Chapter 55: A fourth floor boss and an offer you can’t refuse
Dominic’s team returned to Camp Stymphalian a few days later.
News of the Halloween break in Lyon had spread through the group chat fast, and Dominic had wasted no time wrapping up Floor Two operations.
They came back dusty, tired, and satisfied.
Alexei did not come with them.
The half-Russian, half-Cuban paladin stayed behind.
Still in the “testing phase,” as Phong liked to call it.
Dominic trusted him more now, but Camp Stymphalian had rules.
You earned the right to know where it was.
You did not get invited just because you were useful.
Alexei understood that.
Or at least pretended to.
Séline spoke first once everyone settled in.
“I saw something strange.”
Camille looked up at once.
“What?”
Séline glanced toward the tree line.
“Horns of the Earth.”
Silence dropped over the camp.
Even the animals quieted.
“Where?” Phong asked.
“Near the Floor Three entrance,” she said.
“That thing walked right past us like we didn’t exist.”
Dominic nodded.
“Like a mountain taking a stroll.”
No one liked the idea of a floor boss casually moving near deeper floors.
But that was tomorrow’s problem.
Tonight was reunion night.
Hotpot night.
And Dominic was already halfway into storytelling mode.
They gathered around the big iron pot simmering over the fire.
Meat.
Vegetables.
Bamboo ant slices.
Dungeon mushrooms.
Carrots.
Everything went into the broth.
Dominic leaned back proudly.
“You should’ve seen it. The Wraith Fortress is basically ours.”
Jake nodded hard.
Jack raised his drink.
“We were this close to making it a permanent foothold.”
Dominic spread his arms.
“Strategic location, reinforced walls, cleared chambers—”
Janet smacked him lightly with her chopsticks.
“The only reason we secured that foothold so fast,” she said flatly, “is because the lizardmen helped.”
Dominic froze mid-gesture.
She kept going.
“They diverted Lake Baratok.”
The others turned to her.
“You mean—”
“Yes,” Janet said.
“They built a canal.”
Dominic rubbed the back of his neck.
“…Minor logistical assistance.”
Janet snorted.
“Minor? They literally connected the lake to the fortress.”
The meaning was obvious.
With a canal flowing through the structure, the Wraith Fortress had effectively become a lizardman outpost.
That meant most Floor Two monsters stayed away from it.
Territorial instinct.
Predator politics.
Whatever the reason, the result was the same.
The fortress was no longer contested ground.
It had become neutral ground.
A safe foothold.
Dominic raised his drink again.
“…Team effort.”
Everyone laughed.
Then Alex stood to show off her new armor.
The Greencap half-plate gleamed softly in the firelight.
Bird skull.
Lime tree emblem.
Perfect fit.
Dominic whistled.
“That’s clean.”
Jake circled her once.
“Invisibility enchant too, right?”
“One minute per day,” Alex said.
Jack shook his head.
“Ridiculous.”
Rico sprang up dramatically.
“My turn. Hennnn… shin!”
Wood creaked.
The young treant strapped to his back expanded at once.
Branches unfolded.
Armor plates locked into place.
Mana veins lit up.
Rico struck a pose.
Then paused.
Everyone stared.
Phong folded his arms.
“You remembered this time.”
Rico glared.
“Obviously.”
Bruno barked excitedly.
Nyx rolled her eyes, but secretly approved.
Dominic wiped tears of laughter from his eyes.
“This camp gets weirder every time I come back.”
Eventually Dominic challenged Alex to a spar.
Now that he was level 31.
Stats up.
Judgenaut fully evolved.
He felt confident.
Very confident.
The result was educational.
Three minutes later, he was flat on his back.
A shield construct pinned one arm.
A rapier hovered at his throat.
Dominic groaned.
“…Yeah.”
He raised a hand.
“I surrender.”
Alex dismissed her constructs.
“That class is insane,” Dominic muttered as he sat up.
“The Greencap captain already told you,” Alex said.
“In a one-on-one,” Dominic muttered, “an evolved Mindblade is a nightmare.”
Everyone drifted back to the hotpot after that.
Night had fully fallen.
Lanterns hung from the lime-oak tree.
Steam rose from the broth.
Talk shifted between jokes, dungeon updates, and Halloween plans for Lyon.
