Shun POV:
“What...?”
Ojon stared at the empty gate. His mouth dropped open: a reaction shared by most in attendance. Shades had made it all the way to a Safe Floor in a Dungeon of that calibre alone.
Yonse closed her eyes, seemingly aware of the truth all along. Sai bit his quivering lip; the respect in his gaze laced with sadness at the person who watched over him most, choosing to prioritise everyone’s safety to the end.
Yonse bowed her head to Nova before turning around. The other Adventurers followed suit, and each faction dispersed with time.
‘How much did Shades hold back then?’
That was all I cared about. His understanding of Ki, his natural disposition for Ki Sense, his awareness, placement and control: Shades... was stronger than Chloe Ravendawn.
And he... toyed with me.
‘Damn it.’
This confirmed that despite my abilities, Shades still knew I was the Bloodied Deadmin in disguise. The modified technique was a gift: he gave me instructions on how to grow further because he didn’t want me to die in a dungeon.
The three-second window to perform hand signs for Transfer supported this hypothesis. If he wanted to kill me, he could have done so at any point during our fight.
‘...I should have shown him more then.’
Katherine refused to wipe the tears flowing down her cheeks. Phoebe’s vibrant amber eyes shimmered with understanding at the difficulty of the decision made while Aiden and Gerard both looked ahead with solemn expressions.
This was what it meant to be an Adventurer.
You could give up outside, but once you were locked inside a Dungeon, you had to go forward.
“If I ever have a daughter, I want her to be like Katherine.”
There was no jovialness present in his voice. Gerard spoke with a certainty that made Aiden nod in agreement.
“You guys never compliment me like that.”
Sweat slid down the sides of their forehead, and their gaze spun away from Phoebe’s twitching eyebrows.
I walked past the Adventurers blocking the path to the gate when a young woman stuck her hand out. Rationality slipped away from my grasp the moment she opened her mouth.
“You didn’t need to hit Shor—“
The muzzle of a pistol pressed against her forehead.
“And you didn’t need to open your damn mouth.”
I shoved her back with the gun before spinning it around my fingers. The wind stabilised its horizontal rotation until there was nothing there. I stepped through the gate, and the scenery changed.
***
The setting of the 65th Floor was identical to the 63rd: cream-coloured walls, tiled hallways, and intricate paths.
[Awakened Sentri King summons your party. All remaining Floors have been cleared.]
The corners of my mouth rose at the Dungeon’s System message. The Sentri Guardians wouldn’t be on the same level as those watching over the entire population, so this worked out better than I expected.
[Awakened Sentri King welcomes your party to the Boss Room.]
“What?”
“This is too strange. When does this ever happen?
Phoebe’s eyebrows fell at the oddities that had been rampant in this Arcane Dungeon since we entered it. However, if the Awakened Sentri King was summoning us this way, then it was confident.
But we saw how this worked out last time, didn’t we?
“Does it matter? He’ll just die earlier.”
I walked off, and the smile widened.
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‘But only after I get what I want.’
This was the same monster that orchestrated the Sentri Gladiator process and the placement of the Arcane Dungeon itself. Whatever growth the Sentri King was looking for, it was desperate.
Desperation caused two things: misjudgement or extreme focus. A serious case of the former could often be represented by clinging to any semblance of hope. Rational thinking was discarded in order to preserve whatever sanity they had remaining. When that failed, the individual’s state of mind often broke.
The latter was rare. It meant the individual prioritised doing whatever they could to the best of their ability to escape their current predicament. Rationality wasn’t discarded but honed. It was fuelled by desire, and that created new possibilities in the form of growth, opportunities, or even allies.
The difference between both applications of desperation was the mind. It was easy to say something but hard to actually do it once you were in the same situation you criticised another of.
In other words, the Sentri King hadn’t evolved the Sentri Style after all. Then why did the Dungeon System refer to the monster as an Awakened Sentri? Was it due to its critical thinking? Did it know something that others didn’t?
I didn’t have those answers, nor did I care about finding them.
The monsters avoided us. Whenever we entered a new hallway, they could be heard relocating to different locations. Despite being ordered to not engage, the Sentri’s movements remained organised, following rare defensive formations.
This pattern continued throughout our ascent to the Boss Room.
“Katherine told me that you didn’t sleep because you were worried about an ambush.”
“...”
Phoebe’s cheeks rose under the well-lit hallways. The light accentuated the blood accumulating in the same area but also added to the slight sparkle in her amber eyes.
“I’m excited for our date.”
We were in a dungeon, yet that was the only thing on her mind. Katherine wouldn’t just tell Phoebe that information for no reason; it was more plausible for Phoebe to have questioned Katherine herself. I knew the outburst I had was only between me and Katherine; no one else needed to know about that... weakness.
“What date?”
“The persimmon one.”
A soft laugh made me look ahead again. Fingers stroked the back of my hand, but I had nothing more to say. They pried open the fist before wrapping around a single finger.
“...”
I continued walking with Phoebe by my side.
***
Gold lined the frame of the massive red doors. Three silver diamonds interconnected in its centre; their points overlapped in the traditional Sentri design. Two gold rings hung from red brackets and represented the door handles to the room.
Phoebe let go of my finger right when my foot blasted the double doors open. I stepped inside first, but nothing could be seen till a few minutes of walking brought us to the exit of a curved pathway.
Dark grey armour covered the monster’s body. Grey hair with a few more spikes than Zinyul’s sharpened thin eyes. Bright yellow irises matched the diamonds running down the edge of a red cape. A giant broadsword penetrated the elevated platform to the left while a large helmet hung from the dark wall to the right.
[Boss: Awakened Sentri King]
It sat on a throne, and once the Sentri King’s hands moved from the armrests, the room shook. The doors slammed shut, sealing us inside.
“I am Filkruj, the King of the Sentri.”
‘...Good. Very good.’
The deep base conveyed strength, but the immense depth of Ki radiating off the monster confirmed it. I ignored Katherine stepping to the frontlines and walked forward. All of my focus was on the Boss Monster.
All of my focus was on the growth I would obtain.
“You are strong.”
“And you are weak.”
Filkruj’s assessment of my inferiority would change soon enough. My lips reached the corners of bulging eyes before parting.
“Come.”
I dashed ahead. Two guns materialised in the same spinning motion as the body that spun through the air. A spray of bullets headshot the Sentri rushing toward the centre, sending them back to the darkness they had crawled out from.
My feet hit the ground when my guard rose. Filkruj stood but what attacked me was his Ki Pressure: a force that blasted me right back into the wall next to the entrance.
Then it crushed me through it.
“Keuk!”
Blood spewed out of my curved mouth. It wasn’t a surprise that Filkruj’s Ki Pressure was this overwhelming due to all the information I had obtained on the Sentri. It was likely that one of the Sentri King benefits enhanced Ki Pressure to the same degree as a Sentri Guardian’s attributes increase.
“You’re more than good enough, Filkruj!”
I kicked off the wall and shot through the air. Currents wrapped around my pursuit, adding to the rain of bullets released from the guns. With the annoyances pushed back, I could foc—
A giant fist embedded my head into a column. Then another one, and another one. Column to column until a heel sank into my abdomen, pouring the air out of my lungs.
“G-guh...”
I crumpled to the floor. My knees the only thing supporting a falling body.
‘Hawkeye.’
A fist whistled past. It shattered the surrounding walls when the lean turned into a flip that brought me back to my feet.
“A madman like you won’t get fa—“
Bullets flew toward his face, but the blur of a single finger blocked them all.
‘Shinobi.’
I moved back into close range. Filkruj’s monstrous physical strength didn’t scare me; nothing did.
‘Retsu.’
His hands flashed forward, and mine did the same. We exchanged rapid blows in the centre of the area. The tiled floor fragmented before rising at the increased intensity—at the speed that continued to climb.
The ground shattered.
Blood sprayed everywhere, but a smile widened further. Then the long-awaited feeling of growth began to occur.
‘I can improve.’
The parries changed: they became more accurate. The air continued to be manipulated to its current limit in conjunction with Pyō to increase efficiency and defence.
‘I can improve!’
Every exchange drew the strikes closer to the target. The gap that was once wide, shrunk. It closed in tandem with the water invigorating the dark plant.
‘I CAN BECOME STRONGER!!!’
A fist missed its target: a result of a well-timed slip off a preconceived angle created. My own strike speared into Filkruj’s stomach, and I reached upper Monzen.
“...”
Filkruj didn’t move an inch. He peered down at me before a backhand crushed my body into a nearby wall.
‘...’
A small breath exited my mouth. I ignored the bloodied state and let the shadow fall. Lips parted, repeating the same mumble of words that would take me higher.
The trade resumed at a faster pace.
“Devour. Devour. Devour.”
I slipped and weaved, then countered. My pupils dilated. My eyes popped, and my Ki erupted out of me.
“I WILL DEVOUR YOU!!!”