Accepting the system prompt, Rin watched as the double doors swung inward and released a black light through the opening. At first the light was bearable, and she tried to look forward into the abyss. But the light gradually grew brighter, forcing Rin to cover her eyes.
Unable to see, she felt a pressure tightening around her body before it dragged her forward into the doors.
'What the hell...?’
Rin could feel the space distorting around her as a loud rushing noise started to completely drown out her senses. At first, she struggled against the force but seeing that she was unable to do anything. She simply let herself be carried away.
The sensation lasted for what seemed like hours before a silence enveloped her. With the pressure surrounding her body coming to an end. Rin opened her eyes and found herself in a completely different place.
For one, it was dark. Every direction she looked in, shrouded the edges of her vision in black, but somehow, she could still see her hand in front of her eyes.
“Weird...” she muttered.
The ground felt soft to her feet and had a rolling layer of heavy mist that obscured her vision. While the air that she breathed felt stale and cold.
“Hello?!” she shouted.
But she didn’t receive a response from the darkness, not even her own echo had replied.
She turned around to see if the door that she had entered was still there, but it had disappeared completely. The only thing in its place was the same endless darkness that she could see everywhere else.
Frowning at the sight, an idea came to mind.
Rin created a dagger with her ice and shot it upwards to see if there was a ceiling. She was first going to track the dagger’s progression by sound, but she somehow still had the ability to see, enabling her to watch the dagger’s motion.
However, she frowned when the dagger reached the pinnacle of its height and didn’t hit anything.
Walking to where the dagger had fallen, Rin waved away the mist and inspected the ground. She found that the dagger had caused no damage to the ground and had fractured.
Narrowing her eyes, she gathered mana into her right hand as a magic circle appeared around her wrist.
BANG!
The circle shot a condensed blast of ice into the ground. But her ice instantly shattered into an uncountable amount of pieces while the ground still remained unscathed.
Regardless, there were several things that she had learned from the experiment. The first being that there wasn’t a ceiling, or that it existed higher above than where her ice could reach. The second was that there was in fact light in the space, except that the surroundings absorbed the light exceptionally well. It was more like a pitch-black void rather than an endless darkness.
And lastly-
“I’m fking stuck...”
Having no other choice, Rin started to walk in a random direction. She looked for any signs of anything alive or sentient, but nothing responded to her presence. She was completely alone.
After some time, the terrain suddenly felt different beneath her feet. It was much more resilient than before and felt like a hard stone. Rin thought that she was beginning to make progress and picked up her pace. And as she carried on, the terrain continued to grow rougher and was starting to angle upwards. It stayed like that for several more minutes before the mist on the ground abruptly came to an end.
“Hmm?” she looked at the phenomenon.
She couldn’t tell what was in front of her and took a small step forward. But when she didn’t feel her foot touch the ground that was supposed to be there, she immediately jerked her leg backwards.
‘…This is a cliff,’ she realized.
Looking to the sides, the same event had occurred where the mist had simply disappeared from the ground. Most likely dropping to the depths below. While in front of her nearly two hundred metres away, the mist was floating at the same altitude as the ledge she was on.
It was a slightly daunting sight as the chasm in front of her was almost invisible and only distinguishable by the mist. While she was also annoyed by the fact that it now posed a huge problem for her. In the past where she had her wings, the chasm would be nothing but a joke. Now, however, she had no way to get across the dark canyon.
“Great...” she groaned.
Peaking over the edge, she tried to look for the bottom, but all she could see was the infinite void. Not knowing whether going down was the right way, she made a dagger and sent it down.
She watched as it fell and waited for the sound of impact. But nothing happened as the dagger soon became a tiny dot.
“Not there, I guess,” she muttered.
Starting to turn away from the chasm, she suddenly heard a whistling noise coming from below and looked back downwards.
“What the?!”
She instantly whipped her head back and narrowly avoided an object that was hurtling towards her skull. But still, its speed was so quick that several strands of her hair were cut and fell into the chasm below.
