Humans or any other sentient being wasn't something she expected to find here. Aira grasped her warhammer tighter and mentally prepared herself for whatever lay ahead. The rhythmic incantations sent chills down Aira's spine but, at the same time, made her smile with excitement.
Finally, she reached the other end of the corridor. There was no coming back anyway. The only exit should be somewhere ahead. Stepping past the last carvings that depicted worshiping crowds, she entered a vast chamber. An immense room with a high vaulted ceiling. In the center of the hall was a haphazard altar surrounded by a circle of glowing runes.
"Runes?" Aira thought. "Again?"
It was hard to see from this distance, but they looked vaguely familiar while remaining absolutely foreign at the same time. They bore some similarity to the ones Aira had just traced on the outer side of that stone door.
She paused for a moment to check her stats. It wouldn't be great if she missed any critical updates. With a mental command, Aira summoned the information about her most important attributes, equipment, and skills.
========== Character Status and Skill Overview ==========
Name: Aira
Race: Human
Class: Battlemage
Level: 99
--- Attributes ---
Strength: 273
Agility: 238
Intelligence: 372
Endurance: 303
Mana: 795
--- Skills ---
1. Mana Manipulation (Level 9 / 3,000 SP to upgrade to Level 10)
- Description: Allows the user to control and manipulate raw mana for various effects, including enhancing physical attacks, creating barriers, and channeling spells.
- Cooldown: 10 seconds
- Mana Cost: Varies by usage
2. Arcane Shield (Level 8 / 2,187 SP to upgrade to Level 9)
- Description: Creates a protective barrier that absorbs incoming damage.
- Cooldown: 45 seconds
- Mana Cost: 80
[...]
30. Battle Frenzy (Level 5 / 648 SP to upgrade to Level 6)
- Description: Increases attack speed and power for a limited time.
- Cooldown: 60 seconds
- Mana Cost: 40
--- Current Status ---
Health: 552/601
Mana: 580/795
SP Used: 61,694
SP Available: 4,652
XP: 66,345,500 / 67,020,000 (Next Level: 100, Legendary)
--- Active Quests ---
1. The Final Trial: Defeat the 100th-level dungeon (Reward: 1,000,000 XP)
Everything seemed to be in order for what surely had to be the final challenge of this dungeon—even if it was unlike anything she had encountered before. Aira could have waited for her health and mana stats to rise a bit higher. Still, she was confident the current levels should be enough for almost anything besides fighting a small army.
What was even more important was that she finally felt the thrill of the upcoming battle returning to her, in striking contrast to her experience of the past few days. The appearance of these cultists has baffled her, but that was precisely why she felt excitement rising within her.
While Aira examined her stats, the chanting of the cultists only grew louder. There was something primal in it. Something that transcended time and space. The rhythm hypnotized her and invited Aira to join the slow movement. It felt like a call to become a part of this forbidden ritual. It lured her and prompted her to enter the circle.
The air was thick with the same strange power she sensed after stepping through that door, the portal. But now she could clearly feel it emanating from the altar, the cultists surrounding it, and even the intricate runes drawn on the floor.
Aira clutched her warhammer tightly and carefully stepped forward, ready to face whatever awaited her. This battle should be very different—she could already feel it in her bones. But wasn't that precisely what she asked the dungeon to give her? Finally, the good stuff.
She closed her eyes and focused, preparing to use her Mana Manipulation skill. There was an abundance of ambient mana surrounding her, and her own reserves were more than enough to take on even a larger group. She used Scanning and Marking on them to assess their threat levels.
Race: Human
Class: Paradoxical Cultist Leader
Level: 112
Race: Human
Class: Paradoxical Cultist Acolyte
Level: 95
[...]
Race: Human
Class: Paradoxical Cultist Acolyte
Level: 101
The leader was a formidable foe. His aura radiated the same strange power she felt emanating from the altar. And the thirteen-level advantage over her wasn't a joke. Especially as he was accompanied by a group of his followers.
Still, defeating him and his cronies should be well within her powers, even if she was alone.
"Alright, Aira," she said to herself, "you fought dragons, undead armies, and even self-important warlocks. What's a little cultist party compared to that? Even if they, what... like paradoxes?"
The ritual seemed to be getting closer to its peak, the air vibrating with unfamiliar magic. This arcane power flowed, crackled, and swirled around her. It was almost tangible as she continued to watch.
