Chapter 45: Clearing The Dungeon
"You nearly killed me, and now you’re saying I shouldn’t have underestimated you?" Daniel slowly walked toward the King of Knights, using the last of his strength.
"Hahaha... Incredible... It’s been a long time since someone made my heart race like this," the knight suddenly laughed—genuinely, from deep within.
"As promised... from this moment on, my life and my sword belong to you." He kneeled, one knee to the ground. Promises were sacred to knights. Especially in their culture.
He had lost both arms and could no longer fight. On top of that, his armor was almost destroyed—it would’ve been easy to kill him now.
He was extremely vulnerable in front of Daniel.
With that declaration, the rest of the Golden Knights—who had been silently watching until now—walked over one by one and knelt behind their king.
Daniel walked forward calmly. He set his sword aside and scraped its blade with a fingernail. A drop of his crimson blood fell gently to the ground.
With a wave of his hand, the blood drop moved toward the knights. It sank into their hearts. For a moment, a dark red light engulfed them.
Suddenly, a violet light filled the sky before shooting down toward them, covering their bodies.
The light faded slowly, revealing the newly Fallen. Their armor had changed from golden to a purple-black hue.
The King of Knights’ body was fully restored, too. His figure looked bulkier, and his new armor shone with violet light and golden glimmers.
"Rise," Daniel commanded, looking at them with a smile.
The knights rose in perfect unison. Their purple armor gleamed under a red and shadowy glow.
[You have successfully created 7 new Fallens.]
[10% of their overall stats have been transferred to you.]
[You’ve gained 7 extra lives.]
As the stats were transferred, Daniel’s body began to heal. All his wounds, mana, and lost vitality returned.
Daniel took a deep breath...
[Dungeon: Colosseum Cleared.]
[Exit activated. 10 minutes until dungeon closure.]
[Please assign names to your Fallen.]
His gaze fell on the King of Knights, still standing tall, his armor glowing under a red aura.
"From now on, your name is Azark."
Then Daniel looked at the knight who had been giving all the information.
"Your name is now Pride," he said without pause.
He glanced at the remaining knights. With a sly smile, he gave each of them a name.
[Naming of Fallen completed successfully.]
[You can now copy one skill from the new Fallens or take 10% of their total EXP.]
"Open Azark’s panel." He didn’t know much about the other Golden Knights, but Azark definitely had some strong skills.
[Name: Azark]
[Race: Fallen]
[Rank: Fallen Warrior]
Power Level: Comparable to a C-Rank Awakened]
[Skills: Command of Sovereignty – Golden Storm – King’s Collapse – Absolute Judgment – Royal Seal: Death Flood – Royal Barrier – Shield of Honor – Chains of the Fallen – Imperial Will – Golden Field: King’s Cage – Final Vow: Honor Until Death]
[Stats:]
Physical Power: 1410
Mental Power: 870
Intelligence: 550
Endurance: 3000
Mana: 650
[Loyalty: 100%]
"Damn, that’s a lot of skills... and those stats..." Daniel stared at Azark’s panel in shock.
It was genuinely terrifying.
"Fallen Warrior? So the tier above Minor Fallen is called Fallen Warrior." Azark was Daniel’s first Fallen above Minor rank.
From what he understood, all Fallen below C-rank are categorized as Minor Fallen. At C-rank, they become Fallen Warriors.
Daniel clicked on the skill descriptions. Each had its strengths and weaknesses, but he was mostly interested in defensive skills.
After fighting Azark, he realized how important defensive skills were—especially against enemies stronger than him.
Azark had two defensive skills: Shield of Honor and Royal Barrier. Each had pros and cons.
Shield of Honor offered better raw defense, but Royal Barrier had counterattack capabilities and could absorb and return attacks. Plus, Shield of Honor was an A-rank skill, and Royal Barrier was S-rank.
[Royal Barrier: Creates a golden barrier with reflective properties that reduces all physical and magical damage by 70%, absorbs them, and reflects them back with equal power. Active for 15 seconds.]
[Rank: S]
In the end, he chose to copy Royal Barrier.
[Ding... S-Rank Skill "Royal Barrier" successfully copied.]
Next, Daniel opened Pride’s panel and checked out his skills.
[Name: Pride]
[Skills: Focused Barrage – Piercing Spear of Light – Spear Ring Barrier – Precision Strike: Hunter’s Eye]
He clicked on each skill’s description. Two caught his eye: Focused Barrage and Piercing Spear of Light.
[Focused Barrage: Splits the weapon into hundreds of golden particles and fires them with high accuracy at the enemy’s vital points. Each particle can apply "Weakness" for 5 seconds.]
[Rank: B]
[Piercing Spear of Light: A focused, piercing strike that ignores all layers of defense (armor, magic shields, defensive skills) for 3 seconds. Highly effective against heavy armor.]
[Rank: A]
From experience, he was sure Piercing Spear of Light would be more useful—especially against enemies with heavy armor.
As for the first one—well, he already had Crimson Judgment.
[Ding... You have obtained A-Rank skill "Piercing Spear of Light."]
Daniel checked the other knights’ panels one by one. Their skills were interesting... but not really useful for him.
[10% of Fallen EXP copied.]
[You gained a total of 1210 EXP.]
"Anyway, dungeons always have loot and items. Is there anything here?" He turned to Azark and Pride and asked with an innocent smile.
---
Meanwhile, outside the dungeon, emergency sirens were still blaring. Yellow warning lines blocked off the shattered gateway, and behind them, a sea of reporters held cameras and broadcasted nonstop.
"The clearing operation has failed."
"Latest reports say the Awakened team suffered heavy casualties."
"Rescue teams are attempting to recover the bodies..."
"The genius known as the Red Hammer is severely injured—and there are even rumors of his death."
Naya and August stood side by side, eyes locked on the red portal.
A little further away, Linor stood with clenched fists. According to protocol, he was supposed to be at the hospital, but...
"I’m sure he’s dead... or could he really still be alive?" His gaze returned to the portal.
"If it’s not him, then who is it?" Was it possible that someone else they thought had died was still alive?
A heavy silence hung over everyone.
Only the sound of shallow breathing and beating hearts waiting for a miracle could be heard.
"Could he really... still be alive?" Naya whispered under her breath.
"Someone’s still inside. I’m pretty sure it’s that kid," August closed his eyes and slowly nodded.
"Huh? What’s going on?"
"Look over there."
At that moment—the dungeon began to glow. Everyone held their breath.
And then—they saw him. A handsome young man slowly walked out of the portal.
The portal behind him dimmed and disappeared into the air.
"Huh? Didn’t expect anyone to still be here. Well... hey everyone, I guess?" Daniel said calmly, though his voice sounded tired.
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A/n : Well, this is the last day that I’ll upload five Chapters a day, starting tomorrow I’ll upload three Chapters a day, and if we reach the goals, I’ll upload a bonus Chapter.
And I hope you enjoyed the Chapter. :)