July 22 — Wednesday
Deaths: 75
Day repetitions: 38
The ruined corridors of Floor 2 stretched out before Noah in dusty silence, barely disturbed by the echo of his own footsteps.
He walked with his phone still in his hand, the screen displaying the list of services he had found earlier. Warrior clerics, combat healers, group buffers. All of them charged more than he could earn in an entire month.
‘I could have hired that girl.’
He remembered the post that had caught his attention the most. A support cleric with a frightened expression who did not even carry a weapon.
The advertisement itself made it clear that she always worked in the group’s backline, healing and providing buffs from a distance without ever approaching combat.
‘But convincing her to kill me would have been almost impossible. I wouldn’t even know how to do it. And I also don’t want to have to resort to sexually intimidating them so they defend themselves. I know everything returns to normal after death, but the idea makes me uncomfortable. If I want a buffer to kill me, it has to be someone who knows how to defend themselves.’
He put away his phone. He would obtain that enhancement ability later, when he had the money and the right opportunity.
He also did not want to waste time talking to anyone. If there was one thing he was certain of at that moment, it was that now, more than ever, he needed to test his new Summoner Class.
Something moved at the end of the corridor.
A figure in black armor emerged from the shadows, a spear hanging from its hand, advancing with the same absolute calm Noah remembered far too well. A Dark Knight from Floor 2.
“Right on time,” he murmured, pulling the crimson dagger from the back of his waist.
He knew the ability required the creature to be dead in order to tame it, so he would have to fight it himself.
The knight charged with the same speed as that first time, the one that had shattered his dagger into pieces and forced him to run for his life. But this time, Noah did not retreat.
[Swift Step.]
His body became a flash that crossed the space between them, and the crimson blade traced a clean arc through the armor.
The knight split in half. The two halves fell on either side of Noah, and the spear dissolved into a black mist before it could touch the ground.
Noah remained still, looking at his hands with genuine surprise.
“Wow… I really am getting stronger,” he murmured.
He approached the corpse and extended his hand. The black flame wrapped around it again, consuming the shattered armor until it completely vanished.
[Taming complete. Assign a name to your summon.]
[Test Summon 2.]
He called it to his side, and the knight appeared before him, tall, silent, and completely motionless as it waited for an order.
“Go and fight the monsters on this floor,” Noah told it. “I’ll follow you.”
The knight obeyed.
It advanced through the destroyed corridors with heavy footsteps, and Noah walked behind it with his hands in his pockets, watching as it annihilated every creature that crossed its path. Shadows, demons, anything that appeared.
System alerts appeared one after another. After an hour of uninterrupted combat, his summon’s level had slowly risen from Level 1 to 4.
‘Four levels in one hour on Floor 2,’ Noah thought, resting his hand on his chin. ‘And I only received scraps. If I want to take advantage of passive farming, I’ll have to leave them on higher floors.’
◇◆◇
The Floor 2 labyrinth appeared before him, with its hedge walls rising toward a starless night sky.
Noah stopped, swallowing.
He had never crossed that place on his own. He had gone through it clinging to Belle’s back, and even so, the memory of what he had experienced there remained engraved in every fiber of his body: the broken bones, the insects, the centipede’s jaws closing around him.
‘If I was able to face the Floor 3 cobra, which is much faster, then a slow centipede shouldn’t be a problem,’ he thought, trying to convince himself. ‘The real problem is the swarms.’
He stood in front of the first wall with his heart racing, inhaling and exhaling slowly again and again.
‘I have to try. Having that guardian as a summon will be incredibly useful for leveling up.’
He closed his eyes for a moment.
“Here I go,” he said, his voice barely sounding firm.
He climbed to the very top of the wall.
The trembling came immediately, followed by the brutal gust of wind he already knew. Noah stood on top of the hedge, resisting the force of the wind, and called his knight to his side.
“Help me with the insects.”
The buzzing of thousands of wings began filling the air, and the swarm emerged from the depths of the labyrinth, a compact black cloud rushing toward them.
Noah and his summon charged into battle.
He moved differently now. Every dodge was cleaner, every slash more precise, every jump lighter than he remembered. The beetles fell by the dozens beneath his dagger and the knight’s phantom spear, and with every wave he managed to repel, one thought became stronger in his mind.
‘I can do it. Now I can face them.’
The battle continued for a while, until finally the ground trembled more violently and the centipede appeared, approaching over the walls with that imposing slowness Noah knew far too well.
He felt his hands trembling.
‘This isn’t the time to be afraid,’ he told himself, tightening his grip on the dagger. ‘I’m stronger now.’
The images returned without permission: the jaws, the pain, the sensation of being slowly devoured. He shook his head violently.
‘Stop thinking about that.’
“Attack from the left,” he ordered his summon. “I’ll go from the right.”
The centipede lowered its colossal head toward them, and the battle began.
Noah slid along the monster’s right side, and his crimson dagger sank into its first leg. It pierced through without resistance, with an ease that surprised him.
‘It’s soft… No. I became stronger.’
He cut through its legs one by one while the centipede twisted, trying to reach him. Its attacks were fast, but after fighting the Floor 3 snake, that speed was child’s play.
He dodged. Cut. Dodged again.
He searched for the weak point beneath the head, that exact angle Belle had used that night, and activated his abilities in sequence. [Swift Step] launched him forward and [Echo Thrust] doubled the impact, piercing through the centipede’s head from side to side, just like she had done.
But it was not the same.
There was no elegance, no beauty, no shockwave that had shaken the air that night. His was a cheap, clumsy, and rough imitation.
The colossal centipede fell dead across the labyrinth walls, crushing the hedges beneath it. When Noah landed on its body, a surprised smile appeared on his face. Even he could not believe it.
“We did it,” he murmured. “We did it—¡”
Noah turned toward his summon and found it lying on the ground, impaled by one of the guardian’s fangs. It was no longer moving.
“Even though I leveled you up,” he said, looking at the knight’s body, “you weren’t a match for a guardian. But thanks for accompanying me. You gave me more confidence to face my fear.”
The knight’s body dissolved into a black mist.
He turned toward the centipede’s corpse, and a slow smile appeared on his face.
“So now you’ll be my pet.”
He extended his hand, and the black flame enveloped the colossal body.
◇◆◇
The darkness of Floor 3 stretched around him, but Noah moved through it calmly, his orange eyes illuminating every twisted trunk and every shadow moving between the dead trees.
Beside him, or rather in front of him, his new guardian advanced. He had named it Legs, for obvious reasons.
The centipede destroyed everything in its path. Its body slid between the trees, breaking them as if they were twigs, crushing shadow wolves, devouring beetles, and sweeping away enemies with a brutality that brought a smile of pure satisfaction to Noah’s face.
At one point, Legs wrapped its body around five of the dark-furred bipedal creatures and devoured them with its fangs, one after another.
[Summon: Legs — Level 5.]
“Good work, Legs,” Noah said with genuine pride.
They reached the stagnant swamp. The water stirred, and the cobra emerged with its deep hiss, its eyes burning orange as it rose above them with the same imposing presence as always.
Noah did not even bother drawing his dagger.
“[Pressure Trap].”
The shadow snakes burst from the ground, wrapping around the cobra’s colossal body, restraining it exactly like the first time. The monster thrashed violently, raising columns of water, but it could not break free.
“Legs,” Noah said calmly. “Devour it.”
The centipede crawled toward the snake and sank its fangs into its body. It devoured it alive, piece by piece, while the snake twisted helplessly, unable to escape, until the agony finally killed it.
Noah jumped onto the dead snake’s head and extended his hand. The black flame completely enveloped it.
[Do you wish to tame this monster?]
[Taming complete. Assign a name to your summon.]
“Fang.”
He summoned it again, this time passively, and when it appeared before them, the two colossal guardians, imposing and powerful, filling the entire swamp with their overwhelming size, Noah let out a laugh.
A genuine laugh that he could not contain.
The sight seemed incredible to him. Those same monsters that had once been so difficult for him, that had crushed him, drowned him, devoured him, and broken him again and again, now looked at him with obedience, ready to follow his commands.
He was happy, so happy that his laughter would not stop.
He laughed and laughed without being able to stop, in the endless darkness of the floor.