Standing before the final unexplored path, Grant looked at his team with an expression of serious determination.
"This is it. The last path remaining. We need to exercise maximum caution now. Whatever is waiting for us in this gate, whatever the trial actually consists of, it's probably waiting at the end of this final route."
The group nodded with determined expressions, their earlier fatigue from the beast horde battle replaced by focused alertness.
They proceeded down the rightmost path together.
Walking deeper, the atmosphere became noticeably more oppressive than the previous tunnels. The darkness here felt stronger, denser, as if it were an entity unto itself rather than merely the absence of light. Their lighting runes seemed to push back the shadows with greater difficulty, the illumination not spreading as far as it should.
