Chapter 58

Chapter 58
## Chapter 58: The Demigod’s Sanctuary

*Thud.*

In a flash, he was yanked back to his starting point.

What just happened?

‘Was that some kind of hallucination?’

He stood there, dazed and struggling to process the moment. What kind of insanity was this?

But the sensation was far too visceral to be a dream.

*Thud.*

*Thud.*

*Thud.*

Again and again. The cycle repeated—thud, thud, thud-thud-thud.

His head began to swim, and a wave of nausea rolled over him. The landscape was a blurring kaleidoscope, flickering incessantly as his physical coordinates were forcibly reset. The horizon flipped between the dirt and the sky, the gap between him and his target shrinking with every sickening jump.

Suddenly, Massacre found himself standing out in the open, away from his carriage.

In the distance, at the very thicket where he had been lurking, the silhouette of the armored warrior appeared. Their positions were flickering like a broken film, swapping back and forth as they drew closer.

When they finally stood face-to-face:

“Glaaaagh—!”

His guts cramped violently, and he heaved, vomiting uncontrollably.

That was the breaking point.

Massacre slumped over, falling face-first into the steaming mess he had just produced. The world continued to tilt and spin; he was powerless to even lift a finger.

“Hmph.”

That mocking snort was the final sound to reach Massacre’s ears before the light faded from his eyes.

—

《A Chaos-aligned murderer has been eliminated.》

《Your Honor has increased by 30.》

《You have obtained ‘Fragment of the Shattered Golden Rule (49h)’.》

‘So, it was a player.’

I rubbed my jaw while scanning the translucent notifications.

A PK specialist—someone whose soul had turned “Chaos” from the sheer volume of players they’d slaughtered. Considering the 49-hour Fragment of the Golden Rule that dropped, there was no doubt about their identity.

Did someone send a level 10 hitman to intercept me? Or was this just a random encounter?

‘Massacre.’

I opened the Hall of Fame. Sure enough, Massacre’s entry had been scrubbed clean. Among the top-tier rankings, he was the only name that had blinked out of existence.

‘That freak tried to ambush me but ran straight into Serengeti instead.’

Massacre was notorious—a bottom-feeder who preyed on low-level players. They called him the “Beginner Slayer.” He likely thought I’d be an easy mark now that I was active, but he’d made a fatal miscalculation.

Serengeti was a 1-star Transcendent. Even at a single star, she was a powerhouse capable of trading blows with 2-star Transcendents. That raw utility was exactly why I kept her by my side as my primary protector.

‘If Massacre was the one here, it suggests the major powers aren’t in play yet.’

It made sense. I’d anticipated an assassination attempt around this time. If a solo player like Massacre was the only one on my tail, it was actually good news. It meant the organized player factions hadn’t locked onto my location.

“He didn’t even last long enough for me to break a sweat,” Serengeti remarked, sounding like she’d just finished a casual stroll.

Level 10 was a significant threshold of power, but there remained a vast, uncrossable chasm between a high-level player and a true Transcendent.

“You didn’t take a scratch,” I noted.

“Just rely on me. I’ll make short work of the rest.”

*Clang!*

She struck her chest plate, radiating an air of absolute certainty. I only hoped that bravado wouldn’t turn into a scream later on.

After trekking through the woods for a while, we reached the mouth of a colossal cavern.

“A dragon’s nest…?”

Serengeti’s expression went rigid as she took in the scale of the cave. Openings of this magnitude were rare; usually, they belonged to the apex predators of the world.

“It’s the resting place of a fallen ancient dragon.”

An nameless, ancient dragon’s lair. This was the threshold to the Demigod Dungeon. As we stepped away from the carriage and moved toward the dark maw:

*Hummm!*

The air at the entrance began to vibrate. It was a shimmering ward, a barrier placed by the dragon to filter out the unworthy.

《The barrier has confirmed your credentials.》

《Group size: 4 participants.》

《Under the Demigod’s decree, all participants are bound by the following constraints:》

1. All attributes are normalized to (20).
2. All active and passive skills are sealed.
3. All previously held tools are forbidden.
4. All previously held equipment is forbidden.