It was peaceful.
Almost too peaceful.
Then Nyx’s ears twitched.
Bruno’s growl started low.
Phong lifted his head.
Something stood beyond the chili perimeter.
At the edge of the garden.
Just outside the invisible line.
A silhouette.
A woman.
Dominic squinted.
“…Emma?”
She stepped into the lantern light.
Emma Tannenbaum.
Perfect posture.
Perfect hair.
Perfect smile.
Except—
She was supposed to be missing.
Floor Three.
No signal.
No contact.
The group froze.
Before anyone could speak, Phong moved.
“Plants.”
His voice dropped.
“All out.”
The garden answered at once.
Angry chilies rose.
Bonktatoes trembled below the soil.
Sunflowers slowly turned toward the intruder.
Strawberry vines tightened.
Even the newly planted basil and dill, only days old, began vibrating hard.
Like tuning forks hit by an unseen hand.
Mutation pressure.
Every plant was reacting.
Not to a diver.
Not to a monster.
To something worse.
The ground hummed.
Dominic felt it.
Janet felt it.
Even the animals sensed it.
The air thickened.
Emma tilted her head.
Then laughed.
A soft sound.
Pleasant.
Wrong.
A warning flashed across their status screens.
BOSS MANIFESTATION DETECTED!
Threat classification unknown.
Red question marks flickered above her head.
Level: ?????
Name: ?????
Type: ?????
Dominic’s pulse kicked.
“…That’s not Emma.”
The woman smiled wider.
“Oh, of course it isn’t.”
Then reality tore.
Only for a heartbeat.
The illusion slipped.
And they saw it.
A mountain of swollen purple flesh.
Eyes.
Hundreds of them.
Blinking on their own.
Mouths opening and closing across its body.
Rows of teeth grinding.
Tentacle-like growths writhing.
Something ancient.
Something alien.
Something dragged out of a nightmare.
Vast.
Wrong.
Then the shape folded in on itself.
Collapsed.
Shrank.
The monstrous bulk compressed back into the human outline.
Emma stood there again.
Perfect.
Poised.
Smiling pleasantly.
“It’s easier to talk like this.”
She folded her hands politely.
Still just outside the chili perimeter.
And waited.
Camp Stymphalian stared.
The thing wearing Emma Tannenbaum’s face tilted its head when they asked its name.
Its mouth opened.
And sound came out.
Except it wasn’t sound the way humans knew it.
It was layered vibration.
Like metal scraping glass while a whale sang underneath it.
The syllables bent in on themselves, twisting pitch and tone into something no human ear could hold.
Dominic flinched.
Janet covered one ear on instinct.
Even the animals reacted.
Bruno’s hackles rose.
Nyx’s tail went stiff.
Rico’s treant armor creaked as mana pulsed through it.
Phong raised one hand.
“Stop.”
The creature blinked.
Then smiled apologetically.
“Yes. Your language cannot hold it.”
It tapped its chest lightly.
“You may call me… Em.”
The name sounded harmless.
Simple.
Almost friendly.
Which somehow made it worse.
Phong stood slowly from the hotpot table, careful not to cross the chili perimeter.
“Em,” he said evenly. “How do you know where this place is? And what do you want?”
Em clasped its hands behind its back and rocked on its heels like someone enjoying a casual chat.
“Oh, that’s easy.”
It gestured vaguely toward the deeper dungeon.
“A certain dragon recently told the other Pillars not to interfere with Floor One whenever we feel like it.”
The group froze.
“Pillars?” Janet repeated quietly.
Em kept talking as if discussing the weather.
“So the green one pulled back.”
“Green one?” Dominic asked.
“The walking mountain,” Em said cheerfully. “Your friend.”
Horns of the Earth.
That meant—
A roar tore across the entire floor.
Deep.
Ancient.
The sound shook leaves loose from the lime-oak and sent ripples racing across the pond like stones thrown into still water.
Everyone in camp recognized it.
The Sky Emperor.
Even without knowing what it truly was.
Even without seeing it.
The roar carried authority.
Warning.
Rule.
Em wrinkled Emma’s nose slightly.
“Yes, yes,” it said dismissively. “He’s very loud.”
But something in the tone gave it away.
Em might dislike the dragon.
