July 22 — Wednesday
Deaths: 74
Day repetitions: 37
The ruined castle door gave way with a single kick, the rust and stone crumbling inward in a cloud of dust.
Noah crossed the threshold, his footsteps echoing with a strangely elegant resonance against the cracked stone floor.
The throne room stretched out before him, submerged in such deep darkness that only his eyes, still burning with that constant orange light, allowed him to distinguish the shapes: ruined columns, torn tapestries hanging from the walls, and at the far end, atop an elevated platform, a throne.
Someone was sitting on it.
Noah’s blood dripped onto the stone with every step, marking his advance with a dark, constant trail. He stopped a few meters away from the throne, and the seated figure slowly raised its head.
Two points of orange light ignited in the darkness, fixing directly on him.
They stared at each other in silence.
The shadow extended a hand toward one of the throne’s armrests, taking a broken crown, worn down by time, and stood up with a slow, almost ceremonial movement, placing it over what should have been its head.
Then, it grabbed a banner planted beside the throne, ripping it from the stone floor with a single pull that sent fragments of rock flying.
[Recognition] activated instantly.
The sensation of danger was so absolute, so overwhelming, that Noah barely had time to process it before a window appeared floating in front of him.
[Your opponent gives you a 100% chance of death. This challenge far exceeds your current abilities, but this is where the tutorial for Hunters ends. After Floor 3, only those destined for greatness were able to carve a path for those who came after them.]
“Tell me his name,” Noah murmured, without taking his eyes off the figure.
[He was called: Arteal, The War King.]
Noah drew his crimson dagger, adopting a combat stance.
“I don’t care what kind of king stands in my way,” he said, his voice firm, not reflecting the fear he felt inside. “I’ll descend into hell itself and kill the devil if that’s what it takes to save my sister.”
Arteal moved the palm of his hand.
The darkness suddenly dissolved, replaced by celestial flames that burst from dozens of previously invisible torches, illuminating the entire room.
And with the light came them: familiar shadows—the wolves, the dark-furred bipedal creatures—and also dark knights identical to those from Floor 2, all materializing around Arteal like a guard summoned from nothing.
‘So those shadow knights were because of you.’
“So this is where the tutorial ends,” Noah murmured, looking at the multitude of enemies. “I wonder what level elite Hunters are. What abilities do those who advanced first have? What kind of strength does someone like Belle have, someone who climbed all the way to Floor 500 alone?”
He tightened his grip on his dagger.
“If I want to reach them, I’ll overcome this my own way.”
The shadows charged.
“[Pressure Trap].”
Black snakes emerged throughout the area, wrapping around every creature that attempted to surround him, restraining them with that suffocating force he knew so well. Noah killed them with a single strike, one after another, giving them no chance to retaliate.
The battle did not grant him even a moment to rest. He was attacked from every direction simultaneously, and instead of panic, something resembling a twisted smile appeared on his face.
“This feeling,” he said between breaths and slashes, “excites me.”
Bodies flew across the room. The shadow snakes multiplied, capturing enemy after enemy without rest, allowing him to execute every kill with surgical precision.
He jumped from pillar to pillar, using the walls for momentum, moving through the battlefield as if it were an extension of his own body.
At some point, his eyes met Arteal’s.
‘I have to reach him,’ he thought, dodging a claw strike. ‘Fighting his summons is pointless. I need to eat his flesh. Obtain his resistances.’
He charged straight toward the throne.
The distance closed in seconds, and when their faces were finally only centimeters apart, everything seemed to slow down, as if time itself had decided to stop and witness what came next.
A movement. Barely perceptible. Elegant.
The banner cleanly cut through Noah’s left arm.
He landed on the other side of the room, his feet sliding against the stone until he stopped, staring in horror at the trail of blood he had left behind. Then he screamed when he saw his own arm, already severed, falling far from his body.
Arteal did not even turn to look at him. He remained standing, his imposing back covered by armor blackened and cracked by time.
