Marcus logged into Dominion and reappeared on the first level of Mystic Turtle’s Tomb, exactly where he had logged out the previous night. The familiar chill of the dungeon wrapped around him as he faced the five-way intersection ahead, its branching tunnels already threatening to scramble his sense of direction.

He calmly applied every buff he had, summoned his pets one by one, then chose the first tunnel on the right and advanced with firm confidence. Before moving too far, he carefully carved markers along the walls, refusing to trust memory alone in a place like this.

Three hours later, he was still wandering through darkness, passing identical tunnels and endless intersections that blurred together until they felt like a cruel joke. The layout never seemed to repeat in any helpful way. Each turn promised progress, yet delivered only more stone corridors stretching into uncertainty.

Another three hours slipped by. He had even logged out briefly for lunch, hoping a short break would clear his mind, but when he returned nothing had changed. The entrance to the second level remained nowhere in sight. To make matters worse, monsters were scarce on this floor. The occasional Stone Grunt appeared, each at level forty-two, yet after six exhausting hours his experience bar had crawled upward by only fifteen percent.

All this strength, all this preparation, and nowhere to actually use it. He felt like a dragon stranded in shallow water, powerful but restrained, or a hunting tiger forced to wander empty plains without prey.

"Damn it."

Frustration gnawed at him. A reckless part of him wanted to simply carve straight through the stone walls and force his own path forward, but he knew better. He lacked the skills for terrain destruction, and his equipment certainly was not designed to break apart ancient imperial architecture. There were no clever shortcuts left, no hidden tricks waiting to save him. The only option was persistence.

He urged Blackie forward again, charging through unmarked intersections and unexplored tunnels. The oldest exploration method imaginable remained his only strategy: cover every inch of the map until the answer revealed itself.

At Blackie’s terrifying speed, six hours of nonstop movement meant they had crossed well over a hundred miles of tunnels. Even so, the maze showed no sign of ending. The sheer scale of the tomb defied reason. And this was only the outer perimeter, the burial domain of the Mystic Turtle, one of the Four Spirits entrusted with guarding the First Emperor’s resting place.

The deeper truth settled heavily in Marcus’s mind. If even the outer layer was this vast, then the First Emperor’s tomb itself must be beyond comprehension.

"Liam Windrunner... how did you even get through this mess?"

Marcus muttered under his breath while studying the smooth tunnel walls. They were flawless, polished stone without cracks, carvings, or natural landmarks. Nothing distinguished one corridor from another. Had Liam truly navigated all of this without leaving markers?

What Marcus did not know was that the tomb possessed a hidden mechanism. Every twelve hours, the tunnels repaired themselves completely. Any marks carved into the walls, any items dropped as guides, vanished as though they had never existed.

Which meant that if he failed to locate the second-level entrance within twelve hours, every trace of his progress would disappear. His entire route would reset, and he could easily become trapped deep inside the maze with no reference point at all. Thankfully, time spent offline did not count toward the limit, otherwise the system would have already punished him.

Blackie’s status as a super divine mount now proved invaluable. They surged forward at relentless speed for two more hours, blasting through a sprawling six-way intersection. Gradually, Marcus noticed subtle changes. The torches burned brighter. The tunnels widened. Stone Grunts appeared more frequently, patrolling the passages in greater numbers.

’Finally, something different.’

Tears nearly formed in his eyes.

Marcus straightened in excitement and shouted, "Alright team, wipe them out!"

All the frustration he had bottled up exploded at once. His pets charged forward, unleashing attacks in rapid succession. Stone Grunts shattered one after another, collapsing into heaps of broken gravel under overwhelming force. The rhythmic crashes of destruction echoed through the corridors like music.

A hundred meters ahead, the tunnel opened into a massive hall filled with more than a hundred Stone Grunts standing in silent formation.

At last, actual targets.

"I love you guys!" Marcus laughed, genuinely relieved. He ordered the Sea Demon Soul to draw aggro while his other pets rampaged freely through the crowd. Spells flashed, claws tore through stone bodies, and fragments scattered across the floor.

Even while fighting, Marcus scanned the chamber carefully. His eyes moved constantly, searching walls, corners, pillars, anything that might conceal the entrance to the second level.

At that moment, a faint tremor rippled through the tunnels. A strange dark light swept across the passages like an invisible tide. Far behind him, every marker he had carved and every object he had dropped disappeared without a trace.

Even the tunnel he had used to enter this hall subtly shifted. The intersection twisted just enough that retracing his steps now would lead somewhere entirely different. Anyone attempting to leave and return would never find this place again unless guided by pure luck.

Had Blackie not been absurdly fast, had Marcus arrived even slightly later, he would already be hopelessly lost.

The First Emperor’s tomb truly lived up to its reputation. The guardianship of the Four Spirits was no mere legend. This place punished hesitation and rewarded only decisive momentum.

Unaware of how narrowly he had avoided disaster, Marcus remained focused solely on locating the next entrance. His gaze swept repeatedly across the chamber.

Then realization struck; the hall was a dead end.

Solid black stone sealed all four sides. No doorway. No passage or staircase descending deeper.

There was no way forward.

"What the hell?"

Irritation flared into anger. Marcus cleared the remaining Stone Grunts with ruthless efficiency and began inspecting the chamber inch by inch. He checked every wall, every corner, and every seam in the stone. Nothing responded. The only notable features were four enormous stone pillars, each twice the height of a man. He pushed them, shook them, even attempted to rotate them, but they refused to budge.

All that anticipation, and all that excitement, for nothing.

After confirming repeatedly that he had missed nothing obvious, Marcus released a long breath and reluctantly prepared to leave.

"Huh... weird."

The words slipped out unconsciously.

Just before exiting, he noticed something unsettling. The markers he had carved outside the hall, the ones he clearly remembered leaving before entering, were gone.

"I know I left markers."

He was certain of it.

His instincts sharpened immediately. Something significant had happened in the tunnels. Abandoning any thought of rushing ahead, Marcus turned back into the hall. Charging blindly now would only make things worse. He needed to understand the situation first.

Sometimes survival depended on the smallest habits, the tiniest clues others ignored.

He searched again, slower this time, more methodical. Ten minutes passed. Still nothing revealed itself. No hidden door, no concealed mechanism, no suspicious cracks in the stone.

"Gotta look somewhere else," he muttered, though hesitation lingered. Leaving might mean losing the only meaningful landmark he had found.

Then a flash of light appeared nearby. For one hopeful second, Marcus thought the dungeon had finally revealed a secret.

Instead, Stone Grunts began reforming from scattered fragments. Respawns.

"Damn it."

Already irritated, he attacked immediately as the constructs advanced toward him. Yet something felt off. Earlier, his pets had eliminated these enemies in a single coordinated strike. Now the Stone Grunts survived the first wave of attacks.

Frowning, Marcus activated Insight.

They were now level forty-three and their health had risen to 8,500. No wonder they were no longer dying in one hit.