In the ever-awake The Undercroft, the Three Skulls Tavern also prepared for a long night, where the bait had been laid and the hunter awaited his prey.
Night enveloped The Undercroft. On the rooftop of a building directly facing the Three Skulls Tavern, a cloaked figure crouched motionless. Nihil had been there for two hours, his crimson eyes scanning his target.
He saw everything. Two exits. Barred windows. Muscular men with faint wolf symbols under their jackets—Umbra Venari—pretending to be drunkards near the entrance. A beer delivery cart lingering too long in the back alley.
His sharp mind processed the data. An interface appeared in his mind.
[Mana Sensor Detected at the Threshold.]
[Pressure Trap Aura Detected Under the Main Floorboard.]
[Analysis: Layered traps. Entering would be suicide.]
Heze smiled faintly beneath his hood. They were waiting for him to walk into it like moths flying towards a flame. They expected a "curse remover," not a "reality dismantler."
He didn't approach the front or back door. He silently leaped to a lower rooftop, then descended into the dark back alley, away from the suspicious cart. He stood in front of the rough stone wall at the back of the tavern's kitchen.
He placed his palm on the cold stone surface. He recalled his experiment with the rusty nail.
[Using Atomic Manipulation: "Dissolving Mortar Bonds."]
[Capacity: 15/15 -> 11/15]
There was no sound. The mortar between several large stones turned into fine sand and fell silently. Carefully, he pulled the stones one by one, creating a hole just large enough for his body. The smell of stale beer and burnt fat greeted him. He was in. Not in the main room, but in a dark storage area.
Inside the main room of the Three Skulls Tavern, Tarek Mornhall sat impatiently. On his table lay a silver music box emanating a false cursed aura—the perfect bait. His team was in position. The traps were active.
"Any movement?" he asked through a small communication crystal.
"Negative, Boss," replied the voice of the scout on the opposite rooftop. "It's quiet."
Tarek frowned. His gut feeling was uneasy. It was too quiet. A smart target wouldn't take this long to show up. Did he know?
Suddenly, one of his mage knights on guard near the door jolted. "Boss, the mana sensor at the door... just went out. No trigger, just... dead."
Tarek's heart beat a little faster. "What about the pressure sensor?"
"Still active, nothing's stepped on it."
Tarek scanned the room. Something was wrong. Something he hadn't anticipated.
Beneath the wooden floor where he sat, in the dark storage room, Nihil looked up. He could hear footsteps and murmurs from above. He smiled. The hunter was now in his own trap, and he didn't even realize it.
Tarek Mornhall stood up, his bad feeling growing stronger. "Check the surroundings. There might be another entrance," he ordered one of his subordinates. He felt like he was being toyed with.
Beneath him, Nihil acted. He didn't target Tarek directly. He targeted the floor beneath Tarek's chair. He placed his palm on the dusty wooden ceiling.
[Using Void Grasp (F). Target: Iron Nails x5]
[Capacity: 11/15 -> 10/15]
The ancient nails holding three floorboards beneath Tarek's chair vanished in an instant.
CRACK!
Without warning, the floor beneath Tarek gave way. With a cry of surprise, the leader of Umbra Venari fell, his body sinking up to his waist into the newly created hole. His legs dangled in the dark storage room, just a few meters from where Nihil stood. The music box bait tumbled off the table.
"Boss!" his subordinates shouted in unison, chaos ensuing.
Before they could recover, Nihil was already on the move. His hand aimed at the table near the door, where two knights stood. Void Grasp! The table's legs vanished. The heavy table toppled, blocking their path.
"He's beneath us!" roared Tarek, trying to free himself from the hole. "Attack downward!"
One of the mage knights in his team slammed his staff into the floor. "Earthquake!"
A magical shockwave hit the wooden floor, sending splinters and dust flying in all directions in the storage room. Nihil nimbly dodged behind a stack of beer barrels. He couldn't keep erasing objects. It was too slow and draining.
He peeked from behind his cover, his crimson eyes locked on the mage above through the hole in the floor. He sensed the flow of mana gathering around the mage for the next attack.
Heze's mind worked quickly. If I can't counter his magic, maybe I can disrupt the mage himself.
He focused all his concentration on the mage's eyes.
[Intense focus on Detected Mana User.]
[Conditions met. Unlocking Derived Skill: 'Suppressing Gaze' (Rank F)]
[Effect: Disrupts target's mana flow through direct eye contact. Drains Capacity continuously.]
Nihil stared sharply.
Above, the mage who was chanting a Stone Spear spell suddenly gasped and clutched his head. The spell in his hand dissipated into dust. It felt like an invisible leech was sucking mana directly from his brain.
"Argh! My magic... he's disrupting my mana flow!" he shouted in panic.
A new wave of panic swept through the Umbra Venari team. What kind of power was this?
That moment was more than enough. Nihil didn't wait any longer. He sprinted across the storage room toward a large sewer grate in the corner he had spotted earlier.
As he was about to enter the dark sewer, he paused and looked back. His eyes met Tarek's furious gaze, which was still being pulled out of the hole by his subordinates.
"This hunt is boring," Nihil said, his calm voice clearly audible from below. "Next time, make a better trap."
With those words, he leaped into the sewer tunnel and vanished into the darkness.
Tarek Mornhall was finally pulled out, his face red with rage and humiliation. He stared at the hole in the floor, then at his trembling mage. His target had not only escaped the perfect trap; he had dismantled it from within, toyed with them all, and revealed a terrifying new ability.
The hunt had long ceased to be just a job. It had become a matter of honor.