The Skystrider Guild was a titan, boasting hundreds of thousands of members. Within those massive ranks, the 'Azure Prime Guardian' achievement wasn't exactly common, but it wasn't unheard of either. For elites like Sera Ashford or Caden Marlowe, it was a given.
Ash Valor, however, was a different breed of outlier. His true combat power—a metric that could easily land him in the guild’s top twenty—was a secret he guarded as closely as his life. Only he knew that his composite stats were already rivaling a Level 170 professional. Strength was a tool, but in a world this volatile, anonymity was a shield.
"It’s been a while since I've dived," Ash muttered, checking his gear. "Time to see what these Level 10+ dungeons are actually made of."
He looked different now, his silhouette transformed by a fresh set of high-tier equipment. Between the new gear and a massive haul of potions purchased by Yue, his gold reserves had dwindled to a single million. To most, a million gold was a fortune; to Ash, it felt like pocket change.
Brett Fang and the rest of the squad stood ready, their forms shimmering with the distinct glow of Epic-tier gear. Before they hit the portal, Vera Laine stepped forward to deliver the briefing. She was meticulous, and even though Ash was technically the powerhouse, he listened with the focus of a novice. In many ways, he still was.
"Everything changes above Level 10," Vera warned, her voice tight. "These are 'Real Dungeons.' We aren't fighting constructs or echoes; we are facing monsters that actually exist in the Abyss. There are no fixed maps. The terrain, the enemy types, the Boss mechanics—it’s all RNG. Luck is as much a stat as Strength."
She paused, letting the weight of her words sink in. "The Azure Prime Plane has recorded over sixteen thousand high-tier clears. Not once has a map perfectly repeated itself. At Level 10, the enemies range from Level 100 to 110. There are no 'trash mobs' here—every single creature is an Elite-tier threat."
"Think of every run as a skirmish in a larger planar war," Vera continued. "People die here. Even Level 200 veterans don't walk into a Level 10 dungeon without their hearts in their throats. From Level 1 to 10, the system was holding our hands. Now? The gloves are off. Every kill we make is one less enemy threatening Azure Prime. We'll grind these Level 10s until we’re a well-oiled machine, then we move to Level 11."
While the newer recruits looked energized, Ash felt a cold prickle of tension. He knew what they didn't—the heavier the strength, the heavier the burden of keeping them alive.
"High-tier Bosses are significantly deadlier than their open-world counterparts," Vera added. "But the rewards are permanent. Clear a high-tier dungeon, and everyone in the party gets a permanent stat boost. For us, this is the only reliable way to transcend our limits."
Grant Fang stayed silent for once, deferring entirely to Vera’s tactical lead. Their numbers were small, which meant their synergy had to be flawless.
"Defensive drills first," Vera commanded. "Positions one through five, you're on a rotation for team damage-mitigation skills. If anything breathes near the center, you pull threat immediately. Lyra, you’re tethered to Brett. I’ll handle the rest of the group. Ellis, Celeste—don't worry about DPS. Your only job is Mana Transfer. Keep the Captain above two-thirds at all times. Assassins, you're on peel duty. Grant, keep your Phantoms in the formation to soak hits."
The strategy was blunt: Ash Valor was the railgun, and everyone else was the reinforced plating protecting it.
Ash’s mind wandered as they prepared. He thought of the forums, where high-tier dungeons were treated as mere loot-fountains, and then he thought of the Undying Realm’s sudden incursion years ago. It felt like these dungeons were more than just challenges—they were abscesses of another world bleeding into theirs.
If we don't cauterize them, they’ll consume us, he realized. He downed a string of buff potions, his eyes hardening. "Let's move."
The squad entered the portal in a tight, interlocking formation, weapons drawn and ready for an immediate ambush.
"Don't sweat it too much," Vera said, though her own hands were trembling slightly. "Half of us are Level 130. We’ve got this."
A series of system prompts flashed across their retinas:
[You have left the Azure Prime Plane. Global Exchange and Chat functions are disabled.]
