Drip. Drop. Drip.

The rhythmic, echoing sound of falling water was the first thing that managed to pierce through the suffocating darkness of Hide’s unconscious mind.

He slowly blinked his eyes open, his blurred vision struggling to adjust to the oppressive gloom. He was lying flat on his back on cold, hard stone.

Above him, the jagged ceiling of a natural cavern stretched into the shadows. A thin, freezing stream of water trickled down from somewhere deep within the dark, pooling near his boots before snaking its way down the uneven floor. The cave itself was slanted at a steep angle, sloping sharply upward the deeper it went.

Outside the jagged mouth of the cave, the world was completely obscured. A dense, mysterious fog covered everything and anything, rolling past the entrance like a slow-moving ocean of clouds.

Hide tried to push himself up, but the moment his muscles contracted, he violently froze.

"Gah—!"

Hide coughed violently, his chest heaving as a raw, metallic taste flooded his mouth. He winced, letting out a low, agonizing groan that echoed off the damp walls.

His entire body was screaming in pain. It felt as if he had been used as a punching bag. Every single muscle fiber ached, his ribs felt bruised, and worst of all, his head felt incredibly light and dizzy, spinning with a nauseating vertigo.

He forced himself into a sitting position, leaning his back heavily against the damp cavern wall. He closed his eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths, allowing the freezing air to cool his burning lungs.

He couldn’t stay like this. He needed to move.

Focusing inward he activated his S-Rank active skill: Abyssal Healing.

Instantly, a deep, pulsing green aura erupted from his skin. The vibrant light washed over the dim cave, illuminating the stalactites and casting long, dancing shadows behind the scattered rocks.

The healing energy sank directly into his cells. The torn muscle fibers in his back seamlessly knitted themselves back together, the deep bruising faded from his ribs, and the agonizing dizziness in his skull evaporated, replaced by a profound, refreshing clarity.

Within seconds, he was all better. The green light faded, sinking back into his skin.

"Fuck this," Hide muttered, his voice raspy as he slowly cracked his neck. "How long have I been out?"

In response to his question, a small puff of thick dark mana escaped from his chest. The smoke swirled and condensed in the air right beside his shoulder, quickly taking the shape of a small, ethereal, reptilian head.

It was the miniature manifestation of the Blue Lightning Dragon, his phantom!

"You were out for almost twelve human hours, my liege," the dragon told him, its telepathic voice deep and ancient, yet perfectly clear in Hide’s mind.

Hide gritted his teeth at the time frame. Twelve hours. He pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the dirt clinging to his jacket, and carefully stepped down the slanted floor toward the cave entrance.

He stopped well far away from the edge, daring not to go too much closer to the precipice. The wind howling through the thick fog outside carried a strange, unnatural chill.

His True Sight made his blue irises glow with a brilliant, violet-ringed light. The mystical perception pierced straight through the dense, blinding fog, revealing the true landscape hidden beneath the clouds.

When Hide saw what lay beyond the fog, he violently winced, his breath catching in his throat.

Even after everything he had witnessed and learned, one day here was not going to make him used to this sight.

Stretching out before him in the endless, cloudy abyss were mountains. But they weren’t jutting out from the earth. There were almost a hundred small, medium, and massive mountains... floating entirely upside down.

They hung suspended in the sky like colossal teeth, their flattened bases facing the heavens while their sharp, rocky peaks pointed down into an infinite, swirling void.

Hide was currently inside a gate.

Yes. Well, no matter how absurd it might sound, the truth of the matter was that he was inside a weird gate—something that he had absolutely no idea even existed until yesterday.

Hide stared at the impossible, floating continent, his fists slowly clenching at his sides. After the events of the last day, and all the horrifying information that he had learned, his whole view of the world had shifted.

Everything he thought he knew about the world of beasts and Exterminators, the origin of the Calamity Beasts, and the true purpose of the gates had been just the tip of an iceberg.

What he had learned might as well be considered forbidden knowledge However, it was incomplete still. He had pieces of a massive, terrifying puzzle, but he was missing the core truth.

He needed to find it.

Hide turned his back on the upside-down mountains and started walking up the steep slope of the cave, heading deeper into its unlit depths.

"My Liege, you need to take more break!" Drogon’s shadowy face floated beside him, its glowing eyes filled with concern. "Your Vitality isn’t high enough."

Hide stopped. His eyes darkened into cold, lethal slits. He glared sideways at the floating phantom.

"Shut up, Drogon," Hide snapped back, his voice dripping with venom. "Your work is not telling me what to do and what not to do!"

The tiny dragon flinched, lowering its ethereal head submissively. Hide turned away, grinding his teeth. He didn’t like it when this dragon called him that. He didn’t care if the talent had bound its soul in absolute loyalty; at the end of the day, it was still a Calamity Beast.

It was a monster that had slaughtered several innocent humans. Having it act like a worried servant made his skin crawl.

Besides, Drogon was right about one thing: he was pushing his limits. He had already spent far too much time trapped in this bizarre dimension. It was not where he was supposed to be.

’The World Tournament, ’Hide thought, a sharp spike of anxiety piercing his chest.’ It would have already started by now.’

He was supposed to be there. What was going on back in Ufrifa? Was he already disqualified for missing the opening ceremony? How were Sora, Claire, Gideon, and the others doing without him? Were they worried because he had vanished into thin air?

But Hide forcefully stopped himself from thinking about all these things. He firmly locked his emotions away, turning his focus entirely to the present reality.

He finally reached the end of the steep incline. The floor abruptly dropped away, revealing a massive, vertical tunnel leading straight down into utter, suffocating darkness.

Hide didn’t hesitate. He stepped over the ledge and jumped.

The wind roared in his ears as he plummeted through the pitch-black shaft. He activated his Weightless skill at the last possible second, drastically reducing his mass.

THUD.

He landed perfectly on his legs, the impact echoing loudly in the vast space. He had reached the very bottom, inside the core of the central mountain of this impossible place called the Mountain Corpse Land.

Hide slowly stood up, his True Sight illuminating the cavern.

In front of him, the entire mountain had almost been hollowed out from the inside. The walls were scarred with ancient destruction and massive claw marks.

At the center of the ruins, hovering just inches above the shattered stone floor, was a massive, flawless Emerald crystal. The pristine green gem was entirely suffocated by horrendous amounts of pulsing, violently swirling Dark mana.