*CLANK*

The sound made after subconsciously parrying the incoming axe rekindled the Necromancer's awareness of his surroundings.

*THUMP*

Using his shield to bash the demon in the face, he swiftly followed up with a stab to the throat and a kick to the chest.

Now that some distance was created, he used Decrepify and Corpse Explosion.

*SHLICK*

The disgusting sound of steel piercing flesh entered his ears, and he sighed upon seeing the longsword exiting his lower abdomen.

Judging from the ridiculous pain he was sensing, that bastard of an Elite must've cut straight through his left kidney.

Unhurriedly, he used Raise Skeleton thrice and then activated Blood Mist to get out of the shitty situation.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

Hearing the knocking sounds, his face changed as soon as he recovered his physical body.

He had already sensed it before.

The door... no! The walls surrounding that 'thing' were getting thinner and had accumulated plenty of cracks.

"Tsk! This pestering fuck!"

Blocking the Elite's longsword with his shield and retaliating with Reap, Michael locked in onto a Corpse not very far away and used Corpse Tendrils on it.

Watching the demon being pulled back, he added Decrepify, after which detonated several more Corpses for good measure.

*SWISH* *CRASH*

Using Evade, he barely moved out of the hammer's trajectory. The second Elite demon was a severe pain in the ass, thanks to his weapon.

As it turns out, blunt weapons were the bane of his poor Skeletons.

Only Quarterback could hold on for a while longer while he tried getting rid of the longsword Elite.

*KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK* *KNOCK*

The knocking was getting louder and closer with each passing second, blurring his consciousness.

The terror he felt from it was more intense than Diablo's 'blessing.'

It was something so deeply embedded into his memory that he couldn't help but shiver at the thought of that 'thing' getting out.

*SMACK*

"Urgh!"

A moment of inattention was enough for the two-handed hammer to crash into his chest, wrecking his armor further and dropping his Life Points under 300.

Taking out a Healing Potion, he downed it and stood up.

"*Sigh* At least the potions get refilled every time I die."

He checked his pouch and found three left, which should be sufficient to eliminate the two Elite demons and the dozen or so Minion-level mobs left.

That's right. He had already died before.

Twice, actually.

*CLANG* *THUMP* *SHLICK* *CRUNCH*

The longsword appeared again in his field of vision, and he blocked it with his own weapon once more.

Then the shield bash hit the Elite's chin with a backhand 'slap,' followed by a deep cut into the demon's neck again with Reap.

Unfortunately, the hammer arrived immediately after, and Blood Mist was still on cooldown. Same with Evade.

Unable to avoid it, Michael repositioned his body and took the hit with his left shoulder blade.

The sickening crunch of bones being ground into dust by the enemy's overpowering strength further blurred his consciousness.

*KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK*

He stood up robotically and pulled another potion to drink. Its cooldown was still one second away, but he put the vial in his mouth while he waited for it to end.

Regaining sight, he saw that the longsword Elite had finally died, while the other was already lunging at him, prepared to crush his skull this time.

Using Evade, he watched as the annoyance didn't slam the hammer into the ground but instead extended both hands upon his successful landing and began rotating toward him.

Seeing the famous 'Blade Storm' with his own eyes felt particularly blinding, especially since the airwaves created by the rotating weapon were slashing away at his eyes.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"*Sigh* I'm so fucking tired..."

Using Blood Mist to avoid becoming a crushed watermelon, he took the chance to survey the battlefield.

Two Reapers and three Cold Mages were left. The Golem had just 'respawned,' and it was rejoining the fight.

On the enemy's side, there were only five demons left.

Using Raise Skeletons four times to replenish his squad and then another one to buff them, he refocused on the last Elite.

*SWIRL*

The sound of Bone Storm being activated echoed in the Trap Room for the N-th time in these past three days.

That's right. Three days...

Wanting to get rid of his fear of death, the idiotic Necromancer fought the demons for three full fucking days. Died twice in the process as well.

"Can't you just die already?"

*ROOOOOOOOOOAR*

"Yeah, yeah, yeah! Can't understand you, fucker."

Evading the lunging strike, he attacked the Elite's side with Reap, followed by Decrepify and Corpse Explosion, and he was only three seconds away from Corpse Tendrils being available to use again.

He had to end it fast. The Nightmare Portal has already been gone since yesterday.

It wasn't even the Necromancer's doing. He wasn't sure if it was the Sanctuary that deemed it a 'bug' what he was doing, or if the devils considered the losses they incurred too much to continue operating it.

So it simply vanished, leaving behind over three hundred demons and fifteen Elites.

*ROOOOOOOOOOAR*

"No, thank you. I'm into women."

Using Corpse Tendrils to drag the last enemy on the 'battlefield' away, Michael watched as a familiar sight was occurring in the middle of the Trap Room.

Blood vines crept up from the ground upward, creating a round structure. In the middle of it, a portal appeared, and soon after, more demons began assaulting his Minions.

*KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK**KNOCK*

"..."

*CRASH*

The walls finally crashed.

Even through the loud mess caused by the demons and his Minions fighting, everyone could hear a sigh.

It was crystal clear, and it felt so out of place that it temporarily halted the fighting.

"Hmm..."

Raising his mangled hands that had yet to heal from the continuous fighting, he curiously inspected the wounds and the strange items.

His head tilted to the side with confusion for a moment before reviewing the most recent memories.

His chin rose slightly, and his gaze locked onto the Nightmare Portal from where five more Elites and around fifty mobs invaded.

The strange thing was that once the Elites met his eyes, they took a step back.

It wasn't fear.

This wasn't a movie or an anime where the protagonist gets a power-up through plot armor.

