Meanwhile,

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The air outside the Blackwood Spire was thick with the scent of ozone and the heavy, suffocating weight of an impending collapse.

Alpha Blackwood stood at the edge of the exclusion zone, his face a mask of purple-veined fury that made the ground beneath his boots tremble. Every few seconds, he would lung toward the violet mist, only to be repelled by a shimmering, translucent wall of force.

"Move, you useless wall of mana!" he roared, slamming his fist into the invisible barrier.

A shockwave rippled through the air, but the wall didn't even flicker.

In the mechanics of this world, a Grade-C dungeon eruption followed a strict...