Rin knew that the dagger that had almost killed her was her own as she had sensed the familiar mana signature. But how did it return? She didn’t know.
Carefully moving towards the edge, she looked down and squinted to see what had returned her ice. She scanned over the void with her eyes several times and didn’t see anything.
Until something shifted in the shadows at the edges of her vision. Her gaze flicked over to the slight movement. But what she saw sent a shiver down her spine and caused her to take a step back. It was a pair of malevolent red eyes, staring right up at her.
Their eyes locking, Rin could swear that whatever it was had a snide and cruel expression on its face. But that wasn’t what caused her to freeze. It was the amount of resentment radiating from whatever lay at the bottom of the chasm. The cold hatred emanating from the being was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It made her want to curl up into a ball and hide in a corner.
“Urgh...” she felt her knees grow weak as a nauseous feeling hit her mind.
Forgetting how to breathe, she staggered backwards and fell to the ground. The feeling was cold, far colder than what her ice could produce and sliced into her mind like a serrated blade.
Biting her lip, she used the pain to help ignore the feeling and turned away from the chasm. Whatever it was, she would have to avoid it at all costs.
****
Rin spent the next day scouring the void with the goal of finding an exit, or anything else other than the chasm. But there was either nothing, or something hadn’t shown itself to her.
The only thing she did find was that hunger simply didn’t exist for her, nor did she feel the need to release any bodily fluids. It was a good thing as she didn’t have any food on her, but her mental fatigue was starting to pile up. Sleep wasn’t an option as when she had tried, her consciousness felt like it was slipping away from her control.
Nevertheless, Rin found herself again at the edge of the chasm. The only way out was across. Looking at the other side, she assumed that she was at the narrowest part of the canyon. It looked to be around 120 metres in length, 80 less than where she had seen the malicious creature. As for that, she hadn’t sensed its presence since the first time.
Smiling slightly, she readied her frost blink skill. Although the length between the two edges was too far for her teleport skill. There were several platforms of mist floating between the two ends.
“Alright, hope this works...” she muttered.
As the first platform was just barely in range of her skill, Rin walked right up to the edge and sent the dagger onto the platform.
Clang...
Seeing that the blade landed on the platform and didn't fall through the mist, her lips parted to reveal a wide grin.
‘Okay, second part,’ she thought.
Activating her skill, Rin found herself standing on top of the platform. Rin looked down and saw it was just like the edge of the chasm. There was mist wreathing across the stone, and when she swept it away. It was the same almost-invisible material.
Looking at her frost blink skill she found that the mana costs were doubled after every cast unless she waited for some time. Deciding to value speed over the risk, she continued onwards.
The next platform as well as the third were just as simple as the first. But there was now an issue. Looking ahead, there were three more platforms between her position and the other end of the chasm. But the gap between the platforms in front of her was far larger than the earlier platforms.
“Finally, something fun,” Rin smiled.
Stretching her body, she walked to the edge of the platform and got into a running position. Her figure blurred as she ran to the opposite edge and jumped high into the air.
Currently at the apex of her jump, she threw a dagger towards the platform and briefly looked down at the infinite void. She half-expected the same red eyes to be there, but thankfully they weren’t. Landing on the platform, she tucked into a roll to dispel her momentum.
Repeating the process another two times, she landed on the final platform. While just ahead of her was the end of the chasm. Seeing that the end was near, she pulled out one of her drinks and waited for her mana to regenerate.
BOOM!
Just as she was about to take a sip from the glass. A deafening crash that originated from the depths below coursed through the platform she was standing on, causing her to stumble.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Fucking hell!” she cursed.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!
The tremors continued to flow through the platform as she struggled to stay afoot. Rin knew for a fact that the cause of the attack was none other than the red-eyed creature she saw.
She didn’t know why it had decided to come out now, but she didn’t have time to think. Rin could feel that the platform wouldn’t last long and would crumble apart in time. She estimated that she had a couple seconds left, but her mana hadn’t yet regenerated enough for her skill.
