The climb from Floor 33 up to Floor 20 blurred into days of battle.
Corridors stretched on without end, each turn leading to chambers that tested their strength and patience. Serenya Korvelle's Gold-rank party, once sharp and disciplined, now moved like soldiers dragging themselves home from war. Armor was dented, blades nicked, cloaks torn and heavy with dried monster blood.
Even seasoned veterans couldn't keep pace with the ascent.
Liora's hands trembled whenever she healed, every spell costing more than she wanted to admit. Derrick's usual smirk had vanished, his lips pressed tight as he cleaned his daggers with slow, repetitive motions. Gouges marked Garron's great shield, deep enough to split weaker metal, his arm shaking whenever he lifted it. Kaelen muttered nonstop, his notes smudged with sweat and ink as he tried to record every strange creature they passed.
They were still alive only because of him.
Eron Vale.
The stranger they first mistook for a monster on Floor 34. A man who should have been weak, yet climbed as though sightseeing.
Each fight, he stepped forward without hesitation. And every time, the same calm words left his lips.
"Fireball No. 14. Ping-Pong Blaze."
At first, the party was confused. A bouncing ember, ricocheting along walls and floor, bursting on each impact. But as days passed, confusion gave way to awe. With every clash, Eron refined it. Sharper angles. Faster rebounds. Longer range.
What began as a clumsy experiment became a weapon of precision.
Monsters that once struck fear, skeletal hounds, scaled lizards with split maws, flesh-stripping insect swarms, fell before the relentless heat of his flames.
And through it all, his expression stayed calm. To him, this was practice, nothing more.
By Floor 32, the change in the dungeon became impossible to ignore.
Moss overhead dimmed to a sickly glow. Shadows stretched wrong, bending around corners as if alive. Air turned heavy and humid, like breathing through wet cloth.
Derrick was the first to speak.
"This place feels wrong," he muttered, eyes darting to the corners where darkness pooled too thick. "Like we're being watched."
Garron raised his shield without being told. Liora shivered despite the warmth. Kaelen scribbled faster, quill scratching across parchment with frantic energy.
Serenya said nothing, but a faint pressure stirred in her senses. A presence deeper down was forcing its way upward.
The next floor brought worse news.
Walls cracked on Floor 31. Moisture bled from the stone. The air carried a sour, rotting scent. Moss flickered like dying embers. Every step echoed too loud, as if the dungeon held its breath.
"It's getting worse," Liora whispered.
Kaelen nodded, face pale. "Whatever's below us is driving monsters upward."
That faint pressure in Serenya's chest tightened again. A quiet tug, subtle but impossible to ignore.
Floor 30 held the Boss Room.
A Minotaur, plated in bone and muscle. It should have been alone. Boss Rooms never spawned minions.
But skeletal hounds circled it. Scaled horrors crouched near its legs. Winged serpents clung to the walls, hissing.
The fight was brutal.
Garron's shield nearly shattered under its charge. Derrick barely avoided being crushed. Liora burned through half her mana keeping them upright. Kaelen's spells barely scratched the creature's hide.
They would have died.
Eron stepped forward.
"Fireball No. 14. Ping-Pong Blaze."
The flame ricocheted through the chamber, bursting through the minions, then turning on the Minotaur with relentless precision. Bounce, blast, bounce, blast. The monster roared, staggered, and fell.
Kaelen stared at the corpses.
"Boss Rooms shouldn't have minions."
Serenya felt the tug again, stronger now. The force below was disrupting the dungeon's rules.
And they were only halfway up.
On the next floor, they found the massacre.
Bodies lay in twisted piles on Floor 29. Armor cracked. Weapons snapped. Faces frozen in terror. Blood dried in long streaks along the stone. The smell hit them before the corner turned.
Dozens of adventurers lay dead, scattered in twisted piles along the corridor.
Derrick swore softly.
Kaelen's quill slipped from his fingers.
"Floor 29 is supposed to be manageable for Gold-rankers. This shouldn't happen."
Liora knelt beside a fallen adventurer.
"They fought with everything they had. It still wasn't enough."
She gently closed the adventurer's open eyes, then bowed her head in a quiet prayer for their passing.
