CHAPTER 18: The Blood-Rune Overload
**ARC 2: COLLEGE DUNGEON TRIAL & ANCIENT CLAN AWAKENING**
Inside the Forbidden Shadow Dungeon, the atmosphere was eerie and suffocating. Glowing damp moss clung to the jagged obsidian cavern walls, casting a pale green hue over the winding stone tunnels.
Ethan and Elena walked side-by-side down a wide subterranean passage, their senses sharp and heightened.
SWISH—BANG!
A shadow-wolf, a Grade-2 beast with jet-black fur and razor-sharp bone claws, lunged out from a high stone ledge straight toward Elena’s throat.
Elena didn't even flinch. She executed the footwork from the Nine-Bones Iron Dragon Method, her azure blade flashing in a cold, fluid arc.
SLASH!
The shadow-wolf was sliced clean in two before its body even touched the ground. A glowing Grade-2 dark core stone popped out, which Ethan caught effortlessly with his left hand, tossing it into his spatial ring.
"That's twenty-four core stones in less than two hours," Ethan said, adjusting the linen wrap on his spear. "If this is all a Grade-2 dungeon has to offer, we'll finish the trial quota before sunset."
Elena wiped her blade with a silk cloth, her brow furrowing slightly as she looked deeper into the dark cavern network.
"Something feels wrong, Ethan," Elena whispered, her hand resting on the hilt of her sword. "The ambient Qi in the air... it’s getting heavier. The moss is turning red."
Deep in the subterranean core of the dungeon, three miles below the surface...
A massive, glowing purple crystalline structure—the Spatial Core Anchor—hovered above a dark underground lake. This anchor was what kept the pocket dimension stable and capped the beast power at Grade-2.
Currently, three figures dressed in blood-red robes stood on stone pillars around the lake, chanting in low, rasping voices.
At their feet, six jagged array pillars carved with ancient blood-sacrificial runes glowed with a sickening, crimson light. Dark, corrupted energy was being forcefully pumped straight into the purple crystal core.
CRACK... CRACK...
Fine, spiderweb-like fissures began spreading across the surface of the Spatial Core Anchor.
"It's working!" one of the blood-robed array masters cackled, his eyes bloodshot with mad excitement. "The spatial cap is breaking! In three minutes, the spatial laws will collapse, and the deep-tier beast portals will open!"
Standing on a ledge above the lake, Kaelen Valerius watched with a cruel, cold smirk. Beside him, Garron Valerius laughed hysterically, clutching his bandaged jaw.
"S-Rank geniuses..." Garron stammered, his voice muffled by his bandages. "Let's see your trash father save you when a hundred Grade-4 beasts tear you to pieces! You'll die in the dark, and no one will ever know it was House Valerius!"
Outside the dungeon, at the canyon staging area...
BOOM!
A deafening spatial explosion echoed out from the canyon rift!
The glowing purple portal hovering between the stone archways suddenly turned a dark, blood-red color, shooting thick streaks of violent lightning three hundred feet into the sky!
The heavy stone platforms trembled violently, and several commoner merchants were knocked off their feet by a wave of suffocating, violent energy.
Vice-Principal Oberon’s face turned pale. He leapt into the air, landing at the edge of the portal, his Early-Stage Martial Scholar Qi flaring outward to stabilize the frame.
"What is happening?!" Oberon roared at the maintenance supervisors. "The spatial barrier is collapsing! The energy signature... it's spiking!"
A supervisor checked his monitoring formation tablet, his hands shaking so violently he dropped the stone tool.
"V-Vice-Principal!" the supervisor shrieked in terror. "The core anchor has been overloaded! The dungeon has undergone a Forced Realm Mutation! It's no longer a Grade-2 trial grounds... it has jumped straight to Grade-4 Peak!"
"WHAT?!" Oberon gasped, his heart dropping into his stomach.
A Grade-4 Peak dungeon contained beasts equivalent to peak Spirit Vein Opening and elite Martial Scholar experts! For three hundred eighteen-year-old first-year scholars—most of whom were only at the Mortal Physique realm—this was an absolute, inescapable death trap!
"Recall the students! Shut down the entrance and open the emergency exit rifts!" Oberon barked desperately.
"I-It's impossible, Vice-Principal!" the supervisor wailed, tears streaming down his face. "The spatial entrance is locked from the inside by a high-grade Blood-Sealing Array! No one can get out, and no one below a Martial Grandmaster can break in from the outside!"
On the spectator platform, Elder Vane of House Valerius slowly took a sip of his spirit tea, suppressing a cold, triumphant smile.
It's done, Vane thought maliciously. The Blood-Sealing Array is locked. Those twin slum rats from House Sterling, along with every commoner scholar inside, are as good as dead. Even if Guildmaster Raymond tries to interfere, he can't break a high-grade Blood-Sealing Array in time!
Guildmaster Raymond stood up, his Peak Martial Master aura erupting like a volcano, smashing his stone teacup to dust.
"Vane!" Raymond roared, his eyes blazing with fury. "Was this your doing?!"
"Guildmaster Raymond! How dare you slander House Valerius?!" Vane retorted smoothly, feigning shock and grief. "This is clearly a tragic, unforeseen natural spatial accident! My own nephew, Garron, is inside! Do you think I would endanger my own blood?!"
While the leaders screamed and panicked outside, deep inside the dungeon, the sky had turned blood-red.
ROAR! ROAR! ROAR!
Terrifying, mountain-shaking roars echoed from the deep caverns!
Thick red spatial rifts tore open across every tunnel, and hundreds of massive, blood-eyed Grade-3 and Grade-4 beasts—Shadow-Tigers, Bone-Crushing Apes, and Venom-Spitters—poured out like an endless, ravenous tide!
Panicked screams echoed through the dark caverns as noble heirs and commoner scholars fled in utter terror, their weapons dropping from their trembling hands as they were hunted down like sheep.
Ethan and Elena stood on a high ledge, looking down at the endless sea of roaring Grade-4 monsters flooding the main cavern below.
"The dungeon mutated," Ethan said, his jaw clenching tightly as he drew his linen-wrapped spear. "Someone locked the exit."
"They set a trap for us," Elena said coldly, her azure sword humming with sharp intent.
Before the tide of beasts could charge up their ledge, the Sovereign Teleportation & Protection Amulets hanging around their necks suddenly hummed with a warm, divine golden light!
BZ—ZZZ-T!
The obsidian amulets flared, casting a blinding, golden barrier around Ethan and Elena.
Simultaneously, a massive, fifty-foot-wide golden spatial rift tore open directly in the air above their heads!
The suffocating, terrifying weight of a Martial Master—combined with the ancient, unstoppable domain of an Early-Stage Martial Grandmaster—erupted from the rift like an exploding sun!
Gabriel stepped out from the golden void, his dark dragon-silk coat fluttering softly, his eyes glowing with gold divine light.
And standing directly behind him, looming like a mountain of red iron, was General Ignatius—clad in his terrifying Crimson Dragon Armor, holding a colossal, eight-foot battle-axe that pulsed with absolute Martial Grandmaster Domain pressure!
Gabriel looked down at his children, a calm, gentle smile on his face.
"Did you miss me?" Gabriel asked softly.