Chapter 6: New SSS Rank skill

Back at the Radiant Dawn guild’s primary headquarters on the 50th floor, the atmosphere was usually one of arrogant luxury. Marcus, now wearing the golden armor of a Guild Master, sat at the head of a massive table, listening to investment reports from the lower sectors.

Suddenly, the doors of the boardroom were thrown open. A high-ranking logistics officer stumbled inside, his face completely pale, sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Guild Master Marcus!" the officer gasped, clutching the table. "We... we have a major anomaly on the lower floors. Ten minutes ago, Captain Briggs’s elite harvesting squad on the 12th floor was entirely wiped out."

Marcus didn’t even look up from his papers. "A frost dragon mutation? Send a cleanup crew to recover the cores. Losing a subsidiary squad is just a tax write-off."

"No, sir, you don’t understand," the officer stammered, his hands shaking as he laid down a data crystal. "The soul-matrix logs show all five members died within three seconds of each other. The system registered the cause of death as [Self-Inflicted True Damage Overload]. Their armor wasn’t even bypassed; their own kinetic forces were turned inside out. And their bodies... their life forces were completely drained to zero. It looks exactly like..."

Marcus froze. The pen in his hand snapped perfectly in half. His mind instantly flashed back to a year ago—to the 55th-floor boss chamber where they had locked away their former leader. Dante had been a master of counter-tactics, though he never possessed a skill that could reflect damage like this.

"Is Dante Grey’s status still marked as deceased?" Marcus asked, his voice dropping to a dangerous, icy whisper.

"Y-yes, sir! Checked it myself. The soul signature database hasn’t triggered any resurrections. It must be a new rogue variable or a solo A-rank assassin using a cursed artifact."

Marcus stared at the snapped pen, his chest tightening with a sudden, unexplainable dread. "Place a bounty on the 12th floor auxiliary zone. Whoever did this had help. Find them before they climb any higher."

Meanwhile, at the extraction gate leading to the 13th floor, Dante and Yenna stepped out of the elevator.

The environment transformed instantly. The frozen, blinding blue ice of the 12th floor faded away, replaced by the [Tomb of the Iron Phantoms]—a claustrophobic labyrinth of dark, oxidised copper walls and narrow, low-ceiling corridors. The floor was covered in a thick layer of black soot, and the ambient temperature was dry, smelling heavily of rusted metal and burning coal.

"The 13th floor is an absolute bottleneck for speed-runners," Yenna whispered, her cat ears twitching as she activated her evolved [Fate Wire Mapping] skill. A faint grid projected itself across the dark copper walls in Dante’s vision.

"The monsters here aren’t flesh and blood. They are Iron Phantoms—suits of animated armor that ignore physical piercing attacks. Regular hunters have to bring heavy mages just to melt them down."

Dante didn’t answer. He just looked down at his invisible palm, feeling the steady, thumping heartbeat of the [Seven-Sins Asura Blade]. To him, a monster that relied on physical armor was just a training dummy.

Before they could take ten steps down the narrow hallway, the digital clock inside Dante’s retinas finally rolled over.

12:00 AM.

[Current Server Time: Midnight Reached.]

[You have received 1x Free Daily Spin from The Daily Gachapon.]

[Initiating spin...]

[Spin Complete!]

[You have received: ’Old Bronze Token’ (F-Rank Trash Utility Item).]

- Description: A useless, tarnished piece of bronze found in a common pocket. It has no currency value and cannot be traded to merchants. It just makes a jangling sound when you walk.

A small coin materialized in the air and dropped into Dante’s open left hand.

Yenna glanced at it, her tail flicking with confusion. "A bronze token? The tower’s basic drop table gives those to beggars. Why are you keeping it?"

"Because the tower’s basic rules don’t apply to me," Dante said calmly.

[System 2: 100x Sovereign Multiplier Triggered!]

[’Old Bronze Token’ (F-Rank) ---> Multiplied by 100x!]

[Calculating Evolution Path... Evolution Complete!]

[You have unlocked SSS-Rank Divine Relic: ’The Asura Sovereign’s Blood Token’ (Bound).]

- Description: An ancient token forged from the blood of a thousand conquered kings.

- Unique Passive 1: ’Sovereign’s Tax’ - Automatically drains 5% of the total attributes (Strength, Agility, Intelligence) from any hostile entity within a 100-meter radius every 10 seconds. The stolen stats are temporarily added to the host during combat.

- Unique Passive 2: ’Command the Dead’ - Any enemy slain while this token is active has a 50% chance to rise as a silent, invisible shadow thrall under the host’s absolute control. Max Thralls: 5.

The piece of bronze in Dante’s palm suddenly melted into a drop of red liquid metal before solidifying into a dark jade token carved with the face of a snarling, six-armed war god. The moment his fingers closed around it, an invisible, crushing pressure expanded outward from Dante’s body, causing the air in the 100-meter corridor to ripple.

"What... what is this pressure?" Yenna gasped, her knees instantly buckling as she nearly hit the floorboards. Her cat ears pinned back in absolute terror. Even as his subordinate, the sheer gravitational weight of the SSS-Rank relic made her feel like a tiny ant standing before a collapsing mountain.

"Stand up," Dante said, his voice entirely steady as he clipped the blood token to his belt. "The targets are coming."

From the shadows of the copper corridor, three massive Iron Phantoms emerged. They were two-meter-tall suits of blackened plate armor, their visors burning with an unholy green fire, holding massive executioner swords. They didn’t have souls or minds—only the absolute command to shred any living entity that entered the tomb.

The moment they entered the 100-meter threshold, the blood token on Dante’s belt flashed with a dull, crimson light.

[Sovereign’s Tax Activated!]

[Target: Iron Phantom 01 - 5% Strength and Agility drained.]

[Target: Iron Phantom 02 - 5% Strength and Agility drained.]

[Target: Iron Phantom 03 - 5% Strength and Agility drained.]

[Host temporary attributes increased by +45.]

The massive suits of armor suddenly stumbled mid-stride. The fire inside their visors flickered violently, their movements becoming sluggish as their core statistics were forcibly ripped out of their metal frames through empty air.

"Yenna, stay back," Dante commanded, his right hand gripping the invisible hilt of his sword.

He didn’t run. He just walked forward into the narrow corridor, ready to paint the walls red.