The Thornwood Dungeon entrance looked like someone had taken a cave mouth and made it wrong.
The stone was too smooth and too uniform. Strange geometric patterns carved themselves into the rock face, glowing faintly blue. And the air around it just felt different. Heavier and charged with something that made Nero's teeth ache.
His Debug Mode went absolutely insane.
```
[DUNGEON DETECTED: THORNWOOD NEST]
RANK: Bronze
RECOMMENDED LEVEL: 8-12
PARTY SIZE: 3-5
ESTIMATED CLEAR TIME: 2-3 hours
CURRENT PARTY:
[Kade Morrison - Lv 18] ✓ OVERLEVELED
[Finn Cooper - Lv 16] ✓ OVERLEVELED
[Lyra Ashford - Lv 17] ✓ OVERLEVELED
[Nero Cross - Lv 2] ⚠️ SEVERELY UNDERLEVELED
WARNING: Level disparity may affect XP distribution
WARNING: Death inside dungeon is PERMANENT
WARNING: Corruption accumulation increased inside dungeon spaces.
```
That last warning made Nero's blood run cold. Corruption increases faster in dungeons.
"Great" he thought. "That's just fantastic."
"First time seeing a dungeon entrance?" Lyra asked.
"Yeah. It's... Strange."
"They're all weird," Finn said, checking his daggers. "Dungeons don't follow normal rules. Space is compressed, monsters respawn, loot appears out of nowhere. The leading theory is they're pocket dimensions created by concentrated mana, but honestly? Nobody really knows."
"They're also stupidly profitable," Kade added, hefting his shield. "Which is why adventurers exist. Someone's gotta keep these things cleared, or they overflow and monsters start wandering into towns."
"Overflow?" Nero asked.
"When a dungeon isn't cleared regularly, the monster population exceeds the internal space capacity. They start spilling out into the surrounding area." Lyra nocked an arrow, checking the tension on her bowstring. "That's how you get monster hordes, village raids, all the fun apocalyptic stuff."
"So adventurers are basically pest control."
"Pest control with better PR and cooler titles," Finn agreed.
Kade stepped toward the dungeon entrance, and his entire demeanor shifted. The cheerful goofball disappeared, replaced by someone focused and dangerous.
"Standard formation," he said, his voice taking on a command tone. Nero hadn't heard before.
"I take point. Finn, you're on flanks and rear threats. Lyra, covering fire and area awareness. Nero..." He glanced back.
"You stay in the middle of the formation. Don't engage unless something gets past me. Your job is to survive and learn. Clear?"
"Crystal."
"Good. One more thing, inside dungeons, healing is reduced. Potions work at fifty percent efficiency so natural regeneration is slowed. Don't get hit."
"Helpful advice. 'Don't get hit.' Why didn't I think of that?"
Finn grinned. "He's a smartass. I like him."
"If everyone's done being sarcastic," Lyra said, though there was amusement in her voice, "let's move. The dungeon's not going to clear itself."
Kade stepped through the entrance first. The moment he crossed the threshold, reality seemed to ripple. Finn went next, then Lyra, and finally Nero.
The sensation was like stepping through a waterfall made of static electricity. Every nerve in his body fired at once, and then—
They were inside.
The dungeon interior looked nothing like the forest outside. Rough-hewn stone corridors stretched ahead, lit by glowing moss that cast everything in an eerie green light. The air was damp and smelled of earth and something else—something organic and rotten.
```
[ENTERING DUNGEON: THORNWOOD NEST]
[PARTY REGISTERED]
[CORRUPTION ACCELERATION: ACTIVE]
[DEATH PENALTY: PERMANENT]
[Quest Updated: Clear Thornwood Nest]
Objectives:
- Eliminate all enemy spawns (0/37)
- Defeat Mini-Boss (0/1)
- Locate dungeon core (Optional)
[Good luck! Try not to die!]
```
"Thirty-seven enemies," Nero muttered, reading his interface.
"You can see the enemy count?" Lyra asked sharply.
Shit. "Uh, just a guess based on typical Bronze-rank dungeons?"
She studied him for a long moment but didn't push. "Stay alert. First chamber is usually light resistance, but that doesn't mean safe."
They moved forward in formation. Kade's shield was up, his eyes constantly scanning. Finn had somehow melted into the shadows despite there being nowhere to hide. Lyra's bow was ready, an arrow loosely nocked.
