The glass-melted floor of Floor 3 was dead quiet.
I sheathed my dual katanas, my body aching, but my footing felt ten times more solid than when I had first descended into this nightmare.
At the far end of the hall, the stone gate leading down to Floor 4 stood tall. But as Valeska and I approached, the ancient stone didn’t open.
Instead, a massive, stone slab rose out of the ground in front of the door.
The slab was carved from polished obsidian, etched with glowing, golden glyphs that flowed in a sweeping, regal script. Unlike the crude, blood-stained runes of Floor 1, these symbols radiated a dignified, imperial majesty.
I squinted at the glowing text. "What does it say again, Valeska?"
Valeska walked up beside me, her featureless visor staring at the golden script. She took a quiet moment to read the ancient text, her voice echoing in my mind as she translated it line by line.
"It is written in the High Imperial tongue of the First Era," Valeska said, her tone carrying a strange, dry edge. "It reads: ’By the Decree of the Sunken Sovereign: The Crown of the Abyssal Core—a relic of supreme, invincible power—can only be handed over to those who are worthy through trial and suffering. Thou art OVER-WORTHY. Thy power hath trivialized the ordeal. The treasure shall not be bestowed upon those who conquer without struggle.’"
I stared at the glowing slab.
I blinked once. Then twice.
"Over-worthy?!" I yelled, my voice bouncing off the stone walls. "We got rejected from getting the OP loot because we’re too strong?!"
Valeska didn’t answer.
Before I could curse out the ancient dungeon architect who wrote that imperial rule, a blinding wave of pitch-black energy erupted from the slab.
DING! DING! DING!
[CRITICAL NOTICE: DUNGEON REJECTION INITIATED]
[EJECTING USER ’KAELEN CROSS’ FROM THE SUNKEN CRYPT OF EREBOS...]
The darkness didn’t just fill the room—it swallowed my senses entirely. The temperature dropped to zero, my vision went pitch-black, and my mind fell into a deep, heavy slumber.
When my eyes cracked open, the cold smell of rain and wet earth filled my nose.
I was lying on my back in the damp grass of the Woods of Shadowfen.
The Sunken Crypt of Erebos was behind me, its stone entrance completely sealed and buried beneath moss and rock, as if it had never been opened at all.
It was deep nighttime. The moon hung high in the sky, casting pale silver light through the misty trees.
I sat up, wiping the wet dirt from my face, and looked around.
Ten feet away, Valeska was already standing on top of a massive, mossy boulder. Her six-foot-two obsidian frame blotted out the moonlight, her tattered ash cape billowing in the damp wind as her featureless visor burned with two crimson slits.
I pushed myself up, dusting off my jeans, thoroughly annoyed.
"What bullshit was that?" I asked, looking up at her.
Valeska didn’t look down at me. She kept her red visor fixed on the distant, glowing skyline of Oakhaven.
"It wants someone who will suffer till they are at the brink of death, who can barely defeat it," Valeska answered, her voice cold and even in the night air.
I stood there in the grass, letting out a long, dry laugh.
"A dungeon mechanism that’s specifically built for desperate underdogs who barely survive by a thread," I muttered, shaking my head. "And it kicks you out if a Calamity entity enters and obliterates every stage on a whim."
"A fragile, insecure system," Valeska noted coldly, sheathing her greatsword on her back. "Created by mortals who believed suffering was the only measure of worth."
I pulled up my System HUD to check my status.
[User Status: Kaelen Cross]
Rank: F-Rank Summoner
Max Soul Essence: 1,200 / 3,000
Resonance Level with Valeska: 30%
We hadn’t gotten the OP relic, but the 35-hour training session and the battle on Floor 3 had improved me a lot. My body felt lighter, my dual-katana footwork was sharp, and my [Ashen Pulse] and [Ashen Cleave] were completely integrated into my combat geometry.
I looked toward the glowing, neon-lit towers of Oakhaven rising above the tree canopy in the distance.
"Well," I said, wiping a spot of rain from my jaw as I started walking toward the city. "The raid’s over early. Time to go back to the Underworld Guild, meet Raven, and see what’s gonna happen next."