Lucen muttered, "I listen. Just not to walls."
Varik stepped back, eyes scanning the ceiling next.
"It's randomized. No reset pattern."
"So if we move wrong again?"
"We get tested harder."
Lucen folded his arms, thinking. "So this place doesn't just throw traps for fun. It's gauging response time."
"Yeah."
"Like it's scoring us."
Varik turned toward the center again. "Not a dungeon. Not a core. Not anymore."
Lucen raised a brow. "Then what?"
Varik looked at the hallways.
Then said, "It's an examiner."
Lucen went quiet for a second.
Then muttered, "I hate being graded."
—
The first room wasn't labeled.
No grand arch. No glowing challenge glyph.
Just a hallway that stretched thirty meters before turning sharply right. Smooth stone. Inlaid lines across the floor, faintly glowing like veins under skin.
Lucen squinted. "That looks like a pressure grid."
Varik nodded. "Probably."
"So it'll collapse if we step on the wrong tiles?"
