Chapter 141 — The Third Floor
Kael stepped through the passage and found himself standing in a completely empty chamber.
He stopped.
For several seconds, he simply stared.
There were no walls covered in glowing runes, no piles of bones, no treasure, and, most importantly, no monsters waiting to ambush him.
The room was enormous.
A faint blue light illuminated the stone floor beneath his feet, but there were no visible torches or magical crystals producing it. The walls disappeared into darkness, making it impossible to determine how large the chamber truly was.
Kael slowly reached for his blade.
His fingers closed around nothing.
He frowned.
"What?"
He immediately checked his waist.
His blade was gone.
His twin daggers were gone as well.
Kael’s expression became serious.
He searched his saddle sack next, but the weapons weren’t there either.
"Seriously?"
He looked around the empty room.
"Don’t tell me this place took my weapons."
He wasn’t particularly worried yet. Xavier had warned him that the dungeon was unusual, and Kael had already expected something strange.
Still, having his weapons removed without his knowledge wasn’t exactly comforting.
Kael flexed his fingers before releasing a sigh.
"Fine. I still have magic."
He concentrated.
Darkness mana slowly gathered around his body.
At least his mana was still intact.
That alone was reassuring.
Kael looked around once more.
The dungeon Xavier had brought him into wasn’t like the ordinary dungeons found throughout the world.
Most dungeons were connected to the Demon Realm.
That was one of the reasons dungeons had become such an important part of the world’s history.
During the ancient war between demons and the other races, countless passages had appeared between the mortal world and the Demon Realm. Some of those passages eventually developed into what modern adventurers simply called dungeons.
Those dungeons were relatively predictable.
They possessed recognizable mana signatures.
Their monsters could usually be classified.
Their difficulty could be measured.
C-Rank.
B-Rank.
A-Rank.
S-Rank.
The ranking system wasn’t perfect, but it allowed adventurers to determine whether entering a dungeon was reasonable or suicidal.
But there were other dungeons.
Natural dungeons.
Dungeons that weren’t connected to the Demon Realm.
They were created by the world itself.
And those were far more troublesome.
Kael scratched his head.
"The game never really explained these properly."
As Leon, he had explored countless dungeons.
He had seen ordinary dungeons connected to the Demon Realm, ancient ruins transformed into dungeons, monster nests, abandoned temples, and even several special dungeons created through unknown circumstances.
But this type of dungeon had always been different.
They weren’t properly classified.
Some were only one floor.
Others contained several.
Some changed their internal structure.
Some remained dormant for decades before opening again.
And some appeared at the exact same location every year.
That last category was particularly strange.
Kael had never understood why.
"This one appeared in the same place every year, yet nobody knows exactly what creates it."
He slowly walked forward.
His footsteps echoed through the chamber.
"And Xavier said he discovered it during his third year in the academy when he was still a student."
Kael frowned.
That meant Xavier had known about this dungeon long before the events of the original storyline.
Yet Leon had never entered it.
That bothered Kael.
Not because he believed every event from the game had to happen exactly as he remembered it.
He had already changed too much for that.
But this was something else.
Xavier had supposedly been Leon’s first and only master in the original storyline.
Yet Xavier had never brought Leon here.
Which meant one of two things.
Either this dungeon wasn’t important enough to appear in the original story...
Or something had changed.
Kael stopped walking.
His eyes narrowed.
"Knowing my luck, it’s definitely the second one."
A faint sound suddenly echoed from the darkness.
Tap.
Kael froze.
Tap.
Something was moving.
He slowly turned his head.
At first, he couldn’t see anything.
Then a silhouette emerged from the darkness.
Kael’s eyes narrowed.
A monster stepped into the faint blue light.
It was roughly humanoid, but there was nothing human about it.
Its body was covered in dark gray armor-like scales.
Four elongated limbs supported its body, with the lower pair resembling powerful legs while the upper pair ended in long, curved claws.
Its head was completely smooth.
No eyes.
No nose.
No mouth.
Instead, a narrow vertical crack ran across its face, glowing faintly with a pale silver light.
Kael stared at it.
"That’s new."
The creature lowered its body.
Its claws scraped against the stone.
Kael immediately felt something from it.
Killing intent.
Not wild bloodlust.
Not the mindless aggression of most monsters.
This thing was observing him.
Calculating.
Kael smiled faintly.
"You’re intelligent."
The monster disappeared.
Kael’s eyes widened.
He immediately twisted his body.
A claw passed his chest.
He jumped backward.
The monster landed several meters away.
Kael stared.
"Fast."
The creature crouched again.
Kael didn’t wait for another attack.
He raised his hand.
Darkness mana condensed around his fingers.
A spear of darkness shot toward the creature.
The monster moved.
The attack missed.
Kael frowned.
He fired another.
Then another.
Three dark projectiles crossed the chamber.
The monster weaved between them with frightening precision.
Kael’s expression changed.
It wasn’t merely fast.