Feeling the platform start to tilt backwards, she swallowed down a curse. It was falling, and if she didn’t do something quick, she would fall along with it to whatever lay below. Taking a deep breath in, she toggled her cold aura and placed it on overdrive to speed up her mana regeneration in any way possible.
Seeing that her mana was ticking up at an increased rate, she smiled grimly and began to run. But the platform had already slanted at an angle of 45 degrees, meaning that she was fighting against gravity.
Sparingly using her ice to create holds on the platform, she clambered with her hands and reached the end. As the sight of the chasm’s edge beyond came into view.
-Then she jumped.
She could hear the platform beneath her crumbling and falling into the dark depths. A single second too late and she would have fallen along with it. She looked down to see those very same sinister eyes, staring right up at her with its cold and malicious sneer. But this time, she was calm.
Feeling herself start to fall, she matched her gaze with the creature’s as it leapt up towards her. Soon what came into view was a giant maw with rows of glinting sharp teeth. It opened around her body and started to close around her.
But just about when its teeth were about to slam shut into her body. She tumbled hard onto solid ground. While she was falling, her mana had barely regenerated to a point where she was able to use her skill and teleported to a piece of ice that she had sent earlier onto the chasm’s edge.
“HAHAHA...” she laughed, before she rolled onto her back with a coughing fit.
Her clothes were drenched with cold sweat, and she was feeling nauseous. The rapid expenditure of her mana had taken a toll on her body. And her frostblink skill had risen in mana consumption to the point where it couldn’t be used even at full mana. Meaning that she would have to wait a full day for it to decrease.
Resting for a minute, Rin took the time to finally enjoy the drink that she had lost. The cool feeling of the liquid helped to wash away her fatigue. But when she finished the drink and looked through the glass, it was red.
“Hmm?” she muttered.
Looking closer, it wasn’t the glass that was red. It was the mist beneath the glass, instead of the pale grey color it once was. The mist was now the color of crimson.
‘Weir-’
URAAAAAGH!!
A howling scream interrupted her thoughts and almost caused her to drop the glass. Turning towards the noise, it originated away from the chasm.
Rin assumed that she was nearing the end of the dungeon and started to walk towards the noise. Until she paused her steps.
“One more thing... a last gift,” she grinned.
Walking over to the chasm’s edge, she dropped the glass into the depths and walked away. Mere seconds later she heard a roar and a loud booming noise resulting in a light laugh.
The screams grew louder as Rin walked closer to the noise until she saw something at the edges of her vision. It was a semi-translucent figure, but the first thing she noticed were the shackles and manacles on its wrists and ankles.
Squinting her eyes, she realized that there were actually hundreds of its kind walking alongside the first. They all looked slightly different, but they all shared some sort of binding attached to their bodies.
Behind them stood a tall menacing figure holding a long-barbed whip. It wore ethereal black armor that wisped around its body. For some reason though, it was currently attacking the transparent figures with its whip.
Prioritizing stealth, Rin slowly crept forward towards the figures and used her identify skill. But she found something strange.
‘Huh?’ Rin thought with a raised eyebrow.
[Soul of the Damned]
Even with all her experience, Rin had never seen a living creature without a level.
“Wait... maybe it’s because they’re dead...” she muttered.
She remembered the dungeon’s nickname, and the theory of hells came to mind. But when she used her identifying skill on the taller attacker, all rational thought left her mind.
[Keeper of Souls – lvl 1000]
HP: ???
‘What the fuck?!!!!’ Rin inwardly yelled as she looked at the tall figure. She didn’t know why a lvl 1000 being was in a dungeon meant for level thirties, but she tried to keep calm.
Unfortunately, the creature had noticed her gaze. It looked towards her with glowing white eyes and muttered something too quiet for her to hear.
A silence spread through the darkness as collectively, the screaming of the damned souls stopped, and they started to slowly walk towards her. The only sounds were their shuffling footsteps and the clanking sounds of their restraints.
