The [Descent] into Dark Depths, the Dungeon's Final floor.
~~~
After almost six hours since their initiation—six hours that felt like a lifetime of change and very disturbing revelations—Jin and Rudy stood before a massive obsidian door.
His Reader's Dominion triggered automatically.
«THE OBSIDIAN DOOR OF DARK DEPTHS»
What's with the obsidian in this dungeon? Almost half the stuff is either made from obsidian or has it in its name...
The doors towered over them at nearly ten feet tall, their surface carved with intricate symbols that seemed to writhe when he wasn't looking directly at them. Jin stretched, his transformed body responding with fluid grace he was still getting used to.
He looked over at Rudy and frowned. After some much-needed rest and talks, most of his tension has melted away. Can't blame him… hell, I don't even know how I'm doing all this.
Jin's mind kept circling back to the very same nagging question, and doubts about himself crept back in. How was I fine?
He'd always critiqued protagonists in novels—how could they just move forward with grit and willpower alone? It wasn't realistic. But now he was living it, and the strangest part was how natural it felt.
Before his transmigration, he'd been just a normal cancer-ridden teen who did nothing but procrastinate and read fantasy novels as his escape from a dying body. The weak kid who'd never even played outdoor sports, and here he was dancing with death after a mere ten to fifteen hours of transmigration.
Did someone do something to me when I was reborn here? Or is this what desperation actually looks like?
Jin gritted his teeth and forced his breathing into the "Breath of Stars" pattern, channeling essence throughout his body in the looping circuit the cultivation manual had burned into his memory. Serene calmness filled the spaces between his thoughts.
Focus on the present. Deal with existential crises later.
"You ready for this, Rudy?" Jin asked, glancing over at his best friend.
"As ready as I can be for whatever fresh hell is waiting behind the ominous death door." Rudy flexed his shoulders, flames flickering around his knuckles in an unconscious display of nervous energy. "And I just realized I'm supposed to be your senior here! I'm older than you, bro."
"By three months." Jin grinned, some of his tension easing at the familiar banter. "Besides, I'm clearly the responsible one. If I left our problems to you, the answer would always be 'smash it!'"
"Hey, you're just jealous of my new muscles." Rudy snorted. "Besides, Jin, not sure dragging a sixteen-year-old into a dungeon was your smartest idea."
"And look how well that turned out. We're both overpowered now."
"Point taken." Rudy moved to the left side of the massive door while Jin took the right. "Though I still think you're the reckless one. Genius, yeah, but also kinda stupid."
"Ouch! Someone's being chatty today."
Rudy smirked. "Guess I needed some time to really understand what was happening... but honestly, this Asura path is surprising. I was scared I'd turn into some violence-seeking madman, but it's actually pretty cool."
"See? One more reason to thank me. Now let's focus on not dying."
"This should be the final floor," Jin said, his mind already probing beyond the obsidian barrier. "Unless our hijacker entity decides to surprise us again."
"Whatever's waiting, we face it together." Rudy's voice carried steady confidence that made Jin feel less alone.
They fist-bumped and pushed the door open together.
Jin stepped onto the first stone step and immediately felt the shift. The worked marble of the trial chambers gave way to rough limestone beneath his feet. Each footstep echoed with hollow persistence, the sound stretching down into darkness that seemed to swallow light itself.
Argh, what's wrong with the air down here?
"Damn," Jin observed, his astral sight picking up disturbing energy patterns threading through the stone like poisoned veins. "The name wasn't lying. This really is some kind of underground crypt."
"Great. I'm claustrophobic, Jin."
"You'll manage."
"So cruel."
The temperature dropped with each step—not the gentle coolness of underground chambers, but something deeper and more primal. The air tasted metallic, like copper pennies dissolved in stagnant water, and carried undertones that made his astral sight flicker with warning signals.
His eyes revealed currents of a dark and revolting energy flowing through the stone like poisoned blood through veins.
"Dude," Rudy's voice bounced off invisible walls, the echo suggesting spaces far larger than their vision could penetrate, "is it just me, or does this place smell like a morgue that's been closed for twenty years?"
Jin paused on the twentieth step, his eyes picking up traces of dark energy getting denser with every step down. "It's not just you. There's death here. Old death. Lots of it."
"And something that's been feeding on it for a very long time."
"You trying to scare me, Jin?" Rudy whispered. "'Cause that's bloody working."
"Who knows, Rudy…"
The staircase curved downward in a spiral that seemed to descend forever. Jin counted steps out of habit—forty, sixty, eighty—until the worked stone finally gave way entirely to natural cave formations carved by water and time.
They emerged into a cavern that stole Jin's breath.
Holy shit.
