The Hidden Dungeon

Monroe Jace walked up to the mahogany counter the moment Zane Sutton nervously scurried out the glass doors of the Lore Tome Pavilion. His eyes locked onto Kaelen immediately. Monroe had heard the entire exchange from the back aisles, his expression unreadable as he rested his elbows on the polished wood.

His tone turned serious and probing. "Okay kid, you are much braver now. Are you not at all afraid that Caleb Brant's squad will continuously harass and hunt you down in the game?"

Kaelen met his gaze calmly, his posture relaxed but firm. "Based on my understanding of Caleb Brant's petty nature, the man will not stop until he gets rid of his anger. He holds grudges like a lifeline."

"So what are your plans?" Monroe asked, tapping his fingers against the counter.

"If enemies come, I will stop them. If water comes, I will build earthen embankments. If I cannot even get past Caleb Brant, there is no point in talking about the future." Kaelen pushed away from the counter, his eyes carrying a sharp, defiant determination. He refused to let the looming threat of Caleb block his future in the professional scene again. He was done hiding. He resolved to face the impending attacks head-on and beat his former tormentor into undeniable submission.

Monroe maintained his strict, stoic front, though a flicker of approval crossed his eyes. "How many moves can you use the Eight Trigram Stick technique now?"

"With my current hand speed and mechanical execution, I can execute forty-eight continuous moves."

Internally, Monroe was amazed. Monroe remembered the days of the old professional circuits. Even the most gifted rookies he had mentored took months to reach forty moves. Reaching that terrifying level in mere weeks was an astounding achievement. Yet, he kept his voice cold and analytical. "If you plan to face the same coordinated professional group as before, your current abilities will make it difficult to survive."

"Then what is the threshold?" Kaelen asked.

"Either find reliable helpers to cover your flanks, or lock yourself in practice until you can seamlessly chain fifty-five moves."

Choosing self-reliance, Kaelen logged back into the game. He spent every single spare moment relentlessly striking the wooden dummies in the server's superb training ground. The Eight Trigram Stick technique focused heavily on constant, unpredictable variation. A low sweep transitioned into a rising strike, followed by a heavy overhead smash. The further into the combo sequence he progressed, the harder it became to maintain control. It required precise hand speed and a flawless grasp of the transition mechanics between each swing.

*Smack. Crack. Thud.*

His avatar's wooden staff blurred into a sweeping arc, striking the target dummies with rhythmic precision. Sweat would have beaded on his real-world forehead from the intense mental concentration alone. Kaelen pushed his physical and mental limits to the brink, counting the strikes. Forty-five. Forty-six. Forty-seven. Forty-eight. Forty-nine. Fifty.

Then, his rhythm faltered. The staff caught on the dummy's wooden arm for a fraction of a second, shattering the combo chain. The required speed and the seamless transitions between strikes kept him firmly trapped at a frustrating bottleneck. Getting to fifty consecutive moves was an agonizing hurdle. Breaking through to fifty-five felt like trying to punch through a steel wall.

That evening, as he reset his stance for another grueling set, a server-wide system alert flashed across his screen in bright red text.

[System Announcement: Dear omni players, a hidden dungeon is opening soon somewhere in the vast Land of Ethereal Void. Please be prepared.]

Hidden dungeons were extreme-difficulty instances randomly dropped across various regions. Finding them required immense luck or a massive search party to scour the map. Beating them yielded incredible loot and potential official easter eggs. Knowing the sheer randomness involved, Kaelen chose to ignore the alert. Prioritizing his crucial martial arts training on the wooden stakes was far more important than chasing ghosts across the Ethereal Void.

He gripped his staff, ready to restart his sequence.

A private message icon blinked furiously in his peripheral vision, breaking his intense focus. He opened it, expecting a server update, but found a message from the calculating streamer, Night Dreamer.

"Boss, where are you? Are you interested in a hidden copy?"

Before he could even type a refusal, a second message popped up.

"Hurry up to the square and find me at my usual place. I know the exact coordinates of the hidden boss!"

Those words instantly changed Kaelen's calculus. Wandering aimlessly to find a dungeon was a waste of time, but having the exact coordinates was a different matter. The powerful lure of high-tier hidden copy loot was simply too strong to resist. He sheathed his staff and headed straight for the crowded player hub.

The Ethereal Square was a bustling hub of activity, filled with merchants shouting prices and players forming groups. Meeting her amidst the crowded plaza, Kaelen found Night Dreamer sporting a flashy new cosmetic aesthetic for her stream. She wore her hair in double pigtails, camouflage lines painted on her cheeks, a black leather skirt, and knee-high brown combat boots.

"How did you get the exact location?" Kaelen asked, crossing his arms.

Night Dreamer smiled and adjusted her leather belt. "Of course it is because I have a wide network of contacts. But right now, there is a problem."