A Trait Dungeon. This was a place where your progress meant nothing; you had to survive based on your raw talent and inherent traits. Everything was stripped away—except for the fundamental authority granted by devouring stars during transcendence.

When the powerful and the weak are forced onto a level playing field, betrayal becomes the only currency. The very design of the dungeon practically begged for backstabbing, turning the experience into a meat grinder. Tools and gear could only be found within, and even then, they came with restrictive “usage requirements” that made them a nightmare to manage.

《‘Main Quest 6: Clear a Group Dungeon’ has been initiated.》

《This objective concludes upon the completion of your first ‘Group Dungeon.’》

《Reward: Scaled based on the difficulty and tier of the cleared dungeon.》

The notification for Quest 6 popped up. I didn’t hesitate; my aim was to dominate this place and set an untouchable record.

Then, something unexpected happened.

《The ‘Heart of the Eternal Lord’ defies the ‘Demigod’s’ pressure.》

《The ‘Heart of the Eternal Lord’ has nullified one of the ‘Demigod’s’ constraints.》

《Constraint ‘3. All previously held tools are forbidden’ has been purged.》

The hidden trait that had transitioned from the Iron-Blooded Lord’s Heart into the Eternal Lord’s Heart was proving its worth.

‘Condition erasure…’

The original Iron-Blooded version was a defensive trait; it kept me calm and shielded my mind from psychic interference. It was a top-tier trait that allowed me to stand before the White King without flinching, but it didn’t offer a proactive edge.

However, in its Eternal form, it wasn’t just resisting the Demigod’s aura—it was actively rewriting the rules. I’d never heard of a trait capable of deleting dungeon conditions. This was beyond the scope of a standard “ability”; it was a fundamental breaking of the game’s logic.

One of the Demigod’s four absolute laws—the ban on items—had been dismantled. This wouldn’t be a one-time fluke either; it would likely apply to other restricted towers or specialized dungeons.

‘…This is incredible.’

I felt a slight tremor in my shoulders at the sheer potential of the Eternal Lord’s Heart. In a environment where everyone is reset to zero, I was starting with a one. In a race where everyone has to run the same distance, I wasn’t just a step ahead—I was already at the halfway mark.

‘I could have prepped more before the threshold.’

We hadn’t fully crossed the point of no return yet. Since I could use tools, I could have brought in a specialized arsenal.

《The Demigod’s will is initiating an immediate party teleportation.》

No more room for side-tracking. A bit of a shame, but the advantage I already had was more than enough.

—

“Hmm…”

Following her sit-down with Gracia, Kim Hana began a deep dive into the global activities of the Dimension Warriors.

Who were these people? Where did they truly originate? And what was the reality behind the “descent” they claimed to experience?

“Why so gloomy, Kim Won?”

The question came from within the CK Broadcasting Network’s specialized Warrior department. Kim Hana was hunched over her notes, lost in thought. When her colleague, Seo Jung-ah, spoke up, Kim Hana let out a weary breath.

“I’m stuck. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“The legendary ‘Kim Won’ is actually stumped?”

“My name is Kim Hana… forget it.”

Kim Hana waved it off. Ever since the Gracia interview, everyone at the station had started calling her “Kim Won.”

“What’s the issue?”

“Something feels off. A subtle inconsistency.”

“Regarding what?”

“The testimony of the Dimension Warriors. It feels like they’re all reading from the same script, hiding the same secret…”

“They seemed consistent to me,” Seo Jung-ah countered. “Every interview I’ve done, the stories match perfectly.”

That was exactly the problem. The Warriors all told the same tale, almost word-for-word: they were noble souls from another realm who had traveled across space to save Earth, using human bodies as temporary shells for their “descended” spirits.

But Kim Hana’s intuition was screaming that they were omitting the truth.

“Do you really think these people are heroes?”

“You mean the ‘Eight Heroes of the Otherworld’? It sounds like a comic book, but the other Warriors treat them with such reverence that it has to be true.”

“Do people usually feel terror toward heroes?”