It was reading his attacks.
The creature suddenly accelerated.
Kael instinctively raised his arm.
Clang!
The monster’s claw struck his forearm.
Darkness mana exploded outward as Kael was pushed several meters across the floor.
He steadied himself.
His arm hurt.
"Okay."
Kael rolled his shoulder.
"You’re stronger than you look."
The monster charged again.
Kael lowered his stance.
Without his blade, he couldn’t rely on the Celestial Star Art.
That meant he had to fight differently.
The creature swung its right claw.
Kael ducked.
The left followed immediately.
He leaned backward.
The claw barely passed his nose.
Kael stepped inside its range and drove his fist into its abdomen.
Boom!
The monster flew backward.
It crashed into the stone floor but immediately twisted in midair and landed on all four limbs.
Kael’s eyes widened.
"That’s annoying."
The monster charged again.
Kael waited.
Five meters.
Three.
Two.
Now.
He vanished.
Vanishing Step.
Kael appeared behind the creature.
His fist was already moving.
But the monster twisted unnaturally.
Kael’s punch missed by an inch.
The creature’s tail suddenly whipped toward him.
Kael crossed his arms.
Bang!
The impact sent him sliding backward.
He looked at the monster with genuine surprise.
"You can counter Vanishing Step?"
The creature didn’t answer.
Obviously.
Kael sighed.
"Right. Monster."
The monster lunged.
Kael’s body moved automatically.
He ducked beneath the first claw.
He sidestepped the second.
A third strike came from below.
Kael jumped.
The creature followed.
Kael twisted his body in the air and released a burst of darkness mana from his palm.
The blast struck the monster’s chest.
It was pushed backward.
Kael landed.
His breathing had become heavier.
"This thing isn’t C-Rank."
He could feel it.
The strength, speed, reaction time and intelligence were all beyond what he had experienced on the mountain.
For six months, Xavier had forced him to fight C-Rank monsters.
Those battles had been brutal.
But they had also become predictable.
This creature wasn’t.
Every time Kael adapted to one attack, it introduced another variation.
It was almost as though the monster itself was adapting to him.
Kael smiled.
"Now this is interesting."
The monster suddenly vanished.
Kael’s eyes widened.
He couldn’t see it.
He couldn’t hear it.
He couldn’t sense its presence.
Then—
A claw appeared beside his neck.
Kael instinctively tilted his head.
The claw sliced through several strands of his hair.
Kael countered immediately.
His elbow struck the monster’s jaw.
The creature staggered.
Kael followed with a knee.
Then another punch.
Then a kick.
The monster blocked the first two but the kick connected with its ribs.
Crack!
The creature was launched across the room.
Kael landed and breathed heavily.
Blood dripped from a cut on his cheek.
He touched it.
"You’re actually making me work for this."
The monster slowly stood.
Several cracks had appeared across its scales.
Yet it didn’t seem afraid.
Instead, the silver line across its face became brighter.
Kael felt its mana spike.
His smile disappeared.
"That’s not good."
The creature charged.
This time, Kael didn’t retreat.
He charged as well.
The two collided in the center of the chamber.
Claw met fist.
Darkness mana collided with monstrous strength.
Kael twisted.
The monster’s claw missed.
Kael struck its ribs.
The creature countered.
Kael ducked.
Another claw.
He blocked.
Another.
He dodged.
Another.
He stepped backward.
The battle became a blur.
Kael’s movements became faster as his body adapted.
He began recognizing the monster’s habits.
Whenever it attacked with its right claw, its left leg shifted slightly.
Whenever it attempted to disappear, its mana condensed around its spine.
Whenever it prepared that strange tail strike, its shoulders lowered.
Kael started predicting it.
The monster noticed.
Its movements changed.
Kael’s eyes widened.
"You really are adapting."
For the first time, Kael felt genuine excitement.
He had entered the dungeon expecting danger.
Instead, he had found something that could force him to improve.
He lowered his stance.
The monster did the same.
Both stared at each other.
Neither moved.
Then Kael smiled.
"Let’s see which one of us adapts faster."
He disappeared.
The monster disappeared at the same time.
A violent clash erupted across the chamber.
Stone shattered.
Darkness mana exploded.
The monster’s claws tore through the floor while Kael moved between its attacks.
He couldn’t use his sword.
He couldn’t use his daggers.
But he didn’t need them.
For the first time since entering the dungeon, Kael felt as though he wasn’t merely surviving.
He was learning.
And somewhere far above the dungeon, Xavier remained floating in the darkness, wearing the same calm smile.
He had known Kael would eventually encounter something like this.
But he hadn’t expected the young man to adapt this quickly.
Xavier’s smile widened.
"Interesting."
Back inside the dungeon, Kael wiped the blood from his cheek.
The monster stood several meters away.
Both were damaged.
Neither had fallen.
Kael cracked his knuckles.
"Come on."
His eyes sharpened.
"Round two."