We came out of the portal into silence.

  I staggered forward, boots crunching on what appeared to be shattered glass. The sky above was a bruised gray, heavy with clouds that didn’t move. Around me, the remnants of a city sprawled in every direction, cracked streets, collapsed towers, and skeletal buildings. A rusted sign hung from a bent lamppost, its letters half-erased by time.

  Balt coughed, waving away the dust. “Well. This is cheerful.”

  I looked around, but Lawson was nowhere to be found. The wind carried the scent of scorched metal and something older, mildew maybe, or decay. Glyphs flickered faintly on the walls of nearby ruins, pulsing like dying embers. I touched one, and it flared briefly before fading.

  “What is this place?" I asked. Not expecting any real answer, but a voice clear as day began to explain in a matter-of-fact tone.

  Lawson’s voice filled my mind. “This world was once a Dungeon Core world, like the one you guys came from. The dungeon populace failed to conquer it essentially. Causing the dungeon to break and overflow. All system protections failed. Monsters breached the safe zones that every floor has.

  Killing the combatants and noncombatants alike. As a further consequence of failing to conquer the dungeon. Monsters then swarmed the tethered worlds bound to it. Those worlds did not have the luxury of individuals with the System, magic or combat Talents to defend it.

  They fell quickly. This first Tutorial dungeon floor you’re walking through now is post-collapse. The System calls it a Dead World. I call it a cautionary tale for my charges.”

  As Lawson’s voice faded from my mind, the silence returned thicker now, like the world itself was holding its breath. Then came the sound. A distant clatter, like claws skittering across stone.

  Balt spun toward the noise, staff raised. “Company?”

  I summoned Ashbourne.

  From behind a collapsed building, a shape emerged, low to the ground, hunched, slithering on its belly. Its skin shimmered like cracked obsidian, and its eyes burned with a dull, violet glow. It didn’t charge.

  It just stood still, watching. “That is one big-ass snake,” squeaked Balt. "I hate snakes, I hate em”

  I stepped forward, blade drawn. “I cannot identify it. Is it some type of Variant that you talked about?... Lawson?”

  Lawson’s voice returned. “Not a variant. A Remnant Serpent. Left behind when the dungeon overflowed. I will give you a hint. Well, maybe more like a small tip… it looks hungry.”

  The creature twitched, then slithered with astonishing speed toward us.

  The serpent lunged, its body striking the broken pavement like a battering ram. Shards of glass and stone exploded outward. I met it head-on, Ashbourne blazing. The snake’s head struck with uncanny speed. I Flash Stepped past the creature’s head, avoiding the strike, moving further down its body, and struck out with Ashbourne. The blade clashed against scales tougher than iron. The impact rattled my arms to the shoulder. Leaving only a literal scratch on a scale.

  The snake had whipped its head around and was coming back for me. Balt activated Force Wall and slammed his staff down. A shockwave of force rippled outward, moving the snake less than a foot. The serpent’s massive head reared back to look at Balt, its violet eyes narrowing with eerie intelligence.

  “It shrugged that off!” Balt’s voice cracked. “That was supposed to launch it, not tickle it!”

  The serpent opened its mouth, revealing fangs that dripped with a shimmering black ichor. I ducked low, Flash Stepping out of the way. It was the right call. The venom streamed past me and melted a hole clean through a downed building behind me.

  Okay, that’s unfair.

  Lawson’s voice returned, dry as it could be. “It can be defeated if you two work together. Find its weakness and exploit it.”

  I circled, keeping the serpent’s eyes locked on me. My grip tightened on Ashbourne, the blade’s edge sparking faint silver fire as if responding to my resolve. I noticed the serpent’s eyes focus in on the blade. Every time the silver fire flared, I adjusted the blade, its head moved slightly, its eyes laser-focused on it. Like a dog with a ball. I threw the blade away towards the downed building.

  Sure enough, the snake went to strike out at the blade, opening its jaws wide. It's not trying to strike it. It's trying to swallow it.

