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Another magic projectile struck, once again hitting the ground right beside her.

‘What’s with this guy…?’ The distance was too great for Starry to see his attributes. ‘Should I move closer?’

Suddenly, Zane noticed something strange, the mage blinked a few times in an oddly unnatural way, his eyes twitching up and down as if he were having some kind of seizure.

No, that sounded far too rude. But upon seeing this, Zane was certain, this mage was up to something!

‘Should I cooperate with him? Not like I have a choice in the first place.’ Starry’s only advantage lay in her exceptionally high physical defense, while her magic defense was practically nonexistent.

If she took even a single magic hit in her current precarious condition, survival would be impossible. Single-target spells might still be dodged with some effort, but against an AoE attack, she would have no means to avoid it.

Her Charge skill was still on cooldown. Only one option remained: run!

Starry began darting aimlessly around the battlefield. Magic projectiles, fireballs, ice lances, and wind blades rained down around her without pause, each strike missing by a hair’s breadth, leaving nothing but a flurry of glowing “Miss” marks in their wake.

Seeing this, Ruehl muttered, “Kim, you’re not doing much better than me.”

The mage chuckled. “At least I’m not the one getting beaten so pathetically.”

“You—!”

Ladysha’s eyes shimmered with a knowing glint. Of course she could tell, Kim was holding back.

***

Fifteen minutes passed.

Starry had practically run across the entire first floor, the ground littered with scorched marks and residual traces of magic everywhere. Hundreds of spells, and not a single one had landed.

Even putting Ruehl aside, now even Victor began to sense that something was wrong. No matter how nimble this girl was, she couldn’t possibly dodge everything with a one-hundred-percent success rate!

“Kim, time’s almost up!” Victor urged.

“Huh? Already? You damn insect, take this—!” Kim shouted dramatically, conjuring a massive violet sphere the size of his own body.

With a gentle push ,surprisingly lacking in visible force, it shot forward at an incredible speed. Given its size… one could only imagine how vast the explosion’s radius would be.

Starry had been keeping constant watch on his every move. During this time, her focus had been pushed to the extreme, so much so that she had even stopped paying attention to her main body that had already been sent back to the city.

She switched to the Windchaser Boots and activated Windchaser! Even so, she still didn’t manage to get far.

‘Damn it, you’re dropping the act now?!’ Feeling the surge of power erupting behind her, Starry instinctively activated Charge! At last, she broke free from the blast radius just as the explosion expanded outward.

“Hah—! Hah—!” Starry gasped, panting heavily.

The countdown in the air finally hit zero.

At the same time—

No!

The sudden barrage of system notification drew Starry’s attention, and she failed to notice the purple glow of a magic circle forming beneath her feet. The light flared, her vision shifted, and before she knew it, she had returned to Wynwater City!

“Zane! Zane!” Shiu’s voice called out beside her.
“Huh? What is it?” Zane was startled.
“You scared me half to death! You came out and just stood there, not responding no matter how we called you. I thought something had happened to you.” Shiu now looked visibly relieved.

“Emberveil, it’s been less than an hour and you’re already done? That’s fast!” Endless Sea teased.
“Shut it!”
“Why isn’t sis out yet…? Don’t tell me the boss caught her?” DumbCitrus fretted.

As for why she called Starry “sis”… she had been completely won over by Starry’s calm and composed demeanor in the face of danger. Never mind that she herself was already older, Starry was only twenty!

“Don’t worry, before I got killed, I put a Guard on Stardust. She’s not that easy to take down,” Endless Sea said proudly. It was thanks to his Guard that Starry hadn’t been instantly ejected from the tower.

“Zanny, go ask her how she’s doing,” Zaria urged, worried. They had all seen the terror of that boss firsthand, an AoE attack that could deal over ten thousand damage! Even the tankiest Starmew had been one-shot. Fighting such a boss was like dancing on a tightrope.

“It’s fine.” Zane smiled faintly. “It’s already over.”

“What?” Everyone wondered if they had heard wrong.

Then, system notifications began popping up one after another, and no one could keep a straight face anymore.

“Hey, hey, are you kidding me!? Surviving twenty minutes alone and getting an S+ rating?” Nangong’s mouth twitched. Even with her attack power, Starry’s survivability was a whole other matter.

Suddenly, a pillar of violet light descended from the sky. As the glow faded, Starry appeared on the spot.

Her hair was disheveled, her forehead dotted with beads of sweat. She pressed her delicate palms against her thighs, breathing deeply, looking utterly exhausted.

***

Finding a quiet corner, she briefly recounted what had happened.

Everyone felt humbled that Starry had managed to solo a Unique-tier boss. Even if it had been on the brink of death, a starving camel was still bigger than a horse—a unique boss was still a unique boss. Many of them weren’t even sure they could pierce its defenses.

As for that mage, no one knew what tricks he had been playing. If they had doubts, they could only set them aside for now, because Zane had checked, the Forgotten Tower Entry Pass had a cooldown.

It would be another twenty days before they could use it again. That was a long wait.

Next time they went in, she might very well be able to wipe the floor with everything inside. Still, in zones like this, the monsters’ strength was likely to scale with player progression. Otherwise, it would hardly make sense for the first floor of such a magnificent tower to only house Epic- or Unique-tier creatures.

After returning all the dropped equipment to their owners, Zane had Nangong take out the items they had picked up earlier. Including what Starry herself carried, the Dragon Abyss Knights had yielded a total of twenty pieces of equipment.

Among them were eleven Epic-grade items, five Rare, and the rest Uncommon-grade gear. It was, by all accounts, a bountiful harvest.

The first item was a silver-and-white cloak, its hem fluttering lightly in the breeze.