The summons attacked again. Noah dodged as best he could, using a pillar from the ceiling to propel himself back toward Arteal.
‘I have to tear off a piece of him,’ he thought, ‘even if it’s only one.’
But in the blink of an eye, something changed.
He was no longer seeing the knight in front of him. Suddenly, he found himself back among the shadows of the second floor, surrounded by dark knights identical to those he had faced hours earlier.
‘Huh?’ he thought, confused. ‘What happened?’
His consciousness slipped away before he could finish the thought.
Arteal had already cut off his head, moving to the opposite side of the room while holding it up like a silent trophy. Everything had happened in a single instant impossible to process.
He threw the head toward his creatures, which rushed forward to devour it.
[You Died.]
◇◆◇
Noah returned to the exact point beside Rick, his gaze fixed on his system window.
[Activating passive skill: Return.]
[Random skill theft activated.]
[Analyzing… analyzing…]
[Skill stolen: Class: Summoner]
[Rank S.]
[The bearer can tame any living monster they desire and turn it into their servant.]
His pupils widened.
‘Rank S,’ he thought, with a mixture of disbelief and restrained euphoria. ‘This is the first skill I’ve obtained from this category.’
“Hey,” Rick tapped him on the head. “Are you listening?”
“No,” Noah replied without any interest. “I don’t care about your group.”
He walked away quickly, leaving Rick speechless.
‘Why does someone as powerful as Arteal exist on Floor 3?’ he thought while walking through the corridors. ‘Isn’t that unbalanced for the normal progression of Hunters?’
[I do not know the rules of the Fortress.]
‘What a useless answer.’
He quickly found a lone goblin wandering through the corridors of the first floor and, with an agile movement, stabbed his dagger into the back of its neck. The body fell, and immediately a new window appeared in front of him.
[Do you wish to tame this monster?]
‘Yes,’ he thought, extending his hand toward the corpse.
A black flame wrapped around his hand, surprising him because of the unexpected phenomenon, although he felt no actual heat. The flame spread over the goblin’s body, and it vanished completely.
[Taming complete. Assign a name to your summon.]
‘I’m not interested in someone this weak.’
“Test Summon 1”
A new tab appeared in his system: [Summons.] He opened it, finding the newly subdued goblin registered there.
He tried calling it mentally, focusing. Nothing happened.
“Test Summon 1,” he said out loud.
The goblin appeared in front of him instantly, already armed and in a combat stance.
Noah rested his hand on his chin, thoughtful.
“Can I give you orders?” He looked toward the corridor. “Go and kill three more goblins.”
The creature immediately obeyed and ran. Noah followed at a calm pace, watching as it eliminated three identical goblins with surprising efficiency.
‘It seems stronger than before,’ he thought, noticing the difference in its movements.
A new window appeared, this time showing experience distributed to both him and his summon.
“Can it level up too? And does it share some of what it obtains with me?” he murmured, processing the implications. “Then… could I leave them farming floors while I advance, gaining passive experience? But how far does the actual range of this ability go? I need to test it properly.”
He returned to the Summons section and found an option labeled “Release.”
“I’m not interested in a goblin this weak,” he said, pressing it without hesitation.
Instead of disappearing peacefully, the goblin immediately became wild, attacking him with sudden fury. Noah reacted with a quick, clean slash, decapitating it before it could cause any real damage.
“Thanks for the brief help,” he murmured, storing his dagger.
He remained thoughtful for a moment longer.
‘Is there some way to strengthen my summons? There are Hunter skills that strengthen an entire group. If I were lucky enough to steal that specific skill from someone like that, maybe my summons would also receive the enhancement.’
He took out his phone.
‘Right now, all the Hunters are inside the Fortress,’ he thought, opening the browser. ‘But there are always some who stay in the lobby, offering services for a price. Maybe I can find a cleric with enhancement abilities.’