Aira had to act quickly before the cultists could unleash whatever spell they were preparing. With a deep breath, she focused on her skills, choosing the best opening sequence. But before she could do anything, all participants of the ritual turned and looked in her direction, their chanting reaching a crescendo.
The leader scowled, raising his staff. "So, you have finally decided to join us," he said. "Should we wait for your friends? Or are you alone? A single mage dares to challenge our power! How peculiar."
"Shouldn't you be the end-of-dungeon monster boss?" Aira shouted back, trying to hide her apprehension behind sarcasm. "I wasn't expecting to find any humans here."
The cultist wasn't amused by her attempt at humor. "Exactly. You know nothing of what you are meddling with," he hissed. "It is far beyond anything you could imagine in your feeble dreams. It is larger than any of us. And you can't stop us now, there is no turning back."
There was no point in continuing this fruitless discussion. With a deepening sense of frustration, Aira unleashed a powerful surge of mana toward the cultists, everything she could gather at that moment. The room erupted into a cacophony of noises and shouts.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
With the flow of the ritual disrupted in such a rude way, the arcane circle reacted momentarily, with runes losing some of their ethereal glow. The chanting of the acolytes interrupted briefly, and the only thing Aira could hear were frantic cries and desperate screams. The leader stumbled backward, his concentration affected as he struggled to maintain control.
Not waiting for any of them to recover, Aira rushed forward, aiming to break their formation. With a mental command, she set up her magical defenses and boosted her close-quarter attack proficiency. She swung her warhammer at one of the acolytes in a swift motion. But as it descended, the figure before her flickered and vanished, reappearing several meters away. There, he resumed chanting as though just moments before he wasn't attacked by an angry battlemage.
Aira's eyes narrowed. She swung again. But her warhammer passed through thin air. Another cultist popped up in her peripheral vision, only to disappear when she turned to face him. It was a dance with illusions. Aira was an involuntary participant in it. Once in a few breaths, she could feel the shifts of air created by the cultists' movements. They popped out in one place and appeared in a different one, creating a feeble breeze that constantly shifted directions. With it came smells of sweat and fear. At least it wasn't easy for them either. Aira just had to find the right approach.
"What the hell is happening here?" she growled, her frustration mounting. "Are you going to fight? What's wrong with this dungeon?!?"
But they ignored her questions with the same firmness with which they avoided her strikes. It was as if they were toying with her, shifting positions faster than she could follow. Aira was led in a circling motion, the chamber warping and twisting with every movement. She couldn't tell where she was anymore, and the hall felt like a labyrinth of shadows and illusions.
Annoyed, she focused on the patterns of the acolytes' movements, trying to predict where any of them could appear next time. At the same time, in her mind, she was going through the list of the skills available to her. Was there something there that could give her an advantage? But it seemed impossible, like trying to catch the tip of a flickering flame with bare fingers.
Finally, after another swing, she felt her warhammer connect with one of the bodies. The force of the strike threw the cultist away with a stifled scream, his form corrupted. For a moment, a shadow of hope appeared in Aira's mind. Would she finally be able to turn this fight in her favor?
But as soon as she finished the motion, Aira realized something was very wrong with where she ended up. There were runes shining beneath her feet. All of a sudden, they were there. Glowing, teasing her. In the rush of the battle, she didn't even notice where she moved. This fight with illusory enemies led her right into the center of the formation they created. The leaps of the cultists weren't random. They lured her exactly where they wanted her to be. What was even more ominous was that the runes weren't just glowing softly now—they were filled with magic to the brim and shone with almost blinding brightness.
Aira lifted her warhammer, preparing to smash her way out of the circle. However, the moment her weapon reached the apex, the dizzying motion of the cultists stopped. The eerie chant ceased as if silenced by the hand of an unseen conductor. The room fell deathly quiet, even the magical energy draining from the air. The sudden stillness was almost more disorienting than the rush of the bizarre fight.
One by one, the cultists dropped their weapons, the blades never reaching the floor, just vanishing from existence. For a brief moment, they stood motionless, with hands at their sides, gazing at her with strange, blank expressions. Aira froze, heart pounding in her chest. She tried to move but couldn't, as if put in stasis. Supposedly, there shouldn't be any magic she couldn't counter or at least protect herself from. But here she was, trying to figure out how so many things went wrong so fast.
Was it some strange spell she had never experienced, or was something wrong with her? Weakness of will? For the first time in many years, Aira felt indecisive. Finally, she found a challenge that intrigued her, that wasn't as simple and straightforward as anything she saw during the previous dungeon runs. But now, when she needed to act, she couldn't move.
