Chapter 66: System Objective?

Ethan sat up, staring at the system blooming in front of him... The light was bright— so much so, that it illuminated parts of the blanket.

He read the text again.

```

[New Objective Unlocked]

[Host is required to clear a dungeon.]

```

He looked at the second sentence... "Required."

This was not an academy evaluation exercise, nor was it a supervised first year run. It was a system demand with no optional tag in the notification.

He was still turning it over in his mind, MCA monitoring, and the simple fact of his Rank E body being unable to clear a dungeon alone when another screen appeared beside it.

```

[Objective Rewards has been prepared for the host.]

[On successful clear, the host will be granted:]

- Large EXP push

- Rank Advancement: E → C

- Title unlock

- Control Capacity Bonus

- Death Energy Bonus.

[Exit Condition: Will be updated after entry]

```

Ethan stared until he was sure this wasn’t a prank.

If he cleared this objective, he would move feo. Rank E to Rank C, skipping D entirely.

He would get a larger Control Capacity, a bigger Death Energy pool, and a Title?

Even though he didn’t really know why the system would be giving him a title, but it was too tempting to pass up.

’But still...’

Though he knew that it was the kind of leap that could make Coach Merrick take back his words, it was also the kind of leap that would paint a target on his back.

Then again, it was a way to ensure that he would survive a Devil class attack by a lot more than luck and the system cutting corners...

Lila’s hand swept across the empty mattress beside her, found nothing, and her eyes slowly opened. "The bed feels empty..."

"I’m right here."

She looked at him and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. When she saw the look on his face, she asked: "what’s wrong?"

Ethan hesitated, then told her everything and when he finished, Lila’s eyes widened.

"A mandatory dungeon clear," she repeated. "From your system." Her voice climbed despite the hour. "Ethan, that is not a training notification. That is a trap with gifts strapped to it."

Ethan tapped his chin... "Probably."

"And you want to do it."

He stayed silent for a moment. "If I ignore it, I don’t know what happens next. If I take it, I can get strong, and gather a few more corpses while I’m at it. I’m not saying it’s safe, especially for someone like me, and I’m definitely not going to deny that it’s optional. But I’m sure it’ll most probably end well."

Lila looked his face for a moment. She hated how logical he sounded right now.

"So," she asked, "when you go in, how will come out? Is there something that you have to do to make sure you come back?"

Ethan shook his head. "Nothing yet. It says I’ll know when I go in..." he glanced at her. "Come on, it’s not like the system will send me to my grave or something..."

Lila gav him a flat look as it he had somehow jinxed it "I’m coming."

"You can’t." He flinched. He hated how fast that came out. He sighed and spoke in a softer tone this time.

"I don’t think you can. The objective is exclusive to me only... I think. And even if it accepts you, I don’t know if there’ll be any conditions that will otherwise make it hard for us."

"That is the worst comfort speech I have ever heard."

She grabbed his wrist. "You’ll come back, right?"

Ethan looked at her, at how she refused to look him in the eyes... "yeah."

The moment he said this, the air at the foot of the bed tore open with a pulse of blue light.

A rift opened in the dorm right before their eyes, its edges shimmering with the same wrong light as a dungeon mouth, and an interior that was not the opposite wall.

Lila’s fingers clamped tighter as her eyes widened....

"Ethan."

"I see it."

He stood, put on his jacket and walkwd towards the rift. Before he stepped through, he turned back to Lila and smiled.

With that, Ethan stepped through.

***

The dorm vanished...

Cold and damp air hit his lungs as he felt stone underfoot. A cavern throat opened ahead in uneven blue veined light, wider than a corridor and already stinking of beasts. He exhaled, and the rift behind him sealed shut.

"Okay..." he said, looking around. "I’m here..."

As if answering him, the system bloomed.

```

[Dungeon Entry Confirmed]

[Exit Condition Updated]

[Host cannot leave until at least 1 Devil-class undead has been raised]

[Objective remains active]

```

Ethan stood still for a full second as he read the notification twice.

Of course, the system knew that he wouldn’t be able to this alone so it gave him its version of the simplest task...

Raise one Devil class.

A Rank E Necromancer asked to raised a Devil class monster by a floating green screen that pulled him into a dungeon from his room.

Yeah, that sounds believable...

He ran a hand through his hair....

How was he supposed to get that done anyway?

So far he only had three wolves and one raven which he wasn’t sure of how useful it was in combat. The only undead who could actually fight was now a pile of dust and iron.

"You do know that for me to be able to raise that thing, I have to kill it right?" He asked, but the system gave no answer.

Seems like the system was actually sending him to his grave after all.

He sighed, released Bef and the other Beowolves first, then the Blood Raven into the air. The two Beowolves stayed in front, Bef stayed at his side as the control link settled.

His Death Energy was full, his body was still sore, and he was still an E rank for as long as the reward stayed on the impossible side of his objective.

He moved forward, and heard noises coming from one of the deeper chambers.

Beowolves...

A pack came out through the mouth in a collective rush of claws and dense muscle. Four of them, already moving towards the first living thing they saw.

Ethan stopped. "Bef, you take the left pair. The two of you, attack the right side. The Raven will give support from above on my count."

The moved.

Bef slammed into the first wolf and dragged it off balance, the second Beowolf under Ethan’s command met the right side head-on and bit. Its teeth clamped around it’s throat with a force that drew blood. The Beowolf shrieked and went still, then Bef ran to another one to attack.

The Raven dove from above and raked its talons raked across its back all the way to the back of its neck.

Blood sprayed, and Bef descended on it with bone crushing force.

The fourth tried to circle wide and attack Ethan’s open side, but Bef was already turning on his command. In an instant, the two undead wolves slammed into it from both sides, clamped down on its legs and tore it apart.

Blood and organ pulled from the now in-two monster and Ethan clenched his jaw, supressing the urge to vomit...

When silence came back, Ethan was looking at four dead bodies, two out of which was usable.

He considered it for a moment and decided not to raise them. In his opinion, the four wolves in his legion was more than enough.

Raising them would be a waste as there would be nothing more to learn. Matter of fact, Bef had already given him enough information on Beowolf behavior, and the other two was more or less fodder.

If he was going to raise a Slave class monster, he would rather raise a different beast....

He looked ahead and sighed. The objective was just getting started...