The ink hadn't even dried on Luka's report when the receptionist stamped it with the Guild's wax seal and handed over a heavy pouch of coins.
"Payment processed. You'll get the bonus for boss-clearance within the week—provided your details check out with the field team," the receptionist said, eyes scanning over the form again. "You handled it alone?"
Luka tucked the pouch into his belt. "There wasn't time to wait for a squad. It was spreading."
The receptionist gave him a strange look—half-respect, half-concern. "You know… most Rangers your age take up gathering quests. Maybe scare off a wolf or two."
Luka only shrugged. "Most Rangers don't have a baby dragon."
As if summoned, Snow peeked his tiny white head out from under Luka's cloak, yawning adorably and sneezing a single, harmless spark.
The woman leaned back. "Right. Forgot about that. You're that one."
Luka offered a lazy two-finger salute and turned to leave. The guild's main hall buzzed behind him—full of adventurers boasting about minor quests and squabbling over notices pinned to the quest board.
Outside, the sun had sunk behind the horizon, painting the cobbled streets in hues of orange and violet. Lamps flickered to life one by one, glowing warmly through enchanted glass.
He inhaled.
The fresh air carried the scent of distant hearthfires and baked bread from the marketplace. It was calm. Still.
Too still.
He paused at the street corner, debating.
A fight still buzzed in his muscles. The crypt hadn't fully taken the edge off. His adrenaline still simmered just beneath the surface like a kettle about to boil.
He could go home.
But—
A screech split the silence.
A harpy dove from the rooftop with talons outstretched, a street vendor screaming as he dove for cover. Luka reacted without thinking, side-stepping and drawing a small throwing knife from his sleeve.
Snow darted upward with a chirp, wings spread.
The harpy twisted midair—but not fast enough.
Thunk.
The blade buried itself between her ribs. She let out a garbled cry and spiraled into a fruit cart, spraying apples in every direction.
Luka approached calmly and pulled the knife free.
"Looks like you're not quite done for the day," said a dry voice behind him.
Serene stood in the alley's mouth, arms crossed, her shield slung over one shoulder, hair slightly tousled from running to catch up. She eyed the harpy's corpse with only mild annoyance.
Luka smiled faintly. "You followed me?"
"You didn't come home, so I figured you were either dead, in jail, or doing something stupid."
"Technically it's number three. Though I got paid for it."
Serene sighed and walked past him, poking the downed harpy with the tip of her boot. "These things don't usually come into the city unless they're desperate."
"Which means something's chasing them out." Luka cracked his neck. "Wanna go check?"
Serene rubbed her temple. "Luka. You've been going nonstop since that hidden dungeon. Maybe—"
Another shriek pierced the night—this one from farther out.
Both of them looked up.
A second harpy. Then a third. One was dragging a small animal—probably a city pet—across the roof tiles.
Serene didn't even sigh this time.
"Lead the way."
.
.
.
The woods east of the city burned with movement.
Whatever drove the harpies from their nests had spread like a ripple through the local monster ecology. A rogue flame wolf, some diseased treants, and even a swarm of venom wasps had made the list of casualties.
The deeper they ventured, the more wrong the forest felt.
The trees, usually a rich green canopy above, now loomed black against the rising moonlight. Leaves curled inward like they were afraid. The wind carried a sharp, acidic tang—burnt moss, corrupted mana.
Even the silence was different.
No birdsong. No crickets.
Only the distant rustle of something… watching.
Serene halted as her boot crunched over what should have been soft dirt—but instead shattered like dried bone. She knelt, lifting a crumbling, blighted root.
"Mana rot," she muttered.
Luka crouched beside her. His hand hovered above the soil.
It pulsed.
Weakly. But there—faint, rhythmic surges of corrupted magic coursing through the ground like veins under a feverish skin.
"This isn't natural," he said. "Something's bleeding poison into the leyline here."
Serene stood, scanning the dark. "We need to find the source."
They pressed forward, no longer tracking isolated monsters, but following the trail of decay. Blight spread wider with every step: bark split open, insects withered mid-crawl, puddles bubbled like they were boiling—though the air was cold enough to chill the bone.
A sudden screech tore through the stillness.
Luka turned sharply—too late.
From the treetops, a massive shape dropped.
