CHAPTER 27: Into the Next Floor
The blue light of the portal faded slowly until the room went silent. Broken stones floated around them, dissolving into glowing dust. Kelvin stood still for a moment, his cloak-hoodie torn and his hands darkened by blood and shadow energy. The notification flickered before his eyes.
[STATUS WINDOW UPDATED]
[LEVEL UP: 14]
[Dungeon Cleared – Level 13: Special Rank Dungeon "The Lost Abyss"]
Lyra landed beside him, stretching her arms with a grin. "Finally done," she said, wiping blood off her cheek. "You really know how to make dungeons fun, Mr. Hood."
Kelvin didn't respond. He was staring at the black mist slowly disappearing where the dungeon boss had died. His mind was quiet. Then, without looking at her, he spoke.
"It's not fun," he said. "It's survival."
Lyra laughed. "Cold as always. You know, it makes me like you even more and wonder what's your true identity; when you talk like that."
Kelvin turned away. "You don't need to know."
"Oh, I will." she said with a smirk.
Mia stepped out from the shadows, her bow glowing faintly with blue symbols. Her hair was tied back, and her breathing was steady even after the fight. "Stop flirting and start thinking," she said. "We need to check the space again before the system resets."
The air around them cracked open. The dungeon broke apart and reformed into the gray void of the transition space. A quiet zone between worlds. Lyra always called it "the space between life and code." Kelvin just called it "the pause."
As they appeared there, Lyra moved towards Kelvin curious to get something off her mind.
"I've been thinking, why did you send me to that abandoned area to bury that thing?."
"That thing? You mean the egg." Kelvin responded with a questioning face.
"Yeah, the egg. You know I almost killed someone there." She said and continued as her tone changed "Those guys face just pissed me off."
" Were you able to bury the egg." Kelvin said without caring to know what happened.
"What you don't even care to ask me what happened." She said as she looked at kelvin's face but couldn't get any word off him.
She let out a sigh and continue "Of course I was able to bury it but if those guy are one of yours just know that they will be in a mental hospital by now."
" Anyways..." She expressed with a sudden switch of mood and a bright face.
"Do you know what's in the egg."
"Nope" kelvin answered.
"Do you even know any of those guys."
"Not at all"
"Not even their leader?"
"Nope"
"Then—Then why did to tell me to....."
Before she could finish, Mia stepped forward and held something out to Kelvin. "Before you go… here."
It was a small silver bracelet with runes carved around it.
Kelvin looked at it silently. "What's this?"
"A gift," she said softly. "For saving us back there."
"I don't take gifts."
"You will take this one," Mia said, smiling faintly. "It's from my brother's guild. He runs one of the big ones in the Southern Halls."
Lyra tilted her head. "The Southern Halls Guild? That's the one that uses dungeon rewards as trade currency, right?"
Mia nodded. "Yes. They don't hoard artifacts like other guilds. They recycle them. When someone clears a floor, the guild rewards them with another artifact depending on their skill. That's how my brother and I get new weapons after every big run."
Kelvin looked at the bracelet again. "Efficient system."
Mia smiled. "It keeps people safe. And alive."
Kelvin finally took it and slipped it into his wrist. "Let's move. Level 14 won't clear itself."
The portal shimmered again, and they stepped through.
The next floor looked like a frozen forest. The ground was covered in ice that reflected blue light from the crystal trees. The air was cold enough to sting the skin.
Lyra rubbed her arms. "Brrr. I hate cold places."
"Focus," Kelvin said. "Monsters here hide under the ice."
As soon as he said that, the ground trembled. From beneath the frost, giant shapes started to move. The ice cracked and six creatures crawled out, each one made of dark crystal and moving on four legs.
Mia readied her bow, drawing three arrows at once. "I'll take the left side."
Lyra grinned and drew her twin daggers. "Guess I'll take the fun side."
Kelvin adjusted his arms, eyes glowing faintly. "Move."
The battle started fast. Mia's arrows sliced through the air, bursting into blue light as they hit their targets. Every shot exploded with controlled precision, freezing limbs and cracking armor. Her new bow, a curved white weapon with golden veins, shone brighter with every kill.
Lyra, on the other hand, was chaos. She jumped on one of the monsters and stabbed it straight in the eye, laughing the whole time. "You see that, Mr. Hood? I call that a smiley kill!"
Kelvin moved between them quietly, striking wherever they couldn't. He used no single pattern. Sometimes he fought close, punching through armor with raw power. Sometimes he stayed back, throwing huge ice boulder that split enemies in half. His style was unpredictable, almost like the System itself couldn't calculate his rhythm.
When the last monster shattered into shards, Lyra stretched again. "Easy win. I didn't even break a sweat."
"You talk too much," Mia said.
"That's called strategy. My voice distracts the monsters," Lyra replied with a wink.
Kelvin walked ahead without answering. "Good teamwork. Level 14 is clear."
The victory light filled the sky.
[LEVEL 14 CLEARED]
[ +4000🌕, +300💎]
[RARE REWARD UNLOCKED]
Lyra jumped. "Finally! Reward time!"
But Kelvin didn't open his reward window. Instead, he stood still, watching the light fade.
Mia noticed. "You're not checking your loot?"
"I will later," he said. "You two go ahead to Level 15."
Lyra frowned. "Why? You're the team leader."
"I have something to take care of," Kelvin replied. "Go."
Mia looked at him for a long second, then nodded. "Alright. We'll wait at the next gate."
The two girls walked into the next portal. The light swallowed them slowly until they vanished.
Kelvin stayed behind, staring at the white mist where they had gone. Then he turned his eyes upward.
His Status Window appeared.
[LEVEL: 14 SPECIAL DUNGEON]
[DIAMONDS: 114]
[TITLES: 5]
[ENERGY SIGNATURE: UNKNOWN VARIANCE DETECTED]
He frowned. "Unknown variance again…"
The air around him pulsed faintly. He could feel the same unstable energy he had sensed before near the human world.
He took a deep breath. "So it's spreading."
He closed the window and looked around the icy ruins. "This floor has a hidden path."
Kelvin walked toward a dark tunnel behind a broken tree. He stepped inside, light fading behind him.
Minutes later, the quiet space echoed with footsteps.
A figure appeared from another passage.it was a player was following kelvin. He looked around carefully, making sure Kelvin didn't notice. Then he smiled a little and sat down near the crystal tree.
"So someone is stalking me" kelvin whispered. "I'll just continue my business until he decides to show his face."
He opened his status window and scrolled through it quickly. The light reflected off his tired face.
"I'll wait here. Level 14's special dungeon should appear soon."
He leaned back and sighed. "But that's not the real reason I stayed."
His voice was soft, almost guilty.
"I don't want to enter any dungeon the Admins can interfer in. Every time they appear, something feels wrong. It's like they're Using us not as players, but as experiments."
He clenched his fist. "I'll stay under their radar. No matter what."
Then the ground below him cracked slightly. He froze.
A small vibration ran through the frozen earth. The same type of energy Kelvin had felt earlier pulsed again, deep below the surface.
Kelvin looked down. "What was that?"
The sound came again, this time louder.
Something was waking up under the floor.
He stepped back slowly. The ice glowed faintly blue, then red, then back to blue again.
Before he could move, the ice split open, releasing a burst of cold light that divided the ground into two.
The system message appeared in red.
[ALERT: UNKNOWN ENTITY DETECTED IN LEVEL 14]
And then the screen went dark.