.

Elias blinked. "I'm sorry. What?"

Rael pulled up the filter settings. "We make them submit a reason. If it's just 'I wanna join a guild' or 'sounds cool,' we cut them."

Leon raised a brow. "You seriously think that's gonna narrow down 65,000 people?"

Rael clicked confirm.

The list shrunk instantly.

Now, only 500 names remained.

A long silence followed.

Then, three sets of eyes turned toward Rael.

Rael blinked. "What?"

Gale squinted. "What standards do you even have?"

Leon leaned forward, resting his chin on his hand. "Yeah, what exactly did you filter for?"

Rael scrolled through the list and shrugged. "I asked them why they wanted to join."

Elias sucked in a sharp breath. "Oh my god. Bro is literally an HR manager."

Gale stared. Leon dragged a hand down his face.

Rael ignored them. "I already had a filtering system in mind. I set it up days ago when I first saw how many applications were coming in. The system flagged duplicates, removed bot accounts, and auto-rejected anyone who didn't meet basic competence standards—bad equipment, terrible win rates, zero recorded combat experience."

Gale exhaled. "So you planned this from the start."

Rael nodded. "Of course. No way was I going to read through 65,000 applications manually."

Elias shook his head. "You're insane."

Leon smirked. "No, he's just efficient. Which is way scarier."

Gale sighed. "Fine. So, what now?"

Rael leaned back, pulling up the final list. "We split them into groups of 20 and run trials. Each group gets a leader—Leon, Gale, and me."

Elias immediately raised a hand. "What about me?"

Leon and Gale shared a look.

Rael didn't hesitate. "No."

Elias gasped. "What do you mean, no?"

Gale crossed his arms. "We're actually trying to test people, not lead them into whatever chaos you're about to cook up."

Leon smirked. "Yeah, we'd like them to survive, if possible."

Elias held a hand to his chest in mock offense. "I would never deliberately sabotage—"

"Yes, you would," Rael, Gale, and Leon said in unison.

Elias pointed at them accusingly. "This is profiling."

Rael sighed. "Fine. Just don't get everyone killed."

Elias grinned. "Oh, don't worry. I'll be so responsible."

Rael didn't believe him for a second.

* * *

The 500 players gathered before the dungeon entrance, a chaotic mess of noise and movement. There was no order—just a mass of gamers, some adjusting their gear, others eyeing the competition. A few had already started whispering among themselves, sizing up their chances.

The dungeon entrance loomed behind them—a stone archway embedded in the rock, its interior pitch black, flickering faintly as the instance waited to be activated. No difficulty ranking. No warnings. Just a void waiting to be entered.

Rael stood at the front, arms crossed, watching them.

He had no expectations. Most of these people wouldn't make the cut.

"Check your system interface," he said. "Your team assignments are out."

A flicker of system notifications washed over the crowd as players swiped their menus open.

Annoyed murmurs rippled through them. Some were hoping to run with their friends, others glanced at unfamiliar names in their party lists.

Elias, standing beside Rael, smirked. "Bet half of them thought they could pick their own squads."

Leon scoffed. "This isn't some pre-made party finder. If they can't adapt to new teammates, they're useless to us."

Some players overheard that, their expressions tightening.

Rael continued, "We're running four dungeon instances at a time. Leon, Gale, Elias, and I will each take a group. Once we clear a run, the next team goes in."

A player raised their hand hesitantly. "Uh… what does that mean exactly?"Rael answered plainly, "It means four separate dungeon runs will happen at the same time, each in its own instance. My team won't be in the same dungeon as Leon's, Gale's, or Elias's. The layout and enemies will be identical, but the groups won't interact. Once a team finishes, we bring in the next batch."

The players nodded in understanding, but a few looked uncertain. Four dungeon runs at a time—fast and efficient.

Elias rolled his shoulders. "That means no waiting around. If your group is up, you move. If you're late, you're out."