[Quest Received: Purge the Abyss. Clear all Abyssal Creatures to stabilize this node.]
[Reward: All Stats +10, Gold +10,000 per member.]
Then, the environmental debuffs hit.
[You are afflicted by Abyssal Venom: -100 HP/sec.]
[Mental Pressure detected: Resisted (0 Damage taken).]
[The Abyssal Creatures have sensed your arrival. Prepare for engagement.]
While Ash’s massive defense shrugged off the tick-damage, the lower-level members were visibly wilting as their health bars began to drain. Vera didn't miss a beat, casting a wide-area regeneration spell.
[Aura of Blessing active: HP/MP Regen +100%]
[Lyra Fang’s Revitalizing Aura: HP +10%, Defense +10%]
Ash drew his bow, his eyes scanning their surroundings. He hadn't expected this. They were standing on a high vantage point overlooking a nightmare. Below them sat a shattered metropolis—toppled skyscrapers, buckled asphalt, and the rusted, mangled remains of humanoid mechs.
"This looks like..." Ash trailed off. He’d seen historical archives of Earth’s fall. This was the same carnage.
"We’re in a Fused World," Vera whispered, pointing upward. "Look at the sky."
The heavens were bisected by a jagged, impossible line. One half was a clear, pale light; the other was a swirling, oily void.
"If we clear this place, the light pushes back the dark," Vera said. "We're literally reclaiming a few miles of reality. This isn't Azure Prime—the tech is too advanced—but it’s someone’s home. Or it was."
Ash checked the map. It was small, roughly two miles in each direction. For a sniper with his range, it was a shooting gallery.
Brett Fang frowned, looking at the empty streets. "Where are they? It’s a ghost town."
"We got lucky," Ash said, his voice dropping an octave. "It’s a stealth pack."
Through his Eye of Clarity, the empty ruins were teeming. Hundreds of distorted, shimmering silhouettes were crawling up the buildings, converging on their position like a tide of invisible spiders.
"Today, we take our first real stand on these ruins," Ash declared.
Vera winced. "Ash, that's on me. I should have brought more True-Sight elixirs."
"Don't worry about it," Ash replied, keeping his bow leveled at the 'empty' air. "No one expects a full stealth spawn on the first floor."
"Captain, can we actually handle this?" Grant asked, his voice wavering.
Ash glanced at the mob stats. He almost wanted to laugh. "The numbers are high, but there's no real pressure. Stay in formation."
Vera sighed in relief. "Fine. If you've got them in your sights, let's use this as a live-fire exercise. Let a few through so the team can get a feel for the rhythm."
"Copy that. They're surrounding the high ground. It’s a perfect setup for an Archer."
While a normal hundred-man raid would have spent a day meticulously sweeping every corner for these hidden threats, Ash was looking at a buffet. He spotted the Bosses—two massive, bloated insects hovering in the distance, watching.
[Sky Plague Midge (Boss) – LV108]
[HP: 68.38 Million | ATK: 186,624 | DEF: 93,521]
[Abyssal Dreadworm (Elite) – LV105]
[HP: 11.35 Million | ATK: 46,325 | DEF: 26,319]
To the squad, these stats were terrifying. To Ash, who was Level 150 and optimized to the teeth, they were targets.
"Captain, are the Bosses moving?" Vera asked, frustrated by her own blindness.
"They're hanging back, likely trying to gauge why only twenty people showed up," Ash said.
"Then play it slow," Vera commanded. "Pretend we can't see them. Throw out some 'blind' AoEs to bait them in. Keep your effective range to a hundred meters—don't show your hand yet."
"A hundred meters? That's a bit restrictive, isn't it?"
"In the Abyss, caution is the only currency that matters. Drain the small fries first. Once the Bosses commit, we'll trigger a Death Strike and end it."
Ash nodded, putting on a bit of a show. "Where the hell are they? Are they underground? I'll try to flush them out!" He shouted, his acting wooden but loud enough to echo.
He loosed a flurry of arrows into the 'void.'
