DING.
[ You have successfully cleared Layer 1 of the dungeon ]
[ Rewards: 3000 points have been rewarded to each person in the group ]
Dustin let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "They are giving out points after every single layer", he thought, silently praising the system.
DING.
[ Do you want to leave the dungeon now? ]
[ Fee: 3000 Points ]
[ Y/N ]
Dustin glanced over at Zac. Zac looked at Saya. Nobody said a word. They all reached out and tapped 'No' at the same time.
Zac collapsed onto the stone floor with a heavy thud. "Finally. We made it to layer two. Just... three more to go, right?"
DING.
A new system screen popped up in front of Dustin's face.
[ Level 29 reached ]
[ Physical Strength: 79 ]
[ Vitality: 67 ]
[ Agility: 86 ]
[ Stamina: 69 ]
[ Endurance: 63 ]
[ Wisdom: 17 ]
[ Intelligence: 34 ]
[ Bonus stats points: 18 ]
Dustin scanned the numbers, his brow furrowing. "I leveled up twice, but my combat stats didn't moved moved", he analyzed internally. "I didn't get any bonus stats to assign this time either. But my Wisdom and Intelligence went up. Wisdom by two, Intelligence by four. I guess an upgrade is an upgrade. Even so... I definitely do not feel any smarter".
"Did you get your level ups too?" Zac asked, noticing Dustin staring blankly at the air.
"Yeah, two levels," Dustin replied, lowering himself down to rest on the ground. "How many did you get?"
"Just one." Zac looked over at Saya, who was quietly sitting a few paces away. "Did you get some as well?"
Saya held up two fingers. She looked deep in thought, her eyes tracing patterns on the floor. Dustin and Zac took the hint and left her alone, choosing instead to quietly discuss the brutal fight they had just survived.
DING.
A new message popped up in their vision roughly ten minutes later.
[ You will now be transported to layer two ]
Zac groaned loudly and dragged himself up from the floor. "Already? I thought we would get at least an hour to sleep."
"Transported?" Saya asked, looking around the empty room. "How?"
"Layer two." Dustin let out a long sigh. He pushed himself to his feet and pulled up his skills menu.
He finally had enough points to upgrade a few things. He looked at 'Silent Steps' and 'Super Sense'. He was still lacking a few points to upgrade 'Shadow Heal'.
"Upgrading Shadow Heal right now is a total waste", Dustin thought, rubbing his tired eyes. "I am short on points, and I would need to upgrade it multiple times to even get a useful outcome. Super Sense is still working fine. I really need Silent Steps, but... I will be completely broke if I buy it.". He dismissed the system screen. His head was pounding. He had never felt this kind of crushing pressure in his entire life. He decided to leave his skills alone and see what layer two threw at them first.
Suddenly, a glowing circle appeared beneath on the ground. It was the same magic that had carried them here from the desert tutorial grounds.
"Let us go," Dustin muttered. He walked slowly into the center of the ring. He looked totally drained. It was not just physical exhaustion. The mental toll was eating him alive.
The trio gathered in the circle.
SWOOSH.
A blinding stream of light consumed them, and they vanished.
SWOOSH.
Three figures descended in a fresh pillar of light. When the glow faded, they found themselves in an entirely new room.
It was extremely large. A single, massive blue pillar stood in the center. The pillar was so thick it looked like a fortress tower, and it stretched up so high that the top was swallowed by darkness. The ceiling of the room was completely invisible.
"Are we actually underground?" Dustin asked himself, tilting his head all the way back. "If so... how deep is this place?"
Zac and Saya were just as shocked by the sheer scale of the room. It was obvious they needed to climb upward. But how far they needed to climb was a total mystery. There were no boundaries. Just smooth stone and deep shadows.
DING.
[ You have reached Layer 2 of the dungeon ]
[ Task: To clear layer 2, you must climb up and find your destination before the time runs out. ]
[ You can either use the stairs on the central pillar, or you can find your own way up. Note: to use the stairs, one person must remain below standing on the altar to keep the stairs deployed. If you find your own way up, you must watch out for flying monsters. ]
Dustin read the information and felt a deep frown pull at his face. He was already exhausted, and now they had to deal with this. He glanced over at Saya. Just as he suspected, she looked incredibly tense.