The space stretched beyond their light in all directions, with stalactites hanging like stone teeth from a ceiling lost in shadow. Flowstone formations created twisted pillars and curtains that caught their torchlight and threw it back in distorted patterns. But what caught Jin's attention were the tunnel mouths—six different passages branching off from the main chamber like spokes of a wheel.
"By the spirits," Rudy whispered, "this place is massive. Like, cathedral massive."
Jin activated his Reader's Dominion, letting his expanded consciousness probe the cavern's secrets. Information flooded his awareness: limestone cave system, natural formation enhanced by magical excavation, multiple levels descending for hundreds of feet, extensive tunnel networks connecting to underground water sources...
And something else. Energy signatures moving in the darkness. Lots of them.
"Rudy." Jin's voice carried a warning that made his friend's flames brighten instinctively. "We've got company. And I mean a lot of company."
"How many are we talking?" Rudy was already shifting into combat stance, his Asura abilities responding to the implied threat.
"I can't get an exact count..." Jin's basic mastery over the astral sight barely allowed him to follow the necromantic energy threads through solid stone, mapping a network of connected chambers and passages. "But it's not good."
"Jin—"
A rat emerged from the nearest tunnel.
But this wasn't any normal rodent. It was the size of a large dog, its matted fur falling off in patches to reveal diseased flesh beneath. Its eyes glowed with sickly red light that matched the dark energy threading through the caves, and when it opened its mouth, rows of needle-sharp teeth gleamed like tiny daggers.
«Necrorat (Male)»
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Rudy groaned, drawing his greatsword. "Giant plague rat. What's next, zombie pigeons?"
Rudy leveled his greatsword at the lone, greasy rat, smirking. "Heh, you fat rat—what's the matter? Got kicked out of the nest?"
The cavern answered for the rat. First one squeak, then a dozen more, until the stone walls thrummed with the sound of claws and teeth. From every crack and tunnel, they poured out—twenty, thirty, maybe more.
Rudy blinked. "...Ah. That's a lot of nest."
"Rudy!" Jin's voice cracked as he drew Iron Howl in one hand and his dagger in the other, already backpedaling. His boots scraped against the stone as he gave himself room. "You just HAD to open your damn mouth, didn't you?!"
Rudy gave a sheepish grin as more whiskered snouts poked from the shadows. "Timing, Jin. It was just very bad timing."
"Yeah? Well, your timing's horse-shit!" Jin snapped, nearly tripping as another wave of rats spilled out like a living carpet. "Next time, insult them AFTER we kill them!"
And right on cue, more emerged—a dozen, then two dozen, their chittering filling the cavern with a sound like fingernails on a chalkboard.
Rudy rolled his shoulders, greatsword gleaming in the sickly cavern light. "I'll try! But just think of it this way: more rats, more fun!"
"More rats, more rabies! Gods above, why do I travel with you?" Jin's curse was cut off as a baby rat nearly latched onto his leg, forcing him to kick it off with a snarl. "—I swear, if we survive this, I'm sewing your mouth shut!"
Rudy barked a laugh, stepping forward as the swarm closed in.
"Then who'd keep things interesting?"
"Fuck you and focus. Remember, Rudy, we can't use fire down here. Too much methane buildup—I can smell it in the air. One spark and we're barbecue."
"Shit," Rudy muttered, flames around his knuckles dying out reluctantly. "So we do this the old-fashioned way."
The fat rat launched itself through the air, jaws spread wide enough to take off a man's head. Jin's enhanced sight tracked its trajectory with perfect clarity, allowing him to sidestep and put two rounds into its center mass. The creature hit the cave wall with a wet thud, green blood spraying across the stone.
But the smell that followed made Jin's enhanced senses recoil.
Death. Corruption. Something is fundamentally wrong with the very essence of these creatures.
Thankfully, Reader's Dominion decided to grace him with the necessary information.
o________o
The necrotic rat is a verminous corpse gnawed by death itself. Once a common sewer dweller, now a husk that twitches only by the will of corrupted essence. Alone, they are weak. Together, they are famished with teeth."
Their fangs drip with necrotic rot, and one bite will spread corruption through blood.They thrive in packs; the more corpses they gather around, the stronger they grow.They are terrified of flame, recoil from blessed light, and their brittle bones are easily shattered.
o________o
Jin's jaw tightened, and he hissed a curse. Seriously, I need better combat info!
«READER'S DOMINION UPDATING»
o________o
[Creature Analysis: Necrotic Rat]
Class: Aberration / Vermin
Essence Signature: Necrotic (Minor)
HP: Very Low
Attack: Moderate (Corrosive)
Defense: Low
Speed: High
Skills:
- Rot Fang (Applies necrosis debuff)
- Pack Instinct (Damage increases when in a swarm)
- Essence Sniffer (Drawn to injured prey)
Weakness: Fire, Light, Heavy Blunt Force
Resistance: Darkness, Poison
Observation: Individually fragile, but never alone. Swarm tactics overwhelm careless foes. Avoid being surrounded.
