As the colossal cathedral doors slammed shut with a booming final echoing thud, the chamber seemed to hold its breath. The sound rippled through the stone walls like a thundering war drum, signaling a shift in the very atmosphere.

 

 

 

Lev raised his head, his expression neutral, yet his eyes glinting with curiosity. The sight before him defied all expectations. No winding labyrinth of corridors or disorienting maze. Just a vast round arena of black stone that stretched into shadows.

 

 

 

His grin flickered, sharp as a blade. Oh. This is going to be interesting.

 

 

 

The torches sputtered, then died.

 

 

 

Darkness swallowed the world. Silence pressed down like a suffocating weight, so heavy that even Lev’s breathing rang in his ears like a scream.

 

 

 

Then came the scrape.

 

 

 

The first dungeon monster emerged, its claws scraping against the stone ground with an eerie creak. One by one, dozens of creatures followed, their movements jerky and erratic, as though they had been birthed by the very silence itself.

 

 

 

Lev crouched low to the ground, muscles taut with anticipation. He knew the rule all too well: sound is death. But sound could also be a weapon, a tool to bait the enemy and turn the tides in his favor.

 

 

 

An examinee a few meters away stumbled. Their breath hitched. “Ugh.”

 

 

 

The punishment was instant. Spears rained from hidden slits in the walls, mechanical and precise, impaling the noise source. The scream that followed was cut short, swallowed by the silence.

 

 

 

Lev’s eyes gleamed.

 

 

 

He found a small shard of stone near the wall, a relic of the examinee’s mistake just a while ago. Carefully, carefully, he nudged it. It clattered across the arena.

 

 

 

Immediately, monsters swarmed toward the noise, claws tearing at the empty stone. Spears fired from walls, cutting into the creatures like a storm.

 

 

 

Lev’s grin widened. You’re not hunting me, you’re hunting whatever I choose to feed you.

 

 

 

He brushed his boot faintly against the stone. The hornet fiends whipped their heads toward him in unison, but before they could pounce, the arena’s traps skewered two in a blink.

 

 

 

Lev chuckled silently. So the arena hunts sound. But it does not care whose sound it is.

 

 

 

He rolled another shard toward a corner. The fiends lunged after it, only to be carved apart by the traps once more.

 

 

 

At the ten-minute mark, the arena shifted. The floor cracked open, stone slabs giving way into a yawning pit of void. One examinee who had lingered too close vanished wordlessly into the abyss.

 

 

 

Lev’s grin thinned. Oh, the arena evolves. Cute.

 

 

 

He noticed the spiderweb-like fractures crisscrossing the floor and cautiously tested the ground with each step, keenly aware that a single misstep could spell doom. He baited a group of Hornet Fiends towards a precarious section of the arena, exploiting the fragility of the tiles. As soon as the creatures struck, they triggered the collapse, sending the fiends plummeting into nothingness.

 

 

 

The ground shook violently. A colossal beetle burst from beneath the cracked tiles, horn gleaming with a metallic sheen. Its charge rattled the arena as its horn slammed down, shattering stone and sending tremors up Lev’s legs. He pivoted at the last second, the goring strike missing him by inches.

 

 

 

Minutes later, a faint groan echoed above. Lev’s gaze snapped upward. Rusted blades descended slowly from the ceiling, swinging like pendulums across the arena.

 

 

 

One examinee misjudged the rhythm. The blade split him in half with a wet crunch, and silence devoured the sound of his fall.

 

Lev crouched, eyes narrowing. The blades had rhythm. A pattern. He could work with that.

 

 

 

He timed his movement with their swing and rolled a pebble toward one of the fiends. The creature leapt straight into the arc of a descending blade. Metal cleaved flesh, the beast bursting into smoke.

 

 

 

Lev smirked. Now we are getting somewhere.

 

 

 

As the twenty-minute mark approached, the torches in the arena began to flicker and sputter, casting eerie shadows across the walls. The arena itself began to contract, the stone grinding inward like a crushing vise.

 

 

 

Despite his extraordinary abilities, Lev understood the importance of restraint. So he played along, as if he were just another examinee struggling for survival.

 

 

 

A sharp exhale escaped him.

