The air inside the Wyrmrest Caverns was toxic.

It didn’t just smell bad. It coated the back of the throat of Dante with a thin layer of bitter ash.

The system interface flashed a continuous localized warning in the top corner of his vision.

[Zone Alert: Wyrmrest Caverns (Core)]

[Corruption Density: Severe.]

[Warning: Prolonged exposure without high-tier elemental wards will result in permanent stat degradation.]

Dante ignored the warning. He possessed the [Aetherial Nectar] buff. The permanent immunity completely bypassed the environmental toxicity.

Casanova, however, was not having a good time.

The bard was walking closely behind Dante. He held a glowing white stone in his hand.

It was a basic [Purifying Ward]. It was a common consumable purchased at the Outpost specifically for traversing low-level blighted zones.

The stone was projecting a small five-foot bubble of clean air around the bard.

"This is horrible," Casanova complained. His voice echoed slightly in the massive and damp cavern.

"The ward is draining my mana just to keep the bubble active. If we get into a serious fight, I will not have enough energy to trigger my Titan talent."

"Then stay close and do not get hit," Dante said smoothly.

The cavern was massive. It stretched hundreds of feet wide with stalactites the size of small buildings hanging from the ceiling.

Glowing veins of corrupted purple ore lined the walls and provided a dim and sickly light.

And the cavern was absolutely packed with players.

The massive swarm that had flooded out of Outpost 404 for the double EXP event had all funneled down into this space.

But unlike the open forest, the confined space of the caverns had turned the farming event into a total disaster.

The independent players were disorganized. They were fighting in fragmented groups.

They screamed at each other for healing and panicked every time a monster spawned.

And the monsters were everywhere.

"Look out!" a player yelled from a cluster of rocks about thirty yards ahead.

Dante stopped walking.

Dropping from the ceiling on thick and black webs were dozens of massive and highly mutated spiders.

[Mutated Monster: Void-Blighted Weaver]

[Level: 15]

[HP: 4,000 / 4,000]

The spiders were the size of small horses. Their carapaces glowed with aggressive purple veins.

They were incredibly fast and scuttled across the stone floor with terrifying speed.

The independent players were getting slaughtered.

A group of five low-level warriors tried to hold a choke point between two stalagmites. But the spiders didn’t engage them in melee.

The monsters reared back and spat massive globs of corrosive and purple venom.

The venom hit the cheap iron armor of the warriors and instantly began melting it into slag.

The players screamed. Their health bars plummeted rapidly as the corrosive damage over time effect took hold.

"Healer! Cleanse me!" one of the warriors shrieked and dropped his sword.

The healer behind him frantically waved a wooden staff. But the low-level cleanse spell wasn’t powerful enough to wipe the Void-Blight modifier.

The avatar of the warrior dissolved into blue pixels a second later.

"Big Brother," Casanova whispered. His eyes were wide. "There are too many of them. The whole ceiling is crawling."

Dante looked up. Casanova was right.

The dim purple light revealed hundreds of glowing and multi-faceted eyes staring down from the dark ceiling above.

The spiders were waiting to drop.

If Dante used [Abyssal Cleave], he would vaporize whatever was in front of him. But the linear shockwave wouldn’t hit the ceiling.

[Wrath of the Firebird] had a wide cone, but the cooldown was too long to deal with a sustained swarm.

He needed massive and omnidirectional area denial.

He opened his inventory.

He scrolled past the high-tier loot he had vacuumed from the Chimera.

He found a stack of cheap basic skillbooks he had bought off an NPC vendor weeks ago just to fill out his physical library.

He pulled out a slim gray book.

[Item Appraised: Skillbook - Sonic Shout]

[Tier: Novice]

[Description: The user unleashes a loud yell, dealing minimal physical damage and slightly pushing back enemies within a 5-foot radius. Cooldown: 8 seconds.]

It was a garbage skill.

It was used by low-level tanks to generate a tiny amount of localized aggro when they accidentally lost the attention of a single mob.

Dante tapped the book.

[Skill Learned: Sonic Shout (Novice)]

"Cover your ears," Dante said to Casanova.

The bard didn’t argue. He dropped his lute, clamped both hands tightly over his ears, and squeezed his eyes shut.

Dante didn’t draw the [Crimson Edge].

