The rhythmic clicking of my boots against the ground was the only sound accompanying me as I walked toward the train station.

The crisp morning air bit at my cheeks as I trudged down the cobblestone path.

The weight of the last twenty-four hours, was still playing in my head.

The city was waking up around me, shopkeepers unlocking their doors, children chasing each other down the alleys, and the distant hum of the market square coming to life.

It all felt distant, like background noise in a world that had just shifted in ways no one else could understand, I felt detached from it all, like I was walking through a dream.

Or maybe a nightmare.

I shoved my hands deeper into my jacket pockets, my fingers brushing against the small, crumpled piece of paper the hospital had given me.

Evelyn’s condition was stable, they said.

But stable didn’t mean okay.

Stable didn’t explain why she hadn’t woken up.

Stable didn’t explain why the dungeon we’d just escaped from had vanished into thin air.

I sighed, my breath fogging in the cold air, and let my mind drift back to the chaos of the night before.

The dungeon was supposed to be a simple goblin dungeon, low-level, straightforward, the kind of place rookie adventurers cut their teeth on.

At first we saw goblins, just like how It is supposed to be.

But then we got separated, or rather I got separated from them.

Then I survived on my on, and eventually came out only to enter another survival mission.

I clenched my jaw, remembering the way Evelyn’s face had paled when her team began fighting themselves.

The thing that manipulated the system, its totally black form.

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Could that even be called a Orc...

Although it had a orc figure... But totally black.

It made them fight themselves...

It made them look pathetic and hopeless.

That thing sure is evil.

But after everything, I wasn't shocked.

No, after everything that had happened, after the Harbinger of Oblivion descended like some cosmic force and the entire system malfunctioned, I had expected something like this.

That dungeon was never normal to begin with.

What we encountered in there wasn’t even something you’d find in an S-rank dungeon, let alone a goblin dungeon.

It defied logic.

But none of that had been my immediate concern.

And in the end of all, only I and Evelyn survived.

When Evelyn and I emerged from a portal and appeared out of should have been the dungeon’s entrance.

And when I turned to look back at the dungeon, the sight before me had been unsettling.

The dungeon?

If i could even call it that, was gone.

Just... gone.

There was no cave, no ruins, no lingering trace of the gateway we had entered through.

It was as if the entire structure had been erased from existence, like it had never been there in the first place.

The surrounding was quiet, the trees standing tall and undisturbed, as if the dungeon had been nothing more than a figment of our imagination.

I shook my head, trying to dispel the memory.

Evelyn...

She had collapsed the moment we arrived outside.

At first, I thought she had just passed out from exhaustion, but as I checked her pulse and tried to wake her, an unsettling realization dawned upon me, she wasn’t waking up.

No matter how many times I called her name, no matter how much I shook her shoulders, she remained completely unconscious.

In the end I had to carry her on my back, I moved swiftly through the streets, ignoring the stares of passersby as I made my way to the nearest hospital.

It was hard...

I could say, it was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life.

The hospital had taken Evelyn in without question, their healers working tirelessly to stabilize her.

The healers assured me that there was nothing physically wrong with her, no injuries, no sign of stress, no sickness or sign of poisoning.

They only said that her mental condition isn't very stable, that is why she wouldn’t wake up.

Without them telling me, I knew that was the case ever since.

They didn't ask anything about why her mental condition is like that...

They probably think it is normal for awakened to face some abnormal things in the dungeon...

Still, there was nothing more I could do for her at the moment.

I left after making sure she was stable, leaving my contact information with the staff in case anything changed.

That was earlier this morning.

Now, with that matter settled, I had something else to take care of.

I glanced up as the train station came into view ahead.

My footsteps slowed for a brief moment as I took in the sight of people rushing about, boarding trains, saying goodbyes, returning home.

My thoughts briefly moved to the person I was about to visit again.

For them, it was just another ordinary day.

For me, everything had changed.

And I had a feeling that this was only the beginning.

I have many more things to learn.

"Sigh..."

I stepped onto the platform, the scent of coal and steam filling my nostrils.