"I arrived here over a year ago, while Sera and Darian appeared around 6 months ago."1
Sera and Darian nodded grimly, their faces reflecting the pain of that memory.
’6 months?’ Alicar lifted his eyebrows, ’But I thought it was... Huh.’
"All the other members of our respective group died," Leon continued, his voice dropping lower. "There were twenty of us on each of our groups at the start, much like you."
"One by one, they fell to the monsters, to the sun beast, to the endless dangers of this place."
"With luck and determination, the three of us managed to keep fighting until we reached level 10."
"But even then," Leon’s jaw tightened, "it still isn’t enough to defeat the sun beast."
"That thing is a legendary-rank monster, far beyond anything we can handle with our current strength."
Sera placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, her expression soft with understanding.
"We’ve tried everything," Darian added, his voice heavy with frustration. "Every strategy, every plan, nothing works. The sun beast is simply too powerful for us to defeat, no matter how hard we try."
Leon took a deep breath, then straightened in his chair, his gaze meeting Alicar’s directly.
"My class is [Power Fighter]," he explained, his voice regaining some of its earlier confidence, "It boosts my strength by a lot, allowing me to hit incredibly hard in combat."
"That’s how I was able to make the sun beast stumble earlier, even though I couldn’t truly hurt it."
Alicar nodded, understanding the value of such a class in a place where brute force was often the only answer.
"Strength is important," Leon continued, "but against that thing, it’s not nearly enough. We need something else, some other advantage that we haven’t found yet."
The conversation continued for a while longer, with everyone sharing what they knew about the secret realm.
The only way to leave a secret realm was to clear its exit condition, and of course, the realm never took the time to explain it to you.
For some strange reason though, Alicar, as well as the many others, had a rough feeling of what the clear condition was.
"There’s two ways," Leon explained, "The first one is to climb at the top of the mountain and pass the portal, and the second... is to kill the sun beast."
’Hah, of course.’
The first condition seemed much more interesting.
"Wait, so why don’t we do the first one?" William asked.
"Because we tried and failed repeatedly," Leon sighed, "Trust me, if we attempt it, we will all die."
"Damn..."
Hours passed as they talked, the exhaustion of the day slowly catching up with them.
Eventually, Alicar noticed that the light coming from the cave entrance had begun to fade.
He looked outside and saw that the sun, or whatever passed for a sun in this place, had finally set.
The sky had turned dark, and the moon was visible above, casting a silvery glow over the forest.
"At least the moon seems real," Iris remarked, her voice carrying a hint of wonder.
"It’s one of the few things in this place that actually looks normal," Leon replied with a shrug.
Torches lined the walls of the cave, casting warm, flickering light across the space.
They had been lit by Darian earlier, and their flames danced in the darkness, providing both light and comfort.
"I have some blankets," Darian said as he stood up and walked toward a corner of the cave. "They’re not much, but they’ll help."
He brought a stack of rough blankets and distributed them to the group, making sure everyone had something to keep warm.
In addition to that, Darian also set up some barricades in front of the cave to defend from monsters.
"You should all get some rest," Leon advised, his voice gentle but firm. "Tomorrow will be another long day."
The group slowly settled in, finding spots on the cave floor and wrapping themselves in the blankets made from monster skin.
Alicar lay down on the hard stone, his body aching from the battles and the chaos of everything that had happened.
Within minutes, the sounds of soft breathing filled the cave as the others drifted off to sleep.
Alicar closed his eyes, his mind racing with thoughts about Leon, the sun beast, and the impossible situation they were in.
Eventually, exhaustion won out, and he too fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
But right in the middle of the night, a faint sound stirred Alicar from his rest.
His eyes snapped open, his senses immediately on high alert as he listened carefully.
There it was again, a soft scraping noise coming from somewhere outside the cave.
Alicar slowly got to his feet, careful not to wake the others as he moved toward the entrance.
The night air was cool against his skin as he stepped outside, his eyes scanning the darkness.
And then he saw it. A massive creature was trying to enter the cave, its form barely visible in the faint moonlight.
[Darkfang Stalker Lv.7]
[Rank: Uncommon]
Its eyes gleamed with hunger as it pushed against Darian’s barricade, its claws scraping against the wood.
Alicar’s heart pounded in his chest as he realized the danger they were all in.
The monster hadn’t noticed him yet, but it was only a matter of time. He needed to act fast, before it woke the others and caused chaos.
But how could he possibly fight a level 7 monster on his own?