But it clearly was not stupid enough to push too far.
Even so, it smiled again.
“I wanted to stir things up a little.”
Dominic crossed his arms.
“That usually ends badly for humans.”
“Oh, probably,” Em said pleasantly.
Then it clapped once.
“Which brings us to the deal.”
The word deal landed hard in the quiet camp.
“I will help Camp Stymphalian expand.”
Em pointed downward.
“Vertically.”
“Across floors.”
Everyone stared.
Before anyone could answer, Em added casually,
“Oh, and I will help Josh and Olen as well.”
The temperature in the clearing seemed to drop.
“For balance,” Em said with a cheerful shrug. “Your conflict will be more interesting that way.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed.
Dominic’s hand drifted toward his weapon.
Phong, however, understood at once.
There was no real choice.
The dungeon itself was neutral.
Impersonal.
But this thing?
This thing was playing a game.
It was not offering help.
It was laying down new rules.
And refusing would not stop it from helping the other side.
Refusing would only weaken his own side.
Phong exhaled slowly.
“I see.”
Em’s smile widened.
“You’re clever.”
“I don’t like being forced,” Phong said calmly.
“Few do.”
Silence stretched.
Then Phong nodded once.
“Fine.”
“I accept.”
Dominic looked sharply at him, but Phong gave the smallest shake of his head.
He had already run through the alternatives.
None were better.
“But,” Phong added, “you give something too.”
Em tilted its head.
“Negotiation. Interesting.”
“You mentioned Pillars,” Phong said. “Explain.”
The creature looked amused.
“That’s fair.”
It raised one finger.
“There are thirteen.”
“Thirteen Pillars.”
“One for each floor of the dungeon.”
It drew a circle in the air with Emma’s finger.
“You may think of us as constants in a very complicated equation.”
“Billions of variables.”
“Ecosystems shifting.”
“Mana flows changing.”
“Civilizations rising and collapsing.”
“But the Pillars remain.”
Nyx frowned.
“You mean you can go anywhere?”
“Anywhere in the dungeon,” Em said. “Though we usually avoid the higher floors.”
It gestured upward.
“Too much interference would destabilize the ecosystem.”
Dominic muttered under his breath,
“Good to know they care about the environment.”
Em ignored him.
“So.”
It turned toward the lime-oak tree.
“Your turn.”
The great tree shuddered.
Its roots pulsed.
Mana surged through the soil like underground lightning.
Everyone felt it.
Something fundamental was changing.
The bark split.
A single, tiny sprout pushed itself out along the root.
Em explained.
“This tree can now clone itself.”
Phong blinked.
“Like the Pando tree,” Em said cheerfully.
Understanding hit him at once.
A root colony.
Not separate trees.
One organism.
“You will plant the sprouts on lower floors,” Em continued.
“By hand.”
“Otherwise expansion would be too fast.”
It paused.
Then added,
“And monsters will try to eat them.”
“To evolve.”
Dominic groaned.
“So we’ll have to defend them.”
“Correct.”
Phong saw the real point immediately.
It was not a gift.
It was bait.
If they planted the clones, they would have to protect them.
That meant Dominic’s team would keep pushing deeper.
That meant Phong would one day have to leave the safety of Floor One.
Camp Stymphalian would become a network.
Multiple camps.
Multiple defenses.
Vertical expansion.
Exactly the kind of chaos Em wanted.
“Once connected,” Em went on, “the root system will link the trees.”
Phong’s eyes narrowed.
“You mean—”
“Elevators,” Em said happily.
“You and whoever you allow may travel between floors through the trees.”
The whole camp went silent.
That was…
Strategically absurd.
A private dungeon transit system.
Something even the diver associations did not have yet.
Em clasped its hands together again.
“There.”
“My contribution.”
The Emma-shaped body began stepping backward.
The edge of the chili perimeter crackled faintly as it reached the line.
“I look forward to watching what happens next.”
Alex’s voice cut across the clearing.
“You’re enjoying this too much.”
Em laughed softly.
“Oh, absolutely.”
Then the illusion flickered.
For a heartbeat, the mountain of eyes and mouths returned.
Then it vanished.
The clearing was empty again.
Only the lime-oak remained.
Its roots were already beginning to push deeper into the dungeon soil.