"What… what are you doing?" she demanded feebly. However, her voice wasn't strong enough for them to hear it.
The leader of the cultists looked Aira in the eyes and raised his hand without answering any of her questions. His finger pointed directly at Aira, and the acolytes spoke as one, their voices a low, resonating hum. "Transfer ready!"
Then, without another word, they disappeared. Even that one guy she hit with her warhammer flickered away, leaving her alone in this chamber. Not in a flash of light or a burst of smoke—they simply ceased to exist, vanishing into the thin air. One second, they were there; the next… gone. Aira stood in the center of the ritual circle, her warhammer still raised in defense, but now there was no one to fight.
"What the...?" She looked around, bewildered, unsure what had happened and what to do next.
Slowly, the symbols under her feet seemed to come alive, shifting and swirling around her in a mesmerizing circular pattern. Then, they lifted from the stone floor in a long sequence, dancing around Aira like glowing ribbons, forming a cyclone of dazzling light that spun faster and faster.
Aira's heart raced with excitement and fear as she tried to comprehend what was happening. To find a reasonable way to react. It was both beautiful and terrifying to witness that movement. The chamber walls seemed to stretch and distort. The ceiling rose into an impossibly high, shadowy void. Aira desperately wanted to step out of the circle but, at the same time, couldn't move.
"What kind of magic is this?" Aira whispered, fighting an urge to extend her hand and touch the runes. Feeling, at the same time, a strange pull from all sides as if the very fabric of reality was coming undone around her.
Suddenly, the direction of movement shifted. Instead of circling Aira, the glowing runes converged towards her. With reflexes honed from years of battle, Aira placed the warhammer in front of her. But it was all for nothing; the shining symbols penetrated both the weapon and her body as if there were no obstacles in their way. At the exact moment the radiant light touched Aira's skin, she received a message from the System.
--- Quest Completed ---
Defeat the 100th-level dungeon (Reward: 1,000,000 XP)
"Oh, well," said Aira. "So, no proper dungeon boss this time?"
But what was the deal with those cultists? Without any doubt, they believed they fulfilled their purpose before vanishing. And what did the leader's words mean?
"Larger than all of us, huh?" muttered Aira. "Typical fanatics..."
So many questions. Not enough answers. Still, Aira didn't feel any changes; neither in her body nor in her arcane powers. What were these glowing runes for?
Even that strange otherworldly magic has vanished from the chamber. Was it a cleverly orchestrated trap? A ploy to deceive her? Was it even directed at her or just any random mage who entered this dungeon at the wrong moment?
The disappointment and confusion only intensified, not allowing Aira to feel any positive emotions because of gaining all that XP from the dungeon quest and finally finishing the run. "This is just perfect... I should have expected something like that."
As a familiar surge of power of a level-up coursed through her, she checked her updated stats.
--- Current Status ---
Health: 578/605
Mana: 320/800
SP Used: 61,694
SP Available: 5,652
XP: 67,345,500 / 69,141,000 (Next Level: 101, Legendary)
It wasn't a radical change, but every level improved Aira's basic stats ever so slightly. That's just how the System worked. However, before she could give any other command to the System, a door appeared on the other side of the chamber.
That also wasn't unexpected. Moreover, it was pretty ordinary for any dungeon. With the final boss, or whatever it was, out of the way, it was only reasonable that it was time for Aira to get out. Excited to finally leave this space, she headed towards the door.
At least she could celebrate her new level with friends. Maybe they will cheer her up and help figure things out.
This door was absolutely ordinary, unlike the previous one. Something she could easily expect in any dungeon. It was made with solid wood and had a doorknob in the middle. Letting out a sigh, Aira reached out to open it. However, when her fingers made contact, a surge of energy shot through her. The same foreign energy she sensed during the ritual.
Another rune appeared in the middle of the door's surface, shining brightly. Before she could react or jerk back her hand, the same symbol lighted up on her wrist, branding her.
Aira gasped, her eyes shutting closed in shock. "What the...?" she managed to exclaim before everything faded to black.
In the inky darkness, a System message appeared before her eyes, glowing with a soft, ethereal light:
========== Initiating inter-world transfer... ==========
The words floated in the void, their meaning elusive to Aira as she struggled to make sense of her surroundings. The sensation of being tugged, as if by an invisible hand, consumed her, and she felt her consciousness slipping away. Desperate for some kind of anchor, Aira called upon her personal statistics, hoping they would provide some clarity amidst the chaos that enveloped her.
========== Character Sta???
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