[Chapter 291. Second Clear]

His vision swam, the turquoise glow of the throne room twisting into kaleidoscopic patterns. The pain was a searing tide that threatened to drag him under. The King emerged from the dust, its silhouette a monstrous shape against the ethereal light. Its footsteps fell in a slow, deliberate rhythm that marked the end, each step a hammer blow to Searanox's senses. His mind, sharpened by desperation, screamed the only logical option remaining—a single, crystalline thought cutting through the fog of agony.

`This isn't working. I need time to think.`

His eyes, blurred with pain, darted down the corridor, fixing on the swirling fog wall in the distance. A potential escape. A desperate gamble. The heavy sword vanished from his grasp, its weight disappearing as he sent it back into his Storage Ring. In its place, the turquoise stone appeared in his hand. Before the King could close the distance, its single eye burning with malevolent intent, Searanox broke into a run. His legs pumped, his breath ragged and raw as he sprinted toward the fog. Every instinct screamed at him to keep moving, to never look back. The King followed right behind him, its long strides effortlessly keeping pace. Its heavy footfalls were a relentless drumbeat of doom, its shadow stretching out and swallowing the light in the corridor.

As he reached the fog, the glow of the stone pushed it away, creating a tunnel through the mist. The vapor recoiled from the turquoise radiance as if burned, forming a corridor that revealed glimpses of a crumbling stone path beyond. A loud boom echoed behind him as the King's axe cracked the stone floor exactly where he had stood a second before. The impact sent shockwaves through the ground that nearly knocked Searanox off his feet. The beast let out a deafening war cry—a guttural roar of fury that vibrated in his very bones—as it pushed after him, its massive frame momentarily visible through the dissipating mist tunnel before it lunged forward with murderous intent.

The moment Searanox stepped into the radius of the light cast by the matching rock affixed to the wall. With a mental command, the stone in his hand vanished into his ring, its radiance extinguished like a snuffed candle. Within a heartbeat, the fog that had just parted swallowed up the space. He turned around, his broken bones screamed in protest as he twisted his body, his face contorting in pain, but his eyes fixed on his pursuer with cold determination.

Enclosing the King's form in its misty embrace, the fog churned violently, as if something were thrashing within its depths.

Screams of pain and agony filled the corridor, high-pitched and inhuman. The King's wrath gave way to sheer terror as if the power dwelling in the mist was physically attacking him. The mist swirled and thickened, hiding the beast from view completely, but the screams continued, growing weaker and more desperate with each passing second. Then, the fog churned one last time, and the large frame of the King broke through the misty barrier.

It stumbled forward, its movements clumsy and uncoordinated, its fur matted with something that looked like frost. It looked lifeless and pale; its remaining eye was clouded and white, the malevolent intelligence gone, replaced by a vacant, glassy stare.

It fell to its knees, the massive axe slipping from its grasp with a clatter that echoed in the sudden silence. Its body was shaking, arms twitching as it fought to keep itself up, its muscles spasming uncontrollably. It looked completely drained of life, its skin sagging, its form seeming to shrink in on itself. Then, the King coughed up a sizable amount of blood. The dark liquid splattered on the stone floor as the beast trembled with the effort.

`That was not what I planned, but I'll take it.`

Searanox brought out the broadsword again, the heavy blade feeling strangely comforting in this moment. He raised it high above his head, his muscles straining with the effort, his eyes locked on the kneeling form of the King. He brought it down with full force, the blade splitting the air with a whistle.

It split the iron crown and the skull beneath with a thick, sickening crunch, the sound echoing in the empty corridor. The King collapsed to the floor, its thick blood seeping into the ruined carpet beneath as its body went completely still. Searanox stood over the corpse, his chest heaving, his breath coming in ragged gasps, his body trembling with exhaustion and relief. He had won, but at what cost? He looked down at his hands, at the blood that stained them, at the weapon that had delivered the final blow. He felt nothing—no triumph, no satisfaction. He had survived, but he was no closer to becoming the powerful being he thought he was during the first stage.

`The second... That means that the Strike team of the Empire has cleared this dungeon already. Which also means that they have likely already cleared out every other dungeon too.`

The thought brought forth the simmering rage in him, as his mind went to the implications of all the dungeons being cleared by someone that wasn't him. Then his thoughts were interrupted as he saw the flood on system windows in his vision.

Searanox stood there for a moment, panting heavily, the bitter taste of his own blood still coating his tongue as he watched the massive form of the Gatura King dissolve into countless motes of System energy. The particles drifted and swirled like fireflies before vanishing completely, leaving behind only the stained stone floor. His Intermediate Healing Drones hovered close, their soft emerald light bathing his battered body as their beams meticulously worked to knit together his shattered collarbone and cracked ribs.

The sensation was both relieving and unnerving. He could feel the dull ache subsiding, replaced by an itchy warmth as his flesh mended itself at an accelerated pace. Retrieving the turquoise rock from his ring, he stepped carefully around the dissipating corpse, his boots crunching on gravel, and made his way back toward the throne room. With each step, the supernatural fog parted before him like a curtain being drawn back. Right before the shattered throne, the exit portal stood, its azure light a stark contrast to the gloom.

In the middle of the room, a chest had materialized, its dark, ornate wood and intricately carved silver inlays glinting faintly in the ethereal light. With a creak of its hinges, he lifted the heavy lid, revealing the familiar pouch containing twenty-four silver coins, alongside an eight-sided cylinder of dark, glassy crystal. The crystal's surface was smooth, its golden runes glowing with a faint inner light that seemed to pulse. Searanox stored both the lodestone and the coins in his ring with a thought, the items vanishing from sight as the storage device absorbed them into its pocket dimension.

Taking one last look at the blood-stained throne room, he stepped through the portal without hesitation, the transition from the oppressive atmosphere of the castle to the fresh air of the outside world as jarring as always.

Once outside, he turned toward the now dark-blue portal, focusing on it and willing the System information into existence.

"A ten-hour cooldown phase... That's the longest so far," he muttered as he mounted his travel drone, letting it carry him up into the night sky.

On his way up, he brought out a red, palm-sized crystal, its eight-sided facets catching the moonlight like trapped embers. The stone felt warm in his hand, pulsing with a subtle energy. As his will extended toward the E-Grade Skillstone, another System window materialized in his vision, its blue light a stark contrast to the darkness that surrounded him.

`Why isn't the 'Construct Intermediate Air Drone' skill there? Or does it belong to the 'Summon Basic Air Drone' skill, since I got it after upgrading that one?`

Searanox thought this while looking at the skills listed in the window before him. The glowing blue text listed only three options, even though he distinctly remembered acquiring more abilities from the System.

`The passive skill isn't there either, so I can't upgrade that. One thing is for sure—I won't upgrade Salvage. That piece of shit skill is beyond useless. Then the only question left is whether I upgrade my Summon skill again, or Overcharge...`

He pondered for a long while, flipping the glowing red crystal in his hand. The warm energy of the E-Grade Skillstone pulsed against his palm, each facet reflecting the moonlight. The decision weighed heavily on him.

He selected Overcharge. The stone dissolved into dust and red sparks, its power flowing into him. In the next moment, the stone was gone, and another window opened up.

"Wow... Is that a permanent boost for a single drone?" Searanox called out while reading the details of his new skill. "Ohhh, until dismissed or destroyed. And it's pricey too, twenty TP a minute. I'm not even sure what drone would benefit the most from that."

The next item appeared in his hand in a flash of blue light. In his palm lay a black metal ticket with a golden '30' etched onto it.

`I have waited a long time for this moment... Don't fuck me over System.`