"Do not worry. We are not going to make you stay behind," Dustin said softly, trying to comfort her. "And even if we tried, you could just step off the altar and make us both fall."
Saya let out a deep, shaky sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders.
Zac kicked the ground. "So to clear this, someone has to willingly sacrifice themselves and stay behind," he complained in a frustrated, low voice. "Or we have to magically climb up those walls while fighting monsters. And since there is no path, we have to build one."
"We have about the same amount of time as we did for layer one," Dustin reminded them. He checked his sand clock, the sand had already started pouring into the bottom half. "Let us get back to work."
Dustin let out another long sigh and walked toward the huge central pillar. He analyzed it from every angle. It was perfectly round, bright blue, and completely smooth.
"There is nowhere to put our feet," Dustin thought inwardly. He turned toward Zac, who was inspecting the outer walls. The walls looked identical to the central pillar. "Zac. Would you mind standing on that altar for a bit? I want to check something."
"I am on it," Zac said. He jogged over to the raised stone platform near Saya.
CLANG.
The moment Zac stood on the altar, a loud mechanical click echoed through the massive room. Hundreds of stone steps magically shot out of the blue pillar. They formed a perfect spiral staircase leading high up into the darkness.
CLANG.
Zac stepped off the altar. At that exact moment, the steps vanished into nothingness.
Dustin walked up to the base of the pillar. "Step on it again," he called out.
The steps shot out once more. Dustin placed his foot on the lowest one and pushed his weight down.
"It is completely solid," Dustin reported. He climbed up three more steps. "Zac, step down."
Zac stepped off.
"Whoa!" Dustin shouted as he plummeted. The stairs had vanished instantly, but he landed on his feet and balanced himself easily.
Saya crossed her arms, staring at the smooth outer walls. "We cannot go up using the pillar unless someone sacrifices himself. That is not happening. We need to find another way. The walls are made of the same blue stone. There must be a way to create steps on the walls too. We cannot just climb smooth glass."
The trio started trying everything they could think of. They tried to lift the stone altar. They kicked the pillar. They punched the walls. Nothing worked.
Roughly fifteen percent of the sand had already fallen.
"There is no way we are going to quit after almost dying in layer one!" Zac shouted. He kept stepping onto the altar and hopping back off in a frantic rhythm.
"Damn it!" Dustin yelled. He kicked the lowest stone step in frustration.
CRACK.
Dustin gasped in shock. Just as his kick connected, the stone step broke loose and fell to the floor.
"Wait... step off the altar," Dustin ordered.
Zac stepped down. The staircase disappeared again along with the one on the ground.
"Get back on the altar," Dustin shouted, his eyes wide.
The steps appeared again. A brand new step had materialized in the empty slot on the pillar. Dustin kicked it. It fell to the floor.
"Do not step down. I think we just found our clue," Dustin said. He bent down and grabbed the fallen stone slab. It was surprisingly light considering its size, weighing roughly ten kilograms. Since Dustin was now level 29 and his physical strength was at 79, lifting it was effortless.
He picked up the step, walked over to the pillar, and pressed it against the blue stone. It snapped onto the surface, sticking tight like a powerful magnet.
The trio's eyes lit up. They knew what they needed to do.
CRACK. THUD. CRACK. THUD.
Dustin started kicking. He knocked ten more steps loose from the staircase. Then, with Saya helping him carry the load, they hauled the heavy stones over to the smooth outer wall. Dustin pressed the first step against the wall. It stuck perfectly.
"Hey, step down!" Saya yelled to Zac.
Zac hopped off the altar. All the steps on the central pillar vanished. But the stones Dustin and Saya had stuck to the outer wall remained perfectly in place.
"I knew we could find a way!" Zac cheered, running over to join them.
Saya looked up into the endless dark. "But how many steps is it going to take to reach the top? We do not even know how high we need to go."
SCREECH. FLAP. SWOOSH.
A terrifying noise echoed from above. Hundreds of flying monsters poured down from the shadows and began dive-bombing them. They were bizarre, twisted creatures. Some looked like fish with leathery wings. Some were massive birds. Others were giant insects with razor sharp mandibles.
Dustin used his system to scan the swarm. They were mostly level 10 to level 20. They were not incredibly strong, but there were far too many of them.