“Terror?”

The concept of a hero was simple: they were the protectors of the world, the ones who shouldered the burden of duty. So why was there an undercurrent of fear among the rank-and-file Warriors?

Seo Jung-ah hadn’t noticed it, and likely neither had any other reporter. But Kim Hana saw it: a deep, reflexive dread that the Warriors themselves seemed to have normalized. They feared these “heroes” more than the monsters they were supposed to fight.

That suspicion had only solidified today. She opened her notebook, looking at a small yellow slip of paper she’d found hidden inside.

*- Do not put your faith in those who call themselves heroes.*
*- There are no Dimension Warriors. There are only addicts.*

Three cryptic lines. Someone had deliberately planted this in her notebook, despite the heavy security at the office. The surveillance footage showed nothing, and it was unlikely anyone on the staff was playing a prank.

“Can you make this out?” she asked, showing the note.

“What is it? Just a bunch of random scribbles?”

To everyone else, the note looked like meaningless ink blots. It only resolved into legible text for her. Only a Dimension Warrior could use that kind of encoded script.

‘Only the seven who claim the title of hero.’

Gracia, the Master, and five others. Exactly seven, as they were still hunting for the eighth, Wilhelm. The message was a warning against that inner circle.

‘”There are no Dimension Warriors.” What does that even mean? And what kind of “addicts”?’

The word carried so many connotations. Drugs? Power? Gambling?

*- What is your link to the owner of ‘Hydragon’? Do you know his whereabouts?*

Gracia had pressed her with that question during their talk. She had been asking about the man who commanded the titan known as Hydragon—the same man who had saved Kim Hana from a Giant Mantis, and again at the steakhouse in Cheongdam.

They weren’t close, but a sudden, icy instinct had made Kim Hana deny any connection.

‘Is he linked to Park Hyun-myeong?’

The fleeting thought that he might be the “Warrior” who controlled Hydragon crossed her mind, but she dismissed it as a reach. But what if it wasn’t? What if it was true? Should she report it?

That cold shiver she felt from Gracia suggested the search wasn’t born out of gratitude. Furthermore, Gracia had recently appeared in the Eunpyeong District. A massive pillar of light had dominated the skyline, and Kim Hana knew Gracia was the source.

Kim Hana lived in that district. She had seen the light with her own eyes.

‘Why Eunpyeong?’

Aside from being her home, it was where she first encountered Park Hyun-myeong. It was also the site where the Hydragon’s master had killed the Mantis. It made sense for Gracia to look there, but her motives remained dark.

‘She was ready to destroy the entire district…’

It seemed extreme, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that Gracia was anything but a savior. The seeds of doubt had been planted: perhaps these “heroes” were the real threat.

—

The transition to the dungeon left me with a momentary wave of vertigo. My stats were now locked at 20, and my specialized gear had vanished. Fortunately, the Demigod had left us with basic clothing—a shirt and pants—to avoid total embarrassment.

“Ugh.”

Serengeti, Isaac, and Isabella all stumbled, their faces pale. The sudden, drastic drop in their physical capabilities was a shock to the system.

Serengeti was the first to steady herself. She looked toward the center of the chamber.

“The equipment is over there.”

As she pointed out, a selection of weapons and armor was laid out for us to choose from. But a nearby stone monument detailed the catch.

《Select only one item per person.》

《Attempting to take more than one will result in a random attribute penalty for your teammates.》

It was a strict one-item limit. Serengeti tilted her head in confusion.

“What does it mean by ‘teammates’ stats dropping’?”

“It means if you get greedy, the other three people pay the price in lost attributes.”

“This Demigod is a real piece of work,” Serengeti muttered, her face darkening.

This was just the appetizer—a warning of the psychological warfare the dungeon would employ.

“If we only get one pick each, we should grab weapons first, right?”

In a party built for high damage, it seemed like the logical choice. But I shook my head.

“A single weapon is plenty.”

“Only one?”

“The rest of us need to prioritize a shield, heavy armor, and a helmet.”

Serengeti paused, then nodded as she saw the logic in my plan.