"Hey, kid. Wake up."
Devin groaned as the voice pierced the fog in his head. His body felt like it had been dropped from the sky. He slowly opened his eyes to find himself lying on soft, damp grass. The sky above was painted in dull grays, the light diffused by heavy clouds. Everything smelled like earth and dew. His limbs were heavy, his thoughts sluggish.
Around him, other hunters stirred, rising to their feet with groans and wary glances. They were no longer in the warehouse.
They were in a forest.
Tall trees surrounded the group, their dense canopy letting in only slivers of light. There were no city sounds, no buildings just the quiet rustle of leaves and the distant chirping of unseen birds. A straight, narrow road stretched out ahead of them, flanked by thick underbrush, leading toward a dark cave entrance carved into a hillside like a gaping mouth.
"This... looks familiar," one of the hunters murmured, stepping forward with furrowed brows. Others began to examine their surroundings, fanning out with cautious steps, trying to piece together what had happened.
Devin was still struggling to get up when a strong hand grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet.
"Come on, kid. You're not dead yet."
Devin blinked and looked up at the man helping him. He was in his mid-forties, built like a boulder, his body crisscrossed with battle scars that spoke of countless dungeons. Despite his rugged appearance, he wore a calm, almost cheerful smile. His dark eyes were sharp and alert, and a dull D-rank insignia gleamed faintly on his chest.
"The name's Daelan," the man said, brushing off his worn armor. "You awake now?"
"Y-Yeah," Devin said, still disoriented. "I'm Devin. E-rank."
Daelan let out a short laugh, clapping Devin on the shoulder. "E-rank, huh? Doesn't matter now. In a place like this, everyone's just meat. Keep your head on, kid. From the moment we woke up here, it's every man for himself. No guild. No rules. Just survive."
Devin swallowed hard, his throat dry. He looked around again. Other hunters D-ranks and E-ranks alike were grouping up, whispering nervously, trying to make sense of it all. The forest was too quiet. Too clean. As if it were part of a simulation, but the danger was real.
The narrow road ahead led to only one place the cave.
After making sure everyone was awake, the hunters began moving as a group down the road. It was slow at first, every step cautious. No one spoke loudly. Tension clung to them like a second skin.
They didn't get far.
Suddenly, something massive stirred in the brush ahead.
From the mouth of the cave, a hulking creature emerged, its footsteps shaking the ground. Thick vines slithered from beneath its trunk-like legs. Its body was a grotesque fusion of moss, bark, and fungal growths that pulsed like living tumors. Spores floated in the air around it, casting a faint green hue.
Its face if it could be called that was a warped tangle of vines and wooden armor, with faint glowing eyes sunken deep within.
The hunters froze in place.
One of them, a younger man with wide eyes, gasped aloud. "T-That's... that's an Archaespore!"
Instantly, chaos rippled through the group.
"Impossible! This was supposed to be recon! Why is that thing here!?"
Devin's blood ran cold.
He'd heard of the Archaespore before an apex dungeon Monster classified as highly toxic and extremely hostile. It didn't just kill. It turned entire landscapes into death traps, releasing poisonous gas and summoning predatory plant life from the soil itself.
They weren't supposed to fight it.
They weren't supposed to see it.
The Shadow Clan had said this was reconnaissance. Walk in, gather data, walk out.
So why had they been dropped in front of a boss room?
The Archaespore roared a low, guttural sound that vibrated through the trees and struck the hunters with sheer dread.
Its vines began to writhe.
And without warning, the ground beneath their feet started to shift.
The Archaespore loomed ahead, towering and grotesque, its body pulsing with unnatural life. Fungal spores drifted through the air like drifting ash, and the ground beneath its roots cracked as vines slithered across the soil with a mind of their own.
For a moment, no one spoke.
Then a voice broke the fragile silence.
"Th-That's the Archaespore," a hunter whispered in a strangled tone. "This is the dungeon boss of the Central Plains."
The words hung in the air like a curse.
And in that instant, everything began to make sense and none of them wanted it to.
A sickening dread settled over the group like a lead blanket. Every hunter's face turned pale. Their eyes widened. Their legs felt weak beneath them. The illusion of hope, of survival, shattered in a heartbeat.
This wasn't just any dungeon.
It was that dungeon.
"No… no, no, no—this can't be happening," someone muttered, staggering back. "They said it was recon. They said we'd just record and return!"
"They lied," another hunter choked, his voice trembling. "The Shadow Clan lied to us!"
Panic erupted.
Gasps turned into shouting. Shouts turned into screams.
"WE'RE DEAD!"
"There's no way out!"
"They used us—we're bait!"
Their fear wasn't unfounded.
Every hunter here had seen the broadcast. The world had watched it live.
Kyle—the indomitable leader of the Peerless Guild, once ranked among the top twenty hunters in the entire country—had led a full-scale raid into this very dungeon. He had brought everything: elite A-ranks, C-ranks, B-ranks, and even his own personal vanguard of S+ rank elites.
And still…
They were annihilated.
Kyle himself, an SSS-rank hunter, one of the strongest beings alive, had barely made it out alive. His escape had only been possible because the dungeon boss hadn't even taken the fight seriously. It had let him go. Like a predator bored of playing with its prey.
And now…
Here they stood.
Forty low-ranked hunters, tossed into the lion's den with a smile.
Their fate was already sealed.
"I have a daughter!" one of the men cried as he turned to run. "Please, I need to see her again!"
Dozens more followed, their survival instincts overriding reason. They charged toward the shimmering portal at the edge of the woods—the very one they saw the peerless guild enter the dungeon during the broadcast.
"GET OUT OF MY WAY!"
"I'M NOT DYING HERE!"
"This is suicide!"
Sobbing. Screaming. Chaos.
They clawed at the air, trying to reach the portal, hoping, praying, begging for a way back.
Devin stood frozen in place, rooted to the ground as if his legs had turned to stone. His heart pounded in his chest like a war drum, his ears ringing with the cries of the doomed. Every breath felt like it burned. He didn't know what to do run? Hide? Fight?
And then…
It happened.
The brands.
The Shadow Marks seared to the right hands of every hunter began to glow.
First faintly.
Then violently.
Dark veins spread from the symbols like black lightning, crawling beneath their skin with terrifying speed. The hunters who touched the portal collapsed one by one, their screams turning to gurgles as they dropped like puppets with their strings cut.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Bodies hit the ground.
Forty in total.
All dead.
All silenced.
The marks that had seemed like tattoos were now revealed for what they truly were: curses. Chains. Execution orders.
Gasps filled the air. Those who remained took involuntary steps backward, eyes wide with horror.
No one dared move toward the portal again.
Not a single soul.
Devin's breath caught in his throat. His legs wobbled as the reality of their situation hit him like a falling boulder.
There was no escape.
The Shadow Clan hadn't just tricked them they had enslaved them.
They were prisoners, sealed inside a death trap where even legends had fallen.
And the monster ahead?
It was no longer a threat.
It was their judge.
Their executioner.
The Archaespore's vines twitched, sensing the panic. Its pulsing eyes glowed brighter as if pleased by the fear in its prey.