The air inside the tower became increasingly heavy as they descended into the depths of the upper floors. The passage from the tenth to the eleventh floor had not only marked a numerical progression, but a true paradigm shift in the hostility of the environment.
The black stone walls, once simply cold, now seemed to ooze a humidity laden with demonic mana, making each breath slightly burning for Klein's lungs. At his side, Walpurga advanced with unchanged grace. She said no words, but her blue gaze regularly scanned the blind spots with an attention she had not shown until then.
The monsters they encountered had changed radically. The goblins and wolves of the first levels had given way to cave Trolls whose power oscillated between A- and A rank.
These massive creatures, with cracked skin and phenomenal resistance, no longer simply charged blindly. They used the shadows, hiding in the crevices of the walls to set deadly ambushes.
