The doors slammed shut behind them with a sound like a thousand anvils falling.
The air in the Rift Beneath was thick—hot, humming with ancient pressure. Runes glowed along the walls, barely visible under vines of scorched crystal. As they moved forward, they felt it: magic that didn't belong to this world.
[DUNGEON SYSTEM ONLINE – RIFT BENEATH]
Phase I: Puzzle Depths
Phase II: Corruption Hollow
Phase III: Boss: Emberbound Horror
No Escape. No Teleport. Must Survive.
Phase I: Puzzle Depths
Strange glowing pillars blocked their path. Lava flowed in spiraling channels, shifting with each step. The room was a massive rotating maze.
Kael stepped onto a stone—click—and the floor spun.
"It's a shifting memory puzzle," Riven said. "See the runes? We have to match them in order."
They worked together—Kael triggering floor switches in rhythm, Riven shooting rune crystals to lock sequences in place. After several rotations and a close call with a collapsing bridge—
[PUZZLE SOLVED]
Pathway unlocked. EXP +100.
Phase II: Corruption Hollow
Everything changed.
Flames turned violet. The walls bled a dark mist. Beasts crawled from fissures—twisted by the Rift's energy. Bone-wolves with ember eyes. Slimes made of molten ash. Even warped golems, their cores cracked and leaking unstable magic.
[New Enemy Types: Corrupted]
• Bonewolf (Lv 12)
• Rift Slime (Lv 11)
• Golem Fracture (Lv 13 – Mini-Boss)
The battles were brutal. Traps shot fire bolts from broken statues. Riven laid traps—trip mines and shadow dust bombs—slowing the monsters. Kael used every move he'd learned—Shadowlink critical strikes, fire blade combos—carving a path through the madness.
The Mini-Boss Golem nearly crushed them. But a synchronized finisher from both of them broke its unstable core.
EXP +300
Loot: Cracked Rift Core, Bonewolf Hide x3
Phase III: The Emberbound Horror
At the heart of the dungeon, they found it.
A creature chained in black stone—part dragon, part machine, wrapped in cursed flame. As they entered, it lifted its head and screamed.
[BOSS: EMBERBOUND HORROR – Lv 15 (Status: RED)]
HP: 4,800
Phases: 3
Weakness: Stagger / Frost / Shadow
Phase 1: It attacked with fire blades and chain whips—Kael danced through, countering with Ashbreaker strikes, while Riven aimed for the creature's corrupted reactor on its chest.
Phase 2: The floor fractured—lava surged. Kael nearly fell. Riven activated a last-minute Pathforge deployable bridge, and they scrambled across broken ground, fighting mid-air platforms.
Phase 3: It unchained itself. Grew wings. The entire room burned.
Riven used Shadowlink's vanish stone, landed on its back, and stabbed into the core. Kael launched a combo finisher—Ashbreaker + Ambush Style + Ignite.
With a final shriek, the creature exploded into ash and flame.
[BOSS DEFEATED: EMBERBOUND HORROR]
EXP: +1,500
Loot: Emberbound Core, Riftsteel Ingot, Forbidden Blueprint: Emberglide Armor
Dungeon Cleared
The Rift trembled and cracked open, revealing an ancient staircase spiraling upward into flame-lit daylight.
As they stepped into the surface light, their HUDs blinked:
[TIER RANK UP!]
Kael: Level 16 – TIER III
Riven: Level 16 – TIER III
– New Ability Slots Unlocked
– Tier III Equipment Available
– Tier II Monsters now show as GREEN
– New Quests Unlocked: Tier III World Events
They collapsed on the ground outside Emberpoint, coughing and laughing.
"We actually did it," Riven said.
Kael stared at the Emberbound Core in his hand, glowing with a strange power. "We're not just adventurers anymore. We're Tier Three.