O________o
Now that's more like it! Thanks!
"Rudy, don't get bitten!" Jin called out, dodging another leaping rat while Rudy's sword carved through two more in a single sweep. "They're saturated with corrosive energy. One bite and you're gonna be dealing with necrosis."
"Good thing they're weak individually!" Rudy grunted, his blade taking off another rat's head with surgical precision. "Can we move faster, though? Because I'm pretty sure all this noise is attracting more of them."
As if summoned by his words, more chittering echoed from the other tunnels. Lots more.
"Rudy, fall back!"
Jin raised his hand and spat the words between clenched teeth:
« "O Breath of the Unseen... let force erupt and cast back all that stands before me!" »
BOOM~
The air detonated outward in a violent wave, a concussive blast that hurled the necrorats back in a spray of claws and teeth and disgusting fluids.
"Dude, that was sick!" Rudy grinned. "Good work."
Jin's mind raced through their options. They needed to find the source of all this, but fighting through an army of plague rats would exhaust them before they reached whatever was controlling everything.
Okay, let's pick a direction with the least amount of energy signatures...
"This way," Jin decided, pointing toward the central tunnel. "We need to move!"
They broke into a run, Jin's transformed body carrying him faster than he'd ever imagined possible while Rudy's enhanced physique kept pace easily. Behind them, the sound of pursuit grew—not just the original rats, but dozens more emerging from side passages.
The central tunnel sloped downward at a sharp angle, its walls growing narrower as they descended.
"Jin," Rudy panted as they ran, "please tell me you have a plan beyond 'run really fast.'"
"I'm working on it!" Jin shouted back. "But right now, running really fast is the only thing keeping us from becoming rat chow!"
Jin's feet hammered against stone as the skittering swarm surged closer. He snapped out the
words:
« "O Soil that bears the weight of the world... let the earth ascend and stand as my wall!" »
The ground rumbled and tore upward behind them, a jagged ridge of rock slamming into place. The rats collided with it in a frenzy of squeaks and scratches, buying them precious seconds to slip further into the dark.
After five minutes of running and changing directions through a maze of tunnels, they finally emerged into another chamber. Jin skidded to a halt so suddenly that Rudy nearly crashed into him.
"Holy shit."
"What? We lost the damn rats—oh." Rudy's voice died as he saw what had stopped Jin cold.
The cavern before them was filled with rectangular stone boxes—coffins, Jin realized—arranged in neat rows like some macabre warehouse. At least twenty of them, each one carved from black stone and inscribed with runes that pulsed with malevolent energy.
"Please tell me," Rudy said slowly, his voice carrying forced humor, "those are filled with treasure and not what I think they're filled with."
"Rudy, use your damn brain. Who fills coffins with loot?"
"I mean who knows?"
"Fine shithead, but I'm shooting you if anything pops out!"
"Nothing's gonna happen Jin!"
The moment Rudy's hand touched the coffin lid, it burst open with explosive force. A skeletal hand shot out and grabbed his wrist with crushing strength, eye sockets blazing with red fury as the rest of the skeleton pulled itself upright.
"What the hell—get off me!"
"Rudy!"
Jin's astral sight pierced the other stone lids, revealing their contents. His face went pale. Shit, I should have done that before!
"Shit! All of them are full of skeletons. And they're all starting to wake up."
All around them, the other coffins began to crack and splinter as their occupants stirred to unlife.
"Well," Rudy said with forced cheer, trying to shake off the skeleton's grip while flames danced around his free hand, "I guess we found our welcoming committee."
"God, what am I gonna do with you!"
Jin drew his handgun and dagger simultaneously, his mind already cataloging escape routes and tactical positions. Twenty animated skeletons in an enclosed space, with an army of plague rats probably still hunting them from behind.
"Next time," he called out, putting a round through the skull of the skeleton attacking Rudy and watching bone fragments explode in all directions, "maybe don't touch the obviously cursed death boxes!"
"Hey, note taken!" Rudy replied, his greatsword cleaving through two more skeletons as they emerged from their stone resting places. "Any other brilliant observations?"
Around them, the chamber filled with the sound of grinding stone and rattling bones as twenty undead warriors prepared for battle. Jin's astral sight picked up something else—deeper in the cave system, something much more powerful had taken notice of their intrusion.
This is going to get so much worse before it gets better.
"Rudy," Jin said, backing toward what looked like the most defensible corner, "remember what I said about your solutions always being 'smash it'?"
"Yeah?"
"This might be one of those times where smashing it is actually the right answer."
Rudy's grin was fierce and bright in the gloom. "Now you're talking my language."
~~~