The safe zone was quiet.
Too quiet.
Not peaceful—watchful.
Even while they rested, Thane knew this floor wasn't dormant. Something was waiting. Something embedded in the walls themselves.
Before descending, he sat with his back to the fire, closed his eyes…
…and summoned the flame-shaped frame of his status screen.
[STATUS]
🧍 Name: Thane
🧬 Race: Human
🌍 Origin: Unknown Plane
❤️ Vitality: 4
💪 Strength: 3
⚡ Agility: 5
🧠 Intelligence: 9
🔥 Mana: 3 (60/60)
🎯 Stat Points Available: 0
[PASSIVE SKILLS]
• Law of Absolute Repetition (Active)
• Quiet Casting
• Flow Casting
• Fire Affinity
• Magma Affinity
• Magma Control – Lv. 1 — EXP: 44 / 500
• Poison Resistance – Lv. 2 — EXP: 4 / 25
[ACTIVE SKILLS]
• Firebolt – Lv. 1 — EXP: 98 / 100 — Mana Cost: 10
• Flame Arc – Lv. 1 — EXP: 62 / 100 — Mana Cost: 12
• Burning Chain – Lv. 1 — EXP: 40 / 100 — Mana Cost: 14
• Flame Ward – Lv. 1 — EXP: 9 / 100 — Mana Cost: 8
• Flameblade – Lv. 1 — EXP: 16 / 100 — Mana Cost: 10
• Magma Sword – Lv. 1 — EXP: 29 / 100 — Mana Cost: 16
• Lava Geyser – Lv. 1 — EXP: 31 / 100 — Mana Cost: 18
• Scorch Zone – Lv. 1 — EXP: 17 / 100 — Mana Cost: 20
📈 Level: 4
🧪 EXP: 87 / 160
📜 Spell Blueprint: Meteor (Uncastable)
• Mana Requirement: 500
• Magma Control: Rank 4
• Flame Sovereignty: Required
• Progress: 2.4%
Thane closed the screen with a blink.
The girls were beginning to stir.
He stood silently and looked toward the stairs.
Downward again.
The dungeon's breath changed with every level… but this one felt like teeth.
Waiting to close.
Thane descended first this time.
The stairs to Floor B6 were cracked and uneven, carved not by tool or magic, but pressure—as if something massive had shifted beneath them over time, breaking the stairwell from below.
Mira stepped lightly.
Sova checked every few feet for trip wires or sigil triggers.
Seren walked quietly, but with her blade already drawn.
They had learned by now: a dungeon didn't repeat itself.
When they reached the bottom, it was clear something had changed.
There were no open corridors.
Just one narrow hallway—no wider than two bodies across, carved in clean angles from polished stone.
Sova touched the wall and recoiled.
"Too smooth."
"Too straight," Seren added.
Mira cast a detection pulse.
The light rippled outward—then bent. Not broken. Not absorbed. Bent.
"It's like the walls don't want to be seen," she muttered.
Thane said nothing.
But he felt it.
A slow, pulsing tension in the air. Not magical—not completely. More like breath being held.
He took the rear again.
And they walked.
Ten minutes in, the corridor forked sharply left.
Then again right.
Then again left.
But every path was identical.
Smooth.
Quiet.
Featureless.
The kind of design that didn't lead you somewhere—it trapped you in the motion of movement itself.
Mira muttered, "It's a maze."
"No," Thane said softly.
"It's a mouth."
The floor beneath Seren shifted.
Not crumbled—tilted.
She stumbled as the hallway floor lurched one degree downward, just enough to make balance unnatural.
"Trap—" she shouted—
The wall behind her moved.
Sova yelped as it slid inward without sound, the seamless stone closing like the lid of a box.
Seren dove forward and rolled clear—but Mira didn't.
The wall sealed.
Mira was gone.
Sova slammed her fist into the wall.
"Mira?!"
No answer.
No sound.
Seren punched the stone. "There was no sigil. No glyph—"
"It's mechanical," Thane said. "Physical. Smart."
"We have to get to her."
"We will."
"How?"
Thane raised one hand and placed it flat against the wall.
Closed his eyes.
And whispered:
"Breathe."
Scorch Zone.
The spell didn't explode outward. It bled. A fine, simmering ripple of heat passed between his palm and the stone. The wall cracked.
Split.
Revealed the teeth behind it.
Not literal—but close.
Rows of pressure plates, calibrated to collapse, crush, or reroute. An entire section of hallway that shuffled itself like a trapdoor maze.
He stepped back.
"Follow me. Fast."
They moved.
Thane led now, steps precise.
He traced the warmth left behind in the stone. The slight tingle where magic had passed. The metallic edge of enchantment woven into wall hinges and floor gaps.
At a T-shaped fork, he paused.
Sova was behind him, tense.
"Why stop?"
"She's close."
"How do you know?"
"I can smell her mana."
"You can smell it?"
Thane didn't answer.
He took the left corridor.
Thirty seconds later, they reached a square room.
Mira sat in the center—surrounded by three thin, jagged humanoid constructs. They didn't breathe. Didn't hum. Just clicked faintly as they slowly advanced on her.
She was bleeding from the arm, clutching her staff like a bludgeon.
Then Thane stepped in.
And they turned toward him.
Wrong move.
Lava Geyser.
The central one erupted in a column of molten rock, torn apart mid-motion.
Burning Chain.
He lashed the second by the ankle and dragged it into the geyser.
The third lunged.
He met it halfway with Magma Sword in hand—slashing across its frame and splitting it cleanly at the torso.
It fell in two pieces.
Mira blinked.
"You—how did you—"
"Later," Seren barked from behind, already checking Mira's wound.
Sova covered their retreat, bow drawn.
They regrouped.
And the walls behind them shuddered.
Not in collapse.
In disappointment.
They pushed forward, relying on Thane's lead.
The rest of Floor B6 didn't go quietly.
Every hallway had moving seams.
Every turn held pressure plates with delayed activation—one step forward, two steps safe, third step collapse.
Seren triggered one.
Thane caught her by the collar and pulled her back an inch before the floor gave out.
She turned, eyes wide.
"Again?"
He simply nodded.
By the time they reached the sigil marking the safe zone, all three girls looked like they'd walked through a puzzle box that tried to eat them.
Thane?
He looked like he was finally awake.
The floor hadn't just tried to trap them.
It had tried to outthink him.
And failed.
They set camp in silence.
Mira sat beside him, rubbing her arm.
She didn't ask about the constructs.
Or the sword.
She just said:
"I didn't call for help."
"I know."
"I was going to fight."
"You were."
"...But you were faster."
Thane nodded.
Then said quietly:
"I didn't want to be."
[STATUS UPDATE]
📈 Level: 5
🧪 EXP: 7 / 180
🎯 Stat Points: 1
📜 Meteor Blueprint Progress: 2.7%