Keeping her eyes trained on the black armored figure, Rin sent a lance towards one of the smaller transparent figures. Her lance struck true, and the creature dissipated into the air. But Rin didn’t receive a notification from the kill.
Frowning, she thought that something had gone wrong, but there was a slight shift in the air. The pressure emanating from the tall figure had lessened ever so slightly.
Using her identification skill on the keeper a second time, she found something that made her smile.
[Keeper of Souls – lvl 999]
‘So that’s the source of its power,’ she thought with a grin.
Knowing that she now had a chance at killing the creature, Rin raised her hand and sent down her definition of hell with her ice.
Most would evaporate within a single hit, but there were a few that could sustain more than a couple of attacks.
Nevertheless, it didn’t matter to Rin. With her increased mana pool and her cold regeneration passive, she could continue to cast a steady amount of basic projectile attacks indefinitely without any worry for her mana.
After 600 or so kills, she pulled out a cider and took a small break. Although it wasn’t hard to kill the creatures, it was getting quite boring. But something that uneased her was that every creature she killed, the brighter the glow in the tall figure’s eyes would be.
Taking the final swig of her drink, she looked over the red mist with a sigh. It was littered with her ice and the restraints that hadn’t evaporated into the air. But there was still a large number of enemies left.
‘Only 400 more,’ Rin thought.
Continuing to lazily delete the creatures, she suddenly felt a feeling of danger upon killing the 900th' soul. Instinctively diving to the left, she narrowly avoided an explosion that would’ve blown apart her torso. But the impact had sent her tumbling into the air.
Landing on the ground roughly, she rolled a couple times before coming to a stop. Luckily, the damage was minimal, but she had the wind knocked out of her.
‘What was that?!’ she gritted her teeth.
There was only one thing that could’ve caused an attack that strong. Quickly jumping to her feet, she immediately looked for the tall figure. She didn’t know why it had decided to attack now, but she used her identifying skill, nonetheless.
[Keeper of Souls – lvl 100]
The keeper had dropped all the way to level 100, but the white glint in its eyes was almost blinding. It had its arm outstretched in front of it, most likely charging another attack.
‘The attack phase...’ Rin thought grimly as she jumped out of the way out of another projectile.
Rin unleashed her aura, not sparing any of her resources as she created a field of ice around her.
Unsheathing her short sword, she dashed forward to the remaining creatures while keeping her eyes on the keeper. Using her sword she slashed at the first creature’s neck, killing it instantly, then created a dagger of ice in her left as she plunged in into another.
Another one fell to her blade as she swung to her right, noticing the familiar sense of the danger she jumped up, barely dodging the projectile in time.
‘Every three seconds,’ she thought as a bead of sweat dripped off her forehead.
Rin quickly fell into a rhythm of dodging and weaving through the projectiles while slaying the souls using her sword and her magic.
But when she had killed the 31st soul, the remaining thirty souls disintegrated into the air as the keeper took its first step forward towards Rin.
It was taller than Rin had thought at first, and as it got closer, Rin could see that it stood at a height of 6 meters.
[Keeper of Souls – lvl 30 - Weakened]
HP: 1,000,000/1,000,000
‘This is going to take a while,’ Rin sighed, seeing the health of the beast.
The keeper moved forward with a frightening speed for its size as Rin heard the crack of its whip heading in her direction.
However, Rin, who was used to dodging the rapid projectiles created by her foe, could not help but laugh as she tracked the movement with her eyes and easily stepped out of its path.
Running forward, she created a ramp beneath her foot and used it to jump above the creature’s shoulder. Hovering seven meters above the ground she reversed her blade and stabbed down as she landed on the creature.
The Fang of Boreas found purchase and sunk into a gap between the being’s shoulder guards and drew dark black blood.
URAHHHH!!
