Chapter 3Spatial Magic

After a sickening wave of vertigo, damp, freezing fog hit my face.

I opened my eyes. My boots were sinking into the muddy soil of some ruined landscape.

Looking around, I found five sickeningly familiar faces staring right back at me.

Gideon, Daisy, and the four deadbeats.

However, thanks to the system's raid entry mechanics, all their previous fatal injuries had been fully healed the second we loaded in.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is. Small world, isn't it, Val?"

Gideon gave a predatory smile, twisting that obsidian ring on his thumb.

"Oh wow, Val! How did you end up in this zone?"

Daisy bit her lip, faking a look of pleasant surprise.

"Since we are a team now, let's just let bygones be bygones. You are just a Spatial support class. You don't have any real combat power. Don't worry, we will take very good 'care' of you."

She leaned heavily on the word 'care'. The men around her chuckled darkly, sharing a knowing look.

I patted a speck of mud off my tactical jacket, my expression completely flat.

"Don't flatter yourselves. Just worry about keeping yourselves alive."

"Nonsense! We are all players, we have to look out for each other."

Daisy delicately wrapped her arms around Gideon's bicep.

"Gideon, Val might overcharge people, but she is still just a girl. When we run into danger, we have to make sure she is protected."

I didn't even bother acknowledging the white lotus act.

A quick glance at the system told me this zone was called "Whispering Hollows". It was merely a C-Tier raid.

With my agility alone, I could walk out of here without even triggering a rift.

But it took less than five minutes for me to realize I had severely underestimated how utterly spineless these people were.

The thick brush ahead rustled violently.

Three massive Abyssal Hellhounds, each the size of a grizzly bear, lunged out of the fog, their glowing toxic green eyes locked onto us.

"Weapons out!"

Gideon roared. His heavy mechanical exoskeleton hummed to life, glowing with red energy lines.

I took a step back to maintain a safe distance, but Jax suddenly slammed his shoulder into my back.

He shoved me straight into the path of the lead Hellhound's leaping jaws.

"Whoops! Slipped!"

Jax gave a fake apology while scrambling backward faster than a rat.

"Val! You have spatial speed! Kite two of them away for us! Once we kill this one, we will come save you!"

Daisy screamed from the backline, her eyes filled with toxic malice.

"Yeah, Val! You're a pro! Hold the line!"

Gideon swung his heavy broadsword at the remaining hound, but deliberately slammed his massive riot shield into the dirt right behind me, completely blocking my only escape route.

It was entirely orchestrated.

They wanted me to be their free meat shield.

They wanted me to die right here.

Inside a raid zone, the spatial dimensions were locked by system rules. I couldn't just tear open a portal back to the Nexus Hub.

They clearly knew that.

Watching the rotting, razor-sharp jaws snap toward my face, I didn't even blink.

I strolled through SSSS-Tier nightmares for a living. Did they really think a pack of C-Tier trash mobs could take me out?

They thought I was soft.

Moving with deliberate slowness, I reached into my pocket, pulled out a shimmering gold talisman, and crushed it in my palm.

[Alert: God-Tier Consumable 'Aegis Ward' activated. Immune to all physical and magical damage. Duration: 30 minutes.]

A halo of brilliant golden light instantly wrapped around my body.

The Hellhound's jaws, capable of snapping steel girders, clamped down hard on the barrier.

A dull, metallic gong echoed through the trees. The recoil shattered the beast's fangs, sending black blood flying in all directions.

Standing safely inside the golden bubble, ignoring the monster's infuriated roars, I casually found a clean boulder and sat down.

I even dug a can of soda out of my inventory and popped the tab.

"Good luck, guys. Rooting for you."

I took a sip of the fizzing drink, smiling pleasantly through the translucent golden dome at Gideon and his crew. Their faces were an absolute picture of shock.

They wanted to use the environment to murder me. They forgot that as the premier rescue specialist of the server, the one thing I had an infinite supply of was god-tier survival items.

The cost of this single talisman could fund their entire guild for six months.

Gideon's face turned black with rage. Daisy's innocent mask completely shattered, revealing a twisted, ugly grimace.

But before they could formulate a new dirty trick, a deafening, earth-shattering roar erupted from the deepest part of the hollow. The ground began to quake violently.

A shadow the size of a skyscraper slowly rose through the dense fog.