Carmilla drove her black sword down into the monster’s neck joint with everything she had.

DOOOOOOM!

The crimson energy blade cut through the stone scales like hot wax. Red lightning shot out of the monster’s back, blasting apart its thick obsidian armor in a flash of bright red light.

ROAAAR... gurgle...

The monster’s four purple eyes lost their glow.

Its giant stone body froze for a second, then completely collapsed onto the floor. The dark energy inside it broke apart, and the monster began to turn into black ash and dust.

"Jump!" Carmilla shouted.

I let go of my iron dagger and leaped off the monster’s falling back. Carmilla caught my shirt in mid-air and landed softly on the concrete floor with me.

The heavy body hit the ground, throwing up a cloud of black dust and grey smoke.

I dropped to my knees, catching my breath. My chest burned, and my legs felt heavy from using so much footwork.

[TARGET ELIMINATED: ABYSSAL DEVOURER]

[EXP GRANTED: +1,200 POINTS]

[BONUS AWARDED: TITLE ’GIANT SLAYER’ UNLOCKED]

I waved my hand and closed the blue system windows floating in front of me.

Carmilla stood beside me. She pulled her black sword out of the black ash, wiped the blade with her sleeve, and wrapped it back in her white cloth.

"Are you hurt?" Carmilla asked softly, looking down at me.

"Just tired," I said, pushing myself up to my feet. "My dagger was still stuck in that monster’s neck."

I walked over to the pile of black ash and picked up my iron dagger from the floor. The tip was black from the heat, but the blade was still straight. I wiped it on my pants and put it back into my hip belt.

"We have four minutes before the secondary explosive charge goes off," I said.

"What about him?" Carmilla asked, pointing toward the unconscious boss sitting behind the metal crates.

"We bring him," I said, slinging the silver master drive into my duffel bag. "I want to ask him questions about Project Obsidian."

Carmilla walked over, picked up the tall, heavy man with one arm, and threw him over her shoulder like a sack of grain.

"Let’s go," she said.

We ran out of the place, through the broken steel doors, and back into the concrete hallway of the sub-station.

BOOOOOOM!

Behind us, the secondary charge blew up. The giant metallic anchor ring shattered, and the whole limestone cavern began to cave in. Rocks crashed down, sealing the pit and the spatial rift forever.

We scrambled up the concrete stairs and crawled through the ventilation pipe. We pushed through the broken iron grate and stepped back onto the cliff ledge outside.

The cool night wind hit my face, blowing away the smell of smoke and burning electrical wires.

High up on the mountain ridge, the automated cannons were silent. The red security lights were completely dead.

Carmilla dropped the scarred boss onto the cold rock ledge. She pulled her dark mask down and took a deep breath of fresh air.

"That went well," Carmilla said with a small smile.

"Yeah," I chuckled, leaning against the rock face. "Clean work."

We didn’t stay on the narrow ledge for long.

Carmilla tied the boss’s hands and feet tightly with heavy plastic wire. I attached a thick steel cable to his belt, and we lowered him down the eight-hundred-foot cliff first.

After he hit the soft dirt at the bottom, Carmilla and I rappelled down the steel line, dropping quickly through the dark mist.

By 3:30 AM, we reached the pine forest at the base of the cliff.

I untied the camouflage tarp from our electric motorcycle. We loaded the unconscious boss onto the space between the handlebars and the seat, tying him down so he wouldn’t slip off during the ride.

Carmilla climbed onto the back seat behind me. "Take us home, Woo Jin."

I twisted the throttle. The electric bike hummed softly, gliding back onto the dirt trail and heading south toward the lower city.

The ride back was quiet. The night wind felt cold against my clothes, but my mind was completely calm. The main quest was done, the spatial anchor was destroyed, and we had the silver master drive safe in my bag.

Forty minutes later, we pulled into the driveway of our villa.

The house was dark, but as soon as the bike stopped, the front door swung open.

"You are back," Viora said, her voice calm and steady. "And you brought a guest."

"Branch boss," I said, stepping off the bike and untying the ropes. "He knows things about Project Obsidian."

Carmilla lifted the heavy man off the bike and carried him inside without a word. I grabbed my duffel bag with the server drive and followed them through the front door.

After locking the boss in the basement storage room, we walked up into the bright dining room.

Mia and Leo were asleep upstairs, but the table was already set with warm wet towels, a fresh pot of hot tea, and a bowl of soup.

I sat down on a wooden chair, letting my shoulders drop as I drank a big gulp of hot tea.

"The anchor wasn’t just extracting mana," I explained, setting the cup down. "It was feeding an A-rank monster trapped beneath the floor. A mutated Abyssal Devourer."

Viora stopped her hand for a second. "An A-rank entity? And you defeated it?"

"Carmilla did the heavy lifting," I smiled, nodding toward Carmilla. "She cut right through its neck armor with her red lightning. I just kept it busy with a high-voltage wire and my dagger."

"It was good teamwork," Carmilla added smoothly, sitting across from me and sipping her tea. "Woo Jin found the blind spot behind its neck. Without that, my blade would have bounced off its head scales."

Viora nodded slowly, her fingers tapping her keyboard. "I see."

[QUEST COMPLETED SUCCESSFULLY]

[ALL OBJECTIVES SECURED]

I leaned back in my chair, closing my eyes for a moment. My body felt sore from rolling on the hard limestone floor, but the feeling of relief was better than anything else.

"Drink your soup and go to sleep, Woo Jin," Carmilla said gently, pushing the bowl closer to me. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow when the boss wakes up."

"Right," I said, grabbing the spoon. "Tomorrow."

The next morning, bright sunlight poured through the large glass windows of the dining room.

It was 9:00 AM.

The house smelled like fresh eggs, toasted bread, and sweet tea.

Leo was sitting at the table, eating his breakfast with a wooden spoon while talking excitedly with Mia.

"So you really didn’t use the big explosion?" Leo asked, looking at Carmilla with big, round eyes. "You said the mountain shook!"

"The secondary charge made a noise," Carmilla smiled, buttering a slice of toast for Mia. "But we didn’t use red lightning on the mountain wall. We kept it quiet."

"You always keep it quiet," Leo pouted, though he looked happy anyway. "I wanted to see the red sparks!"

"Next time, shorty," Carmilla chuckled, tapping his nose with her finger.

I walked down the stairs wearing a plain grey t-shirt and loose black pants. My shoulder was still a little stiff, but the pain was mostly gone thanks to my physical recovery stats.

"Morning, everyone," I said, pulling out a chair and sitting down next to Leo.

"Good morning, Woo Jin," Mia said politely, passing me a plate of warm food.

"Is the boss awake?" I asked.

"He woke up twenty minutes ago," Mia nodded. "He tried to kick the door, but Viora slapped him and he went back to sleep."

I ate my breakfast quickly, enjoying the warm, quiet morning inside the villa.

Once I finished my plate, Carmilla and I walked down the carpeted stairs into the basement level.

The basement storage room had a heavy steel door with a small reinforced glass window. Inside, the scarred boss was sitting on a metal chair, his hands firmly zip-tied behind his back and his boots tied to the chair legs.

"Morning, boss," I said. "Sleep well?"

Inside the room, the scarred man lifted his head slowly. His face was pale, and a large purple bruise covered his right temple where Viora had hit him.

"You..." he rasped, his voice rough. "You brought down the whole sub-station... Black will hunt you to the ends of the city..."

"Black has bigger problems right now," I replied calmly. "His spatial anchor is gone, his data drive is in our hands, and his lower city branch is completely dark. By noon, the guild network will know his illegal operation failed."

The boss gritted his teeth, his shoulders sagging in defeat. He knew I was telling the truth.

"What do you want from me?" he asked quietly.

"We want the access codes for Black’s main office on Eighth Avenue," Carmilla said. "And the names of the high-tier buyers who funded Project Obsidian."

The boss stayed quiet for five seconds. He looked at Carmilla’s cold red eyes through the glass, then down at his tied hands.

"If I tell you," he mumbled, "do I walk out of here alive?"

"We aren’t executioners," I said simply. "Give us what we need, and we hand you over to the local police network once Black is dealt with. No hits, no revenge."

The man let out a long, heavy sigh.

"Fine," he said, hanging his head. "The master keycode for the Eighth Avenue office is 8842-BLACK. The main funder isn’t a freelancer... It’s the regional commercial council."

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