The forest never ended.
Not in direction. Not on purpose.
It was a perfect prison—alive, aware, and endlessly cruel.
Leaves rustled even without the wind.
The air was damp with rot and something else.
Something that felt... conscious.
Five figures walked through the uneven earth.
They had been here too long. Far too long.
They still called themselves sane.
But sanity had become a flexible thing.
Something that bent with hunger and hallucination.
It had been three months since they'd stepped through that damned portal on the dead planet.
An abandoned world circling around the edge of a fading star.
They thought they'd gotten lucky.
Something ancient, untouched.
They didn't feel any strong fluctuations.
Just an entry point radiating soft mana—and a tempting sense of fortune.
But it wasn't fortune. It was a trap.
And they were the fools who fell for it.
As soon as they entered, the entrance closed.
"This is pure bullshit," Lira spat, kicking a twisted log aside.
Not creaked—groaned. Like something alive pretending to be dead.
None of them flinched. Not anymore.
She spat on it anyway.
She was tall and flame-haired.
Every inch of her radiated heat—anger, tension and the urge to burn something just to watch it scream.
Her red ponytail swung behind her with every furious step.
Her boots hit the earth like she wanted the whole forest to know her hate.
"I swear", she muttered, "when we get out of here, I'm going back to that planet and nuking the coordinates."
Lira wasn't just angry.
A young mistress of the Pyrellan Clan back on Solara IX—one of the top elemental houses on her planet.
The others were her subordinates, sworn to serve her during this expedition.
And now they were all lost in a glorified forest hellhole with their ranks shaved down to mud.
Just then one of her subordinates talked back.
"Assuming we do," Lin said behind her, too tired to sound smug this time.
Lira stopped walking.
She slowly turned her head.
"What was that, Lin?"
He didn't flinch—not fully. "I said assuming we get out. That's not pessimism—it's realism."
Lin was tall and pale. He looked nerdy.
His once-crisp robes were tattered and stained.
His glasses had more smudges than clarity.
But his wand was still in his grip. Still faintly humming.
"I'll burn your realism into ash," Lira muttered.
She felt angry. But she had to control her fury. She needed them.
"Shut up," said Zelle, voice clipped. "You've been threatening to burn people for three weeks. At this point, either do it or shut up."
Lira looked at Zelle. The only one who could talk to her .
She wasn't just her subordinate. She was also her childhood friend.
Zelle had changed the most.
She had a scar along her cheek, recent and shallow.
Her eyes were sharp and dangerous.
She had stopped hoping for rescue two months ago.
Now she only hoped her blade didn't rust before they ran out of food.
Behind them walked the last two.
The girl—Mira—moved like a phantom.
A massive blade strapped across her back. She hadn't spoken since their second month inside.
The boy beside her—Alos—had hollow eyes and a blank face.
His skin was too pale now.
Like whatever fire he once had was long since gone.
They were quiet. But not weak.
If anything, their silence made the others uneasy.
Suddenly, the air shifted.
A faint, inaudible click.
Then a blue screen blinked into existence before them.
[New Intruder Detected.]
[Dungeon: Proof of Qualification]
[Dungeon Type: Adaptive Flux Realm]
[Absolute Equilibrium Enforced.]
[Lowest Intruder Rank Detected]
[Balancing in Progress.]
[All Current Intruders Will Be Adjusted Accordingly.]
[Rank and Monster Scaling Recalibrated.]
Their bodies weakened.
Lin inhaled sharply. "Did it just say… we're being scaled down?"
"I'm already scaled down!" Lira barked. "This place nerfed me the second I walked in."
All of them—young elites in their own right.
This felt like a slap in the face. An insult to their potential.
Worse still, the monsters scaled with them.
Smarter than they had any right to be.
Now, someone weaker had entered.
So the dungeon made things worse.
The cage shrank. The monsters adapted.
Zelle's jaw clenched. "They just made us weaker because of someone else."
"Who the hell is dumb enough to enter a place at that rank?" Lira snapped.
The system window faded.
The forest seemed to hold its breath.
The trees leaned in closer.
The ground pulsed once.
"…Whoever they are", Zelle said slowly, "they're going to die."
Zelle didn't know who they were.
A lost person? A fallen noble? Some lucky idiot chasing a rumour?
This place didn't reward courage. It punished existence.
And whoever stumbled in just became another liability.
If they crossed paths…
"Not if the dungeon kills us first," Lin muttered.
A gust blew through the trees.
Wind didn't exist here.
And something howled from far away—low and grinding, like stone scraping bone.
"...Weapons out," Lira ordered, voice low.
The command was unnecessary.
Everyone had already pulled their weapons out.
They weren't just angry anymore.
They were even ready to hurt someone now.
And somewhere out there in this warped forest, someone weak had just entered.
Someone who made things harder.
If that someone ever crossed their path...
They wouldn't ask any questions.
They wouldn't offer any help.
They'd kill them without hesitation.
And maybe smile while doing it.
They didn't realise it, but they were slowly going crazy.
The forest was wearing them down—bit by bit.
Their thoughts weren't as clear. Their tempers were shorter.
And now someone new had stepped in.
But the dungeon didn't care.
It just smiled and changed the rules again.