Serenya scanned the hall, her senses tightening again. The warning struck harder than before. Whatever caused this was no ordinary threat. What kind of monster could leave a scene like this.
"We keep going," she said quietly.
No one argued.
By the time they reached Floor 26, the monsters had stopped following any rules.
Bone-plated quadrupeds crawled from cracks. Winged serpents spat crystal shards. None matched the guides Kaelen carried.
"These aren't supposed to be here," Liora whispered.
Kaelen slammed his notebook shut. "They're from deeper floors."
His breath caught as Eron's warning returned to him.
It's not random. Something strong is pulling them upward. A Variant. It's commanding them.
He swallowed hard.
"What he said back then was right."
Kaelen turned to Eron, finally accepting it.
Derrick let out a dry laugh. "Perfect. Monsters climbing faster than we are."
Liora swallowed as she looked around the hall.
"Good thing our leader chose to follow Eron during the climb. If we advanced on our own… we would have ended up like them too."
Garron lifted his shield. "Then we keep climbing."
Serenya didn't speak, but the pressure in her senses sharpened again. No longer subtle. A clear wrongness rising beneath them.
Eron walked steady.
Hovering Blaze drifted beside him, lighting the path in warm circles of orange. He watched the corridor ahead, quiet as always.
Valerica whispered through his mind.
"They are breaking."
"I know."
"And you walk forward unfazed."
"Because I can still handle this."
"For you, perhaps. For them?" She laughed softly. "They see someone who doesn't tire. Doesn't fear. You make them uncertain."
He closed his hand, extinguishing the flame.
"As long as they keep climbing, I can keep them alive."
"How noble," she teased. "Almost heroic."
"I'm doing this because I'm human too. If I can protect them, I will."
Her laughter softened.
"How sentimental."
He didn't answer.
Three floors later, the party had run out of words.
Weapons drawn. Faces pale. Liora rationed every spell with care. Derrick limped on a wrapped ankle. Garron's arm shook even at rest. Kaelen stared at walls that seemed to breathe, his notebook forgotten.
Even Serenya looked worn, hair damp, armor dull with old blood.
Eron still walked steady.
Terrifying for them.
Progress for him.
Floor 22 greeted them with another pile of bodies.
This time, no one reacted.
They stepped over them and continued.
The dungeon felt like a graveyard.
Floor 20 brought silence.
The staircase opened into a wide landing. Moss flickered weakly overhead. Darkness stretched ahead like a held breath.
The air shifted the moment their feet touched the stone.
Heavier. Colder. Thicker.
Derrick stopped first. "You feel that?"
Garron's shield arm trembled. "There's a presence here."
Liora's voice shook. "It's wrong. All of it."
Kaelen's quill fell from numb fingers.
Bones littered the landing. Human. Monster. Old kills. Dust settled thick on broken armor and snapped blades.
"How many parties made it this far…" Derrick whispered.
Kaelen shook his head. "Too many. None succeeded."
Serenya stepped forward.
And the full weight of her gift hit her.
Every instinct she had, every warning her bloodline had ever given, roared with crushing certainty.
Run.
Turn back.
Do whatever it takes to avoid moving forward.
Her hand locked around her sword hilt, breath tight in her chest.
"Serenya…?" Liora whispered.
Serenya didn't answer at once.
She stared into the darkness ahead, jaw clenched.
Her gift had saved her countless times. It had kept her alive through ambushes, traps, monsters that should have killed her. She had never ignored it.
And now, it begged her to flee.
But behind them, floors were collapsing. Monsters swarming upward. The Variant climbing.
Ahead lay the only path to the surface.
"We rest here," Serenya said quietly. "We move when ready."
Derrick stared. "After everything we just saw?"
"We can't go back," she said. "Only forward."
Garron planted his shield. "Then we rest."
Liora prayed under her breath. Kaelen slumped to the wall, eyes fixed on the darkness ahead.
Eron scanned the landing once, sparks playing across his fingers.
"Stay sharp."
The others stiffened.
The silence grew heavier. Shadows stretched long. Mosslight flickered.
Far below, the dungeon shifted.
They were climbing toward the surface.
But the force rising from below was climbing faster.
And whatever waited on Floor 20 already knew they were coming.