After finishing his words, Ethan removed his hat and, with a smile, gave a slight bow to Black Rye.
Black Rye froze, clearly puzzled by the gesture. For some reason, it felt eerily familiar, like he had seen it before.
*Snap!*
At that moment, Ethan snapped his fingers, and a small flame appeared in his palm.
"Fire magic?" Black Rye's brow furrowed. Something felt off. This was supposed to be a magic-suppressed dungeon, so how could Ethan cast a spell?
"No, wait! He was fighting me in melee just a moment ago, using stealth and assassination techniques, but now he's casting fire magic. Could it be…" Black Rye considered the possibilities.
The only classes that combined stealth with spellcasting were rangers and magicians. But rangers drew power from nature, which was restricted in magic-suppressed zones, leaving only one possibility.
"You're a magician?" Black Rye asked, his expression becoming serious.
"Correct! But no prize for you!" Ethan responded with a grin, and the flame in his hand surged, transforming into a fiery serpent that shot toward Black Rye.
"Damn it!" Black Rye cursed and quickly disappeared into stealth again.
If Ethan had been a mage, Black Rye wouldn't have been concerned. But magicians were different. Their abilities were unpredictable, and the ability to conjure fire from nothing was every close-range fighter's nightmare. Combined with stealth, magicians were a rogue's worst enemy. At equal levels, only rangers could stand a chance.
Luckily, both classes required balanced development, or they would render other classes useless.
"Stealth again?" Ethan shook his head, exasperated. Black Rye must have thought disappearing would save him, but that was a grave mistake.
The condition for casting *Create Fire Out of Nothing* was any fire source—paper, dry grass, clothing. And Black Rye was wearing leather armor and linen pants, both perfect fuel.
*Snap!*
Ethan snapped his fingers again, expecting Black Rye to ignite. But nothing happened.
"Huh?" Ethan frowned. "Where did he go?"
Perplexed, Ethan scanned the area, unsure of what had happened.
"Did he run? No, that's impossible—bosses can't escape the dungeon. Unless…" Ethan had a sudden realization and turned to Naomi and the others.
"What's wrong?" Naomi asked, noticing Ethan's gaze.
"I think the boss is hiding near you. He might be disrupting my spell," Ethan explained.
"What should we do?" Naomi asked, now also frowning. This boss was proving to be a real nuisance.
"It's simple. My next spell will affect all of you as well," Ethan grinned mischievously. "Try not to die."
*Snap!*
The sharp sound of Ethan's fingers echoed through the cave.
*Boom!*
Instantly, a wave of fire erupted throughout the cave. Every flammable material was ignited, including the clothing of Naomi and the others. The once cold cave suddenly felt much warmer.
"Ahhh! We're on fire!"
"Dustwalker, help! My gear's burning!"
"Please, don't kill us too!"
Naomi and her team panicked, trying to douse the flames on their armor and clothes. Meanwhile, Ethan ignored them, focusing his senses on finding Black Rye.
After a few moments of searching, Ethan still couldn't locate him.
"Strange…" Ethan muttered to himself. He had ignited every fire source in the cave, so Black Rye should have been forced out of hiding by now.
Unless he wasn't in this plane of existence anymore.
Black Rye's class, as a rogue, likely allowed him access to the Shadow Realm. Ethan figured that Black Rye had likely retreated there, a dimension connected to the material world, often used by rogues for escape.
"Good thing I know *Shadow Leap*. Otherwise, I'd have no way to deal with you," Ethan smirked, extinguishing the flames and taking a step forward. In an instant, he disappeared from the material world.
---
**Shadow Realm**, an alternate plane of existence tied to the physical world.
Here, there was no solid matter, only dark, shifting lines and endless shadow storms. Classes like rogues, rangers, and thieves often had abilities linked to the Shadow Realm. It was also the domain of the *Prince of Shadows*.
*Ding!*
**[You've entered the Shadow Realm. Experience +50]**
**[You possess the 'Dual Shadow' talent. Combat power +30%.]**
**[Warning: You are being corroded by shadow energy. Health is decreasing.]**
Upon entering the Shadow Realm, Ethan saw faint gray lines crisscrossing the space. These lines were the essence of shadow energy. When enough gathered, they could form shadow torrents capable of cutting off beings from the material world, leaving them lost forever.
Additionally, players in the Shadow Realm constantly faced shadow energy corrosion. Without specialized talents, items, or 100% shadow resistance, they couldn't stay here long.
"I don't have any shadow resistance or talents, so I can only last five minutes at most," Ethan thought, feeling the urgency. He quickly scanned the area for Black Rye.
"Looking for me?" A cold voice rang out.
Ethan turned toward the sound and found Black Rye, standing among the shadows, his dagger in hand and eyes locked on Ethan.
"Impressive, magician. You can even enter the Shadow Realm, a rogue's domain."
"Thanks for the compliment," Ethan replied nonchalantly.
He could enter the Shadow Realm thanks to his *Dual Shadow* talent, not his magician class.
"But you shouldn't have come here. This is the rogue's playground. You've overstepped," Black Rye's voice grew darker as gray lines wrapped around his body, cloaking him in shadow.
Ethan could barely make out Black Rye's form now, his body merging with the shadows, becoming a near intangible mass of lines.
"Shadow body transformation?" Ethan raised an eyebrow.
"Indeed," Black Rye replied smugly. "In the shadows, I can fully transform, making your *Create Fire Out of Nothing* useless."
"Talkative, aren't you?" Ethan wasn't interested in exchanging more words. He pulled out his dagger and activated *Blink*, instantly closing the distance between them.
Time was of the essence, and he needed to end this quickly.
"Foolish adventurer," Black Rye sneered and met Ethan's charge head-on.
But rather than the expected clash of blades, Black Rye's body dissipated into lines, quickly wrapping around Ethan.
"Heh, I've got you now!" Black Rye grinned, his voice filled with glee as his shadowy lines coiled tighter.
"No, you've fallen into my trap," Ethan grinned back.
As soon as Black Rye's shadow lines wrapped around him, a tiny flame flickered into existence.
"What is this?" Black Rye's eyes widened in shock. From that small flame, he could sense immense power, a force he had only felt in the presence of gods.
"Ever heard of the Eternal Flame?" Ethan asked casually.
"The Eternal Flame… Argoth's relic? Impossible!"
"Nothing's impossible. Goodbye," Ethan said as his figure dissolved from the shadow lines.
In the distance, a card that had been left behind caught fire, and from the flames, Ethan reappeared, casually snapping his fingers.
*Snap!*
*Boom!*
*Ahhh!*
The sound of snapping fingers, a fiery explosion, and Black Rye's screams rang out almost simultaneously.
"Yikes, that's rough," Ethan smirked as he watched Black Rye burn in agony.
Once again, Ethan's intimate knowledge of the boss had given him the upper hand. He knew exactly how Black Rye would attack, so he allowed himself to be captured, delivering the Eternal Flame directly into Black Rye's body.
The burning card had been left behind when Ethan first entered the Shadow Realm, in preparation for this very moment.
**[Ding! You have slain Black Rye (Clone). Public Reputation +10 (First Kill).]**
The system's notification confirmed that the boss had been defeated.
Unfortunately, it was just a clone.
In most dungeons, the monsters and bosses were merely clones. As for the real bodies, no one knew where they were.
Some speculated that only Nightmare-level dungeons contained the real versions of the monsters, but that had never been proven, as no one had ever cleared one.
...