  I dismissed then re-summoned it to my hand. The snake was still digging through the ruins where it thought the blade had gone in. “You see that, Balt? It’s attracted to magical weapons, I think. Can you distract it?”

  Balt made a strangled sound. “Me? Distract the snake that spits acid venom?... With what?”

  “Your staff! Make it bright as hell.” The old man looked at his staff, and I heard him say, I really like this staff though."

  The serpent had spun around at this point, figuring out the sword was not in the ruined building and staring right at me and the weapon in my hand again.

  Its body didn’t just strike out at me, it coiled, whipping its tail like a scythe. I was too slow to dodge completely; I activated my armor, and the impact caught the entire side of my body, sending me skidding across the cracked street and knocking the breath from my lungs.

  I heard Balt scream my name and watched him hurl a volley of Force Jolts, each one bursting into flares of golden light on the snakes' scales.

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  I staggered up, chest heaving. I raised my sword to let Balt know I was okay. “I’m up, Balt, do it now. Trust me!”

  “Alright,” Balt growled. “Let’s see how you like this one, you big bastard.” Balt slammed his staff into the ground. Golden light roared out of the runes carved along its length, swelling until it was nearly blinding. The serpent hissed and reared back to strike, its violet eyes narrowing in hunger as the brilliance of the staff burned.

  “Yeah, that’s right!” Balt shouted, voice shaking but loud. “Come get me, you oversized belt!”

  The serpent obliged. With terrifying speed, it lunged straight at Balt, jaws opening wide enough to swallow him whole. I Flash Stepped activating my boosting skill at the same time. Ashbourne blazing with silver fire. The blade thrummed in my hands as the distracted snake opened its mouth to swallow Balt’s staff. Instead of the meal it was expecting, its insides met his “Limit Breaker Slash.”

  Ashbourne howled with power as Limit Breaker Slash silver fire erupted in a sweeping arc, cleaving straight through the serpent’s open maw. For a heartbeat, time seemed to freeze, violet eyes widening in shock.

  Then, the snake imploded.

  A geyser of silver light burst from the serpent’s skull, tearing through its body in a thunderous ripple. Cracks raced down its length, glowing white-hot before collapsing inward. The beast writhed, a keening hiss rattling the ruins, then split apart in a storm of cinders and smoke.

  When the dust settled, only fragments remained of what used to be the serpent’s skull, chunks of obsidian scale scattered across the cracked street, each one steaming faintly with violet embers. Balt was there, Force Shielding us from the fallout.

  We both staggered back. Ashbourne’s glow guttered down to an ember. My knees threatened to give, but I kept myself upright, eyes fixed on the remains. The snake’s body was still convulsing and occasionally hitting Balt’s shield.

  Balt had gone to one knee, sweat pouring from him as he maintained the shield. Eventually, the snake’s body came to rest in the rubble of a downed building. “Finally,” was all Balt got out before he dismissed his shield. I exhaled slowly, then dismissed Ashbourne with a flicker of thought. “It’s dead.”

  “Miracle you two are not,” Lawson’s voice cut through the heavy silence, cool and clinical. “If that serpent hadn’t fixated on Balt’s energy, or it had better magical resistance, you both would be digesting in its gut right now."

  ”Well, it worked,” I retorted.

  Lawson’s voice raised slightly then. “What if it would have just been attracted to your magical energy alone, Riven?” Lawson actually appeared this time, pointing his finger at him. “That little display Balt put on took over half his mana. If it had failed, you would have crippled your party member's fighting power for no reason.” “You guessed and based your whole strategy on a hunch; that could have gone very badly for both of you. Caution can be thrown to the wind sometimes, but information is the key on these monster types. You guessed right this time, but next time you could be wrong."

  I felt chastised. But acknowledged the man's point with a nod.

  "Balt, you have to pick up some kind of movement skill with your next Talent point. You’re basically a sitting duck out there while Riven zips all over the place."

  Balt groaned, still kneeling, sarcasm leaking out. “Thanks for the pep talk. I really needed that.”

