Benny, after terrifying the monsters on floors one and two, decided to go down toward the lower levels. He now had a deeper understanding of these upper floors, so it was time to advance. Time to see what else this labyrinth had to offer him.
He had even managed to enter both of the second floor's dimensional subspaces. It was truly horrifying from another person's perspective, though Benny himself felt nothing but satisfaction.
The first subspace he entered was the Scorpion's Lair. Here it seemed to follow a pattern just like the rat kingdom. Instead of rats, there were scorpion men. He wondered why these intelligent creatures sent more primal versions of themselves into the labyrinth proper. What was the purpose? Were they scouts? Soldiers? Sacrifices?
Yes, these scorpions walked on four legs and had four arms. They possessed two tails, each tipped with a venomous stinger. Their faces were like that of a human but more unique to their own species. Chitinous features. Compound eyes. Mandibles that clicked when they spoke.
Of course, Benny was disgusted by how these monsters acted. These fucking abominations, as he called them. How did they even get those facial structures? It was wrong. Unnatural. An offense to his senses.
That was why he took the matter into his own hands and decided to enter their kingdom and terrorize these fuckers, no matter what floor he was on.
He started another campaign of butchering. He didn't bother upgrading his armor along the way, even though the scorpions' chitins were truly hard and could have made excellent protection. They weren't difficult to attack or target in any way. They had gaps in their joint parts, so he easily exploited those weaknesses. A blade between the plates. A thrust into the soft flesh beneath.
After his brutal campaign in the Scorpion's Lair, he moved on to the next subspace. The Rabbit Kingdom, where the fast, agile monsters came from.
The rabbit folk and the scorpion men were just two contenders vying for dominance on the second floor.
Now, upon entering the dimensional space of the Rabbit Kingdom, he didn't even bother to find out about these creatures' lifestyle. He could already predict the pattern he hadn't fully seen before his second death.
These monsters resembled bipedals like the ratmen, but here they were rabbit folk. Creatures who acted like humans in many ways. Just like the other two kingdoms, they also had their own societies, governments, and cultures.
And he also went on a rampage, although he couldn't catch them as easily. As they were faster than most, with their powerful legs carrying them away before he could close the distance. So he made crude traps instead. He used the poison and rot of the scorpion men and the ratmen to create lethal concoctions. He poisoned their crop farms and their wells and their waterways as well, contaminating everything they relied on to survive.
Bringing terror to this kingdom just as he had to the others.
Within just weeks, he found their major infrastructures had been decimated. Bodies piled in the streets from the poisoning. Survivors fled to the edges of their territory. The vibrant kingdom he had first entered was now a ghost town, haunted by death and disease.
He laughed maniacally to his heart's content. It was just as brutal as his other campaigns of terror. Perhaps even more so, because this time he barely had to lift his sword. The poison did the work for him.
Now that he had achieved some of his heinous and nefarious goals, his infamy had spread across these floors. Some of the intelligent monsters swore vengeance, gathering forces and planning counterattacks. Some swore to defend their kingdoms from this reaper, building walls and setting guards. And some made sure that they would never cross paths with that being again, retreating deep into their dimensional spaces and sealing the portals (rabbit folk).
But Benny would welcome whatever they would throw at him. He knew these monsters could breed quickly, reproducing far faster than humans. So there was no end to his fun. An endless supply of victims.
But for now he decided to go and taste the other floors. To see what new horrors awaited him. And now he was on the third floor, descending the stairs carved into the stone.
The third floor was twice the size of the second floor. The theme of these places, if you paid attention, was that each floor featured different kinds of monsters. Different ecosystems. Different challenges.
And here, another set of monsters appeared. Stronger than the creatures from the first two floors above.
There were new monsters here. One was a flying monster, an insect of some sort that he had no clue how to classify. So he called it a Disgusting Stick because of its elongated, twig-like body. The next was a stone creature that was new to him. It also had wings, and most of them had differing faces like gargoyles of some sort. He called them the Rockies because of their mineral composition.
Then the third type was a four-legged slithering snake. Serpentine but with legs, an evolutionary oddity. He found them appetizing to look at. Their scales shined as they crawled across the terrain, reflecting the dim light in iridescent patterns.
The terrain itself, by the way, differed from the two floors above. It was a mixture of forest and swampy biome. Trees with twisted roots grew from standing water. The air was thick with humidity and the smell of decay.
For this floor, he would have to familiarize himself with the space first. But before all of that, he would have to find the safe space. The sanctuaries, just like the other floors had. Places where monsters didn't spawn. Where he could rest without being attacked.
And that he set out to do. He hoped this floor had such a place, or surviving here would be far more difficult.
But it was quite challenging to trek through. Not only were the light crystals not bright enough to illuminate the space properly, but it was also thick with vegetation and wood. Dense undergrowth that tangled around his feet. Vines that hung from branches like curtains.
He felt like he had been here before but forgot when it was. The sensation was familiar, like déjà vu. Had his body walked these paths while his mind was absent?
And how did those vegetations even manage to survive down here? He wondered if there was no sun to speak of that lets these things grow. What provided the energy for photosynthesis?
Well, the secret lay in their adaptive behavior. These vegetations weren't like their counterparts from the overworld. They were specifically attuned to the dark environment, or they had evolved into something new over countless generations.
They were luminous in themselves. They glowed during the night cycles and relied on the light crystals during the day. Bioluminescence that painted the forest in soft blues and greens when darkness fell.
But how did they know it was night or day when there was no sun? That was a mystery in itself. But uf you paid enough attention, though, you would understand that you could use the plants as a guide. A natural clock to recognize if it was already morning or still the night.
Benny would have to spend his time here searching for the third floor sanctuary. It wouldn't be a quick task. The floor was massive, and the landmarks were difficult to distinguish in the dense vegetation.
Would it be easy? Well, the answer would be no.
The monsters here, just like on the second floor, were always fighting amongst themselves. But as to why? Territorial expansion. What more would you expect these beasts to do? They fought for resources. For space. For dominance.
Uniquely, though, they would band together when there were other beings in their space and attack them as a unified force. Just like what Benny had experienced on the second floor. When the different monster factions managed to spot him, they stopped fighting each other and ganged up on him. The enemy of my enemy is my enemy's enemy, not my friend. But they were willing to cooperate long enough to eliminate threats.
This made Benny quite excited just by thinking about it. More enemies meant more fights. More fights meant more kills. More kills meant more satisfaction.
He gripped his sword tighter and smiled as he pushed deeper into the swamp. The Disgusting Sticks buzzed overhead. The Rockies perched on stone outcroppings, watching. The serpents slithered through the murky water.
All of them were his prey, not the other way around and all of them would die by his hands, this he vowed.
The Grim Reaper had come to the third floor, and he was hungry for more.