He stepped forward into the center of the cavern path. He completely exposed himself to the swarm of spiders scuttling toward the panicked independent players.

He took a deep breath and filled his digital lungs.

He activated the skill.

[Skill Executed: Sonic Shout.]

The anomaly triggered.

[Talent Activated: 10,000x Multiplier.]

[Registering 10,000 flawless executions.]

The combat enlightenment was radically different this time.

It wasn’t about kinetic force, atmospheric pressure, or combustion. It was the absolute and fundamental mastery of frequency and vibration.

Dante understood the exact resonant frequency required to shatter solid stone.

He felt the precise way to layer sound waves so they amplified each other exponentially.

He created a destructive feedback loop capable of pulverizing bone and chitin alike.

[Sonic Shout has reached Adept tier.]

[Sonic Shout has reached Master tier.]

[Sonic Shout has reached Grandmaster tier.]

Dante opened his mouth and let out a single and sharp yell.

[Sonic Shout has reached Zenith tier.]

[Skill Evolution Triggered.]

[Sonic Shout has evolved into: Shatter-Chord.]

[Shatter-Chord (Zenith)]

[Description: Unleashes a localized and omnidirectional earthquake of pure sonic force. Deals 3,000% Concussive Damage to all entities within a 150-foot radius. Inflicts a guaranteed 3-second ’Stun’ effect. Cooldown: 10 seconds.]

There was no physical sound.

The frequency of the Zenith-tier skill was far beyond the threshold of human hearing.

Instead, the air within a hundred and fifty feet of Dante violently compressed. Then it instantly expanded in a perfect and invisible sphere of sheer concussive force.

The visual effect was terrifying.

The solid stone floor of the cavern rippled like water.

The massive stalactites hanging from the ceiling instantly shattered. They exploded into fine dust.

The swarm of Void-Blighted Weavers rushing the independent players hit the invisible wall of sound.

They didn’t get pushed back. They didn’t take chip damage.

Their mutated and hardened chitin carapaces simply vibrated apart at the molecular level.

Over sixty massive spiders instantly exploded into clouds of purple pixels simultaneously.

The ones clinging to the ceiling above suffered the exact same fate. They rained digitized debris down onto the cavern floor.

The group of panicked independent players was caught right on the edge of the blast radius.

They were thrown completely off their feet and landed hard on the stone.

They didn’t take damage. Dante had intentionally angled the origin point to keep them out of the lethal zone. But they were all hit with the guaranteed three-second stun.

The cavern fell completely silent.

The dense and suffocating swarm of monsters had been deleted in a single frame.

Casanova slowly lowered his hands from his ears. He looked at the massive cleared radius around them.

The ground was literally pulverized into fine white sand.

"Okay," Casanova breathed. His voice trembled slightly. "That is definitely not a normal warrior skill."

Dante exhaled slowly.

The massive output of concussive force had drained a significant chunk of his stamina. But the passive regeneration of Aura quickly began topping it back up.

He walked forward and stepped over the pulverized rock.

The group of independent players slowly recovered from the stun.

They scrambled to their feet and looked completely dazed.

They stared at the empty space where the massive spider swarm had just been. Then they looked at the lone player in gold armor walking casually toward them.

"You... you just wiped the whole wave," one of the warriors stammered. His eyes were wide.

"Do not get used to it," Dante said and did not break his stride.

"I am not a carry service. Go back to the Outpost before the respawn timer hits, or you are all going to die down here."

He walked right past them. Casanova trailed closely behind.

"That was incredibly cool, Big Brother," Casanova whispered and grinned widely. "You are like a walking natural disaster. The legends are true!"

Dante didn’t answer. He was busy looking at his system interface.

The [Shatter-Chord] skill had cleared the immediate area. But the localized warning prompt in the corner of his vision hadn’t vanished.

In fact, the text had turned from red to a deep and pulsing black.

[Zone Alert: Wyrmrest Caverns (Core)]

[Warning: Apex Entity Detected.]

The ground beneath their feet began to tremble.

It wasn’t the rhythmic thud of a marching army or the heavy steps of a beast.

It was a slow and deliberate vibration. It was accompanied by a horrific and scraping sound from deep within the cavern.

"Casanova," Dante said softly. He stopped in the center of the path.

"Yeah, Boss?"

"You might want to back up."