  Lawson ignored him. “And you, Riven, your Flash Step was good, but it could have been better. You waited until the strike was already in motion. You also activated your boosting skill for no real reason and incurred a massive cooldown. You’re burning through tons of mana for a few high-performance moments. It’s not sustainable. You will not always have the luxury of finishing a fight quickly.”

  My jaw tightened, but I nodded. “Understood. And I am aware that I am a glass cannon at the moment, but I have no idea what I could have done differently with my current kit.”

  A pause stretched out, filled only by the distant moan of wind through the broken buildings. Then Lawson’s tone softened just slightly. “Several things that we will now work on as we continue to clear this floor. That said… you did adapt. You exploited its weakness, you bought time, and you struck when the opportunity presented itself. Imperfect, but you did survive. Any free stat points you get, put into spirit for now to help with your cooldown speed.”

  Balt rolled his eyes. “Heaven forbid we actually impress you.”

  “Impress me when you no longer bleed for mistakes on just the first enemy," Lawson fired back.

  I glanced once more at the smoking ruins of the serpent. “What now?”

  Balt dragged himself to his feet, wiping sweat from his brow. “Yeah, what now? Several deadly fights in a short span of days begs the question of what’s next?” He looked around, unease plain on his face.

  Lawson sighed and then spoke. “Start by clearing the city of monsters, and we will go from there. Remember, this is a tutorial dungeon; you are here to be shown how to do things properly and how a dungeon functions.”

  My gaze swept the shattered skyline. Faint glyphs still pulsed on the ruined walls, dim but persistent, like dying embers that refused to go out. “Okay, let’s get started.”

  Lawson’s voice returned, quiet now. “Good man, show me why the System marked you as its champion.”

  “Champion?”

  “Yes,” Lawson replied, his voice matter-of-fact. That’s what they called you in my dungeon run back in the day. But for a long time, your type has been known as Outliers.”

  Those marked by the System to help aid struggling worlds. Your presence in that world is both an asset… and a warning that the world is struggling to close its dungeon.”

  I exchanged a look with Balt, but the mage threw up his hands. “Don’t look at me. I barely know what I’m doing here, let alone what you’re supposed to be.”

  “Then you’ll both learn,” Lawson replied simply. “Start clearing.”

  The hours that followed blurred together, skirmishes with scattered creatures lingering in the ruins. Nothing matched the serpent in scale or danger, but it wore on me all the same. Step by step, street by broken street, we pressed deeper into the city. By the time twilight settled, I had found what remained of an old market square. Collapsed awnings flapped weakly in the stagnant wind. The stone was cracked, but intact enough to build a fire. For once, silence didn’t seem like a threat to me.

  Me and Balt had both picked up a level clearing the mobs, and I did as Lawson had told me and put his extra stat point into spirit.

  I sat with my back against a toppled statue, examining Ashbourne in the firelight. Balt sprawled beside the fire, muttering about sore legs and a hungry belly.

  “Tutorial dungeon, huh?” Balt grumbled, poking the flames with his staff. “Feels more like a non-stop death trap. Congratulations! You survived your first murder-snake! Now go scrub the ruins clean!’”

  I smirked faintly, but my gaze lingered on the shadows stretching beyond the square. Champion. Outlier. The words gnawed at me, sharp and uncertain. I was always a high-speed individual in the military, but with an entire world to save, scratch that, worlds to save. Could I do it? I have not even figured out a way to find and save my sister yet. I have to get strong enough to be able to do something about it when I do find them. Then I will worry about this save everything deal.

  Lawson’s voice did not return. Which was a small blessing from all the “Advice,” as he called it, he had been handing out all day. The fire crackled. The Dead World seemed… still.

  Balt stood up and took up a guard position, seeing my state. “I’ll take first watch.” I nodded in gratitude. I had used Limit Break every time it came off cooldown, and my body was sore and exhausted.

  It wouldn’t last. But for now, they took what peace they could.

  I forced myself to breathe, one slow draw at a time. Tomorrow would bring more battles, more lessons, more burdens. But tonight, tonight there was fire, silence, and the fragile comfort of surviving one more day.

  I let my eyes drift shut, hand resting on Ashbourne at my side. For now, that was enough.