What the demons felt was disgust. Intense, stomach-churning disgust.

Those dead fish eyes were horrendous to look at.

It's said that the eyes are the window to the soul; therefore, one can always glimpse at a person's emotions simply by looking at their eyes.

But his were... blank. No, rather than blank, it would be easier to call them dead.

There was nothing to be 'glimpsed.' No fear. No anger. No discomfort. No pain. No pleasure. No nothing...

Just emptiness...

"Hmm. *Yaaaawn* No, thank you."

With an equally emotionless voice, all the Corpses in the Trap Room exploded at the same time.

In a matter of three seconds, before the Elites could even realize what was going on, every monster alongside the Nightmare Portal vanished under the thick miasma.

The Necromancer ignored everything, took out his tent, set up the blanket and the pillow, and went to sleep.

In his subconscious, two people looked at each other while inspecting the broken-down wall.

"This is bad..."

'Mhm.'

"We can't have you run around..."

'Mhm.'

"And it doesn't look like you want to either. *Sigh* How much longer?"

'...'

"Fuck... Just do what you want, then. It's better if you stay here. I don't want to lose Helen. There's Mina as well and the other girls. I don't want you to ruin it again."

'I know.'

One could easily tell the two 'people' apart with a single glance. The first one to speak was wearing battered items and was covered in blood from the battle—both his own and his enemy's.

He was trying to patch back the wall, entrapping the second person there, who was strangely not against the idea.

This second person's clothes didn't match the Sanctuary's 'fashion.' Furthermore, he was only a child—probably around 13 to 14 years old.

He stood there blankly, watching the other rebuild the wall with great effort.

There was no sign of emotion on his face or in his eyes, even if he knew he would be 'imprisoned' again.

He merely crouched on the 'ground,' as if standing up was too much of a chore for him, patiently waiting for the wall to block out the light of the outside world once more.

The first person stopped 'rebuilding' and approached the child.

"You know you won't be able to hide here for much longer, right?"

'...'

"You must've felt it too, but after the first Class Awakening and whatever 'epiphany' we had, the walls thinned considerably."

'Mhm.'

"*Sigh* You don't have much time left here, so you better prepare yourself mentally. We need to consider the possibility of me being the one to be devoured."

'You won't.'

"Stop with the bullshit! Even if that doesn't happen, the merger will fuck everything up. So prepare yourself properly. I don't want you to ruin everything I've built up so far."

'How long?'

"Third Class Awakening, maybe? I'm not sure. If things go sideways, maybe even the Second might fuck me over. The walls... They're much thinner now."

'I understand.'

Returning to the wall, he continued placing brick after brick back in place, eventually leaving behind only a small crack.

Through it, the small rays of light coming from outside shone on the 'child,' showing him still crouched on the ground.

Sighing, the first person placed the final bricks into the crack, allowing darkness to engulf the 'room.'

Standing in front of the complete wall, he placed a hand on it, carefully caressing it.

"You need to recover quicker... there's only so much a facade can do."

The blurry consciousness recovered somewhat, and Michael woke up in his tent, surrounded by Minions standing guard outside.

He wasn't sure how long he was out, but his wounds had already healed, allowing his body to be back to 80% or so.

Some motions were still painful, especially moving his left arm.

"Getting your shoulder pulverized can't possibly be healed that easily, huh? Well... at least no other Nightmare Portals appeared."

The Trap Room was filled with loot in the form of so many gold coins that would make the Smaug change lairs.

There were some items as well, but most of them were at the Magic level. Only a handful were Rare.

Selectively picking up what was best, he returned to his tent after cleaning up.

Taking out another sandwich and a pitcher with milk, he satisfied his starving body.

"No matter how I look at it, that was incredibly dumb of me."

In hindsight, he should've known better.

Starting with the fight itself, on the first day, he retreated to the entrance of the Trap Room and used it to re-enact 'The 300.'

Everything went well initially, but the Elites were smart enough to use demon-waves tactics and drown him by throwing bodies at him.

He initially laughed at the stupid tactic since he could just make use of the Corpses to create a meat grinder. However, it didn't go the way he hoped it would.

In the middle of the battle, one of the Elite demons took advantage of him being distracted by the mobs and stealthily made his way to his position.

The Necromancer sensed the incoming threat, but it was too late.

So he died three hours into the fight.

"Then, I just woke up a second later, about two kilometers away from the Trap Room."

He returned to the Trap Room, where the enemies waited for him, resummoned his Minions, and continued fighting.

On the second day, he got cocky after clearing most of the demons and advanced alongside his Minions into the room, where the Elites ganged up on him.

He persisted in the fight longer than expected but died after his potions were finished.

That's when he belatedly realized that after 'respawning' his Healing Potions got replenished, probably courtesy of the Sanctuary.

"The main issue was 'that.' *Sigh* It was idiotic of me not to realize just how bad the situation got. I should've known when the 'blessings' I got to open the 'castle' back then fucked with me to the point where I couldn't control my words."

When he accepted the blessings of the Prime Evils, serious cracks had already formed on the wall separating them.

However, he was so busy with his new life that he completely overlooked it.

Rotating his left arm to check how serious of an inconvenience it would be in a fight, Michael stood up and began collecting the tent and other 'furniture.'

"How shitty... I lost count of how many demons I killed, but I ended up gaining only around 5,000 experience points. What absolute bullshit! *Sigh* At least I made 253,000 gold coins out of this mess, so it's not bad overall."

Glancing at his remaining lives and seeing that it was down to 4/6, the Necromancer guided his Minions forward.

He had wasted enough time with his stupid experiments. It was time to wrap up the Nightmare Dungeon.