Unlike the Nodes he had encountered before, this one was much smaller—about half the size of a door.
From the pitch-black rift, waves of dark magic surged continuously. Occasionally, a confused monster would crawl out from the rift and materialize into the real world. Compared to the massive monster horde that had descended upon Riverfall City, the number of monsters emerging from this Node was relatively few. It seemed to have opened in a secluded corner of the Abyssal Demon Realm.
As Luca was contemplating how to destroy the Node.
Quagmire’s voice sounded behind him, filled with frustration. Leaning on his knees, drenched in sweat, he gasped for breath. “What the hell… are you a marathon runner? How can you run so fast?”
He had exhausted all his energy trying to keep up with Luca, but he hadn’t even seen Luca’s shadow, just a trail of bodies left in his wake. The man’s speed was simply too overwhelming—Quagmire was nearly on the verge of collapse.
Melania’s gaze also shifted toward Luca. It was the first time she truly assessed her companion.
Even while fighting monsters and moving forward, Luca had effortlessly left them behind. His strength was terrifying—perhaps even more so than she had initially guessed. Her previous assumptions might actually be true.
“What are you two doing here?” Luca, slightly surprised, looked over at Quagmire and Melania.
Quagmire shot him a glare. “Aren’t you the reason we’re here? We wouldn’t have come if we weren’t worried you’d get yourself killed. You really think we’d just let you go near that Node alone?”
“Thanks,” Luca said with an awkward smile. He was still a bit touched. After all, they didn’t know his full strength. They were just ordinary teammates, and even if he died, it wasn’t their responsibility.
But Quagmire had followed him into danger, which said something about his character. He wasn’t the type to leave someone behind without a second thought.
“Let’s go,” Melania said, glancing around. “We’ve got company.” Several monsters had already started surrounding them, their eyes glaring hungrily, drool dripping from their jaws.
This place was the heart of the monster’s territory, and they were about as vulnerable as sheep stumbling into a wolf’s den. However, to Quagmire’s utter disbelief, Luca simply shook his head and refused. “You guys go on ahead. Don’t worry about me,” Luca said.
This time, even Melania couldn’t help but glance at him in surprise.
“You… you… want to die that badly?” Quagmire couldn’t hide his disbelief. In all his years, he had seen his fair share of reckless people, but never someone as fearless as Luca.
Luca pointed toward the Node’s rift, his tone calm. “I want to blow this thing up. Otherwise, who knows how many monsters will crawl out of there. It could end up killing a lot of people.”
At Luca’s words, Quagmire’s instinctive curse was suddenly swallowed.
He furrowed his brow, considering. “Can this thing even be destroyed?”
Whether in the game or the real world, he had never seen anyone destroy a Node before.
Luca wasn’t completely sure, but he replied, “It should be… possible.”
If this were in the game world, he would have countless ways to destroy this Node.
But now, in the real world, the only method Luca could think of was to use a secret technique.
As for whether it would succeed, Luca wasn’t sure. After all, he hadn’t tried it yet.
“I think you should start taking some of Fuzzsir’s medicine,” Quagmire muttered, a twitch at the corner of his mouth. He wanted to curse but didn’t have the energy, especially since the monsters were closing in on them.
Quagmire extended his hand, speaking weakly, “Three minutes. We’ll give you five minutes. After five minutes, no matter what, you must leave with us. Otherwise, we won’t be able to help you.”
Luca gave a slight nod. Melania, on the other hand, drew a small dagger. The dagger had an unusual shape, almost like a cone, with grooves carved along its blade.
Luca vaguely felt like he had seen it somewhere before, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.
“Roar!!!”
A massive Rampaging Bear, its body the size of a tank, opened its blood-red mouth and let out a deafening roar. With its four massive limbs, it charged toward Luca and his group.
The earth trembled slightly under the weight of its nearly thousand-pound mass as it thundered toward them.
Luca’s eyes flashed with golden fire.
He was about to move when Melania stepped forward and stood in front of him, speaking calmly. “I’ll handle this.”
A faint, ghostly blue light appeared on the dagger in her hand, the blade glinting coldly, as if it had become even sharper.
Luca glanced at her but didn’t say anything. He nodded slightly and then moved toward the Spatial Node.
Seeing Luca move toward the Node, the surrounding monsters immediately grew enraged. Dozens of vicious eyes turned toward him, glowing with fury.
“Roar!” The Rampaging Bear was now right in front of them.
It looked at Melania, its eyes filled with malice. As it closed in, its body suddenly reared up on its hind legs. It stretched out one massive claw and swung it down at Melania, aiming to crush her tiny, doll-like figure.
The stench of blood and wind hit them, and the monstrous force was terrifying.
But, in the face of this brutal strike, Melania’s expression didn’t change at all.
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She shifted her body, swiftly dodging the attack, then with a powerful push off the ground, she soared into the air like a leaf in the wind. The dagger in her hand blazed with blue light as she suddenly thrust it toward the Rampaging Bear’s eye.
Even though the bear reacted quickly and managed to turn its head to avoid the full force of the blow, it still left a deep gash along its face.
Blood splattered everywhere!
“Roar!!” The intense pain sent the Rampaging Bear into a frenzy, and it began attacking Melania wildly. No matter how it struck, though, it couldn’t land a single blow on her.
Melania moved with the grace of a butterfly, her body twisting and turning. The dagger in her hand whirled and slashed through the air, each strike leaving a deep wound on the bear’s massive body.
Quagmire, of course, wasn’t standing idle either. His blood energy surged, and with a sweep of his arm, he unleashed a series of blood-red slashes, temporarily holding back the monsters rushing at them.
Luca swung his longsword, casually decapitating a Decaying Corpse that lunged at him. Seeing this, he felt slightly relieved. Not wasting another precious second, he quickly approached the Spatial Node while simultaneously casting his spell. His other hand glowed with golden light, and intricate runes began to rapidly form in the air.
This was a high-level sealing technique, Golden Runes Sealing Array, the most advanced magic he could currently use in the real world. Whether or not it would successfully seal the node was uncertain—luck would have to play its part.
Normally, sealing a node required at least a Superclass spell, or else Luca wouldn’t have needed to go to such lengths when dealing with the Riverfall City node.
Regardless, it was worth a try. After all, in the game, his luck attribute was maxed out. There was no reason why it should fail in the real world.
With the enhancement from Frostborn, the monsters surrounding him were nothing but minor obstacles. Within moments, Luca had forcibly pushed his way to the very front of the node.
A surge of dark magic blasted out from the node. Through the crack, Luca could see barren, desolate land, devoid of life, and a world choked with black mist. Above, the blood-red moon hung ominously in the sky.
This was the Abyssal Demon Realm.
Luca couldn’t identify the exact location within the realm, but that didn’t matter.
What mattered was sealing it.
Golden patterns began to intertwine in midair, forming glowing symbols. Luca glanced back at Quagmire and Melania, who were surrounded by monsters, and without hesitation, his eyes flashed with golden light!
Buzz!
In an instant, the Golden Runes Sealing Array erupted with radiant light!
It shot toward the dark entrance of the node, its intricate lines unfurling like a spider’s web, and ultimately formed a golden pentagram, enveloping the entire node within it.
In the Abyssal Demon Realm, a Corrupt Wolf, which had been eagerly charging at Luca, failed to notice the barrier in time and slammed into the Golden Runes Sealing Array with a loud thud. The force of the impact sent it flying backward.
The massive shockwave caused it to tumble several times across the barren, black earth before it finally came to a stop. But the Corrupt Wolf didn’t get back up.
“Holy shit, it really sealed it?!” Quagmire turned around just in time to witness this, his eyes wide with disbelief. He thought Luca was just boasting, but the guy actually had the ability to pull it off?!
At the same time, a group of monsters ceased their attacks. Staring at the Spatial Node sealed within the barrier, confusion spread across their faces.
The gate had closed. How would they get back now?
“Looks like luck’s on our side; I can’t believe it worked on the first try.” Luca smiled to himself, feeling a bit of satisfaction. Now, all he had to do was take care of the remaining monsters…
Just as he thought this, a white light suddenly shot up from one of the monsters in the Abyssal Demon Realm. To Luca’s surprise, it shot straight toward him, and then, in a flash, the light merged into his body.
“What…?” Luca grabbed his head, feeling a sudden wave of dizziness. Then, it felt like a mirror shattered in front of him with a loud crack!
Immediately after, Luca froze.
In front of him, a game notification appeared.
[Ding! Congratulations! You have killed a level 15 Corrupt Wolf and gained 1.2 points of Stamina!]
Feeling the changes within him, Luca couldn’t help but smile.
“Didn’t expect to get data so soon.” He felt a surge of excitement; it looked like this trip wasn’t in vain after all.
In his previous life, when the game truly came to the real world, the world began to digitize, marking the start of the era of universal players.
However, just as some people were able to gain game feedback ahead of time, there were also players who got access to their data panels and abilities before the game’s official launch. These people started ahead of the pack.
In the real world, killing monsters provided stats, not experience points. When the game finally arrived, those stats could be stacked with the attributes in the game.
Players without a panel, however, could only gain materials from monsters and wouldn’t receive any rewards or attribute boosts.
While this gap would gradually fade when the game’s rewards kicked in—since, for ordinary players, the timing didn’t matter much, especially since monsters weren’t so easy to find in the real world.
Luca was different. He was part of the Morning Star organization, which specialized in dealing with Transcendent events.
Having an early access panel gave him a massive head start. The attribute points he was receiving now would allow him to accelerate past others, helping him to progress more quickly when the game arrived. He wouldn’t be as vulnerable during the early stages, potentially avoiding being instantly killed by high-level monsters during the initial, weak phase!
With that thought in mind, Luca’s gaze toward the surrounding monsters shifted.