The journey across the third floor felt less like a heroic adventure and more like a grueling shift at a slaughterhouse.
For the next three hours, the party didn't walk more than fifty paces without drawing steel and flinging magic.
The purple grass contained endless waves of the black-beaked raptors and the heavy boar-lizards. It was constantly violent as they made their way across the floor.
Despite the fatigue, the profit was undeniable.
"I'm full," Tamsin announced, kicking a dead raptor away from his boots. He tried to shove a fist-sized monster core into his side bag, but the leather seam strained and popped. "That's it. My bags can't take any more, and I have cores in my pockets. If I carry any more loot, I'm going to rattle when I walk."
Grimmand grunted, leaning on his shield while Elara drank yet another mana potion. The dwarf looked like he had been dipped in a vat of purple paint from all the raptor blood.
"We're leaving money on the ground," Grimmand mourned, looking at the dissolving corpses around them. "Look at that one. That's a pristine hide, probably worth at least ten silver. And we're just leaving it to rot."
"Unless you want to carry it on your head, we have no choice," Carlos said. He wiped his blade on a tuft of grass. "We prioritize the cores and the rare materials. Leave the heavy stuff."
Carlos looked over at Jacob. The boy was breathing heavily, his face flushed from the stress of maintaining the group's frantic pace.
"Are you holding up?" Carlos asked.
"I'm fine," Jacob said, adjusting his own small pack, a burlap sack with some straps. "Just tired. The mana here feels heavy, kinda makes it feel hard to breathe."
"That is the mana density," Elara explained as she capped her empty bottle. "The magic on this floor is thick enough to taste. It puts physical pressure on your lungs if you are not used to the concentration. Try to breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth very slowly. It helps filter the intake."
Jacob followed her advice. He focused on the air, visualizing the thick, violet energy floating around them as a mist. He imagined his lungs as a fine screen, separating the oxygen from the raw power. The tightness in his chest loosened.
"We're close," Tamsin said, checking the horizon. "The ground is sloping up. That usually means the boss's area is ahead. And if the mobs out here are this frenzied, the boss is going to be a nightmare."
"Or a treasure chest," Grimmand countered. "With this drop rate? The boss might drop a C-rank item, or even a skill book."
"Eyes forward," Carlos ordered. "Form up. We push to the gate."
They crested the rise within ten minutes.
The purple grass ended abruptly at a circle of scorched, black earth. In the center of this dead zone stood the gate to the fourth floor, blocked by a crude stone amphitheater.
Inside the ring of stones, a guardian waited.
It wasn't a beast, or some sort of chimera.
It was a knight.
Standing seven feet tall, it was clad in armor made of some sort of black metallic-stone that appeared to grow out of its frame.
It held a greatsword easily six feet in length, the blade throbbing with a dull violet light.
There was no helmet. Where a head should have been, a swirling vortex of purple flame burned.
Combat Insight Triggered
Target: Void Knight (Construct)
Rank: E (Elite)
Analysis: High magical resistance. High physical defense. Weapon inflicts mana burn on contact.
Anomaly Detected: Construct core is unstable. Overcharged.
Suggested Action: Sunder the armor to expose the core. Avoid the blade at all costs.
Carlos froze, his hand tightening on his shield.
"That is not a beast," Elara whispered, her face losing all color. "That is a Void Construct. Those don't spawn on the third floor of F-rank dungeons. They are supposed to be deep dungeon guardians for D-rank gates at the earliest!"
"The System is definitely watching," Tamsin muttered, his playful demeanor vanishing. "It threw a guardian at us."
The Void Knight turned. The purple flame where its face should have been flared brighter.
It didn't roar or try to posture. It simply raised its massive sword and pointed the tip directly at Jacob.
"It knows," Grimmand growled, slamming his visor down. "It wants the boy."
"Then it has to go through us," Carlos said, his voice dropping into the flat tone of a commander.
He turned to Jacob.
"Jacob. This thing is going to throw magic around. The stone armor means it's slow, but that sword will cut through normal steel like butter. My breastplate can take the hit, but my shield might not. I need you to stay back. Way back. If Elara goes down, you run. You understand me?"
"I understand," Jacob said.
"Grimmand," Carlos barked. "Shield wall. We have to catch the blade together. Tamsin, find the joints. Elara, I need that ice to slow it down. We can't let it build momentum."
"Ready," they chorused.
The Void Knight took a step forward. The ground shook.
"Go!" Carlos yelled.
The battle for the third floor began not with a charge, but with a collision.
The battle began with a violent collision. The Void Knight swung its sword in a massive horizontal arc. Carlos and Grimmand met the blow together with their shields locked.
CRACK.
The sound was deafening. Grimmand slid back three feet, his boots carving trenches in the dirt.
Carlos held his ground, the impact distribution rune on his chest plate flashing blindingly bright as it redistributed the kinetic shock that bypassed his shield.
"It's heavy!" Grimmand shouted. "Heavier than the chimera!"
"Hold the line!" Carlos gritted out.
Elara cast Glacial Burst, freezing the construct's legs, but the Void Knight simply shattered the ice by flexing its stone greaves.
It then raised its sword for a downward chop that promised to split Grimmand in two.
"Tamsin!" Carlos roared.
The rogue appeared on the construct's shoulder. He drove his daggers into the gap between the plates of the pauldron.
Clang.
Sparks flew. The stone was too hard.
"No good!" Tamsin yelled, leaping away as the construct swatted at him. "I can't penetrate the plating! I need a soft spot!"
Jacob watched from the edge of the arena. He saw the problem instantly. The construct wasn't a biological creature. It didn't have muscles or tendons to cut. It was a machine driven by a core.
He narrowed his eyes, studying the mana flow. The purple flame at the head was a decoy. The real power was pumping from the chest, hidden behind the thickest slab of stone armor.
He cupped his hands around his mouth.
"The chest!" Jacob screamed. "The core is in the chest! You have to break the breastplate!"
Carlos heard him. He didn't question the anomaly's advice.
"Grimmand! Low guard! I am going high!"
Carlos dropped his defensive stance. He roared, channeling every ounce of stamina he had into his sword arm.
"Shield Bash!"
He threw his body weight forward, but instead of using the flat of his shield, he used the rim. He aimed for the center of the construct's chest.
At the moment of impact, the density rune on his armor flared. The weight of his charge was multiplied.
BOOM.
The stone armor cracked. A spiderweb fracture appeared over the construct's heart.
The Void Knight staggered.
"Elara! The crack!" Carlos shouted, rolling away from a counter-swing.
"Frost Lance!"
Elara didn't use a burst. She condensed her mana into a single, spear-like projectile of ice and fired it with pinpoint precision.
The lance slammed into the crack Carlos had made. The ice expanded instantly, forcing the stone fracture wider.
The construct shuddered, and the purple light in its chest flickered.
"Now!" Elara screamed.
The rogue didn't need to be told twice. He sprinted up the construct's bent knee, used the hilt of the giant sword as a step, and drove both of his enchanted daggers into the widened crack.
He twisted.
There was a sound like breaking glass. The Void Knight stiffened, and the purple flame at its head snuffed out instantly.
The massive stone body collapsed backward, shaking the earth as it fell.
Silence returned to the hill.
Carlos stood over the pile of rubble, chest heaving. His shield was dented almost in half. His sword was chipped. But his breastplate was still pristine.
"Clear," Carlos wheezed.
Quest Updated
Objective: Clear third floor without losing anomaly.
Status: Completed
Reward Earned: Upgrade for one skill (one per team)
The blue text appeared again.
"Three for three," Tamsin laughed breathlessly, sliding off the pile of rocks. "I love this kid."