Nero just tried not to trip over his own feet.
The first chamber opened up after about fifty meters—a large cavern with multiple tunnels branching off. And waiting for them, seven goblins armed with crude weapons.
But these weren't like the forest goblins. These were bigger, better equipped, and the moment they saw the party, they didn't charge mindlessly. They spread out, coordinating.
```
[DUNGEON GOBLIN WARRIOR x7 - Level 9]
FORMATION: Defensive Spread
TACTICS: Pack Coordination
THREAT LEVEL: Moderate (for your party)
```
"Seven contacts," Lyra called out. "Standard spread formation."
"I see 'em." Kade stepped forward, slamming his shield against the ground. "OI! UGLY! OVER HERE!"
A pulse of... something... rippled out from the impact. Nero's Debug Mode identified it as a taunt skill—aggro manipulation coded directly into reality. All seven goblins immediately focused on Kade, shrieking in rage.
They charged.
Kade met them head-on, his shield becoming a wall of steel. The first goblin's axe bounced off harmlessly. The second tried to flank—Finn materialized from nowhere and opened its throat before vanishing again.
Lyra's arrows flew in rapid succession. Each one found a gap in armor, a weak point, a kill shot. She made it look effortless.
Within thirty seconds, it was over. Seven dissolving light particles, seven piles of loot.
Nero hadn't even drawn his sword.
"That's... you guys are really good at this," he said.
"We're really overleveled for this," Finn corrected, appearing next to him and making Nero jump. "Stop doing that!"
"Doing what? I'm just standing here."
"Bronze-rank is training for us," Lyra said, checking the branching tunnels. "Good practice for formations and coordination. For you, it's actual appropriate difficulty. So pay attention. Watch how we move, how we communicate, how we handle threats."
They continued deeper. The next three chambers followed a similar pattern—enemies spotted, Kade locked them down, Finn and Lyra eliminated them with surgical precision. Nero observed, his Debug Mode feeding him constant information about tactics, positioning, kill sequences.
It was like watching a perfectly optimized speedrun.
```
[Quest Progress: 24/37 enemies eliminated]
[Your XP Gain: Severely reduced due to level disparity]
[Party carrying penalty: -75% XP]
```
"I'm barely getting any experience," Nero said as they stopped to rest in a cleared chamber.
"Normal for being carried," Finn said, not unkindly. "System calculates contribution. Right now, your contribution is 'existing.' Get some actual kills and that'll change."
"The mini-boss room," Lyra said. "That's where you'll get real XP. We'll weaken it, you land the killing blow. That'll give you full credit."
"That seems like cheating."
Kade laughed. "Mate, it's called power-leveling. Everyone does it. How do you think nobles get to Level 10 by age fifteen? They're not actually fighting—they've got high-level guards doing the work."
They pressed on. The dungeon was straightforward—linear progression, a few branching paths that looped back. Nothing unexpected.
Which, of course, was when things went wrong.
They were approaching what should have been the mini-boss chamber when Nero's Debug Mode flashed red.
```
⚠️ CRITICAL WARNING ⚠️
DUNGEON ANOMALY DETECTED
CORRUPTION SIGNATURE IDENTIFIED
SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH THIS DUNGEON
```
"Stop," Nero said sharply.
Everyone froze. Kade had his shield up instantly. Finn's daggers appeared in his hands. Lyra's bow was drawn, arrow ready.
"What is it?" Lyra asked quietly.
Nero stared at the chamber ahead. To their eyes, it probably looked normal. But through his Debug Mode, he could see it—lines of corrupted code, glitching reality, wrong wrong *wrong*.
"The dungeon's... broken. Something's corrupted it."
"How do you know that?" Finn demanded.
"I just—" Think fast. "I can feel it. The air's different. The mana's off."
Lyra's eyes narrowed, but Kade stepped forward. "If Nero says something's wrong, I believe him. His instincts kept him alive in the forest. What are we looking at?"
Nero focused, trying to parse the corrupted code. His Exploit Detection was going haywire, showing him patterns that shouldn't exist.
```
[DUNGEON CORRUPTION DETECTED]
SOURCE: Unknown
EFFECT: Boss-class entity upgraded
ESTIMATED NEW THREAT LEVEL: Gold-rank equivalent
RECOMMENDED ACTION: RETREAT IMMEDIATELY
```
"The mini-boss," Nero said slowly. "It's been corrupted. Upgraded. Whatever's supposed to be in there isn't Bronze-rank anymore."
