[Ding!]

​[You have slain Lvl. 4 Mountain Wolf (x21) | +630 EXP]

[You have slain Lvl. 5 Mountain Wolf (x1) | +50 EXP]

[Congratulations! You have reached Lvl. 6]

​Level: 6 (EXP: 265/700)

​Night blinked at the glowing blue screen in surprise. In the heat of the moment surrounded by fire, he hadn’t even noticed the level-up notification.

​Now that the adrenaline was fading, he looked closely at his companions and realized that all of them had evolved a little further. No massive structural overhauls occurred this time but the refinements were undeniable.

​Lilith and Eve looked even more humanoid. Their dark, synthetic armor plating had shifted to mimic the natural curves and flow of human clothes making them look like Androids.

Death’s overall size had reduced slightly once again, compressing her frame to make her look incredibly sturdy and agile. Her bones gleamed with an indestructible jade-like sheen.

As for Lucy, he couldn’t quite tell what had changed though her shadows seemed significantly denser.

​Then taking a deep breath he decided to check his energy reserves, knowing full well it wasn’t going to be a pretty sight.

​[Energy Value (EV) - 21]

​He was incredibly poor again. But as he looked at the remains of the wolf pack floating inside the Domain in his soul space he figured having 21 EV was vastly better than being dead.

​Right now with these pathetic reserves he was in no state to fight.

Besides even if they had been "winning" the previous brawl before the Alpha went rogue, they would have still ended up relying on Sara’s red talisman simply because Night’s low EV pool couldn’t sustain a prolonged war of attrition.

​Just then Lucy trotted back into the cave after finishing her meal and shared her grim theory about this dungeon being an Invasion-type or an abnormal anomaly.

.....

​[Sara’s POV]

​Outside in the desert city pacing nervously in the secluded alleyway, Sara was consumed by a growing sense of dread.

​When Night had first entered the dungeon Sara had thought the Level 5 dungeon would be a walk in the park.

Based on what Night had shared about his summons, combined with the red talisman she had given him clearing the dungeon should have been quick and easy work.

​But she had been waiting in this alley for hours. Night had still not returned. She had even completely skipped her Headmaster duties at the Academy out of sheer worry.

​According to the vast database of information humanity had gathered over the last seven years, there were various types of dungeons.

This one in particular was a "Blue Dungeon," meaning it was a dungeon in its early phase. There was usually a lot of time before a "Dungeon Break" occurred. If a Blue Dungeon wasn’t cleared in time, the monsters inside would enter the real world and cause apocalyptic damage.

​Dungeon threat levels were determined by the density and quality of the mana they radiated. From the city’s magic arrays she had clearly detected that this dungeon radiated a Level 5 quality of mana.

​Usually, dungeons of this incredibly low level only had a maximum of ten monsters inside and some even had less, with the vast majority being simple Level 1 or 2 beasts.

​That’s why this makes no sense, Sara thought, biting her thumbnail. What is taking him so much time?

​There were also different types of dungeon gates. Some stayed open permanently allowing multiple groups to enter and farm resources. Very rarely did they stay open after being cleared.

​But this gate was the restrictive type: it closed the moment someone entered. These gates only opened again when the dungeon was cleared or when a Dungeon Break occurred.

​Since no Dungeon Break had happened, it meant Night hadn’t died and failed the dungeon. But because the spatial tear hadn’t reopened, it meant he hadn’t cleared it yet either. He was still in there. Alive, but trapped.

​That was what terrified her. The only logical reason it was taking Night so long was that, while the dungeon’s level was low, its scale was far bigger than anything recorded so far.

​This might be the largest low-level dungeon ever documented, Sara realized, her blood running cold.

​Now that she understood the anomaly, she grew exponentially more worried. The red talisman she had given him possessed immense destructive power but it only lasted for thirty seconds. It was more than enough to obliterate the boss and its guards in a normal instance but in this new scenario? She had no idea what he was facing.

​If he had been forced to face a massive, unending horde of monsters she could only pray he was surviving.

​Biting her lip hard enough to draw a drop of blood, she cursed herself.

If I had known earlier, I would have given him a dozen talisman and a spatial ring full of high-tier mana and stamina potions just in case.

But that boat had sailed.

​Unable to just stand there doing nothing, she briefly teleported back to her office. She urgently reported her grim theory about the dungeon to her boss, "The Witch." Then, she immediately teleported back to the alleyway. Since she didn’t know what would happen next, it was best to stand vigil right where the gate had opened to contain any new surprises.

..... 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

​[Night’s POV]

​After Lucy shared her theory about the dungeon being an abnormal Invasion-type, they decided they had to move forward with extreme caution.

​To preserve what little energy he had left, Night recalled all his summons back into the Nightmare Domain. He sat down in a cross-legged lotus posture in the middle of the quiet cave and began to meditate. This was the most efficient way to recover his EV while the domain digested the massive haul of corpses.

​Just then, the system chimed as a Level 4 wolf corpse was fully devoured.

​[Ding!]

[A skill has been upgraded.]

[Sensitive Nose (Common) (Lvl. 5 -> 6)]

​Night opened his eyes, genuinely surprised. He hadn’t expected much from digesting the same type of monster over and over, but this was beyond his imagination.

​Previously, he thought he might have to constantly hunt entirely different types of monsters to gather a wide variety of skills.

This revelation completely changed his perspective. Hunting large packs of similar monsters was highly lucrative; it meant he could continuously upgrade his existing skills without spending his precious EV, passively strengthening his repertoire.

​Closing his eyes again, he mentally reached into the Nightmare Domain. Instead of letting the dark fog digest the at random he actively commanded the domain to focus entirely on the massive Level 5 Alpha wolf.

​The devouring speed had improved significantly with his recent level up. It now took roughly 50 minutes to digest a heavy corpse, down from the previous 60 minutes. His passive regeneration had also spiked; he was now recovering almost 50 EV per hour, compared to the previous 37.8 EV.

​The exponential boosts were becoming much more evident as he climbed in levels.

​Just like that, fifty minutes passed in total silence. The Alpha was finally devoured.

​[Ding!]

[Advance Claw Proficiency (Rare) (Lvl. 1) – Cost: 100 EV]

[Description: User is granted advance proficiency with Claws.]

[Purchase? Y/N]

​This time, Night hesitated. Despite it being a highly coveted "Rare" skill, they were incredibly low on resources.

​[Energy Value (EV) - 121]

​-_- It’s barely enough, Night thought.

He had only just managed to scrape that together through meditation and digesting the boss.

​He consulted Lucy in his mind.

​"We should absolutely buy that skill," Lucy advised immediately. "It is highly compatible with me, as you can guess how clumsy I am in close-quarters melee combat. The others will benefit from this as well. Skills like these are phenomenal investments."

"Also, Death has those skeletal wolves now; maybe it will passively buff their claw strikes too. We can only hope."

​Night pondered it for a moment and decided it was best to strengthen Lucy’s physical combat prowess. He had already seen firsthand how much everyone’s lethality had improved just from the [Basic Knife Proficiency] and none of them even used knives.

​To be safe, he waited another fifty minutes meditating while the domain devoured one more Level 4 corpse to build an EV safety net. However when the corpse vanished no new skill popped up.

​My luck ran out on that one, I guess, he mused.

​Not wanting the prompt to expire, he quickly bought the Rare skill.

​[Energy Value (EV): 68]

​As soon as he purchased it, a torrential flood of foreign knowledge rushed into his mind instantly hardwiring his brain and muscles with advanced ways to utilize claws in combat.

​He stood up.

Since he didn’t actually possess a claw-type weapon, he curled his fingers using his bare hands as makeshift claws, and began to move according to the newfound knowledge.

​Soon his movements became a mesmerizing, erratic dance. Sometimes he moved low to the ground like a feral, pouncing beast and other times he struck with the disciplined, calculated footwork of a human martial artist.

​Curious about his new lethality an idea struck him. He walked over to the solid stone wall of the cave. Curling his fingers into a claw as he channeled a thin layer of black fog over his hand to reinforce it just like the Alpha had coated its claws in green light before striking Death.

​He slashed at the wall.

​Screeeech!

​Sparks flew as stone gave way. Night pulled his hand back completely unharmed.

​Carved deeply into the solid rock were five jagged, perfectly parallel gashes.

Night stared at the marks, an amused smile tugging at his lips.

It looked exactly like the famous "Monster Energy" drink logo from his past life, except it had five claw marks instead of three.

​We might actually survive this, Night thought, his blue eyes flashing with newfound confidence.