 

 

 

The hornet fiends reacted instantly, launching themselves at him. The walls answered, unleashing a perfect storm of spears and blades.

 

 

 

The monsters collided with each other, shredded and crushed by the very traps they obeyed. Lev slipped between them with surgical precision, every step measured, every breath timed.

 

 

 

The invisible clock ticked in his head.

 

Twenty-seven minutes.

 

 

 

Twenty-eight.

 

 

 

A hornet fiend lunged, stinger aimed for his throat. Lev twisted aside, seized its thorax, and slammed it into the ground. It burst into smoke.

 

 

 

Twenty-nine.

 

 

 

The swarm was almost gone. Only one hornet remained, its horn glowing as it charged with blind fury. Lev stood his ground. At the last possible instant, he sidestepped. Its horn embedded itself in the wall, and the beast shattered into black light.

 

 

 

Thirty.

 

 

 

The arena froze.

 

 

 

At the far end, a sigil ignited in pale blue. The first phase was complete.

 

 

 

Lev straightened, his expression unreadable. He had finished in exactly thirty minutes. Not sooner. Not later.

 

 

 

The torches blazed to life. The arena was revealed in all its carnage…cracked floors, shattered tiles, blades dripping gore.

 

 

 

Then, without warning, a network of cracks spread across the arena’s surface, like a pane of glass straining under pressure.

 

 

 

In the blink of an eye, all signs of destruction and disaster were erased. The arena lay spotless and flawless, and the examinees stood unscathed, bearing the glowing sigils of their own.

 

 

 

For a moment, Lev froze, a smirk playing on his lips. This was all an illusion, a hyper-realistic mirage. Lev found himself simultaneously impressed and perplexed by the realism of it. The thought stung his pride, but he couldn’t deny the technological achievement.

 

 

 

… how maddening.

 

 

 

A menacing smile tugged at his mouth as he pressed his tongue against his teeth, suppressing the laughter that threatened to spill out.

 

 

—————————

 

 

Team Emerald gathered at the auditorium hall, with others who had finished their first-phase examination, to await the announcement of the results.

 

 

 

The screen flickered to life above, showing names scrolling by, accompanied by rankings.

 

 

 

There were only three tiers: A, B, and C.

 

 

 

The auditorium filled with gasps and murmurs as the results solidified. On the left screen, the names of those who had been eliminated appeared.

 

 

 

Several candidates sagged in their seats, branded with the humiliating C. Most bore the safety of a B. A rare few gleamed with A.

 

 

 

Lev tilted his head back and looked. His name glowed beneath the Bs.

 

 

 

Perfect. Exactly where he wanted it.

 

 

 

Hands tucked casually into his pockets, he leaned back as the hall filled with whispers. No one spared him a second glance. To them, he was just another B. And that was how he liked it.

 

 

 

Except one pair of eyes refused to let him vanish.

 

 

 

Uno’s.

 

 

 

Lev met his gaze. The look Uno gave him was sharp, questioning, almost accusatory.

 

 

 

What now? You thought I’d fail? Disappointed I’m still standing?

 

 

 

Uno’s expression shifted, unreadable, before he turned away and strode out. Lev’s lips quirked.

 

 

 

Onstage, Annacia’s voice rang out, polished and cheerful.

 

 

 

“Congratulations to everyone who passed the first phase! You’ve proven not only your competence, but your ability to think under pressure. Remember, this is just the beginning. The difficulty only rises from here. I hope to see how far each of you can go.”

 

 

 

The crowd erupted in applause. Annacia raised a hand for quiet, her smile mischievous.

 

 

 

“As a small reward, we’ll be holding a celebration tonight. Barn & Barbs, 9 o’clock. Drinks on us. Don’t miss it!”

 

 

 

Cheers followed.

 

 

 

Lev, however, sat still, considering. Should he come? Maybe he’d somehow gather something from there.

 

 

 

Nothing bad will happen. Probably.

 

 

 

Hours later, when the celebration had long begun, Lev realized just how wrong he was.

 

 

 

Because that night, he found himself pinned beneath Uno.

 

 

 

Naked, breathless, and very much aware that “nothing bad” had been a lie.