"How much stronger?" Lyra asked.
"The system's saying Gold-rank equivalent."
"WHAT." Finn stared at him. "Gold-rank? In a Bronze dungeon? That's not possible."
"And yet." Nero gestured at the chamber ahead.
Kade's expression had gone hard. "We should report this. Withdraw, notify the Guild, let them send a proper Gold-rank party."
"Agreed," Lyra said immediately.
They started backing away slowly, keeping formation. But Nero's system was still screaming warnings at him.
```
⚠️ DUNGEON LOCKDOWN IMMINENT
⚠️ CORRUPTION SPREADING
⚠️ EXIT PATH COMPROMISED
```
"Move faster," Nero urged. "The dungeon's sealing itself."
"Sealing?" Finn's eyes widened. "Dungeons don't seal unless—"
The corridor behind them slammed shut. Not a door—the stone itself just grew, sealing the passage like reality was rewriting itself.
"Unless they overflow," Lyra finished grimly. "We're trapped."
```
[DUNGEON STATUS: LOCKDOWN]
[EXIT SEALED]
[PARTY TRAPPED]
[NEW OBJECTIVE: DEFEAT CORRUPTED BOSS TO UNSEAL EXIT]
[FAILURE CONDITION: DEATH]
[Good luck! You're going to need it!]
```
"Oh, fuck my entire life," Finn said with feeling.
A roar echoed from the boss chamber ahead. Not a goblin shriek. Something deeper, more bestial, wrong in a way that made Nero's bones hurt.
"Battle formation," Kade ordered, his voice steady despite the situation. "Lyra, conserve arrows—this is going to be a long fight. Finn, look for exploits and weak points. Nero..."
He turned, and there was something fierce in his eyes. "You said the dungeon's corrupted. That means it's got glitches, right? Weaknesses in the code?"
He doesn't know how right he is.
"Probably," Nero said carefully.
"Then that's your job. Find the exploit. Find the weakness. We'll keep it busy, you figure out how to kill it."
"Kade, I'm Level 2. I can't—"
"You survived an ogre." Kade's massive hand landed on his shoulder. "You jumped off a cliff and somehow, you lived. You cleared a goblin ambush solo. Stop thinking about what you can't do and figure out what you can do."
The roar came again, closer. The ground trembled.
"Whatever's coming through that door," Kade said, raising his shield, "we face it together. Vanguard doesn't leave people behind. That includes you, cliff-jumper."
Finn moved to flank. Lyra took position at range. And Nero, heart hammering, drew his basic iron sword.
This is insane. This is completely insane. We're going to die.
But as the boss chamber door burst open and something massive and corrupted stepped through—a hobgoblin fused with dungeon corruption, its body glitching and reforming, its level reading as [CORRUPTED BOSS - Level ???]—Nero felt something shift inside him.
His Debug Mode expanded. His Exploit Detection pulsed. And he could see it—all of it—the code, the corruption, the weakness buried deep in the glitching mass.
```
[ERRØR ABILITIES: FULLY ACTIVE]
[CORRUPTION GAIN: +2 per minute in combat]
[CURRENT CORRUPTION: 27/100]
[ANALYSIS COMPLETE]
[WEAK POINT IDENTIFIED]
[EXPLOIT FOUND]
[WARNING: Using ERRØR abilities will alert any nearby Debuggers]
[WARNING: Corruption will spike significantly]
[WARNING: This will reveal your true nature to your party]
[PROCEED? Y/N]
```
The boss roared, reality glitching around it. Kade braced his shield. Finn and Lyra prepared to strike.
And Nero made his choice. Fuck it. If we're dying anyway...
He selected YES.
His vision exploded into pure code. The dungeon, the boss, his party, everything became translucent lines of reality-script. And there, in the boss's chest, a pulsing core of corrupted code that was keeping it alive.
He could see how to exploit it. How to rewrite it. How to patch the glitch and make the boss simply... stop existing.
But it would cost him. God, would it cost him.
"I can do it," Nero said, his voice coming out strange, echoing with digital distortion. "I can kill it. But you need to trust me."
Lyra's eyes widened as she saw... something. The way reality bent around him. The code visible in his eyes.
"Nero, what are you—"
"TRUST ME!"
The corrupted boss charged. And Nero Cross, the Level 2 nobody from another world, raised his hand and touched the code of reality itself.