Chapter 44: The Flux Gate IV

While Rovan senses worry in Keane’s question, he couldn’t have been more wrong. Keane for one was eager to face stronger monsters and beasts to test his new strength.

Just then, another roar echoed from deeper inside the dungeon, followed by another from somewhere behind them.

Amda looked around, her eyes shaky for a moment.

"Does anyone else see that?" Her voice was soaked in fear.

Cush turned toward the passage behind them. "Yeah." Drawing his weapons, expression serious, unlike his normal self.

It appeared that the monsters weren’t wandering randomly anymore. They were appearing from different passages and moving directly toward them.

It almost seemed as if they were being sent.

Or created out of thin air like monsters spawning in a game where the torch doesn’t reach.

Keane narrowed his eyes as that very thought crossed his mind. He hadn’t heard that such a thing happened, so this was certainly part of the abnormality.

The thought came naturally because it was how a game might handle enemy generation.

"Keep moving!" Rovan said, taking the lead as they pushed forward.

The farther they went, the worse it became. The dungeon’s structure continued changing around them with passages shifting right before their very eyes, chambers appeared, and as for Rovan’s map, it had practically become useless as it simply stopped matching reality.

Even then, the monsters kept coming.

"We need out!" Rovan said.

"Agreed!" Curtis replied.

"We have no other choice, we head for the heart!"

Keane didn’t argue. There was no reason to stay any longer than necessary after all. He ran alongside them, and to him it was like a light jogging while they sprinted.

They pushed deeper, with Peak Mortal creatures appearing all over, some chasing them for long stretches before giving up.

One nearly caught Cush from behind, but Keane killed it before it could land the attack, and he did the same again to save Curtis. Amda was beginning to show signs of exhaustion, but she could still keep moving.

Keane remained mostly untouched, and with his unexplainable strength, that was becoming increasingly obvious. Nobody said anything about it though.

Eventually, the passage opened into a massive chamber where an enormous pit opened up below.

"We’re here." Rovan said, coming to a halt, breathing hard.

At the far end stood a huge stone structure surrounded by dark crystals.

This was supposed to be the boss chamber... Except, there was no boss waiting in the center for them.

Looking around, Keane couldn’t help but ask if they were sure that was the place. After all, with the whole shifting and changing of the dungeon, it wasn’t impossible.

Before they could think on it, a deep roar answered them.

The floor shook as something massive emerged from behind the stone structure. It was easily twice the size of the Ravager, with a body covered in black, armor-like scales and four thick horns extending from its head, and its eyes burned with a dull red light.

Rovan’s expression changed as soon as he laid eyes on the beast.

"That shouldn’t be here either." He said, his voice going cold in a controlled internal panic.

Keane looked at him. "What is that?"

Before Rovan could answer, the creature roared again and charged, moving surprisingly well for its size, though not fast.

"I’ll handle it." Keane said as he stepped forward.

Rovan opened his mouth. "Wait—" but Keane was already moving.

Leaping from where they were, he met the creature halfway. It opened its jaws wide, perhaps to swallow him whole, but with both fists clamped together like a hammer, Keane brought them down on its lower jar, directly striking its teeth.

Instead of his hand getting split by the beast’s sharp teeth, his fists broke its teeth and drove its head face first into the ground, and possibly, accompanied by a broken lower jaw. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

With a ragged roar, the beast forced itself back to its feet, but what awaited it was Kaene’s fist, as he drove his fist into its chest. The impact folded its body backward before he appeared above it and struck its head with another blow. The monster crashed into the ground and tried to rise, but Keane stepped forward and delivered one final attack, crushing its skull.

The creature stopped moving, and silence returned to the chamber.

Cush stared wide-eyed. As for Curtis, he didn’t or more accurately, couldn’t even hide his shock anymore, while Amda slowly lowered her staff, expression the same as Cush.

Rovan looked from the corpse to Keane and seemed to struggle with what to say. He had been taking the display of strength since earier better than the others, but this was something else.

"That was..." He didn’t finish.

Keane wasn’t paying attention, as his eyes were drawn to something that had fallen beside the creature.

It was a small dark object, almost like a piece of black crystal wrapped in a thin metallic casing.

Keane crouched beside it and picked it up, examining it.

The object was cold.

Too cold, almost like touching ice.

Rovan immediately approached. "Don’t touch it!"

"Too late." Keane grumbled, turning to look at him.

Rovan frowned and examined the object in Keane’s hand without touching it.

"That isn’t normal loot, I’ve never seen anything like that before, certainly not from this gate."

"Do loots normally drop from defeating monsters and beasts inside gates?" Keane asked, confused if he was missing something.

"Yes. Some creatures carry with them special items, and when they die, those items drop for us to take. Mostly boss monsters." Rovan explained.

Keane turned the object over in his hand. There was no sign that the monster had produced it. No blood, residue, or damage suggested that it had grown naturally.

’Wow, this world looks more and more like a game the more I know.’

Rovan’s expression became serious. "If you don’t mind, I’ll be reporting this to the Guild."

"Probably a good idea." Keane said.

"Don’t worry, it will be returned to you if its no trouble." Rovan assured him.

Keane slipped the object into a cloth pouch rather than putting it directly into his pocket. Nobody argued, Rovan for one didn’t even want it near him.

After that, Rovan approached the dungeon core hidden behind a few layers of shell-like material, and with a strike, shattered the ball of crystal like material. Cush collected the crystal after that, apparently it was valuable material.

A moment later, a familiar shimmer appeared at the edge of the chamber.

It was the exit portal.

Wasting no time, Rovan immediately moved toward it.

"Everyone out." He said.

They passed through one after another, with Keane stepping out last.

The world seemed to warp for a moment, then all of a sudden, he was standing outside, the cold air of the outside world hitting his face.

For a moment, nobody spoke, the fact that they could make it out alive was a miracle on its own, and they owed it all to one man.

While they marveled at his strength without saying anything, Keane was thinking of something else.

He still hadn’t gone all out, not once. Even after raising every stat to 199, he had only used enough strength to get the job done.

He had no idea what his actual limit was, but at least, there was one thing he could say with some confidence now.

He was stronger than a Peak Mortal Realm.

As for how much stronger? He didn’t know.

Thinking of the cap also, he looked at his system, ’Level 20 should tell me whether I’m right.’

Behind him, Rovan was already speaking to one of the Guild guards about the strange changes inside the gate.

Keane glanced back toward the portal which was still open despite having closed the gate by defeating the boss monster.

’Weird.’