Covered in obscuring mist, the beast swayed left and right. Although it might have seemed animalistic at first glance, it was not. If anything, the beast was incredibly precise with its movements, possessing extreme brilliance and coordination.

Rohan had decided it was a snake, but considering how he and the rest were currently battling it, it seemed to be much more than that. Eric’s rune enchantment, Priscilla’s ice spells, and his own excellent martial arts with Shadow Linger did not even seem to have any effect.

Rohan had once considered using his other Classes and inventories, but he was extremely calculating, so he decided against it. First, it would risk revealing his true nature to Priscilla and Eric. If that happened, it would only force him to battle them and try to kill them, an outcome that was entirely unpredictable. Even if he were able to kill them, it would arouse suspicion—maybe not much, considering Hunters died every day and frequently lost their teammates, but with the Crimson Mage already knowing about his appearance, it would not take the higher ranks much effort to figure him out and stop him before he reached his full potential.

"Argh," Rohan groaned as the beast slammed him away. He flew out of the mist, his back connecting hard with a wall. The impact sent a sharp pain through his spine.

He shrugged off the pain and jumped right back into the mist.

The battle inside the mist turned into a desperate, frantic scramble. Eric lunged left, his daggers scraping harmlessly against the creature’s side, while Priscilla threw out two more ice barriers to block a sweeping tail strike. Rohan moved with fluid precision, his blade cutting through the vapor to target the joints between the scales, but the creature parried every approach with unnatural speed. They were running out of room, and their essence was completely bottoming out.

The beast wrapped its body around Priscilla after ruthlessly breaking through her barriers. She yelped in pain as her bones were crushed. Suddenly, sharp claws sliced through her neck, and she dropped to her knees.

While the beast was busy dealing with Priscilla, its gaze never left the other two. It slammed Eric violently into the wall. An ornate, sharp horn protruding from the stone pierced right through Eric’s back and out of his chest, killing him instantly.

Rohan tried to slide under the creature’s scales but was immediately slammed aside. In that agonizing split second, he saw Eric pinned to the wall, dead, and Priscilla’s head rolling off her body as she knelt lifelessly in front of the monster.

He slammed hard into the cavern wall, the impact knocking a heavy chandelier loose and causing a loud rumble. He coughed up mouthfuls of blood. When he opened his eyes, the last thing he saw rushing toward him was a pair of massive, gleaming fangs.

Rohan died.

---

’Damn. Damn. Damn it all!’

Rohan was getting frustrated again. Things were not going smoothly at all.

First, he had tried to look for the First Jianghu’s lost maps, but had entered the Crimson Mage’s abode instead. The bastard had used sealing magic just to block the way, which Rohan had thought was a method to hide the room containing the maps. Second, he had planned to use either of the two Common Classes, Barry or Dominion, as a new soul vessel for his travel to Arkhani in case his cover was blown, since the soul travel allowed him to change bodies willingly using weak Classes.

But that damn Zul’Kharath just had to wake up at that exact time and kill them off. And now, there was this damn beast preventing them from leaving the cave.

"Piece of shit!" he yelled, punching the stone wall that blocked the entrance. It broke open, revealing absolutely no exit.

Priscilla and Eric, who were already arguing about Rohan and Priscilla’s Class, immediately turned their attention to him with raised eyebrows. At that moment, they felt a sharp pain and fell to the floor again. Rohan did not fall, however, as he had already expected it.

$$Essence Power: -5%$$

Priscilla and Eric shivered and shrugged off the sensation before standing up. They stared back at Rohan with distinct expressions, signaling that they had regained fractured memories of the loop.

"So we died again?" Priscilla asked.

Rohan, still fuming with anger, did not reply and only stormed deeper into the cave.

As he walked away, Priscilla yelled, "Stop! You’re angry? And what will anger do for you as a Common Class holder?"

Rohan stopped. ’Ah, I have to control myself.’

Rohan allowed his posture to slacken, deliberately letting the rigid, battle-ready tension drain from his shoulders. He forced a heavy breath out of his lungs, burying the lethal instincts of Xuirong beneath the practiced docility of a commoner. When he turned around, his face was carefully re-masked with a look of pale, panicked exhaustion.

"I’m sorry," Rohan said, his voice trembling slightly to match his cover. "It’s just... the hunger, and seeing those... those fangs again. My mind just snapped."

Eric rubbed his temples, his face as white as a sheet. "Don’t sweat it, man. I remember it too. Getting crushed like that... it feels too real to be just a bad dream. Are we really trapped in some kind of death loop?"