[-28,369]
[-26,748]
Tougher than they look, Ash thought. He had to fire twelve volleys to clear the first wave of invisible crawlers.
[Kill Count +98 | Gold +196 | Abyssal Crawler’s Eye +98]
As the Dreadworms closed in, Ash called out the command. "Wards up!"
"Shield Bash!" Brett roared, his Epic shield glowing as he slammed it into a shimmering space. "Shield Wall! Reflect!"
The two Assassins lunged forward, finishing off the slivers of health Ash had left behind. Seeing their vanguard failing, the two Sky Plague Midges let out a piercing buzz and dived.
"Finally," Ash muttered.
"Cunning little blood-sacks! You can see us?" one of the Midges screeched in a distorted, telepathic hiss. "What are you?"
"I'm the guy who’s about to put you down," Ash replied.
He didn't bother with the fancy skills. He just let the arrows fly.
[-431,698]
[-423,698]
At ten arrows per second, the Boss’s sixty-million HP bar started melting like ice in a furnace. No Death Strike was even necessary. Within a minute, the high-tier 'Nightmare' was over.
Ash looked at his bow, then at the dissolving corpses. I'm... actually a monster.
Vera stared at the damage logs, her jaw dropping. "Ash... your math is wrong. You should be hitting for a hundred thousand, max."
"I took some potions," Ash said quickly.
"Potions don't triple your output!"
"Maybe I just had a productive week?"
Vera stared at him for a long moment, then shook her head. "If I knew you were this broken, I wouldn't have spent the last three days losing sleep."
The two Bosses collapsed simultaneously. A pillar of golden light erupted ten times over—every new recruit had leveled up instantly.
[Clear Rewards: Glory Plate, Glory Helm, Gold-Tier Skill Tome.]
The loot was substantial, but as the darkness receded, Ash didn't look at the items. He used Blink to move away from the group, standing on the edge of a collapsed bridge. He looked at the wreckage of the mechs and the artificial suns lying cold in the gutters.
How many worlds are already like this? he wondered. Is the Abyss just a graveyard of failed civilizations?
He returned to the group before the silence became too heavy. The rest of the squad was busy mopping up the remaining five hundred crawlers, their coordination improving with every kill.
"Captain, did you enhance your weapon to +10 or something?" Brett asked, beaming. "You could solo this place!"
"Don't get cocky," Ash warned. "We grind this for ten days, then we move to Level 13. We need those permanent stat boosts."
By the end of the month, the Galeforce Squad had become a blur of efficiency. They cleared Level 11 and 12 dungeons until the recruits hit Level 130. Ash’s gold reserves finally hit the ten-million mark again. He went straight to the market and replaced his last 'weak' links: his jewelry.
[Equipped: Ring of Glory x2 (Epic)]
[Effect: All Stats +1,000 | Crit Chance +32% | Range +100m]
[Equipped: Necklace of Glory (Epic)]
[Effect: All Stats +1,000 | ATK +40% | 20% Evasion Chance]
His stats were now a terrifying testament to his grind:
Attack: 426,026
Crit Rate: 74%
Range: 760 meters
Attack Speed: 10.1
He was no longer just a top-tier guild member. He was a strategic asset.
"The Planar War starts in six months," Ash told his exhausted squad as they stood before the dungeon portal. "We need to be faster. Level 13 dungeons start today. Every clear gives you +30 to all stats permanently. If you want to survive the war, you’ll thank me for this hell later."
"Three hours," Grant groaned, collapsing onto the stone floor. "Three hours of sleep feels like a year's vacation right now."
Ash didn't argue. He leaned against the portal gate and closed his eyes, falling into a deep, dreamless sleep right there on the floor.
He was jolted awake not by a monster, but by a thunderous system announcement that echoed across the entire Azure Prime Plane:
[Server Announcement: The party led by Evan Valor has successfully cleared a Level 26 Dungeon, achieving an Immortal Deed.]
[Global Reward: All Professionals in Azure Prime receive All Stats +20.]
Ash stared at the floating text, his heart hammering. Evan Valor?
The grind had only just begun.