The silence in the throne room was thick enough to chew on. Five seasoned adventurers stared at a naked, S-Rank, Level 1 man on a throne, their minds utterly broken by the contradiction. Unsure if he is human or not.
Noctar, for his part, was getting cold.
"Does anyone have a cloak?" he asked, his voice cutting through the tension with mundane practicality.
Elara heard the question and asked her own, "Are you human?" Noctar almost rolled his eyes but answered the question anyway. "Yes, now does any have a cloak?"
The scout, Finn, jolted as if struck by lightning. "I-I have a spare!" he stammered, fumbling with his pack. He pulled out a bundled-up, dark green traveler's cloak and took a hesitant step forward.
Then another.
On his third step, when he was about five meters from the dais, he froze. His face lost all color. It felt like the air had turned to lead, pressing down on his soul. A primal, suffocating terror seized him. The instinct of a mouse staring into the eyes of a hawk the size of a mountain.
The cloak fell from his numb fingers, and he scrambled backward so fast he tripped over his own feet, landing in a heap behind Borin's massive legs. He was shaking a bit, his eyes staring Noctar alert for any single movement he would make.
"The hell was that?" the tank growled, his knuckles white on his axe handle. The entire team had shifted into a defensive formation, weapons raised. Elara's hands glowed with restrained power.
Inside Noctar's mind, S.A.R.A. tutted.
// Oh, right. The divine cooties. Your soul is still radiating a bit of a "I just had a meeting with Death and Tech" vibe. It's a bit much for the locals. Their mortal souls can't handle the background radiation. Should I mute it?
`Yes. Mute it. Now,` Noctar thought, exasperated.
// Aura toggled to 'Incognito Mode'. You're now metaphysically smell-free.
As suddenly as it had appeared, the suffocating pressure vanished. The adventurers didn't lower their weapons, but their stances loosened a fraction. The unknown was still terrifying, but it was no longer actively crushing their will to live.
Noctar stood, and walked over, the team flinched as one, and picked up the cloak. He wrapped it around his shoulders. It was a simple, functional garment, but on his divine frame, with the obsidian throne as a backdrop, he managed to look like a fallen king from a tragic epic.
Lyra, the priestess, felt a flush that had nothing to do with fear.
// Just so you know, the priestess's biometrics—according to my passive scans—are going haywire. I think she's composing sonnets about your collarbone. S.A.R.A. supplied, unhelpfully.
Noctar ignored her. He focused, activating his Appraisal Eyes without her commentary. Information about the dungeon flooded his vision.
[DUNGEON: SHIFTING KEEP]
[STATUS: ACTIVE]
[AGE: 7 DAYS]
[ANOMALY DETECTED: SPATIAL_DISPLACEMENT_PUPPER]
[...]
[SYSTEM ALERT: **BUG_DETECTED**]
There it was. A pulsing, red error marker in his vision, superimposed over the dungeon map only he could see. It was moving erratically, flickering from one location to another.
`The bug is a monster? Or the bug is using the monster as a host?` he mused. `Either way, that's my target.`
He looked at the wary adventurers. "I need to join your party."
Borin scoffed. "Why would we let a—"
"We agree," Kaelen, the assassin, interrupted, his voice calm but his eyes sharp. He sheathed his knives. "An S-Rank, even a Level 1, is an asset. We're here to hunt the Spatial Pupper. Having you along increases our chances."
His real reason was plain to everyone: they wanted to see what an S-Rank could do. The sheer, morbid curiosity outweighed the risk. The reason is that there weren't many S class seen around their city.
Kaelen sent the party invite to Noctar who accepted it with a single nod. "Lead the way."
They moved out of the throne room and into a winding, torch-lit corridor. Almost immediately, they were set upon by a pack of crystalline scorpions that skittered from the walls.
[MONSTER: SHARD-SCORPION - LEVEL 12]
Before Borin could brace for impact or Elara could chant a spell, two sharp, deafening CRACKS echoed through the hall.
Noctar stood with his arms extended, a sleek, black pistol in each hand. Smoke curled from the barrels. Two of the scorpions had simply exploded into showers of blue-tinged dust and mana.
The adventurers stared, dumbfounded. The weapons were unlike anything they'd ever seen. No mana surge, no incantation. Just noise, fire, and absolute annihilation. It's a weapon similar to those high rank hunters with the rare class of Hunter(gunslinger.)
[EXPERIENCE GAINED!]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 2!]
Noctar didn't pause even as Gaia's system alert flooded his vision. He walked forward, his gaze cold and analytical. `S.A.R.A., target acquisition. Highlight hostile mana signatures.`
// You got it, boss. Painting targets.
His holographic HUD lit up with red outlines around every monster in the corridor. He became a whirlwind of efficient violence. Two shots per target. Never missing. The Perdition pistols roared, their regenerating ammunition making the process sustainable. The air filled with the smell of ozone and dissolving monsters.
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 3!]
[LEVEL 4!]
...
The Lucky Tree guild members could only watch in stunned silence, trailing behind him as he cleared the hallway. They were supposed to be a well-oiled machine, a team. He was a one-man extermination squad. It was like he knew when they'd appear and exactly the point to shoot.
By the time they reached the end of the long, monster-infested corridor which was the 3rd floor, the chimes of leveling up had become a constant melody in Noctar's mind.
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL 15!]
He stopped, the cloaks swirling around his calves. The hallway was clear and the boss monster defeated a bit too easily. Noctar turned to look at the team, his ice-blue eyes glowing faintly in the dim light. The guns looked perfectly natural in his hands.
"The next floor?" he asked, as if he'd just taken a casual stroll, not single-handedly massacred fifty monsters and ascended fourteen levels in under three minutes.
Borin, the proud B-Rank tank, could only mutter, "What in the seven hells are you?"