Dominion Bond System: The Only Man Left Has A Yandere Girlfriend

Chapter 87: Somebody In The Alley

Ding!

[Boss Monster Eliminated!]

[Desert Tyrant Worm (B+) Defeated.]

The enormous corpse remained motionless across the desert.

Unlike every monster Reiji had killed before, it didn’t immediately dissolve into particles. Instead, black mist slowly leaked from the countless sword wounds covering its body. The dark veins that had spread across its flesh gradually faded while the second mouth on its neck finally fell silent.

"...It’s over."

Reiji released a long breath and allowed the bone sword to lower.

The moment he relaxed, every ache in his body returned at once.

His knees nearly gave out.

"...Damn..."

Blood Rage had ended.

Strength of the Overlord had also disappeared.

The sudden loss of those enhancements made him feel as though his body weighed twice as much as before.

His muscles screamed in protest. His mana was nearly depleted.

Even maintaining Demonic Essence had become difficult.

The black-and-amber flames surrounding the bone sword slowly faded before disappearing completely.

Reiji returned the weapon to his Inventory.

"I really overdid it..."

The battle had lasted far longer than he expected.

If Soul Rapture hadn’t worked he wasn’t sure how the fight would’ve ended.

Ding!

A familiar notification appeared before him.

[Congratulations Host!]

[You have successfully cleared a B+ Rank Dungeon Gate.]

Ding!

[Calculating Rewards...]

[...]

[...]

[...]

Several seconds passed.

The system appeared to be processing something.

Reiji frowned. "...Why is it taking so long?"

Normally, rewards appeared almost instantly.

This time nothing.

Then...

Ding!

[Bonus Rewards Calculated.]

[Host exceeded expected combat performance.]

[Hidden Evaluation Achieved.]

[Reward Multiplier Applied.]

Reiji blinked.

"...Hidden Evaluation?"

Before he could think further, the notifications flooded his vision.

Ding!

[+1,876 EXP]

Ding!

[Level Up Conditions Met.]

[Insufficient Bond Points.]

[Level Up Failed.]

The smile that had begun forming on Reiji’s face immediately disappeared.

"...Seriously?"

He stared at the notification for several long seconds before letting out a bitter laugh.

"So even after all this... I still can’t level up."

His EXP had increased by an absurd amount. Yet it was meaningless.

Without enough Bond Points the System wouldn’t allow him to advance.

"...What a troublesome system."

Still he wasn’t particularly surprised anymore.

He had already accepted that no matter how much he fought, Bond Points would eventually become the true bottleneck.

His eyes shifted toward the remaining notifications.

Ding!

[Boss Monster Core Obtained.]

[B+ Rank Desert Tyrant Worm Core.]

Ding!

[Anomaly Fragment x1 Obtained.]

Ding!

[Title Progress Updated.]

[Versatile Mage]

[Progress Increased.]

Reiji quietly stored every reward inside his Inventory without checking them.

He was far too exhausted to examine anything now.

"I’ll look later..."

The giant corpse finally began dissolving.

Unlike ordinary monsters, it disappeared incredibly slowly.

Large chunks of flesh broke apart into black particles before drifting into the air.

Within another minute...

Nothing remained.

Only the endless desert stretched before him once again.

A loud rumbling suddenly echoed across the Gate.

*RUMBLE!*

The sky cracked.

Long fractures spread across the crimson heavens.

The desert beneath Reiji’s feet also began trembling.

"So it’s collapsing."

The Boss’s death had destabilized the entire Gate.

Large cracks spread through the sand.

Several distant rock formations crumbled.

The System appeared once more.

Ding!

[Dungeon Gate Cleared.]

[Returning Host To Earth.]

[3...]

Reiji quietly watched the collapsing desert.

[2...]

"...Another Gate cleared."

[1...]

His figure disappeared.

***

A cool breeze brushed against his face.

Reiji slowly opened his eyes.

The scorching heat was gone.

The endless desert had vanished.

Instead he found himself standing inside a quiet construction site on the outskirts of the city.

The unstable Gate behind him rapidly shrank before collapsing into countless blue particles.

"...Back."

The early morning sky was beginning to brighten.

Sunrise wasn’t far away. Reiji stretched slightly before immediately regretting it.

Pain shot through every muscle in his body.

"...Ugh."

His body had definitely reached its limit.

Reiji glanced down at himself.

The oversized hoodie, baseball cap and gloves were still covered in dust and streaks of dried blood from the battle.

Fortunately, the hood concealed most of his face while the loose clothing hid the worst of the damage beneath.

The black singlet underneath had been torn in several places, but it remained hidden from view.

"I’ll have to replace this..."

After making sure nobody was nearby, Reiji quietly left the abandoned construction site without removing his disguise.

The city remained peaceful. Streetlights still illuminated the roads.

Only a handful of vehicles passed by. Most people were still asleep.

Reiji preferred it that way.

The fewer people around the better.

His footsteps echoed softly as he walked through the empty streets toward home.

His exhausted mind gradually began replaying tonight’s battle.

"...That Domain..."

Even now, remembering it made him uncomfortable.

It hadn’t simply made the Boss stronger.

It had weakened him.

Every Shadow Step had consumed more mana.

His movements had become heavier.

Even Demonic Essence had regenerated his injuries more slowly.

"If every B-Rank monster can do something like that..."

He shook his head.

"No. That wasn’t normal."

The System had clearly stated the Boss gained that ability after synchronizing with the anomaly.

Which meant anomalies were becoming even more dangerous.

He looked toward the slowly brightening horizon.

The world felt much larger than it had only a few weeks ago.

Before awakening the System he thought Gates contained nothing more than monsters waiting to be killed.

Now he knew better.

The monsters were evolving.

Changing.

Becoming something entirely different.

"...I still know almost nothing."

He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

The mental exhaustion was almost worse than the physical pain.

Every Gate seemed to leave him with more questions than answers.

The System revealed just enough to push him forward, yet never enough to let him understand the bigger picture.

And none of them existed in the knowledge shared by ordinary Hunters.

At least not that he had ever heard.

Even the Association’s public records had never mentioned monsters mutating after coming into contact with some unknown force.

If they knew they certainly weren’t telling the public.

Reiji wasn’t arrogant enough to believe he had uncovered some grand conspiracy.

It was just as likely that nobody understood what was happening.

That possibility was somehow even more unsettling.

He let out a quiet sigh. "One problem at a time..."

There was no point dwelling on questions he couldn’t answer.

His immediate priority was recovering.

He had pushed Blood Rage harder than ever before.

Even with Demonic Essence repairing the damage during combat, the strain left behind was impossible to ignore.

His mana reserve felt nearly empty.

His body was covered in countless bruises hidden beneath his clothes.

A hot shower and several hours of uninterrupted sleep sounded more appealing than any reward waiting inside his Inventory.

The Mystery Boxes could wait. The Boss Core could wait.

Even the Anomaly Fragment wasn’t going anywhere.

For once he wanted to rest before diving back into whatever the System had prepared next.

With that thought in mind, he adjusted the hood and continued walking through the quiet streets, his footsteps unhurried beneath the fading glow of the streetlights.

He quietly slipped into a narrow alley that served as a shortcut toward his neighborhood.

The familiar path was empty.

Or so he thought.

Just as Reiji reached the middle of the alley a calm female voice echoed from ahead.

"I’ve been waiting for you..."

Reiji’s footsteps came to an immediate stop.

"Night Empress..."