[Deep Corridor - Tracking Phase]
Vorn crouched against the rough stone wall, controlling his breathing while listening for those footsteps. His enhanced hearing picked up dozens of ambient sounds - water dripping somewhere distant, wind moving through passages that shouldn't have air currents, the faint creak of stone settling under geological stress.
But the footsteps had stopped. Complete silence where there should have been movement.
His heartbeat pounded in his ears, not from fear exactly, but from the heightened awareness that came with knowing someone skilled was tracking him through hostile territory. The sudden absence of sound was worse than continued pursuit - at least movement provided data for tactical analysis.
His soldiers remained completely silent in his shadow, respecting his decision to operate alone but radiating tension through their connection to his consciousness.
"Whoever that is, they're good," he muttered. "I can't sense them anymore."
The slime's presence stirred uneasily. "They either withdrew or they're using concealment techniques beyond your current detection capabilities."
Neither option was comforting. But time was counting down, and staying frozen in one position burned minutes without progress.
Vorn stood and continued deeper into the unstable sector, moving with careful precision that balanced speed against caution.
---
[Space Distortion Zone]
The passage narrowed gradually, then suddenly expanded like he'd stepped through an invisible curtain. The transition felt like walking through water, but his clothes remained completely dry.
He took another step forward and his shadow lagged behind him. Not just a trick of the lighting - his actual shadow stayed on the wall for a full second before stretching forward to reconnect with his feet.
"That's not normal," the slime said, voice carrying genuine concern.
Vorn tested his next movement carefully. Gravity shifted mid-step, pulling him upward instead of down. He caught himself against the wall before floating completely free, then waited for the distortion to pass before continuing.
The floor ahead looked normal, but when his boot touched it, the surface became slick like someone had coated it in mucus. He nearly lost his balance, managing to stay upright only because his enhanced reflexes had improved during the troll fight.
"This isn't a simple dungeon," he said, studying the walls for patterns that might explain the spatial anomalies. "It's actively breaking the rules of physics."
"Unstable sector," the slime confirmed. "The space is deteriorating, probably because something damaged the fundamental structure that holds dungeon reality together."
That explained the warning signs and the higher difficulty classification. But it also meant that environmental hazards might be more dangerous than actual monsters.
---
[Warped Creatures]
The first enemy appeared from a side passage - a wolf-like creature that looked partially translucent, its body phasing in and out of solid existence. When it moved, the motion was glitchy, jerking between locations instead of running smoothly.
Vorn launched silk threads at it, but they snapped mid-air when the creature's body became intangible. His attack passed through empty space where solid flesh should have been.
He adjusted his approach immediately, watching the phase pattern and timing. The creature solidified for roughly half a second every three seconds - a narrow window, but enough for someone with enhanced reflexes.
When it phased solid again, he struck with his artifact card, cutting through its neck in the brief moment when actual damage was possible. The creature collapsed and began dissolving, but the absorption process yielded almost nothing.
"Its essence is fragmented," the slime reported. "You're getting maybe ten percent of what you'd normally absorb from something this size."
Vorn checked his equipment and assessed his current condition. If all the monsters in this sector were similarly warped, he'd burn energy just staying alive while gaining almost nothing in return. The task was designed to drain resources rather than provide opportunities for growth.
"Strategic depletion," he muttered. "They want to see how we handle situations where every fight makes us weaker."
---
[Evidence of Failure]
The corridor opened into a larger chamber with multiple exit passages. Vorn moved carefully, scanning for threats while his enhanced senses processed environmental data.
A faint smell caught his attention - metallic, like ozone after lightning strikes. And beneath that, something that reminded him of blood but wasn't quite right.
Fresh footprints marked the dusty floor, boot treads that matched standard awakened equipment. One of the other candidates had passed through recently, probably within the last hour.
The prints led toward the eastern passage, then abruptly stopped in the middle of the corridor. No sign of struggle, no drag marks, no blood or torn equipment. Just empty space where someone had been walking moments before.
Vorn studied the area carefully, but found nothing that explained the disappearance. The candidate had simply ceased to exist mid-step.
"Spatial tear," Grain suggested from his shadow. "The unstable sector probably has zones where reality completely breaks down."
"Or the Court removes candidates who break rules," Dusk added. "Instant disqualification through terminal means."
That possibility made Vorn hesitate. Failure here might not mean simple exclusion from the organization - it might mean vanishing like the person whose footprints ended in nothing.