Gale took a step forward. "This isn't a solo test. If you treat it like one, you won't make it."

Rael scanned the crowd. Some of these players just wanted a popular guild tag. Others actually wanted a team. It didn't matter. The dungeon would sort them out.

Leon smirked. "And if any of you were planning to coast through this, hoping to impress us later—this dungeon will show us exactly what you're made of.".

A ripple of tension passed through the gathered players.

Some grinned. Others stiffened.

Rael exhaled. "First four teams, step forward."

A few deep breaths. Weapons adjusted. Magic auras flickered to life.

The first real test was about to begin.

* * *

[Phase One] - [Rael's Team]

The dungeon was a sprawling ruin, half-buried in creeping vines and shattered stone. Faint, eerie blue light filtered through cracks in the broken ceiling, casting long shadows as Rael's team advanced.

From the start, things were… disappointing.

The players were competent, sure. They weren't tripping over their own feet or swinging at air. But that was the bare minimum.

One player, a heavily armored knight, was too slow to react to an incoming ambush. Rael had to step in and deflect the blow himself. Another, a rogue, seemed to have a decent grasp of positioning but lacked any real decisiveness.

They weren't bad. But they weren't good, either.

A pack of stone golems emerged from the ruins, their bodies glowing faintly with runic patterns. The team reacted well—no one panicked. The tanks held formation, the mages blasted from behind, and the melee fighters darted in where they could. It was clean. Controlled. Efficient.

And yet, Rael felt… nothing.

He rested his sword on his shoulder, watching the fight unfold. The golems crumbled one by one. No real mistakes. No real brilliance, either.

They reached the mid-boss chamber—a wide, circular room with a massive armored sentinel standing motionless at its center. As soon as they stepped inside, its eyes flared to life, and it moved.

The fight began.

Rael didn't even need to step in. The team followed standard raid tactics: tanks engaged first, DPS focused on weak points, mages controlled the battlefield. The sentinel was strong but predictable.

Five minutes later, it collapsed into dust.

Rael sighed. Not a single one of them stood out.

"This isn't looking good."

He rolled his shoulders, debating whether he should just power through the rest of the dungeon. But then a thought hit him—how were the others doing?

Especially Elias.

[MEANWHILE] - [Elias's Team]

The atmosphere in Elias's instance was nothing short of hellish.

Not because the dungeon was hard.

Because Elias was worse than the dungeon.

The moment they stepped inside, the nightmare began.

The first mistake was expecting a normal dungeon crawl. The second was assuming Elias would help.

He had warned them exactly once before they entered:

"If you're bad at watching your step, this is gonna suck."

It sucked.

The first corridor was deceptively peaceful. Dimly lit stone walls, a smooth tiled floor, and a faint breeze filtering through unseen vents. The air smelled faintly of moss and old parchment.

Then the traps started.

An archer took point, stepping forward with practiced ease. He pressed his foot down lightly—

Click.

The ground beneath him collapsed.

Before anyone could react, he was already falling, vanishing into a dark pit. His scream echoed for a second before a muffled thud sounded from below.

The team froze in horror.

Elias didn't even blink. He peeked into the pit. "...Still alive?"

A pained groan came from the depths.

"Good." Elias straightened. "That's one down."

The remaining members hesitated. One of the mages swallowed. "Uh… shouldn't we pull him back up?"

Elias shrugged. "He can climb."

The trapped archer let out a weak, "I can't climb!"

"Then he fails."

The group stared at him in disbelief.

Elias raised an eyebrow. "What? You think this dungeon is about fighting? I thought so too—turns out, it's mostly about surviving. Since the layout changes every run, I adjusted this one a bit. Fewer monsters, more traps. If you can't even walk without dying, you don't deserve to be here."

A tense silence followed. Then, one brave soul hesitantly asked, "H-How many more traps are there…?"Elias smiled.

No one asked again.

They continued forward.

