endless path, infinite cosmos

chapter 76

As Vahn awoke from his nap, he made his final preparations before entering into the 13th floor. The structure of the dungeon changed yet again and now the walls, floor, and ceiling were all made a pale black bedrock. It was much denser than anything found on the upper floors and Vahn also noticed it seemed to absorb what little light was emitted from the ceiling. There were rocks strewn about all over the ground making passage and combat more difficult.

This was Vahn's first time entering the 'middle floors' so he proceeded with caution. The monsters starting from this point were almost all Level 2 or higher, and those that weren't attacked in such great numbers they posed a threat to even experienced parties. If Vahn dropped his guard there was a very real possibility he may die from this point onward.

After traveling forward for about ten minutes, Vahn began to worry. This entire time he had yet to encounter a single monster, and even his domain wasn't detecting any presences. He continued with increased caution until he came across an anomaly. The route he had taken led to a dead end where it looked as though the walls and ceiling had collapsed. Though it wasn't uncommon for the dungeon's layout to change over time, as this was the main route on the map it was odd to find it in such a state.

Vahn inspected the collapse and found traces of burning that scared the surface of some rocks. Someone, or something, must have used a large scale explosion magic to collapse the tunnel. The question on Vahn's mind though was why someone would do such a thing. He decided to backtrack and look for a secondary route or else he would have to wait for days for the dungeon to repair itself.

After finding a connecting tunnel, Vahn made his way and released a sigh of relief when he detected the presence of several monsters ahead. He had started to worry that something unnatural had occurred in the dungeon and didn't want to get caught up in something beyond his level. Pressing forward, Vahn came across a room filled with a pack of black dog-like creatures with glowing red eyes.

They were currently fighting over something, and from Vahn's perspective, he was able to identify the source of their conflict as a corpse. Some poor adventurer had become an unwilling meal after losing their lives in the dungeon. His brow furrowed as he drew his sword and engaged the mongrels.

The Hell Hounds noticed his approach and immediately charged at Vahn. They were incredibly agile and possessed a mouth full of sharp pearl-white teeth marred with the flesh and blood of their victim. The closets hounds to Vahn hurled themselves at his limbs to try and cripple him.

Vahn sidestepped and bisected the fastest one with his sword in a reverse slash splitting the Hell Hound from bottom to top. Using his fiery golden left hand, he grabbed the neck of the second Hell Hound who tried snapping its jaws and flailing about. Vahn crushed its windpipe before throwing the corpse into the group of rushing Hell Hounds.

They had surrounded him by this point and were trying to maul him from every direction, but Vahn was able to use his power and agility to leap out of the encirclement. He collided feet first into a wall before vaulting into a more advantageous position near the corpse of the Adventurer. Vahn took a moment to inspect the body and nearly vomited as a reward for his curiosity.

The mutilated corpse was missing several parts, but Vahn had been able to identify it as a young woman with blue hair. Though he assumed she may have been pretty in life, now her body was a mess of flesh and mangled tissue. The throat had been chewed through and each limb had long been removed from the body. One of the things the mongrels had been fighting over previously turned out to be an arm.

Vahn was filled with rage as a cold sensation spread through his mind. He started pushing his [Will of the Emperor] to the extreme and infused a large number of fire elements into his domain. The golden light that had been spreading began to consolidate till the point Vahn's black tamahagane blade now shone with a golden luster while radiating a terrifying heat.