He marked the spot mentally and took a different passage, avoiding the area where reality had proven unreliable.
---
[Masked Encouragement]
His artifact card pulsed suddenly, breaking his concentration. The absorbed mask's presence stirred within the card's storage space, and a faint whisper reached his consciousness.
"Continue."
Just one word, but it carried implications. Either the mask was monitoring his progress and providing encouragement, or the Court was watching through the artifact and wanted him to know they were aware of his situation.
Vorn didn't like how relieved he felt hearing that single word. It suggested he was more dependent on external validation than he'd thought, which was a vulnerability that could be exploited.
But the message was clear - hesitation wasn't the desired response. They wanted decisive action, even in situations where caution seemed more appropriate.
He adjusted his pace, moving faster through the unstable passages while accepting higher risk in exchange for better time management.
---
[High-Density Combat]
The next chamber hit him like walking into a wall. Mana density was so concentrated that breathing felt like inhaling liquid. Each breath required conscious effort, and his enhanced physiology struggled to process the saturated energy.
Three warped monsters materialized from the excessive mana - distorted versions of creatures he'd fought before, but moving with unnatural coordination that suggested shared consciousness or external control.
The fight was brutal and close-quarters. Normal tactics didn't work because the space itself interfered with his movements. He was forced to improvise, using his own blood as bait after cutting his palm deliberately.
The scent trail drew two of the creatures into a web trap he'd prepared, while the third lunged at him directly. He killed it with his artifact card, then finished the trapped monsters before they could free themselves.
The absorption process was marginally better than before, but still inefficient. He was spending more energy than he was recovering, which meant his effective combat capability was declining with each encounter.
After cleaning his equipment, he checked his time. Over an hour had passed since entering the sector. The 24-hour limit seemed generous at first, but if all the challenges were this resource-intensive, he'd be running on empty long before reaching the extraction point.
---
[The Crystalline Focus]
Another hour of careful navigation through warped passages brought him to a chamber that felt completely wrong on every sensory level. Temperature, air pressure, gravity, even the flow of time seemed distorted in ways that made his enhanced awareness struggle to maintain accurate perception.
In the center of the chamber, suspended over a simple stone pedestal, was the Crystalline Focus. A shard of translucent material that glowed with internal light, rotating slowly in empty air.
The chamber floor was covered with monster corpses, but none looked fresh. Their bodies were frozen mid-attack, preserved in whatever spatial anomaly had killed them years or decades ago.
Vorn approached slowly, checking for traps or active defense systems. The artifact seemed unguarded, which made it more suspicious rather than less.
He was three meters from the pedestal when a shadow stepped out from the wall to his right.
Not a monster. The movement was too controlled, too deliberate. A person wearing a mask that was clearly higher rank than anything the candidates had been given. Carved from dark material with faint glowing patterns that shifted across its surface.
They drew a weapon - a slender blade that looked custom-forged for speed over power - and settled into a ready stance that suggested professional combat training.
"So you made it this far," the masked figure said, voice filtered but calm. "Good. Now prove you can keep what you came for."
---
[Test Within the Test]
Vorn's mind raced through tactical options. This wasn't a monster or environmental hazard - it was a human opponent, probably significantly more experienced than him, serving as the final assessment before he could claim the artifact.
Fighting here would reveal his capabilities to the Court's evaluators. They'd see his techniques, his soldiers if he summoned them, his tactical approach under pressure.
But refusing to fight meant automatic failure.
His soldiers stirred in his shadow, waiting for permission to manifest. Ash, Dusk, Grain, Mire, Scarlet, Saber, and Kenjiro - seven enhanced combatants who could tip the balance in his favor.
But using them would expose that capability to an organization that valued information as much as power.
"If I use them, they'll know I can field soldiers," he thought rapidly. "If I don't, I might not walk out of here."
The masked figure didn't wait for him to finish deliberating. They lunged forward with speed that matched or exceeded the samurai troll's enhanced movement, blade cutting through space where Vorn would be rather than where he was.
Vorn moved on pure instinct, his enhanced reflexes barely enough to avoid the opening strike. His artifact card materialized in his hand as he repositioned, silk threads already deploying to control the engagement space.
The real fight had begun, and whatever he decided in the next few seconds would determine whether he passed this test or became another disappeared candidate whose footprints simply ended in empty space.