"Quickly, grab more steps and put them on the wall!" Zac yelled. He sprinted back and stood on the altar.
Nothing happened.
"What? Nothing is happening!" Zac shouted in panic. No steps appeared on the pillar.
The swarm of monsters crashed into them. Zac threw a heavy punch, crushing a winged fish that dove at his face, and sprinted back toward Dustin and Saya.
"What do we do now?" Saya yelled.
THWIP.
She fired a glowing arrow, dropping a giant insect from the air.
"Zac, pass me that step below you," Dustin ordered, pointing at the lowest stone block on their makeshift wall stairs.
"This one? Take it," Zac ripped the stone off the wall and handed it up to Dustin. Dustin immediately passed it higher up to Saya.
"Put that in front of you," Dustin yelled over the screeching monsters. "This might be our only way up. We build the path as we go."
Suddenly, a winged fish shot out of the dark at terrifying speed.
SLASH.
It collided with Dustin, leaving a shallow, bleeding cut across his arm. He stumbled, trembling as he fought to keep his balance on the narrow ledge. He grabbed Saya's cloak to steady himself. Saya jerked backward, losing her grip on the heavy stone block.
CRASH.
The step tumbled down into the darkness below.
"Damn it!" Dustin cursed. "I could not even sense it coming. It is way too fast." He looked at Saya apologetically. She was glaring at him.
Dustin quickly opened his skills menu. He hated doing it, but he dumped 3000 points to level up his 'Super Sense' to level 2. He really did not want to spend the points, but the situation was going to turn lethal if he stayed blind to the fast attacks.
"Let us change the formation," Dustin suggested loudly. "Saya, you are an archer. You have much better eyesight. I just upgraded my senses, so the speed of these things will not be a problem for me anymore. You get in the middle. I will take the front. This way, you can provide cover fire for Zac, and I will build the steps forward."
Warm blood was slowly flowing down Dustin's arm. It was not a deep wound. A single healing potion would fix it instantly. But he ignored it. It would be a total waste to use a potion on a minor cut when he was dangerously low on points again.
The new strategy worked perfectly. The trio slowly moved upward. Dustin hacked apart any monsters that dove from above. Saya shot the creatures trying to flank them from below and the sides. Zac stayed at the bottom, ripping the lowest steps off the wall and passing them up the line.
It was an effective rhythm, but Saya was getting incredibly angry. Her point balance was dropping rapidly because she had to keep purchasing more arrows.
More than half of the sand had fallen through the clock.
"We are more than a hundred feet up by now," Saya grumbled. Her frown deepened as her points fell to half their original amount. "How much further?"
"I do not know," Dustin replied, wiping sweat from his forehead. "But I am sensing a few things roughly fifty feet higher up. They are faint, so I cannot tell what they are yet." His senses had sharpened significantly since the upgrade.
The team kept crawling upward, one stone step at a time, for another grueling hour.
Finally, faint lights appeared in the darkness above. They looked like the silhouettes of doors made out of white light. The glowing doors were scattered in all directions and sat at different heights.
"Let us go to that one and see what happens," Dustin said. He pointed to a bright silhouette hovering on the adjacent wall.
Up until now, the trio had been building their stairs in a zig-zag pattern on the same wall. But since the closest door was on the wall to their right, they decided to change direction.
They slowly built their path over to the corner. Dustin slammed a stone step onto the adjacent wall, grabbed the edge, and hauled himself up. He was completely exhausted. He only had one healing potion left in his inventory.
After persevering for a few more minutes over the abyss, they reached the glowing threshold.
"Finally," the trio sighed in unison. They placed their hands on the stone floor of the doorway and dragged themselves up.
DING.
[ You have successfully cleared Layer 2 of the dungeon ]
[ Rewards: 3000 points have been rewarded to each person in the group ]
None of them cheered now they showed any joy at the notification. They just stayed laying flat on the ground, taking long breaths.
This layer had not just been physically and mentally exhausting. It had bled their points dry.
All three of them were now extremely poor. If layer 3 turned out to be the same, they would have no option but to fail. They could not even afford to quit. None of them had more than 3500 points left to pay the exit fee.
And as they lay there panting in the dark, everyone knew who had endured the heaviest losses. It was obviously Saya.