"What the hell are you doing, Austin? Are you stupid? There’s a scrap fang coming from your left!"

  I shouted from a safe distance, watching the dwarf struggle against the pack of hyena-like monsters.

  "You gotta cast your spells, man—come on. It's just like back in Cssic Adventure!"

  I kept talking while sitting on the rough sand of the wastend that stretched before the Purpur Woods.

  "Bro how am I supposed to know? I was a goddamn vanguard back then, you moron!"

  The harsh wind tried to shove sand straight into my face, but I wrapped myself in a simple protective yer of wind that kept my eyes clear.

  Austin, on the other hand, had to constantly rub his eyes just to keep his vision.

  "You bastard! I thought you were gonna carry me for a bit—what the fuck are you doing there, just leeching off the XP I farm?!"

  He roared, swinging his staff into the snout of a scrap fang. It yelped, stumbling back with a whine.

  "Ew, no. Like hell I carry you, mate. You can farm yourself— I helped you enough with Borealis already!"

  I chuckled.

  Right on cue, the sand beneath me bulged.

  A sandworm tried to come up from underneath—too bad for it I’d already felt it coming.

  Instead of getting a taste of my juicy ass, it bit down on a spiky ice ball.

  It punctured clean through its mouth.

  "You have sin a Sandworm level 5"

  The system announced it like always, completely unbothered.

  I didn’t even look away though.

  I just kept watching Austin struggle against the horde of hyenas with a pleasant smile on my face.

  A scrap fang yipped, then snapped its teeth mid-air like it was ughing.

  Austin, not finding it as amusing, gritted his teeth and swung his wand.

  “Boulder!”

  He shouted, and a rge stone ball tore through the air at the disrespectful hyena. It sank in deep, shattering on impact—along with the beast’s yellow teeth.

  Blood dripped from its now empty maw, its whining drowned out by the wet gurgle of its own breath.

  “Hah, that’s what you get, you little shit!”

  Austin chuckled, his tiny body heaving with each breath.

  Meanwhile, I was still sitting on the sand a good distance away—just barely outside their aggro range. But the longer it dragged on, the more bored I got.

  “Man, are you gonna finish this shit anytime soon? You’ve been fighting these doggos for fifteen minutes now.”

  I didn’t even wait for an answer.

  With a sigh, I finally stood up—ready to help him for once. I stretched my back until it cracked, then started walking over.

  “This would be over faster if you just got your zy ass up and helped for a bit!”

  Austin screamed—still not realizing I was already right beside him.

  “Yeah, yeah. Just step back for a moment…”

  I said in a monotone voice, walking straight into the pack of Scrap Fangs. Austin flinched so hard he almost dropped his wand.

  Not a single one of the creatures dared to attack me.

  Their AI knew better.

  So other than yipping and growling, they didn’t do anything—just shuffled backward like they were suddenly allergic to confidence.

  I looked at them one by one. Every time my eyes met theirs, they retreated another half-step.

  “No backbone… always picking on the weak.”

  I sighed, pulling out my wand and pointing it at the sky.

  “Voltstrike Storm.”

  The words left my lips—and my mana bar dropped with them.

  A heartbeat ter, lightning fell like a punishment.

  A barrage of furious strikes smmed into the hyenas, burning most of them to a crisp—some exploding so hard they kicked sand into the air.

  In an instant, nothing remained but swirling dust… and the smell of burned fur and flesh.

  “You have sin a pack of Scrap Fangs, Level 3.”

  The system announced it in the same distant, robotic voice as always.

  I dusted off my hands and headed back to Austin, who was just standing there, breathing heavily.

  I pced my palm on his pted shoulder and gave him a small smirk—earning only a low growl in return.

  “What’s wrong, little guy?”

  I asked, rubbing my nose as he turned away. His curly hair fell halfway down his broad back.

  “We could level so much faster if your ass stopped amusing yourself with my struggle and actually helped!”

  He huffed, digging through his inventory—rummaging around in that almost crude, bottomless leather bag.

  “Ay, come on. Where’s the fun if I help you speedrun levels without you actually doing anything?”

  I defended myself, my focus drifting to the side of my vision—Austin’s low health bar, and the number next to it.

  A ten, glowing pristine white.

  “And hey—finally. You hit level ten,” I said, already stepping past him and marking the next location on my map. “Which means we can finally move on from killing hordes of Scrap Fangs.”

  “Oh? So what do you have in mind next?”

  He asked, nimbly catching up on short legs. He stared up at me while I tried to pinpoint the exact coordinates.

  “What do you think?” I grinned. “We’re going boss hunting.”

  The dwarf just looked at me for a moment, then shook his head, ughing.

  “Of course you’d say that…” He exhaled. “You do remember we can’t respawn, right?”

  “Of course, mate. Chill out,” I chuckled. “Me and Pup—the other person in the party—found a dungeon a while ago. The boss is level ten, but the swarm mobs are only level four to six. Sometimes a level eight if we’re unlucky.”

  I pushed on south through the wastend, not even slowing down.

  Austin shook his shoulders, huffing grimly.

  “Hah. Easy for you to say. But me? One little slip means bye-bye, One Time Mage.”

  I gnced down at him—he was struggling to keep up with the way I moved, unnaturally fast for his species.

  “Rex. I can solo this dungeon by now,” I said. “It’s nothing more than an XP farm at this point.”

  I pivoted and started walking backward, facing him directly, wearing a bright, slimy smile.

  “So if anything happens, I’m gonna save you, princess.”

  I ughed, waiting for his reaction.

  Austin just stared at me in silence.

  …Yeah. That made it awkward.

  “Whatever. We’re almost there anyway.”

  By the time the sun dipped low and set the sky on fire, we finally arrived—standing in front of a massive boulder with a steep tunnel cutting down beneath it.

  It swallowed darkness whole.

  The feeling of being watched should’ve been a sign to stop.

  For me, it wasn’t.

  Austin hesitated—long enough for me to notice and turn around.

  “Man, don’t shit your pants,” I mocked. “Come on. It ain’t that scary. You’re just being a pussy.”

  “Shut up,” he snapped. “Might I remind you what happened back in Inhumanized?!”

  For a moment, my heart stalled.

  My throat went dry.

  That name—that abomination of a game—hit me like a punch. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time, and now the cave suddenly felt a million times worse.

  But I couldn’t fumble now.

  Not in front of Austin.

  So while I was almost literally crapping my pants, I stepped forward any

  way—deeper into the dark.

  The system chimed the moment I crossed the threshold, perfectly timed to scare the soul out of me.

  “You have entered a dungeon: Tomb of Scrap.”