Priscilla did not answer immediately. She kept her eyes locked on Rohan, her gaze calculating despite the fatigue clear in her posture. "Your reaction time when the wall broke was faster than before, Rohan. And you didn’t drop to your knees when the essence drain hit."

"I was already leaning against the rock," Rohan lied smoothly, gesturing to the jagged stone behind him. "And honestly, I think I’m just too numb to fall anymore. If we keep losing essence every time we reset, we won’t even have enough strength to run next time."

He turned back toward the dark path, his scowl returning only when his back was safely facing them.

"If the memories are sticking around, then the beast’s illusion isn’t perfect," Rohan said, guiding them back toward the tactical reality. "We know the room layout now. We know it strikes from the ceiling the moment we step past the pillars. We shouldn’t fight it in the mist this time. I think we should try and force it out of the vapor."

Priscilla looked down the pitch-black tunnel, her fingers tightening on her hilt. "A bottleneck. It’s our only shot with this little essence left. Let’s move."

---

Rohan immediately jumped backward. The beast crashed into the ground where he had been standing milliseconds ago, causing cracks and tremors to ripple through the floor.

The shockwave blasted through the narrow corridor, showering them in sharp stone fragments and blinding dust. The beast hissed in frustration, its massive, armored bulk writhing as it realized its ambush had failed. This time around, only Rohan was in the room, while the remaining two stayed at the other end of the tunnel.

Rohan backed away quickly into the narrow entry tunnel, using the tight space to restrict the creature’s sweeping attacks. The snake-like beast thrashed against the stone entrance, its huge body too wide to easily squeeze through the gap.

From the other side of the tunnel, Eric and Priscilla watched the opening. "Now!" Rohan called out, his voice sharp.

Eric moved forward and struck the cave ceiling with a focused blast of power. The stone roof cracked, dropping heavy rocks right into the tunnel mouth to block the monster. Priscilla followed up instantly, using her remaining essence to freeze the fallen boulders into a solid barrier of ice.

The path behind them was temporarily sealed, stopping the beast from pursuing. Rohan took a fast breath and rushed away from the blockage.

Now that they had trapped the beast, they just needed to buy time to regain a bit of essence. If they rested and planned without drawing its attention, the loop would have no effect on them as long as they did not die.

The three of them backed away from the freshly sealed barrier. The heavy, muffled bangs of the creature slamming against the ice-reinforced rocks echoed through the stone walls, but the barrier held firm.

Rohan immediately slumped against a nearby rock pillar, forcing out a long, ragged sigh. "We... we actually did it," he breathed, wiping the cold sweat and stone dust from his forehead.

Eric slid down the cave wall until he was sitting on the damp floor, his legs completely giving out. He stared at his trembling hands. "Man... my chest still aches from the last time, but at least we’re breathing. How long do you think that ice will hold, Priscilla?"

Priscilla did not answer right away. She stood rigid, her black sword still embedded slightly in the frost-covered gravel as she monitored the integrity of her spell. Her breathing was shallow, every exhale turning into a puff of white mist in the rapidly dropping temperature.

"Twenty minutes. Maybe thirty if the beast doesn’t focus its power all at once," she said, her voice strained. She finally let go of her hilt and turned her calculating gaze toward Rohan. "But we can’t just sit here forever. Our essence power isn’t recovering naturally."

Rohan kept his face blank. She was right. Their essence would recover naturally, but the process was so slow it would barely show, and time was the one thing they did not have.

"If we can’t regenerate essence by resting, then sitting still is just a slower death," Rohan muttered, intentionally voicing the trap they were in to see how much the other two had pieced together. "The loop triggers when we die, but the essence drain happens regardless."

Eric scowled, clutching his stomach. "So what? We open the door back up and fight it with empty tanks? That’s suicide."

"No," Priscilla said, her eyes narrowing as she looked deeper down the opposite end of the tunnel, away from the tomb. "Every time we reset, we start back at the entrance after the rockslide. But the beast remains in the tomb room. If this cave is a loop domain, the source isn’t the monster itself... I’m guessing the monster is just the executioner."

Rohan hid a small smirk beneath a frown. ’Good. She’s smart enough to see the logic.’

"If the beast isn’t the source," Rohan said, stepping forward to draw their attention, "then the illusion must have a core anchor somewhere else. The hunger started the moment the entrance collapsed. Maybe we missed something right at the beginning."

Eric groaned, pushing himself up using the wall. "Great. So we walk all the way back to the rockslide?"

"We don’t have a choice," Priscilla said coldly, gripping her sword once more. "Let’s move before the ice cracks."