Chapter 8: next floor

Kaelen didn’t try to move. He couldn’t.Dante’s blood token was stealing his strength every ten seconds. He just stared at Dante’s foot, his breath coming out in ragged gasps.

"I am going to ask you this exactly once," Dante said. He stood right over the mercenary leader, his hands still relaxed inside the pockets. "What did Marcus put on the next five floors?"

Kaelen spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor. "If I tell you, Marcus will hunt down my entire family. I’m a dead man either way, kid."

"Marcus is on the higher floor," Dante said, his voice totally flat and calm. "I am standing right here. If you don’t talk, I will let you try to stab me. Your own attack will bounce back, double in power, and break every single bone in your body. It will take you about three hours to die. Marcus can’t compete with that."

Kaelen looked over at the pillars. The two men who had tried to ambush Dante from the ceiling were just piles of broken meat. They hadn’t even scratched the kid, but their own strength had literally turned them inside out.

The mercenary leader shivered. He realized he wasn’t dealing with a normal human.

"Fine," Kaelen muttered, his shoulders slumping. "Floor fourteen is a trap. Marcus paid the local outpost guards to set up a fake registration checkpoint. The moment any solo hunter walks in, they flag your profile and lock the elevator gates. They have automatic magic turrets mounted on the walls."

Dante nodded slowly. "And the floors after that?"

"Floor fifteen has an illusion barrier," Kaelen leaked out, his voice getting weaker as the token kept draining his stats. "It looks like a normal forest, but it forces you to walk in circles until you run out of water. Only people with a specific guild token can see the real exit path."

"Good," Dante said. "That is actually useful information."

He didn’t pull his hand out of his pocket. He didn’t build up a big magical attack. He just turned his back and started walking toward the massive stone elevator at the end of the room.

"Wait!" Kaelen called out, his face pale. "I told you everything! Are you letting me go?"

Dante stopped but didn’t turn around. "I said I would give you a choice. I never said I was letting you go."

He didn’t need to do anything. He just looked at Yenna. The cat girl was already standing behind Kaelen. Her black ears were twitching against her head, and her long tail was twitching with pure anger. Her fingers were extended, dripping with the dark smoke of her new skill. Because of her Domain Silence, Kaelen hadn’t even heard her walk up behind his back.

"He’s all yours, Yenna," Dante said. "Clean up the room. We leave for the fourteenth floor in two minutes."

Yenna didn’t say a word. Her claws moved through the air in a clean, silent blur. Kaelen slumped forward onto the floor, his eyes rolling back as his remaining life force drained away.

Ding!

[System Notification: Your subordinate has eliminated an enemy.]

[Your shared experience pool has increased.]

[You have permanently gained: +2 Speed.]

Dante felt a tiny spark of warmth go through his legs, making his body feel just a little bit lighter. He walked right up to the elevator gates and pressed the button.

He knew about the fake checkpoints on the fourteenth floor. In his past life, he was the guy who taught the outpost guards how to set up those exact defensive systems. Marcus thought he was being clever by using Dante’s old security tricks against him, but he had no idea he was just handing the blueprint back to the architect.

"Get in," Dante told Yenna, who was wiping her claws on a piece of rag she found on the floor. "We have a checkpoint to break."

The fourteenth floor did not look like a cave at all. It looked exactly like a clean underground train station. The walls were made of white tiles, and there were bright lights hanging from the ceiling.

At the end of the main hallway, a group of five guards in blue uniforms were sitting behind a metal desk. Above their heads, two big silver guns were mounted to the wall. Those were the automatic magic turrets Kaelen talked about.

Dante walked forward. Yenna stayed a few steps behind him, her black cat ears twitching.

"Stop right there," the head guard yelled, standing up and pulling out a black electric club. "This is a private guild checkpoint. Show us your badge and open your bags for a check."

Dante stopped. He looked at the guard’s uniform. It had the Radiant Dawn logo on the shoulder. "I don’t have a guild badge. I just want to use the stairs to go up."

The guard laughed, and his buddies stood up too. "No badge means you are an illegal intruder. Marcus said we can delete anyone who looks suspicious today."

The guard hit a button on his desk.

The two big silver guns on the wall turned instantly and pointed right at Dante’s head. They made a loud humming sound as blue electricity started to build up inside the barrels.

"Any last words, kid?" the guard sneered.

"Just fire the guns," Dante said. His voice was completely calm. He didn’t even move his feet.

The guard shrugged and flipped a switch.

Two massive bolts of blue lightning shot out of the wall, flying straight toward Dante’s chest. The light was so bright it made Yenna cover her eyes.

But the moment the lightning hit Dante’s black hoodie, it didn’t burn him. It didn’t even leave a black mark. The light beneath his skin flashed once. The mirror body took the full power of the lightning, doubled it, and shot it right back where it came from. The blue bolts flew backward twice as fast.

The two silver guns on the wall completely blew up into tiny metal pieces. The explosion was so big it tore a huge hole in the white tiled wall, sending smoke and dust everywhere. The guards behind the desk were thrown onto the floor by the wind from the blast.

"What the hell was that?" the head guard screamed, crawling backwards on his hands and knees. His face was covered in grey dust. "He didn’t even use a shield! Why did the guns break?"

Dante walked through the smoke. He slowly pulled his right hand out of his pocket. To the guards, his hand looked completely empty. But Dante could feel the grip of his invisible Asura blade.

He didn’t run. He just walked up to the first guard who was trying to pick up his electric club.

Dante swung his empty-looking hand downward.

Slash.

The invisible blade went straight through the guard’s iron vest like it was made of warm butter. The man didn’t even see the weapon before his life force was pulled directly into Dante’s palm. He slumped over against the metal desk, completely still.

[System Notification: You killed a guard.]

[Your invisible blade has stolen some stats.]

[You permanently gained: +3 Strength.]

Dante felt his muscles get a tiny bit warmer and tighter. He turned his head and looked at the other four guards, who were there in pure terror.

"Your turn," Dante said softly, stepping forward.