Serene's shield flew up just in time to deflect a bone-hooked claw that slammed down like a hammer. She skidded back several feet, boots digging trenches into the dying earth.
"Contact!" she snapped.
The creature that landed towered over them both. Vulture-like, with a skeletal ribcage visible beneath tattered flesh, its wings spread wide—one of them hanging oddly at the joint. Its face was a cracked mockery of an owl, with milky, blind eyes and a jaw that opened too far to scream.
[CORRUPTED NIGHTWING]Level: 37Status: Afflicted, Unstable
Luka drew his blades.
The Nightwing lunged—unnaturally fast. Its claws carved open the air where he had stood only moments before. Luka vanished in a flicker of light, reappearing above it mid-flip. His dagger glowed blue as he plunged it into the beast's wing joint.
It shrieked and twisted, throwing him off—but Serene was already there. Her shield slammed into its spine, followed by a heavy, mana-infused punch that sent a shockwave through its body.
"Hit the chest!" she called.
"Got it."
The Nightwing's ribcage pulsed—like something inside it was still alive.
Luka charged again. The beast rose onto its hind legs and howled, mouth splitting vertically to reveal a glowing, malformed tumor writhing in its throat.
A shockwave blasted out from it, flinging trees aside like twigs.
Serene dug her heels in, shield raised—but Luka was knocked back, tumbling across the ground in a blur. Snow swooped down just in time to blast the creature in the eyes with a searing jet of flame.
It screamed and staggered back, clutching at its own face with twitching claws.
Luka gritted his teeth and pushed to his feet. Blood ran down his brow, stinging his vision—but he didn't wait.
With a burst of mana, he launched forward. His daggers glinted. Searᴄh the NovelZone.fun* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
One—
Two—
Both pierced the monster's chest, twisting as he yanked them wide.
The ribcage shattered.
A final cry tore from the Nightwing's throat before it collapsed, gurgling.
Its carcass hit the ground with a sickening thud, oozing black sludge that evaporated on contact with air.
EXP ticked up. A rare drop materialized from the corpse:
[Darkfeather Talon – Rare]Effect: +8% Agility at Night. Enables Gliding Short Distances.
Luka pocketed it, breath shallow.
"…This isn't just monster migration," Serene said grimly. "Something changed the Nightwing. Mutated it."
"Someone," Luka corrected. "We're not dealing with random rot. There's intent here."
He scanned the woods again.
The pulse in the leyline had grown steadier. Stronger.
Still faint—but rising.
A bad feeling coiled in his gut.
They passed through what used to be a grove of moon-blooms. Now the flowers were shriveled black, their petals crumbling at a touch.
At the grove's center sat an obelisk—twisted and wrong.
Where once had stood a nature-worship altar made by forest druids, there now loomed a jagged spire of bone and obsidian, thrumming with power.
Runes pulsed across its surface—glowing a deep crimson.
Luka and Serene stopped at the edge of the clearing, weapons drawn, expressions unreadable.
"…It's a beacon," Luka said. "A corruption seed."
"Planted. Fed. Grown."
"And now it's calling things here."
As if on cue, the shadows shifted. From every direction, monsters began to gather—slowly at first. A corrupted bear with barbed tendrils growing from its back. A mutated boar with tusks like spears. Dozens more—moving in from the rot-blighted trees.
A ritual.
A summoning.
Something worse was on its way.
Serene glanced at him. "We can't take all of them."
"No," Luka agreed. "But we don't have to."
He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a single crystal vial, swirling with unstable red and silver liquid.
Serene's eyes narrowed. "Is that—"
"Prototype bomb from the Alchemist's Guild. Unstable. High risk."
"Of course you have that."
Luka tossed it.
The vial hit the obelisk's base.
And detonated.
A blinding flash. A sonic boom that flattened trees.
The monsters screamed and writhed in agony as the explosion ripped through the grove, cracking the obelisk in half. Mana shrieked into the sky like a flare. The pulse in the leyline shuddered.
Then—
Silence.
A moment of breathless, holy silence.
Luka exhaled, hands shaking. Serene's ears were ringing, her shield cracked—but intact.
Whatever had been trying to take root here had been stopped.
For now.
"Let's get back to the adventurer's guild to report this..." Luka sighed. He knew this was a serious issue and needed to be reported as soon as possible.