Spoils of the Fallen
The dungeon reward notification hung in the air, cold and impersonal.
[Hidden Dungeon Cleared: Grave of the Wight King][Primary Reward: Crown of Hollow Bones (Rare)][Secondary Reward: Skill - Command Dead (Intermediate)][Bonus Reward: Fragment of Undying Soul]
Yeon-woo stayed crouched for a moment longer, his fingers brushing the cracked stone floor where the Wight King had fallen.Ash clung stubbornly to the joints of the stone, refusing to scatter, like a final defiance against defeat.
He sighed, letting the tension drain from his shoulders, and stood up with a faint groan.His muscles protested, the lingering effects of too many last-second dodges and Bloom-fueled overclocking.
No permanent injuries, he reassured himself, feeling the low hum of healing trickling from Bloom, knitting flesh and tendon with unnatural efficiency. But I can't keep doing this.
Second Cycle or not, my body still breaks like anyone else's.
He called up his Profile again, studying the latest changes.
[Name: Yeon-woo][Level: 38][Class: None][Title: Regressor, First Explorer][Unique Skills: Greed (Lv.2), Bloom (2nd Cycle)][New Trait: Resist Death (Low Grade)][Normal Skills: Dagger Mastery (Intermediate), Evasion (Advanced), Swift Footwork (Intermediate), Danger Sense (Intermediate), Command Dead (Intermediate)][Stats:]Strength: 83Agility: 97Endurance: 79Intelligence: 60Perception: 93
Three levels gained in one floor.
Efficient, but it came with a price: fatigue pressed behind his eyes, heavy and insistent.
The 'Crown of Hollow Bones' floated midair now, rotating slowly, radiating a soft, sickly silver light.An artifact of the Wight King himself—something that, in the first life, he had only heard of through desperate rumors whispered by dying challengers.
He reached out and took it.
The moment his fingers closed around the crown, the system flared again:
[You have acquired Crown of Hollow Bones (Rare).][Effect: +10% Mana Efficiency, Grants Passive Skill 'Aura of Command'.]
Not bad.Yeon-woo felt the faint hum of authority settle over his skin, like a mantle.
He tucked the crown away. Wearing it now would be stupid. Artifacts attracted attention like blood in shark-infested waters, and there were still too many unknowns ahead.
The dungeon shuddered once, violently, and the exit appeared—a gate of twisted iron and old bone.
Yeon-woo stared at it for a moment, feeling the familiar prickle of intuition.
No traps. No tricks.
Still, caution wasn't something he could afford to abandon. Not anymore.
As he walked toward the exit, he quickly reviewed "Command Dead" through the interface.
[Command Dead (Intermediate)][Allows the user to control lesser undead. Higher ranks enable control over stronger undead. Current Limit: 5 minor entities.]
Useful, situationally.But his build wasn't about minion control. It was about survivability, killing efficiency, and tactical escalation.
He'd keep it in his back pocket.
No need to show all cards.
The moment he crossed the threshold of the gate, the world twisted. Gravity inverted briefly, and then—
He was standing in a mist-covered field.
Not fog.
Mist. Heavy, clinging, reeking faintly of iron and rotting moss.
The ground beneath him squelched unpleasantly. Each step left a shallow print filled instantly with black water.
Yeon-woo narrowed his eyes.
I remember this place.
Marrow Fen.
A sub-region that only opened if you cleared the Wight King Dungeon perfectly.Few had ever seen it in his first life—he had only heard of it after climbing far higher up the Tower.
Here, rare monsters prowled.Beasts twisted by centuries of latent magic and death.
Dangerous. But rewarding.
[Hidden Sub-Zone: Marrow Fen Discovered!][High-Rank monsters populate this area. Proceed with caution.][First Discovery Bonus: +5000 EXP]
A soft chime as experience flowed into his body, but no level-up yet.
The mist parted slightly ahead.
Movement.
Yeon-woo crouched automatically, blending into the shadow of a warped, half-submerged tree. His hand slid to his dagger without conscious thought.
Through the mist, something lumbered into view.
A massive, reptilian creature—like a crocodile bloated to obscene proportions, its body covered in half-molten scales, patches of bone armor fusing into its flesh.
Its eyes were blind, clouded over white. But it sniffed the air, massive nostrils flaring.
Deathsmog Lizard.
He remembered it now.
It could track through sound and scent. Vision was useless in the mist anyway.
Yeon-woo steadied his breathing.
Patience.
The Deathsmog Lizard moved closer, sluggish but relentless, crushing twisted reeds underfoot.Its breath rattled in its chest, thick and bubbling.
He activated "Swift Footwork" at the lowest intensity—enough to prepare for sudden movement, not enough to disturb the air.
Seconds stretched.
The creature passed within ten meters.
A clean kill was possible.
He considered it. The skin alone would sell for a fortune.
But he wasn't here to farm materials.
Every minute spent here increased the risk of encountering worse things—things that could kill him even with two regressions' worth of preparation.
Stick to the goal.
He let the creature pass, slipping silently into a crouching run in the opposite direction, weaving through gnarled trees and waist-deep pools.
Every movement carefully measured.
Every breath controlled.
Notifications pinged quietly as he moved:
[Danger Sense activated: Predator-class entity detected nearby.][Bloom accelerating minor regeneration.]
The mist thickened.
Ahead, a thin structure emerged from the gloom: an ancient obelisk, half-collapsed, covered in strange runes.
At its base, a portal shimmered faintly.
That's it.
The Bone Gate.
A shortcut to the mid-levels of this layer.
It would cost him dearly in mana and health to pass through unprepared—but it would also skip entire death traps set up ahead for the unwary.
He crept closer.
Another ripple in the mist behind him.A low, guttural growl.
The Deathsmog Lizard had caught his scent after all.
No time for subtlety now.
Yeon-woo triggered "Bloom" fully.
Mana roared inside him.
He pivoted, dagger flashing once—twice—aiming not for the lizard's head, but its forelimbs, severing tendon and muscle in brutal, efficient arcs.
The beast howled, thrashing wildly.
Mist exploded outward with the force of its struggles.
Yeon-woo leapt past it, using a broken branch like a springboard to propel himself up the side of the obelisk.
[Greed activated: analyzing target Deathsmog Lizard.][Absorption possible: Minor Toxic Resistance.]
Not worth the risk.
He dismissed the prompt without hesitation.
As the Deathsmog Lizard slammed into the base of the obelisk below him, Yeon-woo reached the portal.
He didn't hesitate.
He stepped through.
The world flipped sideways.
A cold wind howled past him.
When he landed, it was on hard, cracked stone under a sky the color of a fresh bruise.
The next region had begun.
And he could already feel stronger monsters stalking in the distance.
Yeon-woo smiled faintly, blood drying on his face.
There was still so much to take.
And he intended to take it all.