The silence on the Fifth Floor was different. It was not like the one that enveloped the cave where Kael had awakened. No, this was something else.
Sharper.
More aware.
As if the very air breathed with him. As if every dark corner, every twisted hallway of the Dungeon, tensed with his presence.
Kael walked slowly. His bare feet touched the cold stone, which pulsed with magical energy, almost like a heart buried underground. With every step, the ground seemed to give way and harden at the same time, subtly molding itself to his walk.
He still trembled. Not from fear. Not entirely.
The memory of the goblin followed him like a second heartbeat, a darker and more primitive one.
'I didn't just kill it… I drained it.'
And he had felt it. Not just its life fading… but something more—Instincts.
Impulses.
Vague memories.
He had absorbed the goblin. And in doing so, something of himself had also disappeared.
Kael advanced carefully, muscles tense, every sense alert.
He heard things.
The fluttering of what seemed to be bats dozens of meters away.
The echo of clawed paws scratching the stone floor.
The faint heartbeats of small, voracious creatures.
'Since when can I hear like this…?'
He could smell fear in the air.
He could see without light.
He could feel… things.
The Dungeon was no longer just a labyrinth. It was a language. And his body, without understanding how, read it.
But the worst was not the sharpened awareness.
It was what came next.
After defeating a large lizard—tall, hard as stone and with a pair of red eyes—something impossible appeared—A crack in the air.
A floating screen—It was not like the ones he remembered, of that he was sure… though he didn't know why he knew it. His memories were like smoke, escaping every time he tried to hold on. But he had seen clean, orderly screens.
Not this. This was broken. Distorted. Like a shattered mirror spitting out illegible symbols.
A window of errors:
[ERROR… Blood Echoes Detected…conditions met]
[partially unlocking skill:
[Class: ??? — Undefined Entity]
[Level: — | Incomplete Connection to Falna]
Kael froze.
'Falna…? Class? What…?'
The meaning of those words resonated somewhere deep in his mind, among fragments of memories he did not recognize as his own.
'What… a skill?'
He remembered the leap with which he killed the reptile. It had not been his. His body did not know that movement. But it had responded with savage precision.
And now… now his skin felt harder. A barely perceptible layer.
Every creature he touched… left something inside him.
'I'm changing.'
'I'm breaking… or reforming.'
"I'm becoming less human every day…," he whispered in a small voice.
The stone did not respond.
But the Dungeon did.
A deep roar shook the ground. Something big. Many monsters. Very close. They were heading his way.
Kael didn't wait. He ran.
Not out of fear. Out of instinct. Like an animal that feels the breath of a predator before seeing it.
He climbed.
He ascended the irregular stairs that connected to the Fourth Floor.
And the world changed.
The gray stone was replaced by damp walls covered in pulsating fungi. A sickly light filtered through floating spores. The air was thick, heavy with moisture and… something else. An old smell. A trace of living things that should never have existed.
It didn't take long to find his next trial.
Three figures emerged from the shadows.
Two kobolds, unarmed, only claws raised, and a goblin with a broken, rusty dagger, but held tightly.
Kael didn't hesitate.
He didn't think.
His body tensed. His senses aligned. His instincts were alert.
The first kobold screeched and lunged at him. Kael turned to one side, feeling every millimeter of the ground beneath his feet. In the same movement, he pushed the kobold hard against the wall. The impact cracked.
The second came with bared teeth. Kael blocked its claws, guided by reflexes that did not belong to him. Every movement was clean. Precise.
The goblin tried to approach silently.
Too slow.
Kael felt the scrape of metal. He turned gently, caught the goblin's arm… and at contact, the same strange and familiar current ran through his body.
The goblin began to weaken. Its energy drained like water from a cracked vessel.
Kael held it calmly. Watching. Feeling.
The kobolds attacked again. The first, already weak, tried a clumsy scratch. Kael dodged and hit it with his elbow, leaving it stunned.
The second, more aggressive, attacked furiously. But Kael moved like a predator. His legs, his torso, his arms… everything flowed. It was not a fight. It was a hunt.
In seconds, he immobilized it too.
All were still alive. But barely.
Kael breathed. His chest rose and fell hard.
He could leave them there and leave.
He could keep walking.
But no.
He couldn't.
A strange energy sprouted from his hands.
One by one, he touched them.
And one by one, he drained them.
No blood remained. There were no screams.
Only limp bodies that disappeared seconds later.
And the power that flowed into him.
When it ended, he felt it.
His inside boiled. Stronger. More agile. But also more… hollow.
'This takes me away from all I was.'
But there was one thing in the phrase that bothered him.
'Was I… someone?'
The answer did not come.
He kept walking. In silence. Wishing the moisture on his skin was just sweat.
But there was no time for regrets.
Voices.
Not of monsters.
Human.
He hid behind a rock.
Three figures approached.
They were not novices. Their steps were calculated. Their presence heavy.
A woman in front. Tall, dark-skinned, sharp eyes. Braids fell down her back. Curved sword at her waist.
Two men flanked her. One with a spear. Another with gauntlets.
"Did you feel it?"—she asked quietly.
"Yes. Something drained the energy from the surroundings. It wasn't magic, it was… something different."
"It's not a common monster,"—said the one with gauntlets.— "It's close."
Kael stepped back.
A loose stone rolled under his foot.
Three heads turned instantly.
"There!"
The spear flew.
Kael barely managed to lean to one side. It grazed his cheek. The pain was liquid fire.
"Capture it! Don't let it touch you!"—the leader shouted.
Kael fled.
He ran with all his strength.
The Dungeon seemed to reconfigure as he passed. Twisted corridors, ancient chambers, hallways that whispered in forgotten tongues.
The three followed him.
They did not tire.
The wound burned.
But it was not just that.
Something in the spear had left a stabbing pain… inside him.
He turned a narrow passage. A dead end.
He turned. Back against the wall.
The adventurers entered.
"Don't resist, creature!"—growled the one with gauntlets.
Kael dodged the first blow, managing to climb a rock.
The spear whistled again. This time it cut his shoulder.
The pain left him stunned. He fell to one side.
The woman approached with a magical net.
"Lord Ikelos will reward us well for this,"—she murmured—"He wants it alive."
Kael tried to speak. But he felt his body numb, there was something in the spear that made him slower, clumsier.
The net flew.
But before he fell Kael saw it.
A crack.
Hidden under moss. A barely visible opening in the wall.
He rolled.
He threw himself.
He slid through the narrowness.
The net hit the rock. It didn't reach him.
"Damn worm!"—someone shouted—"It's heading to the intermediate floors!"
Kael kept crawling, gasping.
Every muscle screamed.
His wound throbbed as if it had a life of its own.
But he escaped.
Not because they spared him.
But because his small body was the only one that could have passed through that place.