The next hallway was worse.

Spike traps. Arrows firing from unseen slits in the walls. Magic glyphs that turned the floor into ice without warning.

A knight strode forward confidently, raising his shield—only for the ground beneath him to turn frictionless. His legs shot out from under him, and he crashed onto his back. Before he could get up, an arrow whizzed past his face, embedding into the stone beside his head.

He froze.

Elias hummed. "Better start moving. Next one might actually hit."

The knight scrambled to his feet, sliding awkwardly across the icy surface. The rest of the team hesitated, scanning the ground for more traps.

A rogue decided to be clever and leaped over a suspicious tile—

Only to land directly on a hidden pressure plate.

A sharp click echoed through the hall.

A second later, the walls groaned as spikes shot out from both sides. The rogue's eyes widened in horror, but before he could react—

Nothing happened.

The spikes stopped inches from his body, trembling in place. He exhaled in relief. "Oh, thank god—"

The floor beneath him suddenly flipped over, dumping him into a concealed chute. His scream faded into the depths.

Elias nodded in approval. "Traps are simple. Just don't mess up."

"Easy for you to say!" someone snapped.

Elias tilted his head. "Yeah."

No one talked back after that.

Panic spread through the team like wildfire. No one knew if they should step forward or stay still. The dungeon wasn't even that dangerous.

Elias was.

He wove through the chaos like he knew where everything was. He never stepped on a single trap himself, making it look effortless. Every time someone hesitated, every time someone got hit, he just stared.

An Assassin got hit by a dart trap.

Elias glanced at them. "That's two minutes off your time. Congrats."

Another player, cautious but unlucky, avoided one plate only to activate another.

Elias clicked his tongue. "You're thinking too hard. Just move properly."

They barely even fought monsters. Most of the enemies were shredded by their own triggered traps before the team could react.

Instead, they fought Elias's mind games.

By the time they reached the mid-boss, half the team looked ready to break. But somehow, despite the chaos, they were fast.

Blazing fast.

The mid-boss went down in record time. Not because of strategy, but because the team was so desperate to get out that they fought with everything they had.

By the time they reached the final boss, they had become a well-oiled machine. Out of pure, abject fear.

And when the dungeon was finally cleared?

They sprinted out.

* * *

The leaderboard obelisk flickered.[Elias's Team – 1st Clear]Completion Time: 17:32A murmur spread through the crowd."Already?""Seventeen minutes? No way—"Before anyone could process it, the dungeon portal flared.Elias stepped out.Alone.Unscathed. Unbothered. His rapier rested lazily on his shoulder as he scanned the crowd. He looked bored.A silence settled over the applicants.Then—the portal flashed again.And someone crawled out.A rogue. Face pale. Hands shaking. He dragged himself forward, arms trembling as if he barely had the strength to move.Someone hesitated, stepping forward. "Uh… you good?"The rogue lifted his head. Eyes hollow. Soul shattered.His mouth opened.But no words came out.Just a weak, haunted wheeze.Then—a broken, barely coherent whisper:"…They… hhggh… s-speed… t-t-traps… hhkk—"The poor guy collapsed.A pause.Before anyone could process that—The portal burst open again.And the rest of Elias's team came flying out.Not walking.Running for their lives.A Knight leaped out like he was escaping a collapsing building, landed hard, and scrambled forward without looking back. A mage nearly tripped over him, caught herself, and kept going. One cleric actually screamed.The moment they spotted Elias waiting outside, they all skidded to a stop.Then, like they had rehearsed it, they all bowed."THANK YOU FOR YOUR GUIDANCE!"And immediately, they ran off again.The entire crowd just… stared.Then someone cautiously turned to Elias. "Uh… what exactly did you—?"Elias shrugged. "Trained them."The rogue's body twitched.The crowd collectively took a step back.At that moment, for the first time since the trials began, everyone watching realized there was something scarier than the dungeon itself.Chad God.