"Explain."

"The physical location of this copy was discovered by an entire massive player alliance. They have already locked down the area."

Kaelen's eyes narrowed slightly. "I understand. You are worried that the other party has a large number of people, and going there alone will not help. So why are you looking for me?"

She admitted her flaw, looking up at him. "I do not know many veteran players in this new area. And you are the one with the best raw strength I know."

Kaelen strongly suspected she merely wanted to exploit his high-level skills for her broadcast again, using him as the muscle while she raked in the viewership. Despite the obvious calculation on her part, the chance to secure a hidden boss kill pushed his doubts aside. He agreed to orchestrate the heist.

"The two of us alone are not enough to hijack a boss from a full alliance," Kaelen stated flatly.

"That is easy to say. I will just find a few more people. Do not worry! They are all veterans."

Moving swiftly, Night Dreamer navigated her friends list and rapidly recruited three more players: a saint, a warlock, and a ghost. With their makeshift five-person squad assembled, Night Dreamer led them out of the safe zone and up a steep, winding mountain path.

They eventually reached a high, overlooking cliff that provided perfect concealment while offering a clear, unobstructed view of the valley floor. Directly below their vantage point, a massive, organized alliance of nearly sixty players stood in tight formation with weapons drawn. Kaelen crouched near the edge of the rock face, observing the situation with a keen, calculating tactical focus. Hidden copies often drew multiple rival alliances, creating a chaotic battlefield where a small team could slip in unnoticed. Facing a single, unified alliance of this size was tricky.

She crouched beside him, keeping her voice low. "Boss, what should we do now?"

"Wait. Let us observe the situation first," Kaelen ordered, keeping his eyes glued to the valley.

Minutes passed in tense silence. Suddenly, the ground trembled. A massive crypt tore through the earth's surface, fracturing the dirt and sending shockwaves up the cliff side.

The alliance leader shouted from below, his voice echoing up the rock walls. "The copy is open! Everyone prepare for battle!"

A chorus of screeches erupted from the dark opening. Hundreds of low-level goblin beasts poured out in a frenzied, chaotic wave. The alliance vanguard met them instantly. Fireballs, ice shards, and holy light illuminated the valley, bombarding the screeching beasts into the air. Despite the goblins' low individual levels, the sheer volume of their numbers was staggering. The alliance held their ground, suffering minimal casualties under the initial onslaught.

Less than five minutes later, the crypt entrance collapsed in a suffocating cloud of thick dust. The rising dirt obscured the cavern, making it impossible to see what was emerging.

A deafening roar shook the valley floor. A massive, terrifying Chrono Heaven level five boss—the Gibbon—crashed heavily into the alliance's front lines.

Players went flying like broken toys.

Casualties immediately spiked among the alliance ranks. The giant ape wreaked havoc, its thick, muscular arms smashing through shields and armor with terrifying ease. Shockwaves rippled through the dirt with every step it took, sending vanguard tanks tumbling backward. Seeing a high-tier boss in a lower-level region like the Ethereal Void meant the alliance was in for a brutal fight.

From the safety of the cliff, Kaelen observed the slaughter with sharp interest. His eyes quickly locked onto the alliance leader standing in the center of the formation. Kaelen quickly noted that the man was hopelessly incompetent.

As soon as the Gibbon appeared, the leader frantically commanded his forces to blindly spam their ultimate attacks. He barked orders without any semblance of tactical hierarchy or cooldown management. There was no rotation, no spacing, and no strategic layering of damage. Mages burned their mana pools in seconds. Warriors blew their defensive cooldowns while the boss was barely scratched.

This desperate release of skills would rapidly fuel the Gibbon's rage value. By burning all their high-damage abilities at the start, the alliance would inevitably fall into a prolonged period of weakness during the later stages of the fight when the boss entered its enraged state. It created a crucial, exploitable vulnerability for Kaelen to leverage.

Night Dreamer watched the Gibbon's health bar slowly tick down. She shifted her weight nervously, growing impatient.

She tugged at her leather skirt eagerly. "Boss, do you have a plan? When do we strike?"

"Wait," Kaelen ordered coldly, not taking his eyes off the giant ape smashing through the vanguard.

"How about I leak the coordinates to the global chat? We can draw in a rival alliance. If two alliances compete, it will cause massive chaos, and we can easily profit from the ensuing mess!"

Kaelen shot down the absurd proposal with a sharp glare. "No. Drawing in a stronger, better-led alliance will only obliterate our slim chances of stealing this kill. A competent leader would wipe us out before we even got close to the boss."

She crossed her arms defensively, pouting slightly. "But that is exactly how it works in popular TV dramas! The two clams compete, and the fisherman reaps the rewards."

Kaelen retorted, "You think this is in a TV series? We don't have Ye Qiu's strength."