Just one chance. One chance.

One chance to kill the beast. One chance to escape.

Rohan’s mind slowed and reeled with nothing in particular. For some reason, he seemed to notice the mechanics of the loop. Maybe he just hadn’t paid attention the previous times? Maybe it was because he had experienced it countless times?

There was nothing surrounding him, so where were the mechanics coming from? His mind, of course. Which meant their theory on mind perception was correct.

Which meant... he was close to killing the damn creature.

At this point, the moment between time was ending, and he was about to enter another loop.

He prepared his mind, body, soul, and brain. He couldn’t waste even a second.

If he were actually in a physical state, he would have gritted his teeth and tightened his grip around the Steelwind Sword. Instead, Rohan braced himself with a readied mindset.

....

’Damn it! Da—..nope, not so fast.’

Rohan’s fist connected with the rock slide as it immediately broke apart, causing a small rumble, but Rohan wasn’t there anymore.

The moment his fist connected with it—while keeping his mind intact with the fact that they were not trapped—he forced himself through the barrier.

Their plan was simple. If the mind perception was real, then they wanted a clean start to break it before it attacked them again, which was why they purposely died.

On the other hand, it was pretty hard. It was a loop, which meant their minds would be split into a past life and a new one almost immediately—or, in fact, immediately. So there was little to no chance of them keeping the fractured memories intact during the loop and being able to hold onto them until the new loop.

It required willpower and, most importantly, a strong Class.

Classes weren’t just strong because they offered a higher ceiling for growth, but because they helped increase and evolve the body, soul, and mind of a Hunter.

Someone who awakened a Common Class would only possess a body, soul, and mind a few gauges stronger than a normal human but would remain mostly mortal until they reached certain high Levels.

A Legendary Class, however, was much stronger. A Legendary Class meant a Hunter’s mind and soul were forged to withstand immense psychic pressure. For Rohan, possessing this tier of power was the only reason his mind didn’t shatter into pieces as the timeline snapped backward. While Priscilla and Eric had to fight through the mental fog, Rohan’s Legendary soul locked onto the memories instantly, keeping his thoughts perfectly intact.

Although it took almost everything he had to maintain it. His body, mind, and soul were still those of a Level One Hunter, after all.

They had decided that Rohan’s job was to shatter the rock slide, while Eric’s was to immediately pivot Priscilla toward the barrier and across it.

But Rohan knew that wouldn’t work. Knowing they wouldn’t be able to keep the memories intact and would most likely forget everything within the first few minutes, by that time they would have already been caught in the lock again.

So the moment he shattered it, he forced himself through it, causing himself immense headache and pain.

On the bright side, the plan worked. Rohan passed through the barrier with Priscilla and Eric arguing behind him.

The moment he passed through, memories and revelations crashed into his mind.

He found himself back at the time they were falling from the rock slide avalanche. He saw Zul’Kharath gazing at them from the mountain’s flat peak.

As they were falling, Priscilla used her ice abilities to try and pivot them toward a cave.

’Wait a minute.’

The cave... it moved.

A sharp pain split his mind and reformed it almost immediately, and what he saw left him in shock.

The cave was never a cave to begin with. It... it was a damn Frontier Beast! It was a damn snake!

At that moment of revelation, things became clearer. They had never thought about why there was a cave located in such a bizarre place. They were meant to plummet into the pavilions and possibly die buried under rock, but instead found a cave right in their path.

It was never a cave but the mouth of the snake.

They were inside the belly of a beast.

Which meant his previous theory about the other beast might also be true. The actual beast either birthed it or passed a few of its traits to it. He held onto the first possibility, though.

After the revelations died down, he fell into nothingness, but at the end of that nothingness was a shimmering blue light. As he got closer, it became larger and larger, then started swaying, folding into gentle waves.

Rohan was lost in the beauty.

It was so... breathtaking. Beautiful.

A smile formed on his lips as his eyes became heavy.

He allowed himself to fall. Soon, he fell into the blue ocean.

He crashed into the ocean, causing a small splash as he sank deep, the smile on his face refusing to fade.

Around him was the beautiful life of the aqua. Colored fish swam in vibrant, swirling patterns, trailing ribbons of light through the crystal-clear water. Coral reefs glowed in shades of neon pink and deep sapphire, swaying gently and peacefully.

The sunlight filtered down from the surface in golden, shimmering beams, illuminating a world that felt completely untouched by the harshness back on Earth.

He could forget about putting humanity’s existence on his shoulders. He could forget about ending the Epochs.

He could feel peace for once.

Every breath felt effortless, and the gentle current seemed to cradle him, urging him to just close his eyes and let the weight of the journey fade away.

"Rohan! Rohan!"

His eyes suddenly snapped open.

’Huh? Water?’

What surrounded him was nothing but water. It stretched endlessly toward the east... west? There wasn’t even any east, west, north, or south.

But why was it so beautiful?

Rohan’s brain ached badly.

"Argh, what the hell?"

His mind was split into two. First he saw a beautiful sea, and the next moment he was seeing a ravaging dark storm.

’Damn, it’s the mind hex again.’

Figuring that out, he grunted and started swimming.

But to where exactly? He had no idea.

He calmed himself and looked around, trying to figure out the true nature of the mysterious place. Was it the peaceful ocean or the ravaging storm?

If anything, all his bets were on the ravaging storm.

Concentrating in this bizarre environment was harder than it seemed. It took Rohan several minutes, edging close to thirty, before he could finally decipher the true nature of the environment.

After a while, it was revealed.

The violent, dark storm was the reality... the peaceful ocean was just another layer of the illusion trying to lull his mind to sleep.

As Rohan swam against the churning, pitch-black waves, the water felt heavy and thick, pushing against him like the air in the cave had done before. The storm raged overhead, lightning cracking through the dark clouds, but he kept his focus entirely locked on breaking through the mental trap.

’I’m not drowning here,’ he thought, forcing his arms to move through the freezing water.

With his Legendary Class anchoring his soul, he pushed past the phantom sensation of the waves. The more he denied the storm, the more the water began to lose its physical grip on him. The dark clouds started to tear open, revealing flashes of white light underneath.

After swimming relentlessly for a while, he stopped.

The wave in front of him rose higher and higher with every passing second, blotting out the dark sky until it became a towering wall of black water. But as Rohan stared up at the massive crest, the churning liquid began to shift. The water hardened, turning into iridescent, overlapping scales that rippled with dark energy.

The entire sea seemed to warp around the creature, maintaining its form.

From the center of the massive wave, two piercing, slitted eyes ignited like twin lanterns, casting a harsh yellow glow over the turbulent space. A massive, reptilian head emerged from the deluge, its jaws wide enough to swallow the horizon.

This was the source of the mind hex... the consciousness of the giant snake they had unwittingly flown into.

The snake landed its eyes on Rohan and hissed, revealing two long black tongues that immediately slithered back into its mouth.

"Who dares refuse death in my abode?" it said, its voice as loud as thunder, almost tearing apart Rohan’s eardrums.

Rohan wasn’t exactly surprised that it could speak. He had seen other creatures in his past life that could do the same.

Unexpectedly, Rohan grinned.

In this place, he could unleash his full might without restrictions. Maybe not his full max-level of previous life but the type that had ten classes in his store!

Although his gained Classes were all Common, it was still something in the hands of a veteran like him.

Not to mention the arsenal of items in his inventory.

The grin only widened.

"At last."