In the days that followed the rise of the Black Spire in Hyde Park, the initial chaos began to ebb into an uneasy calm.
The panic had given way to procedure. The crowds were gone, replaced by layered barricades, scanning drones, and military-grade surveillance. A large swath of central London had been turned into a no-fly, no-go zone, surrounded by temporary HQs, field tents, and a perimeter manned by elite soldiers and licensed hunters in rotating shifts.
For the first time in a long while, every eye in England was focused on a single point.
The England Hunter Association, under intense pressure from the public, media, and government, had declared their next course of action:
A Full-Scale Raid.
This wouldn't be a quick delve or a standard scout team insertion. No—this was going to be a major operation, the kind only mobilized when an S-rank threat was either imminent or already present. Despite the dungeon's energy reading fluctuating at a high C-rank baseline, no one was willing to bet their lives it would stay that way.
And so, in a rare act of initiative, the Association issued a call.
"Requesting international support for high-risk investigation and clearing of anomalous dungeon. Priority: Critical."
They reached out to guilds and associations in France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, even the United States and South Korea.
But the response?
Silence.
Polite diplomatic deferrals. Offers to "observe and advise." Words like "monitoring the situation" and "awaiting further data" filled inboxes. The world's largest hunter nations, China, the US, and Russia, all opted for the wait-and-see strategy, unwilling to risk high-level personnel on foreign soil without more information.
Only two nations responded affirmatively.Small in size, perhaps, but not in resolve: Scotland and Ireland.
Their associations didn't hesitate. Between them, they pledged three A-rank hunters and four B-ranks, citing the obvious: If this thing spreads, it won't stop at borders.
The UK Commonwealth Defense Accord, long dormant in terms of dungeon activity, was reactivated in full. Old protocols were dusted off, channels reestablished. It was like war prep—but with monsters instead of men.
The England Hunter Association began assembling the strike force. It would include:
The elite members of Knightsbridge Covenant and Hollow Dawn.
Support teams of healers, tacticians, and rune analyzers.
Select, high-ranking volunteers from allied nations.
And a small but growing list of unaffiliated hunters requesting to join.
While London braced for what might be the most significant raid in its modern history, Alejandro Vargas went about his life in Oslo with practiced calm.
He'd kept a low profile, blending in with the quiet rhythm of the Norwegian capital. His days were filled with training, dungeon runs and continued experimentation with his magic and the vast, intricate customization tools within his Dungeon Creation System.
The world may have been trembling at the emergence of a spire in London, but Alejandro?
He was building foundations, not just dungeons.
And last night had been refreshingly normal.
He'd gone on a casual dinner date with Ingrid Solberg, a confident, athletic C-rank hunter with sharp eyes and the kind of calm energy that made conversation easy. A local celebrity among the Norwegians for her high dungeon-clear rate, she wasn't intimidated by his rank, nor was she overly curious about his past.
They met through mutual hunter circles—he hadn't expected anything to come from it, but Ingrid had invited him out with a smile that was hard to refuse. Their night was quiet. They dined at a small restaurant along the Akerselva River, just north of Grünerløkka. Candlelight flickered between wine glasses, the food was good, and the conversation—surprisingly better. They didn't talk about dungeons. Not stats. Not magic. Not monsters.
Just food, travel, music. Her dog. His awkward Norwegian. How Oslo was too cold in the mornings but perfect at night. No fireworks. No dramatic revelations. And no, they hadn't slept together.
But they'd laughed. And for Alejandro, that was rarer than intimacy. Sometimes, what he needed most wasn't power or secrecy. Sometimes, he just needed to feel normal again.
The next morning, the world would begin to shake a little harder.
But for now, as the sun filtered through the windows of his Oslo hotel suite, Alejandro sipped his coffee and read the headlines calmly.
Black Spire Remains Dormant – Raid Countdown: 4 Days.
He smiled faintly.