A shattering sound reverberated throughout the dormitory block, and since it was dinner time, there weren't any other students apart from Tanya Drusilla, who turned into glass and exploded to death, and Ken Raven, her victim of charm, which she casually feeds on whenever she needed blood due to her race of being a vampire.

"T-Tanya...?"

Tanya, Ken Raven's lover, just turned into glass, shattered, and left this world. He couldn't process what just happened in front of him as he was sitting on the bed, half-naked, and was still drowsy from sleep or fatigue.

A moment later, Ken, who seemed to regain his normal self, scrutinized in shock what had transpired.

"Tanya!!"

Although he screamed in emotional agony, Ken felt like his emotion was undergoing confusion and presently being constructed bits by bits as though it was puzzle pieces that were lost.

He was not certain if the reflexive reaction he had just now was of his or just a response from a different stimulus.

"H-huh?"

Kneeling on the solidified body, shattered fragments of glass, Ken seemed now to be awake from a long dream. He was having a minor headache and felt like his skull was being electrocuted.

Recognizing the face of the towering and well-built man standing in front of the door, Ken tilted his head before he asked, perplexed.

He didn't care about his miserable appearance and just wanted to know the reason for eliminating a student of the Obelisk Academy.

"S-sir Artorious...? W-what happened? W-why?"

With a cracking voice, he mustered up the courage to speak. Although most of the fake love that he felt towards Tanya was because of her charm skill as a Vampire, Ken initially admired her. It was also the reason why he quickly fell for it.

With a wave of his hand, Artorious, who didn't care about the dispersed crimson fragments of glass throughout the dormitory room, picked up a ring.

Upon inspecting it, his cold expression turned colder. Without saying anything, he showed the information to the bemused Ken, which caused his bemusement to just grow.

"Your girlfriend was a vampire, and it seems you are charmed into believing you have feelings for her."

Artorious didn't need to admit to such a student that he never knew of vampire existence within and outside the Obelisk Academy.

At that moment, Ken seemed to receive a bucket of melted ice in his head as he finally realized what happened. He also recalled the unseen System messages that he heard upon Tanya's death.

[The Skill: Crimson Charm cast on you has been nullified.]

[You are now free from the manipulation of the skill user.]

Tears flowed down his face upon reading and realizing everything that happened.

He couldn't accept it, even though he admired her charm and outward demeanor, he realized it was entirely wrong. Also, Ken didn't need to question the man's words in front of him since there was no reason to lie about such a thing, especially when it concerned the entirety of humanity.

He recalled when he was still a kid, the heroic journey of Artorious and other extremely strong players. With the unknowns and mysteries that have yet to be uncovered or explored, these people protected and would continue to protect humanity.

"Stand up, young man."

Artorious voice resounded in the dormitory block as the door of Tanya's dormitory room was left open. After a few seconds, with a wave of Artorious' hand again, Tanya's body completely disappeared.

A moment later, several footsteps were heard in the hallway of the dormitory block. Artorious wasn't alert in any way even though the current matter was confidential in a sense because he knew the people who were approaching.

"Sir Artorious..."

Russell, with Freya and Amelie, just arrived after fighting a life-and-death scenario in the Chaos Dungeon.

***

Several hours ago before Russell and the others, except for Amery, went back on Earth and arrived in the now dead Tanya's dormitory room.

After going inside the cave full of stalactites and stalagmites made from unknown soil, Russell encountered many Chaos Goblins, but this time, he didn't fight them alone and let the others participate so that they would garner experience.

Being stronger than the normal Chaos Goblins, Met, Russell's summon creature, intercepted those who were on the backline of the Chaos Goblin horde.

Gaining back the intelligence that it had lost, Met, with increased stats due to the Skill: Alien Call (EX), was entirely different in fighting compared to when he was just a normal Chaos monster. Its Expert level of swordsmanship was fully utilized and Russell became delighted because he would have another sparring partner that uses a sword weapon, which would benefit him greatly.

Although Russell couldn't browse the Chaos-related skills he possessed, he felt that everything — from Mana Control to Weapon Proficiency was topnotch due to the Inherent Power: Chaos Moon.

Even though it exceeded his expectations, Russell needed to strengthen his body so that it would catch up or level to the high-level skills he had because it was never a good thing, in the long run, to just have high-level skills, but low stats. Additionally, if he ever fought a strong opponent and used a high-level skill with a body that was not suitable for its power, his body would bear the consequences, possibly tearing himself apart.

***

Spurt-!historical

[You have killed a Chaos Goblin.]

[You have consumed the Chaos Aura of the Chaos Goblin.]

[Chaos Power increased by 1.]

[You have stored it into Nothingness.]

[Stored Chaos Power: 342]

Including the monsters in the Tower of Growth, he now stored more than three hundred Chaos Power. It's an amount higher than his current Chaos Power stats, which seemed to never change for a long time.

The reason why he wasn't consuming it was because of the one skill he had — Abyssal Cut, which reduces his current Chaos Power by half as its cost to be used.

Several moments had passed and they cleared the first cave. According to the map provided by the System because of his profession as the Mediator of Chaos, there were two remaining caves, which were certainly the hideouts of the Chaos Goblins with unnatural appearances.

Similar to the first cave, after a few hours, they finally cleared the remaining two. Each cave's depths were different, and there was also a different type of monster that Russell and the others encountered — Chaos Orcs, but unlike the Chaos Goblins, these monsters didn't possess the Swordsmanship of the Night, but rather a different kind of technique called the Mace Star Technique, which resonated with their weapons — Maces.

Although the Chaos Orcs' existence was new to them, Russell didn't take one of them as his added summon creature because it wasn't necessary and he was looking for those monsters that would maximize his benefits since he couldn't replace them if they didn't die.

[The Player Party can now be transported to the Boss Room.]

With Russell's will as the leader of the party, he and the others went to the Boss Room using the True Key of Chaos. The dungeon's mechanism was entirely different from the usual Strayed Dungeons or Dungeon Towers because, with the help of the holographic map, if they wiped out the monsters in every designated area, they would need the key to traverse to the next stage.

In other words, it would be troublesome, in any case, if there was something that wasn't labeled in the holographic map because it would mean that they needed to explore the entire dungeon, which was certainly time-consuming.

Arriving in the Boss Room of the Lair of the Rabids, Russell and the others scrutinized the surroundings. It was an enclosed rock-made and dilapidated wide rectangular room, and there was nothing noteworthy except for the gigantic chains wrapped around an enormous hound.

[Defeat the Boss Monster, Chaos Chimera, Karax.]

Name: Karax

Race: Chaos Chimera

Title: [Rabid], [Adorer of Night], [Heaven's Meet]

Rank: E+

Since it's a dungeon and not similar to the Tower of Growth, there's no time limit. It's either killing the Boss Monster to finish or to be killed.

The Chaos Chimera's body was dark blue and about ten meters long. Its stature was around five meters.

It was similar to a mythological monster, Cerberus, if not for its head composition. The Chaos Chimera had three heads; two on either side were similar to the head of a Chaos Goblin, while another head in the middle was similar to that of a Chaos Orc — which seemed like a rhinoceros because of a single horn protruding on its forehead.

Russell inspected the Boss Monster as its chains were breaking, gradually being freed. His eyes constricted upon seeing the title he wasn't familiar with.

'Heaven's Meet?'

Just as he thought about it, he and the others received additional System messages.

[Due to Karax's Title: Heaven's Meet, its stats will be similar to the strongest player in the room.]

At that moment, a dark blue aura intensely emanated from Karax's body as its stats were adjusted — from E+ rank to C-.

"Don't tell me every Chaos Dungeon's Boss Monster possesses that title? It's straight-up cheating."

Amelie lampooned. A few seconds later, the battle to end the first Chaos Dungeon started.

***

[The Player Party has defeated the Chaos Chimera, Karax!]

[Every party member has received 2 points of Unallocated Stats!]

Apart from the auto-allocated stats that were randomly distributed to their Main Stats, Russell and the others received their first unallocated stats.

"That's f*cking annoying!"

Russell couldn't help but express his annoyance as he slumped on the ground. It took them a few hours to finally kill the Chaos Chimera because of one reason apart from its adjusted stats — it split apart into three, and when one of the three died, it continued to multiply.

Checking the gigantic dark cross that finally ended the life of Karax, Amelie approached everyone and healed them.

"Anyways, that's a treasure chest."

Standing up, feeling rejuvenated, Russell glanced at an ancient Treasure Chest he was familiar with.

[Ancient Treasure Chest from Chaos.]

After some time, they finally received their respective rewards and exited the Chaos Dungeon.

***

Presently, inside now gone Tanya's dormitory room, Russell, Freya, and Amelie stood in front of the half-naked Ken.

He was flustered by the sudden appearance of three students, but seeing their serious faces, Ken realized that they might be related or knew something regarding Tanya's case.

Still kneeling on the floor that was dyed crimson due to Tanya's spilled blood, Ken heard Russell's cold voice.

"Are you just going to kneel there forever?"

"I-I loved her... But, why... I don't understand..."

Seemingly in denial and in shock, Ken muttered. Based on what Russell knew, though the Skill: Crimson Charm was dispelled upon the skill user's death, its effects, due to psychological factors and muscle memory, would somehow still linger for some time.

Ken knew he was used, but he couldn't help but long for Tanya's presence.

"Pathetic."

Russell whispered, causing Ken's ears to prick up. Looking up at the man with deep blue eyes, Ken lunged forward and tried to hit him.

But with unforeseen strength, Russell instead punched his face. He was sent flying to the room.

'Just how long was he under such a skill?'

"Y-you!! What do you know?!!"

Ken, rubbing the cheeks that almost knocked him cold, screamed. Russell, quickly appearing in front of him, kicked his stomach.

"Wake up! Do you even know when is the last time you contacted your parents?"

Ken fell into confusion because earlier in the morning, he contacted them and said he was doing well.

At this moment, he felt another headache, maybe because of Russell's beating, shaking up his skull.

Grabbing the smartwatch on the study desk, Russell threw it to Ken's side, which the latter then wore and operated.

Upon checking the messages, Ken's face turned pale because his last message was sent more than a month ago.

He was bombarded by calls and text messages from his little sister. Upon reading the latest message that was sent to him two days ago, Ken broke down on the spot.

- "Big brother... Mom and Dad are in critical condition.

- "Big brother... We miss you already. Are you okay there?? Please reply.

His tears seemed to create a small pond on the floor as his heart couldn't contain the heaviness of what he had done, even if it wasn't his intention.