The creature roared in pain as it thrashed around wildly. It dropped its whip and used its hand to try to swat the girl off his shoulders. But Rin was far too nimble, with most of her stats allocated into agility. It would be easier to kill the beast in the chasm than to land a direct hit on the girl.
Continuing to dance on the creature’s back and shoulders, she spun the being around in circles while inflicting large laceration wounds into its neck. Eventually, the figure tripped over its own feet and began to follow a rule as old as time itself.
‘The heavier they are, the harder they fall,’ Rin thought.
Stabbing into its arm with an ice dagger, she used it as a hold and swung herself upwards just before the creature slammed into the ground.
Rin hit the ground with her shortsword already drawn and dashed towards the creature. She had a split second where she could inflict damage for free and injected her mana into her blade.
The shortsword lit up with a blow glow and started to crackle with ice energy. Aiming for the eye, Rin tried to pierce through its skull, but the blade caught on to a piece of its ethereal armor.
Scowling, she jumped backwards and turned towards its lower half. Although it wouldn’t do as much damage, it was less protected compared to its head.
Holding her shortsword in her right hand and a sword of ice in her life. Rin threw herself at its massive legs and started to slash with reckless abandon. Her mana at this point was dipping below half due to the upkeep of her swords innate skill and keeping her ice blade active. But she figured that it was going to be enough for her next attack.
Seeing that the giant was starting to rise, Rin backed away and dismissed her ice blade. She stared it down with a wild grin as its black blood seeped out of the wounds she had created. It held fury towards her for causing such pain, but Rin simply relished in its anger.
Somehow, the creature had gotten a hold of its whip and swung it towards her. But its strength and speed were far beneath its peak. Sneering at the creature, Rin taunted it towards her with her hand.
Not knowing better, the giant started to blindly run towards the girl with its arms outstretched. While Rin waited for the creature to come and readied her ice. Meeting the being’s charge, she threw a dagger behind its back as a source. Then she jumped upwards and slammed into its chest, stabbing through and kicking off the beast.
Seeing that the creature was now falling backwards, a sinister smile appeared on her face. Using all of her remaining mana, a large amount of energy coalesced from the ice dagger behind its back.
Then an enormous pillar erupted from the source and pierced through the creature's spine. Lifting it up into the air and propping it in place.
Rin looked at her art with an aloof smile. Its blood was seeping out of the massive hole in its torso and spilled out onto the mist. While its limbs were thrashing around with the goal to free itself. But due to its size it was unable to do anything to the pillar embedded in its chest.
Making a chair as soon as her mana had regenerated, Rin sat down to rest. She pulled out a drink and watched as the creature hung in the air. It still had more than a fifth of its health remaining, but she was far too tired to finish it off.
There was also the fact that watching the creature bleed to death would be far more entertaining than anything else in this shithole.
A few minutes later, she received the notification that the creature had finally died. Satisfied with the battle, she decided to check her status.
Name: Rin
Titles: [Collapsed]
Race: Hum-{Error}
Class: Heiress of Ice, Seraphim of the Night
Level: 21
HP: 1500/1700
MP: 400/4100
Strength: 10 + 25 + 25
Endurance: 40 + 25 + 25
Vitality: 35 + 25 + 25
Wisdom: 140 + 20 + 25
Intelligence: 150 + 20 + 25
Agility: 185 + 20 + 25
Unassigned stat points: 50
Available Skills- [Collapsed]
Blessings- [Collapsed]
Equipment: [Collapsed]
From the fight, she saw that she had gained a single level and received fifty stat points. The reason why she gained so many was because after reaching the first evolution, any further levels gained would grant an exponentially larger number of stat points.
Deciding that her damage was lacking because her class was more situated around crowd control. Rin put all the stat points into her intelligence stat.
Next, she looked into her inventory to check to see if anything had dropped from the creature. Surely enough, a new item was sitting in the center slot of the system panel.
[Key Fragment ¼]
But upon seeing the item, Rin sighed. Knowing that if she wanted to leave the dungeon, she would have to kill another three of those creatures.