Chapter 56: Mark’s Raid

Later that night, Mark packed up his items and materials, wrapping up the research he’d spent the evening conducting on nearby dungeons.

But in this particular city, dungeon activity remained noticeably sparse compared to what he’d grown used to back in Waylon, since most known sites here had already been claimed by guild agents and licensed authorities, leaving little room for someone unlicensed, like himself, to safely risk venturing in.

Dungeons tended to run fairly exclusive by nature, especially the higher ranked ones, packed with resource rich minerals and rare treasures capable of supplying valuable materials to plenty of interested parties and businesses alike.

Guilds and authorities also relied on dungeon territory as genuine, real world training grounds, particularly the Ever Dungeon, a type that never truly vanished, instead continuously respawning over time.

Still, even accounting for that, dungeons remained fairly rare overall on most tracking systems, with the Lost Dungeon standing out as the leading source of danger across countless recorded cases. Those in particular carried a genuinely diabolical reputation, owing entirely to their unpredictable, untraceable nature.

Mark tightened the drawstrings of his green hoodie, the same one marked with two white stripes running down both sleeves, paired with plain jean trousers and a pair of black and white sneakers.

Before setting off toward his goal, he checked through his dormitory window to make sure the coast was genuinely clear. Everything looked convincing enough for him to slip out without drawing any unwanted attention.

This marked only the beginning of two separate goals he’d set for himself.

First, if he wanted any real shot at rising among the sophomore class’s top ranked stars, starting with this competition, he needed considerably more raw power behind him. One clear path toward that lay in unlocking his second summon, another member of the Amazon Order waiting somewhere within his soul space.

His second goal centered on clearing dungeons outright, gathering valuable loot along the way, enough to genuinely ease his sister’s ongoing struggles, even if only in small, incremental steps. He intended to start tonight, finally taking real responsibility for what remained of his family instead of continuing to leave the entire burden on her shoulders alone.

He also needed to secure enough resources to help fund his mother’s continued treatment at the city’s most exclusive hospital, and likely well beyond it too. Fortunately, his sister’s career afforded their family certain valuable privileges that made treatment like that possible at all, but Mark still refused to lean entirely on her generosity going forward.

Another goal weighing on his mind was the Elixir of Life, something he’d only recently begun actively pursuing, though it had sat quietly in the back of his thoughts for far longer than that. He’d first come across information about it back during his freshman year, though he’d lacked any real means of obtaining it at the time. Things looked considerably different now, and he no longer had any real excuse left to fall behind the goals he’d set for himself.

He’d lived through more than enough already to finally arrive at this particular decision, a road stretching all the way back through his childhood up to this exact point in his life. Now that he’d committed fully to this path, there was no real reason left to look back.

With all of that settled firmly in his mind, Mark slipped out of the dormitory and made his way across the sprawling school compound toward the main gate. He passed through without a hint of hesitation, the hood of his green sweater pulled low enough to obscure most of his face, even from anyone who might happen to spot him without realizing it.

A cool night breeze brushed across his exposed skin the moment he stepped outside. He drew in a deep, steady breath, feeling something close to a bird finally set loose, before continuing forward, the sound of his own footsteps the only company he had for the first several blocks.

He’d already scouted out what looked like a promising Ever Dungeon near a gas station earlier, based on information he’d pulled together online.

His plan involved slipping into the dungeon unnoticed, using Cassandra as a deliberate distraction to pull any watching authorities’ attention away from him long enough to get inside cleanly. He genuinely hoped everything would play out as smoothly in practice as it had in his head, though he’d learned by now that plans rarely survived first contact with an actual dungeon.

Along the way, he blended carefully into passing crowds of pedestrians, using the cover to avoid standing out or becoming a target for anyone keeping an eye on the streets. He’d also decided to walk the entire distance rather than waste money on transportation, preferring to hold onto every bit of cash for something that actually mattered more.

After a while, Mark peeled away from the oblivious crowd and turned onto a quiet, empty street. He still had some distance left to cover, but partway along the route, he spotted a dark, narrow alleyway that looked like it might cut a decent shortcut through to the other side.

He turned into it, taking two steps forward.

Then he stopped short. His expression shifted instantly.

He wasn’t standing in an alley anymore.

Instead, he found himself somewhere else entirely, standing inside a vast, dome shaped chamber, its floor blanketed in dry, crumbling sand. Rough, irregular walls stretched away into deep, swallowing darkness on every side. And it was that darkness itself that spoke loudest about just how much danger might be waiting, hidden somewhere within it.

Mark’s eyes swept across his new surroundings as he moved forward, steps casual on the surface, though carefully deliberate underneath.

Then something flickered at the very edge of his vision.

Every instinct in his body screamed at once. Mark threw himself sideways without a second thought.

A long, segmented tail slammed down into the exact spot where he’d been standing only a heartbeat earlier, a sharp, glistening stinger mounted at its tip, almost certainly loaded with venom.

Mark already knew exactly what he was looking at.

He turned to find a massive scorpion looming over five feet tall, pincers clicking together rhythmically, its body armored in thick, bristling hair, a slick stinger curling menacingly behind it, dry sand still sifting off its carapace from wherever it had been lying in wait.

He could feel the dense, unmistakable strength of mana pulsing steadily through the dungeon and whatever else lived inside it.

This was an Elite Dungeon, one likely home to both Basic Tier and Elite Tier monsters roaming somewhere within its depths.

And there was no telling yet what might be waiting at the very bottom of it, guarding the dungeon’s core.

Mark’s eyes narrowed sharply as two more scorpions burst up from beneath the loose sand to join the hunt, each of their eight glowing eyes locked hungrily onto him.

He knew creatures like these weren’t particularly intelligent, mindless monsters running almost entirely on raw instinct, which honestly worked in his favor here, giving him a genuinely decent shot at handling them cleanly.

Still, something else nagged uncomfortably at the back of his mind.

His sudden, inexplicable appearance inside this dungeon made no logical sense whatsoever.

The whole place felt concealed, almost deliberately so, as though it had been sitting there quietly, waiting specifically for him to stumble across it.

Under normal circumstances, a dungeon like this should have already been flagged by the city’s central monitoring system, the network responsible for tracking mana fluctuations and irregularities across the region. And yet, somehow, no alarm had ever been triggered.

Nobody had noticed a thing. That fact alone felt deeply, genuinely wrong.

This, unmistakably, was another Lost Dungeon, and given the circumstances surrounding it, this one might well turn out considerably worse than the last, a thought he filed away for later, once he actually had the breathing room to worry about it properly.

Mark didn’t have the luxury of time to dwell on it further.

All three scorpions lunged forward at once, pincers clicking rapidly as their many legs scuttled across the sandy floor with a harsh, deafening clatter.

Creatures like these posed a genuine threat to vulnerable summoners or ordinary, unarmed humans caught off guard. Mark, though, was neither.

He stood as a genuinely powerful summoner now, backed by a considerable arsenal ready at his command, a far cry from the boy who used to have nothing but his own two fists to rely on.

A faint, confident smile crossed his face.

"Not on my watch, dear Heir." Cassandra’s warm, familiar voice echoed clearly through his mind.

A glittering whirlwind swirled to life beside him, bright and sudden, before finally revealing the tall, unmistakable figure of the Amazon woman, her presence alone enough to settle some of the tension already coiling tight in his chest.

Her elegant, heeled footwear struck the sandy floor in a series of sharp, deliberate clicks as she stepped forward to meet the threat head on, already